Planting Justice is so excited to host our First Annual Holiday Night Market, and you’re invited to celebrate with us!

📅 Date: Thursday, December 21st
⏰ Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
📍 Location: 5166 Sobrante Avenue, El Sobrante, CA

What to Expect

25+ Vendors: Shop from QTBIPOC and women-owned farms, food businesses, artists, and crafters.
Santa Appearance: A special visit from Santa!
Free Hot Apple Cider to keep you warm.
Live Music to fill the night with joy.
Movie Screening to wrap up the evening.
Tree Lighting to brighten the season.
Moment of Silence: Standing in solidarity with those suffering in Palestine.

Why You Should Come

This market is about building community and uplifting small businesses. Just like at our weekly farmers’ markets (Sundays, 10 AM – 2 PM at 5166 Sobrante Ave), vendors keep 100% of their proceeds—no fine print, no fees.

Spread the Word!

Invite your friends, family, and neighbors to join us for this magical evening of shopping, music, and community connection. Let’s celebrate the season together while supporting local, independent creators and small businesses.

Earlier this month, our Nursery Management team traveled to Chicago to conduct a hands-on training session at the UGC Nursery. The event brought together 20–25 participants eager to enhance their skills in orchard care.

Training Highlights

- Grafting techniques
- Pruning methods
- Pesticide application
- Fertilization strategies

Nursery Project Update

Progress continues at the nursery! While the drainage system is underway, there’s still work to do:

•Next Steps: Installing ground posts and the shade structure once the base is complete.

We’re excited to see this project come together and look forward to sharing more updates soon!

Welcome Home, Amber and Trancita!

This month, we’re celebrating the return of two incredible individuals:

• Amber Ingram: Rejoining the community after 15 years.
• Trancita Ponce: Rejoining after 25 years at the Central California Women’s Facility.

We are thrilled to welcome you both to a new chapter and look forward to the positive changes you’ll bring to our community. Let’s continue to support everyone working hard to rebuild their lives!

Entrepreneurship Workshop Series 

We’re excited to announce our first-ever Entrepreneurship Workshop Series, facilitated by our Board Member and founder of A New Daylight Self-Awareness Leadership, DeWayne Hendrix.

What’s it about?

This 5-part series is tailored specifically for our formerly incarcerated population and Planting Justice staff. Participants will learn essential principles for starting and running their own businesses.

Stay tuned for more workshops coming soon!

Get Involved

Are you formerly incarcerated and interested in joining future workshops? Or would you like to facilitate a workshop? We’d love to hear from you!

Contact Sol Mercado
Reentry Coordinator
Email: reentry@plantingjustice.org
Phone: 510-931-6694

As we move through Autumn, the changing seasons remind us of nature’s cycles. The crisp, chilly air, earlier sunsets, and nourishing rains are here, preparing our gardens for a bountiful Spring. Here’s what we’ve been up to at our garden sites:

Dewey Garden Beds 

Before the rains arrived, we turned the garden beds at Dewey, preparing them for Winter cover crops. These plants will fix nitrogen into the soil, enriching it for future growth. The beds are now blanketed in mulch to protect the seeds and keep the soil warm during the colder months.

Our programming at Dewey continues to thrive—two new students are currently taking their food handlers certification tests. Best of luck to them!

Street Academy Harvest 

At Street Academy, we’ve been growing Provider Beans as a cover crop, and they’ve already started producing! So far, we’ve harvested 2 pounds of beans, with much more to come. These delicious beans are just the beginning of a fruitful season ahead.

Thank you for supporting our efforts to nurture these gardens and the communities they serve.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to grow together through the seasons!

We’ve continued making great progress on our Aquaponics Incubator Farm. Our general contractor and team are onsite 5 days/week to build out the farm, a massive $4m+ undertaking that will result in the nation's largest urban aquaponics farm and the first specifically geared towards incubating a worker-owned cooperative to scale this work on empty lots throughout the region.

Our contractors have nearly completed PJ's aquaponics office building, and they have finished the renovation of a very special bowstring truss building that we were able to salvage and repair as an homage to the Neishi Brothers family nursery who worked on the site for nearly 100 years. Our contractors have also completed the footings and forming for the first massive greenhouse and the aquaculture building. A huge undertaking!

With your continued support, we’re confident we can reach (and even surpass!) our $3 million goal to complete our fundraising for the aquaponics farm buildout. To date, we've raised $2,166,232

We will keep you updated on the progress of this campaign and share the latest developments regarding the Aquaponics Incubator Farm. In the meantime, we invite you to watch a powerful video that provides more insights into the future of our Aquaponics Incubator Farm.

There are many ways to support Planting Justice!

You can make a one time, monthly, quarterly, or annual donation. Planting Justice is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with an EIN of 27-0334905 all donations are 100% tax deductible.

Planting Justice also accepts Stock Donations!

Receiving Institution: Charles Schwab & Co.
1945 Northwestern Drive
El Paso, TX 79912
Receiving Account Number: 8239-5748
Receiving Account Name: Planting Justice
DTC Clearing Number: 0164, Code

Not able to contribute financially? No problem! There are still many ways to support us, such as volunteering or sharing our work. Every bit helps and we appreciate your support!

