Little City Gardens

When putting together a packet on the blight-reducing benefits of urban farms a couple months ago, we asked some neighbors to say a few words about their relationship to the farm and their feelings about the lot now, as compared to before. We were touched by the responses. Below are a few excerpts, and you can read more here.

Social activities and the farmstand they have operated have provided a meeting place for neighbors I have gotten to know, for the first time. I feel much more involved and positive about my neighborhood. It is no longer just a bunch of houses and driveways- it has that vital ingredient -life…

..I am very pleased that an urban farm exists in my neighborhood. It is a blessing to have an area where food is grown locally…

Please note that we’ve added an email sign-up page on our sidebar to the right. Over the next few weeks we will be doing some cleaning and reorganizing of our email lists, so if you’d like to receive information and updates about our upcoming CSA, volunteer workdays, or farmers market specials, please take a second to sign up! (If you think you’re already on our email list because you’ve received updates in the past, please do still sign up here. We’re starting from scratch!)

As some of you know my sister Ali is a producer of a live radio news show on KALW 91.7. The show is called Your Call and airs M-F from 10-11am. Every show is fascinating and compelling but specifically wanted to link to a show that aired last week because it addresses the issue of the fate of farmland and how land-use and zoning policy on a federal, state and local level affect the preservation or irretrievable loss of land. Apparently we lose 1 acre of farmland in this country every minute to development. It seems of utmost importance that we halt this trend soon because the rebuilding of resilient regional food systems is completely dependent on our shrinking arable land-base.
Tune in to the show.

photo overlooking Mount Davidson from Twin Peaks circa 1925, from the SF Public Library Archives

The 2011 season is winding down, and as the light gets lower and the mornings get frostier, we’re busily preparing the farm for some rest this winter. Our perennials are pruned back, our herb beds are mulched, the last of the winter brassicas are in the ground and we have 18 new beds broadforked and dug, ready for spring planting. Still to do on the farm: sowing cover crop (we are waiting ever-so-patiently for some real rain), dividing artichokes, re-sheet mulching weedy pathways, finishing the pea trellising, planning for an expanded irrigation setup, and organizing the tool shed. And off the farm: crop planning, email list consolidating, website work, and catching up on our accounting. Brooke and I will both take a little time off this winter so we can rest our bodies (these back aches are getting serious!), get out of the city, work on other projects, and prepare ourselves for what we hope will be our most productive and fruitful Spring yet.

We’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on the past season — during which we successfully ran our first 30-member CSA, hosted a weekly farmstand and maintained weekly restaurant sales — and with this year’s accomplishments in mind, we already have long lists of improvements to make for next year as well as new, exciting ideas to implement. Next Spring, in addition to an expanded CSA, we have plans to sell at the Mission Farmer’s Market (more details on both of these soon). We’re excited about starting a new season with this year’s observations under our belts and a winter’s worth of creative energy built up.

Aside from farm tasks and crop-related planning though, we also think it is a good time to check in with you, our supporters who have been following us through this experiment from the beginning, and address some of the data we’ve collected this year as well as more general reflections about farming in the city. Stay tuned for these thoughts and numbers, they’re coming soon — once we can get ourselves to put down the shovels.

Don’t wait in line at big box stores to buy your holiday presents this year! It’s not only dangerous (did anyone see those headlines about Black Friday?), but it often supports corporate power and labor exploitation around the world. We present you with a healthy, locally-produced, grassroots economy fostering alternative: a gift certificate to Little City Gardens!

You name the amount, present this beautiful card (hand lettered by Caitlyn) to your loved one, co-worker or friend, and they can redeem it beginning Spring 2012 at our on-site farm stand, our table at the Mission Community Market (stay tuned for more info!), or apply it to a CSA subscription. In the spring we resume sales of a variety of beautiful organic produce and delicious greens mixes, and we will continue to offer artwork inspired by urban farming.

This gift certificate is not only a ticket to some old fashioned, home-grown healthy food but also a gesture toward the healthy stewardship of land and community, and toward the building of responsible, collaborative, grassroots economies. Who wouldn’t want to get that for the holidays?!

To those of you who are Bay Area locals: as always we greatly appreciate your support. We couldn’t do what we do without amazing, consistent customers. To those readers around the country and around the world: consider finding a way to put some of your holiday spending money towards your local small scale farmers.

If you’d like to purchase, please send us an email with your name, the name of the recipient, the address where you’d like the gift certificate sent, and the amount you’d like to put on the card. We can take payment through the mail or in person.

Happy Holidays everybody!

*The first poster was sent to me by a friend and i thought it was beautiful. It is a piece by Miriam Klein-Stahl

Caitlyn and I will be stopping work early tomorrow and heading over to Downtown Oakland (14th and Broadway) for the General Strike which was called for by Occupy Oakland. We are skipping our regular Wednesday cardboard and manure hauling in order to be on the streets in solidarity with the Occupy Movement and its stance against police brutality and for civil, human, and constitutional rights and economic justice. The unfolding of this movement is such an exciting thing to watch and a magnetizing thing to participate in. The energy, enthusiasm and broad participation feels like a deep breath of fresh air. I realize I have been waiting for this for a long time. This moment is our chance to join in a loud call of political discontent. It is also our opportunity to participate in a gesture of aspiration towards a society and a political system that actually meets the needs of its people.

