Edible Schoolyard Project re-imagines Boggs Tract Farm

https://edibleschoolyard.org/esy-stockton

As a current plot-holder at Boggs Tract Community Farm in Stockton, I am lucky to behold the transition of the farm under the new management of the Edible Schoolyard Project. Kudos to previous farm managers at the tract including Eric Firpo of In Season Nursery and Clifton Maxwell of PUENTES. Now Patricia Miller has taken the helm as farm manager, backed by a dynamic team with a robust nonprofit organization. Headed by Executive Director Angela Mckee-Brown, that team hosted a community meeting this past weekend for plotholders including myself. It was a privilege to be there because the day was beautiful and the spirits of everyone attending were uplifting.

The great news is that thanks to receiving a generous grant, Edible Schoolyard Project has waved the annual plotholders' fee for this year! It's a gracious beginning to a new relationship. More than that, the re-imagining of the farm makes good sense. Infrastructure will be created to make the farm accessible and inviting for children and families to visit and learn to grow food. Us plot-holders -- some who have been with the farm from its beginning more than a decade ago -- will still do our thing within the context of the farm's larger educational and nutritional mission.

They've got plans for a pollinator/cutting garden, an amphitheater classroom, a seed bank, and a medicinal/native plant garden. The latter will eventually blossom with mugwort, yarrow, purple owl's clover, chick lupine, California buckwheat, silver lupine, yerba santa, deer grass and lots more varieties. The pollinator/cutting garden will produce California lilac, copper pinwheel, salvia, passion vine, lamb's ear, sweet pea, ceanothus, different sages and so on. The possibilities are endless.