Sustainable Living Arts School

Saturday August 23

9:00 - 9:50 - Introduction to Food Preservation with Robin Wheeler ($20)Intro class - Making decisions to dry, can, brine or freeze food - pros and cons and opportunity for discussion. Extensive printed material provided. We will be havinganother canning class at Diane's in September.

10:00 - 11:30 Seed Saving with Robin Wheeler ($26 includes seed saving booklet) It's important to start saving and sharing seed, and we want to do a good job of it.Robin will discuss Terry Klokeid's Five Levels of seed saving, plus tips on cleaningand storing seed for long life.

2:00 - 3:30 Bee keeping with Al Cobbin ($25) Al Cobbin has spent 40 years working with bees, and we will visit a couple of his hives and learn about life cycle, housing, feeding and potential issues of working with bees. Al will show equipment, hive siting and bee products as part of his class. (off site - directions given at registration).

Sunday Aug 24

9:00 to 4 pm Herbal Brews and Tonics with Andrea Potter and Cedana ($70) Herbalism and Fermentation together at last! In this day long workshop learn basic concepts behind making fermented beverages that will allow you to tailor tonics and beers to best benefit your physical well being and personal preferences. We will cover a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic brews including all grain herbal beer, kombucha, gingerbeer, and amasake. Have fun reclaiming ancient fermentation methods and discovering new possibilities for the herbs that grow all around us.

June 7, 2008 - Water Wisdom

Watering our food plants is a huge issue in times of drought. These classes will help you work through issues on your own property.

9:30am - 10:45 Grey Water Systems with Steve Henry (Off site) Greywater - What is not greywater, Uses of greywater, filtration, water plants and fish, types of soap not to use, plumbing, legal issues, subsurface irrigation - and we will all get to walk up and down the length of Steve's system and ask questions. $25

11:00am - 12:30pm: Water Wise Planting with Robin Wheeler Robin will show us some of her own methods of "training" plants to follow the water table, and will discuss mulch, mini swales, low tech water collection and early season plantings and plant selection. $25

12:30 - 1:15pm: Lunch - brown bag or order $6 snack lunch and herb tea

1:15 - 3:30pm: Irrigation Intrigue with Jason Woodall The beginner will learn about the components of an irrigation system. Watch a system get designed, then help assemble it and watch it work! If you have never handled irrigation material, you will feel quite comfortable after Jason shows you how. $25

Take one or take all classes. Hang out, and perhaps we'll do a potluck dinner and discuss water problems later on.

June 21/ 22 - Herb Weekend

Take one or take all classes. Hang out, and perhaps we'll do a potluck dinner and discuss herbs later on.

9:00 am - 10:30 am Herb Recognition with Robin Wheeler
Many of us work intensively with tinctures and teas, yet would not recognize the plants that are the basis of the medicines we trust and use. This class is not so much about specific uses of herbs - it is about meeting, touching, smelling and tasting the living plants to increase recognition and to develop an affinity with the herbs we work with. Bring your camera and yes, you can take samples for your notebook. $25

10:45 am - 12:15 pm Wildcrafting Indigenous Herbs with Lyrae Emerson
An examination of the methods of ethically harvesting wild and indigenous plants in a manner that minimizes impact on the population while maximizing their medicinal potential. A focus will be given to native medicinal herbs, but we will also discuss traditional medicinal plants and look at how the practice of wildcrafting in itself can be a healing experience. We will also look at some of the methods of processing the leaves, flowers, berries, bark and roots that we collect. Comes with take home instruction sheet on wildcrafting and harvesting guidelines. $25

12:15 - 1:15 pm Lunch - brown bag or order $7 snack lunch with herb tea

1:15 - 2:15 pm Harvest and Storage ofLlocal Herbs with Robin Wheeler Whether you are harvesting leaves for tisanes or flowers and seeds, it's good to follow a procedure that will guarantee you the best end product you can hope to achieve. This class is a basic walk and talk and we will harvest stems for take home, and discuss techniques for long term storage of many herbs. $20

2:45 - 4:15 pm. Native use of Herbs with Cymba
Consisting of in-the-field plant identification, discussing traditional and contemporary uses of these plants. Food, medicinal and ceremonial uses will be covered as well as ecologically sustainable harvesting techniques. A hands-on component will include topical salves making (everyone will leave with a traditional medicine). $25

5:30 - 7:00 pm - Shared/potluck dinner for those who wish to visit further.

SUNDAY JUNE 22

10:00 - 11:30 am First Aid Herbs for Your Home with Garliq
This is a hands-on workshop that combines the theory and practice of using herbs to treat bleeding, asthma, fever, bug bites/stings and digestive distress. It will provide a well-rounded base for dealing with many 'can be kinda scary' health concerns.

