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LOCATION: 

Laguna Farm
764 Cooper Road, Sebastopol.

(Cooper Road is on the left just past
the big hotel in south Sebastopol
heading south on 116)

RESKILL FAIR October 22, 2011
PROGRAM

Overview

Descriptions 

9:30 am - 10:45 am

• Inner Tools for the Transiton
with Julia Bystrova

Location: Oak Tree

While we are learning skills for supporting our home and health, let us not forget some of the age old tools for accessing our inner home! There are some very practical and simple techniques you can do to become more calm, centered and clear, even while the world around you seems to be in chaos. In this demonstration, we will guide you in a taste of Joanna Macy's work and reconnecting with nature-- as well as some potent tools for reconnecting with your own inner wisdom. You will learn how to more reliably access that wise part of yourself, your intuition. Accurate, quick information is extremely valuable in countless scenarios. Use these 'inner reskilling' tools of nature and your intuition to navigate through the uncertainty and stress in our lives, and our world and for deeper sense of peace, clarity and joy.

• Felting with Hazel Flett

Location: Barn

Learn some basic felting techniques taking it from raw fleece to a finished piece. You can make almost any part of your wardrobe with this locally available and sustainable fiber.

Hazel Flett has been working with sheep and wool all of her life. As part of Bodega Pastures, she brings her beautiful wool products to the Farmer’s Market.

• Cheesemaking- Basic Mozzerella
with Patty Karlin

Location: Herb Exchange

Learn one of the simplest cheeses to make in a short period. Very few people make a goat mozerella, a rare treat!

Patty Karlin has been making cheese as Bodega Artisan Cheeses since 1984. They produce cheese with smallscale, sustainable practices.

• Gopher Control 
with Sara McCamant

Location: Fire Circle

Gophers make growing your food in West County more difficult, learn some basic techniques to help keep them under control.

Sara McCamant has been a gardening teacher for over 20 years. Gophers have been a more recent arrival in her gardening life, but she has had lots of experience in trapping, cages, and raised beds.

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

• Backyard Chickens
with Mikes Stokes

Location: Oak Tree

In this course we will go over the basics of starting your own backyard chicken operation. We will cover coop styles, sizes, roosters or not, feed, clean up, disease basics, raising chicks, laying boxes, runs, fencing, nutrition and anything else that comes up. After this course you will be ready to start producing your own eggs.,

Mike Stokes is a Green Builder and Designer. He founded Lush Planet Design Build, the Holistic House Doctor and Stokes Sustainable Builders. His Construction and Design company now focuses on designing and building the infrastructure for self reliance. He currently lives on his own 1/4 acre micro farm which he designed and built that includes 13 chickens, 3 goats, a mini fruit orchard, 3 bee hives, an annual food garden, a perennial permaculture garden and a medicinal herb garden.

• Brining Olive 
with Don Landis

Location: Barn

The Olive curing workshop will cover all aspects of the Olive from the trees, the different varieties, the two world's (table Olives and Olive Oil) of Olives, when to pick, and three ways to de-bitter Olives. Water cure, Greek style brine cure and dry salt cure. Storage and flavoring will touched on ,too. Followed by tasting Olives with cheese and crackers and some Tapenade. Don will be available for questions afterward for a while. Recipe handouts for all interested.

Don Landis has been eating Olives his whole life. The green ones stuffed with that red stuff and the black ones kids put on their finger tips. Then at a pot luck a friend's friend brought her uncles home made Olives. WOW!!! Since then Don starting making Olives. For about 10 year's he has giving presentations about Olives. Talking about the history of the Olive, the history of the Olive in California and a thorough description of how to make Olives edible with no lye. (they are disgustingly bitter on the tree).

• Herbal First Aid from the Kitchen and Garden
with Larkin Morgan

Location: Herb Exchange

Join Larkin for a fun and informative session about herbs and common ailments. Learn of helpful first aid plants that may already be residing in your kitchen, garden or even lurking as weeds in the back yard. Then, join the mass of people who are saving the world . . . one dandelion at a time.

Larkin has cultivated a passion for plants and healing since her youth. As a child she developed a very personal connection with the yarrow, nettle, and raspberry growing wild around her Alaskan home. These same friends became the healing companions Achillea millefolium, Urtica dioica and Rubus idaeus of her adulthood. Larkin has been a student, medicine maker and teacher in Sonoma County for 13 years. Her practice focuses on education and empowerment. It is her joy to introduce people to the ordinary weedy plants that are always under foot. Helping people build connections with plant allies, in support of their health and care of their community, is Larkin's labor and art.

