Grow Food Amherst will host a series of workshops, public events, and featured products each Sunday, during the Fall of 1014 in partnership with the All Things Local Cooperative Market at 104 North Pleasant St. in downtown Amherst (across from Bart’s Ice Cream).  If you are interested in presenting a workshop contact us at Grow Food Amherst to schedule.

2:00 pm – 4:00pm on Sundays coming soon!

Upcoming Workshops and Events:

Contact growfoodamherst@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer to offer a workshop.

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Dates are open in January through March as well!  Contact us if you want to present….

Previous Workshops and Events:

April 19 – Fermentation Workshop with Trevor Ring.  Enter the world of microbes with experienced fermentation enthusiast, Trevor Ring, founder of Tringo Cultures Fermentation CSA. The class will touch on the basics of fermented foods and their health benefits and will dive into a hands-on experience making sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables. Get ready to open your mind to a new way of appreciating food, microbes, and your gut flora!

April 12 – Freedom with Coffee, Consumer Consciousness, and Community.  A workshop sponsored by the Freedom Cafe of Amherst.  Who knew that a small cup of drip coffee could make a splash halfway across the world?  The Freedom Cafe is a non-profit, volunteer based organization that is dedicated towards great coffee for a great cause – fighting human trafficking.  Come join some of our baristas for an educational event to discuss modern day slavery, and how we can make a tangible difference here in Amherst.  Learn what you can do to help, and in the process, how to make a great cup o’ joe.  Drink to freedom!

March 29 – Learn how to make butcher’s (T-shirt) twine with Sharon Raymond.  This involves two colors twisted together, usually white and another color from recycled T-shirts (tentative). Makes nice bracelets too!  BRING your old tee shirts (especially white ones).

March 22 – Play a Local Board Game with Gabor Lukacs: Growing Resilient/Growing Resilience.  Learn about building community and increasing your resilience by playing a board game designed right here in Amherst. During the course of the game we will learn about events triggering changes which may complicate our lives but will simplify the structure of society. We also gain experience on how to create a community which has a better chance helping us deal with those changes.

March 8 – The Sustainable Self II: Sustainability Outside with Ellie Figueroa.
Why is social sustainability such an important pillar in the movement towards a more sustainable world? Sit with a group of your neighbors and friends and discuss how the cycle of oppression and social capital influence sustainable social structures. Engage in positive, dynamic discussion about how to work together as a collective to motivate people in your community to participate in projects and events to benefit the whole community.

March 1 – The Sustainable Self I: Sustainability Inside with Ellie Figueroa.   Sustainability starts from within! By examining their personal beliefs and values, participants will examine social sustainability as a tool for change on an individual level. This interactive workshop engages participants in activity and dialogue to create sustainable visions for their personal lives.

February 22 – Herbal Medicine-Making for Community Resilience – Making your own medicine is easy, empowering, and fun!  In this afternoon workshop we’ll focus on herbal medicines made with truly “local-vore” ingredients, including vinegars, honeys, syrups, and oxymels.  Guidelines for wildcrafting, harvesting and drying your own herbs will also be discussed.  Herbal preparations will be demoed and recipes will be given!  Join Jade Alicandro Mace from Milk and Honey Herbs for this special workshop. Registration is limited to 12.

February 15 – Building Community-Owned Sustainable Energy with  Dantae Davies of Co-opPower.  Begin the journey of transitioning your household and community away from fossil fuels and towards a more just and sustainable future. Learn about the initial steps that anyone can take to reduce their fossil fuel usage and the various pathways available to achieve a drastically reduced fossil fuel dependent lifestyle. We’ll discuss current projects here in the Valley aimed towards creating a community-owned, democratically controlled renewable energy infrastructure that everyone can access and how you can become involved in helping to make them a reality. Energy efficiency, solar heating, the community biofuel cycle, and community shared solar are topics that will be touched upon.

February 8 – Sugar/salt Scrub Workshop with UMass Sustainable Food and Farming student Xochiquetzal Salazar.  Battling winter’s harsh effects on the skin is fun and simple with these natural exfoliating scrubs. Recipes will be provided and participants will craft one salt and one sugar scrub each to take with them. 

January 11 – Emotional Resilience with Gabor Lukacs. How do we “keep going” when everything looks so bleak?  Lets talk!  How to prepare ourselves for changing times and deal emotionally with emerging economic and environmental issues. How to use the gained stability to enrich our lives through physical action too.

December 21 – Home Grown Mushrooms – Join Willie Crosby of Fungi Ally to explore the fungal kingdom. We will go over some of the medicinal mushrooms like reishi, shiitake, and chaga, what they do, and how to prepare them. Willie will also demonstrate some different mushroom growing methods for home and garden use! Participants will get to take home a mushroom growing kit.

