classes

Crisis Planning and Personal Interventions Class Starts TOMORROW

sastyk — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 07:41:07 +0000

Crisis Planning and Personal Interventions Class Starts TOMORROW

I still have spaces in this class, which is designed to help others sort out the complicated intersections of multiple crises. The class is taught by both me and my husband, Eric Woods.

This is an exciting class for us to be teaching, since it combines so many of our strengths and experiences. Eric has a Ph.d in Astrophysics from Harvard and a BA in Physics from MIT, and has been teaching environmental physics for an number of years at SUNY Albany. I'm a member of the board of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO-USA), and a long time writer on energy, climate and environmental issues. So this is a great chance for us to share our experience with you, and help sort out some complexities and begin to figure out what all this actually means for our lives.

If you are interested in a space, please email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com

The class is four weeks long, asynchronous, online and on Facebook - you can participate at your convenience. The goal is to give people a better sense of how the intersections between energy depletion, climate change and related economic and social issues may play out in their region and in their lives. Here's a syllabus:

Week 1: Feedback loops, intersections, and interactions - how things work together. This week will cover the basic science and history of peak oil, climate change and the underlying implications of the myths of perpetual growth, and begin to explore how they work together. We'll talk about historical models for understanding them, and scientific ones as well, to begin drawing a clearer picture of the future.

Week 2: Differences that make a real difference - understanding regional, economic and personal variations in resilience. More on models and their uses for predicting the future.

Week 3: Potential scenarios in energy, climate, economy - and what they might look like all put together. Creating personal models for the future. Evaluating scenario likelihoods and risk analysis.

Week 4: Putting it all together to create a picture of near, mid-and long term events. Personal, regional and broader mitigation strategies that might really work - and how to implement.

Cost of the class is $100 and includes discussion group, readings and one conference discussion call with Eric and I. Email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com to enroll or with any questions.

sastyk Mon, 04/08/2013 - 03:41

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Sustainable Garden Planning Class

sastyk — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:32:25 +0000

Sustainable Garden Planning Class

First of all, in my first post I accidently wrote the class was starting tomorrow, April 4. In fact, we're starting the following Thursday, April 11 and running to the first Thursday in May (apparently I can't read a calendar correctly). I still have spots available, but sign up soon, because I'd like to make sure I have plenty of time for individual attention.

Here's the syllabus and class information:

Sharon has been running her small family farm in rural upstate NY for 12 years and before that, was gardening on urban balconies and in city lots in the Boston area for years before that. Sharon's farm ran a CSA for 5 years, and now produces native plants, medicinal herbs and vegetable starts as well as a variety of small livestock and perennial crops.

Sharon has been teaching these classes for some years now, but never cease to learn new things! We have a wide and diverse range of garden experiences to draw on, and make new mistakes yearly, so that you don't have toHere's the class syllabus:

Week 1:Welcome, Introduction, Sun, Soil, Water; Taking
Measurements; The Project of Design, Meet Your Graph Paper ; Addressing
Garden Challenges, Thinking in terms of Depletion, Getting Started, Getting outside the garden box, Variety selection

Week 2: Soil Preparation, Perennial Plantings, Orcharding and
Woody Agriculture; Permaculture, Seed Starting,
Building and Maintaining Fertility, Calorie Crops, Beginning to Plan,
Container Gardening Basics

Week 3: Transforming a City or Suburban Lot, Dealing with
Zoning, Small Space and Urban Gardens, Small Livestock and Polyculture;
Finding More Land; Gardening Cheaply, Gardening in an Unstable Climate, Making Use of Shade

Week 4: Community and Garden; The CSA Model, Year-Round Gardening, Maximizing the Harvest Garden
Design Project, Public Space Gardens.
Vertical Gardening, Succession and Long term Planning, Deep Food Security,
Designing for Personal Resilience, Where to From Here

At the end of the class, you will have a site map, and short and long term plans for your own garden and
be ready to go forward! But don't worry or get overwhelmed - the workload
is wholly adaptable to your schedule! One of the reasons we use face as
a site for our discussions is that the archives remain available in
perpetuity, with no danger of them disappearing, so you can always go back
and read through the material again.

