Yep, spring means asparagus and rhubarb and lettuce and morel mushrooms—all good things we love, for sure. But for folks in California, spring brings yet another seasonal treat: Maker Faire Bay Area, aka “the Greatest Show and Tell on Earth.”

For those not familiar with Maker Faire, it’s sort of like heaven for do-it-yourselfers, a ginormous festival of all things sawed, hammered, pasted, programmed—and preserved. For the past four years, HOMEGROWN and our big sibling, Farm Aid, have partnered with Maker Faire to present the HOMEGROWN Village, a curated corral devoted to food making, urban homesteading, farming, gardening, harvesting, cooking, and eating. Most definitely eating.

We can’t wait to return to the San Mateo County Event Center on May 18 and 19 for the HOMEGROWN Village’s fifth year at Maker Faire, and we can’t wait to see you there. Whether you live in the Bay Area or are considering making the hike (Do it! Do it!), whet your appetite below. This year’s HOMEGROWN Village comprises four mouth-watering areas, and we’re pleased as punch to point out how many HOMEGROWN members are involved.

NEW THIS YEAR! EDIBLE MARKETPLACE
Curated by Forage Kitchen, a food-focused hacker space in San Francisco, the Edible Marketplace features small-scale food makers, including Bar Jars, Cocoa Collection SF, Happy Girl Kitchen, McVicker Pickles, Oaktown Jerk, Sweet Lauren Cakes, T-We Tea, and more. Are you hungry yet?

NEW THIS YEAR! FARM & FOOD FILM FEST
Once you’ve picked up a tea-and-pickle snack, head to this screening area for short films on food literacy, sustainability, soil health, farming, and feeding ourselves.

» Let’s hear it for the HOME team! HOMEGROWN member Kala Philo presents FarmShorts, a new web video initiative

» Also from the HOME front: HOMEGROWN member Kristi Stephens Adams presents selections from her documentary shorts series From the Ground Up

» Director in attendance! Don’t miss Symphony of the Soil, featuring a Q&A with filmmaker and environmentalist Deborah Koons Garcia (The Future of Food)

» The award-winning film Nourish: Food + Community traces how food connects to climate change, public health, and social justice

» Also from PBS: Food Forward, a new breed of food TV

» And from VOM Productions: Udderly Direct, a short doc on a raw milk dairy farm near Fresno

MAKER STAGE
Here’s where you can learn stuff directly from other smart folks. Think of it as a buffet for the brain.

» Hey-yo! Another HOMEGROWN member! Nicole Easterday of FarmCurious hosts not one but two talks: Making Fresh Chevre and Making & Infusing Vinegars

» And another! HOMEGROWN member Keri Keifer and her fellow Seedfolks spill the beans—er, seeds—on seed saving

» Lloyd Kahn, author and editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications (as in Tiny Homes!), gives a talk on the Half-Acre Homestead

» More! More! More! Pickling Oddities: Beyond Vinegar & Kraut, from Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It‘s Karen Solomon

» Lamb Butchering, with Berry Smith Salinas of Sonoma County’s Meat Revolution

» Waffleology: A Scientific Approach to Delicious Waffles, with Sivan Wilensky of San Francisco’s Suite Foods Bakery

HANDS-ON HOMEGROWN WORKSHOPS
You’ve had a snack—or three. You’ve watched a film. You’ve heard a talk. Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get your fingernails dirty. This year’s hands-on demos include:

» Making Your Own Moldy Cheese, with San Francisco’s The Milk Maid

» Making Kimchi at Home, with Farm to Fermentation Festival’s Jennifer Harris

» Kraut-a-thon: Making Kraut at Home, with Happy Girl Kitchen

» Shrubbin’ It: Tart & Tangy Cocktail Mixers and Make Your Own Mustard, with Kelly McVicker of McVicker Pickles

» And last but (ahem) not least, Butter: Shake It! Make It! and Seedbombs: The Throwable Garden! with yours truly, HOMEGROWN.org

Have we convinced you? Good! Here’s the fine print: Maker Faire Bay Area runs Saturday, May 18 from 10 am to 8 pm and Sunday, May 19 from 10 am to 6 pm at the San Mateo County Event Center, 1346 Saratoga Drive, San Mateo, California. Admission is $10 to $35; kids 3 and under get in free—and yep, Maker Faire is absolutely kid friendly. Get tickets.

