Plant the Future with Us!

Full Circle Farm and Common Vision have teamed up to bring you their Fruit Tree Tour of 2010!  Common Vision will arrive in their beautifully painted caravan of veggie-oil-powered buses on Wednesday March 17th at 3  PM to plant over 20 orchard trees

! Learn about tree plantings, helping the environment, and celebrate it all with a live performance!  This hands-on event will be filled with music, dancing, drumming and much more.  Be sure to mark your calendars!

All ages are welcome to attend.  RSVP is not required.

Check out Common Vision’s Emmy Award winning clip on their Fruit Tree Tour at http://commonvision.org/index.html.   We simply can’t wait to be part of amazing celebration!

We are just a little over a month away from our biggest event of the year!  Our third annual Earth Day Fest will be taking place on April 18^th from 10a.m – 2p.m.  This year’s theme “We Got It Growin’ On” will be a day to celebrate the incredible growth of not only our Farm and Gardens but more importantly the growing community spirit and interest in growing sustainable food and adopting responsible practices.

The day will be jam-packed with kids  activities, entertainment, presentations and demonstrations of eco-friendly products and programs.  We will have tours of the Farm, a petting zoo, guest speakers; and will be showing off the over 100 new fruit trees added to our history orchard.

We are still looking for volunteers to help with planning the event as well as staffing the various venues during our celebration.

If you would like to help us with:

• Volunteer recruiting and coordination
• Marketing and advertising
• Fundraising
• Traffic control
• Or any other aspect you are passionate about…

Please email us at events@fullcirclesunnyvale.org

Regards,

Rebecca

Our executive director, Rebecca Jepsen, was a guest on KQED Forum for Garden Tips. Listen In!

Earth Day Festival 2010

Our 3rd annual Earth Day Festival is coming your way Sunday, April 18th, so save the date! Last year, more than 1800 folks from the community enjoyed this incredible, fun, family-oriented event that featured educational workshops, tours, entertainment, and oodles of hand-on kid’s activities.  We will also be holding our 1st annual Full Circle Farm 11K Run/Walk (1K for each of our fruitful acres).  The run will take the morning of our Earth Day Festival.

An extravaganza of this magnitude is the result of a large team of dedicated volunteers—your help is needed to make this year’s festival even better! Several committees are forming to plan another great success. Bring us your ideas and energy and join us for some fun and satisfying teamwork.

We are also seeking individuals with special skills and passion in the areas of:

* Event Planning
* Volunteer Coordination
* Fundraising
* 11(k) Run/Walk Coordinator

Email us at info@fullcirclesunnyvale to be a part of the magic!

You have probably noticed some smiling faces at Full Circle Farm. Our passionate new Executive Director, Rebecca Jepsen, and small staff have been blessed by the addition of 5 full time and 4 quarter time AmeriCorps members dedicated to our farm over the next 3 years! We now have the human capital necessary to implement the next phase of our expansion and need your tax deductible support to expand production.

Our plans for 2010 include:
• Doubling the production from our crop rows
• Expanding our historic fruit orchard to over 300 trees
• Increasing our educational garden to a full acre
• Introducing edible landscape and habitat gardens
• Adding Peterson 8th grade leadership classes to our education program

Your tax deductible gift will enable expansion that will help us increase our revenue streams and decrease dependence on grants and donations in years to come. Please join us in our campaign to raise $100K by May 1st!

Giving levels include:

Full Circle Pioneer: $5,000 and above
Full Circle Champion: $2,500 to $4,999
Full Circle Friend: $1,000 to $2,499

We will dedicate an orchard tree in your honor as well as have your name prominently displayed on a permanent placard at the entrance to the farm.

Please donate on-line or mail checks made out to Full Circle Farm, a project of Sustainable Community Gardens, to:

Full Circle Challenge
1055 Dunford Way
Sunnyvale, CA 94087

Please direct questions to Rebecca Jepsen at rebecca@scgardens.org or call +1.408.735.8154

Thank you for your gift!

Back by Popular Demand!

Come learn everything you always wanted to know about backyard chickens, March 21 at 11 am at Full Circle Farm. Learn care for chicks; how to build a coop; what hens need to be happy; and no rooster necessary to lay eggs. Attend our two hour class just in time for you to plan to bring chickens to your home in spring. FCF’s “Mother Hen” Melissa Patel will teach the class and offer hand raised chicks for purchase.

For more information on the class or to sign up, email her at: melissa@fullcirclesunnyvale.org Space is limited, register now!

Hello Grape and Berry Enthusiasts!

This Saturday Jan. 16th at 1pm, Bill Weaver, our resident pruning expert will be teaching basic pruning, tools and techniques for blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries and grapes.  Afterward Bill will be doing a live demo on some vines in the garden.

The Class will held at Sunnyvale Community Garden, located at 433 Charles Street, in Sunnyvale, behind the Sunnyvale Public Library.  If your a visitor please feel free to come early to walk about and enjoy the gardens.  Please RSVP so we can plan accordingly.

Hope you can make it . . . proper pruning is the key to a healthy plant and abundant harvest!!

Family farm brings kids full circle with food they eat

SUNNYVALE, CA (KGO) — Hands on learning for school kids is nothing new, but in Silicon Valley amid all the high-tech companies and housing development, there is something you do not see a lot of in the Bay Area anymore — a farm. It is giving kids a whole new appreciation for what they eat.

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Full Circle Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program is an easy way to get your household eating more fresh local veggies Receive a 13-week subscription of the farm fresh produce for $300. CSA shareholders have a stake in the farm’s success!

Meghan, Rose, Dart, Jonathan and Sean are busy planting winter crops and preparing for spring. It is time for leafy greens – packed full of vitamins and great with beans in soups or sauteed in a little garlic, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, root vegetables and onions. You can take home a basket of our best every week if you sign up for our CSA.

More information on CSA.

To learn more and for sign-up instructions, please contact Farm Manager Meghan Cole at meghan@fullcirclesunnyvale.org

We want to thank the Michael Lee Environment Foundation for their support of our Thanksgiving in October campaign. Due to their generous match, your donations dollars are doubled! Today we have donated over 100 boxes of food to many of our Bay Area shelters and food banks. Receiving organizations include: Our Daily Bread, Loaves & Fishes, Sunnyvale Community Services, InnVision, The Salvation Army, and St. Vincent’s.

The Michael Lee Environment Foundation is dedicated to supporting community-based projects and activities in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. They efforts, energy and support are setting examples of environmental integrity and public awareness through action and education though Silicon Valley.