WHEN:
Saturday May 19th from 8:45am – 12:30 pm (Clean-up 12:30-2pm)!

WHERE:
Glen Green cul-de-sac, just up the street from Beachwood Dr. Look for signs on the street to easily find us!

Here’s the plan:

Urban farming fun as we harvest loquat fruit throughout Beachwood Canyon. All collected fruit will be cleaned and prepared at our on-site kitchen for either donation to local food pantries or tasty treats in support of the new Hollywood Orchard!

Arrive: 8:45am in the Glen Green Cul-De-Sac (If you have to drive, you will have to park on Beachwood Drive and walk up). Bring bag lunch, beverages provided! Kids are welcome.

We will have an orientation, then picking crews and kitchen crews are formed (you can switch later in the morning if you like!)

9am-11 – PICKERS (wear work pants, long-sleeve shirt, bring your own hand clippers if you have one). We will have poles, ladders, shoulder bags, and buckets. Our leaders will give pointers. Trees in the canyon have been pre-identified. We expect to use 300 lbs for the Community Food Pop Up Kitchen.

9-10:am – KITCHENERS Set up pop-up kitchen

10am-12:30pm: Process Loquats (bring paring knife, apron). Our Harvest and Kitchen Crew will lead us in making some taste treats using the uniquely flavored Loquat!

A Clean-up Party starts at 12:30pm with live Canyon Musicians playing.

We have the ingredients/supplies for the recipes! We await the gift of your hands and heart.

Remember to bring along a snack/bag lunch since we will be doing a ‘working lunch’ so we can keep momentum!

TRANSPORTATION & PARKING:
Please walk, ride a bike or carpool to the Glenn Green cul-de-sac as parking is very limited down on Beachwood Drive. Be sure to check parking signs and please be respectful of our neighbors and where you leave your vehicle.

Thanks for all your great support and we look forward to a fun Pick N’Kitchen day!

-Your Hollywood Orchard Team

The production features Ed Harris, Glenne Headly, Amy Madigan, Bill Pullman and Bess Rous.

Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley and directed by Tony Award winner Robert Falls, the eerie story unfolds in a seedy motel in Jackson, Mississippi circa 1964, and takes the audience on a surreal trip, rife with disturbingly dark humor.

Join Bill for a toast with our handcrafted Limoncello after the performance, learn more about our mission and share the fruits of our labor.

There are a limited number of tickets available for this otherwise sold-out, well reviewed, performance.

To purchase benefit tickets at $250.00 each, please click on this link below:

Purchase Tickets

Funds will be used for community programming and teaching events.

Hollywood Orchard is a neighborhood-generated effort with a unique mission to demonstrate how we can use locally grown and shared fruit to celebrate and engage with Los Angeles communities around issues of food sourcing, health, and sustainability.

We will also toast the The Trust for Public Land . The TPL is working to help secure the site for the Hollywood Orchard. The Trust for Public Land conserves land for everyone to enjoy as parks, gardens and other natural places. To learn more, visit www.tpl.org.

The Hollywood Orchard would like to thank the cast and crew of The Jacksonian and the Geffen Playhouse for donating this evening’s proceeds to our non-profit fundraising efforts for operations and community outreach.

Read more here

The Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at the Geffen Playhouse
10886 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024

Willie’s Huffington Post article written with Rainforest expert Anna Lappe;

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/willie-nelson/occupy-food_b_1299401.html

NWL – 2/28/2012

Over 50 volunteers with the new Hollywood Orchard came out for a fun day of urban farming in Beachwood Canyon last Saturday, Feb. 25th. Kicking off the day with breakfast and some words about the new organization, teams of enthusiastic volunteers then spread out through the neighborhood to pick and collect fruit from generous homeowners and residents who offered to donate their fruit. Within a couple of hours, over 1500 lbs. of lemons, oranges, tangerines, cumquats and grapefruits had been gathered and brought back to our pop-up kitchen at Glen Green. After a short lunch, the well organized army of volunteers washed, sorted, processed and preserved much of the fruit before calling it a day as the sun began to recede from the canyon.

About 400 lbs. of fresh citrus was donated to the L.A. Youth Network homeless shelter right in Hollywood, and another 250 lbs. went to project Angel Food. Both organizations expressed their appreciation for the support. The remaining fruit has been sliced, pressed, preserved, canned, bottled and baked for the enjoyment of the members of the Orchard and their friends. Gift baskets filled with the best of the harvest, some preserves and recipes from the Orchard kitchen were dropped off at the home of each of the owners who generously donated their trees for the harvest. Stay tuned for more Orchard events coming soon!

WHEN:
Saturday, Feb. 25th, 8:30am – 1pm.

WHERE:
Glen Green cul-de-sac, just up the street from Beachwood Dr. Look for signs on the street to easily find us!

