Weekend #10 - Personal Care Products, Hydrosols, Biochar, Stove Making
Dec
9
to Dec 10

Weekend #10 - Personal Care Products, Hydrosols, Biochar, Stove Making

  • Raven's Roots Naturalist School (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Location: Raven's Roots Campus (Ferndale, WA)

  • Hydrosols and essential oils

  • Making plant based, cold pressed soaps

  • Natural household cleansers

  • Making dish and laundry detergents.

  • Biochar and rocket stove making

  • Biochar and it's role in building healthy soils

  • Plant propagation: Hardwood cuttings

  • More personal care products (toothpaste, deodorant, hair rinses etc.)

  • Wild harvest of our perennial vegetables for potluck dinner on Saturday evening for last class

  • Where to go from here and class wrap up.

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Weekend #9 - Basketry, Fiber Crops and Dyes
Nov
11
to Nov 12

Weekend #9 - Basketry, Fiber Crops and Dyes

  • Instructor Georgie's Home (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Location: Raven’s Roots Campus in Ferndale, WA

  • Make a small basket using ponderosa pine needles.

  • Make a small basket using cattail.

  • Make a larger basket using both willow and English ivy.

  • Multiple types of natural cordage and techniques to make it

  • Learn how to harvest willow and tend a willow holt on our farm.

  • Learn how to grow and when to harvest cattail for basket making. All of cattails uses.

  • Growing other basketry crops.

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Weekend #8:  Fermentation, Syrups, Honeys, Vinegars
Oct
28
to Oct 29

Weekend #8: Fermentation, Syrups, Honeys, Vinegars

  • Raven's Roots Naturalist School (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Location: Raven’s Roots campus (Ferndale, WA).

  • Lacto-fermentation - Beyond kraut and kimchi.

  • Fermented beverages from around the world. Students go home with kombucha and jun scoby and milk kefir grains.

  • Fermenting with wild ingredients and perennial vegetables.

  • How to make tempeh. Students go home with tempeh spores.

  • Fermenting seeds, legumes and grains from the garden.

  • Medicinal vinegars, honeys and syrups with plants grown in our gardens.

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

  • Drinking vinegars: oxymels and shrubs.


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Weekend #7: Soil Biology, Composting, Compost Teas, Mushroom Medicines and Cultivation
Sep
23
to Sep 24

Weekend #7: Soil Biology, Composting, Compost Teas, Mushroom Medicines and Cultivation

  • Raven's Roots Naturalist School (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Location: Raven's Roots Campus (Ferndale, WA)

  • Composting methods (thermal and vermicomposting)

  • Compost teas

  • Hugelkultur

  • Introduction to the Soil Food Web.

  • Studying soil microbiology using a microscope. Students bring in samples to test.

  • Cultivating edible mushrooms: lion’s mane. oyster and shiitake. Students go home with inoculated logs.

  • Making mushroom medicines.

  • Making foods with mushrooms

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Weekend #6: Mount Baker Area
Aug
26
to Aug 27

Weekend #6: Mount Baker Area

  • Mount Baker National Park (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Location: Mt. Baker - Heather Meadows, Hannegan Pass. Overnight camp.

  • Travel to Mt. Baker - Heather Meadows on Saturday. Raven’s Roots on Sunday.

  • Subalpine plant walks where we'll discuss edible, medicinal, wildlife attracting and utilitarian uses for plants.

  • Permaculture plant walk at our 5 acre permaculture farm in Ferndale, WA.

  • Swales and water harvesting.

  • Seed saving.

  • Flower essences

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Weekend #5: Olympic Peninsula
Jul
22
to Jul 23

Weekend #5: Olympic Peninsula

Location: Olympic Peninsula (Sol Duc, Hurricane Ridge and 1 other location on the North Coast). Overnight camp.

  • Travel to The Olympic Peninsula.

  • Compressive plant walks in three very diverse ecologies. Focusing on Medicinal, edible and utilitarian uses. Plus, how to build relationships with these plants.

  • Old Growth ecologies

  • Coastal ecologies

  • Alpine Meadow ecologies

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Weekend #4: Southwestern Washington
Jun
24
to Jun 25

Weekend #4: Southwestern Washington

  • Southwestern Washington (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Location: Southwestern Washington (Scatter Creek, Nisqually and other locations). Overnight camp.

  • Travel south to Olympia area

  • Plant walks covering edible, medicinal and wildlife plants as well as utilitarian uses. Focus on oak prairie and wetland ecosystems

  • Focus on the role fire plays in habitat restoration. As well as discussing how traditional people’s relationship with fire to tend the land.

  • Ecological impacts of fire suppression.

  • Plant sits in an old growth forest.

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Weekend #3: Eastern Washington (Methow Valley)
May
20
to May 21

Weekend #3: Eastern Washington (Methow Valley)

Location: Methow Valley (Mazama, Winthrop, Twisp areas). Overnight camp.

  • Travel to the Methow Valley

  • Wild harvesting foods and medicines on annual harvest schedule for May

  • Plant walks in multiple ecosystems on the east side, covering edible, medicinal and wildlife plants as well as utilitarian uses. Focus will be on the foothill and shrub steppe ecologies east of the Cascade Mountains.

  • Beneficial insects and pests (identification, the plants which attract them and their roles in the ecosystem.

  • The importance of tending wild spaces and building relationships with ecologies through reciprocal acts.

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Weekend #1: Introduction to Permaculture and Natural Medicine Making
Mar
25
to Mar 26

Weekend #1: Introduction to Permaculture and Natural Medicine Making

  • Raven's Roots Naturalist School (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Location: Raven's Roots Campus (Ferndale, WA)

  • Introductions and overview of the course

  • Natural medicine making: tinctures, salves, teas, decoctions and infusions. Students take home what we make in class.

  • Introduction to Permaculture

  • Permaculture gardening strategies and techniques

  • Introduction to plant identification and succession

  • Grafting fruit trees

  • Harvesting ethics

  • Harvesting plants on the annual harvest schedule for March

  • Wild foraging in the spring.


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