Women's Gardening Apprenticeship
ReConnect to the earth.
ReBalance your energy.
ReVitalize your spirit.
Gardening, food preservation, medicine making, crafts, wild foods, wilderness skills and personal tools to increase vitality.
This is a 7 month program for women from May to October, meeting one weekend a month.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The ultimate focus of this program is to share skills I have learned to help nurture a healthy body, mind and spirit. As an Earth Momma, nature lover and foodie, this starts with getting our hands in the soil and learning to grow your own food organically from start to finish. When you know what good food looks, smells and tastes like, you will know how to create that for yourself, family and loved ones for the rest of your life.
As part of developing holistic health, we will make herbal medicines each weekend that come from wild plants growing in our region. These herbs are excellent for addressing many of the basic ailments that we have in our lives and enough to start you on an herbal path and create your own apothecary for health and security.
Harvesting garlic scapes
To balance our physical activities in the garden, we use different tools such as the drum, medicine wheel, meditations, crafts, woods walks & reading assignments to help increase our personal power and connect our hearts in all we do. In shamanic practices 'personal power' is your power that you have cultivated, developed, and stored to move you on your path of potential. This power helps you make decisions and take risks to follow your heart and bring joy and vitality in your life. There is a saying that "shamans are gardeners of energy" and in this way we all need to be shamans for ourselves and the world. Having the power(energy) to follow our hearts makes us healthier, and in turn, the world.
We use the biointensive method of gardening that I began using 26 years ago with the discovery of the gardening book How To Grow More Vegetables... by John Jeavons. This method of food production uses only hand tools, actually creates soil, instead of depleting it like conventional methods, and increases yields in almost half the space of traditional gardening methods. We start seeds, plant seedlings, maintain the garden, build compost and harvest using this book as our guide.
Our goal is not only to have hands-on knowledge to feed and care for ourselves, but also to help find/maintain balance and health in our hearts and minds. This is how we love ourselves and be of loving service to each other and the world. We garden to grow our food and medicine with love, we use techniques and tools to bring in more energy with love. We then take in that love and empower ourselves in the process of connecting directly with the web of life.
Whether you want to learn more about being a gardener, herbalist, naturalist and shaman, or are just looking to work with heart and hands outdoors with like-minded women, I know you will greatly enjoy this program. At Wildmoon Homesteading it's not just about looking for a new hobby, it's also about pushing the edges of our experience in a safe and beautiful setting while learning unique skills that will empower us on our life journey, no matter what path we choose.
2024 DATES:
MAY 3-5
MAY 31-June 2nd
JUNE 28-30
JULY 26-28
AUGUST 23-24
SEPTEMBER 20-22
OCTOBER 18-20
CLASS SCHEDULE
Class begins at 5pm Fridays and ends at 4pm on Sundays.
Each weekend we begin Friday evenings with a check-in and a pot-luck dinner together, sharing seasonal and homemade dishes. After dinner we discuss homework, the weekend schedule and enjoy a fire if weather permits. Saturday mornings class begins at 8:30am starting with body movement then move into what needs tending in the garden. Sundays begin at 9am with stretching, gardening, lecture and crafts. Evenings are for meditations, woods walks, drumming, and story telling around the fire.
We get dirty and use our muscles; lots of kneeling, hauling, bending, digging and lifting. We share the work load, help each other, and work around challenges as they arise. Don't worry if you are unable to lift or bend much - just being there to learn and enjoy is enough.
COURSE FOOD
Each participant brings a dish to share for Friday evening meals. I will provide healthy, organic breakfast foods, snacks and a delicious, gluten-free dinner and dessert from the land on Friday & Saturday nights. A tea selection and delicious well water will be provided all day.
You bring lunches and snacks and any foods for special dietary needs.
LOCATION
We are located on the unseeded ancestral lands of the Haudenosaunee, Onondaga, and Conestoga peoples, that shared this land for 10,000 years. We are nestled on 34 acres in a narrow valley with beautiful creeks and forest surrounding us and just two miles from Shindagin Hollow State Forest and 18 miles south of Ithaca, New York. There is a cold creek filled with fossil stones and a small pond to enjoy with privacy.
CAMPING ON THE LAND
Participants are expected to stay on the land for the weekend. This helps create a powerful, unique and uninterrupted learning experience for all of us.
Here are your camping options, available on a first-come-first serve basis.
- Cottage with heat and electricity (additional $50 per person, per weekend) for up to 3 people
- Lean-to shelter for up to 2 people
- 2 large tents
- 2 Coleman cots
- With your own tent in the woods or lawn area under the stars.
You can arrive as early as 3pm to set up on Fridays. We have an adorable outhouse with a composting toilet that smells like fresh milled wood, thanks to the wood shavings my husband provides from his work shop. There is also an outdoor shower and sink in a privacy tent for bathing.
TUITION COST & REGISTRATION
Course cost is $1900 for 7 weekends.
This includes:
- 200+ hours of hands-on education!
- A copy of How To Grow More Vegetables... by John Jeavons
- A WIldmoon Homesteading notebook filled with handouts
- A handmade larch planting flat
- Organic dinners, desserts, breakfasts and snacks
- Herbal medicine to take home, totaling 6-8 quarts of tincture and a quart of fire cider.
- Canned foods we make to take home
- Fresh, organic garden veggies (and fruit when available) to take home every weekend
- A private Facebook group to ask questions and share information ongoing
- All craft supplies
- Tools to build and store personal power
- Knowledge to grow food, make medicine, and preserve to build on for a life time!
REGISTRATION
To get started, REGISTER HERE!
Then pay your non-refundable deposit of $150 to hold your place.
This is payable by check or
paypal.me/wildmoonhomesteading
http://venmo.com/
Register and pay in full by February 15th and take $200 off tuition cost!
Register with deposit by February 15th and take $100 off tuition cost
Register with deposit by March 15th and take $75 off tuition cost
Register with deposit by April 1st and take $50 off tuition cost
Monthly Payment plans are available!
Please email me to discuss options. wildmoonhomesteading@gmail.com
There is limited space in this program so register early to save your place!
You must be 18 or older to register and attend.
Please contact me with any questions.
Suzanne Johnson at
wildmoonhomesteading@gmail.com
