Santa Cruz CRAFT is a free mentoring program for apprentices, beginning farmers, and the farm-curious held monthly at farms in and around the Santa Cruz area, coordinated by EcoFarm.
Starting the 2018 workshop series, Stephen Pedersen and Jeanne Byrne of High Ground Organics will share with us their extraordinary efforts at habitat restoration on the farm. Their environmental approach to farming includes rotating diverse crops, maintaining hedgerows, planting buffer strips, providing habitat for wildlife, and nurturing native grasslands. Jeanne and Steve are striving to create a model of a financially viable farm that also focuses on responsible stewardship of the land.
Photo attribution: High Ground Organics Farm & CSA
The farmer couple has been awarded the 2009 AWQA Stewardship Award for exceptional agricultural water quality stewardship and community leadership. In 2012 and 2013 they were named as finalists for the Leopold Conservation Award.