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Tag Archives: permaculture
Last Call for Canna Camp & July 1 w Heady Vermont!
Posted by on June 22, 2018
Sunday June 24 – July 1 is the first week long, farm-based, application of permaculture principles and ethics to the commercial production of CBD, hemp, and Medical and Recreational Cannabis
July 1 we host Heady Vermont’s
LEGALIZATION CELEBRATION at Willow Crossing Farm
A week-long farm-based residential intensive immersion, which culminates with VIP access to Heady Vermont‘s Legalization Celebration at Willow Crossing Farm on July 1!
A participatory introduction to the industry, economy, and ecology of Herb- and a conscious co-creative contribution to the future of organic, regenerative, and farm-based cannabis eco-social entrepreneurship!*
REGISTER HERE Facebook Event Page
Evening sessions will be free and open to the public- please subscribe and follow us on social media for updates.
Start: Dinner Sunday night, June 24 at Willow Crossing Farm.
Monday–Friday: Course, Practice, Industry Tours
Abbreviated Course Outline:
An introduction to the plant and its history –
Carbon Farming, Social Entrpreneurship, Regenerative Farm Economies (PermaCannaCulture)
Organic Growing
Outdoor
Indoor
Breeding, seed (fiber, seed oil, industrial hemp, CBD, dispensaries, etc.)
Propagation
Harvest
‘Commercial’ Cultivation
Greenhouses
Light Dep
Beds and Soil Building
Irrigation
Adding Value
Edibles, Oils, Rosin, Extracts
CBD: Maple, candy, chocolate, etc.
Frontiers
Carbon Extraction, Ethanol and more
Testing
Chefs/ Herbalists –
Friday: Course Completes!
Saturday: Optional Tours or day off with meals for cannacampers and crew / prep day for SUNDAY! Mentor and network behind the scenes with vendors, exhibitors, and assist production crew in preparation for….
Sunday July 1 is ‘Legal Day’ for Vermont
Willow Crossing Farm will host Heady Vermont’s ‘Legalization Celebration‘ with bands, vendors, exhibitions, genetics swap, workshops, guest chef edibles, pizza oven, etc.
Course participants will be intimately familiar with the farm by July 1 and help as ‘inhabitant hosts’ and / or apprentices to business / mentors met during the course (if so desired).
TUITION:
$600 includes all 3 farm-sourced meals per day, camping on the farm, Heady Vermont membership, and VIP / Backstage (Green Room) access to Legalization Celebration at Willow Crossing Farm!
About the Instructors
JT is an organic cannabis farmer in Humboldt County, California, one of the nation’s oldest and largest legal cannabis marketplaces. Orginally from Vermont, he has spent the last decade as a cultivator for medical marijuana patients and consultant for commercial cannabis operations within the Emerald Triangle.
Don Jardon has been a professional grower for over 30 years and has had his flowers featured repeatedly in High Times and celebrated in Cannabis cups around the world.
Keith Morris is an international farm and farm infrastructure designer, and professional educator.
Willow Crossing Farm is Vermont’s longest running permaculture site and tree crops research farm. We presently produce the highest quality state-licensed Organic CBD Hemp Sinsemilla Flowers, and partner with Northern Roots Nursery in producing hemp clones and potted plants, Soil Rebel / Wild Branch Foods in producing Organic CBD oil and other products, and Medicine Womyn Healing Arts in producing a variety of herbal medicines. (Contact me for fresh CBD Flowers, Starts, Oil, or Tincture!)
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LEGALIZATION CELEBRATION at Willow Crossing Farm July 1
Following the Vermont legislature’s historic bill legalizing recreational cannabis use for adults, and Vermont Governor Phil Scott signing the bill into law, Heady Vermont will host a celebration for members and the general public on July 1 – the day legalization goes into effect – at Willow Crossing Farm in Johnson, Vermont.
The event will feature onsite camping and swimming, FREE shuttle transportation from Burlington an exhibition of local Vermont vendors including growers, CBD producers and more, live music, disc golf, yoga, a genetics exchange, food vendors, local beer, free cannabis growing demonstrations, and door prizes.
