Love Apple Farms

HOMESTEAD OPTIONS WORKSHOPS (HOW-DAYS)

Saturdays: August 3, 10, 17, 2013

Last year, our HOW Weekend was a wild success. We are hosting it again this year, but with a twist. With a series of short lectures and workshops, you'll be getting an introduction to almost all of our class curriculum at Love Apple Farms and MORE.  Classes, workshops and how-to seminars will be held in short-bursts - each 45 minutes long. We will have four classrooms set up, and you'll be able to attend up to 6 classes each of the three days. You must register for each day individually. Don't forget to buy your lunch ticket at the bottom of the page.

You'll have the opportunity to learn at our farm in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains, tour our property, and enjoy delicious food made from fresh Love Apple Farms ingredients like eggs, cheese, veggies, and herbs.

This year, we listened to your feedback and are allowing only adults to participate in these three Saturdays. So sorry, the kids must find something else to do off the farm.

Saturday, August 3: Gardening Skills
9:00 a.m - 5:00 p.m. 

• Pest Management
• Tomato Masters
• Vegetable Garden Design
• Composting
• Urban Goat Raising
• Chicken Keeping
• Vermiculture
• Gopher Trapping
• Growing Potatoes & other edible tubers
• Edible Flowers
• Herb Growing
• Growing Cucerbits: Summer & Winter Squash, Cucumbers & Melons
• Basic Irrigation
• Container Vegetable Gardening
• Growing Greens: Lettuces, Spinach, Kales & More
• Growing Cruciferous Veggies: Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower & Cabbages
• Gardening with Recyclables
• Bee Keeping Basics
• Introduction to Biodynamics
• How to Double-Dig

Admission Pass to Garden Skills HOW-Day: $89 << Click to register (gift cert holders register by emailing loveapplefarms@gmail.com)
Parking Pass for Garden Skills Day: $25 << Click to purchase (you cannot park on the farm without a pass. If passes are sold out or you would rather not purchase one, you can be dropped off or you can carpool with another student. THERE ARE A VERY LIMITED NUMBER OF PASSES AVAILABLE) 

Saturday, August 10: Kitchen Skills
9:00 a.m - 5:00 p.m. 

• Canning
• Pickling
• Cheese-Making
• Pressure Cookery
• Bread Making
• Pasta Making
• Beer Making Basics
• Barbecuing 
• Souffles
• Sprouting
• Knife Skills
• Medicinal Herbs
• Aromatherapy
• Ice Cream Making
• Jam Making
• Wreath Making
• Sauerkraut
• Gluten-Free Cooking
• Sushi Making
• Risotto
• Paella
• Yogurt
• Kefir
• Kimchi

Admission Pass to Kitchen Skills HOW-Day: $89 << Click to register (gift cert holders register by emailing loveapplefarms@gmail.com)
Parking Pass for Kitchen Skills Day: $25 << Click to purchase (you cannot park on the farm without a pass. If passes are sold out or you would rather not purchase one, you can be dropped off or you can carpool with another student. THERE ARE A VERY LIMITED NUMBER OF PASSES AVAILABLE)  

 

Saturday, August 17: DIY Skills
9:00 a.m - 5:00 p.m. 

• Introduction to Power Tools
• Basic Carpentry
• Basic Tiling
• Laying Laminate Floors
• Making Window Screens
• Changing a Tire
• Using Ratcheting Cable Straps
• Basic Auto Maintenance (Checklist)
• Oil Change Basics
• Painting Skills
• Replacing a Broken Window
• Basic Bicycle Repair
• Fixing a Leaky Faucet
• Toilet Repair
• Switching out a Ceiling Lamp
• Setting a Fence Post
• Patching Asphalt
• Cement & Concrete 101
• Welding Basics
• Simple Solar 
• Rain Water Catchment
• Lawn Mower Maintenance
• Drywall Basics
• Refinishing Furniture

Admission Pass to DIY Skills HOW-Day: $89 << Click to register (gift cert holders register by emailing loveapplefarms@gmail.com)
Parking Pass for DIY Skills Day: $25 << Click to purchase (you cannot park on the farm without a pass. If passes are sold out or you would rather not purchase one, you can be dropped off or you can carpool with another student. THERE ARE A VERY LIMITED NUMBER OF PASSES AVAILABLE)  

 Food

We will have our wood-fired pizza oven sparked up and we will be throwing hand-made pies and tossing garden salads for all to share.  Farm tea and lemonade available for sale as well. You are welcome to bring your own picnic basket and snacks.  Be sure to bring a water bottle or canteen! 

