By Margo True, Sunset Food Editor

Last Saturday, a team of a dozen or so Sunset staff got down and dirty in front of San Francisco's City Hall. No, we weren't misbehaving; we weren't protesting, either. In fact, Mayor Gavin Newsom joined us, smiling big—along with some 100 other Bay Area people. Together, we planted an edible garden right below his office that will not only look beautiful, but also help feed the hungry. (Swing by and take a look; it's open to the public during the day.)

Pre-planting: Team Sunset gathers around its plots at the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden.

A sense of history permeated the day, because we were putting in our tomatoes, lettuces, pole beans, squashes, and fruit trees on pretty much the same spot occupied by a victory garden just after World War II.

There was a sense of the future, too: Today's planting was the kickoff for Slow Food Nation, a big juicy four-day food and wine extravaganza coming to San Francisco this Labor Day weekend. (Slow Food was founded in Italy in 1989 "to counteract fast food and fast life," and the Labor Day event will offer some truly excellent food experiences--everything from street vendors selling homemade tamales to workshops on artisanal cheese to farm field trips. And all of it with a mind to what's fair for workers, good for the earth, and good for everyone eating the food...a bouquet of such fine ideas that Sunset has decided to sponsor the event, and we hope we see you there.)

The hard work had mainly been done before we arrived. Scads of volunteers and SFN people had already gotten rid of the lawn (and distributed plugs of it all over the Bay Area, so as not to waste it). They'd designed and installed burlap-bordered planting circles, filled them with truckloads of dark, loamy, rich soil, and installed drip lines. All the seedlings were arranged by type on the side of the garden for easy transport, and the burlap borders were soft and plump--pillows for our knees! Even the sky was considerate--overcast, so no one needed to worry about sunburn.

Team Sunset was given two circles: one for basil of various kinds, and another for other edible herbs. Led by Johanna Silver, Sunset's test garden coordinator, we arranged the little pots in the pattern we wanted first, staggering them along the drip lines. All around us, other groups were doing the same. Actually, some of the others were conducting elaborate pre-planting prayer rituals, holding each other and swaying. Hey, whatever works.

Team Sunset looks over the layout of the seedlings.

Johanna Silver shows us how to bury seedlings up to their necks (the first leaves) so that roots develop all along the underground stem, helping anchor a tiny plant in the wind.

Speaking of prayer and the city...while chants to Mother Earth rose from the Victory Garden, fiery, amped-up sermons from an open-air church service on the corner tore up the airspace. We kept planting, and put in a hundred or more seedlings in a little over an hour. Frankly, the soil was so soft we didn't even need tools--hands would have done the trick too. The rich deep smell of moist earth rose from the beds as we worked.

Once we'd finished, we wandered around and admired other groups' handiwork--gorgeous rings of lime and magenta lettuces, tepees of pole beans--a flotilla of green circles backdropped by the massive columns of City Hall.

Then the Mayor (with his fiancee, Jennifer Seibel) and Alice Waters, Slow Food Nation's founder, arrived. The many, many reporters and videographers at the scene rushed toward them, trampling a few beds as they went.

Alice Waters and Mayor Gavin Newsom before the cameras.

The Mayor planted a seedling. Then he took to the stage at one end of the garden, along with Alice; John Bela, the garden's manager; Anya Fernald, executive director of Slow Food Nation;  Willow Rosenthal, founder of City Slicker Farms; and Amy Franceschini, the garden's curator and founder of Victory Gardens 2008+. Short speeches were given to much applause and smiling and thank-yous all around.

Alice Waters at the mike; behind her, left to right, are Anya Fernald, John Bela, Mayor Newsom, and Willow Rosenthal.

Listening to the speeches and looking back at the garden, we felt good about what we'd done: create a living symbol of communal self-sufficiency. This garden probably won't stay here long, but we're all hoping that it inspires and lends weight to more projects like it, in the Bay area and beyond.

When the garden starts producing, in early August, Slow Food Nation will start harvesting and distributing its fruits and vegetables to local food banks. September 21 is community harvest day: to see how you can participate, click here.

So how did we end the day? With a good lunch of organic salads and sandwiches, provided by Bon Appetit Management Company, and a sense that we might be seeing a lot more gardening going on in San Francisco.

Team Sunset at table.

Read about Sunset's own harvest garden