{"id":48592,"date":"2025-08-06T19:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T19:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/48592\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T19:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T19:37:15","slug":"a-public-medicine-chest-grows-by-i-280","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/48592\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u2018public medicine chest\u2019 grows by I-280"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tucked into the southern slope of Bernal Hill and shadowed by the traffic of I-280, Alemany Farm<\/a> is home to the largest urban agricultural site in San Francisco \u2014 and\u00a0 medicinal herb garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a public medicine chest,\u201d said clinical herbalist Bonnie Rose Weaver<\/a> who founded the garden in partnership with Friends of Alemany Farm<\/a>, \u201cAnd it\u2019s open 365 days a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Medicine Garden holds more than 60 species of medicinal plants, culinary herbs, and edible flowers, many of them uncommon outside specialty stores. Calendula blooms alongside collards. Plants like boneset, skullcap, yerba mansa, and bee balm thrive not in neat rows, but in a natural, cooperative sprawl.<\/p>\n

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Bonnie Rose Weaver, Jennifer Lynch, Tessa Kappe and Ann Lawson tend to the Medicine Garden on a gloomy San Francisco morning. Video by Daniela X. Sandoval.<\/p>\n

Founded in early 2020, the garden\u2019s formal launch was almost immediately disrupted by the pandemic. The garden\u2019s first cohort of interns came to an abrupt halt just two months after planting began.<\/p>\n

In the years since, the garden has grown in both size and purpose. Harvesting the plants is free to the public during daylight hours, with a simple understanding: take only what you need and leave the rest for others. This shared respect helps the garden thrive as a communal resource.<\/p>\n

From the beginning, Weaver and her collaborators asked: What do people need? What\u2019s familiar? What might draw someone in?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The answer, often, was food.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Dye Garden at Alemany Farm is a vibrant space where plants like indigo, coreopsis, and marigold are grown for natural fabric dyes. Run by volunteers, it blends art, ecology, and community in the heart of San Francisco. Video by Daniela X. Sandoval.<\/p>\n

This spring, volunteers reestablished a culinary garden at the site\u2019s entrance, planted with herbs like rosemary, thyme, epazote, parsley, and shiso. A flower garden is\u00a0 blooming with nasturtiums, sunflowers, and three types of marigold, and a bog garden is being expanded to support moisture-loving medicinal plants.<\/p>\n

After years of studying herbalism through books and dried specimens, Ann Lawson, a dedicated herbalism student and longtime volunteer at the medicine garden, now finds joy in working with living plants and the community that nurtures them. \u201cThere\u2019s so much overlap between food and medicine,\u201d said Lawson. \u201cTake parsley \u2014 it\u2019s both flavor and remedy. The more time I spend here, the more I learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Lynch, a personal chef who\u2019s volunteered at the garden since 2021, has helped shape its culinary focus. \u201cThis is what\u2019s possible with just a little space and a little money,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cThe medicine garden, the dye garden, the grapes \u2014 it all nourishes people in so many ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ann Lawson moves gracefully among the herbs, soil still clinging to her fingertips as she wanders through the garden\u2019s fragrant paths. Video by Daniela X. Sandoval. <\/p>\n

Tessa Kappe explains the benefits of lemon balm. Video by Daniela X. Sandoval. <\/p>\n

Yet the garden\u2019s growth coincides with financial uncertainty. As Mission Local reported<\/a> in May, Alemany Farm recently scaled back staff and paused its paid apprenticeship program due to city funding cuts. A grassroots campaign to raise $200,000 is still underway. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t,\u201d said Lynch, \u201chave to depend on city funding alone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like the rest of the farm, the Medicine Garden relies entirely on volunteer labor. Community support continues to show up\u2014in hours worked, seeds donated, and other partnerships. Lawson credits the city\u2019s Parks Department and the Friends of Alemany Farm for helping keep the garden going. \u201cThey\u2019re our family here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For Tessa Kappe<\/a>, who joined the team this spring to help lead an internship in community herbalism., the garden offers something increasingly rare in urban life. \u201cIt\u2019s different hearing the name of a plant versus meeting it,\u201d she said. \u201cThis space is immersive \u2014 it\u2019s a refuge.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Bonnie Rose Weaver highlights epazote\u2019s uses. Video by Daniela X. Sandoval. <\/p>\n

The Medicine Garden now hosts occasional public workshops, including two upcoming sessions on harvesting and preparing medicinal herbs. For Weaver, this educational focus is part of the larger purpose..<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our ancestors practiced herbal medicine,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a chance to remember that \u2014 to return to it. That\u2019s what the Medicine Garden is here for.\u201d<\/p>\n

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