PHOTOS: (SIGNPOSTS) COURTESY OF MAKER FAIRE; (ALL OTHERS) CORNELIA

The HOMEGROWN Village at Farm Aid 2012 in Hershey, PA promises to be a wonderful celebration of the vibrant agricultural life in Pennsylvania. The HOMEGROWN Village is a place for food and farm organizations to exhibit the good work that they are doing to assist farmers, inform eaters, restore the land, clean the waterways and build a sustainable food system.

Within the Village, The HOMEGROWN Skills Tent is where concert-goers have the opportunity to learn specific agrarian skills like those you’ll find in the HOMEGROWN 101 library. The HOMEGROWN Skills Tent is curated by Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN.org in partnership with the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) and The Good Food Neighborhood™ through its Sustainability Schools.

We’re thrilled to share the lineup with you and hope to see many of you there!

How To Cook with Local, Seasonal and Organic Ingredients on a Budget

Presented by Margot Bradley and Diane Diffenderfer, Pennypack Farm*

A hands-on workshop

1:15 pm

Using seasonal ingredients grown organically on our nonprofit farm, participants will learn proper vegetable cutting techniques and create a “stoop” (that is a soup/stew) that is nutritious, delicious and inexpensive. (Sharp knives will be used so workshop is not designed for children.)

Heirloom Seed Saving

Presented by Tim Mountz, Longview Center for Agriculture / Happy Cat Farm*

A hands-on workshop

2:15 pm

Learn how to save your own seeds in this hands-on presentation.  Tim will show you his time-tested seed saving techniques, while turning those fine tomatoes into heirloom sauces.  Get your hands dirty!

DIY Mushroom Farm in a Bag

Presented by The Eastern PA Permaculture Guild*

A hands-on workshop

3:00 pm

Explore small (home) scale mushroom cultivation options: Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of growing edible and medicinal mushrooms and make and take you own edible mushroom bag to grown and enjoy! Explore small (home) scale mushroom cultivation options: Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of growing edible and medicinal mushrooms and make and take you own edible mushroom bag to grown and enjoy!

Backyard Chickens 101

Presented by Jennifer Brodsky, Longview Center for Agriculture*

At the presenters’ table

3:00 pm

Have you wanted to raise chickens but were not sure how or where to start?

Come learn the wonderful benefits of keeping a small-scale backyard chicken coop for your all-natural fresh egg supply throughout the year! Join us for an informative talk about how fun and simple it is for the whole family to raise chickens in your own backyard. Workshop will include slide show, coop designs, breed selection and chicken care basics.

Compost 101 and Worm Races

Presented by Jenn Halpin and Matt Steiman, Dickinson College Farm*

A hands-on workshop

4:00 pm

Composting is easy!  Come and learn how to turn table scraps and yard waste into nutrient rich fertilizer for your garden.  Participants will learn the fundamentals of building and managing piles in addition to a closer look inside the pile and the biology at work.  Not interested in backyard composting?  How about indoor vermicomposting made easy?!  Participants will gain hands-on experience with what it takes to raise red wigglers and harvest their nutrient-dense castings.  Come and get your hands dirty with us!

Make Refrigerator Pickles!

Presented by Robyn Jasko, Homesweet Homegrown

At the presenters’ table

4:15 pm

Robyn Jasko, the author of Homesweet Homegrown and founder of Grow Indie.com will show you how to pickle any vegetable in just 10 minutes. Learn how to make your own crunchy homegrown pickles—no canner required!

And here folks thought they were coming to just a concert. Happy skill sharing!

