There are TONS of opportunities for fun, making and learning in The HOMEGROWN Village at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012. Thank you to all of the exhibitors and presenters who are bringing their expertise to the Maker Square Stage and The HOMEGROWN Village Workshop Stage! Below is a simple schedule of events. Follow the links for more detailed information.

Saturday On The Maker Square Stage in The HOMEGROWN Village

10:30 AM	Worms, Worms, Worms! How to Compost County of San Mateo/RecycleWorks.org
11:00 AM	DIY Chocolate: Break Away from the Bar Karen Solomon
12:00 PM	Mushrooms on Coffee Jared Abbott
12:30 PM	Sustainably Sourcing Specialty Coffee Steve Ford
1:00 PM	Milkin’ in the City – Urban Goat Keeping Heidi Kooy .
2:00 PM	Organic Beekeeping: Saving the Honey Bee One Bee at a Time Tyler Henthorne
2:30 PM	Backyard Beekeeping 101 Mike Harrel
3:00 PM	Extracting Honey 101 G&M Honey
4:00 PM	Sweet Maria’s Home Coffee Roasting Byron Dote
4:30 PM	The Happy Chicken – Chicken-keeping Basics Rachel Brinkerhoff
5:30 PM	Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter. Lloyd Kahn, Shelter Publications, Inc.
6:30 PM	Low Tech at Home: Simple Projects to Boost Your Household’s Resiliency and Independence Erik Knutzen
7:00 PM	Habitile Modular Living Wall System Aurora Mahassine

Saturday in The HOMEGROWN Village Workshop Area:

10:30 AM
Herb Spiral Revolution — learn to make an herb spiral. Nik Dyer

12:00 PM 
Butter! Shake it and Make it! Farm Aid / HOMEGROWN.org 

1:00 PM 
Chinese Noodle Maker Mr. Wang

3:00 PM
Direct Trade Coffees Taste Better: Ritual Coffee Tasting – Steve Ford

4:00 PM 

Kraut-a-thon Happy Girl Kitchen Co.

6:00 PM

Guerrilla Gardening: Making Seed Balls Edward Cabral

Sunday On The Maker Square Stage in The HOMEGROWN Village

10:30 AM	Worms, Worms, Worms! How to Compost County of San Mateo/RecycleWorks.org
11:00 AM	Farming FOR Mother Nature – Organic FarmingPaul Kaiser  garden!
12:00 PM	Beer Brewing Basics Anthony DeFerrari , Anthony Tsangaropoulos
1:00 PM	Backyard Beekeeping 101 Mike Harrel
1:30 PM	Extracting Honey 101
2:30 PM	Barista goes to Guatemala!
3:00 PM	Herban Creations: Cordials & Syrups Dawn Zaft
4:00 PM	Sonatas of the Soil Lily Films
5:00 PM	Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter. Lloyd Kahn Shelter Publications, Inc.

Sunday in The HOMEGROWN Village Workshop Area:

10:00 AM

Seed Catalog Crafts! – Cornelia Homegrown

12:00 PM

Butter! Shake it and Make it! Farm Aid / HOMEGROWN.org

1:00 PM

Chinese Noodle Maker Mr. Wang

 3:00 PM

Kraut-a-thon Happy Girl Kitchen Co.

 4:30 PM

Guerrilla Gardening: Making Seed Balls Edward Cabral

We are so excited for Maker Faire this year! The HOMEGROWN Village — the food and sustainability area of the Faire — is better than ever!

Here is a list of the exhibitors participating in the Village. For more about Maker Faire, and The HOMEGROWN Village at Maker Faire, you can check out the links, but it really must be experienced to fully “get” it. Hope to see you there!

Beekeepers Guild of San Mateo

The Beekeepers Guild of San Mateo is an organization dedicated to educating both new and experienced beekeepers. Our exhibit will be staffed by experienced beekeepers to answer questions, offer support and provide products form their hives for sale.

Build A Bug Habitat!

Create a wildlife habitat full of nooks and crannies for a variety of insects. Re-purpose materials such as wooden wine boxes, used lumber and natural organic materials. Attract pollinators!

Disconnect from the Water Grid: Greywater, Rainwater, Composting Toilets

From Greywater Action: Learn how to reduce dependence on the water grid with simple, low-tech, low-cost options. Greywater Action is a collaborative group of educators, designers, builders and artists who educate and empower people to build sustainable water culture and infrastructure.

East Bay Urban Agriculture Alliance

EBUAA: educates on sustainable practices for growing and raising healthy food in an urban environment; develops infrastructure to support agriculture throughout the East Bay; and advocates for policies that enable productive use of urban land. (Plus you can meet Tom and Rachel from Dog Island Farm and The HOMEGROWN Life column!)

Farming FOR Mother Nature

Find out what organic agriculture really means and how including Mother Nature in our food production is both mutually beneficial and necessary for our future; learn ecological farming techniques for your own backyard garden! From Singing Frogs Farm.

 

Guerrilla Gardens

Become a modern Johnny Appleseed, spreading seed balls to restore natural beauty! These guerrilla gardens are full of wildflowers native to North America, enjoyed by humans and wildlife alike. Just throw & don’t mow! Also, don’t miss Edward’s seed ball-making workshops happening each afternoon!

