Powell River, BC
Saturday Oct 29, 9 – 5, at Sycamore Commons (Townsite Anglican Church)
Sunday Oct 30, 9 – 5, at the Cranberry Seniors Centre (Cranberry and Manson)
This full weekend of workshops, classes and demos focuses on food preservation and processing, with excursions into gardening and other homesteading topics. It will take your urban or rural homesteading to the next level, whether you’re just starting or have been doing it for years. Many sessions are hands-on and all are taught by local experts. You can attend the whole weekend, just one day, or specific sessions, as you wish.
Class Schedule
| Saturday | at Sycamore Commons | (Townsite Anglican Church) |
| 9:00 am | Check-in and coffee | |
| 9:30 – 11:30 am | Stone Wall Building part 1 – Ken McCullough | Creative cooking from the garden – Emma Levez Larocque |
| 11:30 – 11:45 am | Break | |
| 11:45 am – 12:45 pm | Stone Wall Building part 2 – Ken McCullough | Bokashi Composting – Kitty Clemens |
| 12:45 – 1:30 pm | Lunch catered by Katie McLean | |
| 1:30 – 3:00 pm | Cover Cropping and Soil Fertility Building – Erin Innes | Mushrooms Part 1: Fundamentals of Mycology – Ioni Wais |
| 3:00 – 3:15 pm | Break | |
| 3:15 – 4:45 pm | Jam and Jelly-making – Kevin Wilson | Mushrooms Part 2: Recipes and Cultivation – Ioni Wais |
| Sunday | at Cranberry Seniors Centre | |
| 9:00 am | Check-in and coffee | |
| 9:30 – 11 am | Everything but the pips – making best use of your fruit and veg – Kevin Wilson | |
| 11:00 – 11:20 am | Break | |
| 11:20 – 1:15 pm | Pressure Canning – Hana-Louise Braun FULL |
Mushrooms field trip – Ioni Wais |
| 1:15 – 2:00 pm | Lunch catered by Katie McLean | |
| 2:00 – 4:30 pm | Cheesemaking 101 – Samantha Sherman FULL |
Location & Cost
This weekend aims to be zero waste and support local producers. Please help us reduce our carbon footprint by carpooling, biking, walking or using the bus to get to and from the sites.
Location:
Saturday: Sycamore Commons at the Townsite Anglican Church, 6310 Sycamore St. Please enter through the rear basement doors. Bus route 1 stops right outside, or across from, the church.
Sunday: Cranberry Seniors Centre, corner of Manson Ave and Cranberry St. Please enter through the back door off the parking lot: we’ll be using the large and small kitchens, not the main hall. Bus route 1 stops right across from the centre.
See below for information useful to out-of-town visitors!
Cost:
Full Weekend: Early Bird $99 until Oct 9th
Regular price $135 Oct 10th onwards
Special deal: 15-18 year olds only $40 for the whole weekend!
Single Day: $75
Single workshop: $30
Deposit $20 on registration, remainder due by Oct 20
You can pay up to 50% in Powell River Dollars PR$
Work trades are welcomed (and necessary!) and part scholarships are available – contact Kevin directly: 604 483 9052 or uhspr@fiddlersfarm.com
Skookum Coop members – Skookum may pay 20% of your fee in PR$!
Cancellation policy
50% refund up to 2 weeks before (Oct 15)
No refund after that but you are welcome to send a substitute
Planned Workshops
Stone Wall Building
Learn how to set up for, and build, a low retaining wall using dry stone walling techniques.
Instructor: Ken McCullough
Materials Fee: none
Creative cooking from the garden
Food preservation does you no good if you don’t eat what you’ve preserved! Learn how to use the abundant produce you may have frozen, canned or dehydrated in the late summer to make a healthy and delicious plant-based meal with Registered Holistic Nutritionist and Plant-Based Chef Emma Levez Larocque. We will discuss how to think creatively about using what’s in your pantry, and make and sample an example dish.
Please get in touch with Emma if food sensitivities or allergies are an issue.
Instructor: Emma Levez Larocque
Materials Fee: $5
Bokashi Composting
Bokashi means fermented organic matter in Japanese. Bokashi composting uses a selected group of microorganisms to anaerobically ferment organic waste. All the kitchen scraps you can’t put in the backyard composter. Meat, dairy, cooked food, oils. Learn how the simple process works and how to make your own system with almost no energy or cost.
