community garden work

I spent some time today at the community garden site, thinking and talking about possibilities. I am helping with a proposal for a small grant to help with initial capital costs. I wonder how many churches there are like this which have spare land, but not the money for an irrigation system, a tool shed, or a garden cart - the kind of modest expenses that could make a project go, bring a community together, and make a real contribution to the quality of folks' food supply?

The more I think about this the more I want to start a movement. You know - be a neo-appleseed of church-based community gardens. But I know that right now I have to focus on what's here and now.

It's a beautiful spot. The property backs on to creek paths, and there's a clear view of some open space. I hate to say it, but even the invasive weeds that are there now are beautiful at this time of year. There are many birds in the neighborhood. There are also gophers, and a listening cat sometimes. Watch for pictures in a few days.

After I worked at the church going over with others the copy for the grant so far, I went to Imwalle's, where I buy my produce, figuring it would be less busy than on the weekend when I'd stopped there. I've mentioned this fourth generation farm stand before - the one place in my zip code where you can buy fruits and vegetables and a few other things reasonably AND know where they come from. I was nosing around to see if they knew any folks who were looking for gardening space. When I was in before there were many folks buying just a few bedding plants, which they also sell, and I assumed I was observing other space limited home gardeners. I didn't get very far with that inquiry, but we had a nice chat about how their business continues to grow, with more and more people looking for fresh, local food all the time. And I've observed that there are quite a mix of folks there when I go. Some I might guess to be old Santa Rosans, plus some who want to be, or should have always been. There is also the occasional affluent foodie. But there seem to be an increasing number of Latinos, and the other day when I was there what seemed to be a group of Japanese school girls.

When I got home, I spent some of my afternoon looking for statistics on food insecurity in Sonoma County. I googled away, but found most of the available statistics seemed to be presented to induce capitalists to do it here, and really did not cover the stats that would help one get a picture of how people with less live in this high priced area. The Redwood Empire Food Bank has done a series of reports every few years, but mostly by surveying those their work serves, so one can see what percent of people seeking food charity are children, for example, but not what percentage of the children in the county experience empty cupboards at home. I suspect the best stats on children have to do with eligibility for subsidized meals at school. But who has the equivalent information about older persons in our communities? We are going to have to gather the stories, and learn as we go where the inequities in our food system in our neighborhood are.

Okay, just for fun, here are my favorite statistics from this afternoon's web crawl:
In Sonoma County agriculture there are as many acres planted in sangiovese grapes as in all the vegetables put together. And there are about 40X as many acres of chardonnay as of vegetables.