Events

C’mon Down to our 17th Annual Harvest Celebration!

Event Details

When:
this Saturday, Oct 20th
2:00 pm until dark

Where:
<> For the Celebration, come to the ‘upper farm’ (172 Litchfield Lane entrance)
<> For the Apple U-pick, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm (see instructions below), go to the ‘lower farm’ (1275 Green Valley Road) and follow signs for parking
(the two locations are connected, so you can park at either spot and walk between them, just be aware there’s a steep hill in-between!)
Click here for directions

Cost:
No cost – just bring something to share in the pot-luck! (And cash for the donations box if you pick apples or extra pumpkins)

Schedule of Events:
Ongoing Activities: 2:00 pm on
<> Apple U-pick – Please follow signs to Fuji orchards when you come in the driveway at our 1275 Green Valley address. Pick a bag or a bushel, then come join us at the ‘upper farm’ for the rest of the celebration!
<> Apple Cider Pressing – by the fire circle
<> Face Painting
<> Pumpkin Harvesting
<> Apple bobbing contest
<> Farm Tour with Farmer Tom!
<> Warm Apple Focaccia Bread Making – at the cob oven
<> Potato Sack Races for kids of all ages!
<> 5:30 pm – Potluck dinner, Music, and Bonfire

We encourage you to bring your own plates, bowls, forks, spoons, cloth napkins… even cups for cider, in order to minimize the un-recyclable waste of paper plates and plastic utensils and such going into the landfill. Thanks! OH, and don’t forget a serving utensil for your pot-luck item!

What to bring:
<> Above-mentioned plates, utensils, cups etc for pot-luck
<> A dish of some sort to share in the pot-luck (don’t forget to bring a serving utensil! Please also bring a card or note with ingredients if not obvious, so people with food allergies will know what they can and cannot eat)
<> A blanket to spread on the ground to picnic on
<> Hats, jackets, sweaters, etc – it gets cool in the evening!
<> A flashlight, if you plan on staying until dark

In year’s past we had a Pie Contest which will NOT take place this year, however, I (Farmer Tom) for one will make a pie and we will have a separate specially-decorated table just for our creative pie baking enthusiasts.

Notice:
This year we need a few volunteers to help with the Harvest Fest. Please call me (831-760-0436) or e-mail thomas@baymoon.com if you can lend a hand, even if it’s only for a short time, whether it’s helping with setting up, apple pressing, apple u-pick, pumpkin picking and carving, baking in the cob oven, music, face painting, etc, YOUR HELP is GREATLY APPRECIATED!

– Tom

Mark your calendar and come be part of our last farm celebration of the season, our “All about Apples” (and Pumpkins, of course!) 2012 Harvest Celebration, October 20th at 2pm. (Apple U-Pick will start at 10am.) Hope to see you all here on the farm for some serious apple crushing, cider making, apple picking, pumpkin carving, pie eating, singing and dancing at this fun-filled event! Details about the event to be announced soon!

– Tom

Thanks to so much support from our community, Dig! was a huge success! We are still tallying results, but it looks like we netted about $15,000 in funds that will go directly towards providing education programs on the farm for local youth! This event is unique in so many ways, one of which is that we have almost no overhead. Everything is donated: The Chefs skills, and time, the ingredients used to create their delicious masterpieces, all of the silent auction items, the services of Lightfoot Industries, the flowers, the wine, and all of the manpower that brings it all together. Which means almost ALL of the money raised pays for kids to participate in our programs. The result is truly a community achievement. My heartfelt thanks to those who participated whether guest, volunteer, staff or sponsor — you all contributed to a beautiful and successful afternoon.

Here is text of the speech I made at the event, thanking our guests for their support and inspiring them to do even more:

“Does a girl named Yasmin ring any bells for any of you? She is the student from Oaxaca who I mentioned in the invitation letter for this event. I told her story because it so nicely illustrates what we are trying to do through the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program. We have so many high minded and well intentioned goal: to improve childhood nutrition, to foster an environmental ethic, to build and support local, organic food systems, but it only takes one student leaving the farm feeling proud of themselves to know that we have planted a powerful seed.

“So, please write a check to LEFDP to make a tax-deductible donation. Everyone has something to offer.”[Readers online can click here and make a donation online.]

And just in case wine dinners are not your thing, we have a few fun events coming up for you too. On October 20th at the LEF 2012 Harvest Celebration we will be serving beer to raise funds for LEFDP along with all of the other fun stuff we always do AND on October 25th Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing will be donating a portion of every pint sold to LEFDP on their “Thank you Thursday”. Tom, Constance, and I along with members of our Board of Directors will be there to enjoy a pint or two with you. RSVP to the event on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LEFDP.

