Food

March 30 – Basic Gardening I

Get started growing your own vegetables. This first session will look at planning, choosing location, preparing soil, seed selection, and will include starting seeds, both indoors and out.

Instructor: Kit Cooley, Certified Master Gardener
Time: 6pm-8pm
Location: Bonner County Extension Office. 4205 N. Boyer – Sandpoint, Idaho
Email: bonnermg@uidaho.edu
Website: http://www.sandpoint.org/bcmastergardeners/
Fee: $10.00
Please make checks payable and mail to: Bonner County Master Gardeners Association.
P.O. Box 58
Ponderay, ID 83852-0058

April 2 – What is Permaculture?

We will learn about the history, definition, ethics and principles of permaculture, watch and discuss some video clips, practice our observation skills and do some fun exercises.

Instructor: Richard Kuhnel
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: 908 Oak St. – Sandpoint, Idaho 83864
Email: richard@gentleharvest.org
Website: http://www.gentleharvest.org/
Fee: $45.00
Additional Info:
Minimum of 6 participants. Bring Brown Bag Lunch. For info and to register email or call 208.255.2440

April 3 – Create Your Own Permaculture Site Plan

This workshop will cover key elements and tools in creating a permaculture based design for your urban or rural home site. Learn to put your dreams on paper and manifest them one step at a time. We will cover what is needed for preparing, designing, applying and implementing your site map.

Instructor: Richard Kuhnel
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: 908 Oak St. – Sandpoint, Idaho 83864
Email: richard@gentleharvest.org
Website: http://www.gentleharvest.org/
Fee: $45.00
Additional Info:
Minimum of 6 participants. Bring Brown Bag Lunch. For info and to register, email or call 208.255.2440

April 6 – Basic Gardening II

Review seed starting, and then cover transplanting, irrigation, weed and pest control, and general care and maintenance. Other topics include options for protected plantings, container gardening, and preparing for harvest/seed saving.

Introducing the Permaculture Design system with tools you can use for your own sustainable design. Called the most important design system of the 20th century, Permaculture uses the patterns found in nature to integrate human systems (food, shelter, water, energy, health, waste, economy and community) into a unified whole.

Instructor: Richard Kuhnel
Time: 9am-5pm
Location: 908 Oak St. – Sandpoint, Idaho 83864
Email: richard@gentleharvest.org
Website: http://www.gentleharvest.org/
Fee: $125.00
Additional Info:
For info and to register, email or call 208.255.2440

April 20 – Seed Saving

Jennifer will discuss the basic principles and low-tech methods for saving seed and will help you prepare for your seed-saving this year. Bring your garden planners, along with the lists of plants (including cultivar names or seed packets) you hope to plant.

Instructor: Jennifer Costich-Thompson, Botanist, Idaho Panhandle National Forest; Certified Master Gardener
Time: 6pm-8pm
Location: Bonner County Extension Office. 4205 N. Boyer – Sandpoint, Idaho
Email: bonnermg@uidaho.edu
Website: http://www.sandpoint.org/bcmastergardeners/
Fee: $10.00
Please make checks payable and mail to: Bonner County Master Gardeners Association.
P.O. Box 58
Ponderay, ID 83852-0058

April 27 – Basics of Low Pressure Irrigation

Does hand-watering ever seem like an endless chore? This class will teach you the fundamentals of installing micro irrigation (drip irrigation) into your outdoor containers, veggie gardens, and landscape beds.

Instructor: J.R. North of Groundskeeper, Inc.
Time: 6pm-8pm
Location: Bonner County Extension Office. 4205 N. Boyer – Sandpoint, Idaho
Email: bonnermg@uidaho.edu
Website: http://www.sandpoint.org/bcmastergardeners/
Fee: $10.00
Please make checks payable and mail to: Bonner County Master Gardeners Association.
P.O. Box 58
Ponderay, ID 83852-0058

May 9 – Planning the Garden

Preparing the soil for planting; direct seeding and transplanting; companion planting; intercropping and crop rotation; record keeping, garden maps and succession planting are all a part of planning for a successful harvest.

Learn why adding humus is the most power secret to the creation of a bountiful garden and explore two easier and more effective alternatives to the drudgery of making a compost pile. During the first portion of our class you will learn how to work in partnership with red worms to create natures best fertilizer using food scraps from your kitchen. During the second part of our class we will create an easy no-till garden bed using Pat Lanza’s Lasagna Gardening Method. Class Fee includes a certificate for a worm composting starter bag including red worms, castings, and egg cocoons.

