Let Our Garden Grow

The Slow Food Nation extravaganza has come and gone over the recent Labor Day Weekend, and it seemed to provoke quite a bit of ambivalence among "foodies."



My friend Samantha Breach wrote an interesting essay on the subject at her excellent "Becks and Posh" site (click here). She also directed me to a fascinating account at "The Inadvertent Gardener" (click here) by a Slow Nation volunteer who found herself horrified at the rampant consumerism in the midst of what is usually a place for the homeless.



The Mayor's office has announced that the "Victory Garden" in Civic Center Plaza will be allowed to live on through November, possibly around Thanksgiving.



This is splendid news because the garden has a very nice feeling these days now that the Slow Food circus has moved on, and one of the volunteers even directed me to a secret pumpkin in the middle of a planting bed.



The farmers' market at U.N. Plaza next door also continues to provide inexpensive, delicious produce on Wednesdays and Sundays to a part of town without many grocery stores. The market was started in 1981 by Quakers trying to get fresh produce to poor people in the Tenderloin, but of course Gavin Newsom's Real Estate Department has been making noises about taking over the operation and raising everyone's fees. (Click here for a recent article on the issue.) The hypocrisy of Newsom's administration really can be stunning.