New Life for a Historic Nursery
For over a hundred years the Adachi family grew a successful nursery business and helped to incubate new Japanese-owned nurseries despite the internment camps and racism that they faced over generations living in the Bay Area. When the Adachi Florist and Nursery in El Sobrante went out of business, they approached Planting Justice, but we didn’t have the funds to buy the site. They sold to a gas station developer who intended to demolish the building, but because of community opposition, the lot sat idle.
Meanwhile, Pastor Melinda McClain of The Good Table UCC was developing a beautiful vision for a pay-what-you-can cafe. Planting Justice was so impressed by her vision and values that we formed a cooperative called the Good Table LLC and bought the location together in 2019. We intend to keep alive the critically important local history of Japanese nurseries and create a home for arts, sustainability, community, and plants in the East Bay for generations to come!
Cooperative Partnership
The Good Table site is a combined pay-what-you-can cafe, commercial incubator kitchen, retail nursery, community gathering space, and arts venue cooperative, formed in partnership with The Good Table UCC and The Shed / Triangle Works.
In addition to being a uniquely great place to buy coffee and plants, this site provides a retail space for local makers and artists, a commercial kitchen to make value-added products, and a venue and gathering space for workshops, organizing, and events. All of these offerings have been created in a community that didn't have a coffee shop or communal space. Now it does!
With Endless Gratitude
The creation of this space is the culmination of years of hard work and community involvement and support, including the vital and essential contributions of so many artists and craftspeople:
Annie Duncan - Ceramicist who made our custom native flower light fixtures.
Chip Thomas - Photographer and muralist who co-created the water tank murals
Daniel Gonzalez - Artist who made social justice portraits decorating the farm store and inspiring visitors (Prints are also for sale in the store).
Hiroyo Kaneko- Photographer who took portraits of Planting Justice staff that were used as the basis for the handpainted lifesize cutouts, as well as documenting PJ’s work with her camera. Several of her original portraits are on display in the farm store.
jackie sumell - Abolitionist / artist/ community organizer & co-creator of Freedom to Grow in New Orleans, the Abolitionist Apothecary, and the Solitary Garden Project. We are honored to collaborate with her to construct two solitary gardens in the nursery, and sell medicine produced by The Abolitionist Apothecary.
Kate Diciccio - Artist / installer / creative mastermind / collaborator behind much of the art experience, including the plant family signs, art station, PJ staff portraits, water tank murals, and painted garden cutouts. Give yourself a self guided tour via the art map (also designed by Kate).
Kill Joy - Artist who designed all of our jar labels. Their art also appears on the art map of the site.
Luis Ortega Jr.- Musician & artist who designed and fabricated the interior of the visiting booth installation, as well as contributing to decorative plant cutouts around the space and doing ongoing design work that can be seen on PJ merch.
Malaya Tuyay- Artist who designed some of our new merch. Her handmade jewelry can also be purchased in the farmstore
Olivia Steele - Carpenter and artist who designed and fabricated our custom seed rack and tables for the deck.
Seth Vargas- Artist whose hand painted the signs inside the farmstore
Simone Robinson - Artist & plant lover whose hand painted touches are spread across the nursery and farmstore
Finally, this space would not exist without the hardwork and dedication of the Planting Justice Infrastructure Team, who did so much of the carpentry and finish work:
- Chaker Andrew Chahrour
- Jaime “Lonche” Ortega
- José Morales
- Arturo Solano
- Silviano Ortega
And the overall visioning, coordination, weaving together, and antiquing work of:
