Greenhorns, has just turned 10, and has moved to Pembroke ME. Here, we will continue our publishing and cultural work for a national audience, as well as developing locally-oriented educational events including a ‘naturalist adventure’ summer camp series that supports the entry of young people into sustainable agriculture. Come from near, come from far - scholarships available.

We will house our offices and 8,000 volume agricultural library in the beautifully wood-panelled Odd Fellows Hall, built by the George Washington Lodge of Odd Fellows in 1896, which we have re-christened the ‘Reversing Hall’ after the Reversing Falls, which gave the Passamaquoddy name to Cobscook Bay. The Hall is protected by a Maine Preservation easement - we will seek grants to restore the hall. Our headquarters will also house the equipment of cultural production - our painting, fabric and props studio, our tool-shop, radio podcast and audio-visual editing equipment. We look forward to local, regional and intergalactic collaborations and collaborators, beginning with a workshop series in 2018.

Here is the Schedule for 2018 so far!

FEBRUARY

February 25th 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Cobscook Community Learning Centre, MOFGA and C.J Walke Present:
Pruning Demonstration
At the Cobscook Community Learning Centre
The first part of the The 7th Pruning and Downeast Scionwood Exchange/Grafting Demonstration Events features a pruning demonstration with C.J Walke from MOFGA. C.J. began working for MOFGA in 2006 as Landscape Coordinator for the Common Ground Education Center in Unity, and has held various roles within the organization since then. In his part-time role as Orchard Educator, C.J. works with farmers and gardeners to build orchard health and promote biological diversity among fruit trees.
Pruning requires only a few tools, and the techniques are simple and fun to learn. If you are already an experienced grafter or orchardist, please come and share your knowledge with the group. The workshop will begin indoors with some basic information about pruning as well as information tailored to meet the interests of the group. The remainder of the day will be spent outdoors working on several trees on site to get some hands-on experience with pruning.
Register online HERE
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MARCH
March 18th 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Cobscook Community Learning Centre, MOFGA and C.J. Walke present:
Downeast Scionwood Exchange and Grafting Demonstration.
At the Cobscook Community Learning Centre.
Grafting is the uniting of two different tree or shrub varieties or stocks together in order to create a more desirable fruit. All named apples, such as Gala (a fairly new variety) and Wolf River (a variety from Wisconsin developed around 1875), were developed through grafting. In Maine, grafting is done later in the spring – April to May - when the tree's sap run is more established. At the Scionwood Exchange, you will be, also doing bench grafting which is done on rootstock indoors and then planted out later in the spring. Rootstock will be provided.
Please bring scion wood from your favorite trees to share with others and dress appropriately to be outside. For more information about when and how to collect scionwood, click here
Click HERE to register online.
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JUNE

June 10th, 2018
Greenhorns presents:
GPS for Beginners.
At Reversing Hall, Pembroke, Maine

Our teacher is Markley Boyer, conservationist and adventurer and we will be learning how to use digital mapping, remote sensing, large-scale print-outs and plain old drafting paper to create working farm management plans. We’ll use great software to access different layers of information (soils, tax maps, etc). The resulting maps/farm plans can be used for grazing management, organic certification, trail-making, agroforestry, monitoring seaweed harvests and other aquatic users, and includes multi-layered data about weather, wildlife and other phenomenology.

We will work with a variety of tools, comparing best uses. From Open Source: Farmier, Gaiamaps, Pasturemap, Prospect, maybe even a tiny bit of googlemaps. We have a few lender-laptops for those who need, if you have a laptop please bring it. Class size is limited, scholarships available. $40 to register: [email protected]

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June 15th, 2018
Greenhorns and Scythe Supply present:
One day short-course in Scything
At Smithereen Farm

Taught by scything legend (and neighbor farmer) Jim Kovaleski and Carol Bryan of Scythe Supply. You will learn to manage fencerows, roads, paths, lawns, orchards - all without motor noise! Find the optimal physics, the romance of the swing, and learn some small tricks for sharpening and blade maintenance. (If you are coming from away, plan to arrive the evening of June 14th)

No purchase of Scythe is required, but all equipment will be available for sale. The daylong course costs $100 and includes camping, picnic lunch, use of outdoor kitchen.

