Harvesting San Francisco's Victory Garden
Harvesting San Francisco's Victory Garden
Last week I went to City Hall to help harvest the Slow Food Victory Garden. Developed as a solution to food shortages during World War I and II, victory gardens not only supply vegetables, fruit, and herbs to the masses, but they also act as a morale booster during tough times. Today Slow Food has partnered with San Francisco to showcase the spirit and power of the public victory garden. The victory of these gardens, however, is to reduce the food miles normally associated with the average American meal and promote homegrown local produce.
Every Thursday a group of volunteers meets to harvest the vegetables. Arranged in a stunning concentric design, the garden provides food and illustrates the pure beauty of such vegetables as red chard and squash blossoms. While I picked bunches of collard greens and washed heads of lettuce, I couldn't help but think how vegetables are as gorgeous and colorful as flowers.
Do you have a garden? Have you ever been a part of a large-scale harvest? While you may not be able to experience this victory garden's harvest firsthand, you can take a look at my gallery filled with images. To do so, read more.
- The Victory Garden is planted in front of San Francisco's City Hall.
- Upon entering, there is a sign that describes the motto of the garden.
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- Anyone can walk through the garden and take a rest on one of the hay benches.
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- Fresh basil!
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- All of the signs are written in Spanish, English, and Chinese.
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- Wild flowers were planted to attract bugs that pollinate the vegetables.
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- The start of my collard green harvest.
- Kelsey, the garden educator teaches me how to harvest.
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- Rubber bands for bunching together stems of greens.
- The gardens are designed in a circular patter.
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- My box begins to fill up!
- After a bunch of greens is harvested, you give it a double dip, first in the left bucket of water and next in the right bucket.
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- A blooming squash blossom is absolutely beautiful.
- A growing squash blossom.
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- A volunteer works on the harvest.
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- The vibrant stems of red chard remind me of Christmas.
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- More wild flowers.
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- A hay bench makes a nice resting spot.
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- After harvesting the collard greens, I washed this box of lettuce heads.
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- I learned that fresh cut lettuce leaves are very delicate.
- The harvested vegetables are taken to the San Francisco Food Bank. From there the produce is distributed to churches, schools, f
- The boxes are placed in the shade to prevent wilting.
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- The water becomes cloudy quickly. Its important to frequently change the wash buckets.
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- The hose where the wash buckets are filled.
- In neat circles, the vegetables look pretty.
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- The compost heap.
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