Farmview Schoolhouse: Adventures in Learning

Community Classes for All

We just wrapped up our first quarter of Farmview Schoolhouse with a bounty of fun community classes and new skills galore!

From beekeeping to sausage-making, to painting with watercolor pencils and starting a raised bed garden, nearly 100 students and a dozen phenomenal teachers helped us bring our community education efforts to fruition. We are excited to share some of the stories, images and experiences from our learning adventures.

Sausage Making with Farmview's Butcher

The post-holiday blues can be daunting, but Farmview Schoolhouse used that time to kick into high gear. Farmview Butcher Glen Wellman, and his team, led a group of sausage-loving students through the entire process of making sausage.

Complete with white butcher coats and lots of can-do attitudes, students sampled Farmview Market’s  signature sausages. Students also while mixed up their own flavors, and learned how to put their sausage into the casings.

At the end of the class, students all shared what they made. Each participant went home with 2 lbs. of sausage.



We are pleased to offer  Sausage-Making with Glen Wellman again on May 12. If you missed it the first time around, make sure you check out this experience for yourself.

At the Spring Harvest Festival and opening of the Farmers Market at Farmview on Saturday, April 29 from 9am-2pm, Glen will be Breaking Down the Pig in a FREE demo open to all. Space is limited, so register today. For more details on the festival, follow Farmview on Facebook.

Raised Bed Gardening

In February, local gardening guru Hiram Johnston gathered 20 students on a rainy Saturday morning to talk about raised bed gardening. With soil samples, books, a lecture and a great handout filled with some vital information that he has gained through the years, Hiram walked the class through everything they needed to know to go home and set up a few raised beds of their own. Following a tour of Farmview Market’s raised bed kitchen gardens, students sketched out their own garden plans and brainstormed together. The most exciting part of this class was that Hiram and his wife Babs announced that they are offering a second part to this workshop,

The most exciting part of this class was that Hiram and his wife Babs announced that they are offering a second part to this workshop,  Small Vegetable Garden ing in Action: A Field Trip to Nature's Trace. They welcome anyone interested in visiting their gardens on Saturday, May 13 to join them! We look forward to seeing new faces for this garden tour adventure.

Beekeeping

In Georgia, March means longer days and the many, lovely harbingers of spring— hues of green, awakening trees and shrubs, and the quiet early blooms of annuals and perennials. We were fortunate to have Linda Rivers share her almost Shakespearean stories of keeping bees in her beekeeping class. Linda presented the complex and dramatic ways of bees to her spellbound students.

She even brought an abandoned hive, and as part of the workshop, students were able to extract honey to take home with them. Linda also provided each student with a folder full of information, resources and her contact information as back-up help as they begin their own journeys into the world of bees.

Watercolor Note Cards

At month’s end, Schoolhouse went artsy, as Toni Carlucci taught a make & take workshop on creating flower notecards using watercolor pencils. Her students came to class with no prior painting and drawing experience but left with art! They were proud of their creations, and we are, too. We will be offering this class again in August. Registration for that class will open in mid-May.

And the fun just continues— Schoolhouse classes are now live for April, May,  June and July. Our late spring and summer offerings will take a somewhat different spin, focusing on healthy eating, food and the bounty of summer harvest.

Culinary Delights This Summer

Culinary Butcher John Stapleton is offering a summer series featuring Advanced Pasta Making: Ravioli & Tortellini, Refrigerator Quick Pickles and Delta Tamales. We are teaming up with UGA Family and Consumer Science Agent Leigh Anne Aaron to offer Water Bath Canning and Pressure Canning classes, and we will have Lori Smith from Double L Ranch teaching three different “Farm-to-Table” sessions to help us all learn what to cook with the vegetables growing in our summer gardens!

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn new things, make new friends and grow in ways you’ve always dreamed about. Be a part of Farmview Schoolhouse community classes. You’ll be glad you did.