These past few weekends I've been visiting Hayes Valley Farm, which is a volunteer run farm built on an unused plot of land in the city. It is slightly smaller than a full block, but still a nice getaway from the city.

The greenhouse where young plants are grown.

 I thought of looking for a farm to visit around SF, but since I have no car, and probably not many friends interested to go with me, I settled on somewhere more accessible. Still a good place to mingle with the locals though. Everyone seems so happy and relaxed. Something about people being there just because they want to, not for a job or any selfish reason. And everyone having the same general interests and mindsets, and all, well, a little bit hippy. So far I've met students who were either in arts, natural medicine or agriculture.

A group of agricultural students who came up to the farm for lessons last week

The farm is non profit, although they do occasionally sell some plants for the few expenses they have. The land is set aside by the government during periods when there  are no development plans for it and has to be given back when there are. The farm has been here for the past 2 years, and the last I heard, they are going to be moving somewhere else over Summer.

A handmade oven, looks good for a pizza party.

 

The land used to be a freeway which got damaged in the earthquake. But with lots of compost they managed to transform it into fertile land.

The method of farming is permaculture, where various species of plants and animals are grown/raised/encouraged to live together so that they can take care of each other, for example, returning nutrients to the soil, pollination or pest control. It's supposed to mimic what happens in nature, so, yes, it does look a little like a patch of weeds.

But really there are edible things lurking around. Too bad I can't identify most of them.

Which puts into contrast how damaging it is the way we grow or raise food for the market nowadays. Everything is done in monocultures, so entire complex ecosystems are wiped out and replaced with single species. So for instance if crops are damaged by some sort of insect, there are no natural predators to keep their numbers in check, so insecticides are used instead, which creates a Darwinian weeding out of weaker bugs to create insecticide resistant bugs, which calls for the use of more or deadlier insecticides, and the cycle keeps revolving.Except that humans don't evolve as fast as bugs, so we end up poisoning ourselves or encouraging deadlier sicknesses to emerge.

Wait, there's more, but I think that calls for whole separate posts for spleen venting.

They have their own compost piles for fertiliser, that is where garden trimming and some scraps from local cafes go.

Young plums growing in pots.

The farm's main purpose is for education, although they don't mind you taking food from the farm if you like.

Nasturtiums, which grow very well in SF. Apparently their seeds taste like capers.

Bee hives.

Sampling some fava beans. There was a whole basket of them.

Some other volunteers at the farm.

Some interesting structures around the farm, toolsheds and such.

This week I worked in here, arranging the collection of seeds. Feels nice, like some apothecary, although it was a bit dusty.

Admittedly most of the plants I did not know.

Just for fun I brought home some nasturtium leaves to try to cook with them, but when I chopped them up they got slimy, so I abandoned the idea.