CHARLEMONT — Children attending the Hawlemont Regional School have benefited from the school’s farm-based curriculum. Now it’s your turn.
Today, the school is hosting a “HAY Conference,” for teachers, students and the community, with a series of agriculture-related workshops throughout the day. “HAY” stands for “Hawlemont, agriculture and you,” and it is the name for the school’s agriculture program.
The event takes place at Hawlemont, 10 School St., off Route 2. Registration begins at 9 a.m.
The Overwatch Outpost sporting goods shop will offer free Orvis Fly Fishing workshops for all ages. The fly-fishing workshops will be held at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the field behind the school.
Two dozen workshops on everything from “Creating a Rain Barrel Water Collection System” to “Solar Ovens,” from “Building Bee Boxes” to “Fruit Tree Pruning” will be taught by local farmers, growers and staff members from Hawlemont. There are three sessions of workshops. Each session is $15 each, or the cost for the day’s workshops is $40. Lunch is available, for a requested $5 donation. Cash or checks only are accepted.
Session 1 (9:30 to 10:45 a.m.) includes: Creating a rain barrel water collection system, salve-making, solar ovens, public speaking, berry gardening, caring for barnyard animals, “Get the kids outside,” and making soft pretzels.
Session 2 (11 to 12:15 p.m.) offerings are: cheese-making, seed starting for home, 4-H today, composting made easy, apple tree grafting, bead-making, maple candy workshop, kids and herbs and carpentry for kids.
Session 3 (1-2:15 p.m.) includes: bountiful bouquets from your garden, performance-based math assessment, grinding corn to make cornbread from scratch, worm composting, fruit tree pruning, beekeeping and cheese-making.