Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge

Join us for workshops on how to raise your own food. This is a great way to meet local farmers and food producers, and to learn how to grow or make great food yourself. All programs cost $3, and require reservations. Please email localvore at comcast dot net for reservations.

June 22, Extending the Growing Season - Bonnie and Oliver Levis of Teleion Holon. 3-5pm. How to raise vegetables and fruits in a hoop house practically year round. Manchester Village location.

July 5, Composting for the Household - Josh Nelson, 1-4p. How to go green by turning your household kitchen wastes into great soil for growing food. Pawlet location.

July 12, Foraging Wild Edibles - with environmentalist Jim Merkel, 9:30a-12:30p. Meet at St. Jerome's parking lot on Leary Lane, just off Mad Tom Road in East Dorset. This workshop will teach how to identify nutritious, wild edible and medicinal plants which grow all around us in forests, meadows, along creeks, and in our gardens and back yards. Bring a notebook, tape, plastic bags or a basket for harvesting. We'll prepare lunch afterwards.

July 13, Raising Cows for Dairy Foods - Sara Cohen of Speckled Cow Farm, 5:30p to 7:30p. Sara will show how to milk a cow and talk about what cows need. Dorset location.

July 20, Baking Bread - with Jed Mayer of Rupert Rising, 8:30a-11:30a. Jed will show how to make bread, including working with starters. Rupert location.

August (new date in the works), Putting Fruits By - Karen Allen and Scott MacKenzie, 9a-12p. Karen and Scott will show how to can fruits, make jams and jellies, and delicious ways to use fresh fruits grown locally. Dorset location.

August 26, Cooking with the Garden's Harvest - Maddie Sobel, 1-4p. Maddie is a former vegetarian chef and she will show how to cook delicious local foods. East Dorset location.

September 6, Raising Apples - with Tom and Sylvia Smith of Mad Tom Orchard, 9a-11a. Tom and Sylvia will teach how to raise healthy apple trees for many years of apple harvests.

September 21, Putting Vegetables By - with Bonnie and Oliver Levis of Teleion Holon, 3-5p. The Levis are experts at pickling and fermenting veggies, and will teach how to dry, freeze, and can your vegetable harvest.