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June 16th - 17th, 2018
Greenhorns, Appleseed Permaculture and Owl + Bear Tree service presents:
Trail building theory and practice workshop
with:
Brannan Buehner of Owl and Bear Tree services,
Connor Stedman of Appleseed Permaculture,
Deirdre Whitehead, Maine Coast Heritage Trust land steward

All animals and all empires understand the power of the trail - but do you? We’ll cover siting and planning, tool-use, wet-area materials, underbrush and trail-edge management. Reading slope, topography, landform-- what does the land want? How can we design a sensuous slalom, with just enough intervention and design? We’ll do some wildlife trailing and tracking, noticing how animals use the landscape, where do they congregate, over-winter, nestle-down. How does this relate to our own goals, for hunting, for under-story herbalism, for siting our pathways across the forest?
Join 3 experienced trail-makers as we cover theory, tools, practices and implementation in a very beautiful Maine forest. We’ll create some trail earthworks (swales, drainages, water-bars, brush-piles and brush-gabions) that prevent erosive decline of the trail-way, and discuss remediation for old lumber roads. The techniques of trail-making can build skills relevant on self-willed as well as domesticated landscapes, today’s meadows are yesterday’s woodlands. From here, we can begin drawing the forest-habitat back out into the meadows with agroforestry planning. YES! We will actually make trails through a beautiful forest on a salt-water farm in Downeast Maine and you will gain serious confidence to make better trails in whatever forested landscapes you call home. (June 15 afternoon/evening arrival)
$250 for the two day course, includes all meals. Scholarships available, email: [email protected]
If you want to do this cool Sea Kayaking course we heard about, that could be fun too - as a combo  It takes place from June 9-16, 2018.

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June 23th
Greenhorns and Maine Seaweed Exchange present:
Wild + Cultivated algae: Seaweed Workshop #1

This will include:

- A full day session with Sarah Redmond and special guest teachers which will feature:
- Presentations and Slideshows at the Reversing Hall, field study on the shore.
- Orientation to the Inter-tidal, marine biology
- Introduction to wildcrafting and farming edible seaweeds
- Look at the history of seaweed aquaculture around the world.
- Looking at the potential for seaweed aquaculture in Maine: opportunities and risks
- Introduction to the work of Elinor Ostrom on the Commons, and principles of community resource management
- Introduction to species, ecology, ethics, equipment, siting considerations, seasonality, harvest, processing.
- We’ll discuss bio-safety protocols, look at seaweed health and disease management strategies.
- We will talk about local economy, political ecology and learning our lessons from fisheries history in Maine.
- We’ll discuss what kind of policy is needed create a Maine seaweed sector inviting to young, conservation-minded mariculturists
- We’ll evaluate wild and cultivated products, discuss best practices and market potential
- We will have plenty of time for discussion.

Farm lunch provided $200/Scholarships available [email protected] to RSVP

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JULY

July 21-22
Friends of Liberty Hall and Greenhorns present:
“Halls away Downeast” - A bus-tour of historic halls from Ellsworth to Eastport, Maine

This course is perfect for people over 60 years old, no strenuous physical activity required!

Includes all meals, transportation, lectures and accommodations for a 2 day whistle-stop tour including wonderful guest lecturers, farm visits and adventures in historic preservation. This is a program coordinated in partnership with Friends of Liberty Hall, Machiasport, ME, Maine Preservation and Greenhorns - a young farmers group which recently moved to an Odd Fellows Hall in Washington County.

Meet 8 am at the historical society Northeast Harbor or mid morning in Ellsworth, hall to hall (Ruggles House, Cherryfield Historic District, Liberty Hall, Reversing Hall, a couple Granges and fantastic churches too.) Come explore the civic architecture of Washington County, and some of the projects and programs animating these spaces. Attend wonderful lectures and events, sleep overnight on a beautiful saltwater farm, more halls and lectures and return the next afternoon ($350 tax-deductible donation requested)
To sign up, email [email protected]

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AUGUST

August 5th
Greenhorns and Jim Cornish Present:
Blueberry Wine Workshop

Join us on August 5th from noon until 4:00 pm for our Blueberry Wine making workshop with Jim Cornish. Participants are required to bring 15 pounds of blueberries and a potato masher the day of the workshop in addition to 12 pounds of sugar five teaspoons of lemon juice and five teaspoons of yeast to add on the third day after the workshop. The wine yield will be approx. 5 1/2 gallons. After the workshop spend an evening with Jim listening to and singing along to live Folk and Americana music that we all know and love sprinkled with a few original songs.
This workshop costs $50, which includes step by step instructions, a fermenting bucket, an air lock and a corker. Email [email protected] to RSVP.
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August 17th - 26th, 2018
Greenhorns Presents:
Sail Training Camp: Downeast Foxfire with Arista Holden

Greenhorns is pleased to present our first sail training program, a follow up on Maine Sail Freight project, which brought us to Maine! Starting at Liberty Hall in Machiasport and visiting islands, coves, and historic sites while immersing students in the wild coastal ecology of Downeast Maine, this ten day course offers a birch bark crafting workshop, traditional seamanship training and all sorts of naturalist adventure. Yes, you will learn to row and sail aboard the 18th-century Bantry Bay gigs.

