From the Ground Up

New Year & Seattle Part 2

ftgumovie — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:22:12 +0000

Happy New Year!

2011 was an amazing year for urban farming and food awareness, we expect that 2012 will only bring more. So much can change in a very short period of time with enough momentum and enthusiasm. Laws are being changed in cities across the country to make food growing, animal raising, bee keeping and small scale sales of these things accessible to so many more people. Take front yard gardening for example, more and more people are removing their lawns and proudly planting fruit and veg. In some places this is illegal or was until recently. Taking it further out into the public sphere, a few years ago the city of Seattle made it free and easier to plant in the parking strips (the area between the curb and the sidewalk). Now we see them in every neighborhood across the city. Take a look at the photos we took when we were there last year:

Click to view slideshow.

What changes happened in your town in 2011? What would you like to see change in 2012?

Also in 2011 we finished the assembly edit of From the Ground Up! We will be working hard all year to get all pieces in place, animations, music, archival footage to get the movie finished. If you would like to donate or help in anyway let us know – ftgumovie@gmail.com

Seattle Trip, part 1

ftgumovie — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:36:27 +0000

Last month I was in Seattle visiting family and friends and had the honor to be asked by Janet Jones to join her group of inspirational gardeners in their celebration of the success of their garden. The Genesee Hill Garden in West Seattle is using part of a playground of a closed elementary school to grow food for people in need. They removed a small bit of pavement and created nine plots, each 5’ x 17’ which are tended by neighbors, individually and shared. Their first year was very successful, not only did they provide food for themselves and others, they were a positive presence in what was formally a trouble spot. Previously the closed school had become a meeting place for local teens, and others, to get up to no good since there was plenty of sheltered areas and no one around. What a change a garden can make (see photos below).

They met for their celebration at the local brewpub, Elliot Bay Brewery, a photo album of the gardeners and their progress was passed around, there were prizes for the gardeners, and many discussions about gardening techniques, urban farming, and how it changes neighborhoods and enriches the lives of everyone involved. I was extremely honored to meet them and join them in their celebration. We watched the current trailer for From the Ground Up, a great experience for me. Watching it with people made me realize where there was confusion and slow spots. The trailer is currently being revised thanks to their input. It is great that the documentary is already a tool for me to meet other gardeners and participate in discussions about urban farming. I can’t wait for it to be finished and can be used by others.

Thank you again to the Genesee Hill gardeners for your warm welcome and excellent conversation, I look forward to seeing you the next time I am in Seattle.

The next blog post will be about parking strip gardens in Seattle, so come back soon.

Thanks!
Kristi Adams

Click to view slideshow.

Crop Swap

ftgumovie — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 22:53:34 +0000

Yesterday I went to Berkeley to partake in a crop swap organized by the Victory Garden Foundation and Transition Berkeley, both amazing organizations. This is the first organized crop swap I have participated in and I enjoyed it thoroughly! There was a great variety; Asian pears, lemon cucumbers, Armenian cucumbers, lemons, limes, plums, lots of summer squash and tomatoes, a few peppers, various greens and a vast selection of herbs. It was a great opportunity to talk to people about what they are growing, how they use it, what plants are doing well and which ones are struggling. Farming knowledge has been traditionally passed on this way – grower to grower, everything changing season to season, year to year. We talked about different ways to use herbs and produce for culinary and medicinal purposes. I got a chance to sample some herbs I have not tried before and am now looking forward to growing, anise hyssop & lovage will be in the garden next year for sure. I had the opportunity to share some of the oregano bruja I got at the Nuestras Raices farm last year and have been keeping going using cuttings. I have been making a lovely salad dressing using it, lime juice, olive oil and hot peppers, perfect on a tomato, cuke, corn & pepper salad. Everyone was so generous with their harvest, time and knowledge. What remained after we swapped was taken by Berkeley Gleaners to people in need. A good day indeed. Let me know if you have any thoughts about crop swaps – thanks. Posted By: Kristi Stephens Adams

Click to view slideshow.

Progress

ftgumovie — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:29:27 +0000

It is just about summer here in San Francisco and gardening season is in full swing. We recently had another seedling sale to raise money for the project, but as in all things involving growing food, there were some unexpected benefits to the sale. First, the act of growing a couple hundred seedlings we learned a bunch about seed age, types of containers that work best and have perfected a hardening off technique. The sale itself was great – we met so many neighbors and talked about what was happening in the area and what varieties we have had luck with in our microclimate. It never ceases to amaze me how talking about gardening and food are such easy topics to talk about with strangers, everybody eats and gardening is all about sharing knowledge, harvest and so much more. We will be having more seedling sales for sure.

Winter and spring were very busy for us on the movie making front – we had transcripts and translations done, applied for grants and a fellowship, and we have started the first edit. A huge thanks to all the people who worked so hard to make this happen! The next steps are to keep on editing the main movie as well as some shorts and update the trailer, continue fundraising efforts, more archival footage research, find music, get animations started and much more. We are preparing for a crowd-funding campaign, there will be some great enticements to get people to donate; t-shirts, seeds, original Victory Garden pamphlets, garden tours to name a few! We can always use more, so if you have anything (items or services) you would like to donate the campaign let us know ftgumovie@gmail.com.