WHAT:
Urban farming fun as we harvest unused fruit throughout Beachwood Canyon. All collected fruit will be cleaned and prepared at our on-site kitchen for either donation to local food pantries or tasty treats in support of the new Hollywood Orchard!

WHAT TO EXPECT:
Please arrive by 8:45am to sign-in for the event, receive a name tag and enjoy some light refreshments. We will start at 9am and divide into different work crews before heading out to pick fruit. Crews will return around 11am and begin separating and preparing the fruit before taking a lunch break. An afternoon shift will enjoy working in the on-site kitchen and learn new recipes from our fabulous chefs!

WHAT TO BRING:
Please wear comfortable, old clothes and sturdy shoes, as we’ll be working throughout the morning. Bring a hat, sunscreen, a snack and a water bottle. Everyone is welcome to stay for lunch, so also bring a bag lunch with you and we’ll provide the drinks. A lunch break will happen about 11am. The Beachwood Market is just up the street if you want to purchase something there. HARVEST TOOLS: If you have pruning sheers, fruit pickers, work gloves and plastic buckets, please bring them. KITCHEN TOOLS: Please bring your own kitchen knife and vegetable peeler if you have them, (and be sure to label with your name!).

TRANSPORTATION & PARKING:
Please walk, ride a bike or carpool to the Glenn Green cul-de-sac as parking is very limited down on Beachwood Drive. Be sure to check parking signs and please be respectful of our neighbors and where you leave your vehicle.

Thanks for all your great support and we look forward to a fun Pick N’Kitchen day!

-Your Hollywood Orchard Team

I wanted to share a beautiful look at our Hollywoodland neighborhood that was posted by my friends at Boing Boing a while back. This is a sweet “Tour” of our area (The “Great Create”) and it’s very unique old granite staircases connecting the upper canyon to the lower canyon. Along with the savage plant growth endemic, transplanted and rare that is part and parcel to life in the rustic ambience that exists here in Beachwood Canyon, the home of Hollywoodland Orchard.

In Joy The Tour (Link Below)

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/08/hiking-up-the-stairc.html

NWL – 2/14/2012

Farmer’s Circle was another boot kickn’ good time. Ken Love, champion of the inspiring community/grower based 12 Trees Community Orchard in Hawaii and, spoke about Loquats, figs and growing for best production and easiest management. You can read and download an in-depth document of the 12 trees chosen for their project here..

• Honeybees are great for agriculture. Bees are directly responsible for pollinating 30% of our food in this country and some crops, like almonds are 100% pollinated by honeybees. Honeybees can improve crop yield by 30% to 60% even in a home garden. Plus the honey harvested from organic, naturally kept bees is delicious and nutrient rich.
• Beekeeping is a fascinating and relaxing hobby that people can practice their entire lives.
• Honeybees are dying off at an alarming rate—6% a year globally. Contrary to most stories in the media, most of this die off stems from unsustainable farming and animal husbandry practices, not from cell phones or killer viruses. Keeping feral bees that have adapted to their local ecosystem and beekeeping without the use of chemicals or medications makes the gene pool stronger and will help the survival of an entire species.
• Honeybees are herbivores and not aggressive by nature, and will not sting unless protecting their hive from an intruder or are provoked. They die once they sting; so stinging is truly a measure of last resort.
• With the crisis of Colony Collapse Disorder, it’s never been so important for all communities—urban and rural—to promote beekeeping, and preserve those survivor stocks of our own honeybees. Legal in cities throughout the country—including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, Portland, San Francisco, Cleveland, Detroit, Tulsa and Seattle, beekeeping promotes the natural pollination of plant installations by both citizens and governments.

Call the bee rescue hotline (213) 373-1104 if you have a swarm or hive of bees that you would like to adopt out to a local beekeeper. Max writes often about bee-keeping and sustainable living in her blog www.myromanapartment.com.

At the Glen Green Street Cul-de-sac most Saturday mornings!
– This is when the Work Gets Done!

COME ON DOWN TO THE CUL-DE-SAC OF GLEN GREEN THIS SATURDAY TO SHARE SOME COFFEE AND JOIN IN. (Newcomers, can’t wait to meet you)

THIS WEEK: AFTER A WELCOME TO ALL, THEN THE FIVE WORK CREWS ARE CONVENING TO PUSH THINGS ALONG! (Newcomers will be briefed and can pick a crew to contribute to.)
This Saturday, have-coffee-kick-dirt-and-catch-up
at 8:30 am and then the orchard activities begin.

We will wrap it up at 11:30am.

Typical agenda — (for Saturday February 4th)

Trees and Soils - starting planning for the next Virtual Orchard Pick, etc
Harvest and Kitchen – collecting info for the next pop-up kitchen, etc
Membership and Outreach – google group work, membership development
Resource and Fundraising - plans for the Jacksonian fundraiser reception
Strategic Plan and Buildout – measuring the hill lot for bugeting!!