Group Tours and Workshops
In 2012, we offered group tours to Rainbow Community Garden Group, YMCA After School Program, Wilderness Survival Course, Wolseley Home Schooling Group, the Good Food Club, Katimivik, World Wide Workers on Organic Farms, the South East Transition Initiative
We estimate 400 people attended our co-op for either full or half day tours. In addition we had a number of events where guests stayed for longer periods of time to develop their skills. These included: 1 6 month apprentice learning about straw bale house building, 6 long term apprentices stayed longer than 2 months, 4 WWOOF guests stayed longer than 2 weeks ; and we hosted 2 Katimavik participants for 2 weeks.
Our members offered the following workshops on and off the farm: Bicycle Maintenance, Using Solar and Wind Energy, Food Preservation Skills, Root Cellar and Cold Storage Designs, Building Solar Ovens, Food dehydrators and Water pumps, Seed Saving, Cover Cropping for Soil Healing, Vermi Composting, Meat Butchering & Processing, Alternative Building Skills, Fermentation for Food Preservation, Conflict Resolution/Problem Solving;
Northern Sun provides tours for school and community groups on a regular basis. This photo is of Mitch showing a group of members of Winnipeg's Rainbow Community Garden his and Dawn's site. More than 75 members of Rainbow toured the Farm in July 2012
Northern Sun hosts workshops such as the Wilderness Survival weekend offered by Dwayne Logan and Laura Reeves in August of 2012
School Tours/Group Tours
Dates: May 15th- October 15th
All school tours can be adapted for age appropriateness, time availability and size/capacity requirements.
Because our farm has a wide range of opportunity for practical learning and residents have a wealth of knowledge in many areas, we like to give students a broad overview of our farm life , however if a focus on one or more specific areas are required, then the tour curriculum can be adapted as needed.
Areas of Interest
Solar and Wind Energy
Northern Sun Farm CO OP is an off-grid community. We have no hydro electricity. All of our electrical systems are powered by sun and wind. We explain and show how nature’s resources can be harnessed to provide electricity for lights, fencing, grain milling, venting systems and the running of a variety of household appliances and power tools. Check out our water pumps using recycled windshield wiper motors! Green energy is clean energy!
Alternative and Sustainable Building
Our homes and buildings are owner built. We use many recycled and local materials. Experience and understand the different techniques of building with straw bale, plaster, clay and loose straw, and how site choice, home size and building technique are essential to limiting the use of nonrenewable and renewable resources. Each home and building is different and unique, which excites a sense of creativity.
Small Scale Animal Husbandry
Meet our animal friends and learn about the benefits we receive from integrating them into our lives. They start and enrich our gardens, help with chores, provide food for the table and make our daily lives fun.
Organic Food Production
What does “organic” mean? We can tend to soil life so that it can tend to us. Learn about the health of soil, weed and pest control, crop rotation, mulch and irrigation. What are the nutritional and financial benefits of growing and storing your own food? We will explore the greenhouse for starting plants and the importance of saving seed. How we produce our food directly affects our personal health and the health of our planet.
Connect to Care
It is so easy to walk through life without noticing the huge abundance of living creatures around us! Learning to identify, name and understand a few of the direct benefits of a couple of trees and plants often creates a new awareness. Start to see the individual lives in the canopy of green.
Vermi Composting
Red Wrigglers have become a well established way to compost waste. They are often used in schools and homes for small scale food composting. See how they work on a larger scale to quickly turn animal waste into clean safe nutrients for growing food.
Food Preservation: Canning, Drying and Fermentation
Available: Year round
This is a hands-on full day workshop. Participants will take home samples of goods that are pressure canned, pickled, jammed and fermented. Produce will be chosen according to availability. Agenda times may shift to accommodate seasonal temperatures and cooling times and the number of participants.
Agenda: Food Preservation Workshop
9 am. -10 am. – Food Dehydration
· Types of driers and methods for building them
· The benefits and varieties of dried foods
· Discussion on methods and preparation of food for drying
10:00 am. – 12:00 pm. –Fermentation
· How does fermentation work and what are the benefits
· Hands on-“Let’s make ferments together”
12:00 pm. - 1:40 pm. – Lunch
1:40 pm. – 4:00 pm. –Canning
· Pressure canning(discussion and hands on)
· Pickling(discussion and hands on)
· Jams and fruit (discussion)
Dates: May 15th- October 15th
All school tours can be adapted for age appropriateness, time availability and size/capacity requirements.
Because our farm has a wide range of opportunity for practical learning and residents have a wealth of knowledge in many areas, we like to give students a broad overview of our farm life , however if a focus on one or more specific areas are required, then the tour curriculum can be adapted as needed.
Areas of Interest
Solar and Wind Energy
Northern Sun Farm CO OP is an off-grid community. We have no hydro electricity. All of our electrical systems are powered by sun and wind. We explain and show how nature’s resources can be harnessed to provide electricity for lights, fencing, grain milling, venting systems and the running of a variety of household appliances and power tools. Check out our water pumps using recycled windshield wiper motors! Green energy is clean energy!
Alternative and Sustainable Building
Our homes and buildings are owner built. We use many recycled and local materials. Experience and understand the different techniques of building with straw bale, plaster, clay and loose straw, and how site choice, home size and building technique are essential to limiting the use of nonrenewable and renewable resources. Each home and building is different and unique, which excites a sense of creativity.
Small Scale Animal Husbandry
Meet our animal friends and learn about the benefits we receive from integrating them into our lives. They start and enrich our gardens, help with chores, provide food for the table and make our daily lives fun.
Organic Food Production
What does “organic” mean? We can tend to soil life so that it can tend to us. Learn about the health of soil, weed and pest control, crop rotation, mulch and irrigation. What are the nutritional and financial benefits of growing and storing your own food? We will explore the greenhouse for starting plants and the importance of saving seed. How we produce our food directly affects our personal health and the health of our planet.
Connect to Care
It is so easy to walk through life without noticing the huge abundance of living creatures around us! Learning to identify, name and understand a few of the direct benefits of a couple of trees and plants often creates a new awareness. Start to see the individual lives in the canopy of green.
Vermi Composting
Red Wrigglers have become a well established way to compost waste. They are often used in schools and homes for small scale food composting. See how they work on a larger scale to quickly turn animal waste into clean safe nutrients for growing food.
Food Preservation: Canning, Drying and Fermentation
Available: Year round
This is a hands-on full day workshop. Participants will take home samples of goods that are pressure canned, pickled, jammed and fermented. Produce will be chosen according to availability. Agenda times may shift to accommodate seasonal temperatures and cooling times and the number of participants.
Agenda: Food Preservation Workshop
9 am. -10 am. – Food Dehydration
· Types of driers and methods for building them
· The benefits and varieties of dried foods
· Discussion on methods and preparation of food for drying
10:00 am. – 12:00 pm. –Fermentation
· How does fermentation work and what are the benefits
· Hands on-“Let’s make ferments together”
12:00 pm. - 1:40 pm. – Lunch
1:40 pm. – 4:00 pm. –Canning
· Pressure canning(discussion and hands on)
· Pickling(discussion and hands on)
· Jams and fruit (discussion)