bring that beet back...

don't let the bastards beet ya down. la avenida beetdown. beetstreet. it's hard to beet five pound beets and mint juleps at 3pm.

the tejas crew came through and unleashed a positive flood of love on our gardens. heaps of cocktails made out of garden mint and bottom shelf bourbon. beetfries and amazing food. these gals knew their gardens, knew their cooking and knew their fun...  hell yes.

WWOOF updates

Hi. We are all full for WWOOFers this summer. If you want to swing by for a day or two, we can possibly host you up until July 15, but we are undergoing some infrastructure changes and are not hosting anyone between July 16 and September 15.

A few more thoughts about WWOOFing-

- Don't be surprised if WWOOF farms don't want to talk on the phone to you at first. Email is easier for most of the farms we are linked with and it gives us an opportunity to screen out the creeps and the wingnuts without having to engage them personally. Yeah, the WWOOF network recommends calling but a whole lot of us will hold back on the phone calls 'til you meet the sniff test. And when you get fifteen to thirty requests a week (it's summer farm season!), there is simply not enough time to be sitting around on the phone answering the same questions over and over again when there's planting and harvesting and composting and south swells.


If you want to WWOOF, read the farm's profile (like really read it, most of your questions will be answered) and decide if you're interested. Then send a nice email with a little about you. If the farm is interested in you (or any WWOOFers, lots are full right now and busy as hell), they will write back. Following up with further bitchy emails or even worse, bitchier phone calls is not a good way to proceed... no matter how desperate you are to do something on your summer break. We will always write you back as a matter of courtesy and expect that you reciprocate that courtesy by not getting pissy if we don't have room for you or don't want to respond to the 35 questions you ask that are all answered on our profile.

Legion of Roots and Amazing WWOOFers

Second bed of carrots just came up. Reds. Whites. Oranges. Yellows. Pinks. Delicious.

Three great new WWOOFers around digging beds and pulling the ubiquitous chickweed and quackgrass that loves our beds. N and D from the South Bay joined us for the weekend with delicious baked good and the kind of good natured positivity that is so needed in the world. T has been here from San Diego/Trestles a few days and has put her permaculture wisdom to work slaying our powdery mildew problems and finishing the irrigation systems. We are so fortunate for the amazing people the WWOOF network has sent us...

because when i hear the word permaculture, i shouldn't have to reach for my wallet

I spend a lot of time in "bad" parts of the region. Compton. Watts. Inglewood. San Fernando. East LA. Montebello. And everywhere I go there are little gardens tended by recently arrived mexican immigrants and withered old black women. There is a place in compton where there is a volunteer papaya tree 14' high with six whorls of orange papayas on it growing out of the crack of a housing project and places in south central where black men with southern drawls maintain horse corrals and grow corn a block off the 110 in between trucking company warehouses. there are little alley plots all over oxnard and ventura where people have chickens and grow epazote for dinner.

this is the past, present and future of sustainability: health, food and work without pretensions. it's too bad that most of permaculture scene in the region seems to be composed of twats selling $2,000 permaculture design courses to the type of over privileged yuppies who collect sustainable lifestyle choices like old generals collect medals.

Cherimoya Germination Salvation

After months of mixed results with starting plants from seed, we just
gave up and have followed the less than scientific process of just
throwing a bunch of seeds in a pot, pitching in some dirt and water
and letting the hands of fate do all the labor. And boom. Cherimoyas.
A dozen of them rocketing to the sky.

good wwoofer magic!

some daily affirmations to make the wwoofing process better for all of us...

• good wwoofers are friendly and nice

• good wwoofers read the farm listings carefully and only respond to farms they actually are interested in working on

• good wwoofers don't send out generic form emails to farms. most farms are super busy and take care to answer each prospective wwoofer and it's a bit disheartening to get emails from people who either haven't read your posting or asking questions obviously answered in your listing.

• good wwoofers realize that there is more to wwoofing than sweating with plants and dirt. most farms are rooted in family or community and good wwoofers do their best to contribute to every aspect of the farm: like being friendly and inviting to new wwoofers, neighbors and residents alike.

• good wwoofers help keep the living areas, working and cooking areas clean and functional. all wwoof hosts resent cleaning up after their visitors

• good wwoofers aren't sleezy men who harass their female counterparts.

• good wwoofers don't let god or jah come between them and respectful relationships with the greater wwoofing community.

• good wwoofers realize that the continued success of wwoofing is reliant upon wwoofers not stealing or sleezing or slacking so that farms no longer want to mess with them...

• good wwoofers are the best thing ever! (and we've had nothing but the best!!!)

xoxo

don't let wwoofing turn into thunderdome (though we do love tina turner a whole lot)

WWOOFing Opportunities...

We have some slots open for wwoofing for 10-14 days each between 6/1- 6/18 and then again from 6/20- 7/13. There should be a good crew of folks from all over the world bouncing through at that time so it might be a great time to make some new friends and have some fun. The weather is getting warmer and the gardens are starting to fire!

Projects that will be happening during that time:

- shed building or retrofitting
- rooftop planters being made for melons and passionfruit
- using old salvaged brick to build a new staircase
- removing a wall of invasive ivy and planting a new bed for bananas, cherimoya, passionfruit and chayote
- weeding, thinning and transplanting
- designing a bicycle storage area
- eating a lot of great food.

If you can't make the early summer slots, drop us a line as we may be hosting more wwoofers as space and projects dictate in the Fall...