Attendees of this workshop will be getting their hands dirty! This will be an introduction to the process of sourcing Wild clay from the Earth, and converting it into a material usable for topical medicine, ceramics, or building material. The class will begin with a discussion of where one might find wild clay, and what tests one can perform to determine various qualities. Following the discussion, participants will use simple tools to crush, sift, and hydrate clay. We will end with muddy skin, and a follow up discussion. Upon request, participants can delve deeper to experiment with making simple vessels, and perform test firings in a pit or wood-fired oven, and, with some luck, take home a wildcrafted vessel.

Presented By: Cyrus Bacon

Community and personal resilience begins with you. Be prepared for when the lights go out and the grid goes down. Practical, educational and attitude skills to survive and actually help your family or neighbor in the event of major disasters, when the usual industrial infrastructure is off-line, for shorter or longer times. Basic tactics and tools for owning your own light and electric, no matter what the circumstance. Applicable for individuals and small community groups, no matter the disaster situation or social breakdown.

Presented By: Chaz Peling

Staple crops can be an important, fun, and easy part of a regenerative system. This is a hands-on workshop where you will learn about growing and processing different grain crops by hand. There will be a discussion on planting and harvesting, then practice threshing, winnowing, and grinding different grains. There will be wheat, amaranth, and grinding corn to practice on, and you can take seeds home if you want!

Presented By: Shane Brown

Fiber systems are an often-forgotten, but essential part of wholistic systems of living. This is a hands-on workshop about growing and processing plant and animal fibers, from seed or animal to finished cloth. There will be wool, nettle, and flax that you will have the opportunity to practice processing, spinning, and weaving on simple looms. Bring a spindle if you have one!

Presented By: Shane Brown

Do you ever see a space along the sidewalk that needs some Earth Art but there’s not space for a large structure such as bench or a hut? We will be building a “Cobelisk” tower which will have a living roof, nooks to put special things, a stone base, and a fun decorative feature. It will be built outside along the highway just as you enter town.

Presented By: Miguel “Coballero” Elliott

Our human form is experiencing very similar imbalances as the earth itself. If we can learn to listen to the elemental symptoms of our bodies, perhaps we can better support the environment around us.
Why reinvent the elemental health wheel, when so many amazing cultures have already figured it out? Let’s back up and look at how we are all brilliantly designed maps, unique in nature, and be willing to listen to ourselves and act accordingly for the sake of balance and shared space.

Presented By: DeAnna Batdorff

Greywater 101 will cover the basics of water resources and techniques for reusing water. We will define grey- and black-water and go over different mechanism to recycle water, such as branch drain systems and laundry-to-landscape systems. Freshwater is a finite resource and we need to keep it fresh!

Presented By: Nina Gordon-Kirsch

EcoKosm: practical tools and technologies for personal and community practice towards a world of belonging. This workshop is for people committed to tending the soul of community, the ethics of organizations, and the vibrant interconnectivity of all of life. Let’s look at the world through life’s eyes and explore how we can align our consciousness, our practice and our understanding of what’s valuable with a viable evolutionary pathway through the anthropocene. Expect a playful, experiential blend of mind mapping, embodied practice and truth telling.

Presented By: Samantha Sweetwater

This informative, illustrated presentation includes how to differentiate and use our coastal “sea vegetables”. In addition to a slideshow with demonstration items, we’ll discuss seaweed ecology, harvest cycles, and the nutritional/health benefits of seaweed. Nori, Wakame, Bladderwrack and Kombu are just a few of the local seaweeds that you’ll learn about.

Presented By: Heidi Herrmann

Holistic watershed management is the critical guiding principle to any ecological design. Come learn the basics of water harvesting on a residential or land project scale – we will discuss how-to calculate rainwater flow and tank size; how-to integrate rainwater systems into your design; how-to passively collect rainwater in different earthworks systems; how-to best harvest greywater from your bathroom or laundry; how-to design compost toilets; and more!

