Looking Forward

Celebrate the Harvest at Live Earth Farm on October 25^th, from 2pm to dark. The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program hosts this family friendly farm event to promote healthy food choices for the body, the community and the environment. The event will feature apple picking, pumpkin decorating, a pie contest, face painting, tractor rides, apple cider pressing, a tomato canning workshop, Family yoga with Luma, a local artisan goods marketplace including Penny Ice Creamery, and a potluck around the bonfire with live musical accompaniment. Celebrate the harvest on your local, organic farm.

Watsonville, CA, October 2, 2014 – On October 25^th, 2014 The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program invites the community to celebrate the harvest at the annual Harvest Festival. This event is the culmination of the fall tour season, welcoming students back to the farm with their families. Open to the public, LEFDP celebrates the harvest with loads of family friendly fun including tractor rides, face painting, a potluck, live music, local beer and sausages, a pie contest, apple cider making, tomato canning, and lots of local treats by folks like Penny Ice Creamery, and Hey Honey Lemonade.

Recently, I overheard a parent of young kids reflecting on their u-pick experience at Live Earth Farm. “What struck me,” he said, “was how we picked down the whole row and looking back we barely made a dent.” This parent learned an important lesson about the true value of agricultural labor, a lesson that translates into real appreciation of the food that makes it to our dining tables and the efforts and resources is takes to get it there. About 300 people of all ages will get the chance to appreciate and celebrate the food on our plates at the 2014 LEF Discovery Program Harvest Festival.

Through LEFDP’s programs local, under served youth build confidence in learning to be active caretakers of themselves, their community and their environment. This is why the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program hosts three farm events a year for the community, to provide farm programming for all local families.

Sponsorship and volunteer opportunities are available, as well as tickets on our website. http://liveearthfarm.net/harvest-festival-2014/

We have so many great thing to look forward to!

Join us on Saturdays, August 30th and September 6th for U-Picks featuring apples, tomatoes, and a kids activity. These community events are always a good time for the whole family. 20% of proceeds help fund LEFDP farm and nutrition eduction programs. See the events page to learn more.

It’s time to schedule a Fall Farm Tour. If you are an educator and have a class or a group that would like to visit the farm for an Applemania field trip and apple pressing, send us an email. lefdpeducation@gmail.com and see the program webpage for more information.

Our Harvest Festival is on Saturday October 25th this year. AKA Pumpkin Patch & Apple Bash. Join us for a day of fun, food, and community, including a tractor rides, a pie contest, pumpkin decorating, apple cider making, cob oven baking, face painting, local beer, sausages and kraut, potluck, live music, sunset bonfire, and lots more.

Check out the event webpage to sign up & prepay!

photo credit: Ruth Diaz

Learn and play at Live Earth Farm in the Discovery Garden and Fields, the chicken pasture, goat pen, pony corral, and in the kitchen classroom. The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program offers programs for all ages throughout the summer including week long camps, u-pick events, and drop in programs for families.

photo credit: Ruth Diaz

Watsonville, CA, April 2, 2014 – In the summer of 2014 LEFDP will open up the farm to people of all ages through a variety of fun, educational programs. There will be three different weeklong summer camps offered for 5 weeks in the summer. There are two drop in programs each month for the youngest farmers and their mothers, fathers, nannies, grandparents, or whoever takes care of them. Wee Ones is for babes 0-3 years old, and Small Farmers is a slightly longer and more in depth program for children 3-6 years old. And new in 2014 LEFDP will host a series of free, family friendly u-pick events at which a different fruit or vegetable will be featured each in the peak of their season.

photo credit: Ruth Diaz

The LEFDP summer camps offer a unique opportunity to engage with the food Live Earth Farm grows in an in-depth field to fork experience that lasts a whole week. Young Farmers Camp will focus on the processes of growing and preparing food, providing campers with comprehensive experience in the fields and kitchen, sprinkled with a whole bunch of fun. Sprouts Camp will engage really young kids and their families in the garden and animal pens for a 5 senses experience of growing, eating, and playing with our food. As ever, Art on the Farm camp will weave nature-based art activities with fruit, vegetable, and farm animal fun. All of the summer camps include a Leader in Training program for teens. Scholarships are available.

