31 MAR – 1 APR
WEDNESDAY – THURSDAY
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FIRST SHARE OF 2010 REGULAR SEASON!
WEEKLY DELIVERIES BEGIN |
COMING SEPT 25
SATURDAY 3–6 PM
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SECOND ANNUAL DISCOVERY PROGRAM FUNDRAISER!
TICKETS AVAILABLE |
25 SEP
SATURDAY
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DISCOVERY PROGRAM
ANNUAL FUNDRAISER |
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4 pm – 10 pm
about this day |
23 OCT
SATURDAY
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HARVEST CELEBRATION
& APPLE U-PICK |
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noon – sundown
about this day |
17 NOV – 18 NOV
WEDNESDAY – THURSDAY
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LAST SHARE OF 2010 REGULAR SEASON
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DATE TBA
WEDNESDAY – THURSDAY
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FIRST SHARE OF 2010 WINTER SEASON
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SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATIONS
Every year, summer and fall, our farm celebrates the Earth and its bounty. The Summer Solstice is big and happy, a romp in the sun! There's music and plenty of kid-friendly farm activities during the day, and a potluck dinner, bonfire and dancing in the evening. An activity list will appear in our newsletter as the date gets nearer. To learn more, reveal the details!
Who: open to CSA members and their friends
Scheduling: no need to RSVP, just come!
Cost: Free to CSA members; $10-15 donation per car for non-members.
Please bring something to share in the potluck!
We ask you not to bring dogs to our celebrations; please leave them at home.
At our Summer Solstice Celebration, three of our favorite themes come together. First, there is food – fixed by many hands and brought to our potluck table (now about 30 feet long and getting longer every year!), and gleaned by eager young hands straight from the berry fields. Second, there is gratitude to the Earth for the bounty which it provides. And finally, there is community as hundreds of families talk, play and eat together under the summer sky.
We always have music at our celebrations – sometimes it is The Banana Slug String Band (a favorite of the children, and the 'Slugs' are members of our CSA!); sometimes it is Kuzanga Marimba, an 8-piece Marimba ensemble. Years ago we had a funk-band playing into the evening with lots of dancing. Sometimes members bring instruments and we make our own music!
Farm activities are plentiful too: ice cream making, pizza and bread making and baking in our wood-fired oven, walking tours of the farm, berry picking and eating... the children especially love climbing on our huge hay-bale structure, exploring our pond (tadpoles in the spring!), and meeting and petting the farm animals.
Bring a dish for the potluck:
Our Summer Solstice Celebrations are truly a community effort; members pitch in to help with event set-up and planning. It's pretty fun. If you'd like to help, contact us!
From the archives:
A video of the Summer Solstice Celebration 2009
A lovely video of 2007's Solstice Celebration, featuring Kuzanga Marimba!
(Be sure your sound is on!!)
A picture story of the 2003 Summer Solstice celebration
HARVEST CELEBRATIONS
Every year, summer and fall, our farm celebrates the Earth and its bounty. If the Summer Solstice is a ripe sun-warmed strawberry, the Fall Harvest Celebration is a marvelous tart apple, cool in autumn colors. There's music and plenty of kid-friendly farm activities during the day, a pie-making contest, and a potluck dinner, bonfire and dancing in the evening. To learn more, reveal the details!
Who: open to CSA members and their friends
Scheduling: no need to RSVP, just come!
Cost: Free to CSA members; $10-15 donation per car for non-members.
Please bring something to share in the potluck!
Please don't bring your dogs to the celebrations.
Like all our farm events, we hold the Harvest Celebration to connect children and grown-ups to the farm land through hands-on activities, and to bring the community together around art and music, a potluck feast and a bonfire. Each event has its own flow and dynamic based on Nature and its season, the farm and its rhythms, and the CSA community itself.
During the celebrations, children and grown-ups run freely (we have a great hay bale castle and a swing set) or be engaged in a number of guided activities such as: picking and eating strawberries, planting seedlings, picking flowers, petting the baby goats, milking the mama goats, and visiting the chickens. In 2001 we built a wood-fired bread oven (and built another larger one in 2008), and ever since, baking of bread and pizzas is 'a must' at all farm gatherings. Hand-pressing apples for juice and carving pumpkins are especially popular at the Harvest Celebration! CSA members often volunteer to organize and supervise some of these activities, and come up with their ideas. One year we made hand-cranked ice cream with freshly picked strawberries, and boy was it ever was a winner!
As part of our events, we like to give thanks to the Earth that nourishes us. We encourage the children to go into the fields and then come back and display what they have discovered and harvested. The grown-ups have a chance to share food, recipes and camaraderie during our pot-luck. Being appreciative for the land and its generosity is one way to give thanks.
Music always finds its place on the farm. When the bonfire is lit, drums, flutes and guitars emerge and make magical music to accompany the fire's own voice. Local musicians transform our fire circle into a dance floor (when was the last time that you danced barefoot on the earth?).
The Banana Slug String Band, a local music group famous (especially among families with children) for their ecologically inspired lyrics, also come on a regular basis to share with us their uplifting beats. On occasion one musician transforms himself into a redwood ("Look Mom, it's Plant Man!") to the delight of the crowd!
Our Harvest Celebrations are truly a community effort; members pitch in to help with event set-up and organization. If you'd like to help, contact us!
From the archives:
A sweet video of 2007's Harvest Celebration. (Be sure your sound is on!!)
