Natural Building
Build Community at Woodland Harvest Mountain Farm & beyond
Do you dream of building your own earthen home?
Do you long to work with your hands & feet in the beautiful blue ridge mountains?
Are you eager to spend time in community sharing around deep ecology, radical honesty & planning for our future?
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At Woodland Harvest you’ll get hands-on practice stomping clay and sculpting cob, building with cordwood and slipstraw, and mixing and applying various natural plasters. If you’ve been inspired by natural building and need a push toward starting your project these workshops are for you!
We’ll experience the joys of building with clay and get dirty in this completely hands-on experiential learning opportunity. You’ll leave with a solid understanding of natural building basics, have an amazing opportunity to explore natural building concepts and different aspects of what it means to live sustainably. You’ll take away natural building knowledge and experience that can be applied anywhere, including an existing home.
In these workshops, you’ll help co-create artful, affordable, and environmentally-sustainable shelter. You’ll take a tour of the structures at Woodland Harvest Mountain Farm and learn what you need to consider when building or retrofitting your own sustainable home.
We’ll host discussions around values & other topics of interest from offgrid living to medicine making and more. All of this and more on an off-grid farmstead committed to learning, living, and sharing ways to live lightly and joyfully in sync with Mother Earth!
Dates for 2024 Building Workshop Series:
June 7, 8 & 9: basic carpentry skillshare
June 28, 29 & 30: clay plasters (interior & exteriors)
July 1–8: bottle walls, decorative cob window design, light straw clay insulation & clay plasters
We’ll experience the joys of building with clay and get dirty in this completely hands-on experiential learning opportunity. You’ll leave with a solid understanding of natural building basics, have an amazing opportunity to explore natural building concepts and different aspects of what it means to live sustainably. You’ll take away natural building knowledge and experience that can be applied anywhere, including an existing home.
In these workshops, you’ll help co-create artful, affordable, and environmentally-sustainable shelter. You’ll take a tour of the structures at Woodland Harvest Mountain Farm and learn what you need to consider when building or retrofitting your own sustainable home.
We’ll host discussions around values & other topics of interest from offgrid living to medicine making and more. All of this and more on an off-grid farmstead committed to learning, living, and sharing ways to live lightly and joyfully in sync with Mother Earth!
Dates for 2024 Building Workshop Series:
June 7, 8 & 9: basic carpentry skillshare
June 28, 29 & 30: clay plasters (interior & exteriors)
July 1–8: bottle walls, decorative cob window design, light straw clay insulation & clay plasters
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These unique & festive workshops will provide you with:
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Workshops will be hands-on, working with a variety of natural wall-building techniques:
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If you want to have fun while getting muddy, make new friends, and learn how to create sustainable, non-industrial, low-impact buildings, join Woodland Harvest during our Natural Building Workshop Series!
You’ll come away knowing how you can contribute to a more resilient sustainable world with your new natural building skills while building relationships & deepening community.
Workshops led by guest instructors and an amazing crew of women with 40 years of collective experience in cob, straw bale, cordwood & timber building, permaculture, off grid farming & childrearing, & community building.
You’ll come away knowing how you can contribute to a more resilient sustainable world with your new natural building skills while building relationships & deepening community.
Workshops led by guest instructors and an amazing crew of women with 40 years of collective experience in cob, straw bale, cordwood & timber building, permaculture, off grid farming & childrearing, & community building.
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Donation Request!
Woodland Harvest asks for sliding scale donations in exchange for the experiential learning opportunities we provide & to cover food, supplies & materials for workshops. Donations are sliding scale so that we're not cost prohibitive to folks with limited means. With that said, there are expenses to cover, so by donating on the high end of our sliding scale, others who cannot pay that much can still attend these opportunities and basic workshop and food costs are covered. You choose what amount you feel is fair based on your circumstances. We ask for a $25-$100+ per person per day donation for folks staying for the day and $75-$200+ per person per day for folks who camp and stay for meals on Natural Building Workshop Series days. no one turned away for lack of funds, so please inquire about available scholarships.
Woodland Harvest asks for sliding scale donations in exchange for the experiential learning opportunities we provide & to cover food, supplies & materials for workshops. Donations are sliding scale so that we're not cost prohibitive to folks with limited means. With that said, there are expenses to cover, so by donating on the high end of our sliding scale, others who cannot pay that much can still attend these opportunities and basic workshop and food costs are covered. You choose what amount you feel is fair based on your circumstances. We ask for a $25-$100+ per person per day donation for folks staying for the day and $75-$200+ per person per day for folks who camp and stay for meals on Natural Building Workshop Series days. no one turned away for lack of funds, so please inquire about available scholarships.
Solidarity NOT Charity!
