City Slicker Farms

Dear friend,

My name is Ale’ah. I’m 16 and a Youth Intern with City Slicker Farms, and have been for two years now. I am writing this holiday season to tell you about my experience as a part of the Youth Crew and how that’s helped to shape my future.

I was born in South Berkeley. When I was eight, my family and I moved to West Oakland in the Lower Bottoms. Then, when I was around ten, my mom had a backyard garden built with the help of City Slicker Farms and she has been a volunteer ever since. Two years ago my mom forwarded me an email for an opportunity to work for City Slicker Farms.

At that time, I was in the summer of my ninth grade year. I remember walking to the farm across the street from the office with a group of young students like me. We were on our way to participate in the field component of our interview. Our task was to move mulch from a large pile and evenly distribute it around the farm. This was my first job interview and I was so nervous and it was so hot! But a couple weeks later I got a call saying I was chosen for the job with City Slicker Farms!

I do not remember much about the backyard garden build when I was ten, but now the process is very familiar to me, because the first summer I worked at City Slicker Farms, every Saturday I did these builds with families throughout West Oakland.

City Slicker Farms has become very near and dear to me. I remember one experience in particular from the very first summer I worked with them. One Saturday, the office staff came out and it was a very large group of volunteers all working together building this woman’s garden.

I remember her yard because it was large, full of fruit trees, and difficult to move compost through. She really wanted the garden because she was running a daycare out of her home. And she wanted to make gardening a part of her curriculum for the kids. I thought this was big; she wanted a garden not only for herself but also for her community and family.

This is why I’m asking you to make a gift this holiday season. You can help. A donation of $50, $100, $250, or $500 will go to support young people like me to gain knowledge about getting healthier, making alternative food choices, and helping the community.

Two years ago, I moved into a house with my dad. It’s more of a renovation project for us. And we’re slowly but surely fixing each room. We’ve been working on the inside but haven’t gotten to the outside yet. There are lemon and orange trees, but they’re sick. My dad and I don’t have a garden yet but we have a good piece of land that would be perfect for it.

We want to create a garden – just like the ones I have learned to build through my internship – because having a garden will create a more positive home. It will give me the opportunity to grow my own food and to put my positive energy into a plant, which gives me better air and energy when I eat it. I see my mom gardening and it makes her happy; it keeps her leveled and focused on one thing. It’s something that I’d like to see more evenly distributed amongst my family.

I enjoy gardening and want to bring that home.

When we do create a garden I want it to be a vast jungle. I want the fences to be used for sprawling produce like tomatoes or peppers.

Then on the perimeter I want some seasonal flowers and California natives. I love the way California natives look especially with red or sandy mulch and rocks. And in the middle I want to have raised beds that have different vegetable and fruits.

My favorite edible plant if I had to narrow it down would be cilantro, so I would grow that too. I’m probably going to change that in a few days when I taste something else but for now it’s one of my favorites. Every time I taste cilantro it’s like a party in my mouth and in my opinion it’s one of the best herbs and it is so good.

Even though I love cilantro my favorite things to grow are peppers. I grew some for the first time this summer and it’s amazing to see them come to life. Like any fruit it starts out as a flower and then it produces the fruit and I just love watching it grow and change colors, shapes, and sizes.

Please consider making a gift this holiday season. Your donation of $50, $100, $250, or $500 will go to support young people like me to gain the skills and experience to grow my own food and to support my community to do the same.

After my summer internship with City Slicker Farms, I got a job with WOW Farm selling food to Oakland restaurants. When I heard WOW Farm was hiring teens from West Oakland to farm in West Oakland, I applied because I knew that my previous farming experience with City Slicker Farms would help my chances for getting this job.

And my mom convinced me that gardening, although not so popular or common – for example, in other areas or countries, farming is a public norm, whereas in big cities like Oakland, we don’t see farmers every day – is an important survival skill to develop.

Food justice means a lot – it means everyone having access to healthy food. It’s a movement in West Oakland! When we have better access to better food we have better health.

City Slicker Farms has started me on my journey to food activism and equal opportunity to healthy produce. Food injustice is more apparent in West Oakland and Oakland in general so it’s something I face more often.

Being a part of City Slicker Farms has changed they way I look at the environment. I see it more as a second home – not just a place that is outside. I treat it as if it’s my house, so I try to be more conscious of where I put my trash and who I buy my food from and what’s their effect on the environment.

For example, now I make food choices based on my knowledge of the farms, where the food is grown. I like to buy from small farms – from farmers who are not trying to cut costs by using pesticides, are honest with their gardening, are not all about profit, and are helping the world that is around them.

When I think about my future profession, I never intended to go into food justice but rather law. I haven’t chosen the type of law that I want to do but based on these experiences, I want to practice law that has something to do with making the community better.

I think there are a lot of corporations like McDonald’s, Taco Bell and KFC who don’t think they need healthy food in neighborhoods and I want to be a lawyer who fights for the better state of the community.

Now, I see myself continuing to work with community and agriculture, because of my experience with City Slicker Farms.

You can join me in creating a healthy, local food system. With a donation of $50, $100, $250, or $500 you will help us build a healthy West Oakland community, where everyone has equal access to fresh foods that they need to thrive.

Any time I go to a City Slicker Farms site to work, volunteer, or walk by, community is always a large part of it; even if that means community members are just hanging out in the shade of the fruit trees.

I value City Slicker Farms a lot because community is the number one goal.

City Slicker Farms brings a community back to a point where neighbors can be together as one. Their work brings out the best in people.  

Thank you for all your support in the past. And for being a part of my future.

Best wishes for the holidays and New Year!
 

Ale’ah Bashir-Baaqee

P.S. This holiday season, please make a gift of $50, $100, $250, or $500, so that in the New Year, we will be able to continue the growth of this movement – so that everyone has access to fresh, healthy foods! Thank you so much for being generous.