Meyer Lemons

In April, there will be a Forage Oakland Citrus Party, which will include marmalade making; exchanging of recipes; enrolling new Forage Oakland members; and just all around revelry. When I am back in town next week, I will post more details.

In the meantime, do post comments with favorite meyer lemon recipes.

Happy Birthday, Forage Oakland

Today Forage Oakland turns 1. This weekend promises a grapefruit harvest, lemon harvests, and two very small canning projects.

Stay tuned for quite a bit more on this subject.

(The above image is a poster from the very beginning, when I was quite ambitious and imagined I could really manage a bartering network in San Francisco as well, and also thought I might include vegetables in the exchange. Now, though, Forage Oakland has honed its reach, and is limited to those living in South Berkeley and North Oakland. In addition, Forage Oakland is specifically a fruit and nut exchange. In the near future, and very seasonally, maybe we'll barter edible flowers, too, since there appears to be an interest.)

Cheers,
Asiya

Agnès Varda; Grapefruit Marmalade; and Chickweed

I discovered a sole passion fruit in the back of the fridge on Monday. Here, along with lemon verbena from Miles St., it is drying. My favorite way to eat a passion fruit is really straight from its cup, halving it, and scooping the flesh straight into my mouth.

Tuesday, after leaving class, I turned onto my block to discover a healthy and abundant patch of chickweed. Thus began the chickweed frenzy in earnest.

And Wednesday, I made 51st St. grapefruit marmalade, which yielded 17 jars of all sizes.

If you live in the Bay Area and have not seen the Gleaners and I, I highly recommend viewing it at UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive. It will be showing on the big screen Friday, 27 March and Saturday, 18 April.

*and*

If you are free this afternoon, do check out The Anarchist Bookfair, which is taking place at the San Francisco Fairground Building at the edge of Golden Gate Park. There are books and other media for purchase; free or virtually free media; lectures and panel discussions; and even vegetable and flower seeds for sale. The bookfair is taking place through the afternoon.

Forage Oakland Toolkit

This summer I will be working on creating a toolkit, a guide- more or less, so that anyone, anywhere in the world can start their own foraged city barter network. A project can be started anywhere where there is urban fruit that is being under-utilized, which- I imagine- is in many cities throughout the world. The toolkit will be available to anyone, and will guide you through various aspects of starting your own barter network, i.e. how best to approach the neighbors; how to identify fruit in your community; how to equitably redistribute it; how to involve the neighbors. This is all to the end of creating a new collective consciousness around how we view our neighborhoods, how we interact with our neighbors, and how we can best be self-reliant and resourceful in our communities. Obviously, the barter is not a new concept, but it has fallen out of fashion so much so that it is considered quaint, charming, or even impractical. I'd like to refute this notion and present the barter as a viable means of community food security, albeit on a rather small scale, and a practical means of enjoying the season's bounty.

Stay Tuned

This is going to be a spring filled with collaborations on many levels, and I'm looking forward to each of them. For starters, here are two confirmed events:

On Saturday, 14 March, I will be part of a panel discussion sponsored by the San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair which addresses innovative ways to survive the economic downturn.

Save the Date: Sunday, 7 June: Forage Oakland will participate in a community event held at the Berkeley Art Museum, which addresses participatory community activism at the grassroots level. Stay tuned for more details, please.

It's true.

There are ripe loquats in the neighborhood, and Monica and I gorged ourselves on many today. Here are photos. Once there are enough for trade, we'll be able to break the wintry spell of the citrus, which is great in its own right. But who isn't ready for loquats, though?

This is what they look like once they're ripe-- this fuzzy peach-like skin and sour flesh.

Loquats (and Girl Scout 'Trefoil' Cookies).

Monica with loquats in hand.

Oranges.

Today was the Orange Harvest Party + Brunch, which was great fun. We gathered at Helena's West Oakland house, which turned out to be a eden-like collective of houses that have a communal backyard that includes a mammoth orange tree; a very active rosemary bush; a rooster who pecks on the back door when it wants a snack; and an agave plant that bloomed last fall, that, at its height, was growing approximately a foot per day.

After brunch, we braved the rain and harvested oranges in the backyard. Here are photos from the day.

The fruit picker, one of two that were used for the harvesting.

Helena up the ladder and braving the rain.

Me, with the fruit picker.

Sam catching oranges from Helena.

Hannah with one of two full canvas bags.

And more oranges in the bag.

Sam's hands.

Fruit picker full of fruit.

Hannah harvesting chickweed (from the front yard) for the citrus and chickweed salad. Essentially, it was a Front Yard (chickweed)/ Back Yard (oranges) Salad.

And again.

Also...
Juicing Shafter Avenue oranges yesterday morning in preparation for making syrups for Aunt Carla.