Instructor: Jefferson Burns
Time: 9:30am-12:30pm
Location: Ponderay Garden Center – 477703 Hwy 95, Ponderay, ID 83852
Email: jefferson.burns@neworganicfarmer.com
Phone: 831.531.8475
Fee: $25.00
Additional Info: Please arrive on time as we have a lot of information to cover.

May 21 – Seed Saving – Gaia as a Wild Garden

Do you wish to deepen your relationship with plants through witnessing their life-cycles? Seeds contain more amazing, dynamic information than the best of microchips. Come and dance in a full circle with the gardens both wild and domestic. Seed-saving is a habit-forming practice that will grow with you.

The distinction between “my garden” and “wilderness” blurs when we use wild plants in our gardens and we go to the wild for useful plants. Lets bring the wild onto our land and tend the wild land like it was our own beloved garden.

Wait…In this area do we even need to use precious garden space for useful native plants?

When creating a water-wise landscape with natives, isn’t that something like ecosystem restoration? What if all the plants have practical function(s) in our lives – would that be considered an ecosystem or are we back to thinking we’re planting a garden?

May 21 will be the beginning of a three-part class.

The first class will be an introductory overview of the what, why and how of seeds, both wild and domestic, native and exotic. Seeds have been in the news lately, but what’s really going on? Where do we fit in? Come join the discussion and consider why saving seed and planting gardens allows us to evolve with plants and the land, and them with us.
This class will be held in the tipi at Grouse Creek Gardens. Please bring finger-snacks to share after class and whatever you need to feel comfortable.

The second class will involve a mid-summer field trip to wild harvest seeds from native plants. Date and location pending. Please email for information.

The third class in the early fall will go over cleaning and storing seeds and propagating wild plants. Dates and times to be announced.

Come and witness the excitement of cross-pollination in plant genetics and garden systems.

Instructor: Lauren Gonsalves
Time: Noon – 2pm
Location: Grouse Creek Gardens
Email: living.legacy.seeds@gmail.com
Phone: 208.290.0391
Fee: Donation
Materials Fee: $6 for the book Basic Seed Saving by Bill McDorman – 18 copies on hand

May 23 – Fertilizing Organically

Fertile soil is the first step in increasing yields and natural pest control; assessing soil health, organic amendments, compost, manures, organic matter and foliar feeding; learn how to take a soil sample. Participants will test soil from their own garden to determine basic NPK and receive a composting chart.

Learn the wonders of edible landscaping with Kevin Mansoor as we look at the growing requirements and uses of 40+ edible plants, some we bet you never new existed. In the second part of the class we will magically take a 50 linear foot herb bed and transform it into a 5′ X 5′ space by utilizing soil and river rock in a upward spiraling technique. Class fee can be used as a credit to buy edible plants for your landscape.

Instructor: Kevin Mansoor / Jefferson Burns
Time: 9:30am-12:30pm
Location: Ponderay Garden Center – 477703 Hwy 95, Ponderay, ID 83852
Email: jefferson.burns@neworganicfarmer.com
Phone: 831.531.8475
Fee: $25.00
Additional Info: Please arrive on time as we have a lot of information to cover.

June 6 – Natural Weed Control

On any organic garden or farm, particularly newly cultivated ground, it is likely that weed control commands a major part of the gardeners time over the course of the season. We will look at using different types of organic mulches and weed prevention strategies used to control unwanted plants.

Do you have concerns about your personal food security? Would you like to be in greater control of what chemicals are in your food? Would you like a landscape that is not only beautiful but produces what you like to eat? This class will explore these issues, detail what edibles grow well in our area, and give you the practical knowledge to begin transforming your landscaping to mimic an sustainable ecosystem that can also deliver healthy, delicious food to your table.

Instructor: John Hastings
Time: 6pm-7:30pm
Location: All Seasons Garden Center. 31831 Highway 200 East – Sandpoint, Idaho
Email: allseasonsgarden@nctv.com
Phone: 208.265.2944
Fee: Free

June 20 – Pest Management

Assess pro-active control practices, identification, natural pest formulas, trap/catch-cropping and plant-pest relationships for natural pest control. Learn how to make your own insect traps and natural insect spray.

