Empowerment and Urban Gardens

Yesterday a group a college students from South Carolina joined the volunteer work party. This diverse group of young leaders stepped onto the rooftop wanting to discuss empowerment, application of rooftop gardening techniques to small-scale home gardening, and the transformative edge between youth education and the urban food and farming movement.

This movement empowers. Why? Because the fundamental act of gardening or farming, of getting your hands in the soil, cultivating fertility, biodiversity and nourishment, in tandem with awakening seasonal awareness and a sensibility of life's interconnections is essential to evolving humanity's eco-literacy.

As we toured the garden, we discussed the different techniques that we use on the roof to compost, produce a yield, experiment with different containers to grow food, practical tips on what to plant, how to plant seeds, yield potential and the educational branch, and community outreach component that is core to the urban food and farming movement.

These young leaders have vision. They are gaining skills and experience that will fuel their respective work to feed, nurture and educate the collective. Read more...

Weeding, Refreshing, and Watering

The chard sparkles and the spinach sprouts look vibrant and healthy, the garden feels and smells fresh on a surprisingly sunny and warm Thursday morning. There is a sweet quiet that permeates the rooftop garden. In the heart of the tenderloin, traffic swirls below, and yet seven floors up, the static, the layered rhythms of city living seem to melt away. I am present with the colors of the garden; the bountiful food growing in milk crates, and five gallon buckets captivates my senses. I notice bees buzzing amongst the flowerbeds and a few ladybugs crawling up the yarrow.

The first volunteer, Ruby arrives, and begins making her rounds, weeding and tending to the plants. Joseph arrives, sets down his stuff and brews up some worm tea to fertilize our flowering fruit trees.

Thanks to a donation from Four Barrel Coffee in the Mission, we had a hefty stack of burlap sacks. Joseph began taking measurements and repurposing the coffee sacks to serve as an aesthetic covering for our white plastic buckets that make up much of our container garden and needed to be “refreshed.”

Caroline joins us around noon with her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Full of passion and enthusiasm for all things community, we discuss future plans for a summer rooftop bbq and volunteer appreciation event. Caroline waters the thirsty garden; we go in and out of conversation, each of us involved in our own tasks while working on a collective vision.

Around 1:30 we pause, drank a lot of cool water and ate at the community picnic table, the moment was rich with laughter, life lessons, and birthday invitations.

The afternoon sun high in the sky, we said our goodbyes and each went our separate ways, after having shared a highly productive, creative, and fruitful volunteer workday on the roof.

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Graze the Roof!

Volunteer Workdays Thursdays from 11a-1p Read more...

Seeding the roof. Grazing the roof. Celebrating the roof.

Rooftops: surfaces with incredible potential. The rooftop garden at Glide Memorial Church exemplifies the possibilities.

Herbs, vegetables and flowers, a greenhouse, a picnic table, a vermicompost system (compost with worms) is a classroom, a community gathering space, a volunteer opportunity and a place to find nourishment. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to teach and learn with the students from the Family, Youth and Childcare Center.

This afternoon was beautiful, clear skies, sunshine and a light, cool breeze. I met the kinder class at the FYCC and we walked over to Glide, with a snack of goldfish in hand to feed the worms on the roof. We broke up the goldfish into little worm bite-sized pieces and sprinkled the bright orange cracker on the top of the pile. “Mmmmmm….it smells so good in here,” commented Joshua. We peer into the pile and notice that the top layer was laden with fresh herbs: dill, thyme, mint and parsley. Yum! These worms eat well!

We gather around the center picnic table and I scatter mung bean seeds on the table. We each look closely at the seeds. Green, round, smooth andsmall; we discuss how seeds can be as big as our head, as in a coconut and smaller than an ant. Seed size, color, and texture are so varied. We talk about what seeds need to spout: water, sunshine, soil and air...we experiment with the mung beans: we put 3.5 tablespoons of beans into a mason jar and pour 1 cup of water over them. We screw on a lid, letting the seeds soak in the water. Over the next week, these seeds will be rinsed twice a day, to encourage germination (sprouting) and then when we meet again next Thursday we can see how the seeds have transformed and maybe taste them too!

