Celebration the Earth through 'Harvesting Color'

Some gardeners harvest food, others harvest flowers. Some harvest honey, or worm castings, and those with hens harvest fresh eggs. Have you ever considered the possibility of 'harvesting color'?

Rebecca Burgess of San Geronimo teaches the lost art of Natural Dyes, utilizing native flora to create beautiful natural shades of color to dye farm fresh wool, fabric, and homespun garments. From her new book, 'Harvesting Color,' she writes,

"Making and using your own natural dyes can reduce your impact on the environment (textile production as a whole is the fifth largest contributor to CO2 in the US), and has the added side benefit of some very pleasant time spent outdoors as you search for, gather, and/or tend the plants that yield nonsynthetic color."

I recently took a workshop with Rebecca at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Sonoma County and was amazed to discover interdisciplinary essence of this lost craft and I was mesmerized by the science and wonder of harvesting color from plant species I know well.

I left the workshop, with great examples of natural color on an array of different fabrics including wool, cotton and silk. We harvested color from Coyote Brush (soft yellow), Coriopsis (vibrant orange), Logwood (dark purple) and Oak Gall (silver-gray). Feeling inspired, I crafted curriculum to bring this earth honoring technique to the students of the FYCC in honor of Earth Day.

Yesterday we began exploring the question, "Where does color come from?..."

We explored the idea of 'harvesting color,' by going into the garden and picking some of our favorite seasonal leaves and petals; Ashley chose nasturium leaves and Gabriel was drawn to the firey pink pineapple sage blossoms. Joseph and Jacob gathered the brightly colored violas and Lucero was excited to try ranunculous petals. Downstairs in our studio space, we experimented with technique that involves captures an impressionistic image of the season, by drawing the color out of the freshly picked plants.

On cotton squares we created beautiful patterns of natural color, using soda ash as the mortent.

These squares will be tied along a piece of twine and used as Earth prayer flags, which we will hang in the garden. The flags will celebrate the season and our collective ethic to stewarding ecological balance in our community!

http://rebeccarburgess.com/ Read more...

We LOVE our Volunteers!

Spring has sprung in the Bay Area with this lovely pattern of sunshine and rain, the hills are green, the wildflowers are blossoming, and it is time to plant basil and tomatoes!

At Graze the Roof we are expanding food production, planting more flowers and cultivating more ways for community members to engage with the garden and benefit from the many elements that make this urban agriculture project so special.

Every week, we host a volunteer workday, where members from our community at-large, folks who live in and around the Tenderloin, GLIDE congregation members, students from various universities, and retired elders participate in the cycle of building soil, sowing seeds, tending to plants, feeding the worms, turning the compost and beautifying the space. It is the volunteers that make Graze the Roof possible; it really does take a community to grow a garden.

Since November we have been doing a weekly harvest of food for the soup kitchen facilitated by the GLIDE. Since that time we have harvested a comprehensive 87lbs of food for the Free Meals Program and Nutrition Education programs that serve the needs of thousands of people a day.

It is because of the volunteers that we have elevated the garden to the point where we can offer local, seasonal, organic food grown with love to those in need.

THANK YOU TO ALL THE VOLUNTEERS OVER THE YEARS WHO HAVE HELPED TO GET GRAZE THE ROOF TO WHERE IT IS TODAY!

YOUR SWEAT,
YOUR SONGS,
YOUR LOVE,
THE DIRT UNDER YOUR NAILS,
YOUR QUESTIONS,
AND YOUR PARTICIPATION
HAVE MADE AN INCREDIBLE IMPACT!

THANK YOU!

VOLUNTEERS (PAST AND PRESENT)!
YOU ARE INVITED TO OUR SPRING 2012 VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION DAY
APRIL 19TH
10a-2p*
*Community Lunch at 12:30p Read more...

Natural Building

Cecil Williams used his '5 minutes' on stage toward the end of the 9am Celebration service with an extraordinary rendition of 'Amazing Grace,' joined by the GLIDE Ensemble and the congregation at large, the lyrics and collective voice were truly amazing...What a way to start off Easter Sunday; feeling inspired, moved, and filled with awe at the remarkable culture GLIDE is seeding in the streets.