Instructor: Kitty Clemens
Materials Fee: none
Building Soil Fertility
Don’t put your tools away yet – next year’s garden starts right now! Fall and winter is the time to work on rebuilding your soil’s fertility and improving conditions to get your plants off to a running start in the spring. Learn about seasonal cycles in the soil food web, strategies for reducing pests and diseases, and fertility building techniques for different kinds of soils in our region.
Instructor: Erin Innes
Materials Fee: none
Mushrooms Part 1: Fundamentals of Mycology
The world of fungi is as mind-boggling as it is inspiring. This workshop is intended as an overview of fungal biology & ecology, covering the basics of mushroom identification and foraging. We will also be looking at a wealth of mushrooms-related resources, particularly field guides and visual keys. Workshop will include a spore print tutorial as a hands-on component.
Instructor: Ionatan Waisgluss
Materials Fee: TBA
Jam and Jelly Making
Learn to make jams and jellies from fruit and herbs. Includes discussion of different setting methods, freezer jams, and basic instruction in boiling water canning, plus jars of jam and jelly to take home and eat!
Instructor: Kevin Wilson
Materials Fee: $5 includes food to take home
Mushrooms Part 2: Utilizing and Cultivating Mushrooms
There are as many ways to use mushrooms as there are to grow them. This workshop is intended as an overview of different ways we can engage with mushrooms in our day-to-day lives, covering everything from candied mushrooms to mushroom dyes. We will also be reviewing the varied ways mushrooms are commonly grown, and examining critical parameters for home-scale cultivation.
Instructor: Ionatan Waisgluss
Materials Fee: TBA
Everything but the pips – making best use of your fruit and veg
If you only make one product when you are processing the harvest, think again. It’s usually possible to make two or even more things from one batch of fruits or vegetables. We’ll cover possible products, and how to adjust your prep and processing so that you can make more of the delicious possibilities.
Instructor: Kevin Wilson
Materials Fee: TBA
Pressure Canning
Pressure canning allows you to safely can low acid foods like vegetables, meat and fish, soup and other pre-cooked meals. Learn the process and procedures to pressure can safely while making vegetarian antipasto.
Instructor: Hana-Louise Braun
Materials Fee: $8 includes food to take home
Walking with the Fungi (field trip)
This outing will look at a diversity of fungi in a natural setting, exploring the features and habitats of common mushrooms, and learning how to tell them apart in the field. This walk is not intended as a foraging session, but rather as an introductory mushroom walk focusing on mushroom ecology & morphology. Please dress for the weather. Field guides provided. Location TBA
Instructor: Ionatan Waisgluss
Materials Fee: none
Beginner Cheesemaking FULL
Learn the basics of cheese making; in two and a half hours you’ll learn how to make farmers cheese, ricotta and butter. We’ll use both cow and goats milk during the cheese making process and the learn the differences between the two.
Instructor: Samantha Sherman
Materials Fee: $5
Out of Town Visitors
How to reach Powell River:
By Road:
From Vancouver: take the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale, drive North on Hwy 101 to Earls Cove (about 1 hr 20 mins), take a second ferry to Saltery Bay, then drive North on Hwy 101 to Powell River. Continue as Hwy 101 becomes Marine Ave until you reach the Westview ferry terminal.
From Vancouver Island: take your best route to Comox, then take the ferry from Little River to Powell River Westview terminal.
By Bus
Sunshine Coast Connector runs buses up the Sunshine Coast between Vancouver Bus Station and Powell River. Please check the schedule to see if the bus runs when you need it.
By Air
Pacific Coastal Airlines flies from the South terminal at Vancouver Airport (YVR) to Powell River 4 times daily.
How to reach the site:
On Saturday, take Marine Ave North to the Historic Townsite, turn R up Oak St to Sycamore St, turn R and the site is the second church on the right. On Sunday, head East (uphill) on Duncan St from the ferry to the four way stop at Manson Ave: turn left. Continue on Manson until it forms a T junction with Cranberry St: the Seniors Centre is right there on your left.
Accommodation
In Townsite:
Old Courthouse Inn
Rodmay Hotel
Island View Lodge
In Cranberry:
The Seniors Centre is only 5 mins drive from Townsite so I recommend the hotels above. There is a motel opposite the Seniors Centre but it’s combined with a bar, pool hall, liquor store and convenience store and is noisy.
