With custom slaughter dates pushed out a year or more, food freedom is more and more dependent on our ability to help ourselves. Many people don’t understand the full process of what it takes to put meat on the table.

If you’d like to gain a deeper respect and appreciation for where your food comes from, COME JOIN US along with Doug Wharton and Andy Lane of Hand Hewn Farm for an intensive whole hog workshop. During this three-day, hands-on workshop, we will walk through the entire process of how to efficiently, beautifully, and practically take a hog from pasture to plate ethically and humanely.

Making Aged Hard Cheese. This workshop will cover the steps for making, pressing, and aging a simple hard cheese with natural raw milk cultures. We'll talk about general milk management and milk ferments, from grass to gouda. Students will leave with instructions and working knowledge of how to turn milk into long-storing aged cheese.

Woodburning is a fun and easy skill to learn that adds a unique touch to any woodworking project. Students at this workshop will learn the different types of wood and wood that works best, different woodburning technique styles and effects, and be able to use their creativity and imagination to create their own pieces of art. We will also have other supplies on hand to add character to their projects.

All necessary supplies and equipment will be provided.

Buying a new tractor these days will break your bank account! This workshop shows how you can buy old tractors for a song and restore them to working order! Students will learn on an antique tractor how to start, repair, and maintain the tractor for your homestead!

Students will learn about common household chemicals and toxins to avoid, and why. This hands-on workshop will focus on making easy swaps using essential oils and common household ingredients. With a little knowledge and effort we can greatly reduce the toxic load within our homes, making them safer.

Students will make various items to take with them including soft scrub, all-purpose cleaner, skin serum and laundry softener.

These are one-on-one 30 minute workshops with the blacksmith instructor where students will learn heating metal, drawing it out to hammer on an anvil, heating it again, quenching it, and cleaning with a wire brush. Students will walk away with an s-hook!

This is a very hands-on workshop limited to 6 students per session. The workshop will build a 12' x 16' structure over the course of the festival. The student will leave feeling like they grasp the basics of timber frame building and could do it themselves at home.

5 different sessions available!

In this one hour workshop, students will learn both pouring and dipping. The poured candles will be made of 100% soy wax and an optional Balsam fragrance, while the dipped candles will be pure beeswax.

Each student will create (and take home!) one poured 8.oz jar candle and two dipped taper candles.

Beehive establishment and management. It covers the basics to consider, including bee health, winterization, and honey harvesting (live demonstration), and will show students how to literally put together an empty beehive!

Students will walk away with their own jar of freshly extracted honey!

Ram pumps have been around for many decades and are growing more popular because they need no external source of power and they are extremely simple with just two parts!

Students will learn how to build a ram pump and will be shown how it works and its various applications.

Students will learn the procedure for making cold process soap, including the safe way to handle the materials, and the different ways the ingredients react depending on which carrier liquids are used with the lye.

Good, managed rotational grazing is at the very heart of independent, ecological homesteading. This workshop covers the essential principles behind management intensive grazing, with demonstration and hands-on-tools time.

Students will learn how to pickle and ferment food by either making pickles or sauerkraut.

Students will walk away with their own jar of pickled or fermented goods!

Ages 5-15

Students will learn the basics of crocheting and will learn a basic stuffed animal pattern. They can take home their project!

Students will learn different handbuilding techniques to make their own creations!

Students will learn canning tomatoes and vegetables using a water bath canner. Students will prepare the vegetables, prepare the jars, and load the jars into the canner.

Each student will walk away with a jar of canned vegetables!

This workshop will teach basic cold knife making. Students will walk away from this class with the skills and knowledge to make a basic utility knife from scrap materials available around the homestead.

Students will complete a knife in class that they will take home with them!

Students will learn about fiber types and uses as well as types of drop spindles.

Students will learn how to use a drop spindle and basics of wheel spinning.

Workshop will include a drop spindle and fiber for attendees to take home!

The students will prepare the vegetables, prepare the jars, and load the jars into the pressure canner. Instructor will have a batch of vegetables already started so students can unload the canner and cool the jars.

Students will walk away with their own jar of canned vegetables!

This workshop covers the entire process from the live chicken all the way to where the bagged bird is ready to be eaten or put into the freezer. Students will be able to go home and kill, scald, pluck, eviscerate, chill, and package a chicken on their own!