A picture-poem of the 2003 Fall Equinox celebration
Festival by Firelight: fireside at the 2002 Fall Equinox celebration
COMMUNITY FARM DAYS
We hold our Farm Days to let our CSA members and their families experience and enjoy a slice of "life on the farm." Each Farm day has a seasonal focus. Members are usually welcome to arrive Friday evening and camp out overnight to Saturday; for the latest updates, check our newsletter.
Who: open to CSA members and their friends
Scheduling: please RSVP with the number of people attending and whether you'll be arriving Friday night or Saturday morning. Email thomas@baymoon.com or if necessary leave a message at 831.763.2448 x1
Cost: Free to CSA members; $10-15 donation per car for non-members
We ask you not to bring dogs to our farm; please leave them at home.
Community Farm Days are kind of like our old Mini Camps, but for members of all ages! If you will be camping overnight on the farm, please bring your own food for night and morning.
At a Farm Day, you might plant seedlings, comb sheep, pick apples, or engage in any of the wide range of activities that present themselves at a working farm!
FRUIT AND BERRY U-PICKS
What might you get? We might have U-Picks for strawberries, raspberries and other cane berries, apricots, apples, watermelon, pumpkins and ???? This is important: Bring your own bags. Check our newsletter for updates as dates get nearer.
FARM + FRIENDS COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS
We welcome collaborations with others that help celebrate the Earth and its bounty.
CANNING WITH HAPPY GIRL KITCHEN
Todd and Jordan Champagne of Happy Girl Kitchen collaborate with Live Earth Farm to preserve our fresh organic bounty so that it can be enjoyed year round. If you have ever participated in our Winter Share, you know the joy of opening a jar of preserved tomatoes in the middle of winter! It's like a jar full of summer sunshine.
All workshops include an organic lunch, plus you take home a batch of whatever you made that day! Contact Jordan Champagne of Happy Girl Kitchen if you have any questions. (Email Jordan) (More about Happy Girl Kitchen workshops)
COMMUNITY-LED WORKSHOPS
We encourage our CSA members to organize workshops at the farm, and to consider the farm to be a resource to explore their farm-related interests. If you have an idea for a workshop, simply contact us to make arrangements and propose costs. This is a very flexible and customizable program! Our main concern is simply that you coordinate with us on timing so that we avoid scheduling conflicts.
One exciting community-led workshop was building "Toastie," our first wood-fired cob bread oven in 2001. Toastie was famous for his seemingly unending capacity to generate warm breads and pizzas during our celebrations!
FARM WORKSHOP/LECTURES
This is an idea that is still forming... possible subjects: Permaculture, Fermented Foods, Farming with the Wild... stay tuned!
ART ON THE FARM DAY CAMP
The Live Earth Farm Discovery Program's education team is inviting kids from within our CSA community to join us for a weeklong adventure day camp in July. Campers can expect to get their hands dirty while exploring pieces of Live Earth's 80 acres of organic vegetables and fruit orchards. As they learn about life as an organic farmer, campers will get to know our herd of goats, our flock of sheep and a coop full of chickens. As they experience the farm, they also get hands-on with the visual arts to creatively express what they're discovering! They'll print from natural materials, make and play musical instruments, do felting, make cheese, work in our demonstration garden, and more.
Who: open to the children of CSA members, ages 8 to 12
Cost: $325/camper for the week; includes plenty of art supplies and a daily farm-fresh handpicked garden snack! An optional Thursday night sleepover (with dinner and breakfast) is an additional $50/camper. Two partial scholarships are available based on need.
Scheduling: Limit 15 campers. To reserve your spot, email Taylor Brady or call the Discovery Program office: (831) 728-2032.
Sorry, no dogs! Please leave them at home.
DISCOVERY PROGRAM FUNDRAISERS
A yearly event since 2009, the Fundraiser typically features an extended farm tour, a feast out in the field, and silent auction! All proceeds go to support the farm-fresh educational activities of the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program. For the latest info about the Fundraiser, check our Facebook page or the Live Earth Farm newsletter.
DISCOVERY PROGRAM WEE ONES!
3rd Tuesday of every month, 10:30am - Noon
Free for children 0-3 years; $5 to $10 per adult
Mothers, fathers, grandparents, caretakers of any kind: bring the babe in your arms to experience the diversity of our beautiful organic farm here in Watsonville. We will use our five senses to get to know the natural world around us. The farm is home to over 50 different fruits and vegetables, chicks, chickens, goats, lambs, piglets, and the many wild members of the Pajaro watershed. For more information, contact Jessica at the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program.
PAST EVENTS ARCHIVE
We started as a CSA in 1995. We enjoy our history! You can too! These are blog posts, photo essays and videos about Live Earth Farm, mostly done by our members. For you members who have been with us a long time, this is a trip down Memory Lane...
(this section under construction)
Summer Solstice Celebration 2009: Video with Vegetable Oracle!
Community Workshop 2008: Making the "Toastie 2" Oven (to come)
Harvest Celebration 2007: Video with Welcome Circle
Summer Solstice Celebration 2007: Video with Kuzanga Marimba
Events 2004-2006 (exciting things to come!)
Harvest Celebration ("Fall Equinox") 2003: LookWalkPickEat...
Summer Solstice Celebration 2003: Peanut the Pony
Farm Community Meet 2003: CAFF Farm Fiesta
Harvest Celebration ("Fall Equinox") 2002: Festival by Firelight
Educational Farm Day 2002: Global Routes
Photo Essay: Linnea's Firedances 2002
Community Workshop 2001: Making "Toastie," a Cob Wood-fired Oven
A Gallery-In-Process of our Farm Apprentices and Interns
