Banking the Bounty Workshop,

With You Grow Girl's Gayla Trail:

Saving Seed and Preserving the Harvest

Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012, Copake Falls, NY

Description:

Come out for a full day of hands-on learning with Gayla Trail of You Grow Girl, in an inspiring indoor/outdoor space, the garden of host Margaret Roach of A Way to Garden. The focus is on preserving the garden’s bounty for the future, and our day will be broken up into two, 2½-hour workshops, plus light breakfast and full lunch:

• 9:30 to 10:00 – greeting and light breakfast
• 10-12:30 – first session: Seed Saving
• 12:30-1:30 – lunch with Q&A/discussion
• 1:30 to 4 – second workshop: Preserving Garden Bounty
• 4:00 – book signing, etc. (departure by 4:30) 

Each jam-packed, 2½-hour learning session will cover everything you need to know with lots of thrifty tips and inspiring ideas pertinent to both large and small-scale gardens.

• $160 for the day, including breakfast and lunch; limited to 15 students. (*See cancellation policy at the bottom of the page.)

AM: Seed Saving

Whether your goal is to save money or preserve our botanical heritage, the morning’s workshop will cover everything you need to know about harvesting and storing seeds from your own garden. This session will begin with a romp through Margaret's garden, identifying and collecting seed from a variety of sources – tomatoes, squash, herbs, flowers, and more – followed by hands-on demonstrations and discussion of a variety of simple methods, no specialized equipment required. We'll even make colorful origami seed packets, perfect for gifting.

PM: Preserving the Garden’s Bounty

We’ll spend the afternoon learning how to harvest, preserve, and store delicious, in-season delights that can be enjoyed now and straight through until next year. We’ll cover herbs, edible flowers, vegetables, and fruits, including a range of methods from drying, to pickling, making herbal vinegars and oils, freezing, vodka and honey infusions, and more. This course is designed for a small group with emphasis on one-on-one support and interaction. Leave with the know-how and confidence to start preserving at home. 

About the Presenter and Host

Gayla Trail is a nationally recognized garden authority and the author of three books on growing in difficult spaces: You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening; Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces, and Easy Growing: Organic Herbs and Edible Flowers from Small Spaces. Gayla’s work as a writer and photographer has appeared in top publications, and in 2008 she was featured on the award-winning documentary program, Recreating Eden, and is currently in development to host a new series celebrating urban food production. Toronto-based Gayla travels around North America as a speaker and spokesperson on the topics of urban gardening, ecology, and community. She has been blogging about gardening for 13 years, on You Grow Girl.

Margaret Roach left a publishing-executive career in late 2007 for a long-overdue return to personal creativity: to write again, and finally live in the rural Northeast garden she’d been making on weekends for 20 years. After a 15-year stint at Martha Stewart, where she was EVP, Editorial Director, Margaret built A Way to Garden, which has received national acclaim, and published a corporate-dropout memoir, And I Shall Have Some Peace There, with a new gardening book due January 2013. She also lectures and teaches about horticulture. Margaret’s 1998 book, A Way to Garden, was named Best Garden Book by the Garden Writers of America. Her garden has been open for 15 years as part of the Garden Conservancy Open Days scheme. 

*Cancellation policy: Space is very limited, so cancellations must be made 2 weeks prior, by August 25th, to qualify for a full refund. After Aug. 25, a partial refund of $125 will be issued only if we can sell your ticket, which we will endeavor to do. Thank you for understanding.