Premium Workshops
Friday, September 14
Fall Planting & Winterizing Your Garden
with Brian Hartsock
Friday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
A beautiful garden in spring often depends on preparations the previous fall. Learn about plant nutrition, soil management, pruning, and other late season practices to ensure a thriving landscape and garden. $15
Making & Using Herbal Oils & Salves
with Heather Wetzel
Friday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Join community herbalist Heather Wetzel for this interesting and informative demonstration of how to make medicinal oils and salves, including recipes, samples, and information about the botanical ingredients. $15
Naturescape Your Yard
with Karen Bussolini
Friday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Eco-friendly garden coach and photographer Karen Bussolini shows how to create enjoyable, reduced-maintenance, environmentally-friendly landscapes. $10
Succession Planting for Continuous Vegetable Harvests
with Pam Dawling
Friday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
How to plan sowing dates for continuous supplies of popular summer crops, such as beans, squash, cucumbers, and sweet corn, as well as year round lettuce. Avoid gluts and shortages. $10
Thomas Jefferson’s Fruit Garden
with Gabriele Rausse
Friday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Enjoy an in-depth tour of Monticello’s South Orchard and Vineyards. Explore over 150 historic fruit varieties, what Jefferson referred to as “precious refreshment,” from peaches, plums, and apples, to berries, grapes, and figs. $15
Fun with Fermentation
with Dawn Story
Friday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
Discover how you can make simple, healthy vegetable ferments, like sauerkraut and kimchi, dairy ferments, like yogurt and cheese, and delicious, probiotic beverages, such as kefir and kombucha. $10
GROW BIOINTENSIVE® Sustainable Mini-farming
with Cindy Conner
Friday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
GROW BIOINTENSIVE® Sustainable Mini-farming is a system that combines nutrition-based food production with closed-system soil fertility management, emphasizing reduced space. $10
Heirloom Garlic & Onions: How to Grow these Culinary Essentials
with Ira Wallace
Friday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
Learn how to add these hardy, productive perennials to your farm or garden plans. Each participant receives a “mini sampler” from the Southern Exposure 2012 garlic and onion variety trials. $10
Make Your Garden Work for You
with David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth
Friday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
Garden in concert with the natural world and grow healthy plants by creating gardens that replicate nature. $10
Thomas Jefferson & Natural History Woodland Walk
with Jerry Therrien
Friday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
Jefferson’s passion for gardening arose from his curiosity about natural history and the “tranquil pursuits” of science. Trek through the forests of Monticello Mountain and examine wildflowers, seedpods, nuts, trees, mammals, birds, fungi, insects, and geology. $15
Hens in the Hood & Broilers in the Backyard: Practical Advice for Raising Chickens for Eggs & Meat
with Guinevere Higgins and Leni Sorensen
Friday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Discuss the joys of keeping poultry and how to get started with chickens. Topics include: basic coop setup, predator protection, egg production, starting with chicks, butchery basics, and local resources for chicken-keepers. $15
Seed Saving for the Home Gardener
with Rodger Winn
Friday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
You can easily save seeds from common garden vegetables. Rodger Winn will discuss saving seed from tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons and squash. This workshop will cover cultivation methods, isolation, harvesting, processing and storage $10
Seed Saving in the Monticello Vegetable Garden
with Pat Brodowski
Friday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Many special garden plants are unavailable from commercial sources and need to be preserved from year to year. Learn the dynamics of seed production – pollination, timing, seed identification, cleaning, and storing – while visiting the Monticello vegetable garden for a hands-on collecting demonstration. $15
Uncommon Common Vegetables: Heirlooms that Shine in the Kitchen
with Marie Iannotti
Friday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
You say potato, I say ‛German Butterball.’ From ‛Turkish Orange’ eggplants to ‛Rat Tail’ radishes, fill your garden with flavors you’ll never find in a store $10
Vinegar Making Basics
with Gabriele Rausse
Friday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Vinegar was an integral ingredient in various Jefferson-family recipes, and there is more to vinegar than salad dressing. Join winemaker Gabriele Rausse in the basic principles of vinegar-making. $10
Backyard Revolution’s “Homesteading Basics” Track One: Growing & Eating Fresh Food Year Round
with Andrea Chesman and Gary Scott
Friday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
Designed to give beginning farmers, growers and homemakers a basic understanding of how to approach the planning process required to feed and sustain a family year-round via planting, harvest and preservation. Gary Scott offers insights into the timeline and particulars requisite to seasonal growing. Andrea Chesman teaches the ABC’s of food preservation from root cellaring to canning. $10