After our experiment, we go over to a planter box that is ready to be planted and we learn how to plant seeds. We each plant dozens of spinach seeds in the soil! Each week we return to the rooftop garden we can observe the growth of our seeds. We made sure to label the areas where we planted so we could remember what we planted and who planted where.

To round out our session, we helped the garden with the harvest and learned how to pick radishes and peas. We discovered pink, and red and white radishes, and lots of sweet peas growing out of white flowers on the vine.

Finally, as the sun was getting low in the sky, we worm-wiggled our way into a closing circle, we each shared our favorite thing from the day, while some of us munched on peas and radishes, and we left the rooftop just as pink wispy clouds began to color the sky.

I can’t wait till next week!

Lindsey Goldberg
Graze the Roof | Youth Educator Read more...

Cecil Williams Glide Community House Opening Celebration

Cecil Williams Glide Community House Opening Celebration
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
4:00pm-6:00pm

Location: Cecil Williams Glide Community House
333 Taylor Street, San Francisco

Description: Cecil Williams Glide Community House will be having an opening celebration showcasing its new edible rooftop garden on Wednesday Nov. 3rd from 4:00-6:00. The main program begins at 5:00pm. The garden features various raised garden planters, a miniature greenhouse, a storage shed, a rainwater harvesting system, a worm composting system and a beautiful mural designed by residents. This vibrant space benefits both the community and the environment and was made possible through San Francisco’s Community Challenge Grant Program and the San Francisco Zen Center, whose expertise in gardening and organic farming helped catalyze the project. Come celebrate the creation of this space with us!

Support our work by bringing your friends and community members and don’t forget to bring your checkbooks. You will be invited to give a donation at the event to support the ongoing success of this project. Read more...

Global Climate Solutions Workday at Glide's Rooftop Gardens

Date: Sunday, October 10th
Description: Join the Glide Foundation, Bay Localize, SF Zen Center and 350.org on 10/10/10 for a taste of a local solution to the global climate challenge! This workday will support the Graze the Roof and the new rooftop garden at the Cecil Williams Glide Community House in providing fresh produce and gardening education services to the community. Volunteers will help with painting, light construction, and ongoing maintenance of the projects. Roll up your sleeves and join us in growing local solutions from the rooftop up!
Time: 10 AM - 1PM
Target volunteer turnout: 10-12
Location: ***Cecil Williams Glide Community House, 333 Taylor St, San Francisco***
RSVP Required: GrazetheRoof@gmail.com Read more...

Introduction to Rainwater Catchment: A Hands-On Workshop and Installation! Saturday, September 11th

WORKSHOP: Introduction to Rainwater Catchment: A Hands-On Workshop and Installation!
DESCRIPTION: This class will cover the basics of rainwater catchment. Workshop participants will learn about how much rain potential there is, storage options, best practices, parts needed, and codes and regulations. Then we will work together to install a two 55-gallon barrel rainwater catchment system as part of the new rooftop garden project located on top of Glide's Cecil Williams Community House. The workshop will be facilitated by Laura Allen of Greywater Action- an organization educating about sustainable water practices. Hope you can join us!
DATE: Saturday, September 11, 2010
TIME: 10:00 am - 12:00 noon
COST: $15 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
LOCATION: Cecil Williams Community House, 333 Taylor St. San Francisco, CA 94110
RSVP: Required. Please RSVP to grazetheroof@gmail.com Read more...

Beekeeping in the City: Introduction to Honey Extraction! Sunday, September 12th

Beekeeping in the City - Introduction to Honey Extraction!
DESCRIPTION: This class will cover the basics of honey extraction, and teach you how to use a simple hand-crank honey extractor. Each participant will take home one of Glide’s first jars of Honey! Don't wear your best clothes. It may get sticky!

DATE: Sunday, September 12, 2010
TIME: 10:00 am - 12:00 noon
COST: $20 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
LOCATION: Glide Foundation, 330 Ellis St. San Francisco, CA 94110
RSVP: RSVP required. Please RSVP to grazetheroof@gmail.com

Proceeds will help cover the cost of purchasing extraction and bottling supplies!

Read more...