Seed to Mouth--Food For The Soul!

With the schoolyear on the horizon, I want to honor and celebrate one final project of the summer that left our bellies and souls full of goodness:) Beginning way back in the early days of Spring, Miss Rebecca had an "epiphany" that we should (and WILL find a way to) offer nutritional cooking classes to youth and families of our community. The classes would highlight various seasonal crops grown in our garden or other locally grown produce.

Now in hindsight, I can share that the classes were an amazing success with lots of kids, parents, neighbors, gardeners, and friends attending and helping us make beautiful food that we all sat down and ate together as a family. YUM! Looking forward to starting it up again.

Naked Ladies

I thought that might get your attention :)

Hope everyone is super well, I am back from vacation and to my lovely surprise I find that our Amaryllis belladonna have shown there beautiful faces. The appearance of the tall, flower stalk without any leaves accounts for the common name "naked lady".

UPCOMING COMPOST WORKSHOP!

September 9th, from 9:30 - 11. Teach about the ins and outs of compost as well as make compost sifters!! Immediately following will be our 2nd Saturday workday. Bring your food scraps, but please remember, no meat, diary or bread.

JOHN MUIR SCHOOL WORK DAY AUGUST 26TH.

Look at how sad this garden looks. Help us get John Muir ready for the first day of school (8/28). 9am - 2pm and lunch too. Come for as long or as little as you like. All help is always greatly appreciated. Lots will be going on too so your day can be filled with a variety of tasks. Help in the library or classrooms, mulching and planting in the garden, painting, and lots more.

With school starting, Suzi and I change back to our school schedule. More specifics later as classes get scheduled.

Suzi - Monday, Tuesday, Friday
Rebecca - Tuesday, Friday

Monthly 2nd Saturday Work Parties from 11-2.

Finally, I had to share this wonderment with you. This little spider was found in Jesse's tomato plant. She is an Enoplognatha ovata and is protecting her blueish egg sac. Here are a few interesting facts about her:

-Typically construct her web on live plants, rolling a leaf as a retreat.

- Can be very variable in color.
- Its size is between 3 and 6 mm.
- found on low vegetation and bushes.
- The leaf in which she makes her egg sac is often slightly rolled.

So look out, you too may find an Enoplognatha in your garden plot.

Life is BEAUTIFUL. Good Day All! ~ Rebecca

National Night Out--A Safe, Fun Night For All!

National Night Out is a nation-wide event designed to highlight each communitiy's dedication to their speific crime and violence prevention strategies. It is intended to generate support for and participation in local anitcrime programs and organizations as well as strengthen neighborhood spirit and community-police partnerships. For our neighborhood, the Hayes Valley/Western Addition of San Francisco, a group of committed organizers, also known as the Hayes Valley Community Partners ,planned and successfully created a fun & safe extravaganza for youth and families to come and celebrate our community. With much love, thanks and props to Richard Johnson, the co-founder of Hayes Valley Community Partners, we were able to pull off a Public Safety Fair where neighborhood organizations joined forces to show their support in OUR "Night Out Against Crime". The fair was followed by live entertainment from local groups such as Western Addtion Drill Team, Horus Tolson and the SGI-USA's Golden Gate Chorus, and perfomers from neighborhood church groups. It was a blast had by all and we want to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone that contributes to the safety and beautification of our neighborhood. It is quite a special thing we have...

This is the irreplaceable Richard Johnson, Co-Founder of the Hayes Valley Community Partners

District 5 Supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi, acknowledging the dedication that Richard has to this community!!

Laurie Hampton, one of the many wonderful gardeners of Koshland Park Community Learning Garden, standing in front of our booth where we offered free lettuce, collard greens and kale to folks!!

Much love to all and enjoy these glorious, fog-less summer days!!
-suzi