Written by Annemiek Oosterhuis | 10 May 2011

Urban agriculture: A hands-on approach to the food crisis

San Francisco agriculture

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that on April 20, the mayor of San Francisco signed a bill that allows urban farmers to grow more fruit and vegetables than they would use for their own consumption. With this bill, the city has taken the lead in stretching the legal limits of urban farming; allowing San Francisco residents to sell their produce to local restaurants. The costs of the permits for converting empty lots to farmland were also lowered drastically. This law is in stark contrast to several other American states where people can be fined for growing too many vegetables.

Written by Melissa Moore | 08 April 2011

Celebrate Earth Week

Sunday, April 24 – Friday, April 29

Hayes Valley Farm’s Earth Week will follow Earth Day. San Francisco already planned a great festival on April 23rd, so the farm decided to wait an extra day to ensure everyone can participate!

Hayes Valley Farm will be hosting a series of events at the farm beginning on Sunday and ending on Friday (Arbor Day).

Join us for a week’s worth of FREE activities, classes, and workshops to celebrate Earth Day through Arbor Day!

 

 

Photos by Zoey Kroll, Spring 2011

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Written by Matt Baume | 23 February 2011

Bay View Greenwaste provides fertile ground for San Francisco’s urban agriculture revolution

Just a few years ago, they were abandoned freeways, dilapidated back yards, and institutional dumping grounds. But today, thanks to San Francisco's urban agriculture renaissance, many of these pockets of underutilized land are being transformed. And one local company -- Bay View Greenwaste -- is playing a key role, by transforming waste into mulch, and giving it away.

The city's largest agricultural experiment to date may be the Hayes Valley Farm, which is growing on the former site of a freeway ramp. The ramp was demolished, but the lot sat empty for years as development funding wilted in the recession. Then, in January of 2010, a dedicated group of farmers and permaculturalists began to convert the property into usable farmland.

With a border of mature trees and areas of direct sun, the location was well-suited for gardening. But the soil needed work. It was polluted, choked with weeds, and lacking in nutrients.

Read the rest of Matt's article at Grist Magazine

Photo by Matt Baume
Originally published on February 22, 2011 at grist.org

Written by Lindsey Goldberg | 07 February 2011

A fresh vision for Corbett Slope

Permaculture is a holistic, systems thinking approach to ecological design. The philosophy and embedded principles can be applied to support someone as they design as backyard garden, to the layout of the kitchen, or bedroom to larger-scale city.scapes. In permaculture we strive to harmoniously re.create balance, aligning design with the elements; restoring health to the waters, enhancing fertility to the soil, while growing food to nourish human and non-human communities.

A team of budding permaculture designers enrolled in the Urban Permaculture Design Course this winter season connected with the Urban Permaculture Institute of San Francisco [http://www.upisf.com/] has chosen Corbett Slope in the Upper Castro neighborhood as the site for our design project. Working in conjunction with Kitchen Garden SF and the Corbett Heights Neighborhood Association, we intend to create a design to transform this wild green space into a place that can be enjoyed for recreation, education, inspiration, growing food, building resilience and as a community gathering space.

As a member of the design team, I’ve had the pleasure to spend some time on the Slope in the past couple of weeks; meeting with Gary of Corbett Heights Neighborhood Association and Karla of Kitchen Garden SF as well as the members the design team. This week, I walked and observed the existing elements of the slope on a sunny, clear Tuesday afternoon.

I began creating a simple base.map, identifying areas of interest, noting the native wildflowers, trees and fruit trees growing on the slope. Peach and avocado, cedar and jade, wild cucumber, lavender and nasturium, citrus and a coast iris are a few of the species that I was able to identify.

At this point in our design, we are visioning…some of my dreams for the design include: carving out swales and burms to catch rainwater, irrigate plants and steep fresh water into the vast ground reserves. I envision lots of food growing in round, curved mounds facing south, I see gathering spaces in the shade of the old trees, places to picnic and to learn in community, I imagine pathways winding their way on contour through the space, so folks of all ages can walk through the landscape, enjoy the views and connect with the earth while witnessing the changes in edible, herbal and ornamental plants growing in abundance throughout the slope.

To find out more about the design process, the team, the philosophy of permaculture or to participate in the future implementation of the design, contact:

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