The class is online and asynchronous - that means we put new material up
on the days that are listed, but you respond as you can or want to, and we
respond to you as we go. No pressure - this is supposed to be fun! In
advance of the class, we ask you to send us a personal narrative,
describing your garden(s) or farm, the land, its location and climate,
your experience gardening, challenges you face, what your ambitions are,
and what you hope to get out of the class. Send this to
jewishfarmer@gmail.com with the words "Garden Design" in the header so it
doesn't get lost.

Cost of the class is $100 USD. If you wish to donate
anything additional to provide free access to students who can't pay,
please just go ahead and do so - 100% of any donations goes to making more
free spots available.

sastyk Wed, 04/03/2013 - 08:32

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Real wonderful info can be found on web site.

Sorry for the Radio Silence...Update on Classes, Posts, Kids and More

sastyk — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:56:52 +0000

Sorry for the Radio Silence...Update on Classes, Posts, Kids and More

Things have been a little nuts here.

Two weeks ago Eric and I took an emergency placement of two children, six and 17 mos. It turned out to be one of the most exhausting and stressful placements we've ever had, not because of the kids, who are delightful (although I had somehow forgotten what 17month olds are like - the "oh, yeah, I was hoping you'd pull all those books off the shelves and try and feed them to the cat" quality of that age toddler ;-)), but because of really complicated circumstances I can't talk about. Let us just say it involves a lot of things we've never been buried in and there have been a LOT of ups and downs for the kids, for us, plus some language complexities since the family is partly non-English speaking (I forgot how tiring it is is to constantly be translating, until the "automatic" kicks back in) and everyone is pretty exhausted. The children are wonderful, but the circumstances are hard. They will probably be with us until the middle of next next month.

Add in finishing my book (which was supposed to go to the editor umm...a bit ago), Passover preparation plus seder for 26, and Eli's rapidly approaching adaptive bar mitzvah (he doesn't have a lot of language due to autism), and we've been overwhelmed. In the midst of all of this, I had the odd experience of something I wrote (My piece below "What Foster Parents Wish Other People Knew) going semi-viral, showing up on Andrew Sullivan, including an appearance (sadly without me, I was out foster parenting when they called to get me on the show) on Talk of the Nation. Which was pretty freakin' amazing. I've had a lot of interview requests about it since then, which have also been keeping me busy.

Oh, and we had six baby goats born in early March due to an accidental fence crossing last year, and have been nurturing our babies through - Clara, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, Nocturne and Sonata are all doing beautifully now, as are their mothers. Normal baby goat season will resume shortly, as hopefully spring actually comes.

So, apologies for the comparative quiet. Things seem to be settling down a little now, we're actually getting a tiny bit of sleep, and I hope to be back to normal, finish the bloody book, and get started on other things.

Among other things, I've had a LOT of questions about when I'm going to run classes again, and I had planned almost two weeks ago to put this information up, but well...things ensued. I'm offering three classes, two of them brand new over the next month and a half, so please email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com to find out more.

All my classes are offered ONLINE on FACEBOOK (you do have to use FB to participate, but I'm happy to help you create an anonymous account only for this class) and are ASYNCHRONOUS (ie, you participate when you have the time, I put material up on particular days and respond as we go) The classes I'm offering are:

1. NEW! Sustainable Garden Planning to be offered over 4 weeks, Starting Thursday April 5 and running to Thursday April 26. The class will focus on maximizing your garden, whatever its size or shape with perennials, season extension, critical edible crops for sustainable production and food security, and crops suited to preservation. I'll help you come up with a garden plan designed to get you the most from the fewest inputs both purchased and of time and energy. Cost of the class is $100 and I have a couple of scholarship spots available as well, email me for details.

