Calendar

Alameda Backyard Growers is excited to invite you to a very special field trip Sunday, June 26 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. We’ll be visiting and touring REAP, Alameda’s new Center for Regeneration, Education, Aquaculture, and Permaculture. Now about 40% complete, it’s a half-mile-long outdoor training and science center focused on biodiversity in soil. With a biomimicry-based focus, REAP’s staff and volunteers teach and demonstrate climate competence to empower the ability to grow food, practice urban forestry, and build resilience. The Center demonstrates how healthy microbes in soil enhance nutrition and carbon sequestration at scale, yielding cooler and healthier communities.

Truly a work in progress, REAP is becoming an edible park with a sculpture garden, interactive soil labs, community composting, a permaculture community garden with a free farmstand, and a maker space serving youth through Ph.D.- level curiosity. The exhibits, already underway, will provide materials and tools to green and restore the site and the region at large. REAP will also be whimsical with a Worm World, Fermentation Station, Fungi Hut, Microbe Mine, Biome Boutique, and Hydrology House. These elements, along with beehives, bioswales, and sheep will further maximize the greening of the 4.26 acres.

In its first year REAP created 200 tons of compost with vigorous green waste reclamation efforts. Additionally, the Center created or enhanced over 600 feet of bioswales, spillways, retention basins and water tanks, while managing over 1.5M gallons of water.

For more information about REAP go to: https://www.reapcenter.org/news/annual-update-2022

Tour space on June 26 is Limited, so REGISTER here NOW. REAP’s location, in Alameda, will be provided upon registration.

As a member of Alameda Backyard Growers, you are already protecting the climate by preventing food waste through gleaning produce for the Alameda Food Bank, and by reducing food mileage by growing your own food. What else can one person do in such a huge crisis to make a difference? A LOT! Climate change affects our everyday lives with drought, food supply problems, sea level rise, fires and the general survival of nature. This presentation will cover the crisis, solutions and 70 surprisingly simple things individuals can do about it including how to influence others to protect the climate.

Joyce Mercado Bio: Speaker Joyce Mercado earned her Bachelor of Science in Physics at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She completed Climate Reality Project Leadership training led by Al Gore and joins thousands of other Climate Reality Leaders to give climate protection and sustainability presentations. She is an active member of a local climate protection non-profit, Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda, where she writes a monthly column on Climate Protection for the Alameda Sun and created a Climate Protection Checklist.

Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop

led by AC Master Gardener Sarah Miller, Asst. Manager at Farm2Market, & Marla Koss, Farm2Market Orchard Volunteer

August is a great time to perform summer pruning on plums, or annual pruning on apricots*. Citrus can be pruned virtually year-round in our area, but now is as good a time as any to lighten up the densely-crowded and twiggy interior of a semi-dwarf Meyer lemon tree for better aesthetic value in the landscape as well as its overall health.

After a quick tour around Farm2Market‘s orchard, we will focus on pruning citrus (Meyer lemon) and stone fruit (plum and apricot).

Wear sturdy, close-toed shoes (preferably hiking or work boots); stickers abound and will quickly turn mesh athletic shoes into pin cushions). You might want to bring a sun hat and/or sunscreen. A water bottle is also highly recommended. Also helpful: eye protection (clear safety goggles/glasses).

Equipment to bring: bypass pruning shears*, gardening/work gloves, other pruning equipment such as a pruning saw or loppers if you have them.

*The difference between the pruning needs of apricots and other stone fruit will be explained at the workshop and in an accompanying handout.

ABG Monthly Meeting on Zoom with Paige Benveniste

Join us for a behind the scenes talk on the organic food label. We’ll be discussing the history of the organic label, how it’s regulated, and what it means to buy organic (hint: it’s more than the absence of pesticides/herbicides). We will also discuss the current state of organics, why some people think the organic label doesn’t do enough, and the emergence of “add-on” labels like The Real Organic Project and the Regenerative Organic Certification.

About Our Speaker: Paige Benveniste is an International Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA) certified crop and processing inspector. She currently works as an organic inspector for California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). As an organic inspector, she travels throughout the Bay Area inspecting a wide variety of farms and food manufacturers. Prior to becoming an organic inspector, she worked on an organic farm and was a local food buyer/educator at a tech campus in San Francisco.

View the recording below.

Please join us!

 – Bring at least one plant to donate to the swap.
 – Plants should be clearly labeled, in good health and in healthy soil.
 – Other garden related items welcome: books, magazines, tools in good working order and clearly identified seeds or bulbs. These will be placed on our FREE table.
 – Bring a small box or box lid to carry home any plants or items you select from the swap.

Masks are optional, but social distancing will be strongly encouraged.

Registration is required – click here.
Location to be announced 48 hours prior to event via email reminder to those who have registered. Please be sure to register with a valid email address that you are able to check.

