Hops 'N' Harvest fundraiser for People's Victory Gardens

Saturday afternoon there was a fundraising event for the Victory Garden Foundation, sponsored by Bison Brewing. There was a brewing demonstration, a fermentation class, edible garden classes, live music and dance, and various activities for kids and adults. And of course, Bison's special Oakland Hop Harvest beer, made with hops grown in Oakland. Lots of people from the neighborhood came out for the fun, including CM Dan Kalb.

Lots more pictures from the event:


If you didn't make the event but want to try out the Oakland Hop Harvest beer, see the earlier post for a list of bars and restaurants in Oakland and Berkeley that have it. It's based on their Hop Cuvée, but a bit less hoppy tasting and more aromatic.

Bison brewing with Oakland-grown hops! - celebrate at Hops and Harvest

I'm a big fan of buying local, urban gardens, helping others, and of beer, so Saturday there's an event tailor-made for me.

Bison Brewing has been making tasty beer since 1989. Beginning in 2003, their beers were certified organic, one of the first breweries to make fully organic beers. Bison supports local non-profits, and are working on The Beer Wagon, a big red beer-serving truck, to help raise funds for even more non-profits.

On Saturday, Bison is teaming up with the Peoples Victory Garden for a fundraiser, Hops and Harvest. They're celebrating the release of a new beer, Oakland Hop Harvest Ale, which uses hops grown here in Oakland. (Cascade Hops, for those who wonder about such things.)

The event will include a brewing demonstration, edible garden classes, live music and various activities for adults and children. Food from Fist of Flour Pizza Company (who are working on a new brick-and-mortar location) and Rosamunde Sausage Grill will be available for purchase. Tickets for the event are $10 in advance ($5 for kids) or $15 at the door. Get tickets here.

If you can't make the event on Saturday but want to check out the beer, below is a list of locations that are serving it. Most are in Oakland and Berkeley, though there are a few elsewhere.

location	city
Ben & Nicks	Oakland
Cato's	Oakland
Commonwealth	Oakland
Hog's Apothecary	Oakland
New Parkway Theater	Oakland
Olde Depot	Oakland
Portal	Oakland
Rosemunde's	Oakland
Bobby G's	Berkeley
Beta Lounge	Berkeley
Freehouse	Berkeley
Jupiter	Berkeley
Saturn	Berkeley
TRex	Berkeley
Bistro	Hayward
California Craft Beer	Fremont
Whole Foods Potrero Hill	San Francisco

Check out the great article on Bay Area Bites.

OBUGS garden and art tour

Lafayette School Garden

Saturday I took a break from work and went on the OBUGS annual garden bike tour. OBUGS is Oakland Based Urban Gardens, and works to build healthier communities by educating kids about nutrition and food, and about gardening in the process. It was the fourth annual tour, but I hadn't been on one before. There was a great turnout. I don't know the exact numbers, but I saw a lot of bikes. Mayor Quan and her husband were there, too.

The tour started at the OBUGS community garden at Lafayette Elementary School, where OBUGS was founded in 1998. This was also the best place to look at one of the gardens, as there were students and volunteers on hand to guide people around and answer questions. After that, people were organized into groups of about 10, with two guides, one to lead and one to be the 'sweeper'.

at Bruce Beasley's studio

The bike tour itself was very pleasant. (Compared with riding in the hills, it was super easy, too. I switched off the electric assist, but still found myself wanting to go faster than the group.) It was about 4 miles total, but with frequent stops to see historic houses, various community gardens, and other sites of interest (like the Cypress Memorial Park) around West Oakland. One of the stops was at City Slicker Farms, which I've blogged about before. It looks like they're doing well, and it was nice to see the chicken coop (which I did a little work on) in use. One of the main art stops was Bruce Beasley's studio.

The tour ended at Lowell Park, and it was time to party! There was yummy food provided by Picante, cold drinks, and a raffle with some cool prizes. People hung out and chatted and then it was time to watch Turf Feinz dance. If you're not familiar with them, check out my Oakland-y goodness post from last year. They are simply amazing to watch.



See more pictures here:

OBUGS garden tour

eat local for food justice

Phat Beets produce

I'm a fan of Oakland Grown, which celebrates Oakland businesses and artists, and encourages people to spend their money locally. In part because money spent locally tends to stay local, stimulating Oakland's economy and creating jobs. I'm also a big fan of urban farming, particularly as it relates to food justice. City Slicker Farms is one great example.

Another reason to grow food and eat locally is to have a better idea of where your food comes from and what's in it and on it. Would you prefer highly processed food with unpronounceable ingredients, grown by an agri-corp, shipped across the country? or fresh, locally-grown fruits, vegetables and goods, grown and produced by family farms? Shouldn't everyone have access to good food? Some people deal with this by shopping at one of the Oakland farmers markets, or by growing some of their own food.

