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Arts & Entertainment

Local Movie Makers Live in a Homemade Hobbit Village

The guys behind Encyclopedia Pictura were called "the directors of the future" by Esquire Magazine, but their life on an organic farm in Aptos is just as interesting.

On a secret hillside in Aptos, a small group of young people imagined their own version of a “21st-century Hobbit village.” Then, they built it.

A network of tree houses, huts, domes, a goat paddy, an orchard, and most recently, an organic farm, the small neighborhood named Trout Gulch is really only just beginning to sprout.

Built on the wilderness that surrounds animation filmmaker Isaiah Saxon’s mother's house, Trout Gulch is the creative sanctuary of Encyclopedia Pictura, a three-man animation company made up of Saxon, Sean Hellfritsch, and Daren Rabinovitch.

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Encyclopedia Pictura is working on countless ambitious projects, and they have been called the "directors of the future" by Esquire Magazine. Their successes—which include a very successful music video for Bjork—fuels a unique project as imaginative as their films.

Trout Gulch is becoming a mecca for DIY culture and sustainable living, with 18 friends now living cooperatively and productively amongst each other there. They also use composting toilets and make their own cheese from their flock of French Alpine goats. 

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“Everything is happening magically, nothing is forced. The people who are brought in are brought in from meeting people at the right time,” said Ryan Hett, the resident farmer who has been living and working on the organic farm for the past several months.

Hett is one of those people who was in the right place at the right time. The inspired farmer came into contact with Trout Gulch at the same time Trout Gulch was looking for a visionary farmer to help start their organic farm.

A couple of weeks ago, Trout Gulch Farm invited members of the community to share food, conversation and knowledge on their organic farm, which culminates at the highest point of the property and is complete with a state-of-the-art outdoor kitchen.

It was something like a farm-to table-dinner without the pretention, followed by demonstrations in acorn tanning, wild mushroom scavenging and herbal tinctures. Two long tables overlooking the valley set the scene for a gourmet lunch, which included a shaved apple and fennel salad, whole sardines from the Monterey Bay, roasted root vegetables and bay nuts, the seeds of the Bay Laurel tree, which taste like a mixture of chocolate and coffee.

Hett took time to tell Patch about the organic garden which he has been spearheading since he was invited to live at Trout Gulch. Instead of paying rent, he has started a garden that feeds the little community and their guests.  

“I didnt go to school for any of that stuff. I feel like the more time you spend in nature, the more you begin to recognize it and understand it,” said Hett.

The garden that sits on the top of the hill next to their outdoor kitchen is a result of work parties the community held to dig massive holes and fill the not-so-fertile soil with richer soil.

Now, it's a flourishing patchwork of beds planted in the french intensive style— the recommended plant spacing is cut in half, and since the residents of Trout Gulch are constantly grazing on the vegetation, they never end up crowding each other. Hett also groups plant species with their symbiotic 'companions,' which helps eradicate bugs and bring nutrients to their roots, among other benefits. 

“I come from a lineage of farming and agriculture, it’s definitely very present in North Dakota. But it’s all big ag. As a youth it wasn’t attractive for me to get involved in,” Hett said.

Even if Trout Gulch Farm expands to encapsulate the entire hillside, it couldn't be further away from conventional agriculture. In the summertime, it's irrigated with greywater diverted from the kitchen.

Pitching in to get work done together is a common theme at Trout Gulch, and the cob oven which they pull beautiful golden loaves of bread from is another testament work accomplished as a team.

"They are actually pretty easy to build, and really fun to build together. You can build one in a day," said Cole Bush, a resident at Trout Gulch. The cob oven is built from stones, mud, and straw, and is set up in the center of their roofed dining area.

Bush specializes in the multitude of medicinal herbs she has found around the property, and gave guests a lesson on how to make herbal concoctions, including cleanses and tinctures.

“It’s really great. Someone mentioned earlier that there have never been more farmers who are artists too, and that’s really how it feels,” said Carsten Schwesig, 42, who showed up for the "Day at the Gulch."

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