Here is sign up spot: https://www.atlanticchallengeusa.com/downeast-foxfire-camp.html
For details talk to [email protected], $450 for 10 days, scholarships available.
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All of August, 2017

Blueberry camp!  Arrange to camp at Smithereen Farm to harvest your own blueberries and make your own jam in our beautiful new timber-frame kitchen. DIY Blueberry Commons. Bring your own tent, jars and sugar, come explore the beautiful Cobscook Region on a low impact family holiday! You can enjoy the Greenhorns Agricultural Library and our little improvised tourist office at the 1901 Odd Fellows Hall, go hiking, biking, kayaking, exploring New Brunswick and etc! I made a little tourist page on the website: www.smithereenfarm.com
—> Buy your provisions locally at Whole Life Machias, Machias Marketplace, Eat Local Eastport, Lubec and Eastport Farmers Markets and at the Tide Mill Farm farm stand! Washington County is far away, but this landscape is wealthy in wild foods, and utterly worth the trip up. “Drive like a champ, eat like a king.”
$50/ night includes, tent platform, use of the timber-frame kitchen+ stove, composting toilet + hot shower bathhouse, and all-access to the blueberry commons. For Bookings contact [email protected]

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SEPTEMBER

September 7th - 9th
Greenhorns and Eat Local Eastport present:
Shiitake + Chaga Focused: Forest Mycology in the Maine Woodlands And Wildlands
Taught by Radical Mycology author and educator Peter McCoy and Russ Cohen, naturalist, seed-saver, wildcrafting educator.
MUSHROOMS! Besides logging, how can we interact with woodlands in ways that sustain us? MUSHROOMS! This homesteader-oriented program looks at mycological practices and practical considerations for tending the wild, managing the forest commons for multiple human uses as well as for animal + insect users. Downeast Maine is home to over sixty species of edible wild plants, some of which are more nutritious and/or flavorful than their cultivated counterparts. Join Russ Cohen (invited), wild foods enthusiast and author of the book Wild Plants I Have Known…and Eaten, to explore several Downeast properties and varied habitats to encounter at least two dozen species of edible wild plants. Keys to the identification of each species will be provided, along with info on edible portion(s), season(s) of availability and preparation methods, as well as guidelines on safe and environmentally responsible foraging.

Topics include:
- Wild harvest ethics, discussion of Chaga - life cycle, tincturing and value added.
- Learning about lichens, for natural dye and medicine.
- Using mushrooms to read the forest health.

We’ll have a major focus on Shiitake! The thousand-year old Japanese tradition of growing mushroom logs outdoors in the woods including site selection, methods and doing it ourselves. You’ll learn hands-on how to create a fruiting mini-forest that produced pounds of shiitake mushrooms, on demand! We’ll talk about logging roads, how they fruit and what they can become. We’ll do a few wild forays, learning these woods and identification of best practices. While we’re hitting the mushroom trail, we’ll also visit the fruiting, blooming, rooting wild foods with Russ Cohen, naturalist educator.
3 day program - limited spaces, $250 scholarships available. Please email [email protected] to RSVP/pre pay

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OCTOBER

October 13th, 2018
Greenhorns presents:
Wild fruit vinega! Making Apple cider vinegar on a homestead scale.
Half day session at the Pembroke Reversing Hall - (Odd Fellows Hall 4 Leighton Point Road, Pembroke ME 04666)

Workshop will include:

- Making apple cider vinegar for your own use. We’ll be Gathering wild + heirloom Apples.
- Tasting varieties and learning how the different flavor profiles impact flavor outcome in cider, generating a ‘data sheet’ on the prolific trees in the area.
- Pressing- best sanitation practices, relevant rules.
- Fermenting- materials provided, space provided, you will end up with your own carboy of vinegar. We will go through value added, fire cider, vinaigrette, herbal vinegar etc.
- Other considerations, labels, sales rules, MOFGA etc.

Course costs sliding scale $50- $100 (includes the glass carboy), scholarships available. For information or to sign up email [email protected]

Thats all thats confirmed - in all likelihood we’ll add a few more details, and some events to the schedule and will keep you all updated as we do! 

If you are unable to attend any of our events this year but still wish to donate to help support the Greenhorns please click HERE to donate online or alternatively you can make a check out to our new fiscal sponsor MOFGA (Maine Farmers and Gardeners Association) with Greenhorns in the memo line.

This can be mailed to:

MOFGA
PO 170
Unity Maine 04988