Enjoy May and the great outdoors. Come visit Sand Rock Farm. Bring your bike or rent one nearby. Is there a better way to spend a few hours than riding your bike down a meandering road lined with flowering apple trees, stopping for a picnic, perhaps.??? Take in the sites and scents of Spring on the byways around Aptos and Santa Cruz.
Nisene Marks State Park, just over a mile from Sand Rock Farm, near apple oarchards and through a few redwood groves was named the Best Bike Trail this past week by the Good Times.
You can enjoy a leisurely ride through the park, or get more serious, biking the 13 miles of trails deep into second growth redwood on the old fire road. Nisene Marks offers a variety of rides, with some challenging climbs and speedy descents.
You could also participate in the 25th Annual Bike Week, riding to work or school A number of activities are offered to get folks out of their cars and onto their bikes.
Local Aptos biking excitement will be at fever pitch, May 14th when the Amgen Stage 2 Finish ends in Aptos village, just a mile from Sand Rock Farm.
Watch the Finish with other biking enthusiasts and enjoy the great outdoors.
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My favorite day is Wednesday when our local paper, Santa Cruz Sentinel publishes their Food Section with restaurant reviews and news about local food and wines. I love sharing the new and delicious with guests visiting Sand Rock Farm.
This past Wednesday was particularly enjoyable. I was so excited that Ann Parker from the Sentinel published such a delightful and informative review of my favorite restaurant! I love Café Sparrow. If I could indulge more than once a month or so, I would. Instead, I have highlighted Café Sparrow on the map I give to all my guests noting that it is a very popular, consistently good restaurant.
I gladly make reservations for them. I know when I ask them the next day, guests will always tell me that they had a great experience. The food was unique and delicious and the service was excellent. They tell me that they will tell their friends and, definitely want to go again when they return to Sand Rock Farm.
Cafe Sparrow, Restaurant Review: This Aptos Village bistro isn’t just for the birds
By Ann Parker – Sentinel correspondent
Posted: 04/04/2012 01:30:38 AM PDT
The Historical Landmark plaque in front of Cafe Sparrow reads, “1889 Aptos Grocery and Post Office built by James Leonard and financed by his gold mine.”
Next to the cafe’s front door, a less historic but equally informative sign revealed the restaurant’s specials for the night: herbed Dijon chinook salmon, pepper-crusted ahi, spiced New Zealand venison. Cosmopolitan cuisine in the heart of Aptos Village.
www.cafesparrow.com
Phone: 831-688-6238,
For the full article: www.santacruzsentinel.com/food
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What happened to winter? Our needed rainy season in Santa Cruz came and went and we got only 65% of a normal rainfall! A bit of rain last night and April 1st dawned bright and sunny with the 70 year old pink dogwood in full bloom and the lilacs sending their scents through Sand Rock Farm’s Spiral Garden.
Bed and Breakfast Guests and potential wedding couples are out exploring the grounds this morning discovering awakening bloom everywhere from the Japanese maples and azaleas in the shade garden to the blooming Iris and bird house waiting for a nest to be built.
One guest just told me he hiked to the top of the property following an old bridal path over a mile. I didn’t know it was still there.
Don’t miss Spring. Visit Santa Cruz and Sand Rock Farm in April. You can ride the steam engine to Roaring Camp and enjoy the Eggstraordinary Egg Hunt on Bear Mountain, APRIL 7 & 8. Eggstraordinary Egg Hunt visit web site | more info
Just a few miles South in Monterey, the Jellies have arrived for an extended stay at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
THE JELLIES EXPERIENCE
Opens March 31, 2012
Discover a world where jellies dance and glow, bloom and sting. You’ll meet thimble-sized jellies as clear as glass, colorful creatures with ruffles and beads, and jellies that live their lives upside down. Prepare to be amazed.
Learn more
Visit the hugely popular Pebble Beach Food & Wine – April 12-15, 2012 www.pebblebeachfoodandwine.com , the premier epicurean lifestyle event on the West Coast, matching 250 acclaimed wineries and 75 celebrity chefs
April is a great month for the fresh and new. Baby animals abound and frolic for visitors at a smaller version of the County Fair to be held at the end of the month at the Santa Cruz Fairgrounds.
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STAYCATION, Not in your vocabulary yet? It is alive in the Santa Cruz area, at Sand Rock Farm!!
Wherever you might be this week a STAYCATION may be less than an hour away
Ok, so gas prices are out of sight unless you have one of the new hybrids, or an electric vehicle. If so, you are really lucky as prices are not inching, but flying higher daily!
But, if you, like many, still have one of those gasoline vehicles, think of a short get away to the Monterey Central Coast and Sand Rock Farm. Sand Rock Farm is near Aptos village, a few miles South of Santa Cruz on the way to Monterey.
Discover Spring peaking out with daffodils in the meadows and trees budding out, fountains splashing. The lilacs and the dogwood are not far behind.
Hiking the coast or the hills, Nisene Park or Big Basin, whale watching, bird counting, surfing, the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, over 30 wineries – whatever tickles your fancy, we have it here.
We would love to have you visit Sand Rock Farm with wisteria greeting you at the door. Let us show you a STAYCATION!
http://www.sandrockfarm.com/2011/01/staycation-sand-rock-farm/
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Was Sand Rock Farm really a FARM?? As you drive up the winding drive through the redwoods and oaks you see a large home and flower gardens, no cows or horses!
But, the second owners of the property, the Waugamans did farm. Joan, their granddaughter told us of her grandfather, Alvin Waugaman introducing Black Angus cattle to Santa Cruz County in the 1950’s. They roam today on many of the county’s farms.
Sand Rock Farm’s beautiful whitewashed barn of today, was a real cattle barn when the Waugaman’s farmed, with cattle returning each night from the meadows to be fed. Joan remembers visiting as a child and climbing in the hayloft, playing in the hay and swimming in the circular cattle drinking trough, long since gone.
What we call the Upper Meadow was a huge vegetable garden. Joan helped her Grandmother can vegetables and make jam. (I wonder if the garden was fenced? The deer we have on the property today would make a meal of all those fruits and vegetables!)
Flowers were Joan’s Grandmother, Florence’s passion. The lilacs, camellias and pink dogwood that she planted in gardens around the house are still thriving and a special treat for springtime visitors to Sand Rock Farm.
The camellias that Florence planted are now 8 feet tall and stand in front of the 1887 wing of the house. (This is behind where Florence and Alvin are standing.)
We put up a fence to protect the roses from the deer. The lilacs, pink dogwood and magnolia tree showing off their blooms in early spring, 2011 were all planted by Florence in the 1950’s.
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