Urban Farm Tour
with
The Committee For Green Foothills
On Saturday June 27th, for the second year in a row, I went on a Committee for Green Foothills Farm Tour, but this time it was called "Renaissance of the Valley of Heart's Delight: Urban School and Community Agriculture". It was not quite as sumptuous a tour as last year, but very interesting and lots of fun, with good learning. Since this relates so much to what my son Jeremy does professionally, my photo taking was geared to what I thought he would want to see.
Our first stop was at Collective Roots a school Garden at an East Palo Alto Charter School, whose mission is "...to educate and engage youth and communities in food system change through sustainable programs that impact health, education, and the environment."
Cynthia, the Executive Director for the Committee for Green Foothills
introduced us to the Executive Director for Collective Roots, Wolfram
Alderson, at the charter school, and we walked back toward the garden. The
first very obvious sight was the large solar panel, helping to make their energy
uses as green as possible.
The buildings are decorated with lovely garden oriented murals. The whole
curriculum of this charter school revolves around the garden.
The school backs up against the baylands, and a trail runs parallel to the back
of the school.
This amazing structure is the focal point of the garden.
Various "structures" are built to train plant growth. There is
an outdoor kitchen and eating area.
A second solar panel tops the roof of one of several sheds.
Volunteers work year around, Parents at the school commit to participation
in various garden activities. Inside the "dome".
This was a bicycle blender! A blender is connected to the bike and when pedaled the blender revolves!
A chicken coop is under construction,......
as is a greenhouse
This was a very impressive site where much is
being done.
Our second stop was at the Full Circle Farm inSunnyvale. This is an 11 acre sustainable, educational farm on Santa Clara Unified School District land. Their mission is to "cultivate environmental leadership, promote meaningful physical activity, and a deep appreciation of fresh, healthy foods." They have three full time employees, including the Executive Director Liz Snyder, and a host of volunteers.
A stand which sells produce twice a week is decorated with hangings
created by the school children on Earth Day. A chicken coop also sits on
the property.
To the left, one of the full time "farmers". Above, fields of produce!
They too are in the middle of building a large greenhouse.
This is a very impressive endeavor.
A basket of fresh picked carrots is to be our snack!
This site represents hundreds of hours of volunteer and student labor.
The educational director with Liz Snyder.
They too use pedal power!
The earth day project, and ...............up close.
all that is left of our sweet carrot snack
Our last stop was at Emma Prusch Farm in San Jose. Here we saw a large variety of garden activities on one site. The first was Veggielution, a non-profit created by San Jose State students and graduates to "engage the community by providing access to healthy and local food, creating youth leadership opportunities, and developing creative soultions to socal and environmental justice issues." This is not a child oriented activities. The volunteers farm together as a group and then use those harvested vegetables.
This site is nestled near the intersection of Hwy 280 and Hwy 101, making
wonderful use of otherwise bare deserted land.
The next place at Emma Prusch Far that we saw was shown to us by the Park
Naturalist, who runs a variety of camps and year around activities. I
thought this set of signs were really well done.
.........a wonderful series of signs............
By this time it was 102° and while we walked around
the site seeing a variety of gardens and fruit trees, I was pooped! I
wonder where the Committee Foothills will take me next year?
A South Santa Clara County Farm Tour
with
The Committee For Green Foothills
Saturday, June 28 I went on a farm tour with the Committee for Green Foothills. It was very interesting, as well as delicious!
The first stop was at Andy's Orchard where we went fruit
tasting! From my point of view this beats wine tasting any day!
There were lots of varieties of apricots, nectarines,
peaches and
cherries. All wonderful!
This farm was originally an orchard with
lots of grapes. This last grape vine was kept to remind folks
what came
before.
The fruit was so beautiful.
Everyone enjoyed these juicy treats and felt terrible about those left
on the ground! We learned
about the farm from Any Mariani,
the owner, and about the
challenges in trying to run a small
quality farm.
On the bus between stops we also heard from representatives of the Farm
Bureau, Water District, Land Conservancy and Open Space Authority and
several other interesting folks.
Our next stop was at Mission Organics. This is a large scale Organic farm
where the produce is sold through Earthbound Farm,
a large organic distributor. Here we heard from the farm managers.
We learned about the various uses of non-edible "crops"
(see above right) which are tasty to beneficial bugs and thus helpful in the
fields.
various lettuces and salad greens
Our next stop was the Doan Ranch. This is where our lovely lunch was
provided and where our tables and chairs were hay bales. Quite
comfortable! This ranch is a working cattle ranch with a partnership
between the rancher and the open space district.
Our last stop was at the Kruse Winery, where we heard from the
owner Tom Kruse about the challenges a small scale winery faces.
After this last stop we got back on the bus and went home.
It was a lovely, very informative and tasty day.