Summer Happenings in the Garden!

Greetings Graze the Roof Friends and Family!

This summer season, Chad Calvert will be managing our summer volunteer workdays in the garden from 10-2 on Thursdays. 

If you have questions for Chad about garden workdays, getting involved, etc...please email him directly at Chad@splank.org. 

THIS Thursday, June 27th, the garden will be closed, but will be open the following four Thursdays in July and all of August!

July 4th, 11th, 18th, and the 25th

10a-2p

Bring a lunch, water bottle and friend! Come with an open mind and come ready to dig your hands in the dirt. 

THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF SHIFTING OUR FOOD SYSTEM!

THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO BEAUTIFY THE TENDERLOIN, FOR HELPING TO BUILD COMMUNITY, and GROW FOOD!

We are excited to announce an exciting community workshop opportunity in early August...

Join us at Graze the Roof to welcome Margaretha Haughwout, as she guides us through a workshop on health,  healing, herbs, and urban renewal. Margaretha was instrumental in the Hayes Valley Farm project and now manages Bloom Justice, http://www.bloomjustice.org/.

Margaretha Haughwout is an urban herbalist and urban gardener. Believing that true healing happens on personal, environmental and community levels, her work includes forays into permaculture, cultural theory and plant communication in addition to her formal herbal training. She completed the full time Roots program at the California School of Herbal Studies in 2012 and has studied formally with Deb Soule, Gail Julian, Trinity Ava and Autumn Summers. She is currently in an advanced apprenticeship in herbal energetics with Matthew Wood.

BLOOM JUSTICE is a flower farm at Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in the Fillmore/Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. Bloom Justice collaborates with Mo’ Magic & the Magic Zone to provide teen programming. Bloom Justice will eventually provide flowers designed by local youth for neighborhood shops and restaurants. Teens earn money, learn garden skills, floral design, and marketing skills; the neighborhood gets flowers. Please join our mailing list to find out about events and ways to get involved!

Learn more about Margaretha and her life, and work here: http://beforebefore.net/

Space is LIMITED so please RSVP asap to secure a spot.

HEALTH, HEALING and URBAN RENEWAL

Where: Graze the Roof, rooftop of 330 Ellis St. 

When: Sunday August, 11th 2013

Time: 1p-3p

Questions or to RSVP: grazetheroof@gmail.com

Stay tuned for more exciting workshops in September, October, and November on topics including :::

Urban Beekeeping in Autumn = Honey Extraction

Rainwater Catchment with our Friends from the Urban Farmer Store

Read more...

Spring Workshops!

Hello Friends!

Join us at Graze the Roof this spring for 3 inspiring workshops designed to empower, and inspire!

All workshops are FREE to the public - invite your friends, colleagues, neighbors and family members!

All workshops run from 1p-3p and take place at Graze the Roof; the rooftop of 330 Ellis St (atop the GLIDE Foundation building)

March 31st - Designing your Spring Garden 

...want to get a garden started this spring?!? Join us for this comprehensive and hands-on workshop outlining best practices and holistic approach to container gardening.  

April 7th - Designing Sustainable Habitats AND Visionary Place Making with Lisa Lee Benjamin of Urban Hedgerow 

LISA LEE BENJAMIN

Catalyst, Master Instigator

With love and beauty leading her, Lisa Lee Benjamin is a catalyst for the planet. She is profoundly dedicated to altering the way we live and transforming passion into action. As Principal of Evo Catalyst, an environmental design and consulting firm based in San Francisco, Lisa works internationally in collaboration, to open the possibilities and challenge our ideas of sustainability and community to create systems that work.
www.lisaleebenjamin.com

May - Tour Green Roofs of San Francisco

...Take a walking tour of some of our cities most verdant rooftops!

Please RSVP to grazetheroof@gmail.com

We hope to see you this spring!!!!

To sowing seeds, growing delicious food and nurturing our community!

The Graze the Roof Team

We are inspired by this fellow urban gardener:

http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html

Read more...

Urban Fruit Tree Stewardship

To Urban Agriculture Enthusiasts and Fruit Tree Lovers!...

We are excited to announce our next community workshop ...

URBAN FRUIT TREE STEWARDSHIP

...learn how to prune, feed and care for your urban fruit trees; these techniques and strategies for fruit tree stewardship will help you cultivate beautiful and productive trees! 

Facilitated by Nikolaus Dyer of Purple Carrot

http://purplecarrotgardening.com/

When: Sunday, February 10th

Time: 1p-3p

Where: Graze the Roof (the rooftop of 330 Ellis St.)

FREE

RSVP: grazetheroof@gmail.com

Read more...