Paypal https://www.paypal.me/earthsurfing $35 for subscriber rate!
This event is 21+. All attendees must show ID at the door.
Live music by the Homegrown All Stars, Barika, The Tenderbellies, Conscious Roots and Honeytwist.
Thanks to sponsor Phylos Bioscience! For sponsorship info please email ad@headyvermont.com.
ADMISSION: Tickets are $50 for the general public and FREE for Heady Vermont Members.
More info, including vendor signup, is at http://www.headyvermont.com/celebration.
Sunday in NH: Nuts and Cannabis!
Posted by on March 16, 2018
Nuts for the Northeast and Organic Cannabis-
Keith Morris at NOFA NH Sunday, March 18, 2018
106 Village Street Concord, NH 03303
Nuts for the Northeast
Since the dawn of time, nuts have been some of the most important food plants for human beings. Nut trees and shrubs offer some of the most nutrient dense foods, provide habitat, show the potential for a ‘carbon-negative’ and flood resilient agriculture, and are economically valuable for a variety of products in addition to nuts themselves.
Join with grower and international farm designer Keith Morris to explore the fascinating ecology and mythology of a few nut trees particularly suited to growing on farms and in neighborhoods throughout in the northeast. We’ll focus of hardy proven nuts, and introduce some of the breeding, trailing, and hybridizing happening at Willow Crossing Farm in Johnson, VT to select for disease resistance, organic production, high quality timber, oils, medicinal properties, and to migrate some important nuts typically grown in warmer regions. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding and appreciation of some trees commonly found in towns and hillsides, and be introduced to promising less common nuts.
Organic Cannabis
Long cultivated for seed, oil, fiber, medicine, and its intoxicating effects-the cannabis plant has a fascinating history and offers tremendous agricultural potential. With various types of legalization possible in New Hampshire and surrounding us in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Canada, we’ll explore this plant with a particular eye towards CBD (Cannabidinol) and the rapidly expanding legal recreational industry. While serving to introduce some basics to folks new to the plant and its growth, this workshop will also offer valuable information to more experienced growers, exploring the present and possible future legal nuances and its potential role in regenerative agriculture on small farms, market gardens, homesteads, and with small indoor growers.
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Keith Morris is the founder of Willow Crossing Farm- Vermont’s longest running Permaculture/ Agroforestry Research Site- producing fruits, nuts, eggs, herbs, nursery plants, solar power, farm dinners, educational events, kids programs, nature and yoga education with local schools, and small farm-based music festivals. Willow Crossing has been implemented entirely debt-free, and without pre-existing capital- through sweat equity and deliberate financial permaculture/ community-supported social design. Off farm, Keith helps growers and communities design appropriate infrastructure to make food systems more regenerative, resilient, and connected; and started the Permaculture Education programs at the University of Vermont, Sterling College, the Yestermorrow Design Build School, St. Mikes College, and Paul Smiths College, and with the USAID Farmer to Farmer Program.
Willow Crossing Farm is Vermont’s longest established permaculture research and education facility, and a debt-free ‘financial permaculture’ working family farm. We host one of the most diverse collections of tree crops in the northeast, offer farm-based dining and educational opportunities to the local communities, and host annual events that attract people from across the country and a surprising variety of international students. We grow a variety of fruits, nuts, berries, and vines in an organic nursery; experiment with new crops, techniques, and regenerative farm infrastructure; manage production to create wildlife refuge and pollinator sanctuary; and have been focused on developing ‘productive buffers’ to reforest floodplain and riverside banks with marketable production.
Rising Appalachia is coming back to the farm!
AND we’re hosting an affordable 1 week intensive Permaculture Action Camp!
Subscribe to our blog (just enter your email above to the right) to receive announcements about Farm Tours and to view our fruit, nut, and medicinal plant collections, view the listing for the Nursery Sale, and other related workshops and conferences.
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Pruning the Forest Garden- March 31 REGISTER NOW
Hands-on in Vermont’s most diverse collection of Fruits, Nuts, Berries, and Vines!
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7th Annual Grafting Workshop and Scionwood Exchange- April 7, 2018 REGISTER NOW
Learn how to make more of your favorite apples, plums, peaches, pears, and more- and go home with your own grafted fruit tree!
