Events Calendar

A workshop for individuals who seek to weave their personal stories, beliefs and longings into a powerful leadership practice.

In this workshop, we will explore what that new story might look and sound like for those who seek to break old stereotypes and serve much more broadly in this country. We will start with our personal stories, the values and ideas that captivate us, and practice how to express them. We will talk about how personal stories and beliefs can be woven into a leadership practice that has the power to move and unite people. We will look at how we can best support one another to find our voice, to use shared language, and to express stories that will better move our nation toward a healthy future.

This a residential workshop, with all meals and accommodation included.

Register for this workshop

Storytelling reflects the heart of every community. Now imagine storytelling with cash prizes and community judges and a beautiful setting at Knoll Farm. The farm opens at 5:30pm for your picnic dinners and The Barnyard Story Jam starts in the McGlaughlin Barn at 7:30. Come prepared to have lots of fun at this free community event for all ages.

Register for this workshop

The groundbreaking systems thinker, Donella Meadows, said that “you change a system by seeing it whole.” So how do we begin to see the whole in order to build a future for NH that is clean, healthy, sustainable, nurturing, safe, and affordable for all citizens? How are people of diverse backgrounds and interests empowered to see common purpose and shared destiny?

This unique retreat will gather 20 diverse leaders to grapple deeply and collectively with New Hampshire’s climate and energy challenges and opportunities. This retreat aspires to build a community of advocates around this issue that is deeper, wider, and stronger.

The purpose of the retreat is to create the atmosphere and conditions where these leaders can clarify and solidify their role in creating a clean energy future for NH. Through a variety of techniques, the Center for Whole Communities will create supportive space where participants can understand the phenomenal work completed to date on climate/energy embodied in The New Hampshire Climate Action Plan, and to enable these leaders to find their place in it, to ensure that the Climate Action Plan is a living document that connects to the real lives of New Hampshire citizens. The retreat will give participants the training, tools and collective commitment to move in that direction together.

The Whole Thinking Retreat convenes leaders from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. Together participants develop a shared vision for how the relationship between people and the land can become a more effective force in creating a healthy and just American culture. Our curriculum - now in it's sixth year - is designed to rejuvenate and re-envision leadership, to build meaningful relationships, to help leaders to engage more meaningfully in the communities they serve, and to develop the competence to heal the very real divides of race, power, privilege and ideology that keep lasting social and environmenal change from happening in this country.

This is a fellowship-based retreat, by invitation.

Click here for more information on our retreats.

This open workshop is a rare opportunity to spend time at Knoll Farm while doing a deep dive into the theories and practices of leadership development now commonly refer to as whole communities work. This is the perfect workshop for staff and board members, community leaders, and philanthropists who have heard about whole communities work from colleagues, but have not yet had the chance to jump in and experience it.

The Transformational Leadership Workshop will help you to understand how the success of your work is bound up in the success of other efforts; how to create crosscutting alliances that transcend the very real divides of race, class, power and ideology which keep accelerated change from happening; how to establish courage, creativity and compassion as highest forms of leadership; and how to nourish and support the individual leaders who are carrying today’s burdens of change.

Shorter in length than our flagship Whole Thinking Program, this 4-day workshop offers a strong introduction to our theories of change and to the experiences and practices of our land-based learning center at Knoll Farm that have made our work so memorable and lasting. The curriculum centers around such core leadership practices as the power of story; the skills of movement-building, and dialogue, and it explores the changing demands of leadership today.

This a residential workshop, with all meals and accommodation included.

Register for this workshop

The Whole Thinking Retreat convenes leaders from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. Together participants develop a shared vision for how the relationship between people and the land can become a more effective force in creating a healthy and just American culture. Our curriculum - now in it's sixth year - is designed to rejuvenate and re-envision leadership, to build meaningful relationships, to help leaders to engage more meaningfully in the communities they serve, and to develop the competence to heal the very real divides of race, power, privilege and ideology that keep lasting social and environmenal change from happening in this country.

This is a fellowship-based retreat, by invitation.

Click here for more information on our retreats.

The fourth in the Grow-Your-Own Series, this workshop will focus on harvesting and storing vegetables, cleaning and protecting the soil for winter, late season cover crops, garden health, and crop rotation. We will also have a chance to look at diversity in the home garden and how to integrate fruits, flowering and ornamental plants and herbs into your plan for the future year. Fall is the best time to order from nurseries and think ahead about developing the whole edible landscape of your home. Limited to 8 people so sign up early!

Register for this workshop

It is exciting to see the tremendous rise in folks buying local food in Vermont, as well as the number of diversified family farms who are now offering organic and grass-fed meat directly to local consumers. From the consumer side, however, it can be intimidating or unclear just exactly how to go out and buy that half of a cow or whole lamb, what you will get in your box, how it is priced, and how to cook grass-fed meat with success. The purpose of this workshop is to answer all those questions, to connect interested consumers with their local meat choices, and to share methods and recipes for making delicious local meals out of your freezer all winter long.

