Bay area urban agriculture tour!

Because none of us have ever started or run a non-profit urban agriculture project before, we decided it would be a good idea to visit some successful projects with elements similar to what we were planning to implement. What better place to start than the bay area of California? Well known for its food movements and support for local agriculture, we were amazed by the number of tiny hole in the wall–and sometimes not so small–urban agriculture projects that existed. And we were only looking at ones that had high school education components! With one day to plan the trip and only public transit systems at our service, we set out from Sacramento at 4am on a Wednesday morning. The first two days were spent in San Jose (read about Veggielution), then on Friday we did a whirlwind tour of three projects in Oakland and Berkeley (City Slicker Farms, Urban Adamah, and King Middle School’s Edible Schoolyard), completing our tour with a backyard garden visit and wonderful talk with the Tennyson High School garden teacher in San Francisco’s Mission District. Take a look at detailed accounts of our visits in the coming days.