Presented By: Brennan Blazer Bird

Workshop participants will apply permaculture principles towards developing drawing skills to improve conceptual and physical aspects of their design plans. Focus will be on the principles, “Observe and Interact”, Design from Patterns to Details” and “Integrate rather than Segregate” to explore methods of gathering, organizing and expressing design concepts from your brain to the paper. Everyone from complete beginners to experienced artists and designers is welcome. An interest in the natural world and visual expression is encouraged.

Presented By: Bonnie Borucki

This workshop will cover an in depth overview of the process of building a hut using pallets, insulated with straw, or plastic and covered in an earthen cob plaster. A super quick, affordable, durable and beautiful housing design. Covered in the workshop will also be an overview of cob building and protecting your cob structures from the elements.

Presented By: Miguel “Coballero” Elliott

This could be two workshops even:
1) F.O.G. – how to Finance, Own and Govern ‘The Commons’. Legal research project for creating regenerative land projects.
2) Lawful Permaculture – Coming out of the Closet: from land use zoning to grey/blackwater reclaimation, from legal cob/earthen affordable housing to composting toilets….all OUR ECOVILLAGE’s examples of legalizing permaculture over the past 20 years.

Presented By: Brandy Gallagher

In this workshop we will learn how to preserve abundant fruit harvests and make hard cider and mead. There will also be an overview on Fermentation, how it relates to gut health and many common modern misconceptions being sold in stores these days. We will also sample some bubbly spirits to celebrate being together

Presented By: Doug Miller-Fleig

How resilient is your community? How ready are you for the natural and man-made disasters and disruptions that inevitably accompany climate change? Did you know that our work in permaculture, homesteading, and building resilient community is also disaster preparedness work? Join this vibrant discussion about these overlapping fields, and explore ways of leveraging ‘crisis consciousness’ to enhance your efforts to build truly resilient community. Learn how to assemble your own “go bag,” receive great practical resilience and emergency-prep tips that could save lives, and share your wisdom and experience in this interactive workshop, hosted by experienced certified First Responders Nils Palsson of Transition US and Lesley Moore of Transition Berkeley.

Presented By: Nils Palsson and Lesley Moore

Empowerment & Earth Connection for Modern Witches is about building resiliency through understanding of self. Utilizing plant medicine, magick, and non-violent communication herbalist Julie Benefico will lead an interactive workshop to help folks gain insight into stories, projections, and stuck energy that may be blocking us from personal and collective prosperity. When people can gain awareness of these aspects of self they can shed unhealthy tendencies and work toward holistic healing. In order to heal the world humans must first do the self work. This class is a beautiful opportunity to tune into the shadow & transform old patterns into your deepest desires! Julie will share self care practices, a fall equinox releasing ritual, plant allies for empowerment, and group process work.

Presented By: Julie Benefico

Social Forestry is about local communities working together to enhance and restore Oak Pine savannas, riparian corridors, brush lands, community woodlands and fire resistant old growth forests.
Our work in Ecotopia (or is it Cascadia?) of re-indigenation, de-colonization and re-wilding  takes place on our forested landscapes.  We are all relations of the trees, the tall standing people.  Our attitude needs be of gratitude.

Presented By: Hazel (aka tom ward) Ward

Herbs are best at stacking functions, playing different roles in permaculture design. They provide us with amazing medicine, and a succession of flowering for the continual habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators. Some are dynamic accumulators, which pull up minerals for us and the soil. In this workshop, we will teach permaculture planting methods integrating medicinal herbs. We will then demonstrate ways to use the herbs with hands-on medicine making.

Presented By: Laura(Indigo) Donaldson  & Shea Smith & Raya Cole of School of Wholistic Permaculture

Are you ready to explore the brilliant wealth of pleasure and knowledge that’s stored in your body? What world of possibilities awaits as we dive into the deep recesses of the psyche and massage our knottiest kinks. In this rich conversation we will discuss (and play with)

X Herbal allies and formulas for cathartic release and transformation
X Techniques for creating an immaculate container strong enough to explore your deepest desires
X Methods to integrate release and begin anew

This is a safe space and all discussed in class is completely confidential.

Presented By: Alexandra Hudson