San Diego Roots Newsletter | July 2010
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Table of Contents
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Updates on San Diego Roots Projects
- We have a farm: Roots Farm @Suzie's!
- Grow the Farm Campaign
- The Art of Agriculture Contest
- Seeds @ City Urban Farm
- Partnership with Jack Johnson
- Victory Gardens San Diego
- UCSD Sustainable Food Project
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Roots Community News
- Roots Farm @Suzie's Photo Album
- Learning to Grow; Matt's blog from UCSD Sustainable Ag program
- SD Roots is The Linkery's charity of the month
Upcoming Events
- La Milpa Organica Farm Open House
- Seeds @ City Workshops
- Roots Night Out at the Farm
San Diego Roots News
Now Open: Roots Farm @Suzies!
Our long-anticipated Sustainable Farm & Education Center
On June 26, 2010, one hundred members of our community simultaneously planted the first seeds—Hopi pink corn—at the celebratory beginning of San Diego Roots Educational Farm @Suzie’s. Thus began the next chapter in a long story about farming and much more. The story has had several names over the years -- The Good Faith Farm, ALOFT, Willow Glen Farm -- all with the same intention: to create a sustainable agriculture farm and school near the urban center of San Diego.
Almost ten years ago a diverse group of people, none of whom knew each other but all who knew farmers Todd and Oasis Benson at The Good Faith Farm in Jamul, sat together to try to save that farm from a developer’s scheme. Though unsuccessful, that group of people saw the need to defend small farms in our region from development and formed San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project. They began looking for a piece of farmland to take this need to the next level, a farm school where kids can go to learn where their food comes from, where the next generation of organic farmers can learn farming skills in the best growing climate in the world, where a community could grow and participate in the production of their own food.
Read Misha's Farm Blog
See seed-planting photos on the Farm Photo Album
When a piece of promising land along the Sweetwater River was located, the project took the name Willow Glen Farm and Ocean Beach Organic Food Co-op’s support was thrown behind the effort. Though that piece of ground could not be acquired, SD Roots and the Co-op never gave up the hunt, and now three years later, in cooperation with Suzie’s Farm, we have our piece of land.
Located along the north banks of the scenic Tijuana River, Roots Farm @Suzie’s comprises five acres of existing, organic farmland, fruit trees and greenhouses ideally suited for tying all the projects goals together. Adjacent to the Tijuana River Estuary, the area is peaceful and filled with wildlife, despite being just 20 minutes from downtown San Diego and sandwiched between six million people on both sides of the border (all of whom eat). The farm is less than three miles from the coast, ensuring a mild, year-round growing climate, less than two miles north of the border and from Interstate 5, with quick access to both car and public transportation. Ample well water for irrigation eliminates the need to purchase expensive and rationed municipal water.
Goals for Roots Farm @Suzie’s
1) To provide an exceptional model of sustainable agriculture in San Diego County. We will grow quality organic foods for the San Diego community that nourish the body, mind and spirit; re-connect people with their land, their farmers and one another; demonstrate and teach sustainable agricultural practices that enhance ecosystem health; promote volunteerism; and provide workshops on sustainable, healthy food topics. This is the first step toward creating a family of farms that will transform our local food system and public awareness about the importance of freshly grown food.
2) To inspire and educate children and adults on the ecological, economic, health and environmental benefits of sustainable agriculture. Roots Farm @Suzie’s will host school-to-farm field trips for students throughout San Diego County with programs about the science and art of growing food; making connections with nature; proper care and nutrition of our Earthbodies for optimum health; and more. The farm is only 14 miles from downtown San Diego and is easily accessible by tens of thousands of school children in south coastal San Diego County.
Our farmers, educators and students will engage in experiential learning with lessons in composting; amending soil; planting seeds; tending crops; harvesting produce; preparing food on the farm; plus more. Participants will be provided with resources and skills for creating gardens at their homes, in their neighborhoods and at their schools.
