ASHEVILLE, N.C.–Homestead Dreams is an entry level, exploratory workshop designed to help you incorporate small-scale, self-sufficiency and sustainability into your life. Regardless of whether you own or rent a home, or live in a rural or urban setting, you can move towards more self-reliance NOW!

Dates: Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018 or Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018
Time: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Location: Living Web Farms 176 Kimzey Rd, Mills River, NC 28759
Cost: $65/person
Bring: Bring your lunch for a group gathering and conversation.

Excellent for those in the beginning and exploratory stages of getting started with a land-based life. We cover common sense, relevant information to help maximize your independence, increase your connection to community, place, and self, and plan out your dreams for the next 1 to 5 years. Appropriate for those who are incorporating agriculture, renewable energy, green building, land planning, hand-made products, and land-based living of all kinds.

Includes a panel of local homesteaders and a regional expert on soil, climate, rainfall, typography, vegetation, wind, and how that affects and determines life, farming, and building in our region.

Wherever you are along the spectrum of self-reliance, join us for the exploratory workshop and:

• enhance your confidence, skill, and excitement to create the lifestyle you imagine.
• uncover your personal values, skills, and resources
• chart a path to move forward over the next 1 to 5 years in your homestead plans.
• Hear from other regional homesteaders about their celebrations, challenges, and suggestions and prioritize your next steps.

Observation Skills & Land Literacy

Learn about the typical farm and homestead in Western NC in terms of soil types, average rainfall and climate, typical vegetation, slopes and aspects, wind patterns, building and human habitat styles and how that will affect your land-based plans! Increase your observation skills and land literacy.

Organic Growers School also offers Farm Dreams which is a day-long program similar to the Homestead Dreams, but geared towards those wanting to be commercial farmers. The difference is that Farm Dreams is focused on an enterprise model, where income generation is a significant part of the equation.

Instructors

Lee Warren is the Executive Director of Organic Growers School; the co-founder, designer, and builder, of an off-grid, sustainably-built CoHousing Neighborhood at Earthaven Ecovillage; founder and manager of Imani Farm, 5-acre pasture-based cooperative farm; and co-founder and managing partner of SOIL, School of Integrated Living, which teaches organic food production, regenerative systems, and community living. She’s been homesteading for more than 20 years.

Brandon Greenstein is the Home-Grower Program Director for Organic Growers School (OGS), developing new initiatives to provide services to home-growers. His background is in Renewable Systems, Earth Works, Energy, Water, and Permaculture, specifically providing consulting, design and technical services for the creation of integrated systems. He has been homesteading, including off-grid living and food production, in the western NC mountains for 20 years.

Tour Guide

Patryk Battle developed intensive cover cropping systems at Sparkling Earth Farm, Highland Lake Inn, and Mountain Air Community Organic Garden. In his current role as director of Living Web Farms, part of his job description is to refine and share this experience. His thoughts on the subject have been shared previously in both local and national publications, on local public radio and national public television, and at numerous local and national conferences.