11:45 am - 1:15 pm Small Scale Commercial Herb growing with Randie Ridgewell
Growing herbs for restaurants and herbalists creates a different set of issues than just home growing does. We need to plant differently, dry larger quantities, store items properly, hold fresh items in good condition and package and transport them safely. Randie will use her experience with growing for several clients to give us pointers. $25

1:15 - 2:15 pm - Lunch

2:15 - 3:45 Experiments in Growing Chinese Herbs with Robin and Lotus House

As Traditional Chinese Medicine becomes more recognized by North Americans, growers and healers are taking a second look at the plants that make up the hundreds of medicinals used as tea, pellet or poultice. Robin of Edible Landscapes has been watching to see which of the over 20 varieties of plant she has (such as Sang-ye, Ze xie, Huang Qin and He Shou Wu) grow best in her area and will discuss her findings related to her microclimate. Sarah Jacobs or Urszula Dragowska of Lotus House may join us to give medicinal information on each plant (and translate those Pinyin names, as Robin cannot!). $25

4:00 - 5:30 pm Making Oils and Salves - Barb Cotgrave
Learn how simple and rewarding making herb oils can be, using both heat and sun. By using different herbal combinations and different oils to extract the herbal essences you can make both strong medicinal oils and sweetly-scented oils. Once we have gone over how to produce herbal oils it is a delightful and easy step to producing a simple salve, with students take home. Depending on the herbs used, a salve can be used for a variety of different conditions. Barb will go over some of these combinations. $25

Saturday, May 10 all day at Edible Landscapes, 1732 Pell Road

9:30 to 11:00 Wildcrafting Indigenous Herbs with Lyrae Emerson An examination of the methods of ethically harvesting wild and indigenous plants in a manner that minimizes impact on the population while maximizing their medicinal potential. A focus will be given to native medicinal herbs, but we will also discuss traditional medicinal plants and look at how the practice of wildcrafting in itself can be a healing experience. We will also look at some of the methods of processing the leaves, flowers, berries, bark and roots that we collect. Comes with take home instruction sheet on wildcrafting and harvesting guidelines. $25

11:15 to 12:45 Wild Edibles with Annette Clarke Introduction to Wild Edibles Easy to identify plants that do not need any complicated cooking methods are the topic of this course. An emphasis is placed on respectful collection and proper identification of the food plants. Different plants are growing and ripening with each season. Topics change slightly depending on the time of the year. We will cover berries, wild weeds and edible trees. $25

12:45 to 1:30 - Lunch - bag lunch or pre-order snack plate and herb tea $6

1:30 to 3:30 Working with Natural Materials Basket and Container Making: An Introduction Learn what to do with collected treasures and wild edibles when you are out in the woods with no container or bag on hand. The course introduces to the plentiful material supply of nature and its potential uses. The topic ranges from simple leave and bark containers to more sophisticated weaved and coiled baskets. Materials will be supplied, and we will begin a project that can be completed later. $25

4:00 to 6:00 (and possibly much later, weather and company permitting) Cooking on fire with Bill Elsner Not everyone has been lucky enough to grow up feeling confident of building a cooking fire, yet there may be circumstances when some of us need to do that. Bill Elsner, our local Emergency Coordinator and long time Bush Guy, is going to teach us how to choose a good site, how to build a fire pit and to check for safety issues. Then, weather permitting, we’re going to cook ourselves a feast - Bill will show how to make bannock, cook salmon on a stick and we will cook some wild greens and make tea (or gather for some homemade wine) while discussing cooking skills that might be a little different than we are used to. $25 (does not include home made wine!!)

Sunday May 11 begins at Edible Landscapes

9:30 to 11:00 Plant Technology Workshop with Cymba The workshop will consist of a walk around the area to identify plants that were (are) commonly used in various technological ways (providing materials for cordage, adhesives, shelters, clothing, tools etc. Samples of important materials from off-site will also be provided for discussion. In a hands-on component we will play with simple tool construction (includes binding and gluing). * The exact nature of these workshops will vary according to interaction between participants. We will attempt to cover all materials and the instructor is willing to spend more time if participants feel a need. $25

Wild Weekend continues at Peter Light's - 2692 Highway 101 (604-886-8527)

1:00 to 3:00 or so pm "Into the Woods" with Peter Light Covers all the resources one can find close to your doorstep in our west coast woods. Learn how to recognize the principal trees in our forest; spot useful old, moss-covered logs for multiple uses; process cedar poles and beams for all your building needs; split cedar shakes for roofs and walls - in short, how to go into the woods and harvest all you need for a FREE house, barn, shed, bench, fence, gate, handle, etc., etc., as well as a FREE supply of fuel to heat your home and cook your food. Learn, too, of more unsuspected wealth that lurks among the trees! Includes an introduction to the hand tools you will need to harvest these resources. $25

March 23, Sunday - GARDENING FOR THE FAINT OF HEART - Robin Wheeler - Barter class

This class was designed for the beginner gardener who wants a good grounding in the basics. We will learn terms like "vertical gardening", "microclimate", "heavy mulch" and more. We will discuss water and soil feeding systems, basic plant health and annual/perennial plant needs. We will touch on pests, seasonal cycles and much more. The goal, in this short time, is to help students hone their questions and direction by understanding the basics better.

10 - 1 pm (bring a bag lunch - bevies provided) $32 or bring offerings in trade - no item will be turned away.

April 5 - 6 - PERMIE PRIMER WEEKEND - Skills for those settling in to a new lifestyle

Saturday, April 5

10:00 - 11:15 - Food Preservation Primer - how to choose a method! With Robin Wheeler (Pell Road)
This class won't be as fun without Val teaching it - she had all those homemade goodies and cheeses to pass around! But we can learn the difference between dehydration, canning, pressure canning, and packing in oil and vinegar, and how to decide on a method, and we will discuss the pros and cons of each method. Beginner class.