We encourage & actively support diverse people in bringing their unique perspectives to our learning opportunities! We welcome those self-identifying as persons of color, LGBTQ+, indigenous people, and folks who have limited finances. We deeply value equitable access to social & ecological justice education. We recognize the need to support diversity, equity, and allyship as essential to creating a healthy world community. We hold space to grow connections between diverse people, building bridges, pushing edges, and inspiring each other to tend our personal and ecological well-being. Families with children, partners & groups are encouraged to attend!
Food and Dining
We cook, serve, dine & clean up family style in our rustic outdoor setting. The lovingly prepared meals will largely consist of hearty organic vegetarian dishes featuring local ingredients. We do our best to accommodate dietary restrictions and food allergies. It’s recommended that participants bring snacks and specialty items only if they wish (example: your favorite tea or coffee, any food you can’t live without).
Lodging and Accommodations During Your Stay
All accommodations are included in the cost of the workshop. What you can expect during your stay:
Location
Woodland Harvest Mountain Farm rests in a holler of Bluff Mountain in the ancient Appalachian Mountains of Northwestern North Carolina. Bordered by several thousand acres of Nature Conservancy land, Woodland Harvest offers immersion into the lush native forests of the Blue Ridge where you’ll see woodpeckers, salamanders, hawks, osprey, deer, turkey, and if your lucky a bald eagle or bear. Discover the forests of Bluff Mountain where there’s a rare fen with endangered carnivorous plant species and special mountain flowers & fungi. Run through the forest, play in the creek, swing from a tree, lounge on the pond, feed our donkey and horses, and learn, love & grow at Woodland Harvest Mountain Farm.
Check out the rest of our website to learn more about our incredible space.
Food and Dining
We cook, serve, dine & clean up family style in our rustic outdoor setting. The lovingly prepared meals will largely consist of hearty organic vegetarian dishes featuring local ingredients. We do our best to accommodate dietary restrictions and food allergies. It’s recommended that participants bring snacks and specialty items only if they wish (example: your favorite tea or coffee, any food you can’t live without).
Lodging and Accommodations During Your Stay
All accommodations are included in the cost of the workshop. What you can expect during your stay:
- Lovely woodland camping spaces
- Limited RV & Bus parking – please inquire about options
- Access to composting toilets & outdoor showers
- Amazing library with collection of natural building and permaculture resources
Location
Woodland Harvest Mountain Farm rests in a holler of Bluff Mountain in the ancient Appalachian Mountains of Northwestern North Carolina. Bordered by several thousand acres of Nature Conservancy land, Woodland Harvest offers immersion into the lush native forests of the Blue Ridge where you’ll see woodpeckers, salamanders, hawks, osprey, deer, turkey, and if your lucky a bald eagle or bear. Discover the forests of Bluff Mountain where there’s a rare fen with endangered carnivorous plant species and special mountain flowers & fungi. Run through the forest, play in the creek, swing from a tree, lounge on the pond, feed our donkey and horses, and learn, love & grow at Woodland Harvest Mountain Farm.
Check out the rest of our website to learn more about our incredible space.
Volunteering
Our natural building opportunities are mostly volunteer run, co-created gatherings of a handful of devoted people working to share knowledge and skills. In order to make this event successful we need our community's help! If you are interested in volunteering, we would be deeply grateful for your offering of time. Prior skills & knowledge is NOT required, though there are also skill-specific tasks that we need help with.
If you cannot afford the requested donation, volunteering is an appreciated exchange of time and skills.
If you can afford to donate both financially and with volunteer time, we will be delighted to share in your company!
Other Ways to Help
Natural Building Wishlist
Our ever-evolving WISHLIST, help us minimize costs so we can support the educators traveling to share their skills, to support the kitchen staff, the venue and cover project costs. This is a CO-CREATED GROUP EFFORT!
Send your inquiries to [email protected]
Our natural building opportunities are mostly volunteer run, co-created gatherings of a handful of devoted people working to share knowledge and skills. In order to make this event successful we need our community's help! If you are interested in volunteering, we would be deeply grateful for your offering of time. Prior skills & knowledge is NOT required, though there are also skill-specific tasks that we need help with.
If you cannot afford the requested donation, volunteering is an appreciated exchange of time and skills.
If you can afford to donate both financially and with volunteer time, we will be delighted to share in your company!
Other Ways to Help
- PROMOTE! We need STREET TEAMS: Tell your friends, share in your circles, forward emails, put up flyers in your area!
- CARPOOL! Fill up your car, bring some friends!
Natural Building Wishlist
Our ever-evolving WISHLIST, help us minimize costs so we can support the educators traveling to share their skills, to support the kitchen staff, the venue and cover project costs. This is a CO-CREATED GROUP EFFORT!
- Fresh Produce - anything natural, local, yummy is so appreciated
- Bulk foods like coffee & teas, cooking oils, rice, beans, oats, spices, nutritional yeast, liquid aminos, sugar, etc.
- Pop-up canopy tents or large tarps & rope
- Tables
- Wheelbarrows or carts
- Shovels, rakes, pick axes
- Solar Lights
- Propane
- Buckets
Send your inquiries to [email protected]