Pizza/Salad/Drink Lunch: $12 per person << Click to Pre-Order.  Day of Lunch Ticket: $14

Sushi Making

The art of sushi is something perceived as complex and extremely delicate. If you have ever wanted to learn how to become a master of this Japanese cuisine, then Chef Brenden Darby will teach you how to shave daikon radish into paper thin sheets, roll rice into colorful masterpieces, and pair ingredients highlighting traditional flavors. This class will show you how Japanese sushi is truly made.

You will learn about:

• Nigiri the simple hand formed rice adorned with a beautiful slice of raw fish
• Maki the popular roll style sushi that can be made traditionally or in the Californian style
• Temaki the fun and versatile hand roll sushi
• Oshi the beautifully layered and  bamboo pressed sushi
• Sushi rice making and seasoning

ALL CLASSES REQUIRE ADVANCE REGISTRATION, EVEN FOR GIFT CERTIFICATE HOLDERS

August 31, 2013 (Saturday) Noon - 4:00 p.m.  $119 << Click date to register (gift certificate holders register by emailing loveapplefarm@gmail.com)

Please read our cancellation policy in case you are not able to attend your scheduled class.  

About the Instructor:

 Chef Brenden Darby started his culinary career at sushi restaurants throughout the Lake Tahoe area such as Dragonfly Cuisine. He later attended culinary school at Johnson and Wales University in Providence Rhode Island. Brenden has done extensive traveling through Asia learning about the origins of sushi from small villages to established chefs. He later worked at Yoshi's Restaurant voted San Francisco's Best New Restaurant in 2008 learning from some of the best chefs of Japan. He has also spent time in Spain in the prestigousBasque Stage program. Brenden is currently working days at Love Apple Farms, learning more about fine ingredients and spending nights at Manresa restaurant.  Brenden will be moving to Copenhagen in 2014 to further sharpen his skills at Noma, for the past several years considered the best restaurant in the world. 

 

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive information about new classes, planting tips, free give-aways, and more exclusive content.  

If the workshop dates don’t work for you, if the class is full, or if you’d like to request that another class be added, please email us and we’ll do our best to accommodate you!

Love Apple Farms gift certificates can be used towards classes, seedlings, and merchandise.  They are available for purchase here.  

Check out other classes at Love Apple Farms by clicking here.

 

 

Workshop: Risotto, Paella & Pilaf

 The Italians perfected the use of short grain rice to form a creamy and delicately smooth dish. The Spanish bring rice alive on massively wide pans sprinkled with seafood, tomatoes, herbs, and spices. In the Far East they tame rice into a fluffy broth seasoned ever so delicately. All over the world rice is a staple and in the right hands it can become creamy, luscious and vibrant.

In this class you will learn the techniques of:

• Making beef, chicken, and vegetable stock that is the base of all rice dishes
• Identifying, selecting and cleaning the appropriate rices
• Traditional Italian Risotto alla Milanese flavored with saffron 
• A farm inspired Creamy Vegan Risotto seasoned with fennel stock
• Traditional Valencia Paella over charcoal
• Paella de Moriscos or seafood paella with a mix of fish, shrimp, clams and mussels 
• How to properly blend and toast spices to expand their flavor capabilities
• Rice Pilaf in the Malaysian style with fresh herbs and layered spices

Chef Brenden Darby will take you on a journey throughout the world of rice. He has first-hand exprience learning from masters in both Spain and Malaysia how to cook the perfect rice dishes. Brenden has cooked paella in San Sebastián, Spain for Martin Berasategui, hailed as the Wolfgang Puck of Europe. Chef Brenden will also share his risotto family secrets that have been passed down from the olive orchards of Bari, Italy. This class will teach you the differences each style of rice brings and how to master their myriad characteristics. 

 

ALL CLASSES REQUIRE ADVANCE REGISTRATION, EVEN FOR GIFT CERTIFICATE HOLDERS

September 28, 2013 (Saturday) Noon - 4:00 p.m.  $89 << Click date to register (gift certificate holders register by emailing loveapplefarm@gmail.com)

Please read our cancellation policy in case you are not able to attend your scheduled class.  

About the Instructor:

Chef Brenden Darby is a graduate of Johnson and Wales culinary university in Providence Rhode Island. He was a participant in the highly acclaimed Basque Stage program in Spain, working in several of the best restaurants of that region. He has also traveled extensively throughout Asia learning more about the intricacies of that cuisine as well. Brenden is currently working days at Love Apple Farms, learning more about fine ingredients and spending nights at Manresa restaurant.  Brenden will be moving to Copenhagen in 2014 to further sharpen his skills at Noma, for the past several years considered the best restaurant in the world. 