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An unparalleled learning experience- with the most experienced teaching team in the northeast and beyond!
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FRUIT, NUT, BERRIES, VINES, and MEDICINAL HERB PLANT SALE! Pre-orders open now, for pick up beginning April 23.
Thank you for reading and sharing with your friends and networks! Look forward to seeing you.
Best,
Keith and Family
Permaculture Design For Yard, Homestead, and Farm
Posted by on August 22, 2017
Permaculture Design For Yard, Homestead, and Farm
This Saturday! Join NOFA VT for a tour and workshop 9 am – 3pm
August 26 – Jeffersonville and Johnson, VT
We’ll start the morning with a brief tour of the ‘urban homestead’ and apothecary downtown Jeffersonville, then head to the farm for a permaculture design workshop, wood fired pizza from the earth oven, and tree crop and natural building tour.
Are you interested in learning how to ‘read’ a landscape, map your future, and cooperate with nature to be more productive and resilient?
Join Keith Morris of Prospect Rock Permaculture for a hands-on exploration of whole-system ecological design. In this workshop, Keith will provide a design process that you can apply to your own site (regardless of size) that includes the importance of perennial tree crops and climate resilience. We’ll explore a variety of ‘new’, experimental, and lost, traditional plants; DIY and debt-free infrastructure improvements and potential ‘micro-enterprises’ for the garden or homestead. To see a variety of design scale, we’ll begin at Prospect Rock Permaculture’s downtown homestead and apothecary, and then travel down the street to Willow Crossing Farm- Vermont’s longest running permaculture research and education site. Lunch will be included and prepared in Keith’s onsite pizza oven.
For tickets:
http://www.sevendaystickets.com/events/45273520/permaculture-design-for-your-yard-homestead-amp-farm
Any questions can be directed to me or NOFA VT http://www.NofaVT.org
Best,
Keith and Family
Our WEEKEND FORMAT Permaculture Design Certification Course will be announced soon! Please call or email if you’d like to get on the list or would like more information!
Grafting Workshop / VT Scionwood Exchange March 18
Posted by on January 16, 2015
Hi Friends,
Please share this with potentially interested friends and networks. Hope to see you!
Fruit Tree Grafting Workshop and 5th Annual Scionwood Exchange
March 18, 10 am – 4 pm
Willow Crossing Farm
Johnson, VT
Join us for a day of hands-on fruit tree grafting. We’ll begin the day in the classroom understanding the science of grafting, and practice bench-grafting apples, pears, plums, and other stone fruits.
Everyone will have the opportunity to graft their own trees to take home!
After lunch, we’ll go out and tour grafted and ‘multi-grafted’ fruit trees (including peaches grafted onto plums) and ‘top work’ multiple varieties onto pears, apples, plums, and other stone fruit. We’ll discuss some pruning basics, different grafting strategies for ‘fruit salad trees’, healing damaged trees, reworking new varieties, revitalizing old orchards, enhancing cross-pollination, and space considerations. We’ll also look at and evaluate both successful and failed past grafts.
We’ll contextualize our work in briefly telling some history of our farm and touring our incredibly diverse collection of nuts, berries, vines, nitrogen-fixing plants, and regenerative DIY farm infrastructure. We’ll also explore the incredible history of grafting, the range of grafting possibilities, and practice with professional grafting tools which make for more successful grafts by novices and experts alike.
Each attendant will leave with an apple or pear variety of their choosing on semi-dwarf or standard rootstock, or a stone fruit variety of their choosing on native american plum rootstock.
$80 suggested donation sliding scale includes cider and tea, and your own grafted fruit trees to take home. No one will be refused for lack of funds, but everyone must pre-register.
Due to the popularity of this event, you much pre-register. There is a possibility of another event later in March or in April, please send an email to express your interest.
Please RSVP by filling out the registration form and submitting payment via paypal to: Keith@ProspectRock.org, or sending a check to:
‘Prospect Rock Permaculture’
P.O. Box 426
Jeffersonville, VT 05464
We must get your email address from you, as the weather will determine where we park cars. and we will also send you some information about how to best collect scion wood if you want to propagate some favorite fruit trees.
