The Food Security Collaborative, formerly the Greater Falls Community Garden Collaborative, announces its winter 2014 series of workshops on everything locally delicious, nutritious, and sustainable.
Many workshops are free, with others requiring only a modest materials fee. As space is limited, pre-registration is required: call Tim Stevenson at 802-869-2141.
The series begins with a workshop on cooking and freezing local food. That's 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 12, at Immanuel Episcopal Church in Bellows Falls.
Featuring carrots and broccoli, Westminster farmer Rachel Ware will demonstrate how to first freeze vegetables, from blanching through the freezing process, and then how to take the blanched vegetables and add them to three different recipes. Finally she'll demonstrate the best packaging and reheating techniques for the three different prepared meals.
Community herbalist and educator Rebecca Golden leads a workshop on local herbal remedies at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 26, at United Church of Bellows Falls. This hands-on workshop features discussion and tasting of easy-to-grow and -harvest herbs, and will send participants home with elderberry syrup. A $5 materials fee applies.
At 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 23, Lisa Holderness offers part one of a two-part workshop on extending the season. This segment is held at the United Church of Bellows Falls and includes a slide discussion, handouts, and a hands-on demonstration of mini-hoop and basic seeding and lighting system for hoop houses.
The second part of the workshop is 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 6, at Holderness's Deer Ridge Farm, where participants can bend pipes and cut plastic, see small and large house set-ups, and delve deeper into techniques for energy efficiency. A materials fee applies.
Finally, Westminster farmer Rachel Ware returns with a free small-scale self-sufficiency workshop at her AlpineGlo Farm in Westminster at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 27. Ware's focuses: gardening, and raising chickens for eggs and meat.