Growing with Food on Two Pond Farm 2024 176 Weaver Road, West Milford, NJ 07480
What's it all about? From farmyard to backyard to urban homesteading, these workshops provide concrete, hands-on experiences that will enable you to make a shift, one step at a time toward living a more sustainable and ecologically mindful way. This program is designed to give you an inside look at the year long, seasonal process of operating a small farm by sharing our knowledge, experiences, insights, and stories. What is especially wonderful about all of this, is that you don't need to have a farm to apply what is being presented. These workshops will provide you with the encouragement, support, and skills to connect to the Earth's seasonal cycles. Each workshop will begin at 10AM with a light refreshment and meet and greet. The sessions will be held in the farmhouse, the barns, the fields, and gardens as appropriate to the season and class topics. Each workshop will provide you with hands-on experiences and a take-home gift that you will have made yourself. A light lunch is included and the workshops will end at 2:30PM unless otherwise noted. Cost: $100.00 per workshop. A deposit of $50 is required to secure your reservation.
Your Instructors Allison Hosford: ahosford@juno.com Judy DeJosia: judygwf@optonline.net Allison and Judy started working together over 10 years ago teaching farm-to-table workshops. After years of people requesting that they offer them again, they're back and presenting this new workshop series. Allison has been managing and working her farm, Two Pond Farm, with her husband Roger Knight, for over forty years. Judy is a recently retired middle school science teacher, school and community garden director. Two years ago she created a productive kitchen garden on the farm. Together they bring a unique perspective to these workshops along with many years of experience and expertise that they are excited to share with you. Please contact either Allison or Judy to sign up for a workshop(s) and to sign up for our email list so you can get more information about all of the workshops and... to see what else we are up to!
Workshop Schedule 2024 April 6th - Seeds: Saving and Starting For Self-sufficiency - Learn all about seed saving, composting, and starting vegetables from seed. Take home some of our saved seeds and a couple of pots of sowed seeds for your garden> May 11th - Digging Deeper Into the Garden. Take your garden to the next level with this workshop: companion planting and inter-cropping, succession gardening, crop rotation, and an in-depth look at building up the soil. You’ll take home lots of information and your own started fermented plant syrup using nettles. June 8 - Foraging and Making Pesto - Eat Your Weeds - Many wild edibles will be identified, harvested, and prepared. You’ll take home some pesto from plants you’ve harvested and prepared! July 13 - Take a Tour and Enjoy a Farm to Table Lunch! You will take a walking and learning tour of the Growing With Food fields and Two Pond Farm. You will see and hear what we are all about! A delicious and homemade lunch will be served to highlight the produce of the season! August 24 - Preserving the Harvest - The gardens and markets are in full swing! You will learn how to preserve using the water bath technique. This is truly a hands-on experience and you will take home the canned goods you’ve made. September 14 - Pasta From Scratch - We will make pasta dough and use it to make ravioli and pasta nests. We will also gather produce from the garden to create a salad and sauce to enjoy with our homemade ravioli lunch! Take home some pasta, too. October 26 - Pumpkin Pie From Scratch - Make a pumpkin pie from start to finish. From roasting and preparing the pumpkin, rendering lard, making the dough, preparing the custard, and finally baking a pie to take home. November 16 - Put Your Garden To Bed and Plant Garlic - Learn how to get your garden ready to rest over the winter so that it is ready to work for you again in the Spring. We will discuss all things garlic and plant garlic.
Workshops are limited to 10 participants so register early to hold your spot.