Educational Programs at Spoutwood Farm

Welcome to Spoutwood Farm

Educational Offerings from Spoutwood Farm Center

Any and all of these courses can be tailored to any age group, from kindergarten to college-level. Please contact Spoutwood Farm Center to arrange to have your group come and spend a few hours learning about the world we live in, identifying nature around us, and seeing where and how we get food to sustain us.

Plants Make Good Neighbors:

Topics:

Plant Love and Life Histories ~ Plants and Cycles
Making Green Friends ~ Plant and Animal Cohabitation
Invasive and Native Plants ~ Plant and Insect Conspiracies
The Local Ecosystem ~ Intimacies of Plant Reproduction ~ Finding your plants ~ Healing Herbs in the Landscape, Wild and Alien

Goals:

To be able to identify common plants.
To understand how the world of plants fits into the Web of Life.
To learn about the Plant/Human Partnership; How plants and people support one another.
To embrace a sense of wonder at the incredible intelligence of plant adaptation.
To see beauty in the "ordinary" plants around us.
To make a personal connection to the World of Plants
To understand the role of plants in restoring and sustaining our watersheds
To grasp some characteristic plant adaptations to a range of typical habitats.

Water, Water, Everywhere:

Topics:

Streamside Ecology ~ How to Love a Stream
Water around us: The Grand Cycle ~ Water Goes as the Stream Flows
Stream and Creek Wellness: The Riparian Rx
Down by the Old Mill Stream: Local Water History
Weather or not - the consequences of too little or too much water
Monitors Without Computers: Measuring Stream Health
The Interconnectedness between plants and animals along local waterways

Goals:

To Fully Comprehend the Importance of Water to Life
To link the Health of the Water and Landscape to Human Health
To see in the field the intricate dynamics of plant and animal interaction along a stream
To embrace a sense of stewardship about our watersheds
To assess stream health by a variety of monitoring techniques
To establish a stream database to assess changes in water quality over time.

Good Food Comes From Good Soil: The Sacred Mysteries of Compost

Topics:

Feed the Soil, not the Plant: The Basic tenant of Organic Gardening
Growing Great Vegetables: From seed to Tummy
Integration of the Bug Nation: Integrated Pest Management at Work
The Social Life of Vegetables: Companion Planting at Work
The Sacred Mysteries of Compost ~ Soil is a Many-Splendid Thing

Goals:

To understand what it means to grow food sustainably
To demonstrate that growing vegetables is a supportive relationship between plants, especially the root systems and the minerals, water, air, humus and microorganisms in the soil
To model proper care for the Earth as we work in partnership with it
To show it is better to work in partnership with nature in discouraging pests
To introduce the concept of sustainable agriculture and its social implications

Other Educational Programs:

Spoutwood combines its love for the organic with a zeal to teach the community, in offering some traditional and non-traditional classes such as;

Strawbale and Green Construction Techniques

Traditional Dried Flower Arranging
Brewing Mead (honey wine)
Strawbale and Green Construction Techniques
Organic Cooking Classes

These special programs are offered on a first-come, first served seasonal basis. These classes are taught by instructors that are leaders in their respective fields. Class sizes are purposely kept small and fees are kept to a minimum, to ensure that students leave the Farm with a complete and thorough knowledge of the subjects at hand.

If you have comments or suggestions about this website, please send email to:

blacksmith@spoutwood.com

and we will hammer things out.

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