Building Resilient Communities
All workshops are $25-$40 sliding scale unless otherwise marked, no one will be
turned away due to lack of funds. Space is limited. Please register one week in advance
by emailing MONTVIEW@PEDALPEOPLE.COM or call 413-825-6795 x306.
PERMACULTURE FUNDAMENTALS, April 3,10-5
Permaculture is a design system that provides for human needs while increasing the health
of the ecosystem. It gives us a lens to obser ve and assess what is happening in the natural
landscape and use those principles to design food, buildings and communities that work
together to use less energy and produce higher yields. Students will walk away with a
framework for understanding the connection between social and ecological health as well
as a process for designing solutions that come from being able to “read” a landscape. Each
fundamentals session is tailored to the par ticular season. Ask about discounts for taking all
three. Sliding scale $60-$100, vegetarian lunch provided. With Lisa DePiano
GARDENING 101, April 18, 10-12
Want to have your own garden but don’t know where to star t? In this workshop we will
cover ever ything you need to know to get going. We will cover soil testing, site preparation,
planting schedules, weed and pest management and more. With Molly Merrett
MUSHROOM LOG INOCULATION, April 24,1-4
Come learn how to grow your own shitake mushrooms. Take home a log of your own.
With Jonathan Bates
PERMACULTURE FUNDAMENTALS, May 8, 10-5 (see above description)
RAINWATER CATCHMENT, May 16,1-4
We can har vest rainwater off of our homes, garages, and even our chicken coops and use
it to water our gardens while keeping it from overfilling our sewer systems and flooding
our basements. Come learn how to calculate how much water we can har vest, learn safe
har vesting methods and build a two barrel system.
MYCOSCAPING: MUSHROOMS IN THE EDIBLE LANDSCAPE, May 29 , 10-4
Even if you’re an avid gardener, if you are only gardening plants, you are missing out! There
is a whole other kingdom to explore - and eat! How can we incorporate delicious,
nutritious fungi in our veggie gardens, food forests, lawns, and landscaping? In this workshop,
we’ll learn some of the options available to us, and even tr y one or two! We’ll learn
how to look at mushroom crops through a holistic, permaculture lens, and find the niche
in the landscape where they can peform useful ecological functions, even as they produce
food and medicine for us. We’ll review common and less-common mushroom crops, and
different cultivation techniques. We’ll also talk about how to be smar t and safe when
dealing the mushroom kingdom. $60-$100 sliding scale. With Rafter T. Sass
SPRING/EARLY SUMMER PLANT WALK, June 6, 1-3
Join us for a stroll around Montview Farm and learn how to identify the local edible and
medicinal herbs, trees and shrubs growing abundantly right here in the Pioneer Valley! We’ll
focus on methods of identification and har vesting, and discuss easy ways to turn these
common “weeds” into powerful medicine!
BACKYARD COMPOSTING AND COMPOST TEA BREW, June 13, 1-3
Ever ything you wanted to know about building, maintaining and using your own backyard
compost pile but were afraid to ask. Topics include bin size and construction methods,
proper ratios of materials, to turn or not to turn, what to add and how, how to rescue a
pile gone astray, when is it finished and the stor y to decomposition. We will end the
workshop by learning how to brew and apply aerated compost tea.
PERMACULTURE FUNDAMENTALS, July 11, 10-5
HERBAL SALVE AND TINCTURE-MAKING, August 29, 12-3
Making your own medicine is fun, empowering and easy! In this workshop all par ticipants
will have the oppor tunity to experience the medicine-making process for salves and
tinctures from star t to finish. We’ll star t with a shor t herb walk around Montview Farm to
decide what we want to har vest. From there we’ll process the herbs and make some
medicine! Par ticipants will all leave with at least one homemade salve and one tincture.
JONATHAN BATES has been thinking and teaching ecologically since 1999. In 2001
Jonathan graduated with a masters degree from the Institute for Social Ecology. Currently
he is an energy advisor for the Center for Ecological Technology. He’s been studying, creating
and working with rural and urban gardens in the Connecticut River Valley for the last
six years, and is a co-designer and inhabitant of an edible forest garden in Holyoke, MA.
LISA DEPIANO is a cer tified Permaculture designer/teacher and co-founder of the
Montview Neighborhood farm, a human-powered farm and edible forest garden in the
Connecticut River Valley. She has a Master’s degree in Regional Planning from the
University of Massachusetts and loves working with people to create the world they
would like to live in. She also enjoys local histor y, community radio, playing contra dance
mandolin and riding with the worker-owned, bicycle-powered hauling ser vice, Pedal People.
JADE ALICANDRO-MACE is a Community Herbalist grounded in the Wise Woman
Tradition of Herbal Medicine. She has completed numerous herbal training programs
at schools throughout the New England Bio-Region, including the Nor theast School of
Botanical Medicine, Blazing Star Herb School, Clearpath School of Herbal Studies, and the
Gaia School of Healing, and holds a B.S. in Plant Biology from the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. Jade truly believes that herbal medicine is the people’s medicine, and that
this knowledge belongs to ever yone. Teaching the healing proper ties of the plants growing
right here in our own backyards, fields and forests is one of her greatest passions. She
is based in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts and offers herbal consultations,
perennial garden suppor t, and seasonal herb walks and workshops. For more information
contact her at Milk and Honey Herbs.
MOLLY MERRETT is the primar y grower at the Montview Neighborhood Farm and has
been farming for over a decade. She graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in
sustainable agriculture and is a collective owner of Valley Green Feast.
RAFTER T. SASS has been learning, teaching, and practicing Permaculture design since 2003.
His work as consultant, designer, and researcher, covers themes as diverse as ecological
waste and water treatment, homescale mushroom production, whole farm design, and
urban agroforestr y. This work has taken him from the nor theastern US to Texas to Peru.
He is now studying ecological design at the graduate level in Vermont.
All workshops are $25-$40 sliding scale unless otherwise marked, no one will be
turned away due to lack of fun