11:30 - 1 pm - Raising Poultry Organically with Lisa Atkinson
Perfect for the beginner, we will cover raising chicks and poults (turkeys) organically. Topics will including: choosing your chicks or poults, breed types, sources, starting young poultry, catching disease early and keeping chicks healthy so you don't need medications. Also we will cover the difference in feeding and management of chickens for egg or meat production.

1 pm - lunch - bring your own or order ahead - snack plate and herb tea $6

1:45 - 4:15 or so Using Medicinal Herbs with Lyrae Emerson
Are you mystified with what to do with those herbs that you carefully grew and harvested? In this course we cover a multitude of different ways that herbs can be used from herbal salves and balms, to poultices, oils, infusions, decoctions, fomentations, and we will even look at other uses such as crafts and household use. Fee $40 for 2 1?2 hours, price includes 1 jar of all purpose healing herbal salve, some looseleaf tea, herbal pills and other miscellaneous medicines that we will be making in class.

Sunday, April 6, 2008 - Day 2 of the Permie Primer Weekend (Pell Road)

Learn How-to Design an Edible Forest Garden (or Food Forest) Using Permaculture Principles with Gregoire Lamoureux of the Kootenay Permaculture Institute

HOW TO CREATE A FOREST GARDEN IN YOUR BACKYARD A forest garden is an integrated system of interplanted, mutually beneficial trees, shrubs, perennial & annual plants that produces food, medicine, fibre and more. Come learn how to develop a practical strategy for creating more abundance (for yourself, your family, your neighbours and beneficial insects and birds) in any backyard - be it lawn, bush or even damaged land.

9:00am - 12:00pm: Introduction, what is a forest garden, plant species, etc. Slide show and discussion.

12:00 - 1:00pm: Lunch (bag lunch or pre-ordered snacks and tea $6)

1:00 - 4:00pm: Observation, how to design & implement a forest garden, hands-on working portion as we review and use strategies on an existing property site.
Full day - $65

March 23, Sunday - GARDENING FOR THE FAINT OF HEART - Robin Wheeler - Barter class
This class was designed for the beginner gardener who wants a good grounding in the basics. We will learn terms like "vertical gardening", "microclimate", "heavy mulch" and more. We will discuss water and soil feeding systems, basic plant health and annual/perennial plant needs. We will touch on pests, seasonal cycles and much more. The goal, in this short time, is to help students hone their questions and direction by understanding the basics better.

10 - 1 pm (bring a bag lunch - bevies provided) $32 or bring offerings in trade - no item will be turned away.

April 5 - 6 - PERMIE PRIMER WEEKEND - Skills for those settling in to a new lifestyle

Saturday, April 5

1 pm - lunch - bring your own or order ahead - snack plate and herb tea $6

Sunday, April 6 - Day 2 of the Permie Primer Weekend (Pell Road)

Learn How-to Design an Edible Forest Garden (or Food Forest) Using Permaculture Principles with Gregoire Lamoureux of the Kootenay Permaculture Institute

HOW TO CREAT A FOREST GARDEN IN YOUR BACKYARD A forest garden is an integrated system of interplanted, mutually beneficial trees, shrubs, perennial & annual plants that produces food, medicine, fibre and more. Come learn how to develop a practical strategy for creating more abundance (for yourself, your family, your neighbours and beneficial insects and birds) in any backyard - be it lawn, bush or even damaged land.
9:00am - 12:00pm: Introduction, what is a forest garden, plant species, etc. Slide show and discussion. 12:00 - 1:00pm: Lunch (bag lunch or pre-ordered snacks and tea $6) 1:00 - 4:00pm: Observation, how to design & implement a forest garden, hands-on Working portion as we review and use strategies on an existing property site.
Full day - $65

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 5 - NTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE

at Edible Landscapes, 1732 Pell Road, Roberts Creek

three part course - observe : integrate : apply

In the lush Elphinstone Rainforest, at the Sustainable Living Arts fabled Edible Landscapes we will gather together with a community of plants to explore permaculture. Working with a wild area of land, we will use green mapping to allow for a site-specific design process and do hands on applications including sheet mulching, pathway building, and hugelkultur bed creation.

Three experiential workshops, all connected into a whole system. Sign up
for individual classes. $10 each or $25 for all 3. All money goes to course materials donated to the land and to the development of SLAS. Limited class size please register early if you are able

WEDNESDAY SEPT 5
2 - 7 pm 1.0 Permaculture Paradigms: foundational mapping and design : intro, green mapping, plant id, sheet mulching

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 8
2:45 - 5:15 pm 2.0 Permaculture Possibilities: from design to application : permaculture practices, pathway building, hugelkultur, guild building

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 11
5:30 - 8 pm 3.0 Permaculture Potentials: from application to implication : mulching, whole system review, permaculture education, permaculture media

Instructor: Delvin Solkinson www.gaiacraft.com : www.heartgardens.com :
www.ediblelandscapes.ca

Classes are $25 each and may be taken individually (10% discount for those taking full weekend. Call (604) 885-4505 for information or contact info@ediblelandscapes.ca to register! See our website www.ediblelandscapes.ca - Sustainable Living Arts School for information on location and instructors.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 8 - Practical Permie Weekend – Preparing for Winter
at Edible Landscapes, 1732 Pell Road, Roberts Creek

