CANTON -- The Local Living Venture will sponsor the third Local Living Festival at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Learning Farm, 2043 St. Hwy. 68, April 27 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The festival, which is expected to draw 1,200 people or more, will focus on rural skills and resourceful living, allowing people to live both economically and ecologically.
Speakers will discuss solar powered farms and community supported agriculture. Attendees will have the chance to “shop around” for a share in a local farm’s harvest.
Attendees can participate in a mural painting project with Upstate Medical Center’s Occupational Health Clinic to highlight the health and safety of farmers.
“Crop mobs” will be held throughout the day to plant gardens at the extension.
Local fresh food from Barb’s Leaner Wieners, Green Goddess of Lake Placid and the Potsdam Food Co-op’s Carriage House Bakery will be for sale.
The Potsdam Farmer’s Market will be on hand to sell bedding plants, fresh local cheeses and other local foods.
Demonstration highlights will include animal calls, belly dancing, a drum circle, identifying tracks, social capital demonstration, blacksmith David Woodward and scroll saw artistry.
Workshops will cover solar power, wind power, geothermal heat, solar heating, herbs, invasive species, season extension, cooking and food creation, home dairying, beekeeping, multi species grazing, raising meat birds and raising rabbits.
Other workshop topics will include pig farming, guardian animals, forestry management, rocket stoves, silvipasture, woodlot logging, building creative living space, living roofs, composting toilets, conflict, diet, green college living, community supported agriculture and local economy.
Workshops will also cover “Local Living Venture Forth,” mortgage free, “Steady” state economy, creating salves, low-tech lifestyles and scrounging.
Youth activities will include “make and take gardens” at 9 a.m., a bottle biology terrarium project at 10 a.m., a crop mob at 11 a.m., elemental jewelry at noon, a sundial and lower bed at 1 p.m., a crop mob at 2 p.m. and an orienteering class at 3 p.m.
Speakers will include Elizabeth Henderson on community supported agriculture, Greg Pahl on community energy, Severine von Tscharner Fleming of the National Young Farmers Coalition, Anna Busser on how to start a local economy, Michael Traci-Ireland on “’Steady’ State Economy” and the Modern Times Theater on “Verbal Reclamation Front.”
Exhibitors will include Barb’s Leaner Wieners, Green Goddess/Scapes Café, the Potsdam Farmers Market, Fauna on Flora, Fisher & Sons, the Adirondack Cooperative Economy/ADK Bucks, Adirondack North Country Association, Brewer Bookstore, Deep Root Summer Camp, Massena Nature Center and the North Country Home schooling Families/Spiral Scouts.
Others include Bittersweet Farm, C. L. Cook Farm, Eight O’clock Ranch, Grasse River B Ranch, High Peaks Winery, Iroquois Farm, Potsdam Food Co-op & Carriage House Bakery, The Smith Farm, Fullers Farm, Heritage Homes, Kent Family Farm, Little Grasse Foodworks, Noble Farm and Outhouse Farm.
Also Adirondack Battery & Solar, Alternative Power Solutions, Borderlands Energy, Martin Farm Supple, Northern Lights Energy, New York Small Scale Food Processors Association, SNAP Program, Northern Adirondack Chapter of the New York Forest Owners Association, St. Lawrence County Soil & Water Conservation District, St. Lawrence Land Turst and The “Wood” Stove Display.
Also, GardenShare, Local Living Venture, North Country Grown Cooperative, Old Market Farm, UU Toolbox of Faith fourth and fifth grade beehive project, Earthwood Building School, Thermal Efficiency Building, Ag Labor Program, EatSmartNY, CCE Adopting Healthy Habits, Fidelis Care, St. Lawrence Health Initiative, Young Living Essential Oils and Blacksmith/Train Brook Forge.
Others will include the St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum, Dawn Rosenbarker, Mind’s Eye Farm and Upcycling/Recycling Fun.
The suggested donation is $5, with children under age 16 free.
Sponsors for the event include the Potsdam Agway, North Country Savings Bank, Liam Hunt and Kathleen Stein, Bob Shepherd, Schulze Construction, St. Lawrence University, and North Country Public Radio.