Hacking Agriculture

Meet Pilar Reber and Rick Wesson a husband and wife team living a sustainable, organic life while hacking seven acres of local urban biodynamic farmland in Richmond, CA.

Happy Girl Kitchen

Happy Girl Kitchen Co. makes a variety of preserved goods using locally harvested produce and is a part of the DIY local food revolution. Happy Girl Kitchen Co. is making change in a delicious way, “one jar at a time”.

Letterpress Printing The Old-fashioned Way

Letterpress printing has been around since Johannes Gutenberg invented it in the mid-15th Century. Visit Peach Farm Studio to learn about letterpress printing the old fashioned way and print a letterpress label or recipe card to take home with you.

Milkin’ In The City

Goat milk? Learn how you can have some too with your very own urban goats. We’ll discuss the ins and outs of keeping dairy goats in the city. From Heidi Kooy of Itty Bitty Farm In The City.

Poo Garden

Feed greedy plants – not greedy banks!
This composting toilet was designed for the Occupy movement. What started out as a urine-diverting, dry-composting toilet ended up as a permanent fixture that reclaims a place for nature.

Ritual Coffee

At the Ritual Coffee booth, you’ll get to taste different coffees and learn about how varietal, processing and origin contribute to the natural flavors of a particular coffee. All brewing will be done on equipment that is available for home use. Ask the experts how you can improve your coffee at home.

Sonatas of the Soil

Lily Films (makers of the documentary, The Future of Food) will show three shorts from their new film project, Symphony of the Soil. These short Sonatas of the Soil are each 10-15 minutes long and delve deeply into one topic.

Tiny Homes

There’s a grassroots movement in tiny homes these days. In this book are some 150 builders who have taken things into their own hands, creating tiny homes on land, on wheels, on the road, on water, even homes in trees. Be inspired to MAKE your own. From Shelter Publications. Also see Lloyd Kahn’s presentation on Tiny Homes

Trackers

Trackers is an education organization dedicated to teaching old school outdoor skills: wilderness survival, wild plants, homesteading crafts, kayak building, tracking, and more. We run weekend programs for adults, summer camps, and after school groups.

Tumbleweed Tiny House Co.

Tumbleweed Tiny House Co. will teach you how to reduce your carbon footprint, eliminate reliance on mortgages and have the freedom of living with less “stuff” by building your own little house.

Urban Biofilter

Our Mobile Greenbelts are fabricated out of upcycled and palletized totes. The plants we select for these modular systems grow quickly and provide dense foliage for air filtration and wastewater reuse and treatment.

Worms, Worms, Worms!

Did you know that there are hundreds of millions of microscopic soil critters in a teaspoon of healthy soil? Learn how to grow a healthy garden by feeding these soil critters. Compost and create a garden that is life sustaining. The County of San Mateo/RecycleWorks Master Composter Program encourages composting, IPM and reuse for sustainable gardening in San Mateo County.

 

We here at HOMEGROWN.org are big fans of the Transition movement — mostly because it invites all people to utilize their skills and talents  to make real social change in their local communities. More and more, we are aiming to make this web site a resource for learning the skills that we celebrate: the agrarian skills of growing, cooking, building and crafting. The practice of these skills is what connects us with the earth and with those who harness the earth’s ability to provide us with clean, healthy, fresh food. — the family farmer. The practice of these skills is also what builds resilience (a term the Transition folks use often) in our communities, and empowers us all to have a choice in where our food comes from.

We’ve partnered with Transition US to be a resource for the Transition Challenge already underway this month.

From the Transition US web site:

So what exactly is the Transition Challenge?

For the entire month of May, thousands of average citizens from around the country will work together to create new gardens, green their homes and build community resilience. Abandoned lots will be converted into green oases and school children will pull weeds and plant tomato starts. Whole communities will pick up shovels and tools to help construct rainwater harvesting systems, install solar panels, make energy efficiency improvements, and share garden know-how with their friends and neighbors. All while educating and empowering community, and supporting local businesses.

You as an individual in your community can identify specific actions in one or more of the four challenge areas: food, water, energy, community and/or you can volunteer on a community project.

You’ll find many of the HOMEGROWN 101s linked under the “Food” action section. For example:

Raise Backyard Chickens

Propagate plants from a friend or neighbor’s yard: Propagating 101 – Growing From Cuttings

Replace any chemical pesticides with DIY Organic Pesticide sprays: Homemade Organic Pesticide Sprays 101

Create an irrigation system using recycled plastic bottles: Homemade Ollas 101 (Irrigation)

Grow food in containers: Container Gardening 101

Grow food in raised beds: Raised bed gardening 101

Compost: Composting 101 & DIY Compost Bin 101

Start growing fruit trees: Espaliering A Fruit Tree 101 & Grafting Fruit Trees 101

Grow food indoors – by sprouting! Sprouting 101

Extend the food-growing season by building a hoop house: Hoop Houses 101

Become a beekeeper: Beekeeping 101 (The First Year)

Make your own bread and butter!

Preserve Seasonal Produce by Canning It!

Make a rainbarrel

Find work on a farm

Start a food co-op in your town

Most likely, you are already doing at least some of this stuff – because it’s what we love to do! Maybe you’re already involved in a Transition Town where you live? Share your action with the Transition community, and inspire others to get activated today!