The City Slicker Farms garden at Union Plaza Park in Oakland.

Joseph Davis, Jr., City Slicker Farms' "Backyard Garden Mentor and Farm Assistant" at Union Plaza Park in Oakland. http://www.cityslickerfarms.org/staff

Joseph Davis, Jr., inspects some of his plants for insects.

City Slicker Farms volunteer Lyn Wenzel takes a break for a chat on her mobile phone.

City Slicker Farms volunteers Austin Lewis (right) and Lyn Wenzel working at Union Plaza Park

Using a pump and a garden hose, Lyn Wenzel washes away any insects she finds on the plants in the City Slicker Farms garden at Union Plaza Park in Oakland.

Let's not eat that: Lyn Wenzel shows a group of Aphidoidea bugs trying to feast on a leaf of lettuce. She will quickly wash them away with water.

Lyn Wenzel uses a garden hose to wash away Aphidoidea bugs with water.

Welcome to the chicken coop

The boss

Team briefing

Barbara Finnin, Executive Director of City Slicker Farms, at Union Plaza Park

Lyn Wenzel and Austin Lewis looking after the greens

Garden view: right across the street from Union Plaza Park, West Oakland looks much less idyllic than among the flowers, plants and chickens.

Sign at the fence of the Center Street Farm in West Oakland.

A group of neighbors in front of the Center Street Farm in West Oakland.

Sideways

View of the neighborhood at the entrance of Center Street Farm.

"Fresh Sandwiches, Fresh Meats" promises a storefront at a West Oakland neighborhood market

Hobby farmer Keyetta Williams shows homegrown tomatoes from her backyard garden in West Oakland

The impressive backyard garden of one of Keyetta Williams's neighbors.

Sign outside the worker-owned Mandela Foods Cooperative in Oakland, California http://www.mandelamarketplace.org/

Dana Harvey, Executive Director of Mandela Marketplace, in the co-op's store in West Oakland: http://www.mandelamarketplace.org/Staff.html

We are the boss: some of the cooperative's staff pose for a group photo

Young mother Katie Hart explains why she likes Mandela Foods as an alternative to Whole Foods, while her daughter Ella (18 months) waits for mom to finish shopping

Adrionna Fike, one of Mandela Foods' workers who are also co-owners of the store.

Cookies made in Oakland – containing NO industrial sugar, NO milk, NO eggs – basking in the sun on a countertop in the Mandela Foods market. (Hey, it's California!)