Greenstring Farm Event

In the SF Bay Area during the early 70’s when people like Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, and Chuck Williams were changing the way we thought about food and cooking, one of the most pressing problems was to find dependable sources for fresh local ingredients. In accordance with the newly developing sensitivity toward the land, it was necessary to build an entire network of producers from scratch. One of the early shining stars in this network of farmers was Bob Cannard of Greenstring Farm in Petaluma, California. Bob’s approach to farming mimics nature by design and is well beyond anything you might call organic. It is imminently sustainable, it is productive, and it is delicious. Fertility increases year after year due to careful attention to natural processes, and the food produced is amazing.

Hearing Bob Cannard speak about the soil is like hearing Euell Gibbons talk like Jack Kerouac writes. The information comes fast from every direction, crossing from the mineral nutrient-cycle to California history to the importance of ducks or the history of the carrot, all in a few sentences.

This event was was held on February 12, 2011 in celebration of the graduation of a new crop of interns from the Greenstring Institute, the educational component of Bob’s farm. With an introduction by Michael Dimmock of Roots of Change, the afternoon was a wide-ranging discussion of some of the issues facing future farmers.