There is no landscape that takes as much energy input per square foot as a highly manicured lawn. This class will explore how we can turn lawns into self-sustaining ecosystems that provide native wildlife habitat, food, energy savings and beauty, and gives you a lot more time to enjoy your yard rather than work in it.

Techniques for optimum yields for vegetables, herbs, cut flowers and post harvest handling; how to get the most out of your garden harvest. We will also cover post-harvest handling to assure food safety guidelines are met.

July 16 – Freezing vs. Drying

Class will include areas of nutritional losses of freezing vs drying, the reasons for freezing or drying foods, long term storage of these foods, and degradation of quality with long term storage of these foods. I will also explain why it is necessary to pretreat certain foods to stop enzyme action that deteriorates food quality.

Instructor: Jim Corcoran
Time: 10am-2pm
Location: Sandpoint Community Hall – 204 S. First Ave, Sandpoint, Idaho
Email: corcorjm@yahoo.com
Phone: 208.265.4036
Fee: $5.00
Additional Info: Snacks will be available.

July 25 – Seed Saving

By saving seed from your garden, you can produce plants best suited to your specific site and micro-climate; we will discuss plant selection, hand pollination, seed cleaning and seed storage.

Instructor: Diane Green
Time: 10am-12:30pm
Location: Greentree Naturals. 2003 Rapid Lightning Road – Sandpoint, Idaho 83864
Email: greentree@coldreams.com
Website: http://www.greentreenaturals.com/
Phone: 208.263.8957
Fee: All six Greentree Naturals workshops for $150.00, or individual workshops for $25.00 per session.

INSTRUCTOR BIOS:

Richard Kuhnel
Richard uses a wide range of methods, tools and formats in his workshops and presentations. His passion is to empower, encourage and inspire the creation of resilient, connected, healthy and thriving human systems. He is an ecological designer, facilitator, green consultant and mentor/coach.

Diane Green
Diane Green and husband, Thom Sadoski, operate Greentree Naturals, a small certified organic farm nestled between the Cabinet and Selkirk mountain ranges in rural northern Idaho. Diane and Thom produce a wide assortment of specialty produce, herbs, fresh & dried flowers and berries. Expanding from a farmer’s market to supplying upscale restaurants, Greentree Naturals has also become a center for summer farm tours, workshops, a grower’s collective, a fresh flower subscription service as well as a small CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). They teach on-farm workshops related to all aspects of Organic production and Market Gardening and offer a consulting service of the same. They also have an active apprenticeship program for aspiring farmers, and are presently involved in designing a curriculum for University of Idaho and Washington State University to establish a credited curriculum for on-farm student-apprenticeship program.

Jim Corcoran
I have 30 years experience as a Master Food Adviser/Preserver for the states of Washington and Idaho. I have judged foods for the past 25 years, 20 of those years in Washington and the past 5 years in Idaho. I have taught classes on food preservation, including pickling, drying, freezing, hot water bath canning and pressure canning. Other classes taught include smart shopping, nutrition, expense analysis, and most any area involved with food. I will answer any questions that arise while the class is in session and have a very open, relaxed class time. I enjoy passing on valuable food information to interested attendees. Thank you.

Jefferson Burns
Jefferson Burns has a Horticulture degree from University of California Santa Cruz. In his life mission to create local food systems he has studied or collaborated with John Jeavons, Rich Merrill, Albert Bates, Trauger Groh, and Brewster Keen, among others. Jefferson has collaborated with others to create 18 community gardens across the U.S. and was the designer and developer of the first CSA farm that was an intrinsic part of a progressive housing development known as The Fields of St. Croix in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.

Lauren Gonsalves
Inspired by the beauty and magic of plants as a small child, I studied plant uses as a teenager and began to develop an energetic relationship and folk-use knowledge base of many common plants. Immersion in native wild food plants and restoration of wild gardens led me to the Sandpoint area, where I devote myself to the study of ecology, botany, and sustainable systems. I’ve lived in the Northwest since birth. I’ve been picking wild food for 6 years, picking wild seed for 4 years, and living in the Sandpoint area for 2 years.

John Hastings
John Hastings teaches Ecology and Forestry at Sandpoint High School and is a Dual Enrollment instructor of Horticulture and Landscape Design through the University of Idaho. He and his wife Nancy are owners of All Seasons Garden Center.


or select amount