The month of October at the Mississippi Modern Homestead Center in Starkville is all about “Provide,” the second installment in its Reclaiming Real Living Series. Events this month help participants reconnect with basic sets of knowledge and traditional skills.
On Oct. 21 the Homestead hosts food author Sandor Katz, considered a modern authority on the practice of fermentation. The fermentation revivalist will perform a teaching demo and hold a book signing. His books “Wild Fermentation” (2003) and “The Art of Fermentation” (2012), along with the hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught, have helped inspire a broad revival of the fermentation arts. The self-taught experimentalist lives in rural Tennessee. The New York Times calls him “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.” “The Art of Fermentation” received a James Beard award. For more about Katz, go to wildfermentation.com.
Cost is $19 for non-Homestead members, $14 for members.
Primitive skills
“Save your spot for our most exciting workshop yet,” said Alison Buehler of the Homestead Center about the Oct. 24-26 Primitive Skills Weekend Experience. “It’s perfect for a father-son getaway or a unique husband-wife adventure.”
Patrick Gibson, Evan O’Donnell, Buehler and her husband, Dr. Mike Buehler, conduct this crash course in primitive skills designed for anyone who has ever wanted to learn the basics of surviving on their own in the wild.
Skills taught include primitive medicine (natural first aid, emergency stabilization, safety and primitive healthcare), Fishing (setting a trout line, finding and attracting bait, multiple ways to attract fish, cleaning and cooking outdoors), Survival Skills (fire starting, knots, shelters, wild foraging and water purification), Hunting (tracking, matching firearm to game, firearm safety, concealment, target practice, setting up a blind and tracking).
Cost for the weekend, including meals, housing and all workshops, is $250 for non-members, $225 for members. Cost for commuters is $199. Registration closes Oct. 12.
“Our Provide theme concludes with the most ancient art of entertainment, campfire stories,” said Buehler. Mississippi Artist Guild storyteller Da Story Weaver is featured at this Oct. 26 session, from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Campfire Stories is free for members or $5 for non-members.
Read more about these events at msmodernhomestead.com, or email [email protected]. The center is located at 402 Lake Valley Road in Starkville.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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