2. NEW! Crisis Intersections and Personal Planning This is a four week class running from Tuesday April 9 to Tuesday April 30 on how energy, climate, economic and various social and demographic issues are likely to intersect. The class will focus on the feedback loops and connections between them with an emphasis on understanding how the future may play out given our complex collective crisis. My husband Eric Woods, a Physics Professor focusing on Environmental Physics will also participate in this class to provide some additional perspective. The goal here is to help people understand more fully what is coming, and also to be able to get a better sense of how it will play out in their region, their local economy, their communities, etc... Cost of the class is $100 and I have a couple of scholarship spots available. Please email for details.

3. Food Preservation and Storage This is a six week class beginning May 2 designed to get you ready for the garden/farmer's market season, to teach both basic and advanced food preservation, and also to help you build up your storage. We'll cover all the major techniques from canning to drying to lactofermentation, we'll also talk about bulk purchasing, food storage on a budget, dealing with special diets and health issues and many other subjects. I'm going to limit the class size here to make sure everyone comes out with a plan for their next steps and the skills to take advantage of the season's produce, so please register early. Cost of the class is $150 and I do have a few scholarship spots available. Please email at jewishfarmer@gmail.com for details.

sastyk Fri, 03/29/2013 - 09:56

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Family

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Food Storage Class Starting Thursday

sastyk — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Food Storage Class Starting Thursday

So apparently in my sleep-deprived, brain rotted state, I managed to leave out the start date of my food storage and preservation class - it starts on Thursday, August 23rd, ie, this Thursday. I still do have spaces, and as it is asynchronous and online, you don't have to be able to drive to my house ;-) (which is probably good, since it isn't very clean at the moment.) It will help all of us build up that reserve and deal with the summer's glut before the long winter (and high foot prices) to come! Email me for more details or to register at jewishfarmer@gmail.com. Cost of the class is $150.

Here's the syllabus:

Week 1, - Introduction to Food Storage, How much, where to put it, and how? Can I afford this? Overview of food preservation methods, their energy and economic costs. Storing Water, making space. Food safety, thinking about the foodfuture, recommended reading.

Week 2, : Water bath canning 101, Preserving with Salt, Sugar and Honey, Bulk purchasing, sourcing local foods, finding food to preserve, what food storage can and can't do, eating more locally year round.

Week 3: Dehydration basics, Tools you need and where to get them, Menu making and how to get people to eat from your pantry, Setting up your kitchen for food storage, Storing herbs and spices, Sourdoughs and grain ferments, Preserving foraged foods.

Week 4 : Lactofermentation; Special needs, dietary and health issues; Storing food for children, pregnant and lactating women; Storing medications, gluten-free storage; Basic dairy preservation; Building up your pantry and Managing your reserves. Reducingfood waste.

Week 5: Pressure Canning; Beverages, Teas and Drinks; Preserving in Alcohol, Coops and Community Food Security; More Menus and Recipes; Root Cellaring and in-Garden Storage, building Community Reserves. What will we eat when in a low energy future?

Week 6: Season extension, Preserving Meats, Sprouting, The next Steps, Getting Your Community Involved, Teaching others, Food Preservation as a Cottage Industry, The long view of food storage and preservation, Oven canning.

We will support each other as we experiment with new techniques and build up our pantries as we go - and have a lot of fun!

sastyk Tue, 08/21/2012 - 12:55

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That's great! I also want to have a class regarding emergency food storage.

Food Preservation and Storage Class

sastyk — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:12:22 +0000

Food Preservation and Storage Class

It is hard to believe that summer is coming so rapidly to a close, and that the opportunity to put up for winter will pass so fast. So if you'd like help and guidance in doing so, I'll be running my food storage and preservation class starting Thursday, August and running for six weeks into October. The class is online and asynchronous and will cover everything from putting up the summer's glut to building up food storage and a reserve to help temper hard times. That's going to be particularly important this year with predictions of skyrocketing food prices due to drought and other disasters, so if your reserves need a little strengthening, now is the time.

Week 2, : Water bath canning 101, Preserving with Salt, Sugar and Honey, Bulk purchasing, sourcing local foods, finding food to preserve, what food storage can and can’t do, eating more locally year round.