Cost of the workshop includes a tasting, recipes and farm directory.

Register for this workshop

This workshop will explore our connection to land through energy and the impacts that it has on our communities. Starting with our place in New England, we will journey down the spine of the Appalachian mountain range to the coalfields in the Southeast. Through ecology, culture, music and economic development, the story of Appalachia will be told, as one of our country's sharpest examples of the consequences that industrial resource extraction perpetuates on natural and social communities.

We define regenerative design as the practice of approaching the degraded landscapes and designing for life, community and place. Solutions will be studied and practiced through the principles of regenerative design and how it can harness the power of visions to develop healthier communities.

This a residential workshop, with all meals and accommodation included.

Register for this workshop

Now in its fourth year, this retreat provides seniors at UVM with an opportunity to explore issues of diversity, power, and privilege and the implications of these topics on environmental fields and their own lives. The retreat gives students time to reflect on their purpose and intentions as they make the transition to life-after-college and seek courage to create a life that is in alignment with their vision for the world.

One of the many ways that humans strengthen their connection to land and place is through making sacred the daily act of harvesting and eating. Since the dawn of time, humans have actively participated in the food chain in a way that also interweaves beliefs, values, traditions and sacred ceremony -- cultivating deep relationships with the plants, animals and fungi that nourish them.

Join us for this day-long ceremony and workshop as we explore how, in the modern world, we might continue to honor a sacred bond to the harvest. We will honor, harvest, prepare, and enjoy a feast from the bounty and abundance of Knoll Farm. As part of this process we will be slaughtering one of Knoll Farms' lambs and cooking it in a traditional way in an outdoor oven, learning the skills and honoring the practice of each step along the way.

The price of the workshop includes lunch and dinner.

Register for this workshop

This Conservation in a New Nation workshop is designed specifically for The Nature Conservancy. This two-day workshop for the Conservancy's staff, board and allies is by invitation.

Now in its fourth year, this retreat provides seniors at UVM with an opportunity to explore issues of diversity, power, and privilege and the implications of these topics on environmental fields and their own lives. The retreat gives students time to reflect on their purpose and intentions as they make the transition to life-after-college and seek courage to create a life that is in alignment with their vision for the world.

Now in its fourth year, this retreat provides seniors at UVM with an opportunity to explore issues of diversity, power, and privilege and the implications of these topics on environmental fields and their own lives. The retreat gives students time to reflect on their purpose and intentions as they make the transition to life-after-college and seek courage to create a life that is in alignment with their vision for the world.

Knoll Farm's Harvest and Courage Celebration will this year focus on Story as a fundamental source through which we can access and understand our individual and collective creativity, power, and courage. This will be a day filled with music, art, poetry, story, the harvest of the land, and the community of others. Free and open to the public.

Register for this workshop

Peter Forbes will be the Keynote Speaker at the 44th annual New England Environmental Education Alliance (NEEEA) Conference. The theme of this years conference is Designing our Shared Future, with the hope to bring together a wide circle of participants. Peter Forbes who is known for his ability to build bridges between sectors, coalitions and organizations and for nurturing a new land movement that integrates land health, social justice, and human spirit. The conference takes place October 21-23 at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, VT. For more information, please visit the conference blog at http://2010designourfuture.blogspot.com/ or contact Conference Co-chair Nancy Nottermann at nancyn@together.net.

A workshop for individuals who seek to weave their personal stories, beliefs and longings into a powerful leadership practice.

Today one of the most transformational acts any of us can take is to listen deeply to the stories of others. There is a critical role for story in our movements for change that can not be played by science, by data, or by advocacy. Information is not transformation, and what are most needed today are the tools that bring about new ways of seeing, thinking and acting.

Story, identifying and making heard our deepest-felt longings and beliefs, can help us to cross the boundaries between one another, and therefore can help our movements for change reach out more authentically to serve and connect more people. In this workshop, we will explore what that new story might look and sound like for those who seek to break old stereotypes and serve much more broadly in this country. We will start with our personal stories, the values and ideas that captivate us, and practice how to express them. We will talk about how personal stories and beliefs can be woven into a leadership practice that has the power to move and unite people. We will look at how we can best support one another to find our voice, to use shared language, and to express stories that will better move our nation toward a healthy future.

This is a residential workshop, with all meals and accommodation included.

Register for this workshop

The ability to share powerful stories lies at the heart of river advocacy work. Too often we rely on statistics and facts to do the work of protecting our watersheds, when what the public needs to hear are stories that inspire and engage them to act.