Introduction to Permaculture with Kevin Bayuk

Happy New Year!

Graze the Roof is honored to host a 2-hr Introduction to Permaculture workshop with inspiring local teacher, Kevin Bayuk.

Kevin works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets cooperative organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life.  He is a partner with LIFT (http://www.lifteconomy.com) where he provides strategy and guidance for emergent next economy companies helping them access growth capital and sustainable growth plans.  He also frequently teaches classes, workshops, does public speaking, facilitates meetings, plans events and provides one on one mentoring as a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute San Francisco (http://www.upisf.com). He is as fluent with information technology as with perennial polyculture agroforestry. Writing, speaking, researching and mentoring are his strongest skills.  He's help raise millions of dollars of venture capital for companies he's co-founded and he raises ducks in his small urban garden in San Francisco.

This community workshop will be an infusion of theory and practice. It will be a great opportunity for individuals new to Permaculture and for those who want to rekindle their passion for Permaculture. 

"Many people think permaculture is gardening. Yet that's a lot like saying math is only about building bridges. Permaculture is about creating an INCREDIBLE LIFE for YOU through nature connection and smart intentional design. It's about abundance. It's about LEADERSHIP." - Regenerative Leadership Institute

We hope you'll join us on January 20th 2013 from 1p-3p. Share this opportunity with your friends, family, students, and neighbors. 

RSVP grazetheroof@gmail.com

Read more...

2013 Workshops! Full of Discovery, Wonder and Inspiration

January 20th 2013

Introduction to Permaculture with Kevin Bayuk of the Urban Permaculture Institute

http://www.upisf.com/

February 10th 2013

Urban Fruit Tree Pruning with Nikolaus Dyer of Purple Carrot

http://purplecarrotgardening.com/

March 31st 2013

Designing your spring garden with Nikolaus Dyer of Purple Carrot

http://purplecarrotgardening.com/

April 2013

Visionary activation with Urban Hedgerow

http://urbanhedgerow.tumblr.com/

Stay Tuned for MORE...

Including:

Non-Violent Communication for Building Community

and

Vermicomposting in the Urban Environment with Booka Alon

***On the Sundays when Graze the Roof hosts Community Workshops, we also run two educational tours, join us for a FREE tour at 10:30am and 12:30pm***

Questions? and/or RSVP to

Grazetheroof@gmail.com

Read more...

Saving Seed

Saving seed is an art and a science that has been practiced all over the world since the time agriculture emerged...

"We are on the verge of losing in one generation, much of the agricultural diversity it took humankind 10,000 years to create. As late as 1900, food for the planet's hungry was provided by as many as 1,500 different plants, each further represented by thousands of different cultivated varieties. Today over 90% of the world's nutrition is provided by 30 different plants and only four (wheat, rice, corn and soybeans) provide 75% of the calories consumed by man. Where once diverse strains strengthened each local ecosystem, currently, a handful of "green revolution", super-hybrid varieties are "mono-cropping" farms and gardens worldwide."

...

"For approximately 10,000 years, individual gardeners and farmers created and sustained our rich genetic heritage. Now gardeners and farmers can play an important role in saving it by learning to save their own seeds from varieties that perform best in their own mini-ecosystems. This will assure diversity in the same the way that diversity was promoted and protected instinctively throughout the history of agriculture."

          -International Seed Saving Institute Website

At Graze the Roof we started saving seed about 6 months ago and are slowly building up a seed library that will nurture our garden for years to come and serve as a resource for our community.

On Sunday November 4th, join artist/scientists Zoey Kroll and Suzanne Husky for an experiential workshop on 'Seed Saving.'

• Go on a 'Seed Walk' around the garden and learn techniques and strategies for saving seasonal vegetable and flower seed
• Discuss the burgeoning seed library movement and design a system for Graze the Roof
• Learn about appropriate seed storage and seed packaging
• Leave with a holistic understanding of this ancient art and science and a dozens of seeds for your own home, community or school garden

RSVP for this FREE community workshop to : grazetheroof@gmail.com 

     ***donations graciously accepted***

WHAT: Seed Saving

WHERE: Graze the Roof

WHEN: Sunday November 4th

TIME: 1p-3p

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50 lbs of HONEY

Yesterday our resident Bee Keeper, Paul Koski guided 15 volunteers through the delicate art and science of harvesting honey.

We collected 50 lbs of light, floral and perfectly sweet honey!

It will be on sale in a couple of weeks! 

All the funds raised from the honey sales will go to benefit the Graze the Roof Project. 

Thank you in advance for your support!

...and, "Thank You to the Honey Bees!" 

Read more...