December 14 – Design Your Own Earrings – $9 per pair – Just in time for holiday gift-giving, you can make your own beaded earrings.  Kalli of Sparkle and Swing handmade jewelry will bring her extensive bead collection, which includes semi-precious stones, Czech hand-pressed glass, and sparkling crystals.  Choose the beads you love!  Kalli will show you how to finish the earrings yourself, or she can finish them for you.  Customize your gift by decorating your earring card with a photo, a poem, or special greetings.  All sterling silver plated findings.  Make as many pairs as you want.  No experience necessary!

December 7 – Learn to Make Your Own Winter Health Remedies with Brittany Nickerson from Thyme Herbal in Amherst.  Winter wellness is about more than just not getting sick, it is about maintaining good energy and vitality throughout the darkest and coldest time of the year.  Traditional remedies for the winter season can support immunity, reduce susceptibility to cold and flu and improve energy and vitality.  We will spend the afternoon learning about delicious home remedies, simple, effective herbs and accessible preparation techniques – sending you home with tools to practice preventative winter wellness in your everyday life.  Everyone will go home with herbs to use at home – $6 materials fee per family.

November 30 – Come Decorate With Us!  Bring the kiddos! We’re making as many paper snowflakes as possible for the upcoming winter season. There is a rumor there might be hot cider! Kid-safe scissors and paper supplied. A fun event for all ages to chase away those winter chills.

November 23 – Learn and Practice your “KNIFE SKILLS” just in time for Thanksgiving.  Good knife skills are key to feeling confident and comfortable in the kitchen. Chef Bill Collins, from Pelham and chefbill.com, will show you how to choose knives that will feel good in your hand. Plus, he’ll show you how to slice, chop, peel, and dice with ease. Learn how to cut and carve, poultry, , fruits, and vegetables, as well as how to use other sharp kitchen tools, including microplanes and graters, scissors, vegetable peelers, and mandolins.  We will also have his book for sale.

November 2- Making Fairy Houses – Find magic in the woods! Join Kestrel Land Trust for a Fairy House Building workshop led by MassLIFT AmeriCorps volunteer, Jennifer Seredejko. Come on a leisurely trail walk through the woods to collect natural treasures (optional – meet at Amethyst Brook Conservation Area at 1:00pm – contact Jenn to carpool). Then construct your own mini-magical dwelling at All Things Local starting at 2:00pm.  Or just bring your own pine cones, twigs, leaves etc. And if you are not able to do so, supplies and some natural materials will be provided.  Open to all ages; family friendly! FREE!  For more information, contact Jennifer Serekejko.

October 26 – Putting your garden to bed and fall gardening –  a free workshop by Patricia Schmidt.  Learn how to put your vegetable garden to bed; establish cover crops, amend the soil and weed, remove diseased plants to reduce your pest problems next year.  Learn to put the perennial garden to sleep; decide to trim shrubs or not, how to provide protection for shrubs over the winter. Bring your own experience and stories to share!

October 19 – Join Sarah Shields from Birch Moon Farm and Herbals for a workshop on Making Herbal Oils, Creams and Lip Balms.   You will make your own herb oil (medicinal or culinary), then pour both a lip balm and your own hand cream (and label them all!)  We’ll teach you all about salves and herb oils – once you learn about herb oils you can make herbally infused culinary oils as well!  The workshop fee is $10.00 to cover the cost of a jar of herb oil, cream and a lip balm to take home. Everyone is welcome including children.

October 12 – Please join us for a CELEBRATION OF CHALK ART – make your own outside chalk (yup, you can MAKE CHALK) and then help decorate our sidewalk outside the store!  No need to be an artist and all ages are welcome!  Share your creative side and learn how to make your own outside chalk.  Offered by the Cushman Scott Children’s Center, a Reggio Inspired preschool for children 15 months -5 years in North Amherst.

October 5 – Make your own Corn Relish with Peg Thibbitts of Harvest Market.  Learn the principles and practice along with Peg. Share your own expertise, resources and recipes!   Limited to 12 registrants (please register for this free workshop if you want to make sure you have a space).

September 28 – Harvest fall beans to sprout all winter!  Join expert “seed sprouter,” David Lovler, for a workshop on how to harvest legumes now and how to sprout these seeds for fresh bean sprouts during the winter months.  Learn both harvesting and sprouting techniques.  FREE!

September 21 – UMass Sustainable Food and Farming Student, Xochiquetzal Salazar, will lead a handmade soap workshop. Participants will craft soap that is their’s to keep using Native American medicines and from the Kalpulli Olmeca tradition, learning the the history and science behind these practices.  To sign up, click “join” here!  FREE!

September 14 – Make your own jam with Peg Thibbitts of Harvest Market, learn the principles of canning and preserving and share your own expertise, resources and recipes!

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Events will be hosted by Workshop Coordinator Savannah Champion.  Presenters may contact Savannah to discuss set up and special needs for the event.  If you want to volunteer to present, please contact Grow Food Amherst.