We are thrilled to share some very exciting news with you today: Planting Justice has purchased Rolling River Nursery – and with it, the largest and most biodiverse collection of certified organic tree crops in North America!

Over the past 35 years, Rolling River Founders Marc Robbi and Corrina Cohen have collected 1,100 heirloom varieties of fruit/nut trees, berries, perennial herbs, and native plants, selected for their climate resiliency, drought tolerance, medicinal qualities, delicious taste, and nutrient-density. PJ staff are currently planting at least 2 of each variety on our 5 acre Food Forest Farm in El Sobrante, and these plants will produce hundreds of thousands of pounds of food annually for our community, and all the seeds and propagation material we need to produce tens of thousands of young new trees, each year. for generations to come! Marc and Corrina have built a thriving business with nation-wide distribution and clientele, and they are committing to 3-5 years of intensive training to transfer this endangered and vital knowledge of perennial plant propagation to Planting Justice’s diverse staff and community. PJ’s new nursery will create many more dignified living-wage jobs for formerly incarcerated people, and we’ll ensure that these rare and heirloom plants are put in service of the food and economic justice (r)evolution, as communities across the country transform from themselves from dependent consumers to empowered producers.

PJ staff have successfully transferred the first 2,000 trees to El Sobrante, but we have at least 25,000 more trees to transport to a 2-acre empty lot in East Oakland, which we hope will become the long-term new home for our new nursery. This is food justice herstory – and we want you to be a part of it. Help us bring the most diverse collection of certified organic food-producing tree crops to Oakland – please make a donation today!

May these trees seed a thousand more food forests in our life-time, and may this knowledge of edible tree propagation further ignite the transition from soul and soil-degrading industrial annual agriculture to perennial abundance!  Let’s bring the forests back, y’all!