“Urban gardens offer a gateway through which neighborhoods can heal and grow healthier communities by reclaiming agency over what they eat, how it is grown, and how to share it.”

Thanks to the Berkeley Food Institute at CALBerkeley for reminding us of the importance not just of greenspace in our urban environments, but specifically of spaces where we can grow food, taking the power of feeding ourselves out of the hands of corporations and connecting as humans sharing that food. Such power!

Spending any amount of time outdoors will teach us of nature’s resiliency, reconnecting us to the flow of seasons and the way in which the natural world adapts and grows. Research on the benefits of participating in a community garden show everything from lower cortisol levels to greater feelings of mutual trust to huge jumps in fruit and vegetable consumption.  Local organizations from neighbor groups to not for profit farms have taken it upon themselves to create spaces where all of this is possible. Such beauty! 

To build resiliency in communities, gardens like Obsidian Transformations, Ashby Community Garden, Canticle Farms, Bottoms Up Community Garden and City Slicker Farms are facilitating the exchange of gardening wisdom and resources amongst neighbors. Acta Non Verba Farm and Gill Tract Farm defy oppressive dynamics by centering women of color and the process of rematriation to create safe spaces for health and wellbeing. Planting Justice’s focus on economic justice and job creation also is working to address some of the inequities embedded in our industrialized food system. Community joy and healing are being nurtured in food hubs like Place Community and Bay Area Maker Farm, through art, medicine, and the sharing of craft skills. And the nascent Marina Gardens, where we held our volunteer day last month, is proving that two people with a vision can remediate old soil to a richness beyond belief.

Inspired??

Consider this month’s newsletter your invitation (or gentle push?) to take a look around you and check out the wide array of community garden spaces and urban farms we have in the East Bay. Get out and put your hands in the dirt, or assist at a class with neighborhood kids, or partake in an herbal medicine making class. Find a Community Garden near you here.

See you amongst the snap peas!
The Slow Food Team 

🍴 FEATURED ORGANIZATION

“Building Community One Veggie at a Time”
Throughout the pandemic, Alameda Backyard Growers has worked hard to create community and increase engagement in urban food growing. Through their Free Seed Libraries and Project Pick, a network of home gardeners growing and donating food, ABG has helped neighbors share gardening tips and resources, reduce food waste and most importantly have fun getting to know each other! ABG is a free, volunteer-run organization with various ongoing community events and monthly educational meetings. 
 

📅  UPCOMING EVENTS

Berkeley Crop Swap
10:30am - first Saturdays of each month
Exchange garden crops and homemade goods while you meet your neigbors - all are welcome!
Ohlone Greenway at Sacramento and Delaware (across from the North Berkeley BART) 

Hilltop Gardening Workshop
9am-12:45pm - Saturday, May 7th 
435 Hilltop Dr., El Sobrante
Want to grow your salsa garden? Looking to start beekeeping at home? Learn from 25+ presentations and workshops led by local master gardeners, beekeepers, educators, and more. Open to the public, FREE

StopWaste Gardening Events Calendar
Dig in at various workshops, tours, giveaways, and webinars happening this month. 

📝 RESOURCES

📰 Read
 

An East Oakland vegetable garden provides more than food and mental health for Iu Mien refugee elders
“…growing vegetables that are familiar from back home helps serve as a reminder of the good times in Laos, before warfare caused her and many Iu Mien people to flee to refugee camps in Thailand before eventually making the long journey to the United States."
 

Ashby Community Garden Land is returned to Indigenous hands
Yes to all of this!
“The land has come “full circle”...from Indigenous stewardship to Indigenous stewardship.” 
“I feel like the ancestors are answering our prayers,” Gould said. “We’ve been doing a lot of praying on how to bring them home.” 
 

🎧 Listen 

Ron Finley on Unwasted
Ron Finley (aka "The Gangsta Gardener") believes that planting food in community is revolutionary. And he believes that anyone, anywhere, can start a garden. Listen up!
 

🎥 Watch

🐌 CALL TO ACTION

Give Shuumi, pay your land tax!

We cannot speak about growing food on this land without recognizing whose land it is. All of us in the East Bay reside on Lisjan Ohlone Territory, land taken by force from the Native people. For non-indigenous residents, please consider giving shuumi, a land tax that goes  to support the critical work of Sogorea Te Land Trust. Donate here.