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Courses and Events
Wild Crafting Series
Nov 8 2009 10:00
Nov 8 2009 16:00
US/Alaska
Offered: March - November 2010
Location: Commonweal Garden
Instructor: Matt Berry
Have you wondered what wild foods you can eat around your home? How to prepare them? Tried your hand at lighting a fire without a match? Meet Matt Berry, who has been practicing and teaching primitive skills and nature awareness for more than a decade. Matt blends his passion and expertise in field biology, primitive skills, horticulture and permaculture. After spending some time with Matt, you may never look at the weeds in the corner of your garden or the oak trees in your neighborhood the same way again!
This year, Matt offers a series of day-long skill intensives. These classes will not only help to build your wildcrafting skills, but also deepen your connection with the natural world.
Matt is also available to teach private courses - see full listing below.
Families are welcome - with discounted fees for children.
Wild Foods
Next Offered: Spring 2010, 10am - 4pm
Location: Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, California
In this course, you'll explore the wild edibles that live in and around the Commonweal Garden. You'll learn how to make Matt's wild weed raw energy bars, how to identify some key edible plants and their nutritional values, learn what plants not to eat, and learn strategies for enhancing wild food production and sustainable harvesting methods.
Basketry Basics
Next Offered: Spring 2010, 10am - 4pm
Location: Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, California
In this day-long course, you'll learn how to sustainably harvest and process wild basket materials like willow, dogwood, and more. From what we gather on site, you'll learn to weave with basic basketry techniques and take home a creation of your own!
Primitive Fire Making
Next Offered: Summer 2010, 10am - 4pm
Location: Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, California
In this skills course, you'll learn how to make fire by friction with local materials. Though there are 23 ways to make fire without matches or a lighter, we'll use the bow drill. We will also look at other common methods - the hand drill, fire plow and fire saw - all of which come in handy in a survival situation. You'll also learn about tinder, coal extenders, igniters and tipi fire construction. You will go home with a complete fire kit to practice with.
Wild Crafting with Acorn and Bay Nuts
Offered: Fall 2010, 10am - 4pm
Location: Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, California
Acorns and bay nuts were a staple food for the ancients of this area - in this course, you'll learn the ancient practice of harvesting and processing these nuts. Learn which oaks are best to gather acorns from, when to gather, and how to process acorns and bay nuts into food. We will be making acorn mush the old way with hot cooking rocks and ash cakes on the coals. You will also learn how to make roasted bay nuts into tempting chocolate-like candy!
Registration
Course Fee:
First Adult - $ 65.00
Second Adult - $ 50.00
First Child (10-16) with Paying Adult - $ 25.00
Second Child with Paying Adult - $ 15.00
Children under 10 may accompany a parent at no cost.
How to Register:
Currently there are no courses scheduled for 2010. Please check back.
Private Day-Long and Weekend Intensives
Make a birthday party, office team-building day, or a family gathering special! You can schedule any of Matt Berry's wildcrafting courses for private groups of six people or more. Fees are comparable to those outlined above. Contact the RDI office for information about how to schedule a private course for you and your family or friends. Course can include the following:
Shelter
In a survival situation, a well made shelter can make all the difference. You'll learn how to build different types of debris huts and shelters according to landscape and materials.
Bark Containers
You'll learn how to peel live bark off of a eucalyptus tree to produce a basket of both high function and beauty. We will also learn to process rawhide and fibers to lace up the bark containers. Go home with a bark container of your own creation.
If time permits, youwill also learn how to make a bone awl from the cannon bone of a deer leg. An awl is a useful tool when working with natural materials such as bark, brain-tanned leather and basketry frons.
Primitive Pottery
In this special course you will explore the ancient art of pottery. Learn where clay can be found, and how to make a coil pot, and how to fire it. Learn techniques for smoke clouts, burnishing, and natural paints. Pots are fired at the beach with seaweeds and other natural materials. We'll experiment together with materials like salt, banana peels, cow manure, and any other materials you bring. Take home a finished product!
Cattail Adventure
Cattails were a staple of life for the indigenous peoples in the Bay Area - providing shelter, food, fire, cordage, baskets, dolls, decoys, visors, mats and many other items. In this course, you'll learn how to gather cattails with primitive tools, when to gather, and what they can be made into. We will be making simple cordage and constructing visors and or bags, and a functional piece of art to take back home. View a preview of the identification and uses of cattail.
