Hi.

What an amazing week this was. We went to Los Angeles to lead Kindred Spirit and were so well received and supported by all the participants doing such deep and meaningful work on their relationships. I left completely inspired. We also got to soak up the LOVE at Cafe Gratitude L.A. where everyone wants to be and is! What a beautiful expression of love in action the Cafe is. I felt so good just looking around the restaurant at all the BEAUTIFUL VIBRANT people there knowing that they were in a fun, exciting and loving place being served food that is healing and good for them! What a miracle that is. What an amazing combination of serving others is created there. Thank you all. If you haven't yet been to the Cafe on Larchmont, make plans to visit it soon, you will LOVE your experience, I promise! We also got to hear Jason Mraz record a song on his upcoming album and I was deeply moved and appreciative of who he is for all of us. Thank you Jason!

Fresh peaches are in the Cafes now, and soon we will be moving to fresh frozen this year, so have and I AM Peachy soon, they are the sweetest peaches ever!

Kind Kreme is a little collection of ice cream shops serving the healthiest and most sustainable ice cream possible in Los Angeles, Pasadena and Studio City, CA.  They’ve got the magic touch with ice cream, offering a variety of sweet delights that just happen to also be vegan, raw, local, and organic!  Daughter of Matthew, Mollie Engelhart created this awesome spot to showcase whole vegan ice creams that anyone can enjoy… and boy has she succeeded.  Try her almond butter and banana concoction, or a raw take on an orange Julius. Or try one of their signature drinks like the Dirty Chai (Chai, cold pressed coffee, almond milk and agave) or a Coffee Float (Icekreme flavor of choice, cold pressed coffee).  Go healthy with their whole food green smoothies and fresh cooling juices all made with farm fresh produce.  Or (gasp!) they actually did it, and you have to try it:  the Kombucha float!  You’ve got to try it to believe it!  Pick out your favorite kombucha flavor in the store and they’ll pair it with two scoops of the creamiest, sweetest, most taste-bud satisfying scoops of vegan ice cream you can ever imagine.  

Check out the full menu on their website here.
Kind Kreme is a top finalist in Peta’s search for the best vegan ice cream!  To vote for KindKreme, text KIND to 73822 or vote online here.

The baby chicks are here!  We picked them up with the Grandchildren and shared all about the miracle of receiving Special Breeds in the mail. The man at the post office was so precious about handing over the box to Kate. She said when we returned to the farm, “This is my best day ever!” I love the lessons that children can learn living on a farm! 

Tomato plants are in the ground, and we are keeping our fingers crossed for no more heavy frost. The greenhouse tomatoes now have golf ball sized tomatoes! Love the early start we got this year with the new greenhouse. Starts are abundant in the greenhouse and Lindsay is doing a great job of balancing mothering a small child, Newe, and keeping up with all the sprouts, wheatgrass and plant starts too!

Cacao, one of our Dexter cows, is pregnant and due in July.  We can’t wait to have a baby calf on the farm. The grandchildren are looking forward to that as well. Leche, our other Dexter, just returned from two months on the farm where we purchased her and we are hoping she is bred as well and will calf in December or January.

**Event Update: This Event is not being catered by Cafe Gratitude!  Sorry for the misinformation!**                             Hi there. Jon Marro here. I am a privileged member of the Cafe Gratitude community and the transformation of mind, body and soul it provides. I recently moved down with a bunch of the torch bearers to help open up the location(s) in Los Angeles, because I feel it is one of my life's callings to spread this food and philosophy all across the planet. I feel incredibly blessed to live in California. I feel it in many ways is on the leading edge of innovativeness, wellness and consciousness. The Bay Area, where the Cafes were birthed, I believe is an even crisper niche within the California niche, and The Cafe Gratitude Community is a treasure trove within those niches and a concentrated cluster of some of the most vibrant individuals I've found in my global wanderings. Let's call it for this blogs sake: The leading edge of leading edges. So within that, I feel it is my/our duty to offer and provide this wealth of knowledge, energy, and love to those who may not be in direct access to it's wellspring. How I am taking that on is by widening the circle. Bringing this feeling and the tools of this community to other communities in a giant global snowballing-effect experiment called (tentatively): Who wants to wake up once and FOR ALL and live in Oneness? The snowball's next stop is coming to Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz at an event called: Alive. In Concert. Alive. In Concert will feature a screening of the film: May I Be Frank, paired with a meal inspired by the food style of Cafe Gratitude. Then, once your body is fed, we will nourish your soul with the musical concert portion of the evening. You will join musicians of this movement such as Parker Ainsworth (our community's Bob Dylan), the musical majesty of Avasa & Matty Love, Seattle-based activists and troubadors holding the gratitude push-pin on the Northwest corner of the map: Luc and The Lovingtons and former gratitude employees and managers turned rock stars: The Makepeace Brothers. I promise you, with live food in your bellies and live music in your ears your lives will be transformed. Alive. In Concert gives spectators the experiential feeling of what's possible when you literally band together to live in concert and are devoted to uplifting and awakening together. Love is where it's at and Love would LOVE to see you there. Join us! For more information please visit: http://www.facebook.com/#!/Alive.Inconcert and spread the word! 

