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

 


                              Transition Berkeley hosts a Monday evening swap at the Ohlone Greenway.


Transition Berkeley hosts a Monday evening swap at the Ohlone Greenway.

 

Swapping Spree

Share your garden’s bounty and come home with someone else’s at these free neighborhood crop swaps. Some swaps also encourage trading plant starts, gardening tools and books, recipes, baked goods, and tips on getting more involved in your community. Arrive on time for the best selection.

 


 

yardfarmerscr

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.

Info: here

 


 

Learn to make great bagels like these at one of Laurie Leiber's workshops. Photo: Phil Rubin.

Learn to make great bagels like these at one of Laurie Leiber’s workshops. Photo: Phil Rubin.

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.

Tickets: here

 


 

Purchase this book

Purchase this book

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.