Workshops

Backyard Chickens  Sunday, March 6th. 1:00 pm-4:00 pm.
For those new to chicken raising in urban areas who are ready to DO IT! Chickens provide nutritious eggs and/or meat as well as nutrient-rich fertilizer for your garden, bug and weed control, and hours of entertainment. This unique workshop sends you home not only with the basics on chicken care, coop building, fencing, security, and ideas for how to best utilize them on your property, but also with ACTUAL CHICKS themselves! When you register, you'll specify how many layer hens you'd like, and you'll learn exactly what you'll need to take them home and care for them yourselves. I'll raise 'em for you if you can't, but doing it yourself is highly recommended as a great way to bond and get dogs and kids used to them. Additional charge for this workshop: $3/chick, or $10/10-week old layer.

Urban Permaculture Sunday, June 26th, 8:00 am-noon, and 1:30-4:30 pm.
Carrie Jones of Draggin' Wing Farm and Casey O'Leary of Earthly Delights Farm team up to expand our popular Idaho Green Expo workshop! Using the natural world as a template, participants will learn how basic permaculture principles can help you design a highly complex, resilient, and productive home and garden oasis that feeds you as well as many other animals, plants, and insects. Learn how permaculture concepts, like using vertical space and edges to their fullest potential really expand the growing area, which is so limited in urban space. Permaculture principles applied to urban settings have the potential to make our cities and our backyards our primary source of food, fiber, and pleasure, thus easing the burden on areas outside the city. Morning session and lunch will focus on principles and design of permaculture sites, and will be held at Draggin' Wing farm. In the afternoon, we'll move to Earthly Delights and explore design and practical implementation of permaculture concepts.

Garlic Braiding Sunday, July 24th 1:00-4:00 pm
Come and enjoy a pleasant afternoon of iced tea and garlic-inspired snacks while fooling around with garlic, a potent and powerful herb long used for medicine as well as for creating delicious dishes! Learn about the highly political process of purchasing and selling garlic in the state of Idaho and about its many medicinal properties, as well as why Earthly Delights Farm's garlic is "magic garlic." While we prepare and braid bulbs into a beautiful decoration for yourself or to give as a gift, we'll swap garlic growing lore and wisdom, too! $10 additional charge for this workshop to pay for the magic garlic bulbs!

New this Season!!!

We're proud to offer a new addition to our teaching program...the Hunkerin' Down Gardening Class Series!

Join us for an 8-week gardening class that covers all aspects of constructing, growing, and maintaining a home garden! This series is perfect for the home gardener with a busy schedule. Classes are 2 hours, every other Thursday evening from 5:30-7:30 pm at the farm, with 6-week break in the middle of the summer. They will include lecture, hands on demonstrations, and a hefty amount of Q&A to keep your garden on track! You can sign up for individual classes for $25 apiece, or for the whole series for $20 a class ($160). CSA members get an additional $5 off per class!

Garden Planning April 21^s.t Get off on the right foot with good garden planning! Learn the basics of garden design, including garden placement, seed selection, timing for starting seeds and transplanting, aesthetics, protection, and more! A great “Gardening 101” class that will give you the tools you need to move forward with your own garden!

 Soil Preparation and Compost Making

May 5^th. Soil science 101. Learn to identify your soil type, and unlock the fascinating world underground! Caring for your soil is the basis of a thriving organic garden. This class gives you the basics for maintaining a healthy, fertile, productive soil, and teaches you the best ways to compost.

 Watering Systems May 19^th. Water is of utmost importance in a desert. Learn about various watering methods, and select which is right for you. We’ll look at setting up simple drip irrigation systems, and how to modify a zone on an existing underground sprinkler system to water your garden. We’ll also discuss other ways to reduce water use in our gardens, including mulches, drought-tolerant varieties, interplanting, and more!

 Organic Weed Control June 2^nd. Weeds—the bane of every gardener’s existence…Explore passive and active techniques for dealing with annual and perennial weeds in your garden, from interplanting and mulching to the best types of hoes to use. Bring samples to identify, and we’ll develop weed management strategies for our gardens. You may learn to love some of your weeds after learning what they can tell you about your soil!

Organic Insect and Disease Control June 16^th. Pests often tempt otherwise environmentally-conscious people into reaching for a bottle of something toxic. Come learn about preventative techniques to reduce the number of pests in your garden, and explore nifty alternatives to chemicals to control the ones you’ve got! We’ll discuss and demo row covers, companion planting, compost teas, pepper/soap sprays, and more!

Preserving the Harvest Aug. 4^th. After a summer “break”, we’ll resume the class series by addressing the “burden of abundance”—now that you’ve grown all this food, what the heck do you do with it all? Learn basic techniques and safety for water bath canning, dehydrating, freezing, and root cellaring to save your bounty for winter dining!

Season Extension/Fall and Winter Gardening Aug 18^th. Learn which varieties work well for fall/winter gardening in our area, as well as when and how to start those seeds. Learn how to construct simple cold frames and hoop houses, and to identify the warmer microclimates in your yard for winter food!

Putting the Garden to Bed Sept. 1^st. Though it’s still a month or so before the garden is ready to sleep, now is a good time to plan for the inevitable coming of Jack Frost. Any work you do in the garden in the fall will reward you tenfold the following spring. Learn how to protect your soil through the winter as well as add fertility for next year’s crops. We’ll discuss pros and cons of cover crops, manure, and compost, and examine the permaculture technique of sheet mulching to expand your garden for next season!

For more information or to sign up, email Casey! (digger@earthlydelightsfarm.com)