This workshop will help river advocates to deepen their ability to see, hear, frame, and share compelling river stories. Sharing our stories can educate our communities, magnetize volunteers and support, strengthen collaboration and partnerships, and help us protect our watersheds. This workshop is part of the 2-day Georgia Rivers Conference.

For more information, go to www.garivers.org

Because of the great success of Bill Coperthwaite's annual spoon and bowl workshops, we often have requests for a knife making workshop. To continue honoring our tradition of handcrafts, we are offering a workshop that encourages our friends and alumni to create a beautiful knife with which to carve their spoons, bowls, and all.

This workshop will focus on making a crooked knife or straight knife with Birch, Maple or Butternut handle. We will provide the carving blades and wood, and the class with focus on drilling/mortising the end of the handle and epoxy the blade in the mortise. The majority of your time will be designing and carving the shape of the handle and then fitting the blade.

The instructor, Taz Squire, has apprenticed with Bill Coperthwaite since he was learning to walk. Taz began his knife-making at a young age by digging for root burls to make knife handles.

All materials and tools will be provided to create a complete a knife by the end of the day. You are encouraged to bring your own favorite wood and tools, if desired. Hot beverage and water will be provided in our warm workshop. Bring your own lunch.

Register for this workshop

This Conservation in a New Nation workshop is designed specifically to strengthen the conservation work of the Peconic Land Trust by helping it to build wider and deeper community collaborations. This is a two-day workshop for the land trust's staff, board and allies, by invitation.

Our annual gathering of faculty from around the country.

Eating is a deeply political act; and the food systems in place are impossible to change without vision and action at every level. New Jersey benefits from many great ideas moving into action: saving agricultural land, eating local, buying organic, supporting fair trade, and so on. Such focused efforts can synchronize and multiply when a vision and story is put forward that joins city and countryside, connects food advocates, environmentalists and human rights advocates. And at the core of that possibility is the need for stronger relationships between all the players who long for and will benefit from a healthier food system in New Jersey.

The goal of this workshop is to take the next step in fostering an on-going learning community among those working on all facets of the food system in New Jersey. We will take the time to hear each others stories, become clear on our challenges and leverage points, and vision together; and we will do field trips in and around Burlington, New Jersey that will inform and inspire us.

In this first workshop in the Grow Your Own series (see above) we will start by looking at the vast choice of vegetable varieties and seed companies and talk about how to discern what will grow well in your garden, how much to order, and how to plan for success. Then we will get our hands dirty by starting some seeds in flats and talking about the timing, conditions, and care of the different vegetables that need to be started early in our climate. If time allows, we will also look at how and when to start seeds in coldframes. Limited to 8 people so sign up early!

Register for this workshop

This Regenerative Leadership Retreat held by the Center for Regenerative Society will focus on community food systems work, and will use Whole Measures as a tool for dialogue, planning, visioning and evaluation.

For more information contact director@regenerativesociety.org

This workshop is made possible with the generous support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

A series of workshops on building whole communities through land conservation for The Conservation Trust of North Carolina.

This Conservation in a New Nation workshop is designed specifically to strengthen the conservation work of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust by helping it to build wider and deeper community collaborations. This is a two-day workshop for the land trust's staff, board and allies, by invitation.

A workshop for individuals who seek to weave their personal stories, beliefs and longings into a powerful leadership practice.

Today one of the most transformational acts any of us can take is to listen deeply to the stories of others. There is a critical role for story in our movements for change that can not be played by science, by data, or by advocacy. Information is not transformation, and what are most needed today are the tools that bring about new ways of seeing, thinking and acting.

Story, identifying and making heard our deepest-felt longings and beliefs, can help us to cross the boundaries between one another, and therefore can help our movements for change reach out more authentically to serve and connect more people. In this workshop, we will explore what that new story might look and sound like for those who seek to break old stereotypes and serve much more broadly in this country. We will start with our personal stories, the values and ideas that captivate us, and practice how to express them. We will talk about how personal stories and beliefs can be woven into a leadership practice that has the power to move and unite people. We will look at how we can best support one another to find our voice, to use shared language, and to express stories that will better move our nation toward a healthy future.

This a residential workshop, with all meals and accommodation included.

Register for this workshop

This Conservation in a New Nation workshop is tailored towards the work and concerns of Virginia land trusts, and is part of the statewide annual conference for land conservation organizations, held in Williamsburg, VA.

Whole Measures offers a means of describing and measuring the healthy relationships between land and people that we seek to create. It offers the beginning foundations for a highly integrated, whole systems approach that effectively embraces a wide variety of practical issues including biodiversity, social equity, human rights, civic engagement, and landscape-scale conservation.

In collaboration with Interaction Institute for Social Change we have created a workshop that explores the ten values-based practices detailed in Whole Measures. The workshop provides the transformational and collaborative skills needed to implement these practices in your organization or community. The three-day experience will combine learning in the groundbreaking content of Whole Measures, and in the skills of design, planning and facilitation, transformational leadership, and the practice of dialogue.

