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Maine Local Living School
nurturing the human-earth relationship
Community Programs
2023 Calendar
January 7: Get a Handle on It! Tool Handle Making and Repair Workshop
March 4: Collaborative Living Workshop and Potluck
April 22: Miso Making Workshop with go-en fermented foods
April 28-30: Packbasket Weaving Weekend
May 13: Wild Greens for the Common Table
Details and registration below. Additional programs & dates TBA.
Collaborative Living Workshop & Potluck
Photo by Robin Farrin
Collaborative Living Maine is bringing their Stone Soup Series to Maine Local Living School! This is an opportunity to mingle and learn about examples of and opportunities for living in community. It will include a 1-hour workshop with Norway Equitable Housing Cooperative Project Coordinator, Thea Hart, about the Steps to Starting a Community followed by small group discussion. All ages and levels of community curiosity are welcome. If you are able, please bring a dish and/or snack to share for the potluck lunch.
Date: Saturday, March 4, 2023, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm
Miso Making Workshop
Join go-en fermented foods for a 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.
This will be a hands-on workshop. The goal is to send participants home with the confidence to tackle miso on their own. Participants will also take home a jar of miso to ferment.
Date: Saturday, April 22, 2023, 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Cost: $50 suggested donation
Packbasket Weaving Weekend
With a brown ash pack basket you can carry the world! During this weekend you will live in community on a ecological-living homestead, weave a whole pack basket, and enjoy meals of great local food. You will leave with your own basket on your back!
Cost: $575; all meals and rustic lodging included
MLLS recognizes the long arc of indigenous science and tradition that are the base of black (also known as brown) ash craftsmanship. 10% of your program fee goes to indigenous organizations working for tribal sovereignty in the place we now call Maine.
Schedule
Friday, April 28: 10:00 am optional arrival time for materials prep; 5:00 pm arrival for everyone.
Saturday, April 29: Weaving all day!
Sunday, April 30: 3:00 pm (ish) departure.
Wild Greens for the Common Table
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
Cost: by donation, $20-60 suggested.
Additional Workshops - 2023 Dates TBA
Tool Sharpening Workshop
Learn to put a shaving edge on any tool! BYOT (bring your own tool)! We recommend starting with a simple knife, especially a carving knife with wide bevel. Feel free to bring other tools as well such as a kitchen knife, chisel, drawknife, block plane, etc. The ability to sharpen unlocks our ability to reuse the old and rely on ourselves.
Date: TBA
Acorn Processing Day
Acorns: the amazing, bountiful, ancient staple of humanity! But did you ever try eating a raw acorn? Yuck! You probably spit it right out! 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: TBA
Green Wood Carving Weekend: Spoons, Spatulas, and Spreaders
Join us for a weekend of "nerding out" with wood and an introduction to sharpening. Using drawknife and shave-horse for large spoons and spatulas, small Swedish knives for small spoons and spreaders, and gouges to hollow out spoon bowls, you will have a whole weekend to experiment, make shavings, learn the qualities of different woods, and leave with an implement or two!
2023 dates TBD; register above and we will let you know when dates have been finalized.
Acorn Processing Day
Packbasket Weekend
Tool Sharpening Workshop
Tool Repair
Carving Weekend
Collaborative Living
Wild Greens
Miso Making
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