SCHEDULE

10:00 Opening Ceremony

10:10 Welcome!

• Glenda Humiston,USDA Rural Development California State Director
• Keith Gilless, Dean, UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources
• Daniel Cardozo, Community Farmer-Researcher & Albany Farm Alliance member
• Miguel Altieri, Professor, Department of Environmental, Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley

10:20 Intro to Community Agroecology Research Project (Professor Miguel Altieri)

10:30-12:00 Ongoing Workshops & Activities

12:00-1:00 Lunch – With vegetables from the Gill Tract Farm!

1:00-2:00 Storytelling Circle – “Where We’ve Been” and “Visions for the Future”
With storytellers from our community: Hank Herrera, Dig Deep Farms; Miguel Altieri, UC Berkeley Professor, Agroecology; Jeff Romm UC Berkeley Professor, Environmental Science, Policy & Management; Alexa Hauser, Albany Farm Alliance; Keith Gilless, Dean, UCB College of Natural Resources; Joy Moore, Garden Teacher and Community Food Activist

2:00-4:00 Community Forum & Breakout Groups
Visions for the Future: Share your ideas about how the Gill Tract can serve the community as a center for education and research and connect with others who share your vision.

ACTIVITIES

Plot 1   Draw and color with children of all ages.  Walk through the rows and talk about the different vegetables that are planted, then draw and color what we see!
Plot 2   Bob for apples and guided plot tours
Plot 3   Read about the abundance of food produced on this plot sinceAugust 10th.
Plot 4   Harvest squash and cucumbers for today’s salad andlearn how 
to save the seeds.
Plot 5   Wander and searchthrough our plot in search of answers to clues. “Nature” prizes for completing your lottery/bingo card
Plot 6   Plant a patch of narrow leaf milkweed as a Monarch butterfly way station (habitat) +giveaway of seeds and information
Plot 7   Dig in the soil and identify plants, both loved and misunderstood.
Plot 8   Plant rainbow seedlings to take away, adorn scarecrows, and paint signs
Plot 9   Scavenge & hunt for all ages
Plot 10  Dye natural fabrics and yarns with flower dyes. Stamppaper with handcut vegetable stamps. Identify – unusual and useful plants

Area A: 10:30-12:00
Kid’s Activity: Dig for Worms and Other Critters!
UC Cooperative Extension, Alameda
Kids and families CAN touch the soils and learn about worm anatomy and soils ecology together, and the role those decomposers play in healthy plant growth.  

WORKSHOPS

Phat Beets Table: 10:30-12:00
Kimchi making Workshop
Phat Beets Produce 
Make, taste and take home your own small jar of kimchi to watch ferment!

Big Circle: 10:30-11:15
Encouraging Pollinator Habitat and Conservation in Home Gardens
Professor Claire Kremen, Hillary Sardinas (grad student), Emily Kearney (grad student), Leithen M’gonigle (post doc), Kerry Cutler (lab manager) from the Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley.  Appreciate the importance of pollinators for food security; Discover some of the diversity of pollinators in our area; Learn how to support bee populations in your garden, through creating both nesting and floral resources for a variety of bees; Learn to make an Osmia colony in your backyard.

Little Circle 2: 10:30-12:00
Native California bees are everywhere, just look around your garden!
Professor Gordon Frankie, Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Little Circle 1: 11:00-12:00
Participatory Mapping Project
Adam Calo, PhD Student in Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley
See how Local Ground—an innovative mapping technology– can be utilized as a visioning tool to capture diverse perspectives on what the Gill Tract means to them & how it could be used in the future.

Welcome Table: 11:30-12:00
Codornices Creek Walk!
Amy Merrill, Senior Riparian Ecologist, Stillwater Sciences
Explore Codornices Creek to discover what lives in urban creeks and their potential for restoration.

SOGA space: 11:00-12:00
Seed Babies Workshop
The Berkeley Student Organic Gardening Association (SOGA) 
Make balls of seeds, clay, and soil that you can throw into empty plots of land to encourage life. The technique originated in the 1970’s when the Guerilla Gardening Movement threw balloons filled with tomato seeds and fertilizer into empty city lots to beautify the streets. We will make clay capsules with moisture in them to encourage germination after landing. Come learn how to make your own seed baby with clay, compost, and other materials.  You can take one home for your own garden, or maybe use it as a form of protest to beautify our Bay Area landscape.

Area A, 11am-12:00
Soil Sampling
Professor of Agroecology, Miguel Altieri  
Take soil samples of the Area A for analysis of basic nutrient levels, pH and lead levels. Help spread lime and also sow winter cover crops that will help enhance organic matter levels necessary for spring 2014 plantings.

Plot 7: 11:15-12:00.
Urban Ag 101
Joy Moore- Garden teacher and Community Food Activist
The further back we can look the further ahead we will see! This soil, this land is sacred as is all soil, all land! The future of urban agriculture is not new – it is a reflection of the past; or at least it should be. We are gathered here today to discuss what the future might be, what we may envision and realize will happen here on this soil, on this land. We must trust that the seeds we plant today in this soil, on this land may grow to be the future!

Big Circle, 11:15-12:00
Cultivating Resilience in the Law: Policy Initiatives and Innovative Strategies for Just Local Economies 
Chris Tittle, Sustainable Economies Law Center
Our food system is not well served by today’s predominant food business models, which incentivize growth, shareholder profit maximization, absentee ownership, and exploitation of land and people. Converse with the Sustainable Economies Law Center about creative strategies for creating local wealth and community ownership, including food policy initiatives that remove legal barriers and models for community-owned food enterprise.

Master Gardener’s Booth, All Day
Master Gardeners – Plant Doctor Booth
Get Help from a Trained Master Gardener from the UC Cooperative Extension Alameda/Master Gardener Program!
Alameda County Master Gardeners help gardeners by answering questions about plants and plant/garden problems and extending the information they have learned through community events and projects, including seminars, demonstration workshops and newspaper articles.  Volunteers answer gardening questions on a plant doctor hotline, through email, at local farmers markets, at our three demonstration gardens, and at various community events such as the Alameda County Fair.

UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Booth
MyPlate, Fruits & Vegetables, and Physical Activity
UC CalFresh – All Day