Beyond the Horizon: Saving Seed and Fall Bed Prep
What are the concrete skills needed to grow food in the face of climate change? How do we build a resilient community while growing food for the future?
This course is open to anyone who has completed the “No-till Gardening for a Resilient Future” course. No application required, just send an email to gardening4thefuture@gmail.com to confirm your spot!
This weekend-long intensive will focus on building skills around seed saving regionally-adapted, climate-responsive seeds, and planting fall cover crops to prepare your garden for the winter and the season ahead.
General Course Overview:
Saturday will be all about seed saving- we will review the difference between open-pollinated and hybrid seeds, the different pollination strategies plants use, and many different hands-on techniques for saving seed. Think winnowing and threshing! Think squishing up fermented tomatoes! Think scooping out seeds from squash. You will go home with many seeds saved right from the teaching plot at Astarte Farm! We will be asking the question: How can learning how to seed save help prepare us for the times ahead?
Sunday we will dive into planting fall cover crops in the garden so that your soil will stay covered all winter, and so that you can plant into mulched and/or living cover crops next spring! Your garden can look like the teaching plot next year by doing timely cover crop plantings in the fall! We will ask the question: How can extending our horizon or timeline shift the way we relate to our garden and the earth, and what does it feel like to be working with the soil from a longer-term point of view?
Schedule
Weekend Intensive:
Saturday, September 5th, 2026, 10am- 3pm and Sunday, September 6th, 2026, 10am - 3pm
Course Fees
The baseline cost for this class is $250 for the weekend.
You are welcome to pay higher or lower as feels right, and Full Scholarships are available for BIPOC participants.
If this you want to discuss payment levels for any reason, simply email Rose at gardening4thefuture@gmail.com. This is life-giving knowledge that we all deserve access to.
10% of all course fees will be given as a land tax to Pequoig Farm. (You can learn more about the concept of a land tax from the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust here).
Starting two weeks before the class, refunds will no longer be accepted. However, if you find yourself unable to make the classes for any reason, you are always welcome to find someone who can go in your place.
Access notes
All classes will take place at Astarte Farm which is located at 123 West St. in Hadley, MA. Please park on West St. on the common (there will be a sign out) and walk into the farm along a gravel driveway. The walk is pretty even, with some potholes, and it is about 150 yards from the parking location to the picnic table where we will gather for each class. The class will take place mostly in one section of the farm, but there will be times we will walk around the 3 acre farm. Parking closer to the picnic table is possible, just reach out to Rose at gardening4thefuture@gmail.com to arrange that option. There is a composting toilet available. Bring your own water and lunch and folding chair if that is desired.