Orientation went so well. A small turnout of people showed up - only a few new folks came - there was Steve, Jose, Ali, Jim, John, Mike, Ryan, Megan, Ngoc, Christina, Richard, Tony, Jack, David Saxton, Balyn, and Bee Vadakan, the new coordinator. Once we had gathered in the Garden, John and Ryan led the opening activity: throw a ball of yarn around the circle and say what your interests are and what you hope from PICA this year. We had a lot in common beyond the string.
Steve spoke of the Quarry and its history. I'd known that the Quarry was mined for limestone to produce the streets of San Francisco; I hadn't known that the raptor group had actually raised peregrine falcons onsite, that they were one of the first ones in the country to do so. Steve had told me, a few days earlier, that the trailers were from the 9/10 construction project, when the builders had panicked, thinking that they were not going to finish in time, and bought the 21 trailers for temporary residence. They finished on time and tried to sell the trailers, discovering that the return on their investment would be terrible. So they moved them down to the Village, where Steve had already set up shop in old trailers from the Trailer Park. As Ali mentioned, they moved Steve and the agroecology department out of those trailers in place for Village residency. At first Steve was not too happy about it, but then he saw it as a good opportunity to implement something that he and others had for a while been incubating. Hence, came PICA. Steve was able to secure the A-Quad in compensation for the E- and F-Quads. Then Ali, Emel, and others lived in PICA for the first time - in the C-Quad. They tried growing things with little success due to the ravaging squirrels, so they came up with an idea. During the cold of winter and the glory of spring in 2003, they built the fence that surrounds the Garden and the hoop house atop the hill. Ali stayed on for two years, then Ryan took over. The rest, as they say, is history.
Jim introduced us to some of the Village's guidelines and expressed his hope that the Village and PICA would collaborate in many great ways.
After we had sat a spell, we broke up into three groups and went on a plant scavenger hunt. The teams had a list of clues that they used to identify plants, which were already labeled so that they would know their choices. Of course, each group had a different list, and there were 24 plants total labeled in the garden, of which each group only needed to find 8... Meanwhile, while that was happening, Balyn, Ryan, Mike, and John left to begin making dinner.
The Farmers donated three boxes of produce to us that kicked off our first community meal this year. Ryan and Balyn made roasted root vegetables using Dave Shaw's suggestion, plus some kale from the Garden in a wok, tons of brown rice, and the yellow squash softened in the oven, with herbs and butter. We broke up into a couple different groups to eat - Steve, Bee, Jim, and Jose had slipped away, and we had been joined by Seth (an apprentice who brought zebra tomatoes to contribute) and others.
What a phenomenal day!!
