Bayer Farm, an urban example of LandPaths'
People Powered Parks model, is a hopping, vibrant environment that buzzes and blooms year-round, but if there's ever a time for community farmers to take a break, it's the winter!
Here at LandPaths, the Bayer Farm staff took the opportunity to "take a hike" and visit some other exciting projects in the Bay Area. Magdalena Ridley (Bayer Farm Project Coordinator), Jonathan Bravo (Bayer Farm Garden Coordinator), and Jesse Froehlich (Bayer Farm Educational Program Assistant) hit the road one beautiful sunny January day to check out what's going on with some of our friends and contemporaries!
On the road - it's LandPaths' Bayer Farm crew! From left to right, Jesse Froehlich, Magdalena Ridley, and Jonathan Bravo.

The first stop was Slide Ranch in Muir Beach, where director Charles Higgins took us on a tour of this breathtaking outdoor education site overlooking the glittering Pacific Ocean. As we visited chickens, relaxed in the dome house, and meandered the gardens, Charles showed us examples of sustainable construction and shared powerful stories of the classroom visits that take place at the ranch. For more information on this great place, visit http://www.slideranch.org
Just another day at the office for Slide Ranch's Executive Director, Charles Higgins.
Then we swept off across the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco's Crissy Field Center where we were welcomed by Youth Leadership Program Manager, Ernesto Pepito. We were blown away by the live learning labs overlooking the bay, and Ernesto's tales of a curriculum where youth design their own program from the ground up. Ernesto himself is living proof of the program's success as a former youth-participant-turned-program-manager. Read on for more details! http://www.parksconservancy.org/our-work/crissy/about/

Check out the backdrop behind Crissy Field Center's Ernesto Pepito as he hangs out in one of the Center's learning labs.
We continued our southward journey through the city, ending our day with Tracy Zhu, Program Manager for the Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) EcoCenter in San Francisco's Bayview Hunter's Point neighborhood. Tracy shared the vision for environmental justice that LEJ promotes (see their website for more details: http://www.lejyouth.org), and then showed us around the brand new EcoCenter-a true showcase for sustainable design, complete with a green roof, rainwater catchment and greywater systems, restored wetlands, and living machine (a real-life, living-breathing wastewater treatment system!). Read more about the EcoCenter here: http://ecocenterheronshead.blogspot.com/

This "garden" behind LEJ's Tracy Zhu is actually processing the EcoCenter's waste water!
We returned to Sonoma County refreshed and rejuvenated, and full of great ideas for the gardens, educational features, and youth programs at Bayer Farm. We would like to express our incredible gratitude to our hosts for taking the time out of their busy days to show us around and share inspiration and best practices, and we can't wait to return the favor.
As we continue to improve and refine the dynamic programs at Bayer Farm we are privileged to do so with our generous hosts in mind. In the great words of Wendell Berry, "It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are." Here's hoping we can all inspire each other to be better in 2011!
For more information about LandPaths' Bayer Farm or our field trip, give us a call at 544-7284 x11 or send Magdalena an email at Magdalena@LandPaths.org
(Thanks to the intrepid Jesse for writing the majority of this blog entry!)