THE LATEST FROM LEAF

LEAF’s vision is to regenerate the land using sustainable practices and inspire our community to nurture the earth. Our gardens cultivate...

Location: Fremont, California (primarily onsite) Position type: Part-time About LEAF: Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont (LEAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting regenerative agriculture, sustainability, and food equity in our community. Since 2008, LEAF has been a cornerstone for environmental education and garden-based community engagement, cultivating nutritious, culturally relevant food for underserved communities and empowering residents to adopt sust

Happy 2025 from the LEAF Team! - From Elaine, LEAF President - In 2024, we had a few “downs” but way more “ups.” In the first quarter, we...

Every Single Load makes a Difference - From Elaine, LEAF President - LEAF has had an exciting and productive 2024! We broke ground on our new 1-acre Urban Garden that will push forward our mission to develop a thriving garden for food donations, education, and community. We began preparing the land this fall and will continue throughout the winter so we can begin planting next spring. Yes, you're right, this is a stretch goal given that there are large objects to move, swath

Some LEAF Days are a challenge - From Elaine, LEAF President - Last month, I opened the newsletter with this sentence, "One of the most interesting aspects of volunteering at LEAF is when I enter the gates in the morning, I only have a vague idea of how the day is going to unfold." That statement was so true when I walked into the garden on Wednesday. It was a beautiful autumn morning, air was crisp, sun was out. I was happy to be there to show the Alameda County Water Distri

Every LEAF Day is a Creative Day - From Elaine, LEAF President - One of the most interesting aspects of volunteering at LEAF is when I enter the gates in the morning, I only have a vague idea of how the day is going to unfold. Some days the garden is bursting with energy with bees, birds and butterflies darting amongst the yellow sunflowers, red pineapple sage and purple lavender, and other it's beautifully muted and calm. I move serenely about the garden absorbing the energy

Every LEAF Day Brings Change Thinking outside the box but living within a regenerative circle - From Elaine, LEAF President - LEAF is an environmental organization that has fully integrated regenerative agricultural practices into our gardens to restore soil health, to fight climate change and to help fix the food system. We have also taken the next step to incorporate regenerative design to reduce use of resources and to impact our environment and our community positively.

Every LEAF Day is a Happy Day From Elaine, President of LEAF July was such a productive month. The team worked really hard the past couple of months on multiple infrastructure projects and they finished FIVE of them in July. WOW! Before I write about the projects, I want to acknowledge the Unsung Gardening Heroes of LEAF who put in an unbelievable amount of time and energy to keep the garden moving forward, building and rebuilding for what it is today and will be for tomorrow

Every LEAF Day is a Team Day! From Elaine, President of LEAF June was a crazy busy social month with lots new volunteers, visitors checking out our "secret" garden, and friends who were curious about the progress of our new-old garden. We all had one thing in common, we loved talkin' dirt about compost, cherry tomatoes, worm poop, crunchy beans, humongous red onions, barn owls, their big eyed owlets, and carpenter bees. We are a bunch of Gardening Nerds. YES! We started the m

Every LEAF Day is a Good Day! From Elaine, President of LEAF Our Garden Infrastructure Team has been really busy prepping the land in the LEAF Urban Garden. Prepping the land involves removing the nasty perennial weeds that have deep roots and spew seeds like curly dock, thistle, grasses and bindweed. They have to be extracted by hand with pick axes and weed whackers. Next is removing the large rocks from the compacted ground so it can be leveled and sheet mulched. These are