FREE FARM STAND: Share your Backyard Bounty!

FREE FARM STAND: share your backyard bounty with the less fortunate

NEW VIDEOS, MP3 STORY, PHOTOS AND MORE ON TREE'S BLOG: http://freefarmstand.org/

This week we need:
plastic or paper bags or cloth bags with handles, small pots about a yogurt container size, locally grown or gleaned produce, intern and garden helpers,, photographer to document what we are doing, Spanish speakers to help on Sundays (just show up!)

---------- Hey nice people....

Got organic food to share? Know about organic gardening and want to share your knowledge with the public? Got seeds or seedlings to donate? Have a fruit tree that we can glean fruit from for feeding the poor? Care to volunteer your time helping us tend our gardens? Hook up with the Free Farm Stand!

We strive to attain the following goals:

•help make locally grown, fresh and nutritious organic produce accessible to all, especially those families and individuals on low-incomes and tight budgets.

•help empower people who have the space to grow their own food and become more self-reliant.

•promote good nutrition and health

What we do:

•We grow as much food as can in our Mission neighborhood and distribute it for free at our Sunday Free Farm Stand.

•We offer garden advice and help to those who want to put in a backyard garden.

•We grow seedlings and starts to give away and other plants.

•We offer a place where neighbors can come and share their extra produce that they have grown with others.

•We provide a drop-off place for local organic surplus food from both local gardeners and organic farmers.

•We offer a weekly gathering spot where neighbors can get to know each other and share their diverse cultures and traditions.

•We harvest organic fruit from backyard fruit trees and public spaces give away it away at the Free Farm Stand.

•We give away honey from local bee keepers and educate neighbors about bees and gentle beekeeping.

•We are working with the San Francisco Permaculture Guild on a number of food growing projects to turn a vacant lot on Potrero Hill into a Permaculture mini-farm that will grow food that will go to the Free Farm Stand and other groups that distribute food to the hungry.

•We are working with about fifteen kids that attend Jamestown after school program, teaching them about gardening and where our food comes. We work with them to gain a sense of care for their community.

The Free Farm Stand happens on Sundays 1-3pm. For more information or if you want to help or if you have or know of a fruit tree that needs picking email us.
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Someone at the Free Farm Stand yesterday asked me why I started this project and I stumbled around for words to answer her. Last night in a bit of a sleepy state I remembered one of my first inspirations for the stand was harvesting a lot of kale in my backyard and washing it and tying it up with an reused organic label wire. I was thinking how exciting it was to grow that large amount of kale; and to be able to give it away in a classy and beautiful manner to people that could use some free healthy produce. Peace Pilgrim spoke about us all having a personal calling in life and that we just need to look inside ourselves and figure out what our calling is and start following it. I know I have always had a calling to deal with food, to give it away in some manner or growing it. So my early inspiration for the Free Farm Stand was to grow a lot of beautiful food (and flowers too someday) and give it away as a gift to those in need.