9:00 – 10:30am Introduction to Food Preservation with Val Luger
Val takes the beginner through a verbal and taste-testing tour through food dehydration, canning pressure canning, and how decisions are made for each method, and gives a short visit to cheese making.
10:45am – 12:15pm Framing for Beginners Part 2 by Eric Patterson
Eric will finish our Composting Toilet room with door installation, adding a shingled roof and other small details for the rustic builder.
1:00 – 2:30pm Plant Recognition with Robin Wheeler
Garden “walk and talk”. Common and unusual edible, medicinal and culinary plants and ongoing care including harvest, storage and seed saving. Good for new gardeners or those wishing to add more edibles to the garden.
2:45 – 5:15pm Permaculture Possibilities : from design to application with Delvin
Delvin interjects a class from his Permaculture course - permaculture practices, pathway building, hugelkultur, guild building (this class $10).

Potluck dinner here for those not going on to Peter Light’s weekend.

6:00 on – Peter Light’s place at 2692 Highway 101
Dinner cooked on fire. Basic hearty soup and bread provided. Extra options welcome

8:30 - 10:00pm Prerequisites to Starting
A circle around a fire to discuss the prerequisites to gardening and permaculture necessary for setting meaningful goals, motivation, sustained energy and action, and lifetime commitment. These prerequisites include a critical political and social analysis; an ethical commitment; a moral repugnance; a sense of hopelessness; personal dissatisfaction; an undoing of social conditioning and mainstream assumptions; awareness of our vulnerability and fear for the future; a will to survive; a clear alternative vision; and courage to take the leap.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9
at Peter Light’s - 2692 Highway 101
NOTE: Food Preservation classes are also occurring in Roberts Creek on Sunday – see information following Peter Light’s programs.

11:00am – 1:00pm Into the Woods
Our resource base for gardening and permaculture is other people's waste, the sea, the shore, the fields and the forest. Our local "woods" contain many free materials useful and essential for simple living. Learning to recognize and use them is essential for any degree of
" living on the land" and "natural building", and can provide food, mainly fungi; fuel; fencing; and a full range of building materials, for, shelter.
1:30 - 3:00PM On the Ground: Exploring a Permaculture Design
This workshop will center on the instructor's garden and permaculture design laid down six years ago, and will explore examples of sitting, "small is beautiful", windbreaks, doorstep development, vegetable garden lay-out, plant guilds, water management, aquaculture beginnings, bamboo cultivation, and much more.
Break for snacks and tea
4:00 – 5:30PM Getting Started
From wild land to productive garden in days, doing it mostly for free; utilizing what's there; the collection of resources; the stretching of resources; hands-on sheet mulching demonstration; getting [the soil] rich quick; keys to successful gardening.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9
at 1169 Crowe Road, Roberts Creek. This is the old Crowe Road Herb Farm. Bring lunch and dress according to weather.

9:00 - 10:30 Timely Actions in the Garden – with Randy Ridgewell (Tame)
Randy will walk through her garden and show us proper harvesting techniques, how to prepare her magic elixir, cover cropping and many more important early fall tasks.
10:45 - 12:15 - Canning for Beginners with Diana Morgan
For those just experimenting with all that home canning can offer, Diana will guide us through a whole canning session, from basket to jar, and we will each go home with a jar of goodies and a lot more confidence.

September 9
at Edible Landscapes, 1732 Pell Road, Roberts Creek
1:15 - 2:45 Fermentation Workshop #1 with Andrea
For centuries, folks preserved food using lacto-fermentation. Learn how to prepare healthful, flavorful and inexpensive foods using this technique at home. Class one: Sauerkraut and fermented salsa.
3:00 – 4:30 Fermentation Workshop #2 with Andrea
Andrea now leads us through the life cycle of the famed Kombucha (fermented tea beverage) and the makings of traditional brined pickles.

2006-2007 Courses:

SATURDAY JUNE 24

9:00 am – 10:30 am Herb Recognition with Robin Wheeler Many of us work intensively with tinctures and teas, yet would not recognize the plants that are the basis of the medicines we trust and use. This class is not so much about specific uses of herbs - it is about meeting, touching, smelling and tasting the living plants to develop an empathy and affinity with the herbs we work with.

10:45 am – 12:15 pm Wildcrafting Indigenous Herbs with Lyrae Emerson
An examination of the methods of ethically harvesting wild and indigenous plants in a manner that minimizes impact on the population while maximizing their medicinal potential. A focus will be given to native medicinal herbs, but we will also discuss traditional medicinal plants and look at how the practice of wildcrafting in itself can be a healing experience. We will also look at some of the methods of processing the leaves, flowers, berries, bark and roots that we collect. Comes with take home instruction sheet on wildcrafting and harvesting guidelines.

12:15 – 1:15 pm Lunch

1:15 – 2:30 pm Make Your Own Herb Teas with Robin Wheeler
From a soothing after- dinner blend to something that will knock cold symptoms flat, we will talk about the storage, selection and blending of simple herb “infusions”. We will clean and prepare some dried stems “from scratch” to give students a feel for it, and blend and taste some teas. This course will make students feel more confident about directly accessing garden plants for teas.

