Farm out your farmland
The First Lady didn’t plant that arugula all by herself, and you don’t have to either. For a reasonable fee, Trevor Paque and his crew at MyFarm will design and plant a vegetable garden in your backyard, then return each week to weed and make sure the pests don’t eat your tomatoes before you get a chance to taste them. Why the good price? You have to donate some of your pickings to a CSA (community supported agriculture) program so that other urban dwellers can benefit, too. But not to worry: Enforced sharing is good for the soul. myfarmsf.com

Get wild
ForageSF gives a whole new meaning to the phrase urban jungle. Subscribe via the organization’s website, and you’ll receive a biweekly box of edible plants grown right here in San Francisco, such as nori from Ocean Beach; miner’s lettuce, fennel, and wild onion from McLaren Park; and sea beans and New Zealand spinach from Fort Funston. If you’d like to get out in the not-all-that-wild yourself, sign up for one of the organization’s guided foraging tours and discover a side of San Francisco you probably never even knew existed. Some concerns have been raised about the safety of foraged food, but ForageSF owner Iso Rabins says he’s been studying with foragers for years and has sold his goods, without incident, to many Bay Area restaurants. foragesf.com

Tiny green thumbs
Here’s one way to make sure you’re well fed in your old age: Put your kids in the capable hands of Louise Hassen, whose Children’s Garden Company has been teaching tots the difference between weeds and blossoms since 2005. This summer, she’s launching her first-ever gardening club: Each child will get his or her own 4x8–foot patch of dirt on a picturesque farm just five minutes from Sonoma’s town square. Every weekend, your budding gardener will learn about composting and organic gardening and go home with a bounty including tomatoes, carrots, peppers, and green beans. Any extras will be donated to a food bank or sold at the club’s roadside farm stand. 900 Petaluma Ave., Sonoma, 415-302-8379, gardenco.com

Don’t get stuck with a lemon
You will, if you have a tree that produces more than you can use—an all-too-common embarrassment of riches that inspired Chez Panisse bartender Asiya Wadud to establish Forage Oakland. When she noticed piles of backyard fruit left rotting on the ground all over South Berkeley and North Oakland, she decided to create an online community where people can trade their excess lemons, figs, or anything else. Now, between shifts at the restaurant, Wadud spends her spare time bicycling through Rockridge and Temescal, gathering tree fruit and redistributing it among the group’s 200-plus members, forageoakland.blogspot.com

Yes, we can (literally)
On the campaign trail, can was all about crowd-pumping optimism for Barack Obama. But for a new Live Culture Productions undertaking, it’s what you do with fruits and vegetables. On the third Sunday of July and September, members of the community project Yes, We Can will meet at La Cocina, in the Mission, to put up produce from local farmers. The following Wednesday, they come back to pick up the finished goods and celebrate their efforts—maybe even with one of those alleged “terrorist” fist-bumps. In July, they’re canning cucumber pickles; in September, tomatoes. yeswecanfood.com

A giant got even bigger
Shopping at Berkeley Bowl just got a whole lot easier, thanks to its brand-new second store, in West Berkeley. The Bowl has always been the premier spot for buying local fruits and vegetables—where else can you get 12 vari­eties of tomatoes and close to 25 types of mushrooms?—but some people find the crowds prohibitive, especially on weekends. Not only does the new location offer a second option, but it also has a separate organic department where items get weighed and tagged, making checkout that much faster. Produce prices at the Bowl have always been among the lowest in the Bay Area, and that won’t change at the new store: In early June, cherries were going for $2.69 a pound, compared with $6 at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market; a pound of zucchini cost 79 cents, versus $2; and organic strawberries were $2.39 a pint, instead of $3. 920 Heinz Ave., Berkeley, 510-898-9555, berkeleybowl.com