Urban Adamah: An Urban Farm Pop-Up

While I work in San Francisco, when I moved to the Bay Area this summer I decided to live in the East Bay. It's a bit more affordable than San Francisco, has a great community, and feels laid back. Actually, it feels a lot like Seattle to me.

I haven't explored much yet, and decided to take a walk down San Pablo Ave. Starting at the Dwight Way cross-section, this is an adorable stretch of small restaurants, cafes, and shops. But what really excited me was what I glimpsed through a chain link fence.

I saw people moving around towards the back of the farm, and walked around the back to take a look. I found out that the farm is run by Urban Adamah, a community farm and Jewish Environmental Education Center. I got a chance to talk with one of their current fellows, who was nice enough to let me walk through and take photos. 

The farm itself was only started in February, and the land is on loan from a local business, Wareham Development, LLC. The land itself used to be a printing press, making the soil itself unsafe for planting edibles. However, because of the soil quality and the fact that the program only has the land for two years, basically everything on the farm is designed to be portable. Take a look at these pallet beds: 

The group made a great video that describes the process of building these moveable beds. Each bed comes to about $8.48 in materials, which is pretty incredible. Most of the food is donated to a local church and food banks, as well as a free weekly farm stand. The farm itself includes a work space, chickens, compost piles, and a cob oven. 

The fellows stay for three months, and in addition to the farm work complete an internship. Current interns are also attending the Edible Education class at Berkeley. 

Projects like these always remind me how beautiful urban gardens can be, a wonderful solution to urban blight. The mobility of this farm is both beautiful and frustrating; urban farms should be able to pop up in unexpected places, but the group has no idea where - and if - they'll be able to secure new space after the 2012 season. But in the meantime, they can inspire us with the creativity and dedication that is so apparent in this farm.