Mandela Foods Cooperative recently won the Ripple Effect Award at the Oakland Indie Awards, demonstrating both these things. Based in West Oakland, they provide healthy food grown on family farms, as well as nutrition information. They source and hire locally, which has a ripple effect by keeping money and jobs local. And they provide healthy food in an area without many grocery stores.

But what if you don't live in West Oakland? Or you can't get to a farmers market as often as you'd like? Another option is a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) produce box, which is like having items hand-picked from a farmers market and delivered to your neighborhood. An Oakland CSA I learned about recently is Phat Beets Produce, based in North Oakland's Bushrod neighborhood. Besides getting food from family farms to Oakland residents, they also have a local garden, teach kids about food and farming, and sell items at local farmers markets.

blog pulse: Ghost Town Farm

Ghost Town Farm

Ifirst wrote about Ghost Town Farm a couple of years ago. Novella Carpenter is a celebrity in urban farming, in no small part because of her book Farm City and her connection with food author and journalism professor Michael Pollan. Not everyone is a fan, some because she raises animals for food, others because she's self-promoting. (BTW, the book is more about the story of her learning, and not really a how-to.) But you can't deny that she's helped popularize the idea of urban farming and the local food movement, and has made people in and around Oakland more aware of where their food comes from.

So it was a little surprising when I saw a blog posting "Farmstand Canceled Due to... the City of Oakland". At first it seemed like she was over-reacting. Maybe she needed conditional use permits and licenses and things to sell produce, but surely she couldn't need those things just to grow it? Well, turns out she does, at least according to current city of Oakland rules. As a result, there's been an uproar in the blogosphere and the dead-tree press, and not just here in Oakland. People are mobilizing to help her get things changed. And even if you don't believe in her approach personally, urban farming is back, and the city shouldn't make it harder for people to raise food locally. Check out this post on Pluck and Feather about the general movement to get the city up to speed, and sign the petition.

East Bay Express
Oakland North
Root Simple
Bay Citizen
SFist
SFGate
Oakland Tribune
NBC Bay Area
SF Weekly
Grub Street
KQED blog
American Thinker
Chip Johnson
ABC 7
Ella Baker Center

blog pulse: urban farming

City Slicker Farms

If you've been reading Our Oakland for any time, you'll know I'm a big fan of urban farming. We haven't done much yet here, besides some potatoes grown in a trash can and compost, but there's lots I'd like to do after I'm done with major home improvements. Bees for honey, chickens for eggs, and of course a proper vegetable garden. It's not so much about saving money, but having more control of where are food comes from and what goes into it.

Central Oakland has a host of farmer's markets to shop at, but East Oakland and West Oakland not so much. And West Oakland has no large supermarkets, just a plethora of corner stores. So for much of Oakland's population, urban farming is about food security. That's where groups like City Slicker Farms come in. They grow vegetables in West Oakland for West Oakland residents. Right now it's fairly small, but they're expanding, both on their own lots, and in people's 'backyard gardens'. And they plan to have chickens for eggs soon.

The great thing is that it can be expanded much further. UrbanFood.org recently release a report created with the support of City Slicker Farms and HOPE Collaborative that says that Oakland has 1,200 acres of public land that could be used to provide fresh vegetables for its residents. Obviously the soil in many area would need to be tested for contaminants first, but that's still a huge amount of acreage that could provide fresh, healthy food. And it's not just about physical health; eating right helps young minds grow and learn better, too. The report is long, but worth checking out.

Shoutout to The Ethicurean where I saw it first. But the report has gotten wider attention and is written up on TreeHugger, too.

Habitat for Smallish Poultry

chicken coop at
City Slicker Farms

Doesn't have the same ring to it as Habitat for Huge Manatees of The Simpsons fame. In any event, that's what I worked on a bit on Thursday at City Slicker Farms. I'd told one of the former Americorps members who helped build the coop about my visit a while back, and they mentioned that the coop gets too hot. Fast forward to this week, and I rode my bike over with my heavy duty drill and a largish Forstner bit to add some ventilation in the soffits. CSF still has some work to do on the yard, but they're hoping to have chickens for eggs by the end of the month. If you want to help, you can volunteer there on Thursdays and Saturdays -- check the CSF website for details.

Today I was out for my usual Friday activity of working at Habitat for Humanity in the Sobrante Park neighborhood south of the Coliseum. A couple of big groups were out, one from Traveler's Insurance, and the other from Archstone. Thanks to them and the other volunteers, some good progress was made on the habitats for some Oakland humanity. On my ride down this morning, I had an awesome moment that still has me chuckling when I think about it. Along San Leandro Street, a youngster in the back of a car and I made eye contact and smiled. When I caught up with their car at the light, the guy in the passenger seat grabbed a mic (who has mics sitting in their car?) and started doing an ad-lib karaoke number to whatever was on the radio. The youngster in the back seat and I both got a good laugh out of it. The car zoomed off when the light changed, but I caught up with them again at the next light, and he did it again to the next song. As the car zoomed off for a second time, I yelled "encore!" and the guy yelled "have a good day!". Definitely made my morning. That's one of the things you miss by driving.

