Mushrooms are fascinating and beautiful organisms that also offer opportunities for substantial food production in Maine. This workshop, led by North Spore educator Louis Giller, will share background and hands-on experience with some of the most reliable outdoor cultivation methods. Louis will start with a presentation explaining how to plan and execute log and bed cultivation with species including Shiitake, Wine Cap, Oysters, Chestnut, and Hen of the Woods. From there, we'll get outside and start inoculating, putting what we've learned into practice! Participants will be able to take home a freshly inoculated Shiitake log.

Date: Sunday, April 28, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Pay Instructor when you get to class.  Cost: $30-80 sliding scale

For online registration:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScjqko9KLvGrmPXN8MOisrzJYmC2-dTrV019L8bPnGV0ab5lg/viewform

In the course, offered in partnership with Antioch University, we will explore themes of just transition, downshift, localization, and resiliency through readings, discussion, and most importantly, embodied experience. You will carve a spoon, plant seeds, inoculate mushrooms, tend a woodland, feast upon wild and cultivated local foods, sharpen a knife, compost everything, and build your own rocket stove. Depart with practical and philosophical frameworks to create a small piece of “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible” (Charles Eisenstein).  Field study trip dates are May 5-9, 2024. There will be one pre-trip prep meeting on April 23 (meeting via zoom) and will offer logistical travel details, relevant course content, and background information. 

 Cost: $500 - $1,000 with scholarships available through the Office of Continuing Education (you do not need to be a student at Antioch to receive a scholarship)

Online Registration:

https://continuinged.antioch.edu/course/NE%20ES%20576_379914404/

Come feast on the wild abundance of spring!  We will spend the day on identification, wise harvest, and cooking of multiple wild plants that grace the springtime table.  Ever eat a tree-leaf salad, nettle stir-fry or knotweed pie?  Come learn how and see how partnering with the wild can bring health, happiness, and hope.  We will provide a mostly-foraged lunch.

Date: Saturday, May 13, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Pay Instructor when you get to class.

Cost: $30-80 sliding scale

 For online registration: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe49Q2FZZsd6QhgUnenLCXrpltwCt1UuxGAXWxuoOTcivLllw/viewform

Join go-en fermented foods for a sweet (quick ferment) miso-making workshop and discussion about miso and its uses as well as the history and cultural significance of this traditional fermented food of Japan. Having been produced for more than a millennium, miso utilizes techniques and relationships that have been passed down from generation to generation with little alteration. Learn why that is and get to know the microbial partners within and around us that have agreed to carry on these relationships. In this hands-on workshop, the goal is to send participants home with the confidence to tackle miso on their own, along with a jar of sweet miso to ferment.

Date: Saturday, June 22, 2024, 1:00 - 4:00 pm

Cost: $40-60 sliding scale

 For online registration:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfKH7wJ49h5ZDuA8NVOW2SsFAW-eeNAk_1ROcliTmY4YfVo7w/viewform

Acorns: the amazing, bountiful, ancient staple of humanity! But did you ever try eating a raw acorn? Yuck! However, it just takes some simple processing to transform acorns into a truly delicious grain-like (and gluten free) food. This is real food; we eat hundreds of pounds a year. As part of this day we honor indigenous cultures that have enjoyed acorns for thousands of years, and we investigate the potential of acorn to transform modern food systems and culture. We'll begin the day with harvesting and end with baking!

Date: Saturday, October 19, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Cost: $30-60 sliding scale

For Online Registration:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-ivEDl5Uf5ZdGuaLybModku3sTsBv_5fVR37xsrY5Po/viewform?edit_requested=true

Ray Reitze, master Maine Guide, has led thousands of people through the peace of the Maine woods and into the peace of their own hearts.  Molly Gawler is a fiddle teacher, mother, dancer, singer, breather, swimmer, walker, and lover of life who has been studying with Ray for many years.  During Ray and Molly's 5-day spiritual retreat, there will be time for stillness, learning, and questions as well as great home-cooked meals and laughter around the fire.  Throughout the week, Ray will share stories and wisdom while guiding us, through breath, silence, and deep listening toward becoming what we all are: love.

The program will include: seeing, feeling and studying energy systems; root systems; above ground and the green family; the creature people; weather and wind directions; studying and learning to read the landscape (it has so much to tell us about life); observing the actions of water as it interacts with nature.

Dates:

April 21 - 25 (at Earthways in Canaan)

June 23 - 27

October 20 - 24

All programs have Sunday 10:00 am arrival and Thursday 3:00 pm departure; details in registration 

Cost: $350-500 sliding scale

For online registration: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf60tzVikWmIc-zb50-YSzqDTYcBYB4gEsAqN2v7QoTZFD9Sg/viewform