Each group will meet from 5:15-9:15 pm once a month, on the designated day. We will have no more than 12 women per group, and registration will be open until the spots are filled. After that, the groups are closed for the year. 

I believe the key to this experience being a success is for each of us to be consistently present and invested in building this community with each other.

We will start by preparing some component(s) of a meal together (much of the meal will be prepped in advance to save on time). Most of the ingredients will have been grown on our farm, but the rest will be locally sourced organic foods. I will share recipes for everything we make so that you are able to reproduce these meals for your own household. 

Where our garden series class focuses on how to grow for year round eating, this group will focus on the practical day to day application of preserving, cooking, baking and eating seasonally year round. 

We then sit down to enjoy the meal we have prepared together. Some months, we have a discussion topic (the point of the topics are to get to know each other better). Every 3rd month we will have a “book club” about a book we choose to read together.

After eating, we move on to the skill or craft portion of the evening. 

Here are some of the topics that will be taught:

–Milling, cooking and baking with grains (including ancient grains)
-How to dry flowers and making Fall wreaths/arrangements from dried flowers 
-Making & using medicinal remedies from medicinal herbs we have grown and foraged (including fire cider, elderberry syrup, etc.)
-Rendering fats & lard
-All about raising chicks & laying hens (including growing fodder)
-How to begin establishing food security
-Water bath & pressure canning some of our favorite recipes
-How we process chickens
-How to make chicken bone broth
-How to plan a garden
-Fermenting
-Making soap with tallow & lard
-And more! 

At the first meeting you will receive a class binder, and every month you will receive the printed notes and recipes that correspond with the class. 

Almost every month you will also leave with something you crafted or something that pertains to the lesson we learned. Some examples: medicinal herb remedies, soap, tallow balm, fall wreath, my favorite books and more.

Example of a typical meeting:

Before each meeting, I send out an email with the itinerary, meal plan, and discussion topic for the upcoming meeting. It looks something like this:

5:15-5:45: Finish preparing meal
5:45-6:30: Dinner & discussion on topic or book
6:30-7: Lesson on ___ (i.e. Rendering lard)
7:00-8:30 Main lesson (i.e. Canning chicken broth)
8:30-9:15 Dessert & time to chat

Meal plan example:
Drink: Homemade chai tea
Dinner: Mangalitsa pulled pork sandwiches with homemade fries and black bean salad 
Dessert: Strawberry rhubarb pie and homemade ice cream

I then send a follow-up email after the meeting with any resource links, pdfs, notes, etc, that pertained to class. 

Please note: We do our best to accommodate food allergies as much as possible but we can’t guarantee that we can cater to everyone’s needs! 

COST: $150/Month