Discover This!

The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program is partnering with certified Holistic Nutrition Consultant, Sarah Ahern, to offer free weekly nutrition workshops this winter. Beginning Saturday, February 6^th, these family friendly workshops will focus on how to eat seasonally, organically, unrefined, and locally. Through cooking demos and the exploration of the fields and garden at the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program, learn how to nourish your body and deepen your connection with food.

Each year over 2,000 local children and youth learn about farming, nutrition, and environmental sustainability and connect with nature on our farm. All four seasons offer opportunities to gain knowledge and skills about our food system, the farm and natural ecosystems.

In the spring, students participate in farm immersion programs, staying overnight on the farm for a few days to get their hands dirty, preparing compost, sowing seeds, and preparing farm-fresh meals with spring crops.

In the summer, kids of all ages – from the youngest participants in our Wee Ones program, to our school-age summer camp participants, to the Pajaro Valley teens Leaders in Training and those doing their Food What?! internship on Live Earth Farm – tend and harvest an abundance of delicious summer produce.

In the autumn, students visit the farm for our applemania field trips and our weekly homeschool program to participate in the harvest, sample fresh fall fruits and veggies, and help us save seeds for the next season.

In the winter, young visitors enjoy caring for our livestock – our chickens, dairy goats, and cow – while helping us prepare the land for another bountiful year.

Our 150-acre organic farm is a rich resource for learning about agriculture, science, nutrition, and ecology. With your support, we bring local students to the farm to learn throughout the seasons.

Please join us in our work to empower youth to make regenerative choices for their health, our community, and the environment through farm-based education. Make your tax-deductible contribution today at www.liveearthfarm.net/four-seasons, so we can harvest a healthier tomorrow for our youth and our planet.

Thank you! We wish you all the best this – and every – season.

Position Description
We are looking for a highly competent, outgoing, detail-oriented and driven person to join our staff as Development Coordinator. The position is a long term, part time salaried position with potential to become full time for the right person, invested in the sustainability of LEFDP. This position will provide vital support to the LEFDP Executive Director, Education Coordinator and Program Staff by coordinating fundraising efforts, managing events, and overseeing grant processes. This is a core position for LEFDP and the Development Coordinator will participate in strategic planning, regular staff planning and coordination.

Responsibilities:
Development Coordination: (75%)

• Manage three LEFDP farm events per year – spring Sheep to Shawl Fair, fall Feast in the Fields benefit, and fall Harvest Festival – including securing sponsorships, soliciting donations, volunteer recruitment, event coordination and vendor management.
• Reach out to the local and regional agricultural and business communities to develop corporate sponsorship relationships to help sustain LEFDP programs.
• Forge corporate volunteer partnerships, including recruitment, management and stewardship of volunteers.
• Implement and manage fundraising efforts in collaboration with the LEFDP team.
• Coordinate donor cultivation and stewardship events.
• Support LEFDP Director in developing and maintaining relationships with donors.
• Maintain LEFDP grant and donor database (Salesforce software).
• Manage limited grant submissions including research, writing, editing, reporting and check-ins with LEFDP Director on goals and objectives.
• Maintain LEFDP grant database (Salesforce software).
• Co-create and co-manage annual program budget with LEFDP Director and Board.
• Develop annual fundraising plan and update quarterly for Director and Board.
• Manage donor and supporter electronic and print communications using mail merge, e-communications programs and tracking communications in the LEFDP database.

Communications (15%)

• Aid Director with in-house and volunteer production of LEFDP marketing materials and solicit outside help as needed.
• Assist in creation and implementation of communications plan including content for LEFDP web and social media.
• Represent LEFDP in community events, networks, and service club meetins (eg. Rotary).
• Participate in community and school events and fairs to promote LEDP volunteer opportunities and recruit volunteers.
• Engage in community networking to raise awareness and promote LEFDP.

Operations and Finance Management: (5%)

• Work with staff to coordinate and ensure the integrity of the processing of donations.
• Review quarterly Profit and Loss reports with LEFDP Director to ensure financial integrity of LEFDP.
• Participate in quarterly Board of Directors meetings.

Program Support (5%)

• Recruit volunteers for LEFDP events ad programs from local community, workplaces, schools, service clubs, and congregations.
• Provide program support in collaboration with LEFDP Director and LEFDP Education Coordinator.

Qualifications:

• Proven success in developing diverse revenue streams for nonprofits, specifically youth, farm or outdoor education programs.
• Event coordination experience, and demonstrated success.
• Corporate sponsorship experience, and demonstrated success.
• Volunteer management experience, and demonstrated success.
• Grant writing experience, and demonstrated success
• Passion for development and relationship building.
• Strong organizational, communication and collaboration skills.
• High level of attention to detail and time management.
• Dependable with thorough follow through.
• Strong computer skills, including communications design programs such as Pages, broadcast email/text programs such as Constant Contact, MS Office suite, and Google Apps.
• Ability to carry the brand and be the face of LEFDP.

Preferred:

• Bilingual Spanish speaker.
• Experience and understanding of Latina/o culture.
• Farming or gardening experience and skills.
• Experience with or willingness to learn donor information systems and website management programs such as Salesforce and WordPress.
• Familiarity with are agricultural business and philanthropic sectors,

Duration
The position will be filled by February 2016. We are most interested in hiring someone willing to make a long term, multi-year commitment. The minimum contract for the position will last through December 2016.

Details
This is a 20 hours per week, part time position with some seasonal fluctuation and paid vacation, sick time and holidays. We are a very small organization ready to grow with you. We believe in a living wage, we are very family friendly and we are working towards offering competitive salaries. Your work can help us get there. Salary commensurate with experience. Organic produce available.

