Grow Better Veggies

Class: Early Spring Vegetable Gardening

Take advantage of our mild California Bay Area climate to get your vegetable gardening up and productive for the season.  Why wait for summer to start harvesting your own healthy and organic produce? 

This class will teach you what's possible to grow and harvest in early spring.  You will be able to plant and sow in February and March, then start to pick your bounty in April.  Learn sustainable organic techniques that will let you seamlessly integrate your early spring vegetable garden into your summer plantings of warm weather lovers.

We will discuss various lettuces, spinaches, chard, bok choy, tatsoi, carrots, turnips, radishes, snow and shelling peas, mustard, mizuna, cress, kale, and sweet peas.  This class differs from my Winter Vegetable Gardening Class, as it only concentrates on quick cool-weather plants that you will be able to be put in now and harvest in the spring

Every student gets to sow a flat of seeds to take home.

In addition to the culture requirements of each of the vegetables the topics covered in class will include: bed preparation, heat and light requirements, frost control, germination tricks, companion planting, organic pest control, fertilizing, and harvesting techniques. 

My students say they love on-site classes at the farm because they get to see the vegetables growing and the techniques demonstrated are all hands-on.

The class is held at Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond, California.  Click here for farm directions and a map.  If you've got questions before you register, please contact loveapplefarm@gmail.com.

ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.

Available class dates:

January 24, 2010 (Sunday) 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
February 13, 2010 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Tuition: $55
Materials Fee: $20

Choose a Class Date for Check-out

January 24, 2010 February 13, 2010

Register for January 24, 2010 class by clicking here.

To ask a question about a class, please email Cynthia at loveapplefarm@gmail.com. The workshop is held at Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond, California.  Click here for farm directions and a map.

 

Manresa and Love Apple Farm on Eric Ripert's New T.V. Show!

Love Apple Farm was honored to have Eric Ripert, world-famous chef, in the garden recently. His New York City restaurant, Le Bernardin, holds all three coveted Michelin stars and is widely considered one of the finest in the U.S., if not the world.

Chef Ripert was here to film a segment for his new PBS television show, "Avec Eric."  The famous chef did a great job showcasing the farm and then went to Manresa to talk in depth to Chef Kinch about how he prepared some of the really interesting and unusual vegetables that we grow here for the restaurant.  Click here to see the full episode.

Class: Backyard Chicken-Keeping

2010 Classes Now Scheduled!

Come to Love Apple Farm and learn all about backyard chickens, then take home baby chicks!

Even city dwellers can keep a few laying hens in their yards.  Most city ordinances allow it. Students will take home three live chicks - after learning how to care for them. Class participants also receive a brooder starter kit containing heat lamp system, feeder, waterer, bedding, and chick feed.

You will receive plans on building a simple yet predator-proof coop. You need not build the coop prior to class; your chicks will be fine with your take-home brooder kit until a proper coop can be built. Class limited to those 8 years and older.

You will receive female chicks (they do not crow) and each one will lay a different colored egg: green, white, or brown. Hens do not require a rooster in order to lay eggs.

If you'd like more than three chicks, it may be possible to purchase more on the day of the class. Three laying hens make up a pretty good flock for a family of four, and should give about two dozen eggs a week.

Advance registration is absolutely required, and space is limited.  There will only be 25 brooder kits/chick flocks available.

Available Dates:

May 29, 2010 (Saturday) 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. OR
September 18, 2010 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Tuition: $45
Materials Fee: $65
Each additional person in family or your group: $20 (Their fee is payable at the door - limit two).

Choose a class date for check-out:

May 29, 2010 September 18, 2010

The class is held at Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond, California.  Click here for farm directions and a map.

Non-Toxic Gopher Control Workshop Given by Master Gopher Hunter Thomas Wittman

You can be as proud as Apprentice Sam, shown here with his first gopher kill, if you take Love Apple Farm's upcoming gopher trapping class.  I'm bringing in gopher hunter extraordinaire, Thomas Wittman, to teach this intensive workshop.

Thomas started his gopher career as an organic farmer in 1982.  He trapped gophers daily for over twenty years and founded a wildlife damage control company focusing on gophers, moles, voles and ground squirrels.  He has been a consultant and lecturer on rodent problems since 1991.

Thomas is coming to Love Apple Farm to give an intensive 3-hour workshop on eliminating not only gophers from your garden, but moles, voles and ground squirrels.  His business, Gophers Limited, has had great success training farmers and gardeners on how to control these destructive pests without the use of poisons. 

The seminar will consist of an early morning trap setting session, a Power Point lecture on basic problem-animal biology focusing on behaviors and mannerisms that lead to effective trapping or control.  The lecture will also include attracting predators, using sprays and drenches, different fencing and barrier options, various organically-approved pyrotechnic processes and several trapping methods.  After the lecture, the group returns to the trapping site set up earlier and traps are checked, reset and new areas are set to demonstrate proper trapping techniques.

The class is held at Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond, California.  Click here for farm directions and a map.

September 19, 2009 (Saturday) 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Tuition: $35

Woman Engulfed by 10 Foot Tall Tomato Plants!

One of my students, Lorie Wade, sent me this gorgeous picture of her gigantic tomato plants.  Here is what she writes:

Hi Cynthia,

It all started with your tomato seedling class.  I just had to grow and taste each variety. Forty one different types.  Looking forward to your masters class. Thanks so much for your help and words of wisdom.  I took the tomato seedling class in February.  I have never grown tomatoes from seed and thought it would be fun.  I followed your instructions very carefully, even down to the fish heads and everything else that went into the soil. The picture speaks for itself.  I'm in tomato heaven.  Thanks Cynthia !

PS. I do have an occasional helicopter that buzzes over from time to time.

Lorie Wade

One of Love Apple Farm's Successful Students

One of my students, Craig Dally, sent me this lovely photo of his garden.  He tells me that all of the plants in the picture (except for the Petunias) were grown from seeds and plants he got from one of my workshops.  Here are his thoughts on his beautiful garden:

Dear Cynthia,
After attending your Summer gardening class in March, I went home armed with new knowledge and two flats sown with all sorts of summer vegetables seeds: arugula, kale, lettuces, sunflowers, cucumbers, nasturtiums, pole beans and eight tomato seedlings. After several weeks of caring for my new "kids", I decided to plant my summer garden April 19th. My family thought I was way over the top. Now, they've changed their tune. They hawk over the plants (just like me) looking for any pests or disease. They count the days till the next compost tea (worm pee) and remind me to apply the Serenade on alternate weeks. We all marvel at the natural health the plants enjoy and are eagerly anticipating the first ripe love apple.

I didn't reinvent the wheel, I listened to an experienced pro and took the advice you gave to heart. It works. You'll be seeing me at a Master's Tomato class soon. Thanks for a life lesson well worth learning: gardening is good for your heart and soul and pulling a family together in a way I never imagined.

You're the best,

Craig D.