Edible City movie trailer and Matthew Crawford's Soul Craft

Newest link from Emmanuel: Edible City movie trailer. The documentary tracks urban gardeners, some right here in the Bay Area, doing cool urban farming and explains why it's important. EB Alums are involved in the project: Bret Turner, Andrew Hasse and other people. Would be great paired with the new documentary Food Inc.

Edible City Trailer 2 from East Bay Pictures on Vimeo.

Also, to check out latest New Yorker book review "Book Fast Bikes, Slow Food and Workplace Wars" of Matthew Crawford's Shop class as Soul Craft. The review explicates some of the current intellectual discussions in the US around work/the importance of craft (doing something w/your hands)/ and localism (in the Michael Pollan model.)

Potato Tower link to SF Chronicle article & Material lists

My colleague Emmanuel Coup (our webmaster and 7th and 8th grade Math teacher) and I are spending the summer trying to figure out how to build a garden at our school-- our building is rented (we're a private school) and the schoolyard is recently beautifully repaved and blackened concrete. So we'll have to pirate a site somewhere outside the school fence in the parking lot where gardening will be somewhat safe from wind and vandals. Or if that plan gets vetoed we're thinking container gardens that can be sent home w/ students as a long term homework project.

Emmanuel found this relevant article about potato towers.

His wife, Shirley Watts, a professional gardener, sent along this critical info. re. raised beds and container gardens:

Materials needed:
Redwood Boards: 22 boards 2x12x8 (rough RRO) @ $3.83 Linear Foot: $704

Hardware:
One 10lb box outside deck screws: $35 (make sure heads fit hardware)
12 Simpson ties (stair angle for inside corners # TA10Z): @$6 = $72
24 L Angle brackets (5-1/2”) by Stanley (for outside top & bottom of each joint): @$3 = $72
Flat 6” Stanley reinforcement hardware to reinforce sides: 24 @ $2= $48
Weedblock: One 4x50 roll @ $25 (may need to get at Home Depo)

Wine barrels/Large 15+ gallon pots: 2 (Home Depo or OSH or Rosenblum)
Soil: Davis St. Whole Earth Mix; 4cu yds@ $30/yd: $120


Tools needed for raised bed build date:
Electric Saw (need power outlet access)
Saw horses/table
Measuring tape
Electric drills (or battery powered)/bits
Screw drivers

Garden Anywhere Boxes for k-12

Curriculum idea for grades 1-8 @ schools addicted to concrete:
Every student has to find a recycled wooden or metal box or bin about the size of those used for cases of wine. When school starts we take field trips to local edible gardens in Berkeley (King's famous Edible Schoolyard, Le Conte, Willard where they've made a pizza oven out of mud), students drill holes in their boxes, build a compost and a worm bin to begin preparing rich soil with compost (preferably made at school from composted student lunches and yard waste). In December, we plant fava beans for the winter, to prepare for Feb./March plantings of onions, garlic, spinach, carrots, nasturtiums, lettuce, sweet peas, etc. Finale in May/June, after contests for most beautiful or bountiful box, each makes a short cooking demonstration movie in Spanish or French using harvest from his/her box.
Materials (goal: keep cost of whole project for 40 students to under $50):
soil
seeds
saw horses and recycled door as a work space to attend to boxes at school
Resource book: Garden Anywhere by Alys Fowler

Educational objectives: This is a project that can be linked to every class. For example, it could be a touchstone for every 8th grade class:
Geometry classes could build compost and worm bins;
Science could discuss plant guilds, nutrition, ecology, use of sustainable resources, English tie in could be eco-journalism, discussions around Fahrenheit 451or Brave New World
Algebra- word problems around energy conservation; volume
Spanish, Chinese, French: students will make their food demonstrations in a second language; literature and current event articles can also be a part of the reading and conversations in class
In art students can decorate the boxes

What's the point? to reengage with and care for plants and the soil, air, water needed to grow them well because they embody the processes that make it possible to take care of ourselves and our environment better. Garbage that becomes great soil for great edible plants remind us why recycling and composting is worth the daily discipline. At least that is a hypothesis. Let's test it out.

Plum leaves June

Wine dark leaves
boughs bear
the weight
as she,
our plum tree,
feeds the now:
shiny fruit,
red squirrel,
Anna's hummingbird,
Mrs. Robinson,
the man down the street
who grew up on Blake
and lives in the park
now

I wait
for plum butter
I'll make on
Bodie's birthday