It is not acceptable that our cities employ their police departments to violently attack and injure their own citizens engaging in completely peaceful protest. And it is not acceptable to continue to fuel this economic system, built on colonialism, inequality, and corporate power, which perpetuates so many forms of oppression and destruction of the environment. We want to recreate an economy based in local production, ecological sensitivity and mutual support, in which no one is unemployed, underpaid or under-appreciated. So it makes sense to us to show up tomorrow in Oakland and to continue to be present for this movement. The garden could use a day off anyways.

DO JOIN US TOMMOROW!!

Also of note: This Saturday November 5th is an organized day of action: National Bank Transfer Day. One very effective way to chip away at the concentration of power and money is to move our money out of large banks and reinvest in small banks and credit unions which invest in small business. Little City Gardens already banks with a local bank focused on community empowerment, Mission Federal Credit Union. So we won’t be participating in the great Bank Transfer, but if you bank with Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo or others of that ilk and you’ve been meaning to move your money anyways consider doing it this Saturday November 5th in order to send a strong collective message. http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/.

Have you been wanting to get some canning or pickling in before the season’s over? Are you eager to preserve some of the summer’s bounty to be enjoyed during the wet, grey months ahead?

Now’s your chance! We planted a late season crop of green beans (and purple beans) this summer, and now that our CSA & farm stand are done for the year, we are finding ourselves with an abundance of beautiful, tender, juicy beans that are waiting to be harvested. So, we’d like to make them available to you. We’ll be taking orders every week; see below for details.

And perhaps even more excitingly, in order to keep prices down as much as we can, we’re also offering you the chance to come to the farm and harvest your own. This could be a great Fall activity to do with your favorite kid, or it could be your long-awaited chance to spend a little focused, quiet time outdoors at what we think is one of the most beautiful spots in the city. The details:

For pick up: Fridays 5-6pm in the Mission (email for details) — $2.50/lb
…..OR……
Harvest-your-own: Mondays/Wednesdays (12-4pm) — $1.50/lb

Pickled green beans are delicious and so easy to make, whether you preserve them or just keep them as refrigerator pickles (see here, here and here for different recipe ideas). Send us an email at littlecitygardens@gmail.com if you’d like to place a Friday order (please get your orders in by Wednesday evening and we’ll send you a confirmation email with pickup details) or if you’d like to set up a time to come to the farm to harvest-your-own. Offer good October 24th – mid November or so (or until bean production slows down).

We just divided up many of our strawberry plants and we have a couple dozen to give away to anyone interested! The variety is Seascape and they have been delicious and incredibly productive for us this year. I didn’t know how delicious strawberries could be until I ate them straight from the beds and freshly sun-warmed. This was my favorite midday snack all summer long! Send us an email at littlecitygardens@gmail.com if you’re in SF and you’re interested in picking them up.

Last Monday we put together our last CSA boxes of the summer session. The last box included some exciting things like dry-farmed kabocha squash, bouquets of cosmos, and a gift of herbal first-aid salve, made by Ali Budner, with olive oil, beeswax and medicinal plants from the garden.

Here is an example of the flyers, recipes and notes that we included in our boxes throughout the season. You will notice that when it comes to culinary advice we are quite simple and straightforward. For almost every vegetable we recommend to slice thin and sautee with olive oil and salt. I do find it true that if the vegetables are fresh from good earth they don’t need much more preparation than that!

Now we will spend the fall focusing on our restaurant sales, renegotiating our lease, building compost and soil fertility, and planting/planning for next year’s CSA. If all goes well with the lease, we will begin the 2012 CSA in the beginning of February. If you are interested in applying for a CSA box, write us an email and we will put you on our email list. For those of you who are already addicted to our salad mix and other produce: don’t worry! We will be taking salad and greens orders most Fridays for pick up in the Mission. Look out for the emails if you are on our list.

It feels far off but its already time to start planting kale, collard greens, favas and cabbage for February harvesting. Its about time for garlic planting, seeding onions in the greenhouse, and even though its a little bit late in the season we hope to squeeze in a fall potato planting. We’ve got to sheet mulch the squash mound for next year and open up a new patch in the weedy back of the lot for cover cropping and an experiment with winter wheat.

So there is plenty of work to do in the garden. Its going to feel really good to have some time as we work to reflect on the both the successes and shortcomings of this season’s CSA. We are already starting to integrate some of the lessons that we’ve learned into our work.

We had our first drizzle of the season last week! It barely seeped into the top inch of soil but it was a warm up for the rainy times coming.

Friends, neighbors, and supporters: This Monday, September 19th, we’ll be harvesting for the last day of our Summer CSA and our last summer farmstand of this year. This is a great time to come visit the farm, say hello, see the bounty of late summer and pick up some special locally grown produce. Also if you are considering participating in next season’s CSA program (hopefully beginning early Spring 2012) this is a great opportunity to come and check out the weekly box and the pickup routine. We look forward to seeing you.

On the farmstand table we will most likely have: chard, kale, cherry tomatoes, basil, green beans, summer squash, squash blossoms, artichokes, and flowers!