On the third Saturday of each month, Pie Ranch hosts a Community Work Day, potluck dinner, and rollicking barn dance in the roadside barn. All are welcome; come lend a hand in the fields while you work alongside other volunteers and farmers. Celebrate the spirit of community at this monthly ritual of working together on the ranch, sharing locally grown food, and then spinning, laughing and dosey-doing together into the night.

Due to the time change the work party begins at 1pm.

We offer an optional farm tour at 3pm that begins at the upper slice toolshed ($5/person).

Then join in the potluck at 5pm and dancing at 6pm until about 9pm.

The dance is $7-20 (sliding scale) to compensate Pie Ranch, the County Line Pickers (featuring Jim Davies, bass; Joni Davies, guitar; Josh Lane, mandolin; Ken Clarkson, banjo; Jon Young & Nancy Vail, fiddles) and caller, Andy Wilson.

To keep our barn dances open & accessible to the public, we cannot accommodate large, private groups of over 10 people.  Children under 12 free accompanied by their parents; if you bring a large group of youngsters (over 7, 10 the maximum) we request prior notification and a sliding fee of $5-10 per child. Workday participants pay a discounted rate of $5-15, so come on down and hoe before you hoe down!

Important info:

• Come check in at the Roadside Barn upon arrival to find out where the work day activities will be taking place.
• Please leave dogs at home. (We love dogs too, honest, but it is really not a good event to have dogs present)
• Be careful turning into Pie Ranch from Highway 1.
• Park at the Roadside Barn or in the field directly behind the roadside barn. PLEASE DO NOT DRIVE UP TO THE UPPER SLICE.  If you’re confused, please ask at the roadside barn.
• Bring water bottles, clothing layers, sunscreen, closed toe shoes, and sunhats.
• Bring work gloves, tools, and enthusiasm! (We have gloves and tools for you to use too).
• Please bring your own dishes and utensils for the potluck. Every bit of clean up help is greatly appreciated!
• To keep an inclusive, family atmosphere, the potluck and barn dance are alcohol-free events.

“We don’t want a bigger piece of the pie, we want a different pie.” -Winona LaDuke

Pie Ranch Work Days and Barn Dances are held every third Saturday of the month, all year long. Upcoming work day & barn dances:  March 17th & April 21st.

Click here for directions to the Ranch. . .

Join Pie Ranch and Slow Food Santa Cruz for an evening of literature and film.

Authors Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko will talk about their new book Farmstead Chef.  They will share simple tips for homegrown and homemade cooking, from preserving the harvest to stocking the pantry to building local community around your kitchen table.

Filmmaker Chuck Schultz will be present for a showing of his film, The Last Crop.  This is his story of farmers Jeff and Annie Main, their Good Humus Farm and how they are planning to preserve it as a working, organic farm for future generations.  The film will be followed by a panel discussion, featuring area farmers talking about issues they encounter in staying on the land and what we can do to assist them.  For a synopsis of the film, visit http://vimeo.com/7026032/.

Friday, January 27, 2012

6:30 – 9:00 PM

Pie Ranch

Suggested Donation:  $5.00 – $10.00  RSVP to kelly@pieranch.org

Share the Pie. from + M productions on Vimeo.

Teach Pie. from + M productions on Vimeo.

Eat Pie. from Robin Moore on Vimeo.

The Whole Pie. from +M Productions on Vimeo.

Cultivating a Movement: An Oral History of Organic Farming and Sustainable Agriculture on California’s Central Coast is now available! This is the first oral history of organic farming and sustainable agriculture and features a wealth of inspirational and colorful stories documenting a synergistic community of farmers, farm advisors, activists, educators, researchers, policymakers, farmers’-market managers, food distributors, and other shapers of this dynamic movement on the Central California coast and beyond. It includes 27 inspirational and colorful stories that document the emergence of this movement from the confluence of several earlier movements of the 1960s and 1970s, including the environmental, anti-war, back-to-the-land, farmworkers, and co-operative living movements, as well as the developing sciences of ecology, agroecology, and integrated pest management. The book is based on a larger archive of oral histories released by the University of California Santa Cruz Library’s Regional History Project in 2010 (including interviews with Jered Lawson and Nancy Vail of Pie Ranch!). The complete archive of transcripts, audio clips, photographs, and other resources is available on the UCSC Library’s website at http://library.ucsc.edu/reg-hist/cultiv/home

A reading for the book will be held at Bookshop Santa Cruz on February 22, 2012 at 7pm.