The workshop will be taught by:
Zach Leonard is a master horticulturalist and as been the farm manager of Elmore Roots Nursery for 15 years. He and his family have created High Hopes Farm, a diverse off-grid homestead.
Nicko Rubin is the owner of East Hill Tree Farm, where he has been growing and propagating hardy fruits and nuts in the foothills of the Groton Mountains. He completed the master’s program for sustainable landscape design at the Conway School.
Dave Johnson is a timber framer with a passion for fruit trees. His competence with sharp tools and wood translate readily into many successful grafts and a legacy of multi-grafted old wild apples throughout the hills of Vermont.
Keith Morris has been collecting and experimenting with rare fruits, nuts, and medicinal plants since 1996, and is professor of ecological design at the University of Vermont. He’s slowly built his family’s farm debt-free with sweat-equity and has contributed to creating resilient and diverse food systems on 5 continents.
Thank you,
Keith
(802) 734-1129
Willow Crossing Farm
Johnson, VT
http://www.WillowCrossing.org
As a reminder- only a few spaces remain for our 9th Annual Prospect Rock Permaculture Design Certification Course, July 17 – July 29, 2016
Our Fruit, Nut, Berry, Vine, and Medicinal Plant Sale pre-orders are open now! Plant pick ups begin April 23 and continue through May 22.
RISING APPALACHIA in JOHNSON! With Barika, Tenderbellies, Farm Tours, Herb Walks, Yoga
Posted by on August 18, 2014
Rising Appalachia with Barika!
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Gates 2:30 pm
We are so excited to announce a day long farm-based mini-festival, with special guests; irie food vendors; labyrinth walks; permaculture, wild-crafting, healing arts, yoga, and herbal workshops; and opportunities to connect with various environmental and social justice campaigns.
When: Sunday, August 23. Gates at 3pm. Tickets include camping Sunday night and Yoga class Monday morning.
Where: Willow Crossing Farm. 2780 Route 15 West, Johnson, VT 05656. Google Maps: “Willow Crossing Farm”. Beautiful riverside organic venue- an incredible retreat in itself!
Tickets: $25 in advance, includes camping. 12 and under free- family friendly event. $20 Student, Activist, Farmer Discount. $30 Day of Show- discounted tickets must be purchased in advance. Tickets available by paypal to keith@ProspectRock.org, at the Flynn Theatre Box Office (and online or by phone through Flynn) http://www.flynntix.org/see-description/rising-appalachia/Details?perfNo=12713&perfCodePrefix=OPF16R , at Downtown Pizzeria & Pub in Johnson, VT, and The Farm Store in Jeffersonville, VT.
Facebook event page (for most up to date details, questions, carpools, camping packing list, and other announcements): https://www.facebook.com/events/1633723003574469/
Sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith are multi-instrument virtuosos, who grew up in a southern appalachian string band musical tradition and have gone on to create a unique sound blending folk, funk, world music, african polyrhythms, spoken word poetry, and simple, beautiful harmonics.
They are known for headlining music festivals all over the world- but their connections with the Vermont herbalist, organic farming, permaculture, and activist communities brings them to play an intimate show for a few 1000 people on a small family farm in Johnson.
As young buskers, performers, and traveling community activists, they were taken in by legendary Vermont based herbalist and author Rosemary Gladstar and have since embraced medicinal herbalism, and wild plant based supplements- to which they attribute their ability to stay happy, healthy and well adjusted while facing the rigors of the road in an internationally touring musical act. Their most recent hit song ‘Medicine’ is dedicated to Rosemary and other herbalists.
Slow Music: Their albums are entirely self-produced and self funded- including crowd-sourced, community-based financing. Rising Appalachia advocates a “Slow Music Movement” approach to touring – an effort to promote sustainable touring practices and to be immersed in local communities. “It’s an effort to take the glitz and glam out of the music industry and bring performance back to its roots. A place where musicians are not just part of fast-paced entertainment, but instead influence the cultural shift as troubadours, activists, and catalysts of justice,” explains Leah. The ‘Slow Music Movement’ encourages musicians to try out ‘non-industry standard’ ways of bringing music into the world by “linking to local communities and staying with local friends; pursuing alternative venues for performances and supporting local businesses with farm-to-table hospitality; providing local non-profits at each show a platform to display information; exploring alternative methods of travel including train, bike, low impact vehicles, boat, horse, or simply focusing on regional touring; and encouraging concert goers to take in more than just the catharsis of the music.”