Ever heard of Edible Monterey Bay? It’s one of 70 magazines in the award-winning and beloved Edible Communities family (www.ediblecommunities.com). The Edibles span North America, but each is locally owned and run.

Edible Monterey Bay’s mission is to celebrate the local food cultures of (specifically) the Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties, season by season. They believe in sustainability, and that everyone has a right to healthful, clean and affordable food; that knowing where our food comes from is a powerful thing. Their magazine, website and events hope to inspire readers to get to know and support our local growers, fishers, chefs, vintners and food artisans.

So what’s Live Earth Farm got to do with this? Well Tom has graciously offered up the farm as a venue for this wonderful magazine’s first anniversary celebration. Another fabulous plein-air sit-down five-course dinner (all organic, all local food and wine), coming up soon – next Saturday October 13th. It’s a pretty fantastic lineup, and quite affordable tickets for this kind of thing ($75 apiece includes dinner, wines, tax and tip). Click here to learn more, and to get tickets!

Are you in love with Companion Bakeshop’s delicious sourdough breads? Ever wanted to learn how to make bread like that? Real sourdough? Now that Erin has her own brick-oven bakery (right there on Mission St. in West Santa Cruz – easy to find), she offers workshops to teach others the fine craft of baking. And not just sourdough bread — there are classes on pastry-making, even special holiday pie workshops (once and for all, learn how to make that flaky pie crust!). All classes include snacks and drinks and take-home baked goods. What’s not to like?

Check out Companion’s workshop schedule on their website for more details.
www.companionbakeshop.com

Lots of tomatoes ripe for the picking sez Tom! Come to the farm this Saturday August 25th and stock up! Here’s the skinny:

When: Saturday August 25th, 9am – 4pm

Where: come to our “Main” Green Valley Entrance (1275 Green Valley Rd. – see pictures below). Follow signs for parking. The U-pick field is just across the ditch from the barn this year, so, very easy to find.

Cost: $1.50/lb (1st 5 lbs. free). No harvest limit this year!

What else:
✓ Tom will do tractor rides
✓ Bring hats, sunscreen, etc. for protection from the elements
✓ Bring your own lunch and picnic on the farm if you like!
✓ Bring your own bags or boxes for harvesting (LEF will not provide them)
✓ Don’t forget to bring cash for paying (exact change helps!)
✓ Bring extra cash for Taylor’s farm stand, which will be open!
✓ Bring your own salt if you want to snack on tomatoes in the field! 🙂
✓ Feel free to walk the farm and explore
✓ Other harvest opportunities: apples, peppers and cherry tomatoes
✓ We ask that you do not bring dogs to our farm; please leave them at home – thanks!

Live Earth Farm and Companion Bakeshop invite you to join us in Santa Cruz for an evening of friendship and generosity, and to enjoy the bounties of oven-fresh bread and farm-fresh produce! We’ve had a mutually beneficial relationship with Companion for years, offering their fabulous bread to members through our CSA, so we are extremely excited to be celebrating together via this community social and farmer/baker meet and greet. Portions of the proceeds will benefit the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program.

What to expect for the evening? Sample delicious pies, breads and other dishes made with fresh produce from the farm. Mingle with Erin Lampel (the baker), and Tom Broz (the farmer) throughout the evening. Tickets are available for purchase directly at the Bakeshop, online through their website, companionbakeshop.com (site will be updated by Monday night), via fullcirclefundraiser.eventbrite.com, or through the Live Earth Farm Web Store.

Details

Where: at Companion Bakeshop, on the West end of Santa Cruz
2341 Mission Street, Santa Cruz
When: Sunday August 19th
Time: 6:30 – 9pm.
Cost: Tickets are $15/adult or $6/child

[quote]An aside from Debbie: I was just mentioning to Taylor that every time I get my weekly loaf (through the CSA), every time I eat a slice — I never cease to marvel at how truly wonderful Companion’s bread is, and how really lucky I am to be able to have access to such an amazing product. Really good bread – especially fresh wood-fired-oven baked, organic, sourdough (Companion is all three) – is a rare and special thing, and Erin makes really good bread. I tell you, if you are a CSA member and a bread person, and do not get a bread option yet, you are missing out. Fortunately I believe you can still add it to your share if you want. You will never look back. [/quote]

Few words, mostly pictures – mark your calendar for Saturday August 25th – the long awaited Tomato U-Pick! Will provide more detail in the next newsletter (two weeks from now/the week of the u-pick), but wanted to give everyone a heads-up. If it is anything like last year, Tom will probably have more than one u-pick, so don’t despair if you can’t make it on the 25th.

Mark your calendars and get your tickets to the Discovery Program’s 4th Annual Fundraising Dinner, “Dig!” – you won’t want to miss it!