To register, go to: Interactive Institute for Social Change

Please join us at Knoll Farm for a day of sweat, laughter, good food and hard work - preparing the farm and retreat center for the busy summer season ahead. Tasks may include putting up tents, burning brush, clearing trails, planting and mulching raised beds. We'll provide lunch and drinks. Family and friends welcome!

Register for this workshop

In this workshop we will go through tips for successful lambing with very little infrastructure or intervention. Our purebred Icelandic ewes live outside year-round, deliver their lambs in the field, and are an incredible low-maintenance asset to our farm. We will talk about raising sheep in general, breeding, grazing management, and how to start a flock.

Register for this workshop

In this second workshop in the Grow Your Own series we will be in the garden, understanding the care of the soil as the foundation of organic growing. We’ll look at how to successfully transplant and direct seed, as well as discuss plant health, weed control, and how to plan for seasonal succession planting. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of raised beds, and ways to attract pollinators and beneficial insects to the vegetable garden. As always, this class will be tailored to the particular needs and questions of those in the class. Limited to 8 people so sign up early!

Register for this workshop

The Whole Thinking Retreat convenes leaders from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. Together participants develop a shared vision for how the relationship between people and the land can become a more effective force in creating a healthy and just American culture. Our curriculum - now in it's sixth year - is designed to rejuvenate and re-envision leadership, to build meaningful relationships, to help leaders to engage more meaningfully in the communities they serve, and to develop the competence to heal the very real divides of race, power, privilege and ideology that keep lasting social and environmenal change from happening in this country.

This is a fellowship-based retreat, by invitation.

Click here for more information on our retreats.

2042 Today: Young Leaders Re-Imagining Conservation is a program designed to build the practical leadership skills that will be needed if conservation is to engage, inform, and learn from a dramatically changing American public. Ours is an intensive response to a specific challenge: how best to equip now the emerging conservation leaders under the age of 35 who will lead the conservation movement through one of the most important moments in our history, a time requiring leadership skills very different from today.

More and more conservationists are thinking about the exciting significance of 2042, the date one generation out when demographers predict that every metropolitan statistical area will be predominantly non-white, but few efforts are in place today to equip conservation leaders with the leadership skills to engage difference of all kinds. How does the conservation field diversify itself, and how do conservationists learn to ally themselves with and learn from other movements for change? Todays conservation leaders, men and women in their 40s, 50s and 60s, have faced one set of challenges, those about transactional strength: buying land, changing laws, and building institutions. Leadership skills required for the next generation are as much relational as they are transactional: how will conservation be integrated into the needs and values of a changing American public?

This retreat will be the first part of a larger fellowship program that will include follow-up training workshops and one-on-one mentoring. Click here for more information on this program.

This retreat will convene 20 emerging New Jersey leaders, under the age of 35, who are working on food system issues related to land and people, and who come to this work from diverse entry points: from business and farming, to conservation and politics, from urban to rural contexts. The experience will provide participants with a network of allies and a shared vision that will also benefit the existing generation in leadership by providing fresh insights and approaches that will accelerate change.

Designed as an innovative leadership development retreat, this program will explore the shift in leadership required to build a more resilient food systems movement, while providing the practical leadership skills needed to effectively engage with a dramatically changing American public.

Knoll Farm has a half-acre of organic highbush blueberries, established in 2002 and thriving. This is a popular workshop every year. Come learn all about siting, planting, pruning, and caring for highbush blueberries, and have a chance to pick-your-own from 7 different varieties after the workshop.

Register for this workshop

This retreat is specifically designed for leaders concerned with or working in the fields of place-based and environmental education in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire. Now in its fourth year, this semi-annual retreat is building a strong and integrated network of leaders who are working in the same community to protect the environment, empower and educate youth, address social concerns and build alliances across divides.

This is a fellowship-based retreat, supported by the Wellborn Ecology Fund and by invitation.

This is the third workshop in the Grow-Your-Own series. Out of the decay and recycling of our plant and animal waste can come the fertile black gold that is the foundation of successful organic gardening. We all know this, and yet most of us have also have our love-hate relationship with our compost heap, and have had our struggles with making good compost and then putting it to good use. In this workshop we will make a pile from scratch, discuss how to glean materials, how to layer, and the pros and cons of different methods and containers. Then we will talk about the best times to make and to apply compost, as well as other ways to build and trap nutrients in the garden soil. As always, we will have time to see what is going on in the garden and ask lots of questions to continue our learning together.

Wendy Johnson will co-lead this workshop, and she is not to be missed. Not only is she one of the gurus of organic gardening, she is a gifted teacher and brings tremendous soul and mindfulness to the practice of growing food.

Register for this workshop