Parker Learning Gardens Non-Profit

09/02/2026

09/01/2026

🍎 APPLE SEASON IS HAPPENING! 🍎

Come help us kick off U-Pick season at Parker Learning Gardens with a big community harvest & cider pressing day!

**Saturday, September 12 | 10am–2pm**

This is a **FREE, all-ages event** — bring the kids, bring some friends, grab a bag and head into the orchard.

From **10am–noon**, we’ll be harvesting apples & pears from our mature organic orchard and hauling them back to press into fresh cider together.

Pick fruit. Feed the apple grinder. Work the cider press. Taste ridiculously fresh cider. Get sticky. Repeat.

🍎 **FREE:** U-Pick participation + cider samples
🧃 **$8:** Take home ½ gallon fresh-pressed cider
🧺 **$20:** ½ gallon cider + ½ bag fresh-picked fruit
♻️ **$25:** Cider + fruit + one of our handmade upcycled harvest bags

Then from **1–2pm**, stick around for an optional educational farm tour! We’ll wander more of the 33-acre farm, talk regenerative agriculture, and of course visit and feed some of the animals. Tours are $5/person or $15/family.

Bring a picnic and make a day of it!

A little warning: this is a real working-farm harvest day. Expect tall grass, blackberries, uneven ground, ground squirrel holes, wasps interested in our apples, and a loud apple grinder. Closed-toed shoes, long pants and ear protection are highly recommended. Wagons are also great for hauling fruit and small humans.

**Registration is required, including for the free option. Please register everyone attending:**
https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/workshop-reg/p/u-pick-cider

Come harvest with us and help turn our orchard into gallons and gallons of cider. 🍏🍐🍎

08/30/2026

🍎 COME PICK APPLES, PRESS CIDER & TAKE HOME A BAG MADE RIGHT HERE ON THE FARM.

For our Cider Pressing & U-Pick Launch on Saturday, September 12, participation is FREE—and this year one of our optional add-ons has a pretty great story behind it.

Those handmade upcycled grain-bag totes? Our volunteers made them here.

Volunteers have been teaching each other how to sew, passing the skill along as new people learn. It started with helping us sew new perimeter flags for the farm and has now turned into these unique, colorful, sturdy and genuinely useful harvest bags made from grain bags that otherwise would have been discarded.

That feels very PLG to us: learn a skill, make something useful, teach the next person.

And that same idea carries into the event itself.

🍏 FREE ENTRY & PARTICIPATION — Head into the orchard, harvest apples & pears, bring them back, learn how the cider-making process works, help press the harvest and taste fresh cider.

Then, if you want to take some of the harvest home, you can add on:

🧃 $8 — ½ gallon of fresh-pressed cider

🍎 $20 — ½ gallon cider + ½ bag of fresh-picked fruit

🧺 $25 — ½ gallon cider + ½ bag of fruit + ✨YOUR OWN UPCYCLED HANDMADE TOTE BAG! ✨

🐐 PLUS: FARM TOUR 1–2pm — Stick around after cider pressing for an educational tour of the farm and our permaculture practices here, and some animal meeting & feeding. $5/person or $15/family.

You do NOT have to purchase an add-on to participate in the cider pressing. Come harvest. Come press cider. Come taste cider. Come learn something. Come be part of it.

Saturday, September 12 | 10am–2pm

⚠️ Registration is required for everyone attending, INCLUDING free participants.

Register + choose your optional add-ons here:
https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/workshops/u-pick-cider

08/28/2026

🍎 **FREE U-PICK + CIDER PRESSING DAY!** 🍐

Apple season is here, and we’re kicking off U-Pick at Parker Learning Gardens with one of our favorite days of the year!

**Saturday, September 12 | 10am–2pm**
Parker Learning Gardens | Coburg/Eugene area

Come wander our mature organic orchard, harvest apples & pears, help turn the harvest into fresh-pressed cider, and taste the results!

**Participation is FREE and open to everyone.** Arrive anytime between **10am–noon** to join the harvest and cider pressing.

Here’s how it works:

🍎 **Pick fruit** from our orchard and contribute some of your harvest to the community cider pressing.

🧃 **Help press + taste fresh cider** right alongside us.

🧺 **Want to take some home?** Optional packages start at $8 for a half-gallon of fresh cider, with options to add fresh-picked fruit and one of our handmade upcycled fruit bags.

🐐 **Stay for a farm tour from 1–2pm!** Explore more of PLG, learn about regenerative agriculture, and meet & feed some of the farm animals. Tours are $5/person with discounted family pricing.

🥪 Bring a picnic and hang out! Kids are VERY welcome. This is an all-ages community harvest day rather than one of our more structured workshops, so come ready to pick, press, explore and get a little sticky.

**Please register everyone attending, even if you’re choosing the FREE option:**
[https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/workshop-reg/p/u-pick-cider](https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/workshop-reg/p/u-pick-cider)

A few farm-life notes: wear closed-toed shoes and pants for tall grass & blackberries, watch for uneven ground and ground squirrel holes, and consider bringing a wagon for hauling fruit. Our apple grinder is LOUD, so ear protection is a great idea for noise-sensitive kiddos and adults.

Come help us celebrate the beginning of apple season and turn a whole lot of fruit into cider together. 🍎

08/27/2026

🍂 **LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER FOR FALL CLASSES!** 🍎

Fall classes at Parker Learning Gardens start NEXT WEEK, and we still have a few spaces available!