The book is available at Bookshop Santa Cruz, Capitola Book Cafe, The Works in Pacific Grove, and through Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Movement-Sustainable-Agriculture-Californias/dp/097233436X

Praise for:

If you find yourself depressed about the possibilities for positive change,  pick up Cultivating a Movement and read a few stories told by people who have been devoting their lives to creating a sustainable food system in the heartland of agribusiness.  As one of them says, to be a successful farmer “you have to have a need, a desire, perseverance, strength and insanity.”  That goes for the whole lot of them. These are inspiring people.

—Joan Dye Gussow, author This Organic Life and Growing, Older.

Personal stories are always a wonderful way to learn about past events. The personal narratives of farmers, educators, researchers, artists and conservationists who were part of the evolution of sustainable agriculture and organic food and farming systems in California’s Central Coast—and reaching out to the rest of the country–are truly inspiring. Cultivating a Movement is a book everyone interested in the history of sustainable agriculture will want to read.

—Frederick Kirschenmann, author of Cultivating an Ecological Conscience:  Essays From a Farmer-Philosopher.

Reading Cultivating a Movement is like sitting and listening to a bunch of Old Time Pioneers reconstruct the origins of the organics and sustainability movement. While lots of blind alleys were gone down and plenty of mistakes were made and are openly acknowledged, what characterizes the pioneers was their willingness to try different approaches, to experiment, and their ability to become part of a wide-ranging community while pursuing their individual goals. This book also demonstrates how a new food system requires pioneers in a host of fields: agriculture, distribution and marketing, scientific development and application, learning about consumers and the character of consumption, and how individual actors found their own roads in an emergent complex agrifood system. And it’s pleasurably good reading.

—Bill Friedland, Professor Emeritus of Community Studies and Sociology, UC Santa Cruz

Author Bios:

Project Director, Interviewer, and Editor Irene Reti directs the Regional History Project at the UC Santa Cruz library, where she has worked as an editor and oral historian since 1989. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and a Master’s in History from UC Santa Cruz. Interviewer and Editor Sarah Rabkin has taught in UC Santa Cruz’s writing program and environmental studies department for over twenty-five years. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Harvard University and a graduate certificate in Science Communication from UCSC. Interviewer Ellen Farmer has a B.A. in journalism from San Jose State University and a Master’s in public policy from the Panetta Institute at California State University, Monterey Bay with a specialization in issues in sustainable agriculture, particularly coffee growing.

November 12th was a magical day at Pie Ranch.  Mike Merritt, State Park Ranger and historian, put together a treasure trove of photographs of local landmarks such as Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Green Oaks Dairy (now, Pie Ranch), various Pescadero farms, beaches and people from the turn of the century.  Former resident of Green Oaks Dairy, Issac Steele, acquired his first camera at 16, in 1888.  His photographs primarily encompass the timespan of the 1880s through 1904.  This event brought together various descendants of the Steele Family: founders & residents of the Green Oaks Dairy.   Other locals who have memories of the ranch also attended, sharing stories and reflections of “the way it was.”

Pie Ranch is honored and touched that so many family members attended this event. As the current stewards of this beautiful land, we often look to the past to guide us on our present journey.  This event was a way of acknowledging our debt of gratitude to the initial agricultural pioneers of Pie Ranch.

Steeles & Moores in front of the home built in 1906.

Share the Pie. from + M productions on Vimeo.

Teach Pie. from + M productions on Vimeo.

Eat Pie. from Robin Moore on Vimeo.