9:00 – Welcome & Intro – Valerie
10:00 – Making Fermented Foods – Celeste Longacre
Join Celeste Longacre and learn how to make some fermented foods for your family! Fruit kvass can be put together in under 3 minutes (although it has to ferment for a few days) and provides your microbiome with valuable organisms. Beets are fabulous to add to your diet and even better if they are fermented (tasty, too). Home made mayonnaise beats the store stuff that is almost always made with terrible seed oils or soy. We will have samples, too.
Celeste Longacre is the author of “Celeste’s Garden Delights” and an accomplished gardener who has been growing most of her family’s vegetables for over 40 years. She also does a “Green Living” column for the Monadnock Shopper News. For further information visit her website at www.celestelongacre.com.
10:00 – The Circle Way – Valerie Piedmont
The Circle Way is a foundational practice for creating nature-based communities.
11:15 – Firebird Morris
Firebird Morris is a non-traditional Morris dancing team focusing on Molly and Border dances originating in the border region of England and Wales. Based in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire, this mixed-gender team performs typically late April through October at festivals, street fairs, and various celebrations. You will see our brightly colored red, yellow, orange and black “rags” flying through the air behind us! We always welcome new dancers and musicians!
12:00 – Lunchtime concert features Cajun musicians, Pete and Linda Simoneaux.
1:15 – Birdscaping: Landscaping for the Birds – Master Gardeners Monica Brandau and Paulette Fitzgerald
Description of the Program: Birdscaping: Landscaping for the Birds
Many people enjoy feeding wild birds. Putting up tubes full of sunflower seeds or trays of mealworms is not the only way to attract birds. Planting native perennials, shrubs, and trees can provide long-lasting habitat improvements for the birds while enhancing your landscape, too. See examples and learn how to get started gardening for the birds.
Information About the Presenters: Monica Brandau and Paulette Fitzgerald
Monica completed the UNH Extension Master Gardener program in fall 2024 after retiring from a career in medicine. She fostered her passion for healthy living through vegetable gardening and food preservation. She now promotes this to others through her volunteer work with the Cornucopia school garden project and the Sullivan County Conservation District’s food processing hub project. In addition, Monica’s newfound interest in birding inspired her to begin creating bird and wildlife habitat on her newly developed property in Lempster by adding all native and keystone species to her bare landscape. In the near future, she would also like to develop a forest management plan for the remainder of her property to promote wildlife conservation.
Paulette Fitzgerald has been a vegetable and flower gardener for many years and completed the UNH Extension Master Gardener program in fall 2024. After retiring from education, she and her husband now operate a small farm in Lempster, NH. In addition to raising a variety of livestock (including bees) and growing a fairly large vegetable garden, Paulette has been working on developing part of their land into a true pollinator habitat. She completed the Certified Pollinator Steward program through UMASS Amherst last year. This spring, she is focusing on obtaining the UNH/UMaine Extensions Pollinator Garden Certification. Paulette enjoys helping out with the UNH Extension Yard and Garden Infoline and the Master Gardeners Speakers Bureau. She also enjoys hiking, bird watching, fiber arts, cooking, food preservation, and spending time with her grandchildren.
2:30 – Growing Mushrooms on Coffee Grounds – Dave Wichland
Growing mushrooms on coffee grounds and inoculating logs and stumps.
David Wichland is a naturalist, mountain guide, and certified permaculturalist! He became very interested in the pursuit of agroforestry in 1998 and discovered the power of mycology in the whole of this model. He has been studying and experimenting since then. Dave teaches permaculture design with a mycological twist at nature centers, schools, garden clubs and to individuals as a consultant. He grows fresh mushrooms, mushrooms spawn, and experiments with growing mycelia in agroforestry and gardens. He also spends time as a carpenter, husband and father of 3 children!
2:30 – Social Permaculture – Creating More Resilient Connections During Perilous Times – Nicole Colvin Griffin
Nicole Colvin-Griffin is a human who is learning to listen more deeply to life. She is an artist, beauty weaver, Transformational Breathwork Practitioner, Permaculture designer, community organizer and mother. She enjoys lifting up other humans of all ages and can often be found living simply in her yurt.