Cost of the class is $150. I also have five scholarship spots available to low income participants. Email me for more information or to register at jewishfarmer@gmail.com.

Sharon

sastyk Tue, 08/14/2012 - 09:12

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Adapting In Place Blogging and More

sastyk — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 16:20:31 +0000

Adapting In Place Blogging and More

In honor of Making Home, my new book on Adapting-In-Place which comes out in August, New Society has offered to sponsor a spot in my Adapting-in-Place class that starts tomorrow. In exchange for a sponsored spot for a low-income participant who couldn't otherwise afford to take the class, New Society will ask for a weekly blog post on what the class is doing, what it is like and what you are thinking about. I'll post them at my site, and they will also appear on the NS blog. I already have one blogger doing this, but I have one more space (sorry, only one). Email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com if you'd like to participate. All you have to do is send a weekly email with your update on the class - and those reading along will get to see what it is like!

UPDATED - the BLOGGING SPOT IS TAKEN! I have no more scholarship spots - so sorry!

I also have a couple of regular spaces in the class - email me for details. Class officially starts tomorrow, but don't worry too much if you are off for the July 4th holiday - the class is asynchronous, so you participate when you have time.

I've had a couple of people enroll because of the recent blackouts in the mid-Atlantic - they were spurred on by the hard reality of lack of power in the middle of a hot summer. I hope all of you are keeping safe and keeping ready as best you can in the heat! Happy fourth!

Sharon

sastyk Tue, 07/03/2012 - 12:20

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Not affording this one but am buying the book!! I really look forward to the additional blog posts!

Says she sleeping under a wet sheet tonight. :D

Food Preservation and Storage Class Starts Tomorrow!

sastyk — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:23:31 +0000

Food Preservation and Storage Class Starts Tomorrow!

Here's the syllabus - I still have a couple of regular spots and one scholarship spot available, so please email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com if you'd like one. The class runs six weeks starting tomorrow and is asynchronous and online. Cost of the class is $100. Hope some of you can join us!

Sharon

sastyk Wed, 02/15/2012 - 04:23

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your classes always sound so interesting. have you considered offering them in parts? for example, i have been canning and dehydraating for many years, but don't know much about fermentation. i live in a townhouse and have a community garden plot, so cute as they are, i can't have goats. but preserving in alcohol would be good to know and i really want to know what you think about what we will eat in a low energy future.
of course you have covered quite a bit of this in your books, but handouts i could purchase on specific subjects, or online content...
just sayin'

I am very proud of this blog, because all information is very useful for us all.

Feb/March Food Storage and Preservation Class

sastyk — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:03:25 +0000

Feb/March Food Storage and Preservation Class

Are you gearing up for the new garden season and thinking ahead about what to do to make your garden work all year long for you? Concerned about the rising price of food and looking for ways to feed your family through tougher times? Want to get in on the fun and wonderful flavors of home preserved food? Concerned about how to adapt your storage or preserving to special diets? Want to make the most of your farmer's market? All of the above? I'll be teaching a six week online, asynchronous (ie, you don't have to be online at any particular time) class on food storage and preservation starting on Thursday, February 16 and running until the end of March. Cost of the class is $100, and I do have five scholarship spots available to low income participants in need. If you'd like to donate to the scholarship fund, you can also do that - 100% of all donations goes to make more spots available to low income people who wouldn't ordinarily be able to take the class.

Email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com for details or to enroll.

Sharon

sastyk Mon, 02/06/2012 - 05:03

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Advanced Adapting In Place

sastyk — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:58:07 +0000

Advanced Adapting In Place

As I begin the final push on _Making Home_ my book on Adapting in Place (out next spring), Aaron and I will be offering the first ever "Advanced AIP Class" running from Tuesday, September 20 to October 25th. The class will build on the basic Adapting-In-Place skills that we've been talking about all these years in my classes, the blogs, etc... - triaging your situation, thinking about scenarios, and building both personal and community resilience, but this class moves beyond the basics into the larger question of how to make a life that both provides you some insulation from tough times, but also works across a range of circumstances and for you right now. The question is how to optimize - to be secure, to be content, to be ready, to be happy.

