Goodbye Blogger, hello Wordpress.

Forage Oakland has a new home at Wordpress! All the content from Blogger has been imported to the Wordpress blog, and once all posts are tagged, you'll be able to search for information by post category.  Click here to visit the new site.

Thanks,
Asiya

"At Vacant Homes, Foraging For Fruit" in the NY Times

On Sunday, August 14, an article about foraging at Atlanta's foreclosed homes appeared in the New York Times. The article, written by Kim Severson, offers an interesting perspective on foraging during economically trying times; you can decide for yourself what you think about this practice, and the ethical questions therein.

Click here for the full article.

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts: Summer of Smart

 

 (Screenshot taken from the GAFFTA, SoS website)

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) is a San Francisco-based foundation that seamlessly integrates the work of designers, coders, urbanists, and artists. They work at the intersection of these various disciplines, producing provocative work that engages people from disparate fields.

Here is a bit about their work, in their own words:  " GAFFTA brings together the best creative coders, data artists, designers, and makers to create experiments that build social consciousness through digital culture. We fund programs aimed at the production, research, and dissemination of digital culture where art, science, technology, and society intersect. We bring diverse communities together to incubate ideas, and we support and showcase the projects they create. We host classes, workshops, seminars, and symposia taught and attended by the very people that are transforming today’s digital age.


This weekend, GAFFTA is organizing the third and final Summer of Smart: Public Health + Food + Nutrition + Urban Agriculture. The event, which is open to the public, is a weekend-long affair whereby teams of attendees will work together to create mobile applications that address urgent needs at the nexus of planning, food systems, and public health. The most promising projects will have an opportunity to present their work at the San Francisco mayoral forum, as well as become researchers-in-residence at GAFFTA this fall.  Click here for more information about this dynamic event.

I'll be there, and I hope to see you, too.

-Asiya

Boskoi: New Foraging Mobile App

(screenshot pulled from the Boskoi website)

Urban Edibles, an Amersterdam-based harvesting group, has released a new mobile foraging application whereby users can search for any number of fruits, nuts, fungi, herbs, and reeds, among other forage-ables. The new application is based on an opensource Ushahidi platform and is called Boskoi, which means 'browser' in Greek. The application is currently available in beta form for Android phones.

Download the free application and contribute to the crowdsourced list of edibles.

Thank you for attending the Oakland Museum Harvesting Tour!

Photo by Shaun Roberts, courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.

Photo by Shaun Roberts, courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.

 Photo by Toni Gauthier, courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.

Thanks to all who joined us on Sunday, July 10, for a meandering bike ride from the Oakland Museum to Temescal. Despite the time constraints, we were able to harvest plums on 41st St. (thanks to Viva and Jonathan's generosity), as well as make an impromptu stop along Lakeshore for a blackberry harvest. With a critical mass of approximately 50 people, we were a sizeable crowd, taking the scenic route down Oak St.; around Lake Merritt; and along Webster until we reached our destination.

Some have requested a route map, which I'll post soon.

If you were able to capture any photos during the tour or subsequent panel discussion, please email me at forageoakland@gmail.com

Thanks for attending this event, and though Forage Oakland won't be directly involved in upcoming Seed Circus events, I encourage you to attend.

Sincerely,
Asiya

The Future of Apps In The Hands of Today’s Teens (Re-post from MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Blog)

If you'd like to learn a bit more about Forage Oakland's involvement with the MacArthur Foundation sponsored Mobile Action Lab, follow this link. The new urban harvesting mobile application will allow users to locate fruit trees within a specified geographic area and to be notified as the fruit is ripening (and thus ready for harvest) and contact Oakland-ers (and eventually users in other cities, but Oakland will serve as the pilot city) who are available to assist with harvesting in exchange for a certain quantity of excess backyard fruit. In addition, the application will allow fruit tree owners to donate (or barter, if they choose) their glut to a local non-profit that is in need of a regular supply of fruit.

