Time in: 12noon
Time out: 1pm
Because of a (very thorough) earthquake drill, all staff and volunteers were gathered in the front lawn of the Huntington. As a result, class for the morning was canceled. A make-up class will be held Wednesday, December 2nd.
On another note, I was able to have a meeting with Scott Kleinrock, the project coordinator of The Ranch, which is a new part of the Huntington's botanical gardens' collections that will include a number of projects pertaining to agriculture with sound, ecological practices in mind.
Scott took me on a tour of the property, a 15 acre lot in its beginning stages of development. We walked through an original orange grove (some of these orange trees are about 100 years old!), an impressive collection of avocado trees (grown and propagated by the California Avocado Society) and he informed me of many other projects to come.
We have a lot in common, as far as how we see food-growing and organic gardening in general as a potential means of community building goes. Since he is not taking too many volunteers at this time, I feel privileged to have his acceptance as part of his team.
I feel that this will be an extremely beneficial learning experience for me, especially because The Ranch is still in its beginning stages, I will have the opportunity to see how a piece of land can turn into an important learning tool for its community and I will have the honor to be apart of its beginning steps to get there.
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