Farm Focus: Meet Marlene

 Marlene came to us from outside of Portland, Oregon where she was on the production team for a CSA farm. Her interest in agriculture began shortly after college during her time as an AmeriCorps and Civilian Community Corps volunteer, which is a team-based traveling national service organiza- tion. During her year of service she worked with a food bank in Sacramento and tutored youth in inner city L.A. In many of the communities where she worked, knowledge about and access to healthy food was limited. Part of her job responsibilities were to discuss concepts of healthy eating and growing your own food. She decided that if she was going to tell people they should be eating healthy and growing their own food, she should know how to do these things herself. Marlene’s farming career began two years ago when she started as a WWOOFer (volunteer farmer in exchange for food and housing) at Apricot Lane farm in Southern, CA. Once she started farming, she found she really didn’t want to stop. She loves being outside, getting dirty and watching things grow. She’s had ample opportunity for those activities tending our tomatoes and peppers. She’ll be busy with our summer crops for another month or two. She’s also beginning the work of preparing our winter garden area for plant- ing. Her plan for the winter garden is to grow lettuce, beets, carrots and winter greens that will be used in our salads in our Ferry Building cafe. Marlene is happy to have found a home at Frog Hollow because she’s able to learn about various marketing channels while having Farmer Al’s support to build her productions skills. When she isn’t busy in the garden, she helps out at our SF and Santa Cruz markets, as well as helping out at farm events. Thus far, her favorite Frog Hollow fruits are the tomatoes (of course!) and the apricots. She says that she’d never actually tasted a delicious apricot before coming to Frog Hollow and she is still reminiscing about them. If you haven’t tried Marlene’s tomatoes and peppers, don’t miss out! They are available as Add-Ons to your CSA box and they are delicious!