Earth Day 2023 with GreenFriends Farm
April 27, 2023 — San Ramon, CA
On Saturday, April 22nd GreenFriends Farm (GFF) at MA Center in Castro Valley held an Earth Day celebration open to all.
Educational booths included a short slide presentation showing the history of the farm, water conservation practices used at the farm, permaculture, bee care and solar cooking.
There were hands-on experiences of making seedballs, learning how to harvest vegetable seeds to plant in your garden, how to propagate potatoes, onions, and carrots from the vegetables you buy at the grocery store, and lots of varieties of arts and crafts that encourage one to reuse materials in an efficient and creative way.
Many varieties of vegetable seedlings that had been potted and nurtured in our greenhouse (for example, cilantro, kale, arugula and more) were available for sale, along with honey harvested from our hives and many varieties of jams, butters and sauces.
Activities for all ages included young children's story time, nature education and active games, a meditative nature walk, and an informative orchard tour led by Swamini Ambikamrita Prana who has been planting on this land since the late 80's.
The aroma from the food booths welcomed all and cold lemonade made from our orchard lemons sold out quickly. The last of the Citrus harvest and Apple juices were sold.
Much consideration and effort were put forth to use environmentally friendly products wherever possible. Most of the dishware used during the event was compostable. Volunteers from the Sustainability Team set up three separate bins (Landfill, Recycle and Compost) to collect and sort the waste. The team had fun helping people decipher which bin to put their waste in as the protocols differ from city to city making it challenging to know what goes where!
At the heart of the event, bringing everyone together to contemplate upon the beauty and gifts of Nature with gratitude, was the music arranged by talented local musicians. The tunes and lyrics conveyed a love and reverence for Mother Nature and highlighted the importance of living in harmony with the natural world, and especially that we are each in fact part of Nature.
It was a day full of harmony in celebration of Mother Nature. Many like-minded people from all over the Bay Area came together and hopefully felt inspired and strengthened in their own resolve and individual efforts to love, serve, protect, and respect Mother Nature as is also stated in our own GreenFriends Farm mission statement.
We would like to invite you to continue joining our earth friendly events. The next one is in May where we will learn about planning and growing a summer vegetable garden.
Also, stay tuned for some Bee education and solar cooking workshops and more, coming soon.
Thank you for being part of GreenFriends Farm