This application will essentially crowd-source the labor- staying abreast of a fruit tree's ripening schedule; contacting fruit tree owners; arranging for harvesting and redistribution- that results in a successful urban fruit redistribution program. It has the potential to increase the amount of excess fruit that is equitably redistributed to individuals, households, and community organizations in Oakland, as it will increase the efficiency by which residents can contact willing harvesters, and harvesters can- in turn- redistribute said fruit. I look forward to the application's launch later this summer, and please check the Mobile Action Lab or the Forage Oakland blog for updates about this exciting collaboration.

Forage Oakland + Oakland Museum Harvesting Tour

Please help spread the word about this tour, and also, email forageoakland@gmail.com if you have fruit trees in need of harvest, and would be amenable to the Museum tour making a stop at your home. The tour will take place on Sunday, July 10, 1:00 pm. Visit this link, or view Sunday's schedule below.

********

FORAGE

Sunday July 10th, 2011
1:00 pm

Foraging has provided sustenance to all kinds of communities of all kinds since the earliest days of California, but the practice has captured new interest as an alternative to the industrial food system.
This event begins with a bicycle tour of fruit gleaning spots in Temescal, guided by Forage Oakland. Upon return to the Museum, there will be presentations and discussion with California foragers and a screening of the film The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000). The event includes a take-away guide by artist Kacie Erin Smith, and, quite possibly, tastes of foraged foodstuffs.

Bike Tour
OMCA Oak Plaza & Temescal
1:00 pm

Meet at OMCA for a bike tour guided by Forage Oakland. The route is a total distance of about seven miles, over mostly flat terrain; we'll ride at a moderate pace. Bike-nurse services by East Bay Bike Party, and bike valet by East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC).

Discussion
OMCA Oak Plaza
3:00 pm

Short presentations by panelists, followed by group discussion.

Eugene Ahn, FORAGE restaurant, LA
Kevin Cook, chef and boar hunter
Kirk Lombard, marine forager
Osha Neumann, lawyer
Iso Rabins, ForageSF
Moderators: Ted Purves & Susanne Cockrell, artists

Film
OMCA Gallery of California Art
3:30 pm

Screening of documentary film The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000).
"[Director Agnès Varda] crisscrossed the French countryside…in search of people who scavenge in potato fields, apple orchards, and vineyards, as well as in urban markets and curbside trash depositories. Some are motivated by desperate need, others by disgust at the wastefulness all around them…The Gleaners and I is both a diary and a kind of extended essay on poverty, thrift, and the curious [practice] of scavenging."
–A. O. Scott, New York Times

All images courtesy of the Oakland Museum.

Hear in the City: Interview Archived

Hi Friends,

The Forage Oakland 'Hear in the City' interview with Sara Harris has been archived, and this link will take you to the audio file.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,
Asiya of Forage Oakland

Hear in the City: Radio Realities from the Urban Landscapes

Forage Oakland will be on "Hear in the City" this afternoon at 3:30 pm, so tune in! In Los Angeles, the show is broadcast on 90.7 FM.

Here is a bit of information about the radio program, culled from their website:

"Our show: focuses on local environment, arts, education, and culture in and around Los Angeles. Our goal is to map the city through sound-rich profiles of people living and working toward creative social change and solutions.
 
We envision our show as radio for and by community stakeholders. One main tactic in that strategy is that we, as journalists and producers, work with community stakeholders who have important stories to tell. We assign a producer to help tell that story in a way that makes for compelling radio. As opposed to speaking with “sources” or “subjects” on themes of interest and news-worthiness, we work with people who have an interest in getting the word out and are clear about what their interest and POV is.

We are producers of conversations that bring listeners to an issue of common interest through audio gathering techniques that highlight places and peoples. We encourage the people who we collaborate with to spread the word about the project and help us to create an audience of interested and invested community participants. Stay tuned as we unfold this plan."

49th Street Figs

This is my favorite fig tree in Temescal, and the residents harvest this tree throughout the season. If you ask, though, they'll most likely allow you to join in the harvest, especially towards the end of season, when the figs are especially sweet, puckered, and sun-kissed.