Three weeks ago, Mother Nature served up an unusual and spectacular thunder and lightning storm across the Bay Area and adjoining counties. Unfortunately, a series of wildfires resulted in our area, combining to form the CZU Lightning Complex fire. As we watched helplessly, neighboring communities began to come under evacuation orders. When the UCSC campus, located a few miles from our farm, began to evacuate, we decided it was time to leave, too. We had already taken in chickens, ducks, a turkey and a goose from evacuated areas, but now it was time to make contingency plans for them and for our family. As the last foundation was poured at neighboring Coastal Haven Families’ construction project, I was packing car and kids, preparing to evacuate.

What a difference a few days make. With heroic efforts, Cal Fire crews and the National Guard created a contingency fire break that ultimately ensured our farm and the neighboring pocket neighborhood were safe. Many others were not so fortunate.

On Monday morning, only five days after we had left the farm for safer ground, our volunteers responded. Wearing their N95 masks, Leslie, Linda, Evan, Mitchell, Lucas, Lori, Ian, and the entire Manoff family

Joanna Manoff packing produce to donate

Although our farm is small, our hearts are big! We delivered 400 pounds of produce that week to these two community organizations, helping feed our neighbors. Carson, Noah, Thomas, and Ryan, some of our farmers with disabilities, have since joined in and helped out as well, even as the skies remained smoky and ominous. Harvesting, sorting, and packing our produce for donation has been our focus this past week. Our tomatoes, melons, sweet peppers, onions, summer squash, cucumbers, lettuce, and beans have all made their way to folks whose lives have been disrupted by this crisis. We count our blessings that the farm is fine and the ash left behind is not bothering our plants too much.

Joanna Manoff, who, along with husband, Todd, and kids Bella and Bailey, have been volunteering at the farm and helping with everything from tending our strawberries to installing fans and new wiring in our greenhouse, has also been delivering a few bags of our produce to her friends who’ve been displaced. “The farm unites us in doing something much bigger than ourselves,” Joanna told me, “as a team to help you help others.” And therein lies the ‘common’ in Common Roots.

Angela is my 26-year-old autistic daughter. Her speech, social, and cognitive abilities have always been limited, so finding a long term solution for her care has always been a great concern for me, my husband Mike, and my older daughter Charlene.

Mike and I attended many meetings researching future housing options, and it is through one of those meetings that we found out about what is now Common Roots Farm and the adjacent housing project. We eventually became a part of Coastal Haven Families. Knowing that Angela would eventually live in this housing community, and that she wanted to spend time at Common Roots Farm, we began bringing her to the farm as often as possible.

Angela has always been task driven, but it isn’t always easy to find something productive and meaningful for her to do within her abilities. Additionally, Angela grew up in the city, so we were unsure about what type of farm-based tasks would work well for her.

As we made more trips to the Common Roots, I grew more and more attached to the farm and saw how people of all abilities were able to do enriching and helpful activities. Since we live in San Francisco, I started to think of ways that we could help from home, trying to contribute in any small way.

Jenny Hernandez, the Inclusion Specialist at the farm, asked me if Angela and I would like to try processing dried lavender seeds to make lavender sachets. It turns out that Angela can independently scoop the lavender seeds into a jar, pour the seeds into the sachets (with a little help from me holding a cardboard funnel), and pull the drawstring ribbon to close the sachets.

It is so gratifying for Angela to help with this task that she learned and now enjoys. When she sees the bucket of lavender seeds, she sits down with a big grin on her face and gets ready to do her job! This task really suits her, especially now with her being at home so much.

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