Location: Raven’s Roots Farm in Ferndale, WA

• Biochar stove design

• Make stove to take home in class

• Storing and using biochar

• Mushroom cultivation (shiitake, oyster, wine cap)

• Seed saving part 2

• Testing soils from the beds made earlier in the year to see biological change

• Prepping beds for winter

• Fall composting

Location: Raven’s Roots Farm in Ferndale, WA

• Benefits of fermentation: preservation, pre-digestion, probiotics

• Lactofermentation using fruits and vegetables from the garden

• Acetic acid ferments: using fruits and medicinal plants from the garden

• Fermenting legumes and grains (tempeh, acaraje and dosas)

• Making vinegars from fruits and vegetables harvested on site

• How to build incubators at a low cost to make yogurt, koji, tempeh and more.

Location: Raven’s Roots Farm in Ferndale, WA

• Low cost amendments that can be applied in the garden in the fall/winter months.

• Seed collection, cleaning and saving

• Plant walk around the gardens

• Measuring contour lines and making swales

• Different types of hugelkultur beds. Hands on activity of making a hugelkultur bed.

Location: Raven’s Roots Farm in Ferndale, WA

• Plant propagation: softwood cuttings

• Plant walk covering medicinal plants that do well in the Pacific Northwest

• Growing, harvesting and making medicine with medicinal plants throughout the year that do well in the PNW.

• Plant walk covering perennial vegetables and tree crops

• Growing, harvesting and cooking with perennial vegetables that do well in the PNW. We’ll prepare lunch from vegetables in the garden

• How and where to grow the trees covered in our plant walk

Location: Raven’s Roots Farm in Ferndale, WA

• Thermophilic composting (to eliminate pathogens and undesirable seeds)

• Composting specifically for fungi

• Compost teas. Making and applying both the the mulch and foliar applications

• Microscope workshop part 2. Testing soils we built in first class and finished compost and compost teas.

• Biochar uses and preparing for the soil (we’ll make stoves in a later class)

• Low cost soil amendments that can be applied during the summer months

Location: Raven’s Roots Campus in Ferndale, WA

• Understanding the soil food web and the role of mycorrhizal fungi

• Collecting indigenous micro-organisms from healthy ecosystems to use in our gardens

• Students bring in soil samples and we test them for biological diversity under the microscope

• Understanding the role of biochar in nutrient retention and soil health

• Compost teas: How to make microbial rich teas and apply them to our gardens. We’ll look at teas under the microscope as well

• Low cost soil amendments applied in the spring

Location: Raven’s Roots Farm in Ferndale, WA

• What is permaculture and how it compares to other agricultural design systems

• Understanding plant succession and how it relates to our gardens

• Observing mature food forests and building a new one from scratch

• Permaculture tour of our 5 acre gardens. Over 700 species of useful plants being grown

• 7 Layers and functional plants

• Garden preparation for both annual and perennial production

• Plant propagation techniques: seed starting, grafting, layering and division, hardwood cuttings. We’ll take an inside look at our plant nursery operations.