Thank you! 

Hi Everyone,

We are coming up for air after so much rain.  Our stove pipe was blown over in the last storm and mud was abundant, for sure!  However, we also love all the rain and the green grass that is covering the farm. The chickens, while wet, are still loving being out and about! The almond and apricot blossoms are over, and the first of the nectarine and early peach blossoms are still on the trees though not as full as they first were. The apple and Italian plum blossoms are full and sweet smelling.  I love this time of year.  The promise of those blossoms have me remembering all of the fruit that follows and the bees are more evident. 

Today, as about this same time last year, a group of students from UC Berkeley are here visiting the farm, cleaning out pens and helping make the family meal. They love it here, and are so grateful for the experience that is adding something precious to their educational experience. The farm crew loves all the visitors that start showing up once rainy season is past and the sun is out. 

Hi Everyone,

So happy to be sharing this week. I have included some photos from the farm greenhouse. The kale and lettuces are now outside in the Spring sun, and the second position is planted with 250 early tomato plants! Yeah. This is so wonderful as we wouldn't be able to plant tomatoes for a few more months!  Kale and lettuce is ready to harvest, so visit a Cafe Gratitude for the freshest greens ever. 

Cafe Gratitude LA is doing wonderfully. They have broken all our opening records! People are flocking to the Cafe for the food, service and experience that Cafe Gratitude is known for. Thank you all for creating such a powerful community so committed to LOVE! 

We are back from LA and what a journey that was. The opening was AMAZING, there were over 500 people there celebrating the presence of Cafe Gratitude in Los Angeles. They are SO READY for us and the LOVE that comes with our community! The Cafe has record breaking numbers in their first week (which isn't even over yet)! The team from Northern California was so gracious in their stepping in and helping out while visiting! What a powerful community we are. I have included some pics of our partners along with Matthew and myself, welcoming in the people there, and Jason Mraz and the Makepeace Brothers playing on stage at the opening. Check out my Facebook page for more photos and a video of the closing song! Cary and Ryland are doing great and Chandra is there supporting the entire project. The farm is flourishing in all the rain, fruit trees (early plums, peaches, nectarines and almonds) are all in bloom! The grass and wild mustard is so green and lush. The greenhouse is in the second position awaiting the planting of early tomatoes and the kale and lettuce that were planted a few weeks ago is now in the sunshine! Cafe Gratitude celebrates its 7th year of business this month... so come join us Tuesday night (tonight) at the Harrison location in the Mission  District! We love and adore you. Terces

We are home from Costa Rica where we led our Kindred Spirit workshop. It was amazing! So many wonderful people joined us from around the world. We love the generosity of folks that allows for the work we share to be deep and transformative. How fortunate we are. We also drummed to the dolphins (over 400 one day) from a boat in the most beautifully clear blue water ever! Thanks Sierra for sharing your passion for the dolphins with us all. 

We leave for Los Angeles and the opening of the first Cafe Gratitude there early tomorrow morning. Take a look at eaterla.com for a first time view of the new Cafe.  Lisa Bonbright headed up the design team and over saw the construction and she did a fabulous job, wait until you see all the details, thank you so much, Lisa. We are so pleased to be partnering with Chris and Lisa. The LA team is ready to go and we are so proud of them all. 

We are here in Costa Rica where we just finished leading our Kindred Spirit workshop to a wonderful group of people from all around the world! it is such a joy witnessing people opening their hearts where they were closed. the lodge we are staying at is on the beach and surrounded by rainforest!  tomorrow we marry a couple, Andrea and Steve, who met at one of our workshops in Kansas City!

We head home on Friday only to leave soon after for the opening of the L.A. Cafe Gratitude!

We are thrilled with the progress and the team that has gathered and excited about all the transformations and great dining experiences that are coming our way.

Our trip to Los Angeles was so great. The new employees are amazing and so excited to becoming a part of the Gratitude Community. The team that moved down there and are living together are so inspiring. Their home is incredible and they are creating such an sweet community life together. Our training couldn't have gone better and we so enjoyed having it at our new partners, Chris and Lisa Bonbright's home. We had so much fun together. 

The Cafe is coming along and while it is going to take something to get it complete on time (like all new construction projects) , it is going to be a beautiful new Cafe Gratitude, the bathroom tile is my favorite (see picture)! We will be down in LA in another week and I'll share more then.