They’ll be joined by Barika, a Burlington based band which plays
traditional Malian (from Mali) music, infused with a funk and psychedelic undertones. Their latest album was declared by Seven Days to be “among the finest local albums you’ll hear in this, or any other, year. Really.” Horns, drums, bass and keys compliment the N’Goni- an ancient african form of harpsichord, and predecessor to the american banjo. N’goni master Craig is a native Vermonter who spent years studying as a percussionist in Africa and now also plays for the Mike Gordon band.
traditional Malian (from Mali) music, infused with a funk and psychedelic undertones. Their latest album was declared by Seven Days to be “among the finest local albums you’ll hear in this, or any other, year. Really.” Horns, drums, bass and keys compliment the N’Goni- an ancient african form of harpsichord, and predecessor to the american banjo. N’goni master Craig is a native Vermonter who spent years studying as a percussionist in Africa and now also plays for the Mike Gordon band.Willow Crossing Farm is Vermont’s longest running permaculture research site- focused on exploring the connections between food, culture, and ecology. Started in 2000 by Keith Morris, WCF now holds the most diverse collection of tree crops in the northeast, exploring in particular the potential of nuts, fruits, berries, vines, and herbs, to create ‘ecologically regenerative’ and ‘carbon negative’, and flood resilient agricultural systems. The farm serves as a classroom (and Keith is a professor) for the University of Vemont, Sterling College, St. Michael’s college, the Yestermorrow Design Build School, and other community groups.
Rising Appalachia Website:
Rising Appalachia Wikipedia:
Barika Website:
Contact:
Keith Morris
(802) 734-1129
Fruit Tree Grafting Workshop and 3rd Annual Scionwood Exchange- Sunday April 13
Posted by on March 5, 2013
Hi Friends,
Please share this with potentially interested friends and networks. Hope to see you!
Fruit Tree Grafting Workshop and 3nd Annual Scionwood Exchange
April 13, 10 am – 4 pm
Willow Crossing Farm
Johnson, VT
Join us for a day of hands-on fruit tree grafting. We’ll begin the day in the classroom understanding the science of grafting, and practice bench-grafting apples, pears, plums, and other stone fruits.
Everyone will have the opportunity to graft their own trees to take home!
After lunch, we’ll go out and tour grafted and ‘multi-grafted’ fruit trees (including peaches grafted onto plums) and ‘top work’ multiple varieties onto pears, apples, plums, and other stone fruit. We’ll discuss some pruning basics, different grafting strategies for ‘fruit salad trees’, healing damaged trees, reworking new varieties, revitalizing old orchards, enhancing cross-pollination, and space considerations. We’ll also look at and evaluate both successful and failed past grafts.
We’ll contextualize our work in briefly telling some history of our farm and touring our incredibly diverse collection of nuts, berries, vines, nitrogen-fixing plants, and regenerative DIY farm infrastructure. We’ll also explore the incredible history of grafting, the range of grafting possibilities, and practice with professional grafting tools which make for more successful grafts by novices and experts alike.
Each attendant will leave with an apple or pear variety of their choosing on semi-dwarf or standard rootstock, or a stone fruit variety of their choosing on native american plum rootstock.
$80 suggested donation sliding scale includes cider and tea, and your own grafted fruit trees to take home. No one will be refused for lack of funds, but everyone must pre-register.
Due to the popularity of this event, you much pre-register. There is a possibility of another event later in March or in April, please send an email to express your interest.
Please RSVP by filling out the registration form and submitting payment via paypal to: Keith@ProspectRock.org, or sending a check to:
‘Prospect Rock Permaculture’
P.O. Box 426
Jeffersonville, VT 05464
We must get your email address from you, as the weather will determine where we park cars. and we will also send you some information about how to best collect scion wood if you want to propagate some favorite fruit trees.