Later in the day, up on the roof, we dug into the art and craftsmanship of Natural Building during the April installment of our urban agriculture workshop series.

Sam Hartman and Tori Jacobs of Eco-SF facilitated an in-depth and experiential workshop on building with natural materials and together a group of twelve community members from 4 years old to sixty years old, rolled up their pants and danced in clay, sand, straw and water to make cob, (a mixture similar to adobe that has been used for building projects around the world for hundreds of years)!

We 'cobbed' two milk crates and finished them off with beautiful mosaic tiles, creating images of the sun, moon and spring inspired growth, butterflies and dragonflies! Read more...

Easter = Celebration, Service and Learning

Join us on Easter Sunday April 8th for a special and celebratory day in the garden!

Tours at 10:30a and 12:30p

Workparty from 11a-noon

Potluck 12oon-1p

Earth-Building workshop with ECO-SF 1p-3p (Free! Please RSVP grazetheroof@gmail.com)

Happy Spring! Read more...

Cob Building comes to the Garden

Join ECOSF and Graze the Roof us for a fun filled workshop on building with cob (sand, clay and straw)! We’ll mold these natural materials with our hands, and feet, and use this mixture to cover milk crates to enliven our mobile garden seats. We’ll also embed colorful mosaic tiles to decorate these new earthen additions to the beautiful roof garden at Glide.

All ages are welcome, be prepared to get dirty and have some fun!

ECOSF has been designing and building sustainable landscapes and natural building projects with schools and communities throughout San Francisco for over five years. Tori Jacobs and Sam Hartman, along with Davin Wentworth Thrasher, co founded this local non-profit organization and coordinate the programs including the Design and Build services, Ecological workshops and the School Farm, an outdoor experiential learning space and organic farm on the Campus of the School of the Arts High School.

Check out the inspiring work of ECOSF at {http://eco-sf.org/}

COB BUILDING Workshop in the Garden (rooftop of 330 Ellis St.)
April 8th 2012 - Easter Sunday at GLIDE is a spectacular place to celebrate!
1p-3p
FREE

RSVP for this one of a kind cob building workshop at Graze the Roof at grazetheroof@gmail.com Read more...

Graze the Roof MURAL children's book PUBLISHED!

Artist and Sustainability Educator Jessica Kraft who was the visionary behind Graze the Roof's unique story-telling mural has published a children's book inviting youth to engage in the principles behind the extraordinary images!

These books will be purchased and distributed to the 75 youth in the Family, Youth, and Childcare Center's program who have weekly interaction with the garden!

The book captures the essence of place-based transformation and the urban agriculture movement taking hold in San Francisco and beyond.

Take a look at the newly published book using the following link: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/graze-the-roof-a-kids-guide-to-the-garden-mural/18940280

THANK YOU Jessica! Read more...

Flatland Flower Farm supports Graze the Roof!

Here is a great article published on CUESA's (www.cuesa.org) online newsletter.

Graze the Roof has been blessed by having dozens of plants from Flatland Flower Farm's nursery over the past several seasons.

Thank you to Dan and Joanne for all your hard work and dedication to the urban agriculture movement!

You can find Dan selling his delicious edible plant starts every Saturday at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market.


Spring rains have come and the days are getting longer, which means business is picking up for Dan Lehrer and Joanne Krueger of Flatland Flower Farm. The Sebastopol-based nursery has been providing plant starts to Bay Area gardeners at the Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market since 1995. "We have customers who have been buying our starts for 17 years," Lehrer says with pride. "People show us photographs and bring us tomatoes from plants they got from us. We get to share in people's success."

Flatland's long history at the market belies its humble beginnings. In the 1990s, while Lehrer was completing a master's in journalism at Berkeley and Krueger was working as a magazine editor, they moonlighted as helpers at the Berkeley Farmers Market. One cold February day, they decided to bring some bunches of cut sweet peas from their backyard garden to the market, and Flatland Flower Farm was born.

