Events

The French called tomatoes “pomme d’amour” or Love Apples, and I agree, what is there not to love about tomatoes – this year’s crop of dry-farmed tomatoes with it’s “alluring” deep red colors are bursting with “seductive” rich flavors.

Saturday’s Tomato U-Pick was testimony to how much we love tomatoes. The image that brings a smile to my heart is of a baby girl accompanying her dad, who is carrying two large bags of freshly harvested tomatoes, while she is munching on a large red tomato with juice dripping down her chin and shirt. “This is the first tomato she ever tasted” her dad commented.

As a farmer this may be the most rewarding moment – to experience the joy and pleasure at the completion of a crop’s lifecycle, tended from seed to maturity.

When children come to the farm they can engage their senses to discover the pleasures of real food. With Live Earth Farm’s Discovery Program, we have expanded our ability to reach out to children and youth in this county by stewardship. Last year in addition to our monthly community farm days and seasonal celebrations, over 1500 children and young adults came to the farm, attending farm tours, workshops, summer-camps, and curriculum based work-leadership programs.

“Love Apples galore, come and get some more!”

Join us for another Community Farm Day on August 30^th from 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM.

This will be a great day to enjoy the farm and directly support our educational efforts, as 20% of the proceeds will benefit the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program.

With apples reaching their peak of ripeness, we will open the U-Pick to our Royal Gala Orchard as well as the Dry-farmed Tomato field. The day will include tractor rides, farm tours, apple cider pressing, and child friendly farm games and activities. Invite friends and family; help us spread the word as we invite everyone to enjoy a nourishing, fun and bountiful summer day on the farm.

Click here for more pics from last Saturday’s Community Farm Day & U-pick

The pictures below express more about the fun we had last Saturday at our first Dry-farmed Tomato U-Harvest than words ever will –  thank you all so much for joining us on the farm!! 🙂

Due to the high demand and interest by members and extended community, we will continue hosting Saturday Tomato U-Harvests for the next two weeks, Saturday, August 31 and Saturday, September 7 from 10:00AM – 3:00PM. (Click here for more information).

CANCELLED due to weather

We are very sorry. There will be a pumpkin & apple stand, and cider pressing in our Education Barn on the Upper Farm from 10-2. So please come for a muddy walk and get your Halloween and Thanksgiving pumpkins.

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.

October 25th, 2014, 2pm – dark
“Upper Farm” 172 Litchfield Lane
$15-$20 sliding scale per car in advance or $20 “at the door”, supports our education programs.
*Free passes available for under served community members

Sign up & prepay for the event

Celebrate the Bounty of the Pajaro Valley and the Monterey Bay Area! Join us for fun on the farm for the whole family. Honor the changing of the seasons and celebrate the Harvest with us on the farm:

• 2:00-5:00 – Fun & Games
• 2:30 – 5:00 – Food & Farm
• 4:00 – Pie Contest Raffle Winners Announced
• 4:30 – Pie Judging
• 5:45 – Community Circle and Pie Contest Awards Ceremony
• 6:00 – Community Potluck Dinner
• 6:30 – Sunset Bonfire
• Live Music by the Robin Leah Band
• Fun & Games
  • Farm/Garden Scavenger Hunt, Pumpkin Decorating, Pumpkin and Apple Games, Hay Bale Fort, Family Yoga with Luma
• Food & Farm
  • Pumpkin Patch, Cob Oven Pizzettes, Apple Cider workshops, Goat Fun
• Marketplace
  • Live Earth Farm Stand, Sausages and Kraut, Local Beer TBD, Ice Cream by Penny Ice Creamery, 3 of a Kind Juice

*PLEASE DO NOT BRING YOUR DOG TO THE FARM*
We have dogs on the farm, whose purpose is to protect the farm from other animals. For the safety of the children who visit, we ask that you leave your animals at home. There is rarely adequate shade for you to leave your animal in the car while on site.
*If you need your service dog to accompany you to our site, please contact us in advance and have your service dog clearly marked. We will do our best to prepare for your animal’s visit and accommodate your needs for a service animal.

VOLUNTEER & SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES are available.

HARVEST FESTIVAL 2013 EVENT SPONSORS

1 ACRE

Participating Local Businesses and Artisans

Corralitos Market & Sausage Company

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!

On September 20^th, the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program will host El Pajaro, the 6^th annual organic dinner on the farm supporting the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program. Chef Jonathan Miller of Eat Right at Home will regale guests with fresh, local flavors from the very fields where the fare is served. Paired with sumptuous local wines, and accompanied by Penny Ice Cream Sundaes for dessert, live music and an auction, this dinner will delight.

Watsonville, CA, August 4, 2014 – On September 20^th, 2014 El Pajaro, the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program’s 6^th annual farm dinner, will feature local chefs, farmers, artisans and winemakers celebrating the farmers from around the world who have cultivated the abundance grown in the Pajaro Valley. The afternoon will begin with live music accompanying freshly prepared appetizers, a Pajaro Valley Historical Association display and silent auction. After the multi-course wine pairing dinner, the event will culminate with a campfire and dessert overlooking the Pajaro Valley. The children’s cob oven pizza and garden party is a perennial favorite.

“It was so rewarding picking our own food right out of the ground and then cleaning it and eating it,” Dana commented. Why does such a humble act feel so rewarding? Is it because it connects us to the land, and the animals, food, water, and community that sustain us?

Dana is a high school junior who stayed on the farm for three days this spring. She learned how to grow produce, and care for farm animals, how to cook healthy meals, and how to ask the right questions to become a conscious consumer in our local and international food system.

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 aims to raise $40,000 through El Pajaro, the September 20^th fall fundraising event, to support farm visits, transportation costs, and garden supplies for the 1500 students who will visit Live Earth Farm in 2015.

[button link=”https://el-pajaro-lefdp.eventbrite.com”]Purchase Tickets[/button] [button link=”http://liveearthfarm.net/discovery-program/support-us/”]Sponsor[/button]

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!

We are so grateful to EVERYONE who contributed to making Slice, our dinner in the orchard, a success. It is only thanks to everyone’s contributions that we are able to make the cash contributions go so far.

So thank you sponsors, auction donors, guests, growers, wine makers, artisans, chefs, student decorators, center piece makers, photographers, artists, musicians, student servers, luminaria makers, Live Earth Farm and Discovery Program staff, grocery donors, and friends and family, who ALL made this event the wonderful evening it was. The list seems endless.

Not only did we exceed our fundraising goal of $20,000, when we account for all of the in kind contributions, volunteer hours, student projects, and community good will, we find our selves exceedingly wealthy.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for participating, supporting us, and being our community!