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Alemany Farm is a 4 acre, fully functioning urban farm nestled between a major highway intersection, a newly gentrified neighborhood on a hill and a housing project- the perfect place to grow some food! We got a tour (and some amazing fruit) from Antonio Roman-Alcalá, Volunteer Coordinator and soon to be videoblogger/documentarian extraordinaire. The work being done at Alemany Farm proves the point that urban farming and local food production is totally possible and necessary for the health and well being of a city and its inhabitants. Local farming and gardening are great motivators for people to get acquainted, eat more healthily and become more connected with where their food comes from and what it actually is (olives grow on trees? broccoli is a flower?). If you live in the SF Bay area, you can visit or volunteer at Alemany Farm on the weekends- check out AlemanyFarm.org.

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Neelam Sharma is the Programs Director for CSU, Community Services Unlimited, an organization empowering South Central Los Angeles residents to eat and grow healthy food. The “Food Not Lawns” attitude towards neighborhoods, I must admit, is infectious. After hanging out with urban and suburban farmers in the last year, we see people watering grass and we gasp. What a waste! CSU encourages and empowers folks to start thinking this way by teaching backyard gardening and reclaiming un-used urban space for food production. Check out their other projects in our previous video ‘Community Services Unlimited: Rocking LA with Food and Beauty‘.

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We first met the Community Services Unlimited folks at the Just Us For Food Justice Bioneers day. They told us we should come check out their work in community gardening in South Central LA. How could we not? These folks are on the front lines of urban gardening in an LA neighborhood most famous for violence. The work they have done transforming empty lots and street abutting school yards into luscious, cornucopias of food and beauty is awe inspiring. They hold weekly workshops at each garden site to get folks involved and to taste goodies from the garden as well as local farmers’ wares. In an area of town where the only food resources tend to be liquor stores and fast food joints, CSU is a welcome addition empowering residents to grow their own and take action for food justice.

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More and more, we’re hearing stories about folks who are growing food in their backyards (this includes ourselves). This fellow, Manny Howard, is doing it at his Brooklyn home and he recently wrote about it for New York Magazine [My Empire of Dirt]. Also included in the article was a video, which was a bitch to embed here (had to hack the code myself and apologies for the pre-roll ad, ugh!) but I thought it was worth it to see and hear this man show off his radical, urban backyard farm. The thing that stuck with me and what I’ve been hearing and feeling is that in order to sustainably grown your own food, you need a network of folks doing it. It would take an entire neighborhood with several varieties of food to provide for just a handful of families. I think it’s possible and I hope we hear more stories about neighborhoods coming together to feed each other.

Another thing that really sticks with me when I meet other backyard farmers is that many of us don’t know what is correct for proper farming. What is the proper way to grow this or that? You learn as you go, wikipedia something if you think it has some special method for growth. But mostly, you can stick a seed in the ground, water it, and it’ll grow and you can eat it. That’s pretty much how it works. Don’t let this stuff intimidate you, just try it and learn each time, then share it, ok?

Check out the article and then throw some seeds in your backyard, see what happens!

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Jason Harvey, director of The Oakland Food Connection, has an exciting vision for bringing real examples of practical gardening, food security and nutrition to urban schools. By partnering with the Bay Localize Rooftop Resources Project and community leaders like Lisa Blair, principal of EC Reems Academy, an elementary charter school in East Oakland, Jason has been able to create projects like this rooftop vegetable garden. Utilizing a valuable, unused space on the roof of EC Reems Academy, Jason’s crew of local high school gardeners get down to business and build a half dozen garden boxes soon to be filled with plant and vegetable seeds. These vegetables will serve as more than just a healthy meal, they’ll help educate kids and their parents about the possibilities that exist beyond processed, packaged foods and the often limited variety of produce sold in stores.

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[tags]rooftop garden, urban garden, permaculture, green, sustainablility, gardening, vegetables, oakland food connection, ec reems, jason harvey, lisa blair, ryanishungry, oakland[/tags]

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Kevin Bayuk rents an apartment in the Haight Ashbury district of San Fransicso. He also grows a large amount of his own food, actively composts, raises ducks and captures rainwater- total urban permaculture. One might think you need to own a large plot of land in the country to create an abundant food growing system, but Kevin proves this theory wrong on a number of counts. Often the density of an urban community is a hundred times greener than suburban areas because resources are so close together. You can walk to the store or take an electric bus over to work. Kevin shows us how he practices urban permaculture in all aspects of his life- from growing food to educating his community. Check out the Urban Alliance for Sustainability and Daily Acts for more info on getting hip to urban permaculture. Thanks Kevin!

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[tags]kevin bayuk, urban permaculture, permaculture, gardening, green, susatinable, sustainability, san francisco, ryanishungry[/tags]

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