Click to view slideshow.

Harvest Season

ftgumovie — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 23:41:28 +0000

Harvesting Footage:

We are getting close to finishing the first steps of the assembly edit, we have just about gone through all the interviews and pulled out the good bits and put them in their appropriate sections. We also went out on 10/10/10 to shoot some additional footage around San Francisco. Kitchen Garden SF and 350.org had a work party at the Hayes Valley Farm, it was a beautiful day and a perfect day to get some footage of urban farms and the people who make them happen. We also went by the garden for the Free Farm Stand at Eddy & Gough; they are growing food to give away, great project, great people and an amazing garden.

Harvesting Support:

We are preparing for our year-end fundraising drive; look for us on Kickstarter.com soon. Don’t forget that donations to “From the Ground Up” are tax deductible.

Harvest in the Garden:

It is harvest season and we had a good year here in San Francisco even if was a cold summer. I have canned tomato sauce, made a couple of batches of Chicken Tomatillo Soup, Tomatillo Salsa, Tomato Curry Soup, Stuffed Zucchini, Pesto and most of that was just in the last 2 weeks. I am starting to prepare cannellini beans for drying, for use in soups this winter. Growing food is fun, cooking it rewarding, but eating it is the best.

Tomato Harvest

Glamorous Life of a Documentary Filmmaker

ftgumovie — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:08:36 +0000

It’s not so glamorous really.

I love going out on shoots and spending time with the awesome urban farmers that make From the Ground Up possible. I love the farms and gardens in all the cities I have visited. I adore the yummy food that is the product of everyone’s hard work. I am grateful for the people who are helping me make this movie and I am deeply in debt to them, in many ways.

I do not love fund-raising, grant writing, logging tapes, sitting in front of a computer for hours on end. Today I have sent in my Fiscal Sponsor Mid-Year Financial Report and am about to start prepping media files for the translator and transcriber. Not so fun, could be worse.

I did sneak out to my garden to take a couple of photos to cheer myself up:

Click to view slideshow.

Not so bad really.

Back from a great trip to Holyoke

ftgumovie — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:09:54 +0000

The latest trip to Holyoke to spend time the people of Nuestras Raices was amazing, as always. The farm and gardens are looking beautiful and there are new people and new projects. The Roots Up green job training program has graduated it’s third cohort and the graduates are already hard at work. There was the Co-op Powers 6th Annual Sustainable Energy Summit on the farm where the grads got to show off their skills and meet other people and organizations in the area, as well as learn some new tricks. This was the perfect place for Nuestras Raices’ latest venture, Energia, to introduce itself to the community.

While I was there I stayed in a B&B in nearby Springfield, the Lathrop House, a beautiful old house across the street from Forest Park. Diana Mara Henry, the owner, was an amazing host and made me feel very welcome and taken care of – Thank you Diana! She has a great vegetable garden in the back yard and a few sneaky veg in the front.

Click to view slideshow.

Spring is here!

ftgumovie — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:00:16 +0000

“From the Ground Up” has sprung into the final stages and we could use your help. Currently most of the film has been shot, we are doing our first edit at the end of the month (assembly edit – very very rough cut), and we are starting to get the video podcasts on line. We still need a few more shooting days, graphics, animations, archival footage, music, the final edit, and more.
How can you help? Here are a few suggestions:

Be our fan on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FromtheGroundUp

Donate Money (tax deductable): http://sffs.org/donate/donate-now.aspx?pid=405

Donate goods, services, ideas, good tidings – you name it we’ll take it. Contact me at ftgumovie@gmail.com

Tell you friends about the film and encourage them to do any of the above.

Thank you!
Kristi Stephens Adams
Director – From the Ground Up

Fundraiser and back to Holyoke

ftgumovie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:09:00 +0000

Happy Fall!

We are preparing for our first fundraiser – Sunday September 20th at the Homestead bar in San Francisco from 6 to 9pm. Address: 2301 Folsom St at 19th St. We will show a trailer from the film, offer snacks from Arizmendi’s, Thorough Bread Bakery, and fresh fruits and veggies from our backyards. There will be a raffle of items that have been donated to help make the film happen, including self-watering containers, dance lessons, winter vegetable seedlings and much more! Please let us know if you can make it, we need to let the venue know how many people to expect.
Then on September 22nd I am off to Holyoke, MA to film the Harvest Festival at Nuestras Raices. I am very much looking forward to this! I will post photos when I return.

If you are on facebook become our fan: http://www.facebook.com/FromtheGroundUp

Progress

ftgumovie — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:04:00 +0000

Things are moving right along, we have just returned from Holyoke, MA where we were filming the amazing people at Nuestras Raices. On our return we got word that the film is receiving fiscal sponsorship from the San Francisco Film Society, which means you can donate to the film (we could use it!). Also, if you are on facebook please become a fan of the film by going to: http://www.facebook.com/FromtheGroundUp and click the become a fan button. Thanks!