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Farm Pickings
News and Updates from Sanborn Mills Farm
— May 13, 2022 —
Available Workshops: May and June
Here are the available workshops that continue the season at Sanborn Mills Farm, May through June. Click on the workshop title to learn more and to register. Please note that workshops often fill early. (Workshops that are already full are not listed.)
Blacksmithing Basics: May 20-22
Beginning Spinning on a Spinning Wheel – Spring Session: May 21
Stenciling Basics – Stenciling Placemats: May 21
Draft Animal: Working Oxen on the Farm and Garden: May 21-22
Rug Hooking: May 21-22
Indigo Shibori Dyeing from Itajime, Arashi, Nui, Kumo, and Beyond: May 30-June 3
Sew Something Special – A Week with Great Fabric, a Machine, and a Community: June 6 – 10
Stenciled Floor Cloth for All Levels: June 11-12
Introduction to Hand Spinning: June 16-27
The Spirit of Art: Color: June 17-19
Secrets of the Great Wheel: June 18
Blacksmithing Basics for Family Teams: June 24-26
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Meet Jes Clark, Willow Artist and Basket Workshop Faculty
“In a time when plastic is still king, when we live in a world that is full of right angles and box-shaped things,” Jes Clark says with regard to working with willow, “it’s healing for me to know that such a truly organic material can still fit in that world, can be relevant again, can be grown, and purposefully used, and returned to the earth.”
Jes (they/them) will bring her willow artistry and teaching skills to Sanborn Mills Farm this coming July when they will teach a workshop on weaving garden obelisks and peony crowns (this workshop is full; you can waitlist here) and again in September when Jes will teach a workshop on weaving harvest basket from willow (also full; waitlist here).
At home in Stanfordville, N.Y., Jes is owner and operator of Willow Vale Farm. In the summer they tend the vegetable market garden and in the winter they weave homegrown willow into baskets while daydreaming about the vegetable garden. They weave traditional and contemporary functional pieces and the basket forms created are a result of their conversation with each stick of willow. All of Willow Vale’s produce and willow are grown without pesticides using regenerative practices.
Her work, Jes says, “is in making beautiful and functional items out of willow. I focus on using willow that I have either grown myself or I have purchased from farmers that I know and trust. The baskets and other items I weave are all products of a conversation I am having with the willow – what can I coax out of the material, and what does the material tell me about how to weave it.”
Read our full interview with Jes Clark on this page on the Sanborn Mills Farm website.
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Old Building and Trades Fair at the Farm May 14
The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance will hold its annual Old Building and Trades Fair at Sanborn Mills Farm on Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Fair provides opportunities to observe traditional tradespeople in action, to ask questions, and connect with trades organizations and experts who will explain the issues faced by stewards of older buildings. Demonstrations will include carpentry and timber-framing, window-making and repair, masonry repointing, stone wall building, plasterwork and repair, and more.
For more information about the Fair, click here. General admission is $20 for adults, $12 for students and seniors.
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What We’re Reading in May
Granta issue No. 153, “Second Nature”
This issue of the renowned British literary magazine was sent to subscribers in August 2020, but it still holds — and will hold — extraordinary relevance. Guest-edited by English author Isabella Tree, the issue includes essays by Rebecca Priestly (“Prepare to Be Kind”), Cal Flyn (“The Wolf at the Door”), Manari Ushigua and Zoe Tryon (“Of the Forest”), Dino Martins (“The Secret Loves of Flowers”), Adam Weymouth (“Survivors”), Judith Schwartz (“Water Is Never Lonely”), John Kinsella (“Third Eclogue of the Vegetable Garden”), among several others.
As Tree writes in her introduction:
“‘Never has there been a greater need for writers who can communicate about the environment in such clear, immediate and powerful ways, who can envisage the past as well as the future.
“The knowledge is already out there. We just have to listen. The contributors to this issue all have a deep understanding of how nature works. Some are scientists; others, environmental journalists exploring the latest thinking about ecosystems and how to repair them; or poets, novelists and activists examining our responses to the current crisis. The stories in this issue will, I hope, be both enlightening and empowering, galvanising us to bring about change.”
This back issue is still available from Granta. Click here for more information and to order.
www.sanbornmills.org
Photo Credits
Photo of Kelly Fahey courtesy Kelly Fahey.
Photos of WMUR’s Sean McDonald and Erin Fehlau by Lea Rossignol.
Sanborn Mills Inc. | (603) 435-7314 | info@sanbornmills.org | www.sanbornmills.org
Hands-on education in traditional craft and farming: Inspiring the future with tools from the past.