Demystifying Irrigation

This last Sunday was HOT. We don't get that many hot days in San Francisco and Sunday was truly a day to remember. The basil and tomatoes of Graze the Roof are loving the heat and growing fast! (On your next visit to the garden, take home beautiful bushels of basil to make your own pesto - a summer treat!)

When it gets this hot, we are reminded just how important water is, to the success and sustainability of our garden. Graze the Roof is watered via a drip system that was installed about four years ago. Like the garden, drip irrigation is dynamic. It has to be, as the flora of our garden: flowers, fruits and vegetables are in constant rotation...

For the June installment of our urban agriculture workshop series we invited Shain Herbert of the Urban Farmer Store to break down the "how-tos" of irrigation. He did an incredible job covering a vast amount of information and all the parts and pieces that can make up a successful irrigation system. The workshop participants were Master Gardeners, School Garden Coordinators and aspiring backyard gardeners. 

Following the lecture, we jumped into practice and worked together to refine a loosey-goosey drip-line  into a more refined and efficient system.

If you need support with irrigation, you can find Shain and his resourceful colleagues at The Urban Farmer Store -  http://www.urbanfarmerstore.com/

Thank you Shain and all who came out on Sunday to learn and support the continued development of Graze the Roof!

Enjoy the sunshine and happy gardening!

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Flavorful Fermentation!

Graze the Roof sparkled on Sunday May 6th with the dynamic flavors of Fermentation. Samantha Hanan of Northwest Catering invited twelve inspired workshop participants to chop, dice and shred fresh and seasonal ingredients which included purple and green cabbage, carrots, spring onions, dill, and vietnamese  coriander that together created a huge vat of juicy, delicious and healthy sauerkraut. 

We learned about the health benefits of eating fermented foods, like activating digestion and infusing your system with good probiotics. Through demonstration, and discussion everyone walked away with new knowledge and experience for how to ferment their favorite foods at home.

Samantha's passion for this speciality fermented food was palpable and in the hot spring sun amidst the flourishing rooftop garden, our mouths watered and newfound culinary inspiration was seeded.

To learn more about Samantha's catering company, check out her website at: http://www.northwest-catering.com/

Samantha and Ryan are located in Bodega Bay and will start serving up delicious and unique offerings every Sunday at the Bodega Bay Farmer's Market starting Sunday May 27th, 2012!

Graze the Roof's monthly workshops in the garden aim to create diverse access and opportunities for the community to engage with varied themes related to urban agriculture, re-skilling and building community around 'Doing it OURSELVES!'

Coming up in June: 


Demystifying Irrigation: Learn the In's and Out's of Drip Irrigation from local expert Shain Herbert of the Urban Farmer Store

Sunday June 10th 1p-3p FREE COMMUNITY WORKSHOP
RSVP to : grazetheroof@gmail.com

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Kraut it up! Learn to Ferment your Favorite Garden Greens!

I hear time and time again that many urban farmers get bitten by the urban farmin' bug because of their love and passion for FOOD! Learning how to cook and celebrate home-grown food is an important part of the local food movement. 'Food Crafting' is the process of adding value to your harvest through transforming it from it's raw, fresh form into a jam, bake, pickle, sautee, ferment, or roasted delight. 'Food Crafting' is delicious and creative! For our May edition of the urban ag workshop series...Graze the Roof brings YOU an exploration into 'Food Crafting!'


JOIN Culinary Artist Samantha Hanan on May 6th from 1p-3p for a special urban agriculture workshop on FERMENTATION!

Samantha will teach the basics of fermentation, share her passion for pickled foods and sample homemade seasonal sauerkraut. She will walk workshop participants through making sauerkraut, and each participant will go home with a pint of delicious sauerkraut.

Samantha was born and raised in New York, the daughter of a butcher she developed a passion early on for all things food. Growing up visiting and eating at all types of restaurants, from classic NY deli to some of the cities finest restaurants Samantha knew from early on that she wanted to spend her time making and serving food. Samantha moved to Southern California to finish college and there discovered the world of Healthy, Organic, Sustainable and of course Farm Fresh Food. She quickly began preserving and canning food and about two years ago went back to her heritage with fermenting using her Grandfather’s recipes. Although only an amateur in fermenting, Samantha is an advocate and lover of fermenting foods and beverages and is honored to share her technique with anyone with desire to learn. Samantha now resides in Bodega Bay.


This workshop is FREE!
Space is LIMITED
Please RSVP to grazetheroof@gmail.com Read more...

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...