The Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden will host an Appreciation BBQ in River View Park, Buellton to honor John Evarts and Margie Popper, founders of Cachuma Press on Saturday, May 18th. Festivities start at 4pm with appetizers and tours of the Botanic Garden. At 5 pm we will honor John Evarts and Margie Popper, founders of Cachuma Press, an award winning local publishing house. Their work includes The Oaks of California and Reimagining the California Lawn, outstanding reference guides for our California gardens.
For a number of years, John and Margie taught the popular Organic Gardening class for Santa Barbara City College Adult Education. They were also involved in local commercial honey production and crop pollination services. After moving to Ballard in 1985, they sold their beekeeping business but continued to participate in the farmers markets as vendors of stone fruits and table grapes grown on their five-acre property. John established Cachuma Press after working for a publisher in Santa Barbara where he honed his skills.
John shared that “A mutual love of books, natural history, and California’s wild landscapes was the catalyst for launching Cachuma Press in the early nineties. Two titles were published that initial year, California’s Eastern Sierra: A Visitor’s Guide and Oaks of California.” Both have been reprinted multiple times and are still in print. They later published California Native Plants for the Garden and Reimaginining the California Lawn. With handsome, accurate photography from many of best landscape photographers and accurate descriptions from knowledgeable authors, their books are lasting, accessible references for professionals, students and anyone with interest in exploring and using our California natives in their gardens.
Cachuma Press has been the recipient of the Publishers Market Association Benjamin Franklin Award for Oaks of California; the National Park Service Award of Excellence for Capitol Reef: Canyon Country Eden; The Council of Horticultural and Botanical Libraries Literature Award for Conifers of California; and the 2006 Book Award from the American Horticultural Society for California Native Plants for the Garden.
John and Margie’s published works as well as their contributions to the community embody the spirit of the mission of the Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden, inspiring the Garden Foundation to honor them at the Appreciation Barbecue. Through the last decade, since its founding in 2006, The Garden has provided an accessible and interactive environment for the community and visitors to our valley to appreciate and explore our native plants. Through the support of our members and hundreds of volunteers of all generations, the Garden continues to grow. The Foundation is looking forward to ‘reintroducing’ John Evarts and Majorie Popper to the community to which they have made such lasting contributions.
Members of the Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden can come to the event free of charge and non-members may come for $10.00. Please be sure to join us for this fun event you can reserve tickets here: SYVBG Appreciation BBQ
