Looking Back on Fall Classes at the Horn Farm Center

Carpeting our land like the falling leaves, the Horn Farm’s autumn classes have come in all shapes, sizes, and colors!

Each weekend feels like exploring a new corner of our growing leaf pile. It’s times like these–dashing among the results of months of creative planning–that we get to enjoy the full diversity of this educational ecosystem.

Indeed, the Horn Farm’s mission to foster ecological learning and connect folks with the land is intentionally broad. There are as many ways to deepen our relationship with nature as there are leaves in a forest. And like the trees that bear these leaves, programs are both distinctly individual and richly interwoven.

Reflecting on the last few weeks, our community experienced foraging classes that incorporated art, art classes infused with foraging, and classes that combined growing, gastronomy, and wild gathering under one canopy.

Offerings have been and continue to be eclectic, but each learning experience is tethered by a goal to help each other (re)member what we’re truly capable of: that is, being resourceful, proactive, and attuned members of nature’s community.

Crafting Connection: Foraging for Art

September’s class finale was just a preview of October’s educational mosaic. In Goldenrod: Foraging & Botanical Dyeing, textile artist Chelsea Thompson–the creator behind earthencolor–joined our foraging educator Andrew to celebrate the splendid offerings of a seasonal staple, Solidago. Better known as goldenrod, Solidago was bursting with color as we walked to the wild meadow above our demonstration gardens to observe, connect, and harvest.

In the field, we covered tips for differentiating goldenrod species and illuminated some of the ecological and cultural relationships surrounding this native plant. We then gathered flowers to make medicinal goldenrod tea and transform the blooms into botanical dye. Chelsea provided insights on the basics of natural dyeing and walked folks through two styles–bundle dyeing and shibori, or tie-dye–extracting unbelievable colors from our harvest. While we waited for the dye to take, folks even got to enjoy pickled goldenrod shoots, experiencing a lesser-known use of this versatile plant.

The following week, we turned from pigments to printing.

In a craft that combines botanical study, personal expression, and meditation, community members explored the creative possibilities of the most unassuming aspects of plants. Seed heads, dried vegetables, sticks, and cones became artistic subjects in Kitchen Table Art: Printing with Plants, hosted by local nature artist Diane Podolsky.

In her own work, Diane combines rubbing, etching, and sketching to create stunning visual journals, drawing unexpected attention to the symmetries, patterns, and expressions of plants. Who knew that the bottom of a stalk of celery, a cross section of okra, a tassel of corn, or a bundle of pine needles could leave such an impression?

So, plant pigments, plant printing … now what? How about plant pressing?

October concluded with the second session of another new crafting topic, guided by Leah Robb of The Robb Wilds. Robb is an advocate for ecological gardens and native plants, and her recent hobby for collecting and preserving from her own garden has blossomed into a true love and talent for an ancient art, enough to approach us and propose her class The Art of Pressing Flowers.

In early September, students spent the first session of this program gathering fresh blooms and leaves from the Horn Farm’s fields. After six patient weeks of drying at home, they got to return and assemble their findings into one-of-a-kind “portraits of place.” Two blocks of wood, cardboard, paper, and time, it turns out, is all you need to transform fresh petals, leaves, and grasses into timeless gifts and mementos.

We also wrapped up October with another dip in the dye bath, this time focusing on the often overlooked black walnut (Juglans nigra). Unlike goldenrod and other floral pigments, which require a mordanting agent to anchor colors to textiles, the staining husks of black walnuts contain enough of their own tannins to produce a dye that adheres without prior processing. Any forager with weeks of walnut figures can testify to this!

And so, just as with goldenrod, we began Black Walnut: Foraging & Botanical Dyeing in the field, filling baskets with seasonal surplus for art-making and winter sustenance. Students learned how to collect, process, and crack black walnuts, in addition to seeing how the husks–often considered a waste product–can bring new tones to colorless textiles. As far as eating is concerned, it takes a few weeks for cleaned walnuts to cure in the shell before extracting the nut meats; so for supplying our class with plenty of cured nuts to crack and taste, we have to shout out helpers from our volunteer Community Crew!

From Creative Craft to Caring Culture

The creative possibilities that grow out of connection with the land extend beyond artistic craft.

Another new offering, which brought together biodynamic farmer Allen Clements of Dark Hollow Biodynamic and forager/photographer Sarah LeTourneau of @forest_apsarah, got us thinking about cooking, cultivation, and other creative relationships with nature.

In a detour from our usual focus on flora, Wild & Cultivated: Find, Taste, and Grow Your Own Mushrooms captured the full spectrum of ways we can appreciate the fungi among us. Following a foray through the Horn Farm’s woodlands that uncovered honey mushrooms, bracket fungi, and even a maitake, students learned how to bring our fungal allies home through cultivation, preparing logs and buckets with oyster mushroom spawn.

The class also featured a tasting of foraged and cultivated mushrooms, making for a full day of mycological meanderings!

So, from single plants to whole ecosystems, fall’s offerings shared just how generous the local landscape can be. There is certainly value in appreciating nature as observers, but connection that calls upon our hands, bodies, and creative energies is also important. Nature-based crafts remind us that we are part of the system, not separate from it. Humans have always influenced the ecologies around us–it’s the erroneous belief in our exceptionalism, in fact, that has caused us to stray and consume more than we return–but activities like craft, cultivation, and foraging help shed light on lost skills that are expressions of our caretaking roles. After all, when we know how to utilize local resources, we tend to their abundance, and live more regenerative lives.

Perhaps no program captured this spirit, and showcased the true creative possibilities of re-localizing our creativity, than October’s core offering: Coppice Agroforestry: Resprout Silviculture for a 22nd Century.

Dave Jacke–nationally-acclaimed agroforestry expert, ecological designer, and author of the tome Edible Forest Gardens–paid a visit from Massachusetts to provide our community with an evening lecture and full-day workshop on the ancient art of harvesting woody materials (think sticks, trunks, and twigs) from resprouting plants.

This time-tested style of agroforestry supported entire societies and economies, we learned, from Scandinavia and the British Isles, Northern Italy and Eastern Europe, to the Americas.

Between enlightening presentations on biology and history to observation in the Horn Farm’s own coppicing systems, Jacke introduced us to coppicing practices designed for local self-sufficiency. Indeed, historical precedent demonstrates how rotational harvests of woody plant materials can meet a vast range of community needs, filling countless creative niches. Biochar and mulch, medicine and livestock fodder, basketry and furniture, carriages and caskets, fencing and infrastructure–all are among the products of coppiced trees. All the while, these plants perform their usual ecological services, preserving healthy soil, filtering water, providing wind breaks and shade, and ensuring habitat for all members of the landscape.

It’s worth noting that, during his visit, Jacke also treated the Horn Farm’s staff to an educator’s workshop, helping us build momentum as we look to next year’s community offerings. Integrating concepts of ecological design with class planning, this experience was deeply introspective, moving, and activating for our team.

And so, we enter the winter feeling inspired, hopefully as much as the learners and land stewards who joined us this fall. Much time spent in this bountiful leaf pile has us itching with enthusiasm, and more creative play awaits in 2026!

Of course, fall isn’t over yet, and the offerings continue as the season winds down. These include the final sessions of our NEW Elements of Survival wilderness skills series and the Land & Peoples history series, hands-on classes on Sunchokes and Fire Cider, and an educational hike covering Winter Plant ID.

Check out these classes and more today!