Application Procedure
Please send a cover letter, resume and relevant writing sample to Jessica Ridgeway at lefdpdirector@gmail.com

Harvest Festival: Pumpkin Patch and Apple Bash at Live Earth Farm

Celebrate the Harvest at Live Earth Farm on Saturday, October 24^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 Pumpkin Patch and Apple Bash will feature cider making, face painting, pumpkin decorating and games, a pie contest, and the best potluck in the county.

Watsonville, CA, October 12, 2015 – On Saturday, October 24^th, 2015 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, a pie contest, apple cider making, and lots of local treats by Penny Ice Creamery, Hey Honey Lemonade, beer from New Bohemia, and True Story sausages.

Live Earth Farm Discovery recently received a package in the mail from an elementary school. It was filled with colorful crayon drawn ‘thank you’ cards. There were pictures of chickens, goats, strawberries and children working in the fields. These cards are a great reminder that what we are doing is impactful and important. The local school kids who visit on field trips are always excited to share their experience on the farm with their family members. Often they will collect extra berries or vegetables and carefully carry them until the end of the tour in order to bring them home to their parents and siblings. Harvest Festival is a way for the whole family to return and enjoy the farm together. About 300 people of all ages will get the chance to appreciate and celebrate the food on our plates at the 2015 Live Earth Farm Discovery 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 local families.

Sponsorship and volunteer opportunities are available, as well as tickets on our website: www.liveearthfarm.net/harvest-festival-2015/

The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program (LEFDP) is a farm-based education not for 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 Pajaro Valley to bolster individual, community and environmental health.

Jessica Ridgeway, Director
831-728-2032
LEFDPDirector@gmail.com
On facebook: LEFDP
On Twitter: @LEFDP
On Pinterest: LEFDP
On Instagram: LEFDiscoveryProgram
www.liveearthfarm.net/harvest-festival-2015/

The 2015 Summer Day Camps with Live Earth Farm Discovery Program were a great success!

Almost 100 children attended our five weeks of camp this year. More than ever! We also exceeded all prior years’ scholarship generosity, thanks in part to two generous grants from two local family foundations. These grants additionally helped to fund a wonderful Leader in Training Program for local youth from all walks of life.

We believe that campers have a richer experience when they can socialize and make friends with kids from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. This year we revamped Young Farmers camp into “Farm to Table” camp. It involved a lot of hands on activities in the kitchen classroom, harvesting, preparing and cooking with the farm produce. This is a wonderful way to encourage children to eat more fruits and veggies! We will certainly have “Farm to Table” camp next year.

Part of what makes our summer camps to great are our teenage volunteer Leaders in Training (LIT’s). The mix of first year LIT’s with some of our more experienced leaders made for a dynamic learning and personal growth opportunity for everyone. Thank you LIT’s!

We can’t forget to thank the parents, guardians, and grandparents who make it possible for these children to have the chance to spend  a week on a farm learning about arts, crafts, food, and farming. Thank you!

Tell your friends that Day Camp at Live Earth Farm is the best and next year will be better than ever!

It’s that time of year again, apple season! I am excited to have this delicious and versatile fruit back in season. There are so many different ways to prepare and eat apples, but one of my favorites is stuffed apples. They are a great snack to put in lunch boxes, for after school, or on the go. And they can easily be turned into a delicious dessert.

Ingredients:

• Your favorite kind of apple
• nuts or nut butter
• dried fruit
• warming spices like cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves
• granola

Method:
1. Core the apple. You will want to make the cavity about an inch in diameter while making sure you do not cut through the bottom.
2. Drop about a tablespoon of nut butter into the cavity and spread around.
3. Mix together spices, dried fruit and granola and pour into the apple.

*To turn them into a dessert, you can bake them. They will become soft and sweet. To do this, go ahead and add a bit of butter to the top of the stuffed apples. It will help the apples caramelize, and let’s face it, everything is better with a little butter. Next add a splash of water to the bottom of the baking dish and cover with foil. This will help the apples soften. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes, or until apples are fork tender.
Here’s a couple variation of baked apples:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/baked-apples-stuffed-cranberries-and-almonds
http://www.thekitchn.com/weeknight-recipe-oatmealbrown-75752

Menu

Appetizers

Roasted Dry Farm Tomato Caprese Crostini
Pepper Gazpacho Shooter
Herbed Zucchini Squares

Bread

Sunflour Bakehouse Artisan Bread Assortment with Belle Farms Olive Oil

Salad

Apple Fennel Salad with Hazelnuts & Crispy Prosciutto

Third Course

Wheatberry, Kale & Butternut Squash Salad

Entree

Braised Morris Grass-fed Beef with Herbed Chimichurri and Horseradish Crème
&
Herbed Yellow Potato & Carrot Medley

Dessert

Penny Ice Creamery Live Earth Farm Zucchini Cake Ice Cream Sundaes with Waffle Cone Triangles, Marinis’ Candies Caramel Sauce & Strauss Family Creamery Whipped Cream

Beverages

Discretion Brewing Shimmer Pils
Testarossa 2013 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
Big Basin Vineyards TBD
Zayante Vineyards 2010 Syrah
Alfaro Family Vineyards & Winery 2013 Estate Chardonnay
Santa Cruz Mountain 2014 Grenache Blanc – Clay Station – Borden Ranch
Roudon Smith Winery 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
Storrs Winery & Vineyards 2010
Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

Add your name to our mailing list by Sunday September 20, 2015 and be entered for a chance to win 2 tickets to A to Zucchini.
*We will contact you quarterly with a fun newsletter about the incredible transformations taking place on the farm.