The 5^th season of summer camps at Live Earth Farm will feature three unique camps offered throughout the summer, including two new camps debuted last year, Sprouts Camp and Young Farmers Camp. Since 2009 LEFDP has hosted small groups of children for a week of Art on the Farm Camp along with a Leader in Training Program for teens. This year in addition to two weeks of Art on the Farm Camp for 6-12 year olds, LEFDP also invites children 6-12 years old to Young Farmer’s Camp and kiddos 3-6 years old to Sprouts Camp. Campers in all three camps will learn and play in our garden, fields and kitchen classroom as well as learn to care for our milking goats and laying hens. New this year, campers will also learn pony care with our brand new mother and colt due to give birth on the farm at the end of May.

Watsonville, CA, February 24, 2014 – In the summer of 2014 LEFDP will host five weeks of summer camp in the organic fields of Live Earth Farm, as well as a Leader in Training program for teens throughout the summer. Take advantage of the Early Bird Discount until April 18, 2014.

The Discovery Program limits camps to 25 kids in order to create an intimate experience for campers and cultivates a compassionate community of young farmers, artists, foodies, naturalists, and environmentalists. The summer will begin and end with a week of Art on the Farm Camp June 16-20, and August 4-8. June 23-27 and July 14-18 will feature Young Farmer’s Camp for campers interested in planting, harvesting, preserving and cooking with the 50 different fruits and vegetables grown at Live Earth Farm. The second cohort of 3-6 year old campers will explore the farm July 7-11 during Sprouts Camp.

These three different camp offerings provide unique ways to engage with Live Earth Farm. Young Farmers Camp will focus on the processes of growing and preparing food, providing campers with in depth experience in the fields and kitchen, sprinkled with a whole bunch of fun. Sprouts Camp will engage really young kids and their families in the garden and animal pens for a 5 senses experience of growing, eating, and playing with food. As ever, Art on the Farm camp will weave nature-based art activities with fruit, vegetable and farm animal fun.  Scholarships are available.

You can help by sponsoring Farm Camp Scholarships or

Jessica Ridgeway, Director
831-728-2032
LEFDPDirector@gmail.com
On facebook: LEFDP
On Twitter: @LEFDP
On Pinterest: LEFDP
On tumblr: LEFDiscoveryProgram
http://liveearthfarm.net/discovery-program/programs/farm-camps/

On March 22nd, the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program will host the 5th annual Sheep to Shawl Fair at Live Earth Farm. Professional shearer, Bruce Wool, will demonstrate his trade throughout the day, while his wife spins yarn alongside him. Guests will participate in hands-on demonstrations of every part of the process of making wool into clothing and art. Adding to the fair like atmosphere local fiber artists will display their creations for sale, Happy Girl Kitchen Co. will sell lunch and preserves from their VW bus, Penny Ice Creamery will delight with scrumptious scoops and 3 of a Kind will have sparkling juices on tap.

Watsonville, CA, February 20, 2014 – On March 22nd, 2014 10 am to 2pm at 1275 Green Valley Road in Watsonville, the Live Earth Farm Discovery Programs 5th annual Sheep to Shawl event, will feature hands-on stations demonstrating the entire progression of processing wool. Local artisans will share their wares, and lunch, ice cream and sparkling juice featuring Live Earth Farm ingredients. The event will take place in and around our renovated turn of the century redwood barn rain or shine.

The Sheep to Shawl event is one of three annual, on farm events open to the public; all of which aim to further our mission of helping local under served youth build confidence in learning to be active caretakers of themselves, their community and their environment. Children and adults will delight in interacting with our sheep and shearer, dying yarn, making drop spindles, trying knitting and crocheting, and washing and combing yarn, all with expert help and child friendly tools.

The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program (LEFDP) is a farm-based education non-profit organization in Watsonville, California. LEFDP makes seed to mouth, farm to fork, and child to community connections through a variety of hands-on educational programs serving the youth of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and Monterey counties and beyond. A special emphasis is placed on reaching under served people in the community to bolster individual, community and environmental health. We welcome volunteers in a number of different capacities. Please get in touch!

Peter Hay Golf Course care of www.tripadvisor.com

We need someone from the Live Earth Farm and Discovery Program community to golf for us.

Chevron Shoot-Out Qualifier
Birdies for Charity participants are invited to qualify and potentially earn up to $50,000 through the Chevron Shoot-Out Qualifier. The Qualifier will be held on Saturday, January 18, 2014 at Peter Hay Golf Course in Pebble Beach and will determine the four charities to be represented in the Chevron Shoot-Out on Tuesday, February 4 with potential to win up to $50,000. The format of the Qualifier is “Closest to the Pin.”

