Workshops

Spring & Summer 2013 Reskilling Opportunities in the State College Area

(Readers with information about other upcoming classes are encouraged to send the info to the blog for posting.)

• May 25 – Creating Fabulous Floral Bouquets with Gretchen Staff (Tait Farm, 466-3411)
• June 1 – Planting a Pollinator Garden & Building a Bee Box with Justin Wheeler – Saturday, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 301 South Garner Ave. (Call 237-0996 or email to sign up)
• July 6 – Building Rain Barrels with Justin Wheeler – Saturday, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 301 South Garner Ave. (Call 237-0996 or email to sign up)
• August 3 – PCO FarmFest Homesteader Workshop Series: Cover Cropping in the Backyard Garden; Gardening for Pollinators and Native Bee Conservation; Backyard Chickens; and Canning Summer Fruits.

Spring Creek Homesteading is currently scheduling more summer workshops, possibly including Building Solar Food Driers with Lynne Heritage, Building Chicken Coops with Woody Wilson, Weed Identification & Management, Home-scale Aquaponics, and Building Bicycle-Powered Water Pumps for Garden Irrigation. Fall workshops may include  Home Weatherization Skills, Charcuterie with Steve Bookbinder and Home Soap-Making with Nellie Bhattarai.

Examples of workshop topics: cooking, baking, home food preservation, fermentation, beer-brewing, wine-making, cheese-making, butchering, sausage-making, smoking meat, home food storage system planning, gardening, herbalism and home health care, wool spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, sewing, quilting, rag rug braiding, pottery, chair-caning, basketry, soapmaking, candlemaking, composting, permaculture design, home-scale aquaculture, bicycle maintenance, home energy efficiency (weather stripping & insulation, small engine maintenance, basic plumbing, woodstove maintenance, metalwork/blacksmithing, woodworking, greenhouse building, furniture re-upholstery, raising backyard chickens, rabbits and bees, working with draft animals, leatherworking

Farming & Gardening Workshop Organizers

• PASA Farming Workshops
• PSU Master Gardeners Workshops
• Penn State Cooperative Extension Sustainable Agriculture Workshops
• Penn State Cooperative Extension Centre County  Workshops
• PA-Women’s Agricultural Network Workshops

Cooking Workshop Organizers

• The FoodShed at Village Acres Farm
• Grace Pilato – Italian, Spanish, Greek and Chinese Cooking. Inquire about classes by email.
  
• In Marie’s French Kitchen - Marie Rauturier
• State College Music Academy - Click and scroll down for “French Language and Cooking Class for Adults” with Jennifer Barton

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Information for Prospective Instructors:

The Reskilling workshops are modeled on the Whatcom Folk School in Bellingham, WA.

• Instructors may set and keep the course fees, or have Spring Creek Homesteading set the donation amount and pay the instructors up to $200 per class
• Instructors may set the maximum course size or have Spring Creek Homesteading set it.
• Spring Creek Homesteading Fund offers liability coverage if we help you organize your workshop with location scheduling, supply subsidies, student registration, etc.

If you’d like to teach a workshop, please send the following information to Program Director Katherine Watt:

1. What skill do you want to teach?
2. What specific project will you use to teach the skill?
3. What tools and supplies are needed?
4. What’s the estimated tools/supplies cost per person?
5. How much space do you need? Indoor or outdoor?
6. How long (length of time) do you estimate it will take to set up, teach & clean up after the proposed workshop? (So we know how long to rent the facility).
7. Are you interested in co-teaching the workshop with another instructor?
8. A short description of the proposed course, a short bio statement, your contact information and a headshot.

OUR FIRST YEAR:

Autumn 2011 Schedule & Handouts

• Autumn 2011 Workshop Schedule
• Basic Bread Recipe - Ruth Sauder
• Indian Cooking Basics - Sunil Patel
• Composting Basics - Alexa Schriempf

Winter 2012 Schedule & Handouts

• Winter 2012 Workshop Schedule
• Cooking Winter Soups and Stews – LaCreta Holland
• Yogurt & Granola – Nynke Vanderburg
• Mittens & Scarf Instructions – Cindy Grosso
• Basic Homebrewing – Ryan Elias
• Making Lip Balms & Salves – Stephanie Hertel (not yet posted)
• Making Cold Frames – Joshua Lambert (not yet posted)
• Lactofermentation (Sauerkraut etc.) - Scott Diloreto and Matt Sullenberger
• Fruit Tree Pruning - Jackie Bonomo
• Worm Composting – Justin Eleazer - Red Worm Composting  - Overall resource site; Northwest Red Worms  - Great site with information about red worm systems. Owner produced the castings harvester we used in class, and sells systems and harvesters online; Worms Etc. - Another similar system that works like the old “pair of jeans” system I described, only more fancy; Worm Power – Worms on a factory level scale. Castings for sale by the pound, crate, or truckload; Soil Secret  - Located nearby, they also have decent scale, and sell their product through tons of local garden centers; How to setup a bin (slide show); How to set up a bin  (video)

Spring 2012 Schedule & Handouts

• Workshops Spring 2012
• Seedsaving: Hybrid v. Heirloom (Brian Burger); Intro to Seedsaving (University of Maine); Seed Saving – Reading List; Seedsaving Book (Fedco).
• Raised Beds: Layered (Lasagna) Mulching (Jackie Bonomo)
• Backyard Chickens: Chicken Care & Feeding (Sarah Potter’s list); Raising Fowl in Urban Areas (PSU); Management Requirements for Laying Flocks (PSU)
• Beekeeping Resources: Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, near Lewisburg.

Summer 2012 Schedule & Handouts

• Workshops Summer 2012
• Recipes from LaCreta Holland’s Summer 2012 Spring Creek Homesteading workshops are online here: Fruits, Berries & Herbs (August 4); Everything Tomatoes! (August 25)

Fall 2012 Workshops:

• October 13 – Home Cheese-Making with Adam Seitz
• November 10 – Home Sausage-Making with Steve Bookbinder
• December 1 – Beginner Meditation

Winter 2013 Workshops

• January 12 - Healing Herbs for Topical Use/Making Homemade Lotions with Stephanie Hertel
• January 19 AND February 2 - Beginner Beer Brewing, Racking and Bottling, with Josh Lambert
• January 19 - Creating Herbal Concoctions: Honeys, Elixirs, and Syrups, with Stephanie Hertel
• January 26 – Building a Top Bar Bee Hive with Matt Poese and Josh Lambert.
• February 9 - Making Sauerkraut – Intro to Vegetable Lactofermentation, with Scott DiLoreto and Matt Sullenberger
• February 16 – Milk Jug Greenhouses with Justin Wheeler
• February 17 – Basic Bicycle Maintenance with Justin Wagner
• March 23 – Heritage Seed Saving with Ingrid Fowles, Matt Sullenberger & Ian Gardner
• April 6 – From Science to Salsa: Tomatoes with Matt Sullenberger
• April 20 - Planting Backyard Fruit & Nut Trees & Shrubs with Scott Diloreto, Emily Zink and Jennie Diehl

Online Community Calendars

• StateCollege.com
• WPSU
• Voices of Central PA
• State College Magazine
• Centre Daily Times