2:45 – 4:15 pm The Energetics of Western Herbs with Nadine Ijaz
Traditional Chinese Medicine offers a practical, simple approach to plant therapeutics – the system of “Energetics”.
Medicinal actions are based on their Energetic properties:
-heating or cooling
-the 5 tastes
-the 4 directions
-organs & meridians entered.

This class will:
Help you gain an understanding of this ancient & time tested system’s application to western herbs.

5:30 – 6:30 pm – Shared/potluck dinner

7 – 9 pm at the little Gumboot in the Heart of the Creek - Aleatora (Barry Taylor on percussion and Chris Bernetchez on flutes) will fill the room with their zen-like sounds while we get an opportunity to see the Alan Sirulnikoff’s evocative slideshow of the Wild Medicinal Flowers of the Sunshine Coast. Cymba will explain the uses of these plants. $6

SUNDAY JUNE 25

10:00 – 11:30 am Making Oils and Salves – Barb Cotgrave
Learn how simple and rewarding making herb oils can be, using both heat and sun. By using different herbal combinations and different oils to extract the herbal essences you can make both strong medicinal oils and sweetly-scented oils. Once we have gone over how to produce herbal oils it is a delightful and easy step to producing a simple salve. Depending on the herbs used, a salve can be used for a variety of different conditions. Barb will go over some of these combinations.

11:45 am – 1:15 pm Chinese Herbs in the Lower Mainland with Sarah Jacobs
As Traditional Chinese Medicine becomes more recognized by North Americans, growers and healers are taking a second look at the plants that make up the hundreds of medicinals used as tea, pellet or poultice. Sarah Jacobs of Lotus House and Robin Wheeler of Edible Landscapes have begun to investigate which plants will grow well here and how they can be used medically or for possible commercial production. Sarah will introduce participants to over 30 plants used in Chinese medicine and discuss parts used and problems of harvest and preparation.

1:15 – 2:15 pm – Lunch

2:15 – 3:45 pm Herbal Tonics with Sarah Gilbert and Urszula Dragowska
Traditional Chinese Medicine classifies tonics as the “Superior” herbs due to their profound health promoting actions.
-They strengthen, protect & regulate
- Are safe: have no negative side effects

This class will:
-Describe the different types of tonics
-Help identify their suitability for individual conditions & constitutions.

4:00 – 5:30 pm Native use of Herbs with Cymba
Cymba will guide us to different plants in the garden and explain how the barks, roots, berries and leaves were used to make medicines by indigenous people. We will visit Devils club, yarrow, fireweed, cascara, Nootka rose and more.

Saturday February 24 - Mushroom Cultivation

10:00 am -12:00 pm: Alder Log Mushroom Cultivation
Michael Maser will take us through a start to finish process of inoculating cut alder logs to cultivate our own shiitake mushrooms, which will flush on the logs for several years to come. He will discuss environment, timing, resources and ongoing care and will demonstrate drilling and packing. Each student will take home 3 metre-long inoculated logs.

$25. (dress for all weathers!) Contact Robin at 885-4505 info@ediblelandscapes.ca; (if students feel they are willing and able to inoculate many more logs following this workshop, more mushroom spawn can be ordered for them; inoculating 100 logs would cost roughly $35 in spawn. RSVP Robin about this).

March 31 - Practical Permie Weekend #3 Saturday March 31 – 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and Sunday April 1st - 9:00 to 4:00 pm

Saturday March 31

Forest Gardening with Gregoire Lamoureux “ How to Create a Forest Garden in your Backyard
A forest garden is an integrated system of interplanted and mutually beneficial trees, shrubs, perennial & annual plants that produce an abundance of food, medicinal plants, fibres and more.
9:00am - 12:00pm: Introduction, what is a forest garden, plant species, etc.
12:00 - 1:00pm: Lunch
1:00 - 4:00pm: Observation, how to design & implement a forest garden,hands-on

4:15 - 5:30pm: Mingle and meet time!

6:00 pm at Peter Light’s place at 2692 Highway 101
Dinner cooked on fire. Basic hearty soup and bread provided. Extra options welcome

8:30 - 10:00pm: Prerequisites to Starting
A circle around a fire to discuss the prerequisites to gardening and permaculture necessary for setting meaningful goals, motivation, sustained energy and action, and lifetime commitment. These prerequisites include a critical political and social analysis; an ethical commitment; a moral repugnance; a sense of hopelessness; personal dissatisfaction; an undoing of social conditioning and mainstream assumptions; awareness of our vulnerability and fear for the future; a will to survive; a clear alternative vision; and courage to take the leap.

Sunday April 1 - Peter Light’s place at 2692 Highway 101

11:00am – 1:00pm: Into the Woods
Our resource base for gardening and permaculture is other people's waste, the sea, the shore, the fields and the forest. Our local "woods" contain many free materials useful and essential for simple living. Learning to recognize and use them is essential for any degree of" living on the land" and "natural building", and can provide food, mainly fungi; fuel; fencing; and a full range of building materials, for, shelter.

1:30 - 3:00pm: On the Ground: Exploring a Permaculture Design
This workshop will center on the instructor's garden and permaculture design laid down six years ago, and will explore examples of sitting, "small is beautiful", windbreaks, doorstep development, vegetable garden lay-out, plant guilds, water management, aquaculture beginnings, bamboo cultivation, and much more.