3) To create a college-accredited farmer education program to teach sustainable agricultural practices and provide opportunities to farm locally. Roots’ future farmer training program will ensure that our local food-growing heritage returns to the vitality and strength that it once had. Teachers and administrators at San Diego City College are working together to develop curriculum and hands-on training programs for offering students an accredited certificate program in sustainable agriculture.
Demand exceeds current capacity in San Diego Roots’ Organic Farming Workshops and Seeds @ City Urban Farm student internships. Many young people want to grow food organically as a response to solving multiple, interrelated social and environmental problems. We will partner with other local, compatible organizations to integrate their work with refugees and recent immigrants to San Diego; teach local farming practices; provide opportunities to grow quality food; and promote essential job skills.
4) To promote greater regional food security and ecosystem health. Our goal is to enhance and preserve our region’s best farmland so that we can feed current and future generations of San Diegans; create greater food security for our growing population; and to promote local agriculture, along with a secure regional food system, as a means to strengthen our local economy.
Visiting the Farm
We openly invite community members of all ages to participate in the farm. We have volunteer days every Saturday and Wednesday afternoon. As the farm develops, our Victory Gardens San Diego program will host classes most weekends in organic home gardening, composting, fruit-trees, water-saving irrigation, organic soil amendments and more.
The farm will be a center where we practice and teach permaculture, seed-saving and be a place where we learn to live in harmony with our San Diego ecosystem. For the latest information about the farm or classes, visit the farm website or the Victory Gardens San Diego website. We really look forward to seeing you there!
Location: Click here for a map.
CAUTION: Do not use MapQuest, OnStar, or other navigation aids.
They will not get you there!
DIRECTIONS: Take I-5 South through Chula Vista, exit at Tocayo Ave. Proceed on Tocayo Avenue west to Hollister (second light). Turn left on Hollister. Proceed on Hollister to Sunset (second stop sign). Turn left on Sunset. Go 400 yards east on Sunset and turn right onto the dirt road just beyond the Sun Grown Distributors sign. Proceed down the dirt road about 300 yards, past the greenhouses and Sun Grown warehouse. Our farm begins just beyond the warehouse.
PUBLIC TRANSIT: Take the Blue Line Trolley south toward San Ysidro, exit at the Iris Station. Transfer to the 934 Bus west, exit at the corner of Tocayo Ave. & Hollister (a short trip). Walk or bike south on Hollister to Sunset (second stop sign). Turn left and walk 300 yards east till you see our sign on the right-hand side of the road, just before the County Park. Turn right and proceed down the dirt road about 300 yards, past the greenhouses and Sun Grown warehouse. Our farm begins just beyond the warehouse.
Volunteer at the farm this Summer!
Saturdays, 2pm to 5pm*
Wednesdays, 3pm to 6pm
This summer we will be working hard to build our farm: laying out the various farming and teaching areas, tilling the soil and get things ready for major seasonal plantings of vegetables, greens, medicinal and culinary herbs and cover crops.
If you like working in the soil, please join us! Bring work gloves and wear sturdy shoes, long pants, sunscreen and hat. If you've got them, bring your own tools too: shovels, steel rakes, digging forks, long-handled manual weed cutters. A few wheel barrows would be nice too.
*Third Saturdays we work from 9am to noon so we can go to the La Milpa Open House.
Roots Night Out at the Farm
Saturday, August 7, 2pm on
Tours, potluck and movie night!
Our farm is all about community, so what better way to say that than by hosting a monthly community gathering? On the first Saturday of every month starting at 7pm we host tours, volunteer opportunities, a grand potluck dinner followed by a movie under the stars. Our first on is Saturday, August 7.
Grow the Farm Campaign
We’ve got a farm to grow and we need your support! Roots Farm at Suzie’s will be a place to grow the next generation of farmers, to introduce San Diegans to their food as it’s grown, and to work toward a sustainable San Diego. Please donate to our 501©3 non-profit organization today, so that we may continue to develop our first Farm and Educational Center.
You can make your money go twice as far!