From toddlers experiencing the farm with their grown-ups to teens taking on real projects, tools and responsibilities through Youth Discovery Project, we have weekly classes for **all ages **this fall.

🌱 **Mom & Me: Growing Together** — ages 0–4 + mom
Fridays | 10–11:30am
https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/classes/p/mom-me

🐐 **Farmily Fun Group** — ages 0–4 + caregivers
Saturdays | 10–11:30am
https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/classes/p/farmily-fun

🌻 **Children’s Garden Club** — ages 5–12
Wednesdays | 4–6pm
https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/classes/p/childrens-garden-club

🛠️ **Youth Discovery Project** — ages 13–17
Mondays | 4–6pm
Our teen program goes deeper into hands-on skills, farm projects, problem solving, tools, regenerative agriculture and learning through real responsibility on the land.
https://www.parkerlearninggardens.org/classes/p/youth-discovery-project

Fall is an especially fun time to be here — harvesting apples & pears, pressing cider, collecting seeds, preserving food, caring for animals, working on farm projects and watching the whole farm shift into a new season.

**Fall classes run August 31–November 14 and registration is closing!**

Scholarships are available for qualifying families, including 25–50% reduced-cost spaces and limited fully funded spaces when funding allows.

Come spend fall learning, building, harvesting, exploring and getting muddy with us.

Weekly classes & field trips 2026 Class Schedules & InfoEach weekly class runs for 11 weeks a season in Spring (March 9-May 23), Summer (June 8-August 22), and Fall (August 31-November 14).Youth Discovery Project: ages 13* to 17, Mondays 4-6pm Spring & Fall; 12-2pm Summer** ($318 per season)Children...

08/24/2026

🐐 BUT WHAT DOES A FARM BOARD MEMBER ACTUALLY DO?

First: you are not signing up to become unpaid farm staff. 😂

You don't have to milk a goat, but you COULD.

You don't have to know nonprofit law.

You don't have to know how to prune an apple tree, but we could teach you.

And we will not quiz you on identifying mystery p**p, unless you're into that. 😂

Our board helps steward Parker Learning Gardens as a nonprofit—showing up for meetings, reading what's sent your way, voting when needed, asking good questions and bringing your perspective.

We're looking for the show-up humans. - The ones who want to keep the kids coming to the farm playing in dirt, learning about plants, and building community.

People who can say, “Yep, I can commit to this for six months,” and then do.
Curious, dependable and willing to learn beats a fancy résumé any day.

🌱 We're recruiting now. Send us a message!

08/20/2026

🌱 SEEKING A FEW GOOD HUMANS FOR THE PLG BOARD 🌱
Parker Learning Gardens is looking for a few thoughtful, dependable humans to join our nonprofit Board of Directors!

PLG is 33 acres of fruit trees, gardens, goats and other critters, bamboo forest, wetlands, muddy boots, outdoor education, food growing, ecological stewardship, kids, grown-ups, and a whole lot of learning by actually DOING things.
And all of that needs humans behind the scenes helping steward the nonprofit that makes it possible.

We're asking for a six-month commitment. The time commitment is intentionally manageable—but consistency matters enormously to us.

🌿 No previous board experience required
🌿 An experienced board buddy to help you get oriented
🌿 Choose a goal or area you're genuinely interested in
🌿 Learn how a small educational farm nonprofit actually works
🌿 Bring your own experiences, questions and ideas

We're not looking for people with tons of free time. We're looking for people willing to reliably give a little of it.

Interested? Message us and say hello! PLEASE SHARE!

08/19/2026

Heard Health Check today with Farmer Knotwood, Georgie knows the routine. SO HELPFUL. Removed the pencil from the string entirely, oh and that cotton string…. Best toy ever tasted pretty good too.

✅ Everyone’s coat was silky and smooth, some just starting to get rough and wirey needing the next round of copper!

✅ Body Health Scores were good all around.

✅ Hoof Trims needed in a few weeks and scheduled

✅ Famacha Scores were good! Nobody is anemic and needs to be dewormed!

✅ Poops we’re good

✅ Rumen Sounds and Chewing Cud as usual

✅ Good energy nobody feeling depressed or stressed or lethargic

✅ Copper Bolus and CDT boosters for the kids tomorrow!

08/15/2026

Fresh Batch of Organically Grown Blackberry Jam in our Provide Youth Farmstand along our driveway! PAY WHAT YOU CAN. Please share and spread the love.

08/14/2026

🌻 **Give them somewhere to be curious.**

Some kids want to dig up worms.

Some want to make something.

Some want to find every bug in a 10-foot radius, taste something growing in the garden, feed an animal and then disappear into a game with their new friends.

That's **Children's Garden Club.**

Our 5–12 year olds spend Wednesday afternoons learning through actual life on the farm — gardening, cooking, wildcrafting, science, animals, art, nature observation, cooperative projects and plenty of unstructured play.

And we follow their curiosity.

🌿 Led by **Redbud**, our Programs Director and longtime Garden Club and Nature instructor, with a low student-to-instructor ratio and support for different learning styles, interests and ways of participating.

🍂 **Fall: Sept. 2–Nov. 11**
⏰ Wednesdays • 4–6 PM
👧 Ages 5–12

**We have room this fall!**

💛 Seeds of Success scholarships are available for qualifying families.

👉 parkerlearninggardens.org/classes/