For those of you who have taken the classes previously, or who want to build on skills you've been working on for a while, the class will help everyone do a full evaluation of their resources and skills, and design short and longer term plans for how to move forward in the circumstances we actually have and in the ones we anticipate. We'll look at the next steps in building stronger communities, optimizing our home resources, and keeping secure in tough economic times. We'll go over a range of possible scenarios and try and figure out what practices work best - and what practices will make your life better no matter what.

We're very excited about the class, and welcome both people who have taken our previous Adapting-in-Place classes and those who are coming to this with some experience in personal adaptation and community building.

The class is online and asynchronous - there is no requirement you be online at any particular time. The time commitment is 5-10 hours per week, but the archived material remains available in perpetuity so that if you miss a week, you can go back and reconsider it. The class includes design help and telephone discussion as well as internet materials.

The cost of the class is $180. We do have available five free scholarship spots for low-income participants, on a first-come, first-served basis. We also gladly accept donations to make additional scholarship spots available - 100% of all donations go to additional class spaces.

Please email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com for more information or to register.

Sharon

sastyk Mon, 09/12/2011 - 03:58

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Paypal to who?

Fall Gardening Class Starting Up!

sastyk — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:30:52 +0000

Fall Gardening Class Starting Up!

Just to let you know, I'm starting another class this week - this one helping people get started with fall gardening and season extension. If you are like most folks, you probably start out enthusiastic about your garden, but around the middle of the summer, you get focused on harvesting, or overwhelmed by the heat and the weeds and let the cool season garden peter out.

That's a mistake, because with very simple and cheap methods of season extension and a little attention right about now (for those as northerly as me, a bit later for folks south of me in this hemisphere), you can be eating fresh produced well into winter.

Moreover, cool season gardening is satisfying and a lot of fun - fewer bugs, cooler weather, usually more rainfall - the conditions are optimal, the air is crisp and cool and there's just no reason to watch things peter out when you could be enjoying your garden until snowfly - or longer in many places. While a perfectly ripe tomato is one hallmark of the gardeners art, another is a fresh salad in the dead of winter straight from your garden.

Getting the timing right of fall crops takes practice, and learning what techniques work and don't to extend your season, or how to deal with hot weather at planting time can be challenging. This class is for people from beginners to advanced gardeners who need a little help (or motivation) to move forward.

Like all my classes, this one is online and asynchronous. It lasts four weeks, from July 21 to August 11. You participate when you have time, and while I put up most of the week's material on Thursdays, I'm available regularly through the week. The class includes weekly readings, lots of discussion and planning help and guidance, and one 15 minute phone conversation to talk about any questions or problems you are having, or strategize on designing how to get the most out of your garden.

Cost of the class is $100, and I also have two spots still available for low income scholarship students. I ask that if you are applying for scholarship you give me a brief explanation of why you would qualify. Anyone who would like to donate a part or whole of an additional scholarship spot can get in touch with me about that and 100% of the cost of your donation will go to making the class free for another low income participant.

To join the class or get more information, please email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com. Here's the syllabus:

Week I, July 21 - Introduction to the basics of cool season gardening and fall planting, garden planning, choosing varieties, estimating planting dates, finding space in your garden, designing for a three or four season garden.

Week II, July 28 - Introduction to Season Extension, strategies for extending your season, dealing with heat and cold, water and irrigation, cheap and dirty season extension techniques, timing for preservation.

Week III, August 4- Cover cropping, using containers to extend the season, seed saving, Greenhouses, hoophouses and more advanced season extension, winter harvesting, recipes from a cool season garden, nursery beds, troubleshooting the fall garden.

Week IV, August 11 - Mulching, making the best use of small space, using vertical space in the winter, tropicals and pushing your zone hardiness limits, Choosing perennials to extend the season, Winter seeding and stratification. Menus from the snow.

Hope you can join us!

Sharon

sastyk Thu, 07/21/2011 - 07:30

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