Located 20 minutes Southeast of Edmonton
"Weaving the strands of our communities into a Resilient Fabric"
We want to welcome you to our website, but even more, we want to welcome you back to the land and a Regenerative Connection to your food. We are a community of gardeners, gleaners, and pastured chicken tenders. We hope to connect the eaters of food to their food and have everyone participate in the growing process. There are gardens, fruit trees, prairie landscapes, really free range chickens, a few families of Muscovy ducks, a family of 2 cows and calves, and a half dozen goats and their kids. We are welcoming those who want to connect, to come here and see what they can create with their own hands. We also love to host Wwoofers, Children's groups, and Community organizations with a taste for Social Justice and Environmental Stewardship.
There will always be time for music here.....fiddles, guitars, pianos, harmonicas, banjos, recorders and singing around the campfire. Live music, people harmonies and great food are what makes life worth living!
Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter for Interesting links and classes
Upcoming Classes and Workshops:
Natural Cheesemaking with David Asher:
Oct. 23 - 27, 2019
Join us for 5 days of Cheese Heaven. Learn how with natural ingredients Milk can become a rich, delicious, nutritious food, full of all the goodness the cow (or goat or sheep...) can give us. We will take Milk, add culture, rennet, time and safe handling to turn this gift into a long lasting staple for kitchen and pantry.
Course Description:
From culture propagation to rennet coagulation and on to affinage, this comprehensive and hands on course covers nearly all aspects and styles of a natural farmhouse cheesemaking.
Students can expect to learn how simple traditional methods can lead to a safe and effective raw milk cheesemaking.
On the first day we learn to care for the cultures of our cheese. We beginwith a session on dairy fermentation, covering Clabber, Kefir, Crème Fraiche and yogurt.
On the second day we use our cultures and rennet to make fresh lactic cheeses such as Cream Cheese & Chevre, and Geotrichum-candidum ripened lactic cheeses such as Crottin, Valençay and Saint Marcellin. Also included are acid-coagulated cheeses like