On Saturday May 8th from 12 noon to 11 pm Ocean Song hosts its 5th annual Earth Day Festival. This all day event features World Beat band Shabaz (formerly known as the Ali Khan Band) and activist Medea Benjamin. MORE

The Earth Day Festival costs $10-15 sliding scale per car, please carpool if you can! Please bring drinking water, something to sit on, and warm clothes. No dogs, drugs, or alcohol please! Call 707-874-1526 for information, or see Map for directions.

Sunday, June 20, Noon: Summer Solstice Ritual on Solstice Hill

Join your friends and neighbors for a ritual welcoming the summer followed by a potluck, music and dancing in the gardens. As always the solstice and equinox gatherings are free events for the community.

"Skills for Living" Internship Program, June 16-25:

Ocean Song hosts the 5th annual Skills for Living Program. This unique camp is specifically designed for mature teens and college students and features daily yoga and meditation, community service projects, organic gardening, music, carpentry, rock climbing, canoeing and more. Participants will camp at Ocean Song and help with many of our current improvement projects. Contact Michael Gornick at 707-573-1227 or see www.polestareducation.org.

Discovery Day Camp, June 21-25:

Open to children ages 6-13, the camp features wilderness exploration, hiking, music, art, games, swimming, storytelling, beach trips, gardening and more. An experienced staff of naturalists, educators, artists and musicians facilitate a safe, fun, creative and relaxing time in nature together. Contact Michael at 707-573-1227 or see www.polestareducation.org.

[See also OS Calendar]

“The goal of the Coastal Prairie Stewardship Study is to develop a social and scientific framework to preserve and restore coastal prairie in southwest Sonoma County with a landscape-level management strategy.”

Last year Ocean Song Farm & Wilderness Center, with funding from the California Coastal Conservancy, established the Coastal Prairie Stewardship Study to increase understanding of the ecological dynamics of Coastal Prairie and develop a management strategy to maintain the high quality stands that remain in southwestern Sonoma County.

California Coastal Prairie is a community of plants consisting of native perennial grasses interspersed with perennial and annual flowering plants. Native perennial grasses are fairly large, deep-rooted and long-lived plants. They are drought tolerant, adapted to local conditions, and provide important habitat for native insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. The seeds of both the grasses and flowering plants were an important food source for indigenous Californians.

Prehistorically, Coastal Prairie evolved with disturbance regimes such as grazing and trampling of Pleistocene megafauna, regular burning by indigenous Californians and grazing by large herds of elk and deer. For the last 150 years, Coastal Prairie was maintained through grazing by cattle and sheep. In the last decade, many of the former ranch lands in the area have been turned into park and wilderness areas and the relatively abundant remnants of Coastal Prairie in southwest Sonoma County are threatened by the lack of disturbance by grazing or fire. This will result in the encroachment by brush and Douglas Fir seedlings, and invasion by non-native grasses and forbs.

As part of this study we will collect data about the grasslands, use prescribed burning and prescribed grazing treatments, hold educational workshops, and map the extent of Coastal Prairie stands in western Sonoma County.

[We’re excited to have Benjamin Fahrer and Gabriel Tiradani as caretakers of the Ocean Song gardens and farm. Here’s an update from them. - Editor]

What a wonderful winter we enjoyed up here at Ocean Song, with the rain and the wind washing the land clean once again! The spring has brought forth an early abundance of growth and the gardens and farm are coming alive. We are excited and inspired for this coming season.

Dreams and visions continually flood the mind, as many of you know, when walking the land of Ocean Song. We have made a conscious effort to observe the patterns, flows and cycles, as well the history around the farm and gardens, to be sure that we are designing respectfully. In the farm we are integrating perma-culture techniques as well as bio-intensive practices, focusing first on the soil, and then building up and improving infrastructure. We plan on growing flowers, greens and veggies for the Occidental market, events at Ocean Song and for seed. Our vision is to educate and empower people, young and old, to grow their own food.

The gardens and our new native grass lawn are budding out with vitality and happiness from their winter sleep. The hummingbirds and swallows have returned in the sky to dance with the hawks. New plantings of berries, apple trees, herbs and annual flowers are connecting the garden areas, and the cob wall entrance is nearing completion.

It is a blessed time to be on this amazing ridge. We invite you to come out to share in the experience of placing your hands in the earth, either in the garden, farm or working with the Cobbing team. Volunteer days will begin in May on Tuesdays and continue throughout the summer. Check OS Calendar for details, give a call or email garden or farm. We look forward to seeing you!

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The path to biodiverse and sustainable production is developed further on the new Farm & Garden page.

This season a children’s education garden will be created in the Ocean Song main garden area. From June to October, we plan to educate 100 middle school children and other children’s groups about sustainable garden management. Children will gain hands-on experiences in food growing techniques, composting and seed saving, while having a fun time in the garden. These experiences will provide them with a greater awareness about their connection to and dependency on sustainable food production.

The project is being designed and constructed by Irina Skoeries, one of this year’s interns at the Ocean Song Farm. Irina is currently completing her BA at New College of California in Santa Rosa, and using the educational garden at Ocean Song as part of her thesis project. She has experience teaching children in various settings and has worked on an organic farm in the northern Sierras for the last three years.

If you are interested in bringing out a group of children this season or want to volunteer and help construct the garden, contact Irina at 707-874-9362, or email: edugarden