Creating Abundance with Permaculture
with Christine Muehlman Gyovai
Friday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
Create abundance in your home and community using the tools and techniques of permaculture – a system of ecological design based on natural patterns to build sustainable gardens, homes, and neighborhoods. $10
Farming for Pollinators
with Nancy Adamson
Friday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
Learn about bees, our most effective crop pollinators, and their relevance to conservation and management, as well as bee-friendly farming, and resources to support “farming for bees.” $15
The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food
with Janisse Ray
Friday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
At no time in our history have Americans been more obsessed with food, and yet our food supply is profoundly at risk. Janisse Ray reads from her new book, a journey to the frontier of seed saving. $10
Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Vegetable Garden
with Peter Hatch
Friday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
Jefferson’s Kitchen Garden at Monticello was an Ellis Island of new and unusual plants from around the world. Stroll through the 1,000-foot-long vegetable garden and learn about this experimental laboratory and some of the 330 vegetable varieties. $15
Backyard Revolution’s “Homesteading Basics” Track Two: Growing Healthy Animals & Building Healthy Soil
with Ben Coleman and Kevin Fletcher
Friday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Intended to educate both new and experienced farmers and homesteaders interested in improving the efficiency, health, production, and quality of their animals and lands. Ben Coleman teaches how to integrate all aspects of land and animal stewardship. Kevin Flecher shows how to increase nutritional content and flavor in your meat, while simultaneously creating topsoil at lightning speed. $10
New Frontiers in Organic Gardening
with Barbara Pleasant
Friday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Choosing the best crops, varieties, and cultural methods is key to growing organic food crops in Virginia. Barbara Pleasant shares new tips to help you grow more organic vegetables, herbs, and fruits in your home garden. $15
The Small-Scale Poultry Flock, An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers
with Harvey Ussery
Friday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Harvey Ussery presents his integrative, whole-systems, mixed-flock approach to poultry husbandry. Discuss electronet fencing, making compost, insect control, home butchering, breeding, and more. $10
Thomas Jefferson & Natural History Woodland Walk
with Peggy Cornett
Friday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Thomas Jefferson’s passion for gardening arose from his truly wide-eyed curiosity about natural history and the “tranquil pursuits” of science. Peggy Cornett will lead this trek through the forests of Monticello Mountain. Participants will examine autumn wildflowers, seedpods and nuts, trees, mammals, birds, the skies, fungi, insects, and geology with the historical perspective of the Sage of Monticello ever in mind. $15
Traditional Breadmaking: Sourdough
with Robert V. Clickner
Friday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Learn to make bread using centuries-old techniques taking advantage of yeasts naturally present in the air. $10
Backyard Revolution’s “Homesteading Basics” Track Three: Sustainable Fossil Fuel Free Farmsteading
with Hank Will and Alexis Zeigler
Friday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Designed for those interested in reducing petroleum dependency and learning how to live and farm fossil fuel free. Alexis Zeigler talks about how to build an economically viable farm that runs without gasoline, diesel, or grid electricity. Hear about the technologies (using oxen, wood gas, superinsulated solar heated housing, solar and biogas cookers, solar refrigeration) and the community that make life without fossil fuel possible. Hank Wills explores fossil-free solutions to the challenges of homesteading by rediscovering the dependable power of hand tools, elbow grease, and labor provided by farm animals. $10
Best Fruit Tree Varieties for the Mid-Atlantic
with Kathy Jentz
Friday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
From paw paws to peaches, discover the fruit trees that grow best in our region. This talk is especially suited to those gardeners lacking growing space or live in urban areas. $10
Common Nutritive Herbs for Promoting Family Health
with Krista & Rob Rahm
Friday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Nutritive herbs have a tonifying effect on the body, helping us feel stronger, be more energetic, and prevent disease. Learn how to easily incorporate them into your life. $10
Hands-On How to Propagate Your Own Woodland Botanicals
with Jeanine Davis
Friday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Learn from an expert how to divide and propagate woodland medicinals, including black cohosh, bloodroot, and goldenseal. Then take your divisions home to get started growing your own forest medicinals. $15
Monticello Herbs & their Uses
with Lily Fox-Bruguiere
Friday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Herbs have long been valued for their many uses as flavorings, medicines, and dyestuffs. Tour the useful herbs growing in the gardens at Monticello, focusing on the herbs documented by Jefferson in his garden book and correspondence. $15
Growing a Greener World
with Joe Lamp’l
Friday, 4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m.