The workshop will be taught by:
Zach Leonard is a master horticulturalist and as been the farm manager of Elmore Roots Nursery for 15 years. He and his family have created High Hopes Farm, a diverse off-grid homestead.
Nicko Rubin is the owner of East Hill Tree Farm, where he has been growing and propagating hardy fruits and nuts in the foothills of the Groton Mountains. He completed the master’s program for sustainable landscape design at the Conway School.
Dave Johnson is a timber framer with a passion for fruit trees. His competence with sharp tools and wood translate readily into many successful grafts and a legacy of multi-grafted old wild apples throughout the hills of Vermont.
Keith Morris has been collecting and experimenting with rare fruits, nuts, and medicinal plants since 1996, and is professor of ecological design at the University of Vermont. He’s slowly built his family’s farm debt-free with sweat-equity and has contributed to creating resilient and diverse food systems on 5 continents.
Thank you,
Keith
(802) 734-1129
Willow Crossing Farm
Johnson, VT
http://www.WillowCrossing.org
As a reminder- only a few spaces remain for our 7th Annual Prospect Rock Permaculture Design Certification Course, July 20 – August 1, 2014.
Our Fruit, Nut, Berry, Vine, and Medicinal Plant Sale will be Saturday, May 3- Please pre-order to ensure you can get the plants you want!
Productive Riparian Buffers and Tree Crops Tour
Posted by on August 3, 2012
The female flowers of a ‘Buartnut’, which have been hand pollinated by Butternut- giving us Vermont’s first ‘ButterBuarts’!
Hi Friends and Colleagues,
Here is a last minute invitation to any of you who may be interested in joining a small group of students, researchers, and folks with NOFA and UVM Extension for an informal tour of the ‘productive buffers’ and Tree Crops collection at Willow Crossing Farm in Johnson, VT.
As our rivers, riverside farms, and riverside towns are increasingly put to the test with erratic weather we look forward to contributing to the conversation about the health of our rivers and agricultural economy with over a decade of experience testing 100s of species of plants suitable for ‘productive buffers’ and productive floodplain reforestation. This event is to prelude a larger event this fall, and a multi-day ‘Tree Crops Symposium’ scheduled for the late spring of 2013 with some of the world’s foremost experts in tree crops, nut production, agroforestry, and non-timber forest products.
Willow Crossing Farm (Prospect Rock Permaculture) has been dedicated to making floodplain reforestation profitable and ecologically regenerative since 2001. Through combinations of native riparian plants with both native and rare nut, fruit, sugar, timber, and firewood producing trees, berries and medicinal herbs, we’ve worked to reforest our river’s corridors and flood prone sections of our farm aiming to prevent erosion; conserve soil and nutrients; shade waterways and improve water quality; create fish, wildlife, and pollinator habitat; and offset atmospheric carbon- all while adding to our long-term bottom line.
We grow many different varieties of plums, apples, cherries, pears, apricots, peaches, berries, paw paws, and over 17 species of nut trees.
Last summer, our systems were put to the test with two 500 year floods within 4 months and largely performed as designed- catching and diverting flotsam and protecting cultivated areas, greenhouses, and other farm infrastructure. Now, we are inviting other farmers, and anyone interested in watershed health and the potential for ecologically regenerative and carbon-negative farming systems to take inspiration from our trials, and share in our mistakes, successes, and other information gained.
Please be in touch with Keith Morris (Keith@ProspectRock.org or (802) 734-1129) if you are interested in attending.
Please feel free to share with students or other potentially interested contacts or networks.
Best,
Keith
St. Patrick’s Day Dinner and Live Music!
Posted by on March 14, 2012
March 14, 2012..
THE ST. PATRICKS DAY LOCALVORE DINNER IS SOLD OUT!
You are more than welcome to join us for music and drinks starting at 7 pm.
We will be having a variety of other seasonal/ farm sourced dinners throughout the spring, summer, and fall. ‘Subscribe’ to this blog to be notified.
THANKS!