Our organization is teaming up with singer/songwriter Jack Johnson on his 2010 To The Sea Tour and All At Once, a social action network connecting nonprofits with people who want to become active in their local and world community. The first $2,500 raised to “Grow the Farm!” will be matched by Jack Johnson’s charity, so give now to double your contribution!
Join us as we Grow the Farm! To see what we need, click here.
Photography & Recipe Contest
The Art of Agriculture
The Art of Agriculture (tAoA), a new program from Roots, seeks to promote art as it relates to and is agriculture. The production, preparation, and consumption of food is an art, not a science. Not only is agriculture an art, it is also inspires and provides energy for our creative minds.
Our first project is a photography contest scheduled for this Fall. For this inaugural contest we seek to create a visual foodscape of San Diego County. We want you to show us how you relate to food: the who, what, when, where, how and why of agri-CULTURE in San Diego.
For more info click here.
The contest is open to all ages and submissions are due by September 23rd (equinox). Start shooting! We are also starting a year-long seasonal recipe contests as a way of cultivating an awareness of what foods are available locally during the four seasons of the year in San Diego. How does each season of the year inspire you? The contest is broken up into four submission deadlines: one at the end of each season –– the first due date is the Fall equinox on September 23rd. By this date we want you to submit recipes that you have created and prepared with an emphasis on ingredients available locally during the summer months (July, August, & September) in San Diego. We’ve even got a handy tool to help you figure out what's available during each season on our website. So show us how seasonal foods inspire you: cook up a storm!
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Seeds @ City Urban Farm
Seeds @ City Workshops
Cultivating Vegetable Families
Saturday July 24, 10:30am to noon
San Diego City College, C St. and 14th St.
Downtown San Diego 92101
Cost: $20.00
More info: Seeds @ City Website
The range of crop habits, preferences and natural histories is so extensive, learning common vegetable family names and their characteristics can help us organize our relationships to those plants we cultivate. Come brush up on your Latin as we explore the differences between the Solanaceae, Apiaceae and many more common vegetable families
About Seeds @ City Urban Farm
Seeds @ City Urban Farm is an educational half-acre farm on the campus of City College in downtown San Diego. Our mission is to educate and inspire a new generation of urban farmers in San Diego through a hands-on apprenticeship program, weekly farmer’s market and CSA, a monthly series of organic gardening workshops for the community, as well as City College classes on issues and topics around Sustainable Agriculture.
The goals of Seeds @ City are to educate, inspire and grow future urban farmers in our region so that we can have a just and healthy food system where everyone has access to affordable,locally-grown, pesticide-free produce.
Recent achievements have been the creation of our new CSA program to complement the weekly farmstand. This will allow folks on and off campus an alternative means in which to support the farm and receive healthy, locally-grown produce. Many people cannot make our Tuesday farmstand because they are working, so we will arrange times they are able to pick up their weekly bag of produce at their convenience.
Certificate Program in Sustainable Urban Agriculture
Another very exciting achievement is that Seeds @ City will be involved in creating San Diego’s first Certificate Program in Sustainable Urban Agriculture at City College.
Beginning this fall, two classes from this burgeoning program will be taught at City: AGRI 100- Principles of Sustainable Agriculture, and AGRI 102 – Intro to Sustainable Urban Agricultural Practice. Other classes to expect in the future are: Cool and Warm Season Organic Production, Building Fertile Soil, Fruit Tree Care, Greenhouse Management and Plant Propagation, Farm to Market, Irrigation Basics, Intro to Beekeeping, Managing a Small Business and Intro to Permaculture Design, among others. The Certificate of Achievement will be a total of 26 units to be completed in two years. A shorter Certificate program of 18 units will also be available to provide more flexibility to working students. We are extremely excited to be offering this crucial Certificate program on San Diego’s downtown City College campus!
