City Slickers Farms

        So on Wednesdays three of the other Fellows (that's what we're called) and I bike over to "intern"/volunteer with City Slickers Farms in Oakland, California. It's about a 25 minute bike ride and I am still getting used to city biking, but my friends were nice and patient and we made it there eventually. Also, my bike was only $89 and it is becoming very clear why.
        Anyways, City Slicker Farms is this organization that tries to get affordable or free organic, fresh produce to people who cannot buy it anywhere.  They have a few programs, one of which involves setting up gardens in Oakland residents' backyards so that they can have a sort of subsistence style farm of their own. Hopefully the three of us will get a chance to help out in that area, but right now we are gardening at Union Plaza and, at another location, helping seeds and baby plants grow to the point where they can be ready for planting.
       The produce from the Union Plaza garden is sold or given away for free at a farmers' market on Saturdays and the plants at the second site are sold or given away to people who are members of the Backyard Garden program and to others to care for and enjoy at home.
       Oakland is actually a "food desert", meaning a "geographic area where mainstream grocery stores are either totally absent or inaccessible to low-income shoppers. Though [stores] may be located in the vicinity, they remain unavailable to low-income residents because of high prices and inadequate public transit." 
(See http://www.marketmakeovers.org/why/food-desert for more information) 


       Here is the link to the City Slickers Farms website:   http://www.cityslickerfarms.org/


     Most of my time there was spent washing aphids off of chard and lettuce, amending planter beds,  pulling out a giant berry bush covered in aphids, planting flower seeds, watering stuff, and transplanting baby plants from their tiny pots into slightly larger ones where they will grow until they are strong enough to go to new homes in the area. FYI aphids are these tiny little black, grey, and red dots on the leaves that are actually creatures eating the plants! Good news: ladybugs eat aphids (just not quickly enough). Also, there is an Oakland resident named Alvin who hangs out in the garden and seems nice. We also had to wash mildew off of some of the plants. It's this translucent whitish stuff that spread across the leaves. The reason it is bad is because it is like a screen between the sun and leaves so photosynthesis can't happen properly.


Also, the three other Fellows' names are Jonno, Aliza, and Molly. I am Tali. However, there is another Tali here (which is not such a common occurrence in my life) who is a staff member of our Urban Adamah program and it is SO CONFUSING sometimes.