Our short courses range from 3 hours to one day, weekend or week long classes on topics such as permaculture, wilderness survival, herbalism, ethnobotany, hunter/gatherer lifestyle, wildlife tracking, bird language, homesteading and more. We're always adding new courses so check for updates either on this page or feel free to subscribe to our Facebook page, which is updated frequently. If you'd like to create a custom course for a small group, fill out the form here and we'll get right back to you. Below you’ll find all of our short courses for 2023. Check back regularly for updates.
Miso Making Workshop - October 26, 2024, Mount Vernon, WA
In this 3 hour workshop, students will learn how to make koji and multiple different kinds of miso using base ingredients other than soybeans. They'll sample koji and 4 different kinds of miso made with a variety of different beans, roots and mushrooms and see that practically any ingredient can be used to make them.
The workshop will cover:
The importance of fermenting grains and legumes. Anti-nutrients and bean and rice preparation (soaking, rinsing and cooking). Which beans can be grown easily here in the Pacific Northwest.
Building a cost effective incubation chamber for koji production. We'll showcase a few different incubation options that we use at the school. We'll also cover how to cost effectively acquire all of the other materials needed to produce high quality misos.
How to make koji, the base ingredient in miso. Gabe will have finished koji for sale so students can go home and make miso themselves right after the clas.
Each stage of the miso making process, also using beans other than soybeans. Students will get to sample a few of our finished misos.
Finished misos will be available for sale after the class.
To register click here.
Medicinal Herb Wildcrafting Intensive: Early June 2025
Join us for a weekend medicinal herb wild harvest and camp out! Participants will join Instructor Reisha Beck on a spring wild harvest and medicine making extravaganza in the Cascade Mountains located just outside the town of Twisp WA.
During the weekend participants will go on a wild plant walk identifying and harvesting the plethora of wild plants specific to this bio region. During this walk participants will learn the medicinal and edible properties of these plants, and how to create a reciprocal relationship with these medicines by growing more through propagation and ethical harvesting.
During our forage, participants will learn the art of a plant sit, and. after our harvests we will make medicines to take home and share. The evenings will be enjoyed with shared meals, campfire stores and comradery
Some of the herbs we will be harvesting Arnica cordifolia, Arrow leaf balsam root, Red Root, False Solomons Seal, Yellow Dock, Blue Elder Flower, Mullein and more!
Date: TBA Early June 2025
Instructor: Reisha Beck
Cost: $250
For the full Course Description, General Weekend Schedule and to Register click here
Weaving Our Dreams: Baskets by the River July 2025
$400.00
Join us for a 3-day camp out with basketry in the wilderness! Participants will harvest, process and weave from the wilds and learn multiple basketry styles and techniques. We will also swim in the river, enjoy meals together and remember our humanness though our weavings. More details in the works! Check back soon!
Basket styles participants will learn in this workshop: square twined and twill cattail and bark basket purse, folded bark berry basket and a willow and mixed fiber rib basket. Harvesting, processing and preparing the materials will also be covered, and participants will go home feeling confident moving forward in their basketry journey.
Date: July 11th-13th 2025
Instructor: Reisha Beck
Location: Methow Valley WA (Exact location disclosed after registration)
Cost: $400 this includes materials and tools
For more information and to register click here