So LEFDP golfers, we need you. If you consider yourself a pretty good shot, and you would like to play for LEFDP, please get in touch with Jessica by e-mail by December 29, 2013. We will do the rest.

Peter Hay Golf Course care of www.golfholidays.com

Chevron Shoot-Out
The 2014 Chevron Shoot-Out will take place Tuesday, February 4 at Pebble Beach Golf Links. The event features current or former San Francisco 49ers versus current or former San Francisco Giants in four two-man teams. The Shoot-Out format, covering holes No. 1, 2, 3, 17 and 18, will consist of alternate shots of two players. Each hole will be worth $10,000 to the winning team’s participating charity (the total purse is $50,000). In the case of a tie, the amount will carry over to the next hole. If a team does not win any holes, a grant of $1,000 will go to the charity being represented in the event.

LEFDP Pledges to spend every dollar raised on #GivingTuesday, December 3^rd, 2013 to bring kids to the farm to learn to grow and choose food that is healthy for themselves, for their community and for the environment. The Banana Slug String Band will help with a 10% discount and 10% donation on CD purchases and downloads.

Watsonville, CA, November 26, 2013 – The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program (LEFDP) has joined #GivingTuesday, a first of its kind effort that will harness the collective power of a unique blend of partners-charities, families, businesses, individuals-to transform how people thing about, talk about and participate in the giving season. Coinciding with the Thanksgiving Holiday and the kickoff of the holiday shopping season, #Giving Tuesday will inspire people to take collaborative action to improve their local communities, give back in better, smarter ways to the charities and causes they support and help create a better world. Taking place December 3, 2013-the Tuesday after Thanksgiving-#GivingTuesday will harness the power of social media to create a national moment around the holidays dedicated to giving, similar to how Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become days that are, today, synonymous with holiday shopping.

The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program joined #GivingTuesday to aid in efforts to diversify the holiday shopping season experience. We shop during this time of year for the thrill of giving, to buy presents for those we love, so that we can see their faces light with joy upon opening our gifts. On #GivingTuesday LEFDP offers the community a little bit of everything in a combined initiative with the Banana Slug String Band, and the Monterey Peninsula Foundation to raise funds for their educational programs in the organic farm fields of Live Earth Farm.

The Monterey Peninsula Foundation (MPF) will match all gifts by 20% through their Birdies for Charity Program and give an extra $1000 to the charity that raises the most on #GivingTuesday. Direct gifts can be made to LEFDP through their website: https://events.r2it.com/birdies/r.aspx?site=ATTPebbleBeach&charity=TheLiveEarthFarmDiscoveryProgram

The Banana Slug Sting Band is offering 10% off all Slug CDs & downloads, then giving 10% profits to Live Earth Farm Discovery Program (which will be matched 20% by MPF).

• CDs can be purchased via the Banana Slug String Band website: https://www5.cruzio.com/w5a146/prds0708.html

• Digital tracks/albums can be downloaded here: http://bananaslugs.bandcamp.com/ (customers need to use the code holiday_sale to get the discount)

“Our students learn to eat well on the farm. They learn that their food choices make an impact on the local economy and on the environment. They become aware of their place in the ecological system as they harvest and consume healthy snacks, then feed the scraps to chickens, who produce eggs. They learn responsibility for their choices because they are part of a community,” says LEFDP Director, Jessica Ridgeway

Seeing an opportunity to channel the generous spirit of the holiday season to inspire around charitable giving, a group of friends and partners, led by the 92^nd Street Y, came together to find ways to promote and celebrate the great American tradition of giving. Thought leaders in philanthropy, social media and grassroots organizing joined with 92^nd Street Y to explore what is working in modern philanthropy and how to expand these innovations throughout the philanthropic sector.

“#GivingTuesday is a counter narrative to Black Friday and Cyber Monday because it reminds us that the sprit of the holiday giving season should be about community and not just consumerism,” said Kathy Calvin, CEP of the UN Foundation. “The most meaningful gift we can five our children, loved ones, friends and neighbors is the commitment to work together to help build a better world.

Those who are interested in joining the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program’s #GivingTuesday initiative can visit www.liveearthfarm/givingtuesday/. For more details about the #GivingTuesday movement, visit the #GivingTuesday website (www.givingtuesday.org), Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/GivingTuesday) or follow #GivingTuesday (https://twitter.com/GivngTues) and the #GivingTuesday hashtag on Twitter.

