2008 Practical Farm Skills Workshop Series

The Workshops

Maple Sugaring with Drumlin Farm's Matt Celona
Lincoln, Mass 10AM- 11:30AM, Sunday March 22 (Resheduled)
Learn the basics of how to tap trees, collect sap, and turn that watery tree juice into pancake topping fit for a king!
NOFA Members: $11 Non-members: $15

Shamanic Plant Journeying with Tommy Priester at Bear Medicine Herbals (www.bearmedicineherbs.com)
Watertown, Mass 6:30PM- 10PM, Thursday, March 13
The Earth Mother’s Sacred Plant World provides everything we will ever need for our health, nutrition, and general well being. Experience how physical and spiritual energies of plants affect all levels of being. Participants meet the physical plant, experience the tincture and open to the energies of the flower essence. Through guided meditation we make contact with plant wisdom for our own personal healing, the healing of our families, and of the Earth.
NOFA Members: $25 Non-members: $31

Cheesemaking #1-soft cheese with Cliff Hatch at Upinngil Farm, ^{*FULL
If you would like to be on the wait list, email Tom}
Gill, Mass 8AM- 5PM, Saturday, March 15
Learn how to take raw milk and create a soft cheese. In this hands-on workshop, we will make several cheeses using different recipes and cultures. You are invited to bring 2 gallons of your own animals' milk to make more cheeses.
NOFA Members: $64 Non-members: $70

Biodiesel : Bigger and Better with GreenGreaseMonkey (www.GreenGreaseMonkey.com)
Allston, Mass 10AM- 3PM, Sunday, April 6
Learn how to make biodiesel. See a home processor run, learn its applications, safety, the chemistry, and practice the steps in testing oil and making your own fuel. A parts list will be available to anyone who wants to build their own processor.
NOFA Members: $46 Non-members: $52

Organic Apples: Focusing Tree Energy with John Bemis at Hutchin's Farm
^{*CANCELED
Possibly re-scheduled for August, if you would like to be notifiedemail Tom} Concord, Mass 9AM- 1PM, Monday, April 21
John Bemis, with 30 years of apple tree management experience, will show us how to guide the trees growth and help produce fruit. We will walk the orchard and learn about girdling and pruning to control excessive growth.
NOFA Members: $37 Non-members: $42

Organic Gardening across the state of Massachusetts with NOFA Staff and Board members and members,
Saturday, April 26th
Learn the basics of organic gardening at one of four great locations! Learn about soil building, composting, seeds and seedlings, mulches, raised beds and how you can grow some of what you eat and start to appreciate where all of your food comes from. Contact the local instructor for more information. Cost $10 for NOFA members and $12.00 for non-members.

Natick Community Organic Farm, 117 Eliot Street, South Natick, Ma. 10am-12.pm. For more information contact Lynda Simkins @ 508-655-2204
Soule Homestead, Middleboro, Ma. 9.30am-11.30pm. For more information contact Frank Albani @ 508-224-3088 or plymouthrockmusic@msn.com
Wendell, Wendell Community Garden behind the town office building on Wendell Common 9:30am-12pm. For more information contact Sharon Gensler @ 978-544-6347 or wildbrowse@yahoo.com or Jonathan von Ranson @ 978-544-3758 or commonfarm@crocker.com
Many Hands Organic Farm, 411 Sheldon Road, Barre, Ma. 9.30am - 1.30pm with potluck lunch. Please bring a dish for the potluck! For more information contact Julie Rawson @ (978) 355-2853 or julie@nofamass.org

Building a Composting Toilets with expert and author Carol Steinfeld at Caretaker Farm
Williamstown, Mass 10AM- 5PM, Sunday, May 4
We need to treat water better, right? Learn how to build a composting toilet system for field, cottage, home and boat as we build a working composting toilet for Bridget Spann and Don Zasada up at beautiful Caretaker Farm. We'll also touch on graywater systems, urine-diverting toilets, and ecological wastewater systems. Carol Steinfeld is the author of The Composting Toilet System Book, Liquid Gold: The Lore & Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants and the forthcoming Reusing the Resource: Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling. She directs Ecowaters Projects and runs Ecovita, which supplies urine-diverting eco-toilets. These can be seen at the Cape Cod Center for Sustainable Living in Cotuit, Mass.
NOFA Members: $48 Non-members: $54

Cheesemaking #2-hard cheeses with Cliff Hatch at Upinngil Farm, Gill, Mass
8AM- 5PM, Sunday, May 11
^{*FULL
If you would like to be on the wait list, email Tom} Learn how to take raw milk and create a hard “cheddar” cheese. In this hands-on workshop, we will make several cheeses using different recipes and cultures. You are invited to bring 2 gallons of your own animals' milk to make more cheeses. Cliff Hatch has been making a variety of cheeses for more than 20 years.
NOFA Members: $64 Non-members: $70