building green for people

electric car

Last week I was at West Coast Green, a green building and design conference in San Francisco. Besides speakers on all sorts of green technologies, standards and legislation, there were two exhibit rooms of companies with green products, and a special section called the Innovation Pipeline with new and upcoming products. One of the more interesting displays was a portable, on-demand housing unit that's designed to shelter people in the wake of a disaster like Hurricane Katrina, and be zero-impact, too. It's an impressive unit that can be shipped anywhere in the world in a shipping container, and set up in two hours with unskilled people, and includes solar panels and water treatment. But even with a product like that, never mind expensive solar-power roof tiles or fancy countertops, it's easy to lose sight of people in the equation and just be looking at costs and carbon.

presentation

That's why I was delighted to find one session titled Creating Social and Sustainable Economic Development in West Oakland, sponsored by the Home Depot Foundation. People with a wide variety of backgrounds came together with Ecocity Builders to brainstorm ideas for land use in West Oakland. But the kicker was that we weren't designing in a vacuum. People from Village Bottoms and A Black New World joined the discussion, and told us what their priorities and visions for the area were. I knew a tiny bit about the area since I'd worked on some Habitat for Humanity houses nearby, and been to City Slicker Farms, but mostly we knew nothing but what a few briefs told us about the former Phoenix Iron Works site. So having residents there to work alongside was amazing and inspiring. We heard about Village Bottoms Farms, about the burgeoning artist community, and about the history of the area.

Admittedly there was a limited amount we could do in 2 hours, but it was a great session, and a reminder that people are the most important part of the equation for any urban planning.

Community Feast at St. Paul's

St. Paul's Episcopal Church 2nd Annual Community Feast
"Nourishing One Another In Abundance"

An evening of conversation about food justice, sustainability, and how we can help to nourish ourselves and others in prosperous and troubled times. We will talk with neighbors who have found ways to share the abundance of what we have---even when we don't know how much that is. Come learn how to make more of your gifts, to be self-sustaining, and in turn to help feed those in need.

The dinner will include a home-cooked meal, wine, and speakers from City Slicker Farms, Peoples Grocery, St. Mary's and others. Cost of the event is $20. To reserve a seat or a table, email rsvp@stpaulsoakland.org.

All proceeds support St. Paul's community service projects, City Slicker Farms & People's Grocery.

Event Info
DATE: Saturday, September 26
TIME: 6 to 8 p.m.
LOCATION: 114 Montecito Avenue, Oakland, CA
COST: $20
RESERVE YOUR SPACE: rsvp@stpaulsoakland.org (but you can also apparently walk in)

For more information about the event, visit our website at http://www.stpaulsoakland.org.

City Slicker Farms

City Slicker Farms

West Oakland is blessed with a unique resource, City Slicker Farms. While much of Oakland has an array of supermarkets and farmers markets to get good produce from, West Oakland is largely left with small corner markets and liquor stores. That's where City Slicker Farms comes in. They grow fresh, affordable produce for West Oakland residents.

They also work to empower residents to understand the connection between ecology, environment, and food, and become more self-sufficient by growing their own food. They currently sell fruits, vegetables and honey to West Oakland residents. The last round of Americorps with Habitat for Humanity East Bay worked in their spare time and built a chicken coop, so eggs will eventually be available, too.

awesome looking tomatoes

City Slicker Farms

Ghost Town Farm

a young fan

Before I headed over to Jack London for the Eat Real festival, I spent a few hours on Saturday helping out at Ghost Town Farm. It's a small farm in the middle of the Ghost Town / Hoover-Foster neighborhood, with bees, rabbits, chickens, goats and all sorts of fruits and vegetables. It's run by Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. This isn't some one-time stunt to ride the green wave; Novella has been urban farming for over 10 years. In conjunction with the Eat Real festival, Novella had an open house...er...open farm, including a workshop on chicken slaughtering, and another on taking care of goats.

Grandma's cobbler

There was a lot of interest in learning more about what she's doing, but there's not much parking on her street. So she encouraged people to bike there if possible, but as many people were coming from out of town, that wasn't a good option for them. I directed parking for a while: bikes at the back fence; cars, well, your best bet is along MLK. There were also people there to sell Goat Town t-shirts and copies of Novella's book, and provide refreshments. One of her neighbors, Grandma, made an awesome peach cobbler.

removing the innards

I did get to see part of one of the chicken slaughtering demonstrations. I wasn't particularly interested in that, as (a) we don't have any chickens (yet) and (b) I'm a vegetarian, but it was still interesting to see. Sort of like what I remember from high school biology, though nothing I remember dissecting ever had organs that looked as readily identifiable as what came out of the chicken.

After the Eat Real festival, my wife and I stopped by so she could see the farm. It's pretty amazing what a variety of food is produced in a small area. Currently we grow some potatoes, but have plans to plant a garden again once I finish the house remodel. Now I'm thinking bees and chickens (for the eggs) would be good, too.