Down to Earth at Green Gulch Farm

The San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) at Green Gulch Farm (GGF) holds a children's program on the first Sunday of the month (unless GGF is in retreat). Their web site has details on the GGF schedule, including information about the children's program and their coming of age program.

This last Sunday, I had a nice day with my daughter Maisy. It was very busy with lots of families for a warm, sunny day at the green dragon temple.

At a little after 10 am, roused by the resonant bellows of the large green dragon bell, we sat at the front of the zendo awaiting the darma talk. This week we listened to a wonderful fairytale about an incarnation of the Buddha as an ox, known to his master by the name Great Joy.

After our short dharma talk (about 15 mins), we left the zendo and meandered into the garden for a brief ceremony to offer and receive blessings of Jizo Bodhisattva, protector of children and travelers. Then, in walking meditation, we made our way into the farm to get our hands dirty in the potato patch.

We all pulled potatoes from the soil and placed them into large boxes. The children were able to keep a potato; we took ours home for our Sunday dinner. This was a rare and wonderful experience for the children to learn about the source and preparation of raw food, from the soil to the dinner plate.

After the potato digging, we made our way back to the garden. Maisy has been raising caterpillars for the past few weeks. On Sunday, we released our butterflies into the GGF garden, where there are plenty of colorful, aromatic flowers. Lots of kids were excited to see them released. It's a magical moment to see the butterflies leaving their home and fluttering off into the garden.

The children's program includes a light morning tea of juice and muffins. The kids often enjoy playing on the small playground equipment in the garden. Maisy is especially fond of the monkey bars, proud to show off her new talent for swinging.

The GGF kitchen offers a reasonable vegetarian lunch at noon. We had a nice lunch of soup and salad (well, I had soup and salad, Maisy had some bread and a bit of soup).

It was a lovely day with my little girl :-)

Blessings,
Darren Weber