Earth Day in the City

There are so many ways to connect to Mother Earth in San Francisco, a city abundant in parks and green spaces. The opportunity to connect to nature amidst the urban environment is such a blessing! Time spent in nature is nurturing, healing and incredibly joyful.

This weekend is all about Earth Day and our great city offers lots of diverse ways to celebrate the Earth!
Join Graze the Roof this Saturday at the Civic Center Plaza for EARTH DAY SF!

http://www.earthdaysf.com/

We'll have a booth and would love to see you/meet you! Discover ways to participate in urban agriculture projects all over the city, learn a new homesteading skill, make a new friend, enjoy some delicious seasonal goodies, honor the farmworkers, and most importantly celebrate, celebrate, celebrate!

In the spirit of stewardship, community and connection to place,
HAPPY EARTH DAY! Read more...

Shitakes and Oysters Nestled within the Garden

Urban mushroom cultivation requires a passion for the fruit of the earth! Oh and did we feel impassioned this past Saturday when Nik Dyer led us in an conversation about the life cycle, biology and ecology of mushrooms. From bioremediation, to medicinal properties to culinary treasures, mushrooms, or more aptly stated, mycellium, the heart of the fungal network is responsible for so much of the dynamic equilibrium that holds our ecosystemic balance in place, not to mention that mushrooms and mycellium embody great potential for healing, nourishment and artistic inspiration.

As a group, the workshop participants represented diverse walks of life, professional endeavors and personal hobbies; we live all over San Francisco and the East Bay and each have a unique connection to the enchanting world of mushrooms. We learned in community and then we worked in community! Together, under the sun, we worked hard to create a mushroom garden for Graze the Roof; shredding and pasteurizing straw, filling burlap sacks with straw and shitake spawn and drilling holes in oak logs which we filled with inoculated dowles of oyster spawn.

The mushroom garden is now nestled among the other edible and beautiful elements that make up Graze the Roof!
Come check it out!

THIS THURSDAY 4/14 - VOLUNTEER WORKDAY SPECIAL HOURS: 3pm-5pm
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FUNGUS AMONG US!

GRAZE THE ROOF PRESENTS:

"FUNGUS AMONG US!"
Introduction to the Wonderful World of Mushrooms and
Urban Mushroom Cultivation

DATE: Saturday April 9th 2011

LOCATION: Graze the Roof, 330 Ellis Street, San Francisco

TIME: 10:30a-12:30p

PRICE: Sliding Scale, pay what you can: $5-$20

RSVP: Spaces are limited! Email grazetheroof@gmail.com to reserve your spot for this unique learning opportunity!

This two hour workshop will start with a brief introduction to the basic biology and ecology of the mycelial fruit we call mushrooms. Participants will then learn about how to cultivate several choice culinary mushrooms as they help install a mini-mushroom farm on the roof. Two techniques will be explained and demonstrated: spawn inoculation in bunker bags (burlap sacks filled with straw), and plug spawn inoculation in logs. Everyone will take home some shitake spawn; and hopefully also the inspiration to grow mushrooms at home!

Nik Dyer, workshop presenter, has a BA in Agroecology from UCSC, a MA in Ecological Agriculture from New College of California, a permaculture design certificate and over 10 years hands on experience in agriculture and horticulture. He is also an avid fungophile who loves to share his passion for foraging and cultivating mushrooms with anyone who shows the slightest amount of interest. He is the sole proprietor of Purple Carrot, an edible garden design and education company based in San Francisco. Please visit his website: www.purplecarrotgardening.com

Keep an eye out for future workshops:
* May 14th, 10am - 4pm, "Planet Drum Foundation" - A Bioregional Ecology Exploration of the Tenderloin
* June 18th, 11am - 1pm, "Integrated Pest Management" - Controlling Garden Pests
* July 23rd, 11am - 1pm, "Art & Meditation in the Garden" - A Holistic Garden Experience
* Honey extraction, aquaponics, fruit trees, permaculture, natural building, composting, worm bins, and more.. dates TBD!!

**All workshops take place at Glide Foundation at 330 Ellis Street in San Francisco. Proceeds will help cover the cost of implementing a rooftop beehive as part of Graze the Roof, an education and demonstration rooftop container vegetable garden on the roof of Glide Foundation. No one turned away for lack of funds. Come learn about Mushrooms and support Graze the Roof! *** Read more...

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.

Participate
Learn
Teach
Engage
Garden
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...