After the grafting workshop– we’ll be having a farm-sourced St. Patricks Day dinner and live music! Feel free tojoin us for a ‘Céilidh‘!
Chris Dorman, our good friend and fellow organic farmer (Bread and Butter Farm) will be performing his unique ‘Heartfelt Folk’, a sound and talent hard to put words to. We’re honored to host this world-touring, professionally recorded, and renown gifted musician and composer right here in Johnson! Check out video of one of our favorites ‘Family Farm’ here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyc9xpgxC1Q and view his website here: http://chrisdormanmusic.com/press
Our guest chef, Emily Wheeler, will be preparing an entirely local Corned Beef dinner. She has been brining freshly-harvested organic grass-pastured beef from our friends and neighbors at Applecheek Farm, with veggies from Foote Brook Organic Farm, Blackwell Roots, and grown here at Willow Crossing.
We’ll also have beer from either Hill Farmstead Brewery or Rock Art. We won’t be dying it green… but you can bring a green tinted glass if you’d like! ; -)
The dinner will be served at 6, and the music will begin at 7. You are more than welcome to enjoy the music and beer, regardless of whether you’ll be eating with us. A donation is suggested to help pay Chris and for the keg.
The dinner is a minimum suggested donation of $20 (including beer), and we need to know exactly how many people we’ll be serving as soon as possible.
Again, we’re looking forward to having you out and kicking off the spring with our first party of the year!
Thanks!
Keith and Family
Canning and Food Preservation Workshop September 9
Posted by on August 31, 2011
Join us at Willow Crossing Farm to learn the basics of canning and food preservation. We will learn about several ways to preserve garden fresh food including ‘hot water baths’, steam juicing, pressure canning, pickling etc…
This will be a hands on workshop where we will be making/canning tomato sauce and salsas, pickling and other delicious treats.
Please bring a bagged lunch, and other fun recipes you may want to share
$35 includes taking home a canned item
space is limited, please register and pre-pay by september 5th.
Workshop led by Jennifer Stellma of High Hopes Farm and Kori Gelinas of Willow Crossing Farm.
Jennifer Stellma of High Hopes Farm has been homesteading and organic farming for over 15 years. She is an herbalist, medicine maker, vegetable farmer, artist, and mother of two boys.
Kori Gelinas of Willow Crossing Farm runs Willow Crossing Healing Arts & Botanicals, and has been practicing healing arts for 14 years. She is a massage therapist, aromatherapist, herbalist, yoga teacher, organic farmer, and mother of two daugthers.
To register or for more information, please call or email Kori Gelinas:
korigvt(at)yahoo.com (802) 355-6910
Permaculture for the Northcountry: Adirondacks
Posted by on August 2, 2011
Open Consultation, Participatory Design Charrettes, and Lecture Series
Turtle Hill Community and St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY
August 9 – 11
Tuesday August 9
Turtle Hill
9:00-12:00 2-Part Open Lecture:
Permaculture is an evolving and expanding design system used to create agriculturally productive human habitat at scales varying from balconies to broader regions. Spend the morning with professional ecological designer Keith Morris exploring this design science used by individuals and communities to create ethical, socially just, and ecologically regenerative perennial support systems during an ‘Open Consultation’ for the Turtle Hill and St. Lawrence University Communities.
The History of Permaculture and ‘Participatory Ecology’
As permaculture rapidly expands around the world, the field is constantly evolving and taking new directions. We’ll discuss the history of permaculture and ecological design as we look to the sciences of ecology, anthropology, and evolution for inspiration and guidance to establish our homes, gardens, and communities as ‘human ecosystems’ that are less fuel reliant, beautiful, productive, ecologically regenerative, and more wholly nourishing.
What is the potential for human beings as ‘Keystone Species’? How have we acted as such in the past? We’ll explore the ways human beings have ‘co-created’ ecological communities in the past, at present, and our potential to do so more insightfully in the future, with a particular eye to the unique challenges and opportunities of the Adirondacks and Northcountry region.