Come join us as a volunteer at our Farm or the Good Table! If you're up for a sunny day amidst fruit trees, shrubs, and fresh grapevines, we've got the perfect spot for you. Can't wait to see you there!

If you’re unable to support us with a monetary donation for fire recovery, please consider volunteering with clean-up efforts at the farm or at the Good Table. Our small but mighty team has been working around the clock to recover, and they could really use some extra hands. You can sign up for the next volunteer day here. 

Wear sturdy shoes and clothing, and bring work gloves. We appreciate each and every one of our supporters and donors. Thank you for all the ways you support Planting Justice. Thank you for growing with us

Your support is invaluable to us, and we’re delighted to offer you several ways to make a lasting impact. We deeply appreciate all forms of donations, whether they are one-time gifts or monthly contributions. By becoming a monthly donor, you become a vital part of our mission, providing ongoing support for the work we do. Plus, all donations are 100% tax-deductible, adding extra significance to your generosity.

Joining our community of monthly donors means you’re continuously supporting our organization’s transformative initiatives. Your consistent commitment empowers us to address challenges directly, create sustainable change, and promote a more equitable world. Every donation, regardless of size, is immensely valuable to us and the communities we serve.

We invite you to consider becoming a monthly donor, knowing that your generosity will have a profound and lasting impact on individuals and the broader community. Together, we can plant seeds of hope, cultivate justice, and nurture a future where everyone thrives. Thank you for thoughtfully considering supporting Planting Justice.

Pollinator Planting Party

Recently we planted over 900 native pollinator plants in two hedgerows on our Mother Farm in El Sobrante, CA.

The native plants, such as golden currant, silver bush lupine, gumplant, milkweed, goldenrod, aster, ceanothus, sagebrush, mulefat, also provide habitat for birds, snakes, spiders, a diverse array of beneficial insects, and many others to create a healthy ecosystem.

The majority of the native plants were provided by the Xerces Society, which does amazing work to restore and grow new native habitat on farms and orchards that might otherwise have bare soil & so have to import bees.

The planting and care plans for both hedgerows were designed by Peter Lindsay (wide hat, red shirt, beard), a Fall 2024 Intern in our collaboration with the Natural History & Sustainability Program at Merritt College in Oakland. 

We can't wait for this time next year to see how both hedgerow blocks have grown & are buzzing with life :)

Final Fruit Tasting of the Season

Thank you to everyone who participated in our final fruit-tasting event of the year, back on a lovely, sunny November 8th.

Guests enjoyed the bold flavors of pineapple guava (feijoa), Chilean guava (Ugni molinae), autumn olive (Elaeagnus), pomegranates, and jujubes, as well as refreshing prickly pear juice and baked goods featuring our fresh fruit. It was a beautiful day of tasting, learning, and connecting with our community at the PJ Mother Farm!

We hope to host many more fruit tastings next year between May and November, so be sure to keep an eye on our newsletter for more delicious events to come!

Volunteers Welcome!

Speaking of growing community, volunteers are welcome to join us on the land for rewarding work weekly, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Click here to sign up!

PLEASE NOTE: our Second Saturdays volunteer day is going on pause from November through February (mainly for the Winter weather, and also for the Winter rest). We will resume Second Saturday Volunteer Days on March 8, 2025. Have a wonderful Winter and hope to see you then!

Exciting progress! We’ve just installed cold storage at The Good Table—our final step before starting the flooring. With flooring being one of the last major construction tasks, we’re thrilled to see this project moving forward rapidly. Stay tuned for more updates as we approach the finish line!

Visit the Farmers Market!

Join us every Sunday from 10 AM to 2 PM at our Farmers Market in El Sobrante (5166 Sobrante Ave, El Sobrante, CA 94803) for fresh produce, local goods, and community fun.

📲 Follow us on Instagram for updates: @farmersmarketpj

Interested in becoming a vendor? Email our market manager at sam@plantingjustice.org!

Planting Justice Holiday Market! 

We’re excited to announce the Planting Justice Holiday Market at The Good Table in El Sobrante, coming at the end of the month!

Calling all artists and crafters!

Join us as a vendor—it’s 100% free to participate, and we take no cut of proceeds. Help us create a vibrant holiday market for the El Sobrante community!

📧 For vendor inquiries, email: sam@plantingjustice.org
📅 Date: To be announced soon—stay tuned to our socials for updates!

Care Tips:

•Full sun and regular watering until established.
•Grows up to 80 feet tall with moderate to fast growth.

Add the Quaking Aspen to your garden today!

$12 Each

Revitalize your garden this fall with our certified organic fruit and nut trees! Transform your outdoor space into a cozy autumn retreat with top-quality trees. For a limited time, enjoy 15% off your entire purchase using the code FALLSAVINGS15 at checkout.

Shop now at plantingjustice.org/shop and share this offer with friends and family. Let’s grow a beautiful garden together this season!