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive information about new classes, planting tips, free give-aways, and more exclusive content.  

If the workshop dates don’t work for you, if the class is full, or if you’d like to request that another class be added, please email us and we’ll do our best to accommodate you!

Love Apple Farms gift certificates can be used towards classes, seedlings, and merchandise.  They are available for purchase here.  

Check out other classes at Love Apple Farms by clicking here.

 

 

 

In the Kitchen with Chez Pim: Summer Jams

There are few jam makers in the world quite as skilled as Pim Techamuanvivit, and we are delighted that she is coming to teach her once-a-year jam class at Love Apple. This workshop will cover not only berry jams, but stone fruits as well.

Pim demos the best method for coaxing natural pectin out of the fruits (so that we won't have to add commercial pectin), safe uses of the delicious noyaux (the "stone" part of the fruits), and how to infuse herbs and spices to your jams (so that you can experiment with unique flavor combinations).

Plus, you'll get to take home jars of jams we finish in the class. You'll be learning from a true expert. Food maven Nigella Lawson has declared Pim's jams, "the best I've ever tasted."

CLASS HELD RAIN OR SHINE

ALL CLASSES REQUIRE ADVANCE REGISTRATION, EVEN FOR GIFT CERTIFICATE HOLDERS

June 29, 2013 (Saturday) 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.  $149  << Click date to register (gift certificate holders register by emailing loveapplefarm@gmail.com)

Pim Techamuanvivit, the author of the Foodie Handbook and the blog ChezPim, is a recognized leader in the jam-making world.  A recipient of a Good Food award for her jams, Jeffrey Steingarten, food editor of Vogue Magazine, proclaims Pim's jams as "the best we've tasted."

Please review our cancellation policy in case you are not able to attend your scheduled class.

Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates on new classes, planting tips, free give-aways, and more exclusive content.

If the workshop dates don't work for you, if the class is full, or if you'd like to request that another class be added, please email us and we'll do our best to accommodate you.

Love Apple Farms gift certificates can be used toward classes, seedlings and merchandise, They are available for purchase here.

Check out other classes at Love Apple Farms.

 

Workshop: Sauerkraut Made Simple

Do you love Sauerkraut?  Do you want to lean how to make it?  We're excited to host Farmhouse Culture for our sauerkraut making class. Come to the farm to explore the secret, scintillating world of sauerkraut making.

We'll explore the history, science, and health benefits of this amazing food before diving into a hands-on demonstration.  By the end of the night, you'll have a jar full of cabbage and bacteria (the good stuff, promise), ready to ferment in the comfort of your own home.  A few days later, you'll have sweet (or maybe sour?) memories of the workshop and a jar of kraut.

ALL CLASSES REQUIRE ADVANCE REGISTRATION, EVEN FOR GIFT CERTIFICATE HOLDERS

June 2, 2013 (Sunday) 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.  $49 << Click date to register (gift certificate holders register by emailing loveapplefarm@gmail.com)

 Please read our cancellation policy in case you are not able to attend your scheduled class.  

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive information about new classes, planting tips, free give-aways, and more exclusive content.  

If the workshop dates don’t work for you, if the class is full, or if you’d like to request that another class be added, please email us and we’ll do our best to accommodate you!

Love Apple Farms gift certificates can be used towards classes, seedlings, and merchandise.  They are available for purchase here.  

Check out other classes at Love Apple Farms by clicking here.

2013 Re-Post: How I Plant a Tomato

It's tradition for me to re-post this every year. Don't forget folks: Love Apple Farm's tomato plant sale is in full swing at 5311 Scotts Valley Drive in Scotts Valley (near Santa Cruz, CA).  For the first time, we carry all of the products that we advocate putting into the tomato plant hole!

How do we plant a tomato, you might ask?  With a ridiculous amount of stuff in the hole, is the answer.  When someone ropes me into telling them and I start the long answer, I eventually see their eyes glaze over.  That's the point where I say, "Then you throw in the kitchen sink and cover it all up."  To date, no one has laughed at that joke. I think they're just either too overwhelmed by the real stuff we put in there, or they actually believe we're throwing in a sink.

This is how we plant a tomato.  First off, let's take a look at our sexy specimen here on the left.

We started this beauty in our heated greenhouse in late January. We potted it up to a gallon container about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  It will go into one of our freshly prepared beds, shown to the right. 