"The 'farm' part was kind of joke," Lehrer laughs. "We'd have the organic inspector come and inspect our backyard. It was always funny." They started selling their sweet peas and plant divisions regularly, and the business began to grow. While the two knew little about plant propagation, Krueger shadowed fellow marketeer Annabelle Lenderink of Star Route Farms to learn more about seeding.

In 1999, they decided to go full-time and, with Lehrer's parents, purchased 22 acres in Sebastopol. "Originally, we were just growing plants between the trees in the apple orchard. We didn't know deer would come and eat them," said Lehrer. Their first growing season, they lost all of their starts to a late frost, because they hadn't built any greenhouses yet. "I have to say, we've made every possible mistake you can make. It's just been figuring it out as we go."

Fresh Starts
In 2008, after receiving a letter from one of their seed suppliers saying that vegetable seed sales were on the rise, Lehrer and Krueger decided to focus on edible plant starts, which now make up about 98 percent of their business. When the recession hit later that year, they were poised to meet the urban gardening boom. The nursery grows starts that will thrive in San Francisco's cooler microclimates. "We're not planning on Walnut Creek," says Lehrer. "If you can grow it in the Sunset, you can grow it pretty much anywhere."

Though they're no longer in the Berkeley flats and no longer a flower farm, the name has stuck, and Flatland now sells their starts to retail nurseries around the Bay Area. Remaining part of the farmers market community has been invaluable in helping Lehrer and Krueger find seed sources, stay on top of the popular vegetable varieties, and receive feedback on what works in what conditions. Being at the market every week also gives them the opportunity to educate and learn from their customers. "You can't just say, 'That'll be $3.75' and send people on their way, because many people don't know how to grow stuff," says Lehrer. The farm has also hosted school tours for CUESA's Schoolyard to Market program, teaching San Francisco high school students about the basics of plant propagation.

For Lehrer and Krueger, growing a bit of your own food complements shopping at the farmer market as another basic way to connect with your local foodshed. "If you grow something yourself, it tastes that much better," he says. "And there's the aesthetic value, too. Even the lowly lettuces are beautiful. It's nice to have this connection to your food and the natural world available at your doorstep."

Ready, Set, Grow
Lehrer has talked to thousands of Bay Area gardeners over the years and offers a few tips to inspire and empower beginners.

Don't be shy. When buying plant starts, expect a conversation. "I always find out people's back story when I'm talking to them because that's crucial to giving them a successful growing experience," says Lehrer. He asks a lot of questions ("Where do you live? What are the conditions like? What are growing now?") and expects you to do the same.

Start small. If you're new to gardening, try growing low-maintenance and versatile herbs like thyme and rosemary, which are perfect for containers and are only harvested a bit at a time. All you need is a sunny windowsill. Arugula and lettuce are also ideal for newbies because they grow fast and are well suited to San Francisco's varied microclimates.

Plant for success. Many beginning gardeners have their sights set on tomatoes, which, unfortunately, are not well adapted for San Francisco. Lehrer knows gardeners who have had success with certain tomato varieties, but if your plot is a container garden on a chilly, wind-swept balcony, you may be setting yourself up for disappointment. Instead, choose plants that are climate-appropriate. "The reality is, you can have great lettuce, great Swiss chard, and awesome kale," he emphasizes, "but you have to be careful with tomatoes."

Be water smart. Keep your plants hydrated and protect the soil by putting mulch, such as pebbles or bark, on top of your pots to slow down evaporation. Place saucers under your pots to catch water that can later be wicked back up by the plants. Lehrer recommends checking out The Urban Farmer Store for classes and supplies to make watering plants easier and more efficient.

Just do it. The best piece of advice Lehrer gives budding gardeners is to just do it: "The thing that prevents people from gardening is thinking they don't know enough. The worst case scenario is that the plant doesn't do well or you kill it. I can tell you that you are not a real gardener until you've killed some plants. But the more experience you get, the more you observe the way the plants grow and the more stuff starts to make sense." Read more...