The Big Backyard is a crop-sharing program building on the history of the neighborhood as an Italian-American community that was planted with citrus and fruit trees by its original immigrant families. Today, these trees still bear fruit while the time needed to harvest them has dwindled. Much of the Temescal harvest stays on the ground or is hauled away by the city.

The Big Backyard is based around a hand-built, steel pushcart that we made to collect surplus fruits and vegetables from neighborhood yards, which we give away at our storefront, deliver to people's homes or re-distribute in the forms of collective preserves, marmalades and fruit butters. If you have extra fruit or vegetables growing in your yard, please contact us and we will pick it or pick it up.

Temescal Amity Works can be emailed here:
bigbackyard@amityworks.org
or call us at:
510-517-4149