during the republican national convention here in philly, a schoolbus converted into an industrial kitchen that wanders the country sharing free food wherever its needed came to town & parked near a huge abandoned lot 3 blocks from my place, I knew alot of the kitchen folks for several years already so went & helped em out everyday for about 2 months, they cooked some of the best vegatarian food ya ever tasted for about 800 people a day, as well as gave away about a ton of fresh produce every other day. during this time we cleaned up the lot, & dug about 5 beds, planting flowers in 1 bed & veggies in the rest..and also built an adobe oven that made the best pizzas you ever tasted, in under 2 minutes when the kitchen left town about 5 local freinds & i decided to try to continue a kitchen there, which didnt work out so we decided to just expand the garden.. later that year the city tore down the rest of the buildings on the block, giving us the entire block to work with.. this kinda hidden little corner is right in the center of a bad crack neighbourhood where alcaholism, crack & heroin addiction runs wild.. yet the garden made it a little safe island of serenity, whre you can actualy set up a tent & camp for months, have fires & drum circles, you can even leave your drums there overnight & people will waytch out for them, the cops in the area are extremely freindly & supportivem the leutenant even brought a door for the oven, & the fire department was amazed about the oven & sent volunteers to help cook, even though technicaly its illegal. our garden was named "lots of love" and is the only open garden in the city, meaning theres no gates, & anyone is welcome at anytime to garden there..& i beleive is the only reason at least 1 of the crackheads is not dead from starvation. the neighbourhood is a very interesting colorful area & you never know what to expect next, for 2 years we were constantly finding artwork hanging on the fences, & noone had aclue where it was comming from untill one of us fll asleep there & woke up at 5 am to find a guy hanging his paintings. for 3 years we had a picnic table that always had food on it, but noone was really sure where it came from..its kindof a magical place in ways, but has had its share of problems as wel, like the past year we havent had enough people working on it regularly so lately its been getting trashed & weeds taking over (befor that you'd never find trash there) in the past we worked with all the kids in the neighbourhod, many of thems fathers died to drugs or violence, & when we started they were really closed off & never talked to anyone, some of em wandered the neighbourhood throwing rocks at windows & people, but we started doing crafts with them & taking them on trips & working in the garden, & had a huge halooween party every year which attracted over 1000 kids. if theres any philly or local folkss intersted in getting together once a week or something & helping revive the garden, pm me oh, yea incedentaly, the kitchen bus had been comming around every year except the last 2 cause it died, but theyre in the proccess of building a new 1 which should be ready semi soon & will be back at he garden pumping out yummy food, most likely for a few months & when they get it together they'll need a crew too & if your interested they always need folks willing to travle & share food all over the country.
much that's bad ass, i'm glad to see people still getting together for things like this. I know this is a bit hipocritical, my wife grew up in the middle of the country, and I've become more country (not in the "hick" sense of the word, but pushed away from the city is more appropriate) and it's sad, but when projects like these kick off, it's hard to be drawn to them. Distance is one thing, but trust of community is highly lacking, and of course people such as our selves don't help any. I think we've both commited to do more things in the community in the coming years, and will hopefully be part of the solution. anyway, good luck to you all, sounds great!
well distance hasnt been a problem in past years since some folks have come from all over the country & camped out there for months at a time.. for being such a "rough" neighbourhood, its extremely freindly & the people there watch out for anyone helpin out at the garfden..& the cops are very freindly too. they even didnt say anything when we were baking ganja cookies & the entire 3 block area smelled like weed, 2 of em came onto the bus & had a look around & came out smilling ear to ear, & when they went off duty they came back & helped cook some of the cops even had plantefd a few things in the garden in the past, & had given us light shows when we had drum circles thre. its amazing how a simple garden can change an entire neighbourhood
By any chance was that Carlos and his Rainbow kitchen bus? He came down to SF in '84 after the Likely gathering to feed folks during the encampment in Golden Gate Park during the '84 Democratic Convention....
not sure if it was carlos since the crew changes alot, & it wasa rainbow bus but it wasnt anyones bus (is that a hint maybe?) they preffer the name not be mentioned online, i beleive the old bus was dead before likely however, what was the bus called that came to sf? (maybe pm me)
There's people getting involved in community gardens in my city as well (Dublin, Ireland). At the moment, there's only one, but there's talk of two others starting - maybe they'll have to wait till Spring at this stage; I'm not sure. I was down at the local one this afternoon actually (only my second time - the space has only been used since late April, and I've busy (or at least that's my excuse )) - doing a bit of watering. It's beside a canal - from which we collect the water. People passing by on the other side of the canal are probably wondering 'who the fuck is that nutcase sticking a bucket into the canal?', but - as with the garden you've described yourself - at least the police haven't tried to stop people using the space. Personally, I'd say I'm probably interested in it as much for the community aspect of it as for any other reason. Cities are strange - I mean, there might be approx. 500 people within a 100-metre radius of where you are sitting/standing, but there are not many obvious avenues through which you can actually converse, get to know, and share ideas (and ...well ...just time) with them. Open and free community spaces (like the gardens) - as opposed to non-free, and closed, spaces, such as restaurants, cafes etc. - are an obvious way to meet people. I really think these kind of spaces are badly needed. Excellent name, and very cool pics! The adobe oven (assuming that's what it is) looks good!
I love seeing empty urban space put to good use. Where a building once stood should be given back to the neighborhood. I'm not Vegetarian but i enjoy a dish of roasted peppers and tomatoes from my garden. Fried green tomatoes rock!! From thephotos i can picture myself if i lived there, helping out and enjoying good friends.
That's fantastic, the idea makes me feel happy. I live in (ok, near) Detroit, where there's tons of abandoned lots, driving through it (though I rarely do, i'm isolated from it, out here in the 'burbs) make me feel so sad, it's so desolate and poor. But one thinks, man, if the people there turned them into gardens, maybe they could bring back some pride to their community, and get cheap (healthy) food too. I mean, it's just grassy lots now, but it wouldn't be that much work. I think that'd be a cool thing to volunteer to do, I wonder if there are groups around here like that which I could get involved with. By the way, I like how you get the kids involved too, that's great. Much props to you and the rest of the people.
Wow that is sooooo cool...I'd definently love to help out if I could, if I made it to your part of the country!
nice job eagle,,thanks brother for helpin out..ive benn wanting to do the same thing here.1/2 of a block buned down from a candle that a heroin atic was useing.hopefully the rubbis will be cleaned up by spring planting time. frog
its been a few weeks since the start of this thread... hows the garden?... its a beautiful idea... i hope you got loads of folk interested.. wish i was somewhere near
pabsy, your definately invited we've actualy had folks camping there for months & toyed with the idea of putting up a tipi & doing tutoring in it i think things wil realy pick up in the spring.. & anyone who wants to stop by & camp out awhile is welcome to
Hey... that sounds like a great idea... it would be good if you could post us updates here from time to time...
i sure will, there may not be many garden updates till spring, except theres a possibility that the kitchen/bus that started it all may be up & running soon, but i'd imagine they'd head to the huricane releife before comming back here..but if they do come back the whole neighbourhood turns into like a nonstop party zone & then there will always be people there to do stuff
a schoolbus converted into an industrial kitchen? Kick ass! Glad to see that there are creative ways of giving out food and charity to those who need it!
eagle, that is so awesome! there are areas like that here in south florida for sure... probably gonna have monstrous condos built over top of them any moment, but maybe til then...? inspirational, thank you