4:00 - 5:30pm: Getting Started
From wild land to productive garden in days, doing it mostly for free; utilizing what's there; the collection of resources; the stretching of resources; hands-on sheet mulching demonstration; getting [the soil] rich quick; keys to successful gardening.

Sunday April 8 – Spring Rites

10:00 - 11:30am: Raising Poultry Organically with Lisa Atkinson
Perfect for the beginner, we will cover raising chicks and poults (turkeys) organically. Topics will including: choosing your chicks or poults, breed types, sources, starting young poultry, catching diseases early and homeopathic care. Also we will cover the difference in feeding and management of chickens for egg or meat production.

11:45am - 1:10pm: Planning the Subsistence Garden with Robin Wheeler
We know there is a difference between an annual vegetable garden and the subsistence garden. This class will help make the leap to a more year round system. Garden tour with tasting and question period, plus time for creating your plant list, sourcing and siting of new plants, plus use of foods, teas and simple medicines.

1:10 - 2:00pm: Lunch

2:00 - 3:30: Compost Demystified with Alain Bergeron
An overview of traditional composting methods including vermiculture (using worms to breakdown and enrich soil with their castings), traditional layer composting, and sheet composting; overview of the elements, materials and conditions necessary to produce compost; suggestions for readily available materials to produce healthy compost; an explanation of the differences between aerobic and anaerobic methods of composting; using compost as mulch. The workshop will culminate with a group, hands on building of a compost pile using biodynamic preparation.

3:45 - 5:15pm: Woodpile Facts for the Faint Hearted, with Robin Wheeler
This class is for the very beginner woodstove user who wants some solid basics. How and where to situate a woodpile, stacking do’s and don’ts, simple splitting techniques, what not to burn, and a quick visit to a woodstove to learn its parts and how to burn a good fire.

Saturday April 28 - Farm Skills

9:00 - 10:30pm: Raising Farm Fowl with Madrone 2892 Highway 101 (offer carpooling, please!)
Madrone will discuss housing, spacing, feeding, handling and moving of small farm birds, and will also talk about Heritage birds.

11:00am - 12:15pm: Woodpile Facts for the Faint Hearted with Robin Wheeler
This class is for the very beginner woodstove user who wants some solid basics. How and where to situate a woodpile, terminology, stacking do’s and don’ts, simple splitting techniques, what not to burn, and a quick visit to a woodstove to learn its parts and maintenance, and how to burn a good fire.

12:30 - 1:00pm: Bag or bought lunch

1:00 - 2:30pm: Food Preservation Basics with Val Lugar
A quick beginner’s class on food drying, canning and cheese making. Taste some samples and learn about equipment. This is a “starter” for a later canning class.

2:45 - 4:15pm: Humane Butchering with Lisa Atkinson
Even if only raising chickens for eggs, it is important to know how to kindly dispatch a sick or injured bird. And for those raising a protein supply, this class will also teach the proper methods of preparation to take farm birds to the table. We will cover a couple of methods to humanely kill a chicken and Lisa will demonstrate her preferred method, and we will carry on through plucking, eviscerating, examining the internal organs to check our flock health and discuss the best birds to butcher, ageing the meat and packaging. (participants can decide whether to assist or not – do not wear “Sunday best” if assisting …)

4:15 - 5:30pm: Basic Bees with Aaron Becker
Learn the basics of beekeeping to help start you on the path to becoming a beekeeper. This introductory session will cover the life cycle of the honeybee, hive siting and management, equipment, tools, setting up a hive and handling diseases.

Sunday April 29 - Seeds and Soil

10:00 – 11:30 am: Backyard Grain: seed, symbol and social capital
This workshop will cover the basic botany of cereal grains and address part of the history and sociology of grain systems. It will focus on why growing small-scale grain plots is important at this time as well as advocate the role local grain systems can play in connecting people with place. To support the theoretical premise that working with small-scale grain is a symbol of the origins of cooperative life, this workshop will encourage collectively participating in ‘the evolution of grain milling’ and involve planting grain crops on site.

11:45am - 1:15pm: Improving Marginal Soils
How can you start with two acres of mixed marginal soils consisting of areas of gravel, clay, sand and rough brush and end up with a self-sustained market garden? This session will introduce inexpensive high-efficiency organic methods and tricks to improve any type of soil — even on a micro plot. Fertility, improved drainage, and getting your crops to maturity are part of the mix. Learn about how the right crop choices can also maximize yields while you bring your soil into top production mode.

Saturday May 12 – Water Wisdom Weekend

9:00am - 10:30pm: Grey Water Systems with Steve Henry (Off site)
Greywater - What is not greywater, Uses of greywater, filtration, water plants and fish, types of soap not to use, plumbing, legal issues, subsurface irrigation.

11:00am - 12:30pm: Water Wise Planting with Robin Wheeler
Robin will show us some of her own methods of “training” plants to follow the water table, and will discuss mulch, mini swales, low tech water collection and early season plantings and plant selection.

12:30 - 1:15pm: Lunch

1:15 - 3:30pm: Irrigation Intrigue with Jason Woodall
The beginner will learn about the components of an irrigation system. Watch a system get designed, then help assemble it and watch it work! If you have never handled irrigation material, you will feel quite comfortable after Jason shows you how!

