classes

Just a reminder, my last Adapting-In-Place class for the forseeable future begins on Tuesday - here's the syllabus if you are interested in joining us. Week 1 - How to evaluate what you have. We're going to concentrate on figuring out what the major concerns are for your place and your community. We'll talk about your region and its climate, culture and resources, your house itself, your community and neighborhood - the challenges you forsee and maybe ones you haven't thought about yet, and your personal circumstances - how much money, time and energy you have to deal with it. How does…

Various Updates: First of all, Aaron Newton and I will be offering the Adapting-in-Place class again for the very last time for at least six months, and maybe longer. So if you've ever thought of taking the class, now is the time! Adapting in Place is my favorite class - it covers everything from what's inside the walls of your home to appropriate technologies to family issues to money to security. It is the whole picture of how we are going to go forward into a lower-energy, warmer, less wealthy future. The idea is for you to come out with a plan that is uniquely suited to your realities…

This is the the time of year for most of us when everything is ripe and abundant in our gardens and at local farms, and learning to put food up can make it possible for you to enjoy summer in winter, and continue eating locally as long as possible. It can be overwhelming when you start preserving, so if you'd like a friendly voice to walk you through it, please join us. The class is on-line and asynchronous, and you can participate at your own pace. Every week we'll have projects involving what's overflowing in our gardens and markets to get you familiar with the basics of preserving the…

I'm about to go out of town for three days to a conference on dealing with poverty issues, energy depletion and climate change, and I'm a little nervous. We've had no babies born since Meadowsweet's appearance two weeks ago, and I have three does due in the next week - not only am I a little nervous about abandoning Eric and Phil-the-Housemate to delivering baby goats (which has historically been a she who did the birthin' of the boys job), but I'm also a little sad at the thought of missing all the fun! Still it is a good and important thing, and it reminds me to let y'all know about…

Garden Calendar When the dogstar is aglow plant petunias in the snow. When the snow begins to melt Wrap your hollyhocks in felt. When the felt begins to bloom pick the apples off your broom. When the broom begins to wear weed the turnips in your chair. When the chair begins to rock prune the snowdrops in your sock. When the sock is full of holes blame the whole things on moles. When the moles inquire: "Why pick on us?" say simply "I will instruct you how to grow pink petunias in the snow. - NM Bodecker Note: Today is the first day of my month-long fall gardening class, which will help more…

Just a reminder that Aaron Newton (my co-author on A Nation of Farmers) and I will be running our Adapting in Place Class online for six weeks, starting Thursday. The class is asynchronous - you don't have to be online at any particular time, just participate when you like. The goal of the class is to help people develop a coherent plan for how to create a good and viable low energy life with what you have. Previous participants have told us that the class was "life-changing." This class attempts to deals as clearly as possible in such a murky subject with the question of "how should I…

A couple of administrative notes before I head off to a weekend involving friends, arboretum plant sales, weeding the asparagus patch, planting an alphabet garden and trying to decide if we really do need a pet sheep. First, as some of you may remember I'm running an on-site family workshop at my house in rural upstate New York over Memorial Day weekend. Families are coming with their kids (if any) to spend time learning about goat care, dairying, herbs, gardening, poultry, wild foods, soil building, reducing your energy usage and adapting in place. I've got one spot left for a family…

I still have two remaining spots in my online food storage and preservation class, starting tomorrow! If you'd like to join us you can read about the class and the syllabus here, and email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com to reserve a spot or ask more questions! Cheers, Sharon

There is still space in my upcoming (starts April 15) Food Storage and Preservation Online class, for those who are interesting. If you've wanted to start preserving or building up a food reserve and have no idea how to start, or perhaps you learned to can once upon a time, but want to explore the full range of food preservation options, or you've joined a CSA and want to know what to do with all that food you are getting, or cut your grocery bills - this is the class for you. Each class includes a couple of practical projects for you to try out each week. The class is offered…

I've had a lot of people ask when I was going to run food preservation and storage again, and ta da! I am. I'm doing it as a six week course, run asynchronously online on from April 15 to the end of May. I'll put material up on Thursdays, but you can participate at your leisure. The class will cover everything from the very basics of setting up a food reserve to more advanced food storage, the reasons for storing food and water, how to handle medications and special diets, deal with kids and elders, and how to save money doing it. We'll also cover all the major food preservation…

What am I doing this summer? Good question. I'm teaching Integrative Biology 496: Introduction to Beekeeping. If you are a University of Illinois student and would like to learn about the biology of Apis mellifera and how to manage a small apiary for honey or just for fun, please consider this 8-week class.  Enrollment is capped at 22 in order to maintain a reasonable student to hive ratio. The class website is here.

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow Aaron Newton and I will begin our next Farm and Garden Design Class. The class covers everything from the very basics of design - how to get started planning for a garden or small farm, soil, sun and water issues, seed starting, choosing perennials, making the best use of space etc... to small-scale livestock keeping, making money and long term design. We've done the class a number of times, and we've had people with 100s of acres and people with tiny city lots, and people with no land at all gardening in community gardens, on public spaces or sharing…

Not promising anything - and definitely not promising anything until the book is done, but does anyone have topics they'd like your blogiste to cover? What do you want to hear me go on about? BTW, if you are interested in more in-depth going on (plus a whole lot of awesome other stuff), Aaron and my next farm and garden design class starts 1 week from today. I'll post details and syllabus up here today or tomorrow, or you can email at jewishfarmer@gmail.com for more info. Also, I've still got spots in my next apprenticeship weekend - come to my house in rural upstate NY and see how we do it…

I've got a couple of speaking engagements and another class coming up, and I thought I'd let you know where I'm going to be and when. First, on Saturday, March 6, I'll be in Concord, NH at the NOFA-NH Winter Conference. The Northeast Organic Farming Association has been so powerful in creating conditions for small scale organic agriculture in our region that I'm thrilled to be doing the keynote for this conference. I'll be speaking mid-day on "Making a Place at the Table" and doing a workshop in the afternoon on low energy living with kids and teens. And I can't wait to attend other…

I'm back after four days of teaching a workshop at my house. It was awesome. It was exhausting. It was fascinating. We milked goats (note, very small adorable goats sell themselves. It is not necessary to talk them up, just to frisk people trying to hide goats under their jackets on the way out ;-)). We talked lactofermentation. We laughed a lot. We cooked on the woodstove. We knit stuff (ok, they knit stuff, I didn't knit much, since I was trying to manage everything). We talked about the future and where we think it is going. We laughed a lot. We talked about growing things and…

From time to time my co-author on _A Nation of Farmers_ and I teach classes on practical topics about adapting to lower energy life, food storage and preservation, garden and farm design, etc... The classes are offered online and are asynchronous (ie, you don't have to be online at any particular time - we post stuff, then people respond as they are able, and then we respond as we are able...). We're offering two such classes in the next couple of months. First, Aaron and I are offering "Making Your Place" which helps people who are considering relocation, concerned they may have to…