April 17th Free Farm Blessing Ceremony!

Hi Everyone! Like the board says, "4/17 - Blessing Ceremony"







I want to dedicate a special blog post today to invite you to the Free Farm on Saturday April 17th, at 10am for a special interfaith blessing and dedication. Presiding will be Pastor Dan from St. Paulus. Commissioning the area will be the Episcopal Bishop of California, Marc Andrus. Pastor Megan from Welcome, Griff from Diocal and the Free Farm, Margaret from Holy Innocents Episcopal Church, and regular volunteers will all be there offering blessings on the farm as well. We really hope to have the Farm's full spectrum of faith traditions, and non-traditions represented as possible.

Please join us. This promises to be a very special event for the farm and community.

Regular workday will take place. Either coming along for the event or not is perfectly alright!

Upcoming Excitement!

Some new and exciting events are on the calendar for the near future! Wednesday April 14th at 9am, at the Free Farm there will be a free yoga lesson led by Tamara Loewenstein, Urban Share's arts curator! Please bring a mat. We will begin promptly at 9!


And as always, you can come by the farm Wednesday and Saturday from 10am - 2pm to enjoy working in the dirt, a free vegan meal, and friends!

Share and Share Alike

Urban Share and its partner organizations have the need for the following things:

• 100 foot lengths of garden hose
• Lumber for an outhouse, raised beds, a green house, a tool shed, potting tables, and more!
• Wheelbarrows
• Volunteer to make lunch one Wednesday or Saturday at the Free Farm.
• Time to work in the garden
• Access to a truck or hauling vehicle
• Leading a group in a wellness activity (Do you know about yoga? meditation? medicinal herbs? stretching? acupuncture?)
  
• Digging forks, pitchforks, and hand trowels

Welcome believes in a philosophy that until we have made room by giving all we have, we will not have room to receive. If you like the work that we do with those living in poverty, and working to create access to healthy food for all, you can have a stake in that work by contributing what you have available. We will accept it with grateful hearts!

First Free Farm Harvest!

This past Saturday at the Free Farm saw some seriously healthy looking lettuces ready for eating!



Check out the pictures of Megan and I ready to snip greens from the lettuce lawn that can be harvest three times. Our strawberries are plumping up and the lettuce heads are now big enough to eat. Everyone's hard work is finally turning into something tasty!

West Oakland Mural Completed

Tamara Loewenstein (pictured above on the right), Urban Share's Art's Coordinator, commissioned a mural featuring agricultural heroes at the Bethlehem Lutheran garden. Designed and completed by Bianca Muller (pictured above on the left), and sponsored by Kultklecks, the mural only took one week to complete.

Here are some photos that show you how we completed the mural. Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.

















Here's the final project. Below you will see Caesar Chavez, George Washington Carver and Michelle Obama.

Living Generously.

I believe that everyone has a meaningful contribution to make. This has become abundantly clear in the gardens where all kinds of people help in purposeful ways. Right now, our projects are seeking donations. Can you donate one of these items or pick an item to pledge money towards?






Right now we have need for

• 100 foot lengths of garden hose
• Lumber for an outhouse, raised beds, a green house, a tool shed, potting tables, and more!
• Wheelbarrows
• Volunteer to make lunch one Wednesday or Saturday at the Free Farm.
• Time to work in the garden
• Access to a truck or hauling vehicle
• Leading a group in a wellness activity
• Digging forks, pitchforks, and hand trowels
  

Upcoming Urban Share Workdays

Mark your calendars! There's gardening to be done.















This Wednesday, the 31st, on Cesar Chavez's birthday, the Free Farm is happy to welcome 3rd grade students from Children's Day School! This space continues to attract volunteers of all kinds. We mean it when we say, "All are welcome!" Come out Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10am - 2pm for a day of work in the garden and lunch.

On the 18th of April we'll be building raised beds at St. Mark's Lutheran Church from 1-4 pm. We expect to have seedlings ready to plant in the beds that same day.

















We continue to have workdays in West Oakland at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Check back to see when the next day you can get your hands dirty there will be.















We hope to see you out soon!