SOFT LUNCH KIT

Once Upon a Time I wrote a pamphlet called 

The Guide to Maximum Intention Gardening.

It was such an interesting research project that many friends became involved in the development of it.

If you're here for pictures scroll down.  This intro is kind of in depth and boring.

After two months of working on the Guide, growing it to thirty pages and than editing it down to four, we ended up planting a garden, almost automatically.  Our group of friends was hungry for a community project and a shared space that would encourage community gatherings and such.  

The first garden was Fairbanks Garden, and it involved Benjamin Raymond and Shea Gallagher inviting us to utilize their fallow land.  Jeff Pickerill and Michael Hulter (me) were the team that made the guide, Benjamin and Shea were the Support System for us, by giving us  the space and encouragement we needed to see the first application of our concept.
Cory Roby and CJ Kelly were the ones who showed up with knowledge and enthusiasm.  Cory brought knowledge on how to literally take spade to soil, and CJ brought her son Joshua to plant the first seed.  

Within 3 days of deciding to do Fairbanks gardens we had gathered a six person team with a variety of capacities and qualities.  Simply by expressing our intention, we became the nucleus of a micro-community movement.  Through the Fairbanks experience our faith in humanity was renewed and paired with a functionalist approach to Team Building.  

Through writing the guide I became fixated on the ancient American Indian Three Sister Method of planting Corn in the center, beans in a ring around it, and squash in a ring around the beans.  Each plant plays a crucial role in fixing nutrients, providing support, reducing evaporation, shooting roots out versus down versus root balling, and on and on and on.

The three sisters method is representative of a truly functional group, and so we applied it to the actual garden teams.

1. Ben and Shae act as the corn, enabling us to plant a garden in their yard, supporting the project, and giving us a space to develop.  

2.Cory and Jeff acted as the beans, fixing nutrients in the soil and finding the extent of our options within the framework of what was available.

and

3. Michael and CJ acted as the Squash, doing much simpler tasks such as soil maintenance and general ground cover type work.  

We now know how to put together a gardening team.  What is next?  Getting money for the garden and ensuring its regular use.  To approach this goal we threw a fundraiser in Felton, CA. 

Felton has a population of 5,000 so when 100 people came out to see what we were doing, that meant we had pulled in 2% of the town.  17 people came out and helped, excited to be part of a project that held community as its central ideal.  Community is literally human companion planting,

thus Maximum Intention Gardening and the 3 Sisters Method are expressions of this central ideal.

Support System  :        Corn      : The Draw. The Hook. Why People Come  : Food & Music (Enabler)

Climber/Nutrient Fixer : Bean   : Good Reason for Going                   : Informational Posters(Teacher)

Crawler/Ground Cover: Squash  :Why The Soft Lunch is Good : Community Resource Networking 

NOW, YOU TOO CAN THROW A SOFT LUNCH!!!  

ALL YOU NEED IS...

1. Giant Poster Print out of the Guide and YOUR Press Kit.  

Not mine.  That's the Press Kit for the Guide, so if you don't have a Press Kit or the capacity to make one as cool as mine, use it.  It's informative and pretty.  That's all we're going for.  But the goal is to prompt innovation, so your embodiment is your branch.  You should be marketing yourself and establishing your own niche in your local community.  

3 Acoustic Guitars (substitute any applicable instruments.)

Music is the most crucial aspect of all.  The act of playing together is the literal demonstration of what a community is.  I compiled the Red Porch Song Book as the 12 most universally playable bonfire songs I've found.  "All of Me" is a bit harder, but it's a personal favorite.  These songs are the common ground that communities can meet on.  Once the music is playing they'll relax enough to enter the community garden.  Once they're inside they'll smell the... 

1 Bucket of Spaghetti

Sharing food is crucial.  Family dinner is a powerful experience, and the town barbecue is a diluted form of that, so the inner city community garden will be in pursuit of these things and may not relay them as quickly as it occurs in a rural setting, but these experiences are what we are most lacking here and now, and in order to reverse these things, we simply need to display posters, play music, serve food, and put out

1 Bucket for Donations

(seeds, doller bills, their name in the Bi-Product Book)

AND HERE IS THE SONG BOOK.  LEARN THESE CHEESY HAPPY SONGS AND SING THEM WITH STRANGERS.  SEE WHAT HAPPENS, I DARE YOU.