* Farm Aid and HOMEGROWN.org are grateful to PASA’s Good Food Neighborhood™ Sustainability Schools partners who donated their time to present today. Sustainability School partners are farms, organizations and individuals providing homesteading, homemaking and backyard conservation workshops across the Commonwealth and throughout the mid-Atlantic United States. What drives these partnerships is a strong desire on the part of the farming community for meaningful engagement with everyday folks who care about the health of our food systems. Food is the common thread and we all play a vital role at the table!

PHOTO: Shriya Manian

**UPDATE**

The workshops and presentations were jam packed all day! Thank you to everyone who participated. We all walked away more informed and inspired by the event. Here are some photos courtesy of our very own Jennifer.

Find more photos like this on HOMEGROWN

Have you ever crashed a realtor’s open house — not because you were a buyer, but  just so you could see what the owners have done with the house? That’s kind of how we feel when we read about the three Mother Earth News 2012 Homesteaders of The Year. We want to stop by each of these homes, just so we can learn everything about what they’re doing!

Fitting enough, the awards are part of the larger International Homesteading Education Month this September when everyone can participate in the joys of learning — and teaching — such skills. Read the homesteaders’ stories in the full article — and definitely check out the photos (as far as we’re concerned, there can never be enough photos.) A note to all of the finalists, runners-up and nominees: We’d love to stop by next time we’re in town!

Community house-raising!

Jim and Laurie hand-built their timber-frame straw bale home. The frame is set upon a one-of-a kind foundation built from stone found nearby. Gathering 126 friends and neighbors, the couple hosted an old-fashioned house-raising. In a notebook the couple kept as a remembrance of the day’s events, the first comment from a volunteer was, “Amazing! Everything fits!” It truly is amazing, considering the home was built primarily with hand tools, aided only by a chain saw and portable sawmill. The walls were built of straw bale and plaster, and a greenhouse atrium — along with all the windows and doors — were finished with recycled glass.

The first of the finalists, Jim Strickland and Laurie Freeman, live off-grid in Meco, N.Y. They hand-built their home with recycled materials and timber harvested, milled and joined on their property. Relying on solar energy, Strickland and Freeman paid their last utility bill in 2000. They raise chickens, keep bees, tend a large food garden and store excess harvests in a root cellar.

Jim Strickland and Laurie Freeman’s off-grid homestead.

The second of the finalists, Mark Boyd and Charlyn Ellis, turned one-tenth of an acre in Corvallis, Ore., into a productive homestead, complete with a vegetable garden, a chicken coop, beehive and an energy-efficient house. They diligently reduce, reuse and recycle – to the extent that they only need to have their trash picked up twice a year. They keep a blog called 21st Street Urban Homestead.

Mark Boyd and Charlyn Ellis’ 21st Street Urban Homestead.

The couple’s self-reliance extends from the garden into the kitchen. From fresh cheese to homemade yogurt made with local milk to grinding local flour for bread-baking, home cooking is integrated into their everyday activities. Eating seasonally and valuing the local foodscape brings about an appreciation noted by many nominees. For Charlyn, ‘It makes our food feel more special, knowing that each item has a season’.

Alan Steinberg, Barbara Heller and daughter Rebecca Heller-Steinberg live in Afton, NY.

The third (but not least) finalists, Alan Steinberg, Barbara Heller and daughter Rebecca Heller-Steinberg renovated an 1850s house into an energy-efficient, self-reliant homestead in Afton, N.Y. Besides growing their own food, each family member works to strengthen local food connections and shares their knowledge and skills with the Afton and Binghamton communities.

Alan and Barbara have outfitted the property with several large gardens. Foods preserved from their harvests keep the family eating well throughout the year. Alan created an 8-foot deer fence to protect the family’s homegrown food supply and a mobile hoop house to extend their garden’s production into cooler months. “We won’t eat fresh tomatoes out of season — it’s just not fresh if it’s not out of the garden,” Barbara says. What the couple doesn’t grow is purchased from local farmers markets and a local food subscription service started by their daughter.”

 

“The path to self-reliance can be just as rewarding as the ultimate goal.
This is one of many lessons learned by our 2012 Homesteaders of the Year.”