PttP Youth, Plums Forever, and the Free Farm!

Our current summer youth program continues to be awesome! Jaime, Isaac and Jason are doing an amazing job harvesting fruit, just last Friday we harvested over 200 lbs of plums in a few hours! A special moment for me was that Jaime took the initiative to spread the word about PttP outside of work and met someone with a plum tree that we could harvest. I think this speaks greatly to the bridges we can make in our community just by talking about what we're doing and how we can support each other.

A million thanks to everyone who has opened their homes and gardens so farm and shared their bounty, diverted waste, and helped get fresh food to folks in need in our community.

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Also this past week, we got to spend a little more time at the Free Farm, helping with the harvest, and putting some much needed attention towards the composting toilet. Jason and Jaime are naturally adept builders (and demolition-ers) and put a lot of work in prying apart pallet wood an repurposing it to skin the outhouse (which had been studded out by PttP's handy carpenter program assistant Case, and our good friend and dedicated Free Farmer, Steve).

The outhouse is about 1/3 covered at this point, and is looking rustic and beautiful. You can come help or check it out on Wednesday and Saturday workdays, and as always, can find out more about the Free Farm and the collective of folks that organize it at www.thefreefarm.org.

Jam Sale at Mission Pie!

Saturday, July 31st, Produce to the People is having a jam sale! Our friends at Mission Pie have generously allowed us to set up shop at their great location at 25th and Mission. We'll be there from 11am until 3pm. Come up and get a jar or two of your favorite jam made with fruit picked by our awesome summer youth workers.

Fruits of Our Labor: Summer Youth Program Harvests

For the past two weeks Produce to the People has harvested backyard fruit trees with two of our Summer Youth Program workers, Jaime and Isaac.  In such a short amount of time we've already managed to pick close to 400 pounds of plums and lemons, bringing our total near 950 pounds so far!  

From the pictures alone, the generosity of the neighbors opening their doors to share their abundance with the wider community is obvious.  I hope I never take for granted how amazing people ranging from perfect strangers to good friends are.  Regularly the folks whose home's we're harvesting even go so far as to offer us tea and conversation while we work.  It's unexpected gestures like that that transform an afternoon from a job into a community building experience.

I like to think of our work as one cog in the larger machinery of generosity in San Francisco.  People share their fruit with us, and then we have the opportunity to take that fruit to be handed out at The Free Farm, The Free Farm Stand, The Martin de Porres Center, the Julian Pantry, and other great places.

Thanks to Gold Bar Wednesdays and all of our friends!

We had a great time at the Triple Crown last night, got to see a bunch of friends that we haven't seen a little while, and made a couple hundred bucks for the youth program! Thanks to Erin and Robin from Gold Bar, the Triple Crown for hosting, and everyone who came out to event!

We {heart} summer fruit harvests!!!

We're super excited about the summertime harvests starting up.  We've already begun harvesting left over winter fruits and even summer plums!

Make sure to check out the newest blog post from our friend Tree of the Free Farm Stand about Fruit Picking Time.

Gold Bar Wednesday Fundraiser!

Hi everyone!

On June 30th, 5:30pm - 10:00pm Produce to the People will be the beneficiary of a Gold Bar Wednesday fundraiser at The Triple Crown.  Here's a link to a google map of the locale!

Here's the deal:  Gold Bar sets up the event with the bar so that for every person that walks in the door, $5 is donated directly to Produce to the People.  You don't have to stay long, and you don't even have to drink, just walk in the door, and Bam! you've just donated $5 to Produce to the People.  

We'll use that money for all kinds of expenses.  Expenses like Canning Jars for jams and preserves made from locally gleaned fruit, an aluminum orchard ladder, fixing up our bike cart to haul fruit, harvest tools, and insurance that lets us do our Summer Youth Employment and Education Program.

Can't wait to see you there!

Composting Toilet Construction at the Free Farm.

The past few Wednesday workdays Steve and I have been building an outhouse for a composting toilet for the Free Farm.  It's been a crash course in simple construction that I've really enjoyed so far.  I'll make sure to put up some pictures soon showing our construction process, and the finished product in time for a free composting toilet workshop June 19th at the Free Farm.  Details below!

As many of you know, the Free Farm has no toilet or sewer connection. Laura Allen, of Greywater Action, will help us solve this problem by plumbing a composting toilet to be used by volunteers. Come help and learn about ecological toilets, that use no water and return nutrients to the earth. We'll finish construction on a urine-diverting composting toilet, discuss health and safety, codes and regulations, the benefits of composting toilets, and how to maintain a well-functioning toilet.

Date: June 19th
Time: 1pm - 4pm.
Cost: Free.

RSVP: Please send a brief email with the number of people coming to help Laura plan: info@greywateraction.org