 

The tomatoes are placed three feet apart. I've learned over the years that spacing them closer than that means less fruit.  We dig a nice deep hole to accommodate all the additions - the exact depth is dependent upon how tall the seedling is that you start with.  We want the plant to be almost completely submerged into the soil, and the fish head and amendments put into the hole need to be covered with a bit of soil, so we plan accordingly for the depth.  This particular hole ends up being almost two feet deep, and is ready for our first goody, these impressive fish heads.We get them from the restaurant we grow for, Manresa.  You might be able to get them free from a good butcher or fishmonger.  I even know of someone who called a few restaurants in their area and was quickly rewarded with a nice bounty of juicy fish heads.  Fish tails, spines, guts, as well as shrimp, crab, or lobster shells are all good as well.  Some of you may worry about critters digging these up later.  We've never had a problem with animals digging up my tomatoes, and we've got three dogs, two cats, and what seem like an endless supply of raccoons living on the property.  I stress the point that this is the first thing that goes into our very deep planting hole.  That may help keep it from getting dug up.  You can see the six inch long fish head staring up at us from the bottom of the hole here:
If you're reticent to put the fish head in the hole, or simply can't get your mitts on any, we recommend using fish meal as a substitute. Two handfuls is about right. We get ours from Gardner & Bloome.

The next thing that goes into the hole are a couple of aspirin tablets and some crushed chicken egg shells. The aspirin is to help jump start the plant's immune system.  You can read more about that science here.  We'll put three or four crushed egg shells into the hole as well. You can see our three colors of eggs from our fancy chickens - yes, those are green eggs in there. The eggs supply a nice calcium boost, which will help prevent blossom end rot, that nasty brown patch on the bottom of tomatoes that lack calcium (the fish head bones and bone meal also help with that).

Bone meal is the next to go into the hole.  We put in a heaping handful of bone meal.  This is a nice organic phosphorus source, which is essential for blossom production.  More blossoms, more fruit.  Bone meal also increases calcium availability for the tomato. This is also a Gardner & Bloome product. 

We then put in two handfuls of Gardner & Bloome's Tomato, Vegetable and Herb Fertilizer. It's an all-purpose  organic fertilizer that contains the essential macronutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassiun. Their mix is a very nice 4-6-3 of those nutrients.

We also recommend putting a handful of pure worm castings in the bottom of the hole.  We amend our beds with worm castings and we also spray a worm casting tea on the plants while they grow.  Really great stuff.  Worm castings are available for sale at our tomato plant sale.

The hole is complete (sans kitchen sink) and we're now ready to pop in the tomato plant.  We trim off the lower leaves, be there one, two, three or more, leaving only the top-most leaves.

We put an inch or two of soil on top of the amendments in the hole.  The plant is eased out of the pot, and before it's placed in the hole, I sprinkle the rootball with a product called RootZone, which is a mycorrhizal fungi that attaches to the roots, growing as the root ball grows.  It protects the plant from some diseases, such as verticillium and fusarium wilts.  The product is sold under other names, such as Xtreme Gardening's Mykos. 

Once the tomato is in the hole, we double check the depth by judging how far out of the ground the plant will be sticking.  If it's going to be too far down, we'll remove the plant and add some more soil.  If it looks like it'll be up above the soil more than we want, that's too bad because we ain't gonna be fishing them fish parts and all that other stuff up out of that hole and digging it deeper.  No siree.  So we try our best to gauge the depth of the hole according to the height of the plant we're putting in.

We then back fill GENTLY - only one quasi-firm push settles the soil around the plant. Please do not man-handle the soil around the plant by stomping on it or pressing too hard.  That's not necessary and it expels all the air out of the soil.  Believe it or not, the roots need oxygen down there just as much as they need nutrients and water. 

A temporary well is then made around the plant base to catch the first watering.  The first watering is the most critical.  We do it multiple times.  Water it in once, twice, three times at least.  Wait a few minutes to allow the water to drain through.  If you have a deep hole, likely way more than 12 inches deep, you will be amazed at how much water it will take to wet the root ball a foot or more under the ground.  So don't be stingy with the water the first day. Thereafter, you can back off the watering.  Here's our finished bed.  You can see the tomatoes are spaced pretty far apart:

Drip irrigation will be repositioned on the bed, and staking and mulching has yet to be done.  You can find out more about those items here.  In the meantime, please feel free to email us or leave a comment below with any questions.

If you're still not getting the results you want, then consider taking our Tomato Masters class.

Good luck, folks!