Swap City
Share your veggies and meet your neighbors at local crop swaps.

Neighborhood crop swaps are in full swing throughout the East Bay.
In this newsletter:
● The swaps are hopping!
● Call for contestants: Be a yardfarmer on reality TV
● Bake your own amazing bagels with Laurie Leiber
● Book Review: The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center Cookbook
Swapping Spree
Fame on the Farm
Yardfarmers.us is looking for young Americans (ages 21 to 30-ish) who want to convert their family lawn and neighborhood green spaces into workable yardfarms. Six applicants will be chosen and filmed for an upcoming reality TV show as they spend nine months attempting to make a livelihood out of growing food in their neighborhood, whether it be in a family yard, a churchyard, a schoolyard, street flower boxes, a vacant lot, or any other spaces they find. Applications accepted until August 1.
Bring on the Cream Cheese!
Baking whiz and Pilates instructor Laurie Leiber brought her homemade bagels to the Alameda County Fair and came home with a blue ribbon. The Rockridge resident first tried her hand at bagels a few years ago when she had some extra sourdough starter, and the results were so impressive that she started her own business and now teaches bagel-making workshops in her home and in the community. Learn more about her workshops here: bakeyourownamazingbagels.com
Starter to Nosh
Sunday July 19, 10am–12:30pm
This workshop, held in Oakland’s Rockridge district, covers all steps from activating the starter through noshing on freshly baked bagels. Participants take home a detailed recipe, starter, and shaped bagels to boil and bake at home. Cost: $65.
Kitchen and Garden Inspiration
Book review by Kristina Sepetys
Learn about the “mother garden” of more than 3,000 rare food and multi-use crops and how to use them in a sustainable way of life in The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center Cookbook. This gorgeous volume features 200 vegetarian recipes along with stories about people living at the Center.