We reviewed the history of agricultural labor organizing this week and learned that the United Farm Workers is still going strong, though its membership today is far smaller than at the height of its power in the 1970s. A few headlines from the UFW website highlight the fear of deportation felt by farmworkers around the country, the poor air quality farmworkers in Southern California are facing as a result of the catastrophic wildfires, and labor wins like the recent union certification at an apple farm in New York state.
We’ve learned about several legends of the farmworkers movement over the past few weeks. Our lesson this week named some of the less famous but no less important people in our community who feed us. In the classroom we watched a short introduction to the Heart of the City Farmers Market, which we will visit in a few weeks on a field trip and which is run by one of our very own Harvey Milk community members! We also explored the contents of a CSA box from Eatwell Farm, which is run by farmer Lorraine Walker and sells produce at another farmers market in San Francisco at the Ferry Building on Saturdays. We learned that some farms use a community-supported model where members receive a share of the farm’s produce every week, that members can connect directly with the farmer and its farmworkers through newsletters and farm visits, and that a simple recipe like a stir-fry can help us try new or unfamiliar vegetables.
The second and third graders marinated tofu in multiple kinds of citrus juice, chopped daikon radish and purple-topped turnips, and picked the leaves of so many different kinds of leafy greens: mizuna, arugula, Komatsuna spinach, and chard. We enjoyed our stir-fry over warm brown rice and many chefs topped their snack off with some chili crisp for heat. Thank you to the whole team at Eatwell for this beautiful meal celebrating the abundance of Northern California in the middle of winter! We are grateful.