Recent achievements at Seeds @ City have been including a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share scheme along with our weekly farmer’s market to allow more folks to purchase produce from the Seeds farm while supporting the apprenticeship program. We are also thrilled to be offering two classes in the Fall from our burgeoning Certificate Program in Sustainable Urban Agriculture: AGRI 100 Principles of Sustainable Agriculture and AGRI 102 Intro to Sustainable Urban Agricultural Practice. More courses will be offered beginning in 2011 to help grow this groundbreaking ‘green job skills’ program for all people looking for a way to make a difference with their lives.
Future events at Seeds @ City include more monthly Organic Food Gardening workshops at City College: Food Preservation on August 28th, and Seed Saving on September 25th. If you’re interested in signing up for these workshops, please visit our website.
Seeds @ City Volunteer Opportunities
Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9am to noon.
City College Urban Farm, corner of C and 14th Street 92101 (south side of campus)
More info: Seeds @ City Website
Questions: contact Julia at
We do a number of garden-related activities including planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, and composting. Come gets your hands dirty and help grow some hopeful Seeds in downtown San Diego!
Jack Johnson Partners with San Diego Roots!
San Diego Roots is teaming up with performer and composer Jack Johnson on his 2010 To The Sea Tour and All At Once, a social action network connecting nonprofits with people who want to become active in their local and world community. All At Once comes to life online at www.AllAtOnce.org and at every Jack Johnson concert in the Village Green, a collection of interactive booths where you can get educated, get inspired, and connect face-to-face with us and other local and national non-profits.
This year’s concert will take place at Cricket Amphitheater in Chula Vista on Saturday, October 9. We will be on the Village Green, talking to folks about SD Roots’ work and spreading the good news about our new farm!
By simply being invited to participate, Jack Johnson and All at Once have given San Diego Roots $500 plus ten free concert tickets, and pledged to match funds raised by Roots, from now until the concert, up to $2500! This means that when you make a donation, your gift will be matched by these fine folks. All the money raised will go to support our new farm.
How you can take action!
1) Become a Member of All At Once! Click on the link to the right and check out what you can do before, during, and after the show to get involved.
2) Visit us at the show! We will be at Jack Johnson’s concert in Chula Vista on October 9. Please come visit us in the Village Green, take environmental action, get your Village Green Passport stamped and enter to win a chance to view the concert from the stage!
3) Help us raise funds! Jack Johnson’s new charity is matching every dollar contributed to us at the show or directly to our organization between now and October 15 (Up to $2500). Please make a contribution right now and your money will be doubled by the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation!
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Victory Gardens San Diego
www.victorygardenssandiego.com
Working hand-in-hand with several San Diego food-movement groups, VGSD encourages and assists in the development of sustainable, healthy, Earth-friendly home, community and school food gardens throughout the San Diego area.
Recent Achievements
First a huge Thank-you to the Ocean Beach People’s Food Co-op for their generous donation of $1,000 to VGSD’s garden building efforts. This is the second large donation made to VGSD by People’s. We truly appreciate their support for VGSD’s mission. Thanks also to Whitney and Su Lin Robinson of Whole Earth Acre Nursery (They sell plant starts each Saturday at the Vista Farmers Market and Sunday at the Hillcrest FM) for a generous $100 donation. Whitney and Su Lin are the source of plant starts for many of our garden builds. We also received a $300 grant from Becky Bones to fund our Garden Education classes at the MAAC Charter School Project Youth Build Garden.
VGSD’s been busy with home garden builds, a raised bed installation at The Seasons retirement home in Coronado, garden assistance to the MAAC Charter School in Chula Vista, completion of our first all-Spanish language garden education class, the beginning of a garden education class in Vista for apartment residents, facilitating the moving of 120 hay bales from the TLC Garden in Tierrasanta to the New Roots Community Farm in City Heights and the celebration of our first anniversary of building and assisting in the building of gardens! Whew! Pictures will help tell the story of the month.
To see a map of where VGSD has built gardens in little over a year, click here.
VGSD Volunteer Opportunities
We will have many garden building opportunities coming up in the coming weeks. Become a member of our Yahoo group and get updates, photos and other VGSD information. It’s a good place to stay most current with VGSD happenings, garden builds, garden education and more. Simply click here.
