1. Lay a full sized half-inch plywood sheet so the side you want to dance on is facing down.
2. Use a table saw to rip a single 10-foot 2×4 along the length in to half-inch shims.  Each board should yield six half-inch by 10 foot shims, since you’ll lose a half-inch in saw kerf across all the rips.
3. Use a chop saw to cross cut the stack of shims so that you get one stack of 7 foot and one stack of 3 foot shims.
4. Arrange two 6-foot shims along the long edge of the plywood, centered on 3 inches in from the edge.
5. Arrange three 3-foot shims perpendicular to the 6-foot shims.  Place two shims on either end, centered on 3 inches in from the short edge.  Place the third shim in the middle, centered on 48 inches (4 feet) from the short edge.
6. Nail the shims to the plywood from underneath.  Use 1.25 inch finishing nails and space them every six inches along the shim.
7. Flip the plywood over.
8. Use a four-in-hand rasp to slightly bevel the four edges of the top part of the plywood.  The goals are to remove splinters and give a 1/16-inch bevel.
9. Use a medium grit sandpaper to smooth the first inch of the dance surface from the edge of the plywood.  The goal is to give a smoother surface for the gaffer’s tape.  (When doing many panels, a power sander is better for speed and quality.)
10. This one panel is now finished and ready to be danced on, or taped edge to edge (flat) with other panels to make a larger dance floor.

Dance floor diagram, version 0.1

For a 12-foot by 12-foot dance space, I’ll need four full sheets and one half sheet.  For the half-sheet, I’ll either make a full-panel and let it stick out funny, or scale the measurements to a 4-by-4 square panel.  I’ll cut my shims to custom lengths, too — only four of them need to be 7-foot and 3-foot.  The remaining two I’ll get four 36-inch pieces for each panel, and use the remainder plus scrounge up another 36-inch 2×4 for a few more shims for the 4-by-4 panel (or make up a full panel and let it stick out.)

Come through the roses and have some appetizers.

Dinner is from 5-7 PM followed by a community dance!

Dance Around Molly a live Irish band, will be playing from 7-9 PM and we will have Linda Preston, our caller teaching us all how to line up and swirl to the music!  No experience necessary, just come prepared to dance the night away.

Dinner and dancing: $40 suggested donation.  If you’d like to just come for the dance and desert, only $10 suggested donation.  Come at 7 PM for dancing and desert.

As always, one free slot for dishwasher, but you will work for your supper!  If you’d like free dancing and desert, we could use two dishwashers, so contact us.

Children are welcome for the dancing and desert.  Well behaved children are welcome for the dinner.  We will have intimate tables for 4 as well as larger community tables for 8 +.  Seating is first come first served, so arrive on time and grab a seat in your favorite part of the garden.

Reservations are required and must be made by September 24th.  Let me know how many people are coming:

reservations@fairy-talefarm.com

Come join your host for some magic.

Last Thursday, Fairy-Tale Farm had a sheep and a goat! The goat needed to be milked, so children were invited to join in, and pet the sheep.

Of course, there are always chickens to cuddle…

And crafts to behold!

You must not miss the last Farm Market.

Last week, we had a Bluegrass Band! Page Brownton and Sidetrack !

And as always, figure drawing…bring your own supplies.

So come on down and eat delicious food in a delectable setting…and buy your produce and goodies for the week. 5-9 PM Drop in any time.

Figure Drawing is from 6 – 7 PM. Contact us for our address. We hope to see you here.

"jams and produce" by kthread (CC BY 2.0)

We tried another new idea, a distilled idea.  We’ve done pop-up restaurants, pie parties, figure drawing, and workshops.  We’ve long dreamed of house concerts, dance parties.  We want to be a venue where people bring their goods, extra produce, music, art, and especially sense of community.

So was born the Summer Salons and Urban Farm Market.

Yesterday, coincident with the salon and market was a post on Love and Trash, “Building Genuine Community”.  It’s a flattering review of the Big Picture of what we are trying to do here on our little urban farm. I’ve known the author, Father Mayhem, for many a year, he knows what he’s talking about.

This morning I woke to a wonderful blog post by Kristen Taylor (@kthread), who came with Margaret Rosas (@mrosas), Quiddities chief and fellow Santa Cruz open source geek.

Kristen did a great job of capturing how a Fairy-Tale Farm event goes. It’s the kind of story telling that we’d like to be able to do, if we weren’t so busy living the story.  My heart did a leap when she said, “This has to be documented,” camera in hand.  To have such an avid and piercing community person and food enthusiast show up is the kind of serendipity we keep having at each event.  (I’d stopped into NextSpace for business and ran into Margaret, and at the tail end of “public media” and “the open source way” and “opensource.com” geekiness, I made sure she got one of our flyers and a reminder about the event, and she said she’d bring her friend Kristen.)  This past eighteen months we’ve had the whole spectrum from new best friends to new great business relationships, all circled by the simple human love of communal effort.

We had art, glass jewelry (Saskia LOVES her new earrings), lip-smacking confections (chocolate dipped and sea salted gooey caramels! lavender cookies! flavored marshmallows! fresh strawberry lemonade!), perfect cauliflower and jasmine rice ready to eat, basil and kale and chard and peas and such freshness from an organic garden, and two square feet of homemade jams.  Yeah, I’m sure I forgot something.