About #GivingTuesday

#GivingTuesday is a movement to celebrate and provide incentives to give. It will culminate with a global day of giving on December 3, 2013. This effort harnesses the collective power of a unique blend of partners-charities, families, businesses and inviduals-to transform how people think about, talk about and participate in the giving season. #GivingTuesday will inspore people to take collaborative action to improve their local communities, give back in better, smarter ways to the charities and causes they celebrate and help create  better world. #Giving Tuesday will harness the power of social media to create a global moment that is dedicated to giving around the world.

We are bringing back the pie-baking contest to the 2013 LEFDP Harvest Festival. Compete with the finest CSA and farming community members in the Monterey Bay area. Show off your baking skills and become a hero of this year’s festival. ; )

Anyone can be a judge. This year we are having a raffle to determine our judging panel. Everyone who enters a pie in the contest will receive one free raffle ticket vie for a spot as a judge, but no one will be allowed to vote on their own pie.

All ages are encouraged to enter the contest and awards will be given at 5:45pm during our community circle before the potluck dinner begins.

To enter the contest, please bring your pie to the Welcome Cart near the fire circle by 4pm sharp. We will announce raffle winners at 4 at the Fire Circle, so if you are hoping to judge these pies and sneak a taste before everyone else, please be there with tickets in hand. You must be present to win.

In your kitchens . . . grab your rolling pin . . . let the pie-baking contest begin.

The categories are:

• Best Apple Pie
• Best Pumpkin Pie
• Best Savory Pie
• Best Crust
• Most Beautiful Pie
• Most Local Pie (please list ingredients and their origin)
• Best Dietary Restrictions Pie (vegan, gluten-free, you bake it, we will judge it)

On October 26^th, the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program will celebrate harvest on the farm.  This family friendly farm event will feature apple picking, pumpkin decorating, a pie contest, face painting, tractor rides, apple cider pressing, a hay bale fort and The Banana Slug String Band. Celebrate the harvest on your local, organic farm.

Watsonville, CA, September 24, 2013 – On October 26^th, 2013 The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program invites the community to celebrate the harvest at the annual Live Earth Farm Harvest Festival. This event is the culmination of the fall tour season, welcoming all our fall students back to the farm with their families.  Open to the public LEFDP celebrates the harvest with loads of family friendly fun including tractor rides, face painting, a potluck, live music by Mountain Folk and the Banana Slug String Band, a pie contest, apple cider making with Happy Girl Kitchen Company, and lots of local treats by folks like Penny Ice Creamery, and Three of a Kind.

Iyisha is a student at Watsonville High School who has worked with LEFDP through the spring and summer. “I stopped eating fast food five months ago after I learned from how far it came . . . and how it was made,” she says. “It didn’t really feel right to me. I like knowing that all my vegetables—when I grow them myself or work on the farm—are fresh and right there instead of having to come thousands of miles to get to me.” Iyisha will be back on the farm for our Harvest Festival to help teach our young visitors all she has learned.

Through LEFDP’s programs local, under served youth build confidence in learning to be active caretakers of themselves, their community and their environment.  This is why the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program hosts three farm events a year for the community, to provide farm programming for all local families.

Sponsorship and volunteer opportunities are available, as well as tickets on our website.
http://liveearthfarm.net/celebrations-events/events/

On November 4^th, Discretion Brewing will host Love Monday for the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program.  20% of the days beer sales will go to LEFDP to support hands-on farm based education and nutrition programs for local youth.

The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program will be featured in the Discretion Brewing Love Monday program on November 4^th, 2013.  The weekly event supports local non-profit organizations by donating 20% of beer sales for the day.  Funds raised at the event will help LEFDP provide ongoing opportunities for youth to visit Live Earth Farm to learn about organic farming, local food systems, and nutrition.

Through LEFDP’s programs local, under served youth build confidence in learning to be active caretakers of themselves, their community and their environment.

Discretion Brewing is a family-owned company dedicated to producing handcrafted organic beer of consistent high quality. They are known for quality and elegance in both their products and their presence in the community. The taproom is open every day from 11:30am to 9pm and serves food from Main Street Garden & Café designed to be shared and paired with the beers.  The brewery and taproom are located at 2703 41^st Avenue in Soquel.