Garden. Photo by Joston Hill
Just 25 minutes from Asheville, the school Wild Abundance offers classes in earth-based skills for all levels of experience. “You don’t have to be ‘hardcore’ or even have a goal of ‘going off the grid’ to participate in and benefit from our classes,” says Chloe Lieberman, strategic team member for Wild Abundance. “We believe that all people can gain competence from learning these skills, and that this builds confidence and a sense of personal empowerment.”
Wild Abundance’s most comprehensive course, an eight-month Earthskills and Permaculture Immersion, begins in April. The class explores the core curriculum of a permaculture design course with extensive hands-on learning opportunities in skills like basketry, making fire by friction and foraging for wild food. Other classes at Wild Abundance cover subjects like wildcrafting and herbal medicine making, rewilding for women, all-natural deer hide tanning and survival skills.
Sally Scarbrough recently completed an Essential Skills and Permaculture class at Wild Abundance, which took place one long weekend a month over the course of several months. “I not only learned about permaculture design,” says Scarbrough, “but also so much more: the value of the wild plants I had always considered ‘weeds;’ the cycle of the seasons for plants and animals and me; how to make fire and useful objects using essential traditional skills; traditional and natural building techniques; and how to grow food and nourish myself in harmony with nature. The experience was addictive. The class changed me in fundamental ways, and it provided me the inspiration to build a life that my soul has been searching for.”
Classes often fill up long before they start, so interested folks should join the mailing list. For more information, visit WildAbundance.net.
