A New Year with Planting Justice
In Our Community
For those of you new to the blog, Planting Justice is our sister organization.
They’re a 501(c)3 non-profit benefiting local Bay area communities
They have local, organic nursery with rare and heirloom varieties
Programs include food justice education, holistic re-entry from prison, permaculture landscaping team, urban farms and training centers
They provide living-wage jobs for formerly incarcerated people
They’ll have an organic plant nursery at the site, as well as a commercial kitchen that will sell jams, jellies, and other products sourced from fruit from their orchard.
Image courtesy of Planting Justice
Wrapping up 2021 and moving into 2022, they’ve got a lot going on! (All excerpts from the Planting Justice Newsletter, which you can sign up for on their site.)
Expanding to Sacramento
We're moving into The Old City Nursery!
The old city nursery building
Our newest project will revitalize a long-vacant City-owned property by transforming it into a nationally significant center for urban agricultural training, entrepreneurship, multi-faceted bio-diversity, youth mentorship and education.
In addition to housing a Planting Justice plant nursery that features dense and climate-resilient plants, we'll be establishing mentorship and urban agricultural programs led by community partners Three Sisters Gardens and Yisrael Family Farm at the 5-acre former City Tree Nursery in Sacramento.
Our site plans include roughly 1.2 acres of outdoor field production, 7,000 sq ft of indoor greenhouse production, and more than ¼ acre of nursery retail. We'll be using the space to sell products produced on site as well as products made by local crafts-makers and artisans utilizing natural and nontoxic materials, such as Sacramento-made soaps, essential oils, jam, and honey.
We'll also be creating a beautiful 1-acre production farm growing nutrient dense, medicinal vegetables and herbs. Produce will be distributed not only to restaurants and CSA members paying full price, but also to low-income elders, adults, and youth for free/sliding scale.
We're super excited to see this dream project come true! Our dear Victor was instrumental in bringing PJ to Sacramento, finding the perfect site and pushing through to make it happen. We're honored to open this site in his honor and to play a hand in training a generation of Sacramento community farmers.
Image courtesy of Planting Justice
Under Construction: Planting Justice Aquaponics Farm
How do you grow healthy food where there is no healthy soil to plant in?
Earlier this year we closed escrow on a 3 acre piece of land in East Oakland that will help us answer that exact question. Just a few doors down from our nursery at 319 105th Avenue, once opened, the aquaponics farm will produce over 200,000 lbs of fresh, organic produce per year. All grown using aquaponics technology!
Image collage courtesy of Planting Justice
top: Gordon (l) & Jon (r) clearing away leftover materials, bottom left: Otis and Yenni working together like Jordan and Pippen, bottom right: nursery team getting it done!
We're taking the site of a historical plant nursery and turning it into a new food production site for local communities, starting in East Oakland! Our team has been hard at work for MONTHS, tearing down old structures and making way for the new! We plan to open in 2022. This will be the first site of its kind and we hope it will set the foundation for many more to come.