Wild Fermentation, Plum Mead and More
Local Bay Area Wild foodie Kevin Feinstein will join Matt Berry in a day of fermentation skills. Wild plums are one of the most abundant wild foods in the Bay Area, often making a mess of themselves on sidewalks, trails, and lawns. In this class, you'll learn how to use and preserve this amazing surplus by making plum mead and other plum delicacies. We will also cover general beer/wine making basics as well as the ins and outs of preserving wild foods.
Earth Café Program
Apr 3 2010 09:30
US/Alaska
Celebrate the the beauty of the world we eat!
Offered: Fall 2010
Location: Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, California
Instructors: Carin McKay, and special guests
Eating for the well-being of ourselves and the planet
• Deepen your connection with nature
• Celebrate the bounty of homegrown and local food
• Create healthier eating habits
Eating may be the most intimate relationship we have with the natural world. When we make conscious and well-informed choices about the food we eat, we can create health and well-being for ourselves and for the planet.
For many of us, simply creating healthy eating habits is overwhelming. How do we create eating habits that give nourishment back to the earth, as well?
The Earth Café is a practical, interactive, personalized program that will empower you to build a healthier lifestyle, for yourself and for the planet, through the exploration of food. The program weaves together hands on gardening, culinary and food-crafting skills, nutritional education, as well as nature based personal wellness practice. The program will inspire you to deepen your relationship with food, strengthen your personal health, and develop a deeper connection to the natural world.
Key elements of the Earth Café Program include:
• Seed to Table: Want to begin growing some of your own food? We will explore basic techniques of home-scale vegetable gardens, urban homesteading, honey cultivation, caring for goats and chickens, and more.
• Regenerative Kitchen: Discover traditional food culture integrated with modern nutrition. Participants will harvest directly from our gardens, as well as forage wild foods. You will learn to choose the highest quality cultivated foods for your health needs. There will be cooking demonstrations and hands on skill building – from meal planning to food preparation.
• Traditional Food crafting: Prepare delicious high quality products like sourdough bread, cheese, pickles, preserves, and other traditional, naturally processed foods easily at home.
• Inner Ecology: Learn nature-based practices to strengthen your health and overcome common ailments at home. Design a regenerative health plan for yourself, and receive support in paired sharing exercises to help you implement your food and wellness plan during each three-month program. Explore plant medicine, simple remedies and home care, healing with the seasons, movement and energy practices skills to understand and balance your health.
• Study: There will be a list of recommended books that you can read along as you take the course to help inspire your food adventures.
Video: See Carin McKay making Nettle Goat Cheese Quiche!
Example Curriculum from Spring 2010.
Content and activities may change for Fall 2010 series. More details coming soon.
April 3 – Foundations of Regenerative Food and Wellness
• Food-growing basics, part 1
• Personal regenerative design and daily self diagnosis
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Basic skills: cutting styles and knife care
• The gift of greens: wild food foraging and preparation
May 1 – Kitchen Traditions
• Food-growing basics, part 2
•
Urban homesteading with K Ruby Blume
•
Basic cheese making and lacto-fermented drinks with K Ruby Blume
June 5 – Healing Foods & Remedies
•
Food-growing basics, part 3
•
Natural health care and remedies, herbal first aid kits
•
Cooking in the raw with Savrah Kramer: learn to prepare five delicious raw, vegan recipes
Food-Growing Basics
Part 1 – The program will cover the basics of getting your garden started with seeds. Identifying the materials used for appropriate soil mixes for seedlings and building a nice mix together. We will learn about proper seed storage and germination of various garden vegetables and then plant some. Participants will be able to take home some seedlings to nurse along until planting time.
Part 2 – Compost happens! We will be discussing various composting methods and then build a pile together using on-site materials. We will explain the needs of the compost pile and give suggestions for various styles compatible with rural to urban environments. We will also look at our vermiculture system and how to design a worm bin for your food scraps.
Part 3 – Time to transplant seedlings and get the starts planted out into the soil. We will practice garden bed preparation and proper spacing for various crops and then plant some crops out into the garden beds.
Urban Homesteading with Ruby Blume
What is Urban Homesteading? Can it save the world? Or even just save us some money? What is the relationship between homesteading and permaculture? Some of these questions and more will be addressed in a slideshow surveying some of the possibilities, followed by discussion. We will talk about urban agriculture including integrating animals, greywater systems, urban food forests, rainwater catchment and more.
