Farm Family Workshops
Info coming soon for 2023 Farm Family Workshops. Stay tuned!
Category: Programs + Events
This post category is for all programs and events.
Backyard Remedies: Plant Preparations Workshop Series
In this hands-on workshop series participants will learn to identify, harvest and prepare simple ‘backyard remedies,’ using plants found commonly across the Berkshires.
- Learn to identify medicinal plants growing in your backyard!
- Receive a photo ID pamphlet of common medicinal plants, properties, contraindications and harvest times
- Hands-on workshops on sustainable wild foraging, preparing tea, tincture, syrup, infused oil and salve
- Recipes for some of our favorite preparations!
*Tentative plants covered: dandelion, raspberry leaf, goldenrod, violet, plantain, nettle, red clover, St. Johns Wort
$240.00 price for 8 workshops *Individual class prices available, please be in touch for options
We are not medical professionals, these workshops are not meant to diagnose or treat medical conditions but are presented as educational tools for those interested in learning about plant remedies.
Who: Anyone interested in learning more about collecting and preparing plant remedies!
When: Eight workshops, May through August, 2023. Workshops will be held on weekend days, TBA
Where: Olsen Farm, Lanesborough MA
‘Adopt’ a Hive Beekeeping Workshop Series
Are you interested in learning more about honeybees and beekeeping? Do you care about pollinators and want to learn more about creating a pollinator habitat? Love the taste of raw honey and want to try some straight from the hive? Join us for our hands-on beekeeping workshop series!
Community members are invited to ‘adopt’ a beehive in return for shares of honey and other bee products, information about their adopted hive, and six hands-on honeybee workshops and events on the farm!
$350.00 price for May-October 2023
Included in your ‘adoption’:
- Information packet about honeybees, our practices and your ‘adopted’ hive
- Shares of raw honey, honeybee products and pollinator plants
- Invitation to participate in monthly (May-October) hive inspections
- Monthly (May-October) workshops and demos including planting for pollinators, beeswax prep, honey extraction and more!
- Year-end member banquet at the farm including honey and bee product recipes
Who: Those interested in learning more about honeybees, beekeeping and pollinators
When: Starting May, 2023. Workshops will be held on Saturdays, between 10am and noon
Where: Olsen Farm, Lanesborough MA
“Want to know more about your local farms, farmers and ecosystem? Olsen Farm’s “Adopt a Hive” program is a wonderful way to get a fun, friendly introduction to beekeeping, from hive to honey and much more. Not only do you get up close and personal with loved and healthy, thriving and diverse bee species and their hives, you get access to Chris’s and Kristen’s expanding, real-time knowledge about bees and keeping them, from cultivating habitat to catching swarms to collecting comb. The farm is a lively yet peaceful place, with an abundant landscape and animated characters (like chickens and farm dog, Aspen); learning gardens which provide for the local community, and of course, plenty of humming hives to observe. Chris and Kristen care so much about the work they do and the land and creatures they care for. They will go out of their way to make sure you feel safe during each workshop and answer all of your questions. If they don’t know the answer right away, they’re quick to tap into their network of master beekeepers and resources to figure it out. I loved everything about this program, from doing the dirty work of hunting for Varroa mites, to the challenge of spotting queens, to the joy of seeing, smelling and tasting the nuances of honey collected throughout the production seasons. I looked forward to every workshop and getting to spend a morning or afternoon outdoors, learning and laughing with like minds and some of nature’s hardest workers.”