Take a unique guided tasting “tour” of the fields while noshing on specially made goodies from their bounty and sipping wine from local wineries; following that, there will be an elegant ‘en plen air’ sit-down, four-course dinner, complete with more wine pairings… and there’s sure to be something sumptuous for dessert! And no need to leave the kids at home either: there will be a children’s program with pizza-making and games, so you can still relax and enjoy the evening, no babysitter necessary!

When: Saturday September 22nd, 4 – 8pm
Where: Live Earth Farm
How Much: $150 per adult; children’s program $25
Why: your donation will directly help support farm visits, transportation costs and garden supplies for the 1500 students who will visit the farm in 2012.

How do I get tickets? You can by them directly from our website by clicking here, or call LEFDP or email Jessica (see below).

for more information:
831-728-2032
lefdpdirector@gmail.com
www.liveearthfarm.net/dp-fundraiser2012.htm

A tradition since the farm’s beginning —

Below is the nitty-gritty on this year’s event, but first: answers to the most frequently asked questions! (Please don’t call the office Saturday with questions – no one will be there; we’ll all be outside for the event!) 😉

✔ YES, both members and non-members (friends of the farm!) are welcome!

✔ NO, there is no cost to attend, however, new this year, we do request a nominal parking fee regardless of membership status – only $5 per carload (so DO carpool!). All parking fees collected go to support the LEF Discovery Program.

✔ NO, you don’t need to RSVP… just come! 😉

✔ PLEASE do not bring your dogs with you to the farm. Leave them at home.

When: this Saturday June 16th, 2pm until dark

Parking & Directions: Please follow the signs. Main parking will be via our Litchfield Entrance, however overflow parking will be at our Green Valley Entrance (near our “new barn” at the “lower farm”). You are welcome to park at either location, however be aware that the Celebration — with the exception of tractor rides — will all be at our “upper farm” off Litchfield, and there’s a bit of an uphill hike to get from “lower” to “upper”.

Schedule of Activities: Most activities commence by 3pm and are ongoing, however a few have specific start times.

Tractor Ride/Farm Tour with Farmer Tom – 3pm and 4:30pm. Rides will start at the “new barn” down on the “lower farm”.

Goat Milking – 3pm, at the goat barn.

Ice Cream Making – 4pm, meet by the fire circle.

Cheese-making – 4:30, in the breezeway of the “upper barn”

Pizza-making – 3:30 – 4:30, at the cob oven

Ongoing activities:

• Hay bale fort for climbing and playing
• Face painting
• U-pick strawberries
• Chocolate-dipped strawberries, with chocolate ganache from The Buttery!
• Storytelling and music
• Self-guided walking tours (help yourself to a map from the big “Wild Farm Connections” signage near the goat barn and hike the property!)
• Farm Stand
• Raffle Tickets!
• Beer! – we may have beer courtesy of Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing and Boulder Creek Brewery… if we do, IDs will be checked if you look under 30.
• More!! (there’s always more)

Kuzanga Marimba! – 5pm, by the fire circle

Welcome Circle and Pot-Luck – 6pm, by the fire circle (see below for more info on pot-luck). This will also be when Farmer Tom picks raffle winners, so don’t be late!

Bonfire – after the pot-luck, close to dusk; music with Kuzanga continues…!

Fire Dance – at dark, by the fire circle. Linnea, a former farm apprentice, will be coming back for a reprise of her fire-dancing talents — not to be missed!

Pot Luck Details:
✔ Everyone please bring something to share – an entree, a salad, a dessert – whatever you like! We never organize it more than that and always seem to have a nice variety.

✔ How much to bring? As much as you can; we always seem to eat it all up! People are never seen going home with left-overs!

✔ Please bring your own picnic plates, cups, bowls, silverware etc. in order to minimize unrecyclable garbage. We will have a washing station, where you can rinse them when you are through eating.

✔ Please bring a serving utensil to go with your dish!

✔ Put your name on your dish and serving utensil with some masking tape or something, in case they get separated, and so we know who they belong to if they get inadvertently left behind.

✔ Please provide an ingredient list for your dish on a piece of paper or 3×5 card so folks with food allergies or special diets will know what they can and cannot eat. (We’ll have cards and pens if you forget to do this ahead of time.)

✔ Where to put your pot-luck items when you arrive? We will have several tables for placing your pot-luck items on out near the fire circle. If you have something that needs to be refrigerated, you can pop it into our walk-in cooler to the right of the breezeway in our “upper barn”. If it just needs to stay cool (not in the heat of your car), you can also put it on a table inside the breezeway/classroom area until pot-luck time. If you arrive closer to pot-luck time, simply bring it to the table area. We have extremely limited facilities for re-heating anything, so please don’t plan on that if you can help it.

✔ There will be water and lemonade, but feel free to bring additional beverages for your own consumption or to share.

✔ And bring a blanket to picnic on, or your own chairs if you prefer.