Sunbow Farm GrapesWorkshops
Sunbow Farm workshops are designed to provide you with skills to ease the transition during this time of the end of cheap petroleum living. The topics form an integrated knowledge base which, when set into practice, will feed you and all your relationships with a sense of total well-being.
NOON TO 1:00 PM - LUNCH BREAK/DISCUSSION
1:00 PM TO 3:00 PM- PRESENTATION/DISCUSSION
BRING LUNCH
FEES
CONTACT
MAP
DIRECTIONS to SUNBOW FARM:
FROM HI 5 TOWARD CORVALLIS,
TAKE BYPASS TO OREGON BEACHES/PHILOMATH (turn left at this light)
GO UP TO 53RD ST., TURN LEFT
THEN 7/10ths OF A MILE TURN RIGHT ON PLYMOUTH DR.
LAST DRIVEWAY ON LEFT BEFORE STOP SIGN
Winter/Spring 2010
PRUNING FRUIT TREES, BUSHES/VINES
January 24 - Instructor: Steve Rose Organic Nurseryman & Farmer
Long time organic grower with combined skills in how to prune young fruit trees, older trees, vines and bushes. A hands-on workshop using Sunbow’s orchard, blueberry, grape, and boysenberry patches.
Workshop focuses:
- - How to decide a tree needs pruning
- -Thinning
- -Tip pruning
- -Tips on tree care for fruiting
- -Necessary pruning techniques for vine and bush fruiting
Note: please bring your own pruning tools and appropriate outdoor attire for rain.
ESSENTIAL SPRING-SUMMER ORGANIC GARDENING
February 7 - Instructor: Harry MacCormack
Over 50 years of gardening experience, author of several hundred gardening articles and newly released The Transition Document: Toward a Biologically Resilient Agriculture. A workshop on basic methodology to help insure your gardening success.
Workshop focuses:
- -Decisions: what, where, when
- -Secrets of Germination
- -To transplant or not
- -Fertility: how to maintain what plants need
- -How to achieve Nutrient Density
- -The Tao of mulch
- -Choices of equipment
- -Strategies for growing enough to feed 2, 4, 10 year round
- -Weeds, sometimes they can help
- -Irrigation
- -How to harvest for maximum production
- -Elementary permaculture
LIVING SOILS: BIOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY- AN INTRODUCTION
February 21 - Instructor: Harry MacCormack
Harry’s grasp of the complexities of these topics were first unveiled in his classic book The Transition Document: Toward An Environmentally Sound Agriculture, in it’s 3rd edition. The 4th edition is just released: The Transition Document: Toward a Biologically Resilient Agriculture contains several chapters relevant to this workshop.
This workshop covers in 4 hours what it takes sometimes days to cover in other Soil Food Web oriented workshops. The material is essential to understanding how and why the dominant NPK paradigm and synthetic chemical practices work against a durable agricultural future. The microherd is our ally as we move away from inexpensive petroleum inputs. Cutting edge information guides informed organic and biodynamic practices. Harry continues to share what is still considered too controversial by those who embrace the conventional.
TURN YOUR LAWN INTO A REAL FOOD SOURCE
February 28 - Instructor: Harry MacCormack
Harry’s work with Ten Rivers Food Web helping individuals and groups use lawns and neighborhoods to create an organized food source prompts this class. Harry has consulted with many who have transitioned yards to food sheds. He will also lay out some principles for organizing a food community within neighborhoods.
Workshop Focuses:
Design: (please bring a map of your yard to use in this class)- -How simple, how complex? Examples
- -How to get the most food from small spaces
- -What’s best to grow
- -How to integrate your garden into a neighborhood
- -To dig or not to dig
- -Utilization of existing landscaping
- -Compost, mulches, teas
- -Other organic amendments
- -Nutrient dense foods
- -Year around fresh
- -Health, pleasure, community
- -Tools, watering, simple protective devices
- -Time lines, calendars for busy lives
- -How much can your body do? Helpers and other resources
COSMIC INFLUENCES ON AGRICULTURAL PROCESSES: Quantum and Nano Effects
March 7 - Instructor: Harry MacCormack
Practitioner of cosmic timing and other awareness in 36 years of farming, author of many articles for Llewellyn Publishing and others on these topics. This class will deal with the elements in Harry’s forthcoming book: Cosmic Influences on Agricultural Processes.This workshop has been well received as it leads your understanding through and beyond systems promoted by popular planting calendars.
Workshop focuses:
- -Atomic and sub atomic Action; a quantum cosmology
- -Solar weather, what we now monitor, what is only recently seen
- -How forecasting is effected
- -Solar wind patterns; how they determine perceived cycles, ancient and modern
- -The circle of twelve: How and why the ancients named patterns we still use to calculate perceived effects
- -Correlations in germination, breeding, growth, ripening, harvest and diet
- -Tracking cosmic patterns: What is likely to be the next 187 year, and necessary agricultural adjustments.
MAKING AND UNDERSTANDING COMPOSTS AND COMPOST TEAS
March 14 - Instructor: Harry MacCormack
Harry is owner/operator of Sunbow Farm and has written and lectured internationally on these topics. He has extensive experience in making the products he uses.
This popular workshop is a practical and hands-on introduction to the complexities of the Soil Food Web paradigm. Science for non scientists, our approach leaves you with basic information and techniques.
Workshop focuses:
- -Understanding the microherd and how it works for you
- -Making composts in various conditions of climate
- -Making compost teas and extracts; brewers, foods, formulas, etc.
- -Strategies for fertilization, disease protection, fungal control etc.