4:00 – 5:30pm: Reading the Water on Your Land with Diane Falvey
This will be a walk about, honing our observation skills to find the water plentiful and water scarce zones on the land and how to work with them.
(Special course!!! Diane is one of our special Permie Elders, and she is facilitating this single workshop during a visit from her new home in New York State. – take it for the sheer joy of it!)

May 20 – Practical Permie Weekend #4 - Land Stewardship
Saturday May 20 - 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and Sunday May 21 - 9:00 to 4:00 pm

9:00 - 10:30am: Mapping with Native Technology in Mind with Cymba

10:45am - 12:15pm: Plant Recognition with Robin Wheeler
We will look at many types of plants – garden “weeds”, herbs, flowers, vines, tubers and berries and see how they fit into our Edible Landscape. A good beginner class for those just learning to identify permaculture plants. Lots of tasting and smelling will be done!

12:15 - 1:00pm: Lunch

1:00 - 2:30pm: Expanding a Limited Nutrient Supply with Chris Berrio
Chris will show examples of how organic and sustainable agriculture is practiced in Columbia. He will make some of his “magic fertilizers” made from simple ingredients that will boost plant productivity.

2:45 - 4:15pm: Ongoing Plant Care with Robin Wheeler
This is just an early summer “walk and talk” about what plants are needing in the garden right now, be it thinning, mulching or cutting back growth, and we will talk about garden prep, water issues and feeding.

4:30 - 6:00pm: Integrating Permaculture Principles into Garden Design workshop by Harry Hill
The workshop will cover the basic steps of garden design: creating a site survey of the property that shows existing features and trees, indicates drainage problems and where summer sun falls; working out the best possible circulation (pathways) on the property; doing zone analysis following permaculture principles; suggesting where food-producing trees, shrubs, vines and ground crops can be placed. The workshop will conclude by having participants sketch a garden design for their own property (or their ‘dream’ property) based on what they have just learned.

6:00pm: Peter Light’s place at 2692 Highway 101
Dinner cooked on fire. Basic hearty soup and bread provided. Extra options welcome

8:30 - 10:00pm: Prerequisites to Starting
A circle around a fire to discuss the prerequisites to gardening and permaculture necessary for setting meaningful goals, motivation, sustained energy and action, and lifetime commitment. These prerequisites include a critical political and social analysis; an ethical commitment; a moral repugnance; a sense of hopelessness; personal dissatisfaction; an undoing of social conditioning and mainstream assumptions; awareness of our vulnerability and fear for the future; a will to survive; a clear alternative vision; and courage to take the leap.

Sunday - Peter Light’s place at 2692 Highway 101:

11:00am – 1:00pm: Into the Woods
Our resource base for gardening and permaculture is other people's waste, the sea, the shore, the fields and the forest. Our local "woods" contain many free materials useful and essential for simple living. Learning to recognize and use them is essential for any degree of
" living on the land" and "natural building", and can provide food, mainly fungi; fuel; fencing; and a full range of building materials, for, shelter.

1:30 - 3:00pm: On the Ground: Exploring a Permaculture Design
This workshop will center on the instructor's garden and permaculture design laid down six years ago, and will explore examples of sitting, "small is beautiful", windbreaks, doorstep development, vegetable garden lay-out, plant guilds, water management, aquaculture beginnings, bamboo cultivation, and much more.

Break for snacks and tea

4:00 – 5:30pm: Getting Started
From wild land to productive garden in days, doing it mostly for free; utilizing what's there; the collection of resources; the stretching of resources; hands-on sheet mulching demonstration; getting [the soil] rich quick; keys to successful gardening.

Sunday May 20 at Edible Landscapes

10:00am– 12:30pm Natural Soapmaking Workshop with Lyrae Emerson
Learn the art of making all natural all vegetable soaps at home in your own kitchen, like great-Grandma used to make, only better! We will cover supplies and utensils needed, soapmaking instructions, natural colourings, natural scents, herbal soaps, healing soaps, final presentation of your soaps, and more. Please bring 2 small (single serving size) empty and clean yogurt containers with you. Fee $40 for 2 1⁄2 hours, includes 1 bar naturally scented and naturally coloured soap plus 1 bar of an unscented herbal soap that we will make in class that you can bring home with you, plus basic soapmaking instructions sheet.

Instructor Lyrae Emerson has a BSc, Honors, in Environmental Sciences and is an entrepreneur who started her own successful home-based business making all natural soaps and herbal products.

We will have some supplies / booklets for sale so you may want to bring extra cash. NOTE: 50% of all proceeds from the class fees and 20% of all proceeds from the sale of supplies will be used to fund a volunteer based noxious weed removal program on the Sunshine Coast. Time: 10:00 – 12:30 PM Date: May 20 Place: 1732 Pell Rd, Roberts Creek. Contact Lyrae at 604-885-4384 or lyrae@telus.net to reserve your space.