In this inspiring and motivational presentation, Joe draws on his extensive travels across America to produce and host his national public television, Growing a Greener World. With an extensive collection of stories over 78 episodes, through beautiful high definition video and award-winning photography, you’ll meet some of the most fascinating people, see some of the most interesting places, and discover organizations doing great things for the planet, all with an emphasis on gardening and a common thread that will empower each of us to advance the cause of these heroes in our own communities. $15
Grand Preview Dinner and Evening
with Joel Salatin
Friday, 6:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
Join us for an evening pairing a talk and dinner with farmer and award-winning author Joel Salatin, author of Folks, This Ain’t Normal, You Can Farm, and Salad Bar Beef, and founder of Polyface Farm, which was featured as a model of sustainable agriculture in The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. $90
Saturday, September 15
Chickens in the Garden
with Harvey Ussery
Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Explore creative ways to use chickens as hard-working garden partners – for tilling in weeds or cover crops, limiting insect damage, making compost, and more. $15
Home Grown Hops
with Jeanine Davis
Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Learn how to grow hops in your backyard for home brewing or on a larger scale to supply local craft breweries. $15
The Pantry-Driven Garden
with Barbara Pleasant
Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Wouldn’t it be great to eat from your garden every day of the year? Learn strategies for growing, eating, and preserving a year-round homegrown food supply. $15
Solar Food Drying
with Cindy Conner
Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Cindy Conner has been using solar food dryers here in humid Virginia and wants to share her work. She teaches you how to get your food from your garden to your table using the least amount of fossil fuel. $10
Thomas Jefferson & Natural History Woodland Walk
with Jerry Therrien
Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Jefferson’s passion for gardening arose from his curiosity about natural history and the “tranquil pursuits” of science. Trek through the forests of Monticello Mountain and examine wildflowers, seedpods, nuts, trees, mammals, birds, fungi, insects, and geology. $15
Virginia Cider Making
with Tom Burford and Kerry Gilmer
Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
It was a significant event when Americans began drinking their fruit rather than eating it. The illustrious “Professor Apple” and international authority on apples, Tom Burford reviews and demonstrates the Virginia cider-making tradition. $15
Easy Fall Planted Cut Flowers from Seed
with Lisa Ziegler
Saturday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
Learn about easy “hardy” annuals to plant in the fall for blooms the following spring. How-to’s for direct seeding in the garden and starting indoors using soil blocks. $10
How to Brew Lacto-Fermented Beverages
with Suzanna Stone
Saturday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
Make delicious and healthy sodas using honey, whey, and traditional plants. These beverages not only offer a tasty alternative to what is found on the supermarket shelf, they promote digestive health. $10
Introduction to Mushroom Culture
with Mark Jones
Saturday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
Explore the many ways people incorporate mushrooms into their culture and agriculture. Mushroom culture topics will include: gourmet mushrooms as functional foods, medicinal mushrooms, plant and animal diseases caused by fungi, and rituals and mythology related to mushrooms. $15
Landscaping with Native Plants: Healing Our Home Turf
with Karen Bussolini
Saturday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
A lavishly illustrated talk featuring home landscapes using native plants to restore backyard ecosystems. It’s as much about ecological thinking as it is about plants. $10
Monticello Herbs and their Uses
with Lily Fox-Bruguiere
Saturday, 10:15 a.m.–11:15 a.m.