Waste Veggie Oil Car Conversion with the environmentally friendly group “GreenGreaseMonkey”
Allston, Mass 9:30AM- 5PM, Sunday, May 18
You too can really run a diesel car, truck, tractor off the used grease from your local fried food place. Come learn how.
NOFA Members: $50 Non-members: $56

Make your own Tofu and Tempeh at the 21st Century Foods with Rudy Canale
Jamaica Plain, Mass 10AM-12:30PM , Saturday, May 24
Learn how to make your own soy and grain products? Come learn how you can with one of Boston’s most innovative small businesses. Trade groups visit from all over the world to see how to start up small-scale operations of tofu and tempeh.
NOFA Members: $27 Non-members: $32

Raising Chickens on Grass for Eggs and Meat: at Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds at Verrill Farm
Concord, Mass 1PM- 5PM, Sunday, May 25
Learn about raising broilers from chick to market - brooding, mobile coop construction, electric fencing, feed rations and supplements, veterinary care, marketing, and humane slaughter. Pete Lowy and Jennifer Hashley have also been working with NESFI and state regulators to implement a Mobile Poultry Processing Unit which will be available to view.
NOFA Members: $30 Non-members: $36

Framing Carpentry: Creating a Structure with Will Beemer at the Heartwood School,
Washington, Mass 9AM-5 PM, Saturday, June 14th
Learn about joists, sills, studs, rafters and the tools to frame interior and exterior walls, floors and roofs. Layout for openings such as windows and doors will also be covered as we work on a stick-framed building project under construction
NOFA Members: $67 Non-members: $73

Sustainable Living Tour: with Sharon Gensler, Jonathan Von Ranson, and Ron Coler
Wendell and Ashfield, Mass 10AM-3 PM, Sunday, June 15th
Creating Sustainable Systems :Learn how folks have chosen to live in ways that are closer to the rhythms of the natural world. Efficient wood heat, photo-voltaics, satellite internet, growing your own food, composting toilets, and so on. Information on resources will be made available. It's a great day to say no to petroleum (even just a little no).
NOFA Members: $15 Non-members: $19

Hot Water with the Sun at the 21st Century Foods with Rudy Canale
Jamaica Plain, Mass 10AM-12:30PM , Saturday, June 21
Learn how to pre-heat your hot water using copper or plastic solar heaters. Save money, save polar bears, save the planet!
NOFA Members: $27 Non-members: $32

Foraging for Wild Edibles with expert forager and author Russ Cohen
Belchertown, Mass 1 PM-4PM, Sunday, July 13
Join expert forager Russ Cohen as we discover more than 2 dozen of the 150 species of Massachusetts' edible wild plants.
NOFA Members: $16 Non-members: $21

Yoga for Farmers and Gardeners with Marie Marchand at Green River Yoga,
Greenfield, Mass 3PM-5PM, Sunday, August 24
Learn how to move so farming and gardening doesn't hurt so much. Practice breathing, and relaxing stretches that can make your active life less painful and more complete. Make friends with your body! Apprentices encouraged to attend-scholarships!
NOFA Members: $14 Non-members: $18

Putting Food By with Many Hands Organic Farm’s Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson
Barre, Mass 9AM-4PM Saturday, September 27
See their root cellar and learn to can, freeze, ferment, dry and lacto-ferment, jam, and wine various fruits and vegetables. They will also discuss pork and chicken products and share their experience with season extension with hoop houses.
NOFA Members: $50 Non-members: $56

Creating School Gardens and Composting Systems with Karen DiFranza
Hubbardston, Mass 10AM-2 PM, Sunday, September 28
The Hubbardston Center School's garden program was developed using grant money, and is student- maintained. Learn how a student-powered composting program that recycles cafeteria leftovers and schoolyard organic materials works. Learn how to start, run, fund and also curriculum lessons that use both the garden and the school composting system.
NOFA Members: $46 Non-members: $51

Living in the Balance at Seeds of Solidarity with Ricky Baruc and Deb Habib
Orange, Mass 9AM-3 PM, Saturday, October 25
How do we farm, raise families, engage in our communities and "stay present" when society says stay busy? The day will include a discussion of community building and dialogue among workshop participants will focus on creating balance, community and contentment within full lives and good work. Some techniques for finding balance, including yoga, and walking and sitting meditation will be incorporated.
NOFA Members: $44 Non-members: $50

FEEL FREE TO PAY MORE/MAKE A DONATION SO THAT OTHERS CAN ALSO ATTEND THESE WORKSHOPS

*Information: Call Tom at 781-894-4358 or email seedpotato@yahoo.com with questions. Make checks to: NOFA/Mass.
**Send registration to: Tom Szekely, PO Box 611, Lincoln, MA 01773. Please save paper and include an email address.
**Pre-registration is required as space for some workshops is limited. Add $5 for registrations within one week of event.

This page was last modified on May 05, 2008 at 9:04:18 AM.