Learn how to time your plants, design your space, and improve your soil fertility with Nicky Schauder in this workshop. Grow more food all year so you can ensure nutrient-dense food for you and your family. Get access to a beta version of a garden design and planning app, and also receive an accompanying workbook that is available for instant download!

SPEAKER: Nicky Schauder

Join Kashava Holt and learn from his experience building over 100 high tunnels while working with the USDA. Benefit from the creative tips and wisdom Kashava has formulated through his journey. Most people who have high tunnels experience difficulties growing in the winter season for various reasons. Discover budget-friendly ways to insulate the building, envelope, and increase the R-value for your high tunnel structure.

SPEAKER: Kashava Holt

This workshop will look in depth at methods for managing a diversified market garden for profit and for long-term resilience. It will go into detail on the Permabed System, a landscape layout and guild design system for integrating annuals and perennials on market gardens. It will consider different enterprises, including intensive vegetable farms, tree nurseries and orchards and how they can use the Permabed System to improve their short-term profit and long-term success.

SPEAKER: Zach Loeks

Everybody loves tomatoes, but how much do you actually know about this tasty fruit's fascinating history? Author and seed saver Bevin Cohen will share exciting tales of how this South American fruit traveled around the world and back, influencing the cuisines and cultures of the many countries it encountered along its journey. Discover tips and tricks to maximize your tomato harvest. Learn just how easy it is to preserve this important history as Bevin demonstrates how to harvest tomato seeds.

SPEAKER: Bevin Cohen

Join Amyrose Foll for an introduction to keeping chickens. Learn the basics of choosing the proper chicken for your needs, whether for eggs, meat, or a little of both. Hear about the basic infrastructure, tools, and nutritional needs the birds require to grow up happy and healthy. You might even learn a few easy tricks to make life with chickens fun and rewarding. 

SPEAKER: Amyrose Foll

Whether you have two pet chickens or 100 sheep, predation on your small livestock animals will almost always be a cause for concern. In this workshop, we go over many of the ways and systems that you can implement to protect them.

SPEAKER: Tomia MacQueen

Join Dr. Jan Pol from Nat Geo WILD’s, “The Incredible Dr. Pol” as he recounts amusing, and often poignant, tales from his illustrious and incredible career in veterinary care. Possessing brains, wit and charm, Dr. Pol has been treating pets and livestock in rural Michigan since the 1970s and is a pioneer in his field. He has more than 25,000 clients, and his patients range from white mice and snakes to cows and 2,600-pound horses – and everything in between.

SPEAKER: Jan Pol

Discover how to raise dairy goats as the centerpiece of a diversified homestead and produce your own milk, cheese, meat, fertilizer, leather, fiber, and soap – all while letting mamas raise their own babies and without relying on the routine use of drugs. Learn how to create a personalized plan for keeping your goats healthy and productive by working with nature, observing your goats, and educating yourself. Get started raising goats naturally!

SPEAKER: Deborah Niemann

Energy independence doesn't need to be painful. It does mean adjusting to a new way of life. Join Hoss Boyd as he goes through the basics of preparing to go off-grid and what's involved in living the independent, off-grid lifestyle after cutting the cord with the power company.

SPEAKER: Hoss Boyd

Discover the reality of farming! Learn the basics of looking for land and funding your farm. Find out what to bring with you and what not to bother packing up, what to set up first, how to save yourself and your family a ton of money and heartache, and why your kids will likely love you and hate you at the same time for moving them into the country. Come ready to take notes in this information-packed workshop.

SPEAKER: Tomia MacQueen

Join Rodney Morgan of Pittsburgh, PA, as he demonstrates cheap and easy ways to lower your heating and cooling costs while improving your comfort level. Sealing hidden drafts, maintaining your equipment, and understanding how your home works can save you thousands of dollars and improve your social standing with housemates. Bring your challenging questions and learn the answer to the age-old riddle "Why does the cat lay in front of the refrigerator in the winter?"

SPEAKER: Rodney Morgan

Join Uncle Mud and Family as they turn old bricks and mud into a super-efficient rocket mass heater that runs on scrap wood. They'll discuss the differences between ways to heat with wood that are smoky and inefficient and ways that are clean, safe, and cheap.

SPEAKER: Uncle Mud

Join Karena Poke for this interactive presentation and work together with other participants to develop the framework for a community garden. Some of the topics we’ll work together to discover include clarifying your mission, identifying who you're serving, potential stakeholders and partners, and how your garden will contribute comprehensively to the health of your community. 

SPEAKER: Karena Poke

Learn how pigs can function as a profitable stand-alone enterprise or can be integrated into your existing farm structure to provide a variety of products and make use of marginal lands that would otherwise go unused. Pigs are ideal for turning agricultural wastes such as spent grain, whey, or seconds into a valuable product and, with proper management, they can improve the land where they are kept.

SPEAKER: Amyrose Foll

Explore resilience farming through agritourism as Matt Stephens takes you through his years of bringing people to his farmstead and interviewing dozens of similar agribusinesses. Farmers have always weathered storms, but the current conditions are extreme. Diversifying your farm income can give your operation the best chance to succeed. Matt will share his strategies on adding and growing with agritourism. Plus, learn about building a grassroots community around your farm that will add to your resilience into the future.

SPEAKER: Matt Stephens

Learn how to market to increase sales from April Jones, founder of the Pinehurst Farmers Market in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. Discover how to engage the customer base, build community and keep your repeat customers by following her steps to success!

SPEAKER: April Jones

Discover new, healthy uses for common garden plants with Janice Cox, author of the newly revised book Natural Beauty from the Garden. Did you know geranium leaves are powerful antidepressants or that lavender has antibacterial properties? Every household should have an aloe vera, called the “first aid plant.” Join Janice as she presents some of her favorite useful herbs and flowers for home beauty recipes and treatments. Create four body care products to take home in this hands-on workshop!

SPEAKER: Janice Cox

Learn step-by-step how to make cold-process soap, how to choose carrier oils, the difference between fragrance and essential oils, and how to incorporate milk in your soap. Avoid unhealthy chemicals and the price of organic soap by making your own! Deborah Niemann talks about the equipment and ingredients needed. Discover the history of soapmaking, how modern soapmaking is different, and how to create your own soap recipes!

SPEAKER: Deborah Niemann

Learn how to produce high-quality seed and nut oils from homegrown and foraged crops. Whether you plan to produce oils for cooking, the apothecary, self-sufficiency, resiliency, or small-scale commercial or community production, Bevin will show you everything you need to know to succeed. Sharing his decade of experience as an oil presser, Bevin will discuss growing and processing oilseeds; equipment options for ease, cost, and convenience; as well as best-practice techniques for filtering, storing, and using your freshly pressed oils.

SPEAKER: Bevin Cohen

Learn to create a fizzing bath bomb using common household ingredients with Janice Cox, author of Natural Beauty from the Garden. Creating your own homemade bath and body products is cost effective, fun, and a healthy way to take care of yourself. You will create your own bath bomb to take home and enjoy, as well as a reusable mold and recipes for bath time fun and gift-giving. This presentation is sponsored by Mountain Rose Herbs.

SPEAKER: Janice Cox