Some new rule changes in 2022:

Please bring nothing larger than 5-gallon container size.

No cuttings.

Please keep track of any plants or items you bring, because at the end of the event you’ll be asked to take back with you anything you brought that is not claimed by another attendee.

Photo credit: Lori Eanes

With both the cost of food and concerns about global warming rising, it is easy to feel powerless and unable to contribute to the solution. But there are things you can do to make a difference and making compost is a great one. Compost is easy to make, using your own kitchen scraps, fall leaves and garden debris. Home composting keeps materials out of the waste stream, improves soil for healthier crops, conserves soil moisture and can save a considerable amount of money every year.

In this workshop, you will learn the fundamental principals of making compost, including its benefits and uses, the different composting systems available, what materials to use (and what to leave out) and how to troubleshoot problems. Then you will get to see a farm-scale composting system in action and, finally, you will help build a compost pile. By the end of the class, we hope that you will feel confident enough to start your own composting system at home.

This class is being co-hosted by Alameda Backyard Growers (ABG) and StopWaste and is being taught by three graduates of the StopWaste Environmental Educator Training (SWEET) on Soil Health and Compost Science.

Sarah Miller is an ABG board member, Alameda County Master Gardener and the Assistant Manager: Operation Specialist at Alameda Point Collaborative’s Farm2Market farm.

Oliver Stouffer is the Compost Site Supervisor at Alameda Point Collaborative’s Farm2Market and produces most of the compost used on the farm.

Birgitt Evans is an ABG board member, Alameda County Master Gardener and environmental educator.

All three are passionate about composting and the difference it can make in creating healthy soil, growing healthy vegetables and reducing carbon emissions.

Thank you to everyone who participated in ABG’s fun, outdoor, in-Alameda wreath-making workshop on Sunday, December 4. We used gathered and purchased items to craft beautiful wreaths. ABG provided instruction, wreath backings, floral wire, glue and light refreshments.

Check out photos from our workshop!

2022 was another huge year for ABG’s Free Seed Libraries! With your help, we gave away close to 17,000 packets of seasonal seeds. Food inflation in 2022 was 11.8% so those seeds had the potential to help many households with their food budgets.

We are getting ready to reopen our network of seed libraries at the end of January and need help packing up seeds to go in the libraries. We will be hosting our first Seed Packing Party on January 22nd from noon – 2PM at an outdoor, but covered location on the East End.

There will be both space for social distancing and the opportunity to socialize while doing something meaningful for a finite amount of time. Past parties have left us able to stock the libraries for months.

Seed packing qualifies for Community Service hours for the student in your household. (We do ask that students younger than 16 be accompanied by an adult.)

We will have hot mulled cider and light snacks.

The weather is forecast to be sunny with a high of 57 degrees.

Please join us to get the Alameda Free Seed Libraries off to a strong start in 2023. Reply to this email to let us know if you will be able to attend.

Because of our chilly weather earlier in the season, many of Alameda’s fruit trees have already gotten their winter’s worth of chill hours; well over 400 as of January 27. As a result, many are ready to bud out ahead of schedule and need to get pruned soon!

Marla Koss, one of ABG’s fruit tree pruning experts, will demonstrate winter dormant and citrus pruning and you’ll get to try it out on your own with help from experienced pruners, and help Ploughshares at the same time.

Wear sturdy, closed-toe shoes (preferably hiking or work boots). If we have a sunny day, you might want to bring a sun hat and/or sunscreen. A water bottle is also highly recommended. Also helpful: eye protection (clear safety goggles/glasses).

Equipment to bring, if you have it:

• bypass pruning shears
• gardening/work gloves
• other pruning equipment such as a pruning saw or loppers

Adults only. We know that interest will exceed the space available and will keep a waiting list. If you register and are unable to attend, we need you to cancel at least 3 days in advance so that we can offer your space to someone else. Please cancel by emailing abg.grow.food@gmail.com.

Ploughshares Nursery is a social enterprise that is part of Alameda Point Collaborative. APC works to end homelessness by providing housing and services to create communities where formerly homeless families and individuals can flourish.

Here are some photos from this event:

Join us for a discussion of the joys of perennial vegetable gardening. Why grow them? What are the drawbacks? Which veggies are perennials? We’ll also discuss when and how to plant selected perennial vegetables that can be grown in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as how to take care of them and when and how to harvest.

Speaker Bio: Linda Carloni is an enthusiastic vegetable gardener in the city of Alameda, as well as a UC Master Gardener in Alameda County and a member of Alameda Backyard Growers’ Board of Directors. She watches birds whenever she can, and works to protect them. In a past life, she practiced law, mostly serving small technology companies.

Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/perennial-vegetables-why-not-tickets-524219894817
Zoom link provided after registration.