Little City Gardens

We are in the middle of our first summer season, which in our corner of the world can often mean being in the thick of fog or being blown around by a strong southerly wind. But we still have long daylight hours and enough sun that the sunflowers have grown tall, and the strawberries are ripening. The back third of the farm, despite our initial efforts to keep it mowed and weed-wacked, has slipped back into its original state — a seven foot tall thicket of fennel with an understory of wild radish, dock and blackberry. The only exception is a mounded area that we sheet mulched heavily this spring into which we planted 60 winter squash plants early this summer. The squash plants, despite not having been watered once, are climbing healthily all over the mound and have already set an amazing amount of fruit. Dry farmed squash! Its exciting for us to find a few crops that yield relatively well without being irrigated in the summer because our water bill sure is getting high lately.

Even though we are generally tired by the end of a long harvest day, we really enjoy the Monday CSA pick ups. Members come to the farm to pick up their boxes, and neighbors and friends come to shop at our farmstand. I find it rewarding to see so many adults and kids interacting at the farm and to feel like this place has something to offer them — vegetables, flowers, conversation, a table and benches to sit down and talk for a while and green space to run around. It feels good to be able to do this legally.

At the end of this week I will be leaving town for a month. Caitlyn is my hero! She is going to be working extra hard running the business (all the harvesting, delivering, seeding, weeding, watering, bed prepping, administration) without me! Luckily our friend Heather is going to be helping her out on harvest days. I am headed down to the Arizona/Mexico border to work with a humanitarian aid organization called No More Deaths. I worked with them for a month last year and it felt like very meaningful direct action. Some of you consistent readers may remember that i posted reflections about the experience when i returned last August. I will share more when i return.

There was an article in the LA Times this morning about Bay Area Urban Agriculture Zoning changes which includes Little City Gardens. This photo was taken by the reporter, Lee Romney.