Beginning Cheese Making
This segment will introduce participants to concepts and techniques of milk transformation and preservation. We will learn about equipment, ingredients and cultures used and get hands-on practice making a simple fresh cheese and a mozarella. Time allowing we will talk about the hard cheese process, uses for whey and the history of cheese making. We will be working with fresh goats milk from the site.
Ferment! Lacto-Fermenting for Flavor & Health
Fermenting foods is a healthful and amazingly easy way to preserve and enhance the flavor and nutrition of food. Sadly some of the healthier ferments have passed out of common usage because they are impractical for commercial production. In this class we will learn about different types of fermentation and cultures including pickling vegetables, ginger beer, traditional sodas and more. We will learn how to preserve food with lactic fermentation, a technique that requires neither canning nor vinegar (includes fresh sauerkraut and kim chee) and will prepare one lacto-fermented soda and one fermented veggie medley.
Cooking in the Raw with Savrah Kramer
Raw Foods That Heal Your Soul – In this segment, participants will learn to prepare five simple raw, vegan recipes that are deeply healing to the body and soul, not to mention, absolutely delicious! On the menu is kale salad, sea palm-macadamia nut alfredo, green smoothies, chocolate macaroons- and Savrah’s special recipe for delectable sauerkraut.
Location
The course takes place at Commonweal Garden, our 17-acre permaculture demonstration site in Bolinas, on the northern California coast. Nestled into its own quiet valley, the site features multiple grey water systems, production green house, ponds, seasonal stream, springs, a yurt classroom, goats, sheep, and chickens, and a Registered Organic production garden.
What To Know
Our What To Know page has information on things you will need to know for your time at Commonweal Garden, including directions.
Course Fees
All fees must be paid in full prior to the start of class.
$375 for three part series
Early bird discount:
$325 for three part series, paid 6 weeks in advance
Registration
Registration information coming soon.
Regenerative Design Institute
P.O. Box 923
Bolinas, CA 94924
For questions or additional information, contact:
415·868 9681 voicemail or email us
Refund Policy
Cancellations up to 2 weeks before the workshop will be refunded, excluding a $50 processing fee.
Bird Language Weeklong Intensive
Apr 18 2010
Apr 18 2010
US/Alaska
Next Offered: April 18 – 24, 2010
Location: Venture Retreat Center
Instructors: Jon Young, Dan Gardoqui, Nicole Young, the RDNA team.
Find out how the most elusive animals in the forest detect danger and move secretly to avoid it – using the language of the birds, the alarm system of the forest. Learn to decipher what the birds are telling us about the location of other animals, and also what they have to say about our own patterns of movement and awareness.
This exciting week will open your senses to the various “shapes” of bird language - rings of movement, sound, and feeling that ripple across the landscape. Learn to move quietly while expanding the circle of your awareness through the power of bird language, a skill that has been passed down through countless generations of trackers around the world.
Gaia RDI University Degree Programs
Jun 27 2010 16:00
Jun 27 2010 17:00
US/Alaska
Gaia RDI Open Houses
Join us for an introduction to the Gaia RDI programs.
Bolinas:
July 25, 4–5pm in at Commonweal Garden. You are welcome to join the Commonweal Garden Tour from 1–4pm prior to the GaiaRDI Open House. Register now
GaiaRDI : Project Based, Self Directed, Action Learning
Are you ready to embark on a challenging adventure in which un-learning is possibly as important as learning?
Are you ready to put your passion, vision, and dreams to work in an active, productive way to meet both your own goals and the needs of the Earth?
If your heart sings when you imagine a more sustainable, just, and peaceful world, if you are ready to step forward to contribute your "grain of sand" to the emergence of this vision, then Gaia RDI can offer you the support you need to manifest your dreams.
Gaia RDI offers a unique approach to higher learning by offering you access to accredited bachelor's and master's degrees and graduate diplomas while you are actively engaged in self and planetary transformation. Linking your ideals with self-directed practical experience, you act as a world changer by working for local and global sustainability and regeneration, justice and peace.
Our self-directed action learning methodology enables you to study locally, at work or on project, in your own language, supported by Gaia University's regional organizers, and a worldwide network of learning providers, tutors and mentors. You don't have to choose between earning a living and studying. With action learning your work and your projects become your places of study.