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The Pepper Canyon Urban Farm at UCSD
The vision of the Sustainable Food Project at UCSD is to establish a vibrant experiential learning center on the UCSD campus that encourages participation in and educates the university community about sustainable living through the cultivation of sustainably-grown food, in the form of the Pepper Canyon Urban Farm. On 8,800 square feet in Pepper Canyon, we will be able to grow a wide variety of organic, seasonal crops allowing the UCSD community to learn how to grow rich organic food in urban and suburban landscapes.
After a great opening Day of Digging the farm began to quickly take shape. There’s plenty of beans sprouting all around, as well as dikon radishes, clover as groundcover, and even a little corn. That is not including the tomatoes which are coming to beauty and the incredible zucchini, some of which are over a foot long. With the summer starting we have begun work to dig a trench through the garden to help create a natural irrigation system as well as stifle the mean bermuda grass.
UCSD Urban Farm Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteer Thursdays from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Location: The Pepper Canyon Urban Farm
Contact info:
Learning to Grow
Matts notes from the Center for Agroecology &
Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz
Rotation 2: The Alan Chadwick Garden
“It’s not the gardener that shapes the garden, but the garden that shapes the gardener.” This saying definitely stuck with me through my second rotation. The history of CASFS and the apprenticeship is rooted in this garden, first dug by English Master Gardener, Alan Chadwick, over 40 years ago. Since then, the garden has seen growth and change, but its charm and productivity remain an experience in itself. Surrounded by native groves of redwood, oak, and madrone (on the UCSC campus!), this garden exemplifies the French Biointensive method of gardening on two and a half acres, roughly. Interplanted amidst young apple trees are lettuces, peppers, radishes, and herbs. Older, more established fruit trees will bear quite the bounty later this season, while the cut flower garden has now come to life and first harvests of veggies and greens are enjoyed. “Wild” describes the fenceline, where creeping hedges of poison oak, hemlock, and other native pioneer species attempt to creep in.
Building upon the work of the last rotations’ crew, we spent much of our work hours reclaiming that wild space, double-digging new beds in the hoophouse, harvesting greens, onions, and flowers, and doing some initial summer pruning of the fruit trees. I was also assigned to the “Cart” subrotation – managing harvests, marketing, and sales at the on-campus farm-stand. We received formal instruction in arthropod pest management, weed management, the physical properties of soils, the “goosefoot” plant family (beets, chard, etc.), and organic rose care and maintenance. We also had guest lectures from professor Steve Gliessman, creator of the study and practice of agroecology and from two former apprentices starting a small farms. Heading into my next rotation in the field, where tractors and implements replace our hands for cultivation (but not for care or harvest!), I’m excited to see what this new experience has in store!
If you'd like to get in touch with Matt, email him at:
Have extra space?
Roots is looking for an office!
Roots is looking for office space in the central San Diego area. Nominal in cost and decent in size, Roots needs at least 500 lockable square feet (more would be better) where we can hold evening meetings, keep a couple desks and files, store some equipment, and where the seeds of our labor can be firmly planted. For-profit organizations can claim a tax write off in exchange for offering our non-profit a steeply discounted, monthly rental. If you know of someone or somewhere Roots can can call home, then please contact us at .
Eat at The Linkery and Support San Diego Roots!
Jay Porter, the owner of one of our favorite restaurants, The Linkery in North Park, is a strong supporter of the San Diego local food movement and San Diego Roots. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of visiting The Linkery, they source as many ingredients as possible from local farms and ranches to create incredibly tasty food! The Linkery also employs a unique tipping practice: Each table is charged a flat fee for service and any additional tips are donated to a local charity. Lucky for us Jay has been kind enough to select San Diego Roots as that charity this month! So if you’re in the mood for some delicious, local food visit The Linkery and show your support for San Diego Roots. Thank you! Visit Jay’s blog to learn more here.
Images and material © 2001-2011 copyright San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project