This spring I had an opportunity to participate in an Introduction to Organic Farming Workshop Series at La Milpa Organica. The workshop was the first of its kind, and was created through a coordinated effort between the farm and San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project. The hands-on class was my first real farming or gardening experience as an adult, and I enjoyed every moment.

The eight-week series met fortnightly, beginning in April, and ending with Celebration on the 4th of July. Each class began with a short lecture and discussion, followed by hands-on instruction lead by Kirk Forster, the farm’s knowledgeable Lead Apprentice. We would break midday for lunch prepared by the some of the other Apprentices – usually a variation on rice, beans, and fresh picked veggies with tortillas or flat bread cooked in the out door wood fired oven. A simple meal prepared outdoors, surrounded by fields just planted or ready for harvest, eaten off of mismatched dishes, seated on lawn chairs and bales of hay gathered in the shade of a tall tree. Rustic to be sure, but still some of the finest dining I have experienced.

On the first day we got our hands dirty weeding rows of fully developed kale and chard. On the second day we learned about living soil, worm bins, and built a compost pile. The third day was full of hard labor – clearing, double digging, and raking beds. Our fourth day was devoted to planting our first crops, both as seed starts for the green house, and directly into the beds. In the fifth class we learned about irrigation, compost tea, and laid rows of drip tape over freshly planted seeds. The subject of day six was pest control, both in the trapping of insect and animal pests, and the identifying of weeds. We spent time on hands and knees for the first weeding of a new bed where the delicate green shoots of both the desired and undesired plants were less than half and inch high. After learning to identify a few wild edible “weeds” I couldn’t refrain from snacking on baby purslane and lambsquarters as I pulled them out of the bed. In the seventh class we harvested crops, and prepared them for market.

The final day was bittersweet. We picked, prepared, and cooked a feast for friends and family. We celebrated the 4th of July with locally grown foods, calling it our Food Independence Day. At the same time I knew that it was also marking the end to my active participation in the growing of my own food. I had finally discovered that perhaps I had a green thumb after all, but as an apartment dweller with no space, no land, and no reliable light, I would be left without an outlet for my gardening ambitions.

I remained horticulturally frustrated until just recently, when Phil and I put a security deposit down on a rental house in South Park. It has everything we need – rooms for both of our offices, a basement for our music studio, and enough space left over to live in comfortably. There are two small plots of grass in the front of the house, and a good sized lawn in the back. The brown, patchy grass has obviously been neglected, and one the first things I asked our potential landlord was whether he would allow me to replace the grass with a garden. He wasn’t comfortable with the idea of me ripping up his lawn – no surprise really since we had just met – but he did say I could plant in the small 4’ x 4’ box in the back yard. While I am disappointed that I will have to become the caretaker of a lawn – I can’t bring myself to just let it die out of spite – I am thrilled that for the first time in my life as a San Diegan, I will have the opportunity to grow things. We haven’t settled on the official moving date yet, but it seems likely that within the next month or so, we will move into our first house. Until then I will continue daydreaming about worm bins, a gray water system, herb boxes, and that small plot of soil filled with possibilities.