• Compost Tea
with Nico Morris and Ellen Hopkins

Location: Fire Circle

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• Candle Making for Kids
with Brian and Ann

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1:30 pm - 3:00 pm

• Beekeeping 101
 with Kristen Petrasek

Location: Oak Tree

How to obtain and keep local survivor honey bees for pollination and bee products. Importance of beekeeper collaboration pertaining to queen raising with locally evolved genetics. How to modify a standard Langstroth hive for more natural and effective beekeeping. Information on DIY top bar hives. Overview of various beehive products as an indispensable natural pharmacy. 

Kristin Petrasek has worked at beekind Honey Shop and Beekeeping Supplies in Sebastopol for the past 3.5 years and has kept honeybees for this time. She speaks daily with beekeepers of all skill levels and experience from Sonoma, Marin, Contra Costa, Napa, Mendocino, and Lake Counties, and considers herself to be a "keeper of beekeepers," learning what is and what isn't working in the world of natural backyard beekeeping in Northern California. She has sat on the board of Partners for Sustainable Pollination, is a Certified Therapeutic Chef, a plant enthusiast, and desires to create permanent oasis's of medicinal and nutritive gardens for people and pollinators alike.

• Greywater Basics with Damien Macanany and Rachel Dawson

Location: Barn

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Rachel Adair Dawson is an earthling who loves taking steps to make life on this planet beautifully resilient. As a recent transplant from southern California and a native of the Gulf Coast, she breathes with gratitude to be basking in the local abundance of Sebastopol. Because sharing what she's learned is one of her passions, she has been leading workshops and events on sustainability for over a decade. She is a certified Permaculture Designer and published author.

• Guerilla Outdoor Mushroom Cultivation with Jay Ma

Location: Fire Circle

Learn basic techniques for growing edible and medicinal mushrooms in your backyard or elsewhere! We will be working with hands-on innoculaton techniques with shitake, reishi, and oyster mushrooms. Participants will leave with a take home oyster mushroom kit that will enable them to grow edible mushrooms at home.

Jay Ma is a permaculture designer, community organizer, former smurf, and director of programs at Living Mandala. He works with regenerative educators and institutions organizing educational courses, workshops, and events for personal and planetary regeneration. Jay has experience with and a passion for outdoor mushroom cultivation, which he loves to share.
 

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3:15 pm - 4:45 pm

• Timber Frame Joinery
with Brandon Woll

Location: Oak Tree

This class will introduce the craft of joining two or more timbers without metal fasteners. The participants will get the opportunity to lay out the joinery with pencils, measures and squares. They will also get to cut, fit, and finally join the timbers with hand tools. There is no experience required to join in the fun as we craft a useful project together.

Brandon Wolf has worked in both finish and timber frame carpentry, after an apprenticeship at the Heartwood Traditional Homebuilding School in Massachusetts. He now works locally as an engineer. He is passionate about the subject of timber joinery and eager to spread the craft to anyone who is interested.
 

•  Papermaking: Ancient Craft ~ Contemporary Wisdom ~ Playful Medium
with Meryl Juniper

( Limited class size for actual participation)

Location: Barn

All Levels….Children welcome 8 and under accompanied by and AdultIn this exploration of paper-making from scratch we will delight in the many aspects of this ancient craft. We will cook and beat fibers, use cambium fibers form Asia and explore combinations of recycled fibers, ancient and contemporary sheet formations techniques, wet collage and express our creativity within this extensive tactile medium, plan to get wet and swim in the fibers of this experience.

Meryl Juniper of TumbleWeed Expression, CreekMonkey Studio and Mama Meryl’s Healing Salve is a visual and performing artist, salve maker, teacher and mother. Meryl delicately encourages the full spectrum of human expression as she brings a core of experience from extensive training in the somatic arts, dance, voice, the visual arts and she hplds a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and has studied paper-making at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.

• Easy Hard Cider
with Marley Peifer

Location: Herb Exchange

Come learn the truth behind Johnny Appleseed and how to make your own easy cider from our county's bountiful apples! Hard cider is arguably the most sustainable and energy efficient fermented beverage that can be made in our bioregion.

Marley Peifer is a local farmer, anthropologist, and homebrewer who teaches workshops and does consulting on sustainable living and home fermentation.

• Starting from Seed - Understanding Seed Catalogs and Starting Seeds at Home
with Heidi Herrman

Location: Fire Circle

Curious how to navigate the process from a glossy seed catalog picture to happy little seedlings at home? We will talk about the terms and abbreviations found in a seed catalogs, and then discuss the many options you have at home for seed starting. Containers, soil mixes, proper environment, and transplanting will also demonstrated.

Heidi Herrmann is a farmer and owner of Strong Arm Farm in Healdsburg. She has an Ornamental Horticulture degree from Cal Poly and an MA from SSU in Education. She has taught Sustainable Agriculture at SRJC for 6 years, vends at the Sebastopol Farmer’s Market, and is an avid seaweed harvester too.