Herbs have long been valued for their many uses as flavorings, medicines, and dyestuffs. Tour the useful herbs growing in the gardens at Monticello, focusing on the herbs documented by Jefferson in his garden book and correspondence. $15
Cooking with Herbs, Fresh & Dried
with Nicole Schermerhorn
Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Enjoy learning how to use herbs, both fresh and dried, in recipes and the best ways to flavor match according to your preference. $10
Hens in the Hood & Broilers in the Backyard: Practical Advice for Raising Chickens for Eggs & Meat
with Guinevere Higgins and Leni Sorensen
Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Discuss the joys of keeping poultry and how to get started with chickens. Topics include: basic coop setup, predator protection, egg production, starting with chicks, butchery basics, and local resources for chicken-keepers. $15
Seed Saving in the Monticello Vegetable Garden
with Deb Donley
Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Many special garden plants are unavailable from commercial sources and need to be preserved from year to year. Learn the dynamics of seed production – pollination, timing, seed identification, cleaning, and storing – while visiting the Monticello vegetable garden for a hands-on collecting demonstration. $15
Small Space Gardening
with Kathy Jentz
Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Learn tips and tricks for getting the most out of your space and thinking outside the box for creative solutions to common landscape challenges. $15
Uncommon Common Vegetables: Heirlooms that Shine in the Kitchen
with Marie Iannotti
Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
You say potato, I say ‛German Butterball’. From ‛Turkish Orange’ eggplants to ‛Rat Tail’ radishes, fill your garden with flavors you’ll never find in a store. $10
Be a Plant Doctor. No Ph.D. Required
with David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth
Saturday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
Dealing with a sick plant is one of the most frustrating situations a gardener or houseplant owner can face. This innovative diagnostic system enables you to recognize what’s plaguing your plant and then fix it. Find out what ails sick plants by observing easy-to-see symptoms. $10
Gardening Under Cover
with Wesley Greene
Saturday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
An explanation of the uses for bell glass, hotbeds, paper frames, and other devices for the production of vegetables year-round, as well as a concise history of their development and “right ordering” of the kitchen garden as currently practiced in the town of Williamsburg, Virginia. $15
Getting Started with Beekeeping: The First Year in the Life of a Beehive
with Paul Legrand
Saturday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
This honey bee talk focuses on the successful establishment of a beehive, specifically the unique issues encountered during the first 18 months, and covers the population of the average hive over the course of a year. $15
Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Vegetable Garden
with Peter Hatch
Saturday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
Jefferson’s Kitchen Garden at Monticello was an Ellis Island of new and unusual plants from around the world. Stroll through the 1,000-foot-long vegetable garden and learn about this experimental laboratory and some of the 330 vegetable varieties. $15
United Plant Savers: Promoting Stewardship of At-Risk Native Medicinal Herbs
with Susan Leopold
Saturday, 12:45 p.m.–1:45 p.m.
Come learn about our Botanical Sanctuary Program for landowners, hear about current issues of poaching in Virginia’s public lands, and take home a goldenseal root grown at our sanctuary in Rutland, Ohio. $10
Farming for Pollinators
with Nancy Adamson
Saturday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Learn about bees, our most effective crop pollinators, and their relevance to conservation and management, as well as bee-friendly farming, and resources to support “farming for bees.” $15
Old Plants in a New Land, the History & Stories of America’s First Recorded Herbal Immigrants
with Betsy Williams
Saturday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
When the English settlers arrived to Massachusetts in the early 17th century, the roots and seeds of their most necessary plants came with them. Learn the stories of those herbs: their earliest use, how they were used in the 1630′s, how they are used today. $10
Seed Saving for the Home Gardener
with Rodger Winn
Saturday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
You can easily save seeds from common garden vegetables. Discuss seed-saving, cultivation methods, isolation, harvesting, processing, and storage of seeds from tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, and squash. $10
Seed Stories
with Shannon Carmody
Saturday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Hear the stories and learn how some of our favorite varieties came to be. To better understand our seeds’ stories, Seed Savers Exchange has launched the Collection Origins Research Effort (CORE), a massive sleuthing effort to collect and record complete histories of thousands of varieties. $10
Thomas Jefferson & Natural History Woodland Walk
with Peggy Cornett
Saturday, 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Thomas Jefferson’s passion for gardening arose from his truly wide-eyed curiosity about natural history and the “tranquil pursuits” of science. Peggy Cornett will lead this trek through the forests of Monticello Mountain. Participants will examine autumn wildflowers, seedpods and nuts, trees, mammals, birds, the skies, fungi, insects, and geology with the historical perspective of the Sage of Monticello ever in mind. $15
The Cooking Gene: Bringing Food & Family to the Table & Garden
with Michael Twitty
Saturday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Culinary historian Michael Twitty’s Cooking Gene Project traces his family history through food – from Africa to America and from slavery to freedom. $10
Edible Forest Gardening: From Food to Farmacy
with Terry Lilley
Saturday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Explore growing plants to produce food, medicine, and fuel, in a many layered system from ground cover to canopy trees, with low maintenance and ecologically regenerative practices. $10
Great Gardens from Great Plant Collectors
with Cheval Force Opp
Saturday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
This region has a heritage of plant collectors and grand gardens. Join Cheval Force Opp for a virtual stroll though four great gardens created in the past that we enjoy today. $10
Seed Saving in the Monticello Vegetable Garden
with Deb Donley
Saturday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Many special garden plants are unavailable from commercial sources and need to be preserved from year to year. Learn the dynamics of seed production – pollination, timing, seed identification, cleaning, and storing – while visiting the Monticello vegetable garden for a hands-on collecting demonstration. $15
Transition to a More Rural, Sustainable Lifestyle
with Michael Levatino
Saturday, 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Make the change from responsible consumer to responsible producer. Learn the simple approach to reclaiming your connection to the land and community. Levatino shares his story of moving from an urban existence to a more sustainable lifestyle. $10