SANTA CRUZ — Cynthia Sandberg didn”t start out as a farmer. In fact, she was disappointed when the plants in her first garden died within months. But, instead of giving up, Sandberg, an attorney at the time, went back to school to find out what went wrong.

In the horticulture program at Cabrillo College, she learned the difference between the annuals she had planted and that bloom only one season and perennials that return year after year. She didn”t stop there.

Since that initial effort 20 years ago in Capitola, Sandberg has been cultivating her knowledge and skills. Her garden”s grown too, from the small plot of a hobbyist in Ben Lomond to the 23-acre Love Apple Farms in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Scotts Valley. There she”s built a business based on an exclusive arrangement with chef David Kinch to supply sustainably grown, artisanal produce to his upscale Los Gatos restaurant, Manresa.

Such partnerships are a part of a growing global trend, filled with opportunity for aspiring small farmers, Sandberg said. In the fall, she”ll launch Farmer University, a yearlong residential program designed to teach others how to duplicate her success.

“More and more, chefs are understanding how critical it is for them to partner with a farmer to make their restaurant stand out,” Sandberg said. “It”s all about the ingredients.”

But restaurant farming is a unique niche, she said, with complex challenges requiring special skills, Sandberg said Monday as she walked past towering tomato plants, heavy with ripening fruit in a variety of hues. Through a greenhouse packed with diverse sprouts and down a staircase, she arrived at terraces holding long rows of raised beds filled with specialty crops. Three years ago, the area was a wild tangle of brush and trees. Sandberg built her farm literally from the ground up, composting and brewing her own fertilizer teas. She also raises goats and chickens, for milk and eggs and their nutrient-rich manure for compost.

Sandberg named the varieties growing in the beds as she walked, explaining their uses and pinching off bits of plants for a visitor to taste — a crunchy seedpod from a radish cultivar, a lemony sorrel leaf, a sweet ground cherry that a pastry chef will turn into a treat by peeling back the husk and dipping the yellow tomatillo-like fruit into chocolate.

“A market farmer might grow 10 to 13 things, maybe just one,” Sandberg said. “If you”re going to grow for a restaurant, you need to know how to grow 300 things very well.”

Restaurant farmers also must produce year-round, and must know how much and when to plant to meet the daily demands of the kitchen, she said. In addition, like any small farmers, they need to be self-sufficient because they can”t afford to pay for services such as plumbing and electrical work. The program will cover all aspects of the business, from acquiring land and building fences to beekeeping and marketing.

“It”s all the skills you need to have your own business,” Sandberg said.

Sandberg also offers workshops for the home gardener. The new educational venture replaces a less structured internship program. Two recent graduates of that program were at the farm Monday. Phillip Gatchell has started his own edible landscaping business, Loamstead. For Adam Rusk, managing a farm for Saison restaurant in San Francisco is a perfect outcome.

“I have a love of growing excellent produce and vegetables,” Rusk said, “and, of course, a love of eating good food.”

Follow Sentinel reporter Donna Jones at Twitter.com/DonnaJonesscs