1:30 – 3:30pm Using Medicinal Herbs with Lyrae
Are you mystified with what to do with those herbs that you carefully grew and harvested? In this course we cover a multitude of different ways that herbs can be used from herbal salves and balms, to poultices, oils, infusions, decoctions, fomentations, and we will even look at other uses such as crafts and household use. Fee $40 for 2 1⁄2 hours, price includes 1 jar of all purpose healing herbal salve, some looseleaf tea, herbal pills and other miscellaneous medicines that we will be making in class.

Instructor Lyrae Emerson has a BSc, Honors, in Environmental Sciences and is an entrepreneur who started her own successful home-based business making all natural soaps and herbal products.

We will have some supplies / booklets for sale so you may want to bring extra cash. NOTE: 50% of all proceeds from the class fees and 20% of all proceeds from the sale of supplies will be used to fund a volunteer based noxious weed removal program on the Sunshine Coast. Time: 1:30 – 3:30 PM Date: Sunday May 20th Place: 1732 Pell Rd, Roberts Creek. Contact Lyrae at 604-885-4384 or lyrae@telus.net to reserve your space.

Sunday June 10 – Planning And Doing

9:00 – 10:30 am Planning the Winter Garden with Alain Bergeron
Alain will describe some of the foods he eats in winter, and how and when these plants are started (seeds, tubers etc). He will describe the life cycle of the plant, how to extend seasons, and then the class will clear, prepare and plant a garden bed of winter foods.

10:45 am – 12:15pm The Subsistence Garden with Robin Wheeler
We know there is a difference between an annual vegetable garden and the subsistence garden. This class will help make the leap to a more year-round system that will support us in many ways. Garden tour with tasting and question time, microclimating and siting, discussion of using these plants as food, teas and simple medicines.

12:15 – 1 pm Lunch Brown bag or $4 for snacks (fruit, corn chips and tea)

1 – 3:00 pm Framing for Beginners with Eric Paterson
Every time we try to put together a quick green house, chicken coop or lean-to, we realize there are simple rules of construction framing that would come in handy about now. Eric will show us how to frame up a simple shed structure (a composting toilet shed!). ($30)

3:15 – 4:45 pm Plant Based Native Technologies with Cymba
Many of us are clearing land for building sites and gardens without understanding the historic importance and uses of many of the plants we are digging out and destroying. Cymba will give a garden walk and describe several plants and their uses in making clothing, glues, bowls, fibers and more. We will use material from a tree to repair a tool handle, and we will make a quick fibre twine.

5:30 pm Shared/Potluck Dinner for those wishing to stay.
Back to the Land Weekend in Robert's Creek BC on the Sunshine Coast, just 20 minutes from the Langdale ferry terminal. Saturday and Sunday July 26 &27, 2008 Register and find out more about where to stay from super-cheap camping on Robin's land, hostels, and other possibilities. Call Robin at 604-885-4505 or info@ediblelandscapes.ca

A two day primer for those starting from scratch or improving their methods of close-to-the-ground living. (See Peter Light's great bio at the end of this letter)

Info/registration call- (604) 885-4505. Please note that pre-payment is now necessary due to last minute cancellations in the past.

Saturday - July 26 at Edible Landscapes (1732 Pell Road)

9:30 - 10:30 Water Wise Planting with Robin Wheeler ($20) Includes "training" plants to follow the water table, and will discuss mulch, mini swales, low tech water collection and early season plantings and plant selection.

10:45 - noon Subsistence and Winter Gardening with Robin Wheeler ($25) Start planning now to replace more of your needs from your garden. We will discuss food choices that reduce dependence on outside food sources, how to grow, harvest & preserve them, and how to stretch seasons and have good timing for winter planting.

Lunch - Brown bag or preorder a $6 snack lunch with herb teas.

12:45 - 2:15 Using Medicinal Herbs with Robin Wheeler ($25) There is so much to learn about herb use. This class offers a starting point for selecting important medicinals, learning the different methods for getting them into your body, and for techniques of harvest, storage and preparation.

3:00 - 4:30 Bee Keeping with Al Cobbin ($25) Al Cobbin has spent 40 years working with bees, and we will visit a couple of his hives and learn about life cycle, housing, feeding and potential issues of working with bees. Al will show equipment, hive siting and bee products as part of his class.

6 pm on - If desired, shared dinner and discussion at Edible Landscapes.

Sunday July 27 at Edible Landscapes (1732 Pell Road)

9:30 - 11:00 - Improving Marginal Soils with Alain Bergeron ($25) Alain turned a raw forest clearing into a fine and productive working market garden using everything he could find around him. He will discuss quick soil analysis and materials needed for correcting typical soil issues, and will get everyone working on a patch of ground trying out his methods!

11:15 - noon - Making Herb Teas with Robin Wheeler ($20) Robin will show various dried products she uses for teas and then we will meet, taste and harvest various plants for tea and taste some results. Drying and long term storage will be discussed.

Lunch - brown bag or preorder $6 snack lunch with herb tea

THEN - Off to Peter Light's place! 2692 Highway 101 (Call him at 604-886-8527 for details)

1:30 onwards - From the Doorstep - How to Save Our Lives with Peter Light $55) A four hour permaculture intensive with Peter Light. Includes foundation principles, key working maxims, the eight design methods, and examples and practices, Also covers voluntary poverty, dropping out and intentional community. Dinner, firecircle and discussion to follow. Tape-recorders suggested.

Read Peter's amazing bio http://slas.ca/peter-light/