If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to mow with scythes, make herbal lip balms, construct a garden bed or try blacksmithing, this Saturday is your chance.
On June 11 at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association at at 294 Crosby Brook Road in Unity, Farm and Homestead Day will return to offer hands-on workshops for those interested in learning about farming and homesteading skills.
“Farm and Homestead Day is a free, family-friendly event featuring hands-on workshops in building skills for resiliency,” Nancy Rosalie, a Unity resident and a founder of the event, said.
“Many years ago there was an event called Small Farm Field Day that was a collaboration between MOFGA and [the University of Maine] cooperative extension and about five, six years ago, they decided they weren’t going to hold the event,” she said.
Rosalie had hosted a workshop at that event that taught people how to team mow using scythes.
“I enjoyed that and wanted to make sure it would happen,” Rosalie said.
So she and a small, dedicated group, including her friend Joe Dupere, who passed away in 2012, decided to strike out on their own to continue with a similar event. Now, Farm and Homestead Day draws between 300 and 400 people each year, Rosalie said.
“Joe Dupere, who was landscape coordinator at MOFGA and who had retired from an office job at the university in Orono, built his own home with his wife. He made a little homestead and always said, ‘I learn so much from other people and it’s my turn to pay,’” Rosalie remembered of her friend.
That is the idea behind this event — to teach others skills they may not otherwise have the chance to learn.
“From the start we knew that we wanted it to be an all-volunteer event,” Rosalie said. “All the organizers volunteer their time and all the workshop leaders volunteer their time. The other thing we’re adamant about is that all the workshops have some component of being hands-on — being participatory.”
Workshops are planned in a variety of categories, including gardening, herbs, food preparation, fiber arts, construction and animals. Participants in the event will have the opportunity to learn a variety of skills, including how to butcher rabbits and tan their hides, how to construct a cedar box for in-house humanure (human fecal matter) collection, how to sew a deerskin pouch and make a basket, how to press your own vegetable oil, and even how to find food and medicine from wild plants, among a variety of other hands-on workshops.
There will also be a special area for children with workshops about how to make a variety of things, including bread and butter, flower crowns, bird houses and herbal play dough.
The day will begin at 9 a.m. with tea and crumpets (and at 7 a.m. for those who want to mow with scythes) followed by more than 40 skill-sharing workshops from 9:30 to 4:30. Volunteers and participants can also enjoy a potluck-style picnic lunch in between workshops, to which all are encouraged to contribute. Those interested can also participate in a plant exchange if they can bring in spare transplants, which should be labeled. It will take place rain or shine, and is free for anyone to enjoy.
Rosalie hopes to see a great turnout this year, with people excited to attend for a chance to learn useful skills.
“You can attend a lecture any time of year, but this one day you can come and actually learn to do these things hands-on,” she said.
For a full schedule of events at Farm and Homestead Day at MOFGA, visit their website at http://mofga.org/Default.aspx?tabid=302
