Learning to Craft Custom Raised Beds out of Upcycled Wood!

This month, we invited our friend, Anders, a master carpenter to join us for our FREE Community Workshop to teach an introduction to carpentry for urban gardens. We worked together to design and build our own customized raised bed. This bed was made from a pile of wood which had been accumulating on the roof for the past several years. We were able to turn "trash," into "treasure!"

Everyone was able to acquire hands-on experience with power tools to construct the bed from start to finish! We learned basic carpentry skills, and got acquainted with various essential tools and their respective application in the construction process.

Thank you Anders!

The finished product!

Read more...

Happy New Year

We are so excited to welcome 2014!

To kick things off, we will be offering TWO educational tours THIS Sunday, January 12th, 2014 at 10:30a and 12:30p following GLIDE's Celebration Services in the Sanctuary.

THEN…

Join us for the first FREE Community Workshop of the year on Urban Fruit Tree Stewardship and Winter Gardening tips from 1p-3p.

To Register for our workshop, please email : grazetheroof@gmail.com

***

Every Thursday from 10a-2p join Nik and our passionate team of volunteers and interns as they help to steward the dynamic living landscape of our rooftop garden. 

We encourage collaboration and would LOVE to hear your ideas on how we can make Graze the Roof more innovative, regenerative and productive. Visit us and tell us how!

We look forward to seeing you in the garden!

In the spirit of making the city a greener place,

Lindsey and Nik Dyer

Read more...

Honey Harvest

I love September. 

Sungold tomatoes, late summer basil, summer squash, cucumbers, lettuces and kales, green beans, and carrots. It seems like gardens everywhere are overflowing with delicious goodness. Up at Graze the Roof, we have lots to harvest at this time of year, including honey!!!

We need many helping hands on Sunday, September 22nd 2013 from 1p-3p to harvest honey from our two thriving bee hives.

This community workshop is FREE to the public and the more the merrier, so please invite your friends, family members, colleagues, students and teachers. 

Paul Koski our wonderful resident Bee Keeper will be guiding us through the process and each workshop participant will get a hands-on opportunity to harvest honey. Each jar of honey that we process will be sold and the proceeds directly benefit the development of Graze the Roof. 

Space is limited, so please RSVP today!!! This is our most popular annual workshop and we'd love for you to be there!

HONEY HARVEST

When : Sunday September 22nd 2013

Time : 1p-3p

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

RSVP : grazetheroof@gmail.com

Read more...

LOCAL FOLK MEDICINE : Garden Herbs, Heath and Wholeness

On Sunday it was my great honor and pleasure to welcome a dear friend and mentor to Graze the Roof to teach about Local Folk Medicine: using garden herbs for health and healing. 

Margaretha Haughwout, [http://beforebefore.net] guided us through an inquiry-based approach to learning about common garden weeds. These "common" garden plants, including California Poppy, Yarrow, Mullein, Calendula, Borage and Chamomile have diverse properties that can support both our physical and energetic wellness. 

In the words of Bonnie, a workshop participant from Guerrero St. Gardens, [http://guerrerostreetgarden.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/foggy-august-faith/]

"Through inquiry based learning, folks gleaned a calming groundedness from California Poppy, a comforting protection from Mullein and a sense of blissful courage from Borage — all traditional and scientifically proven uses for such plants.  We spoke of the doctrine of signatures –  the incredible phenomenon that plants display their healing characteristics in their physical presentation.  As a fellow urban dweller it was humbling to witness others rebuilding a relationship with the natural world."

Each participant left the workshop with a renewed faith in the power of plants to help heal and support wellness, as well as an empowered perspective on nurturing wholeness. 

For me, that afternoon, illuminated incredible parallels between our work in the garden and the greater mission of GLIDE...

... Faith, Stewardship, Community, Compassion, Possibility ...

Thank you to Margaretha and all of the workshop participants for an inspiring afternoon. 

----------

*Our next community workshop is scheduled for September 22nd 2013 from 1-3pm : 

IT'S TiME TO HARVEST HONEY

Read more...

Volunteers + Passion Inspire Innovation

Graze the Roof inspires people. I've seen it happen dozens of times and it is always refreshing and always exciting. For some it is the sheer miracle of traveling up seven flights of stairs and arriving in an oasis of food, color, beauty, the buzzing of honeybees and community. For some it is the magic of possibility. Graze the roof captures the essence of what is possible when people come together to support a vision of urban transformation. For others it is the opportunity to engage in a project that gets their hands dirty, and connects them to an innate aspect of our humanity that can get lost when living in an urban environment. Growing food, and growing community is what we are all about. The volunteers that show up each and every week, help us nurture this mission of food and community!

After coming for a few weeks, a volunteer named Judy saw a need for a sink on the roof. She recognized the importance of our community potluck lunch that occurs every Thursday during the volunteer workday. She noticed that following the potluck, we had a very haphazard way of "doing dishes." She came to the conclusion that it could be done much more efficiently and went to work researching some different options. Yesterday, she came to the garden with the necessary supplies and after some collaborative brainstorming, we constructed a sink! We placed our sink near the compost so that we could use the gray water from washing dishes on the compost pile!

Thanks Judy and all of the other volunteers who help make it happen week after week. 

PARTICIPATE! 

GROW FOOD

GROW COMMUNITY

Weekly Workdays in the Garden

Thursdays 10a-2p

questions? contact grazetheroof@gmail.com

Read more...

Curious Minds Venture Into the Garden

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of welcoming a bright, curious group of young people to Graze the Roof. Here is what one young girl had to say about her experience in the garden : 

"On Monday, August 5, 2013 my friends and I went to San Francisco to tour a rooftop garden. I learned more about growing food in the city. 

Graze The Roof is an urban permaculture design experiment. We saw tomatoes, borage, grapes, worm boxes, and more.

My favorite part was how they upcycled materials from local businesses.

They upcycled tin cans, burlap bags, milk crates, and pallets. They are used as containers  to plant fruit, veggies, and herbs.

                                                            

 Where does the food go??                      

Ten to fifteen pounds of salad goes to the Glide kitchen every week!

The Glide Church prepares 3,000 meals a day, 365 days a year for people in the community.

I am looking forward to visiting Graze The Roof again someday to help work in the gardens."

Montana Hamel

grade 4

http://www.rootcarefarm.com
http://www.facebook.com/rootcarefarm

Read more...

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...