Description
This year, we decided to invite y’all in for an October class because the food forest will be installed for my 50th birthday! We are doubling up – have a ton of fun and GET SHIT DONE, all while learning a ton about improving your land.
I have LONG put off the addition of a food forest on the property because there were so many other decisions to make in honor of the Big Picture Plan: Event space, drainage and runoff, livestock and fencing, gardens and aesthetic. All of these things seemed to come in front of the thing that most people install first: a nice space of perennial plants and trees that will produce food long after I leave this life.
The catch in permaculture is this, though: The big picture dictates what happens when. While it may seem like the first thing to ALWAYS do is to plant fruit trees and other long-term producers we could never have even chosen where the food forest would go without other large infrastructure being in place.
It has taken 6 focused years and about a decade to get to this time. The time to put in the food forest. It will be designed with my specific long-term needs in mind. My time available to maintain it. And the boundaries that this steep space dictates.
Will we put in swales? NO. Well, not the swales you are thinking of. When we talk about “When do you NOT put in swales?” this land is a perfect example. You will see when when you get here and Nick will cover that in the classroom.
Here is what you can expect from the event:
- Theoretical and hands-on instruction for planning, installing, and planting a food forest
- Clarifying THE WHY
- Pop up sessions on totally unrelated topics as time allows
- GREAT food produced from this homestead – we feed you better than other classes of this nature
- Holler Roast Coffee freely flowing
- Night time hijinks, long talks around the campfire or Karaoke mic, yes there are adult beverages
- Barter Blanket
- On-site camping with the best outdoor shower in the state. really – it is lovely.
- Classroom time is in a heated or cooled space depending on what we need to do
- Access to Nick Ferguson, Nicole Sauce, Tactical Redneck, and any other network folks who are on site for longer conversations about whatever strikes your fancy!
Note: This is a smaller had count that the spring workshop so that we have plenty of time to talk things through.
Agenda (Subject to adjustment based on sessions and weather)
Arrive after 2pm Oct 27 – Light dinner of burgers and brats (or whatever Nicole cooks) will be served.
Oct 28: 8:30 breakfast – like a real one with eggs and breakfast meat.
10am: Classroom session
12:30pm: Lunch
1:30 or so: Initial Earth Works
7pm Dinner
Oct 29: 9:00 breakfast – like a real one with eggs and breakfast meat.
10am: Earthworks and planting
12:30: Lunch
2pm: Classroom or install work, depending on the progress and weather
6:30pm Dinner
(Open house birthday celebration this night for Nicole Sauce)
Be prepared to be outside!
