I was happy to help harvest and donate to Indigenous Permaculture. I was honored to attend a beautiful ceremony dedicated to the amaranth plant at their Santiago garden before the pandemic so I was delighted to work with them and donate. 

Is harvesting the flowers! I feel connected to the bees and am reminded of my yogic training in India. While picking the flowers I am mindful to save some for the pollinators and I love to do a classical Indian flower picking Mudra like Kathak dancers do, to honor the beauty of the act. 

Here are some Instagrams on the day I put the salves together. Used a gas stove and beeswax from Bonnie's own bees. 
The salves were a combination of calendula oil, plantain oil, and beeswax. 

I was happy when we decided to use some of this money to buy drying racks. Thanks so much to our former board treasuerer Rachel who did the research and ordering and to Nora who organized our new garden kitchen and herb closet. Now we have the space to dry our herbs and a place to keep our oils, fresh garden vinegars, and infused honeys. 

Here is Rachel in the herb closet covered in curtains to keep the sun out; An important aspect of drying herbs. This is a tray of passion flowers which were dried and placed in paper bags that were donated to our community:

Processing oregano:

Thanks in large part to Bonnie our heroic head steward at ACG : Seedlings and produce donated to the home free project at the Woodstreet Encampment: 

Ashby Community Garden has been a hub to share food and medicine thanks solely to volunteer efforts. The baby seedlings are planted, watered, transplanted and produce found a home!
My connection with NorCal Resilience Network since first interacting with them is that they not only do the the work to make sure environmental awareness is spread but also that the people behind the projects are rewarded for their efforts! Very grateful to Susan Silber for her help in writing this grant. 

Here are some pictures of work in the summer garden:

Garden plums shared with neighbors: 

We had a great time picking produce to share with Urban 
Adamah; They are another wonderful organization!

My daughter has grown harvesting and planting here: 

We love making zucchini bread with the big ones!