Fall Festival at Wise Acres 10/2024
This event was held in Prairie Farm, WI at Wise Acres.
About the event: This event was held over one day and included various skill-shares, live music, and food all day. The activities included board games, blacksmithing, pizza prep, and apple-pressing. Over 6 live acts preformed throughout the night with folks coming from throughout the region.
We feel it is important to share skills in a way that feels complete. Traditional knowledge has taught us that materials are abundant when harvested consciously and respectfully. We are also, now in a time where reclamation of materials is a viable option. With our blacksmithing workshop, we teach individuals that a Forge can be made with the rim of a tire and some metal piping, and that basic tools and knives can be created from railroad spikes which can be found along any railroad. Every apple was pressed by the end of the fall festival because it’s true, we all crave a different relationship with the materials we use and consume on a daily basis.
About the space: Wise Acres has been under its current stewardship for some 30 years. It is a homestead that values material, construction & food sovereignty.
Cob oven Workshop on the Fond Du Lac Reservation 09/2024
These events were held in Cloquet, MN on the Fond du lac reservation.
About the event: This was SSC’s first time experimenting with a stove-pipe design for the cob oven. This design is intended to be used inside of a structure. Materials were harvested at each location with the help of students, mentors, and volunteers. These ovens serve communities working to protect the integrity of the land and environment around them.
Cob Oven Workshop at Water is Life Festival/Tamarack Lodge 08/2024
This event was held in Wolverine, MI at the Lost Tamarack Lodge during the Water is Life Festival. About the event: The Water is Life Festival is “an annual event that celebrates our connection to the water and builds power through community so we can work towards living in a holistic way with the water and protect it from those who seek to exploit or endanger it.” In collaboration with the Lost Tamarack Lodge, SSC facilitated a 5-week cob oven workshop and spent approx. 1 week beforehand collecting materials with volunteers. The oven was fired by the end of the workshop for a final pizza dinner! About the space: The Lost Tamarack Lodge is an event space dedicated to the enjoyment of the Lost Tamarack Pathway, Weber Lake, and its related outdoor activities. Music, art and culture blended together to form a symbiotic resonance, creating soul-refreshment for all.
Blacksmithing Workshop at Mammoth Acres 08/2024
This event was held in Menomonie, WI at Mammoth Acres.
About the event: Preparation for this event included two sessions of rail-spike collection and two sessions building make-shift forges out of tire-rims. The event itself was held for one day and almost every individual that attended left with a knife of their own creation. The forges that were used employed an easily replicable design and steel material that was harvested with instruction on how to harvest during the workshop. Food was provided and cooked in the cob pizza oven built at a previous workshop.
About the space: Mammoth Acres been focused on securing food sovereignty on their land for their family of five. For them this includes rotational livestock as well as continued development of their food forest.
Twine-Lash structures & Pine resin Workshop at Kirkridge Retreat Center 07/2024
This event was held in Bangor, PA at the Kirkridge Retreat Center.
About the event: In collaboration with other facilitators, the SSC team facilitated 4 workshops during a week of skill-sharing. Our classes included two sessions of Twine-lash construction, one session on tripods, and one session on harvesting & making pine resin. Large shaded structures were built by students throughout the week to be used during the event. A stool was constructed from scratch as the demonstration for pine-resin construction.
About the space:
“Located on the homelands of the Lenape, we are invested in dismantling supremacy of every kind, at every level, and about welcoming people of all races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, ages, religions, and abilities.
“Steeped in the peace-and-justice loving traditions of radical Christianity, Kirkridge wholeheartedly welcomes people of all faiths and none. Kirkridge prioritizes the needs of people and groups who are targeted and/or excluded within existing social systems and structures.
Cob Oven Workshop at Feed the People Farm 06/2024
This event was held in Northfield, MN at Feed the People farm.
About the event: As a part of a larger skill-share, the SSC team facilitated material collection on-site with students. A small bridge was built to recover clay on the property and demonstrated as a lesson. The build lasted three days and the oven will be used by the space during their yearly movement schools.
About the space: Feed the People Farm Cooperative is a worker-owned cooperative in Northfield, Minnesota, bringing together young people to grow food through regenerative agricultural practices.
Cob Oven Workshop at Wise Acres 05/2024
This event was held in Prairie Farm, WI at Wise-Acres.
About the event: This collaboration was one that involved all Wise Acres residents with much assistance from Sam Dodge on harvest collection and structure-building & Diane Dodge as snack maestro. With about a week of preparation Sam and the SSC team built the table/stand before the day of the workshop so that it had time to cure. On the day of the event a group of 20 people came together to build one of our most artistic ovens to date, the toad oven! Multiple groups have been back since to fire and cook in the oven.
About the space: Wise Acres has been under its current stewardship for some 30 years. It is a homestead that values material, construction & food sovereignty.
Cob Oven at Mikinaako-Ziibi Sugarbush Camp 04/2024
This event was held in Bemidji, MN at Mikinaako Ziibi sugar-bush camp.
About the event: The SSC team spent approx. 1 week on camp restoration and harvesting materials on-site. Canoes were used during most of the material processing. These materials were then used during the event to construct a cob wood fired-pizza oven. The exterior of the oven was decorated by folks throughout the workshop using beaver bone.
About the space: Mikinaako Ziibi is a sugar-bush camp established by 1855 federal treaty. It is a community space used to protect and practice treaty rights. The camp is on approximately 600 acres of wilderness owned by the State of Minnesota.
Cob Oven Workshop at Mammoth Acres 04/2024
This event was held in Menomonie, WI at Mammoth Acres family-farm.
About the event: The SSC team facilitated 3 clay & brick harvest sessions in the days leading up to the workshop. On the day of the event about 25 people showed up to help construct a cob-pizza oven that was larger than last time and on a permanent stand. The cob-pizza oven that was built last year was used to make pizza’s throughout the day.
About the space: Mammoth Acres has been focused on securing food sovereignty on their land for their family of five. For them this includes rotational livestock as well as continued development of their food forest.
Cob Oven Workshop at Mammoth Acres 10/2023
This event was held in Menomonie, WI at Mammoth Acres family-farm.
About the event: The SSC team spent approx. 2 weeks harvesting materials on-site and in the surrounding areas including in construction sites and streams. These materials were then used during the event to construct a cob wood fired-pizza oven which was then later used to provide meals for the community.
About the space: Mammoth Acres has been focused on securing food sovereignty on their land for their family of five. For them this includes rotational livestock as well as continued development of their food forest.
Gardening project at Babaamaanakwaad 04-05/2023
This project was completed in Hinckley, MN at the Babaamaanakwad community space in preperation for the spring planting season.
These pictures show many planted seeds being started in the greenhouse early spring and the inside of the greenhouse made with twine & wood-lash framing.
Water is life Festival 2022,
SSC provides technical assistance at the Water is Life festival in Petoskey area Michigan. This includes setup & art installation.
Structures built During stop line 3
