Events Calendar

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.

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.

The purpose of our story workshop is to bring the power of narrative into visionary leadership. This workshop will help us support one another to find our voice, to use shared language, and to harness the power of story not only in our lives but in our leadership. It will help us to hear the stories of others, and to form a more inclusive, informed understanding of our work in the world.

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

EXCELLENT! ..This [workshop] is relevant to functioning as a better human and in all aspects of communicating with others, both work-related and personal. – Recent Participant

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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.

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!

The purpose of our story workshop curriculum is to bring the power of narrative into visionary leadership. This workshop will help us support one another to find our voice, to use shared language, and to harness the power of story not only in our lives but in our leadership. It will help us to hear the stories of others, and to form a more inclusive, informed understanding of our work in the world. We will look at what it means to lead through story, through our deepest values.

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

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In these difficult economic times, philanthropists are having to examine more than ever their focus and approach in order to carry out their mission. Come to this workshop to be with a small cohort of philanthropists and funders to explore what transformational grantmaking could look like today.

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

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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 accomodation included.

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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.

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

The purpose of our story workshop curriculum is to bring the power of narrative into visionary leadership. This workshop will help us support one another to find our voice, to use shared language, and to harness the power of story not only in our lives but in our leadership. It will help us to hear the stories of others, and to form a more inclusive, informed understanding of our work in the world. We will look at what it means to lead through story, through our deepest values.

This workshop is made possible with the generous support of the Ruth Mott Foundation.

The purpose of our story workshop curriculum is to bring the power of narrative into visionary leadership. This workshop will help us support one another to find our voice, to use shared language, and to harness the power of story not only in our lives but in our leadership. It will help us to hear the stories of others, and to form a more inclusive, informed understanding of our work in the world. We will look at what it means to lead through story, through our deepest values.

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

Register for this workshop

Our annual gathering of faculty from around the country.

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.

A core aspect of sustainability is healthy relationship between generations. Successful societies, and successful movements for change, include the transfer knowledge and leadership from one generation to the next. In todays rapidly changing world, the current leaders can not always see what is relevant for the next generation.

Leadership skills required for the next generation are more relational than transactional: how will we get along and translate our values to one another? This retreat will convene 20 emerging New Jersey leaders from the environment, food production, the arts, social justice and education to cross-pollinate and find a collective voice that will help them to step into leadership. The retreat will help them build the practical leadership skills needed to engage a dramatically changing American public. It will provide them with a network and a shared vision that will also benefit the existing generation in leadership by providing fresh insights and approaches that will accelerate change.

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.

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.

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 is a residential leadership retreat for students of Dartmouth College.

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.

These half-day, hands-on workshops are designed for beginning to intermediate home gardeners who want to expand their knowledge and self-sufficiency around growing organic food. The group is limited to 8 people, so these sessions will be intimate and jam-packed with information, designed to be responsive to the particular needs and questions of the participants. Each of four classes is spaced through the gardening season to follow the changing needs of your own garden and address what is coming up. Take the full series or take individual workshops. Cost per workshop is $40; $150 for four. See below for the four in the series: Starting Out, The Organic Garden in Spring; Midsummer Dream / Compost; The Organic Garden in Fall.

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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!

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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.

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In this second workshop in the Grow Your Own series (see above) 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 advantages 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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.