Designing an Ecological Energy Descent Culture
As we acknowledge the convergent crises of the 21st century, we can be overwhelmed with visions of apocalypse- or embrace some of the greatest opportunities to restructure society with ecological and ethical sanity, localized resilience, and abundance. We explore the relationships between the built environment, food security, energy, water, and natural communities, in order to retrofit this infrastructure to better adapt to a changing and potentially challenging future. By examining today’s multifaceted problems from a systems perspective, we focus on the intersection of social and ecological health, and find the best opportunities for leverage to affect change in our personal lives and communities.
Introduction to Turtle Hill Community and Site
Lunch
Turtle Hill Orientation and Site Walk
Observation of Nature/Natural Patterns
SLU
4:30 Introduction to SLU Community and Site
5:00 Dinner
7:00-8:00 Public Lecture:
Breeding with Climate Change: New Plants for the North:
While no one’s celebrating ‘Global Weirding’, a changing climate does offer some new opportunities for growers in the cold northcountry. As important as political and personal efforts are to stem the causes of climate change, it may be even more important that we anticipate and prepare for different future scenarios. We will look at the ‘movement’ of ecosystems in nature, and explore ways we can harness this fact to our benefit, and mimic natural adaptation by selecting for delayed flowering and earlier ripening with promising marginal species and varieties. In particular, we’ll look at some ‘new’ fruits, nuts, vines, and grains presently being bred for ‘northward migration’, and will discuss more general strategies for resilient food systems amidst the many uncertainties of the future.
Wednesday August 10
Turtle Hill
9:00-12:00 2-Part Open Lecture:
Season Extention/ Greenhouse Integration: (Winter Vegetables- even for the far north!)
Greenhouses are an essential component of diversified and season-extended growing in the northcountry, and also a great addition to a low energy and resilient household. Learn how greenhouses can be integrated with homes, animal shelters, barns, and other structures to reduce energy needs, supplement heating and fresh food in the winter, and even- if well designed- help cool buildings in summer months. We’ll introduce the basics of passive solar design, thermal mass, ventilation, subterranean heat storage, orientation, and glazing options, as well as meet some of the unique plants greenhouses allow us to grow. We’ll also look at ‘Quick Hoops’, ‘Rolling Greenhouses’, and other strategies for unheated year round vegetable production, see some photos, (and share some secrets) from some of Vermont’s most established winter vegetable production farms. This spring, presenter Keith Morris received a grant to build Vermont’s first winter-production greenhouse on wheels at Willow Crossing Farm.
Designing your Design Process
Here we’ll get into the ‘brass tacks’ of ecological design. We’ll discuss goals articulation, base mapping, analysis and assessment (ie. ‘reading the landscape’), data overlay through the ‘Scale of Permanence’, and other planning and design strategies. This is in preparation for an afternoon of map-making, graphical analysis, and walking the land with an eye towards refining and communicating our visoins of more resilient food production, processing and storage; on-site waste management and cycling; decentralized energy production; as well as a beautiful and functional landscape that brings neighbors together in abundance and enhances the broader social and ecological communities that provide our context.
Lunch
Participatory Design Workshop: Analysis and Assessment/Group map-making, etc.
Dinner
Group Design Session
Thursday August 11
Turtle Hill
Open Lecture: Invisible Structures – Economic, Decision-Making, etc.
Design Concepts
Phase Planning
Lunch
SLU
2:00 Meeting with SLU grounds staff and SLU design wrap-up
Bio:
Keith Morris has been applying his lifelong love of nature and culture and experience as an activist to permaculture and ecological design since 1996. He has worked professionally as a designer, builder, and grower of ecologically regenerative, socially just, and culturally appropriate whole-systems in cities and countrysides around the world since 2000. He is the founder of Prospect Rock Permaculture (www.prospectrock.org), Willow Crossing Farm, co-founder of the Permaculture Institute of the NorthEast (P.I.N.E.), and teaches ecological design at the University of Vermont, the Yestermorrow Design Build School, Sterling College, Paul Smiths College, Burlington Permaculture, and with other community organizations. While his expertise is ecological regeneration, high-performance food production, and shelter systems for cold temperate/ arctic conditions, he works regularly in New York City and has designed and implemented systems in New Zealand, Colorado, Chile, Argentina, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nigeria, Ghana, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
ProspectRock.org 