I was very stoked with Vishnu’s Secret playing, for so many reasons. I was at their debut in 1992, and with all the passing of years I’m still struck by the brass audacity, beauty of sound, and tearing of story.  Aimee’s ethereal vocals (yeah, words lose me here) and Bob’s string virtuosity (oh, the cello!), joined these years by Trey’s equally deft hands.  That’s the first time anyone has played for us in this house concert format, something we’ve long dreamed of.  The fact that it came on the eighth anniversary of our moving in to this house we are dreaming in to a home … that was just a cherry on a very well iced cake.

So, what are you doing next Thursday?

• Music over here  (bring your instrument, and just play with whoever shows up)
• Art/figure drawing over there (to make this free, I need free models! Sign up now for summer.  You don’t have to be nude, come in costume if you’d like.  I have a few easels, but bring your own art supplies and extra easel if you have one.)
• Collage on that table (bring your own supplies, especially magazines to cut!)
• Games on this table (bring a game you want to play)
• Kids craft table (anything from feather hair clips to nosegays.  Craft from the garden.)
• Or just chase the chickens

You don’t have to RSVP to come play.  Please let us know if you’d like to sell at the market, though, or if you’re interested in becoming a figure model.  Tell all your friends, and come hang out into the night with us and dust off your talents!  May your community, artistic, and creative dreams come true.

Held 16 May at Joze’ new restaurant location, the scene I saw at the Flower Festival was the evolved artistic food expression I’ve come to know from Master Chef Jozseph Schultz.  You can look at their pictures (Facebook pictures and event page) via the India Joze Facebook page.  What I captured here are shots of our flower delivery.  (These pictures are available under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 Unported.)

Nasturtiums, rose petals, borage, lemon petals, and edible pea flowers.

The bags all hold nasturtiums, which are prolific two times per year in Santa Cruz. They have a nice spicy/sweet bite and stand up well in salads or stuffed. For our events, we like to stuff them with homemade hung yougurt, honey, and pistachios.

The main box of rose petals holds a striped pink on light-ping, small white climbers in the green tub, and the red-maroon wild climbers that only have five petals a flower.

Nasturtiums are thankfully fairly easy and rewarding to pick, giving an easy field effect.

In the center of the streaked roses is a whole rose to show it's glory. The blue borage flowers are the most time consuming and difficult to pick, but they are very rewarding. They can be laid out flat and dusted with sugar to make crystalized borage flowers for desserts.

What would you like?

Bring your Mother to our next One Day Cafe!  Sunday, May 9th  10 AM – 4 PM.  Drop in anytime for fresh baked bread, Ladysmith Jams and Jellies, and chocolate ganache!  And, of course, pie.  Tea, coffee, and free wireless internet!

The garden is full of flowers.  Bring your mom to a delightful day in our beautiful garden.  Sip tea and eat fresh bread under the roses, with chickens clucking around you begging for scraps!

Drop in anytime.  $10 for coffee, bread, jam, ganache, and pie!  Children $5

Please RSVP at:  reservations@fairy-talefarm.com

If you are a musician, you can play for your slice of pie!  Contact me if you or someone you know would like to entertain us for tea and bread and jam.

For more info on Anna Cameron’s jams, email her at: ladysmithjams@yahoo.com

For ganache info, contact www.lifestyleculinary.com

Looking forward to eating with you!

RESTAURANT/CAFE:
Sunday, February 7th Pie Party!! 10 AM – 2 PM Drop in anytime for a few slices of pie and unlimited coffee and tea. Frolic in the garden, listen to the music, and enjoy organic pies with your family and friends. $10

Friday, March 12 Dinner in the Field 6 PM – 9 PM This is our next formal underground restaurant, chef and menu to be announced. Limit 30 guests. $30 Cheap wine included. Please bring a nice bottle of wine to share if you’d like. Live music.

Sunday, April 11 One Day Cafe 10 AM – 4 PM Come drop by and dine on homemade pastries. Unlimited coffee and tea, and live music. Free wireless internet access. Prices vary.

Sunday, May 9 One Day Cafe 10 AM-4PM Same as above.

Saturday, June 12 Dinner in the Field! 6 PM – 10 PM Chef and menu to be announced. $30 per guest

NEW: FIGURE DRAWING IN THE GARDEN

We are starting monthly figure drawing classes, with a live nude model. Free coffee and tea! Come hang out and eat cookies ($2 each) even if you’re not drawing. $10 if you are drawing/painting. No instruction, just come and inspire one another. We will begin with quick poses, and end with longer 30 minute sessions. You are free to paint the chickens instead. Last Sunday of each month:

Sunday, Jan 31 2-5 PM

Sunday, February 28 2-5 PM

Sunday, March 28 2-5 PM

Sunday, April 25, 2-5 PM

Sunday, May 30 2-5 PM

Sunday, June 27 2-5 PM

As always, there are two free slots reserved for each event as musician and dishwasher. If you are interested in modeling for us for the figure drawing classes, you will be payed $15 an hour, or you can trade for future classes/events. We will have flowers and produce for sale when available, so bring extra cash.

If you are a chef and interested in cooking for one of our dinners, contact us. We also host private parties.

Reservations for any of these events can be made by emailing us at:

reservations@fairy-talefarm.com

Please specify the date/event you are reserving for and the # of people coming. For the cafe/ figure drawing class, please let me know if you intend to come so I can get an idea of how much to cook, but you are welcome to bring friends and decide last minute. We will always have coffee and tea!

Contact us if you have ideas or inspirations for future events. Happy New Year!