OSLSS Sourdough Starter Course

Harness natural yeasts to create hearty, nutritious, delicious bread. Discuss how to feed and keep a starter and go home with your own. Bake and taste a loaf. Grind grain, mix dough, and cook pancakes. Sew a bread storage bag for fresher loaves.

OSLSS Keeping a Family Cow

Learn about finding, feeding, housing, fencing, breeding, and caring for your cow with Debra Tyler of Local Farm. Try your hand at milking. Make butter, soft cheese, ice cream, and yogurt. Go home with resource lists, your own copy of Joanne Grohman’s Keeping a Family Cow, a slew of recipes and MOOre!

The FAMILY COW workshops run from 10:00 to 1:00 and include a pot-luck lunch. Cost is $35/person or $50/family (up to 4 members). For more information and to register, call (860)672-0229 or send an email to farmer@rlocalfarm.com.

The 2010 workshops will be on Saturdays: May 22 and September 25. We will be happy to consider scheduling other dates  if you contact us.

For photos and reports about past Family Cow Workshops, visit our blog. … …(home)

Family Contra Dance

Another Motherhouse event providing place, support, and time for mothers by promoting thriving families and vibrant communities.

Each Family Dance is taught and led by a “caller,” who explains how the dance flows and helps the dancers “walk through” the dance before the music starts. S/he continues “calling” instructions throughout the dance. Dancers of all ages and levels of ability are welcome to join in this everybody-wins team sport.

Dances run from 7:00 until 9:30 and are held at the Cornwall, CT Town Hall at 24 Pine Street. Call Jim or Jane Prentice 860-672-6101 for more info.

Callers scheduled for 2010 are:

January 10 – Bill Fischer                        July 3 – Fern Bradley

February 6 – Jim Gregory                       August 7 – Anne Banks

March 6 – Bill Fischer                              September 4 – Bill Fischer

April 3 – David Kaynor                             October 2 – David Kaynor

May 1 – Jeff Walker                                   November 6 – Paul Rosenberg

June 5 – Bill Fischer                                 December 4 – Bill Fischer

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OSLSS Wool Gathering

Area “spin-sters” demonstrate carding, spinning, knitting, weaving and felting with natural wool. Meet a sheep. Make your own knitting needles and try your hand at these soothing traditional arts.

OSLSS The Care and Feeding of Saw Horses

Thanks to a recently awarded Arts Presentation Grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, Motherhouse had Joe Brien, Lost Arts Workshops, lead a day long workshop on building saw horses. Seventeen people attended and nine pairs of sawhorses were built. Each building team had their own set of hand tools, materials, and a workbench.

OSLSS What’s In a Pickle

Join us as we explore the marvels of using lacto-bacillus to preserve food, improve health and make delicious pickles, sauerkraut, and drinks.

All our Old Style Life Skills Series workshops  take place in or near Cornwall, CT, run from 10:30 to 1:30 and include a pot-luck lunch. For more information, click on OSLSS in the Pages menu box below.

Summer We’d Walk

Join outdoor enthusiast, Joseph Jude Brien for a leisurely walk around Local Farm to learn about a unique use for common “weeds” – fiber production. Learn how to identify, harvest and process plants which have been traditionally used to make cordage, rope and woven fabric. Participants will hand-process bast fiber from a dried plant stalk and make a cordage sample to take home. (Pictured to the right: Dogbane Cordage) Bring a dish to share for a potluck lunch.

OSLSS Serious Dough

Cheer up seasonal grumps with the smell of fresh bread. Grind wheat, mix and knead dough, form and bake your own loaf of bread. Sample a variety of home-made breads and discuss the use of different ingredients.

All our Old Style Life Skills Series workshops  take place in or near Cornwall, CT, run from 10:30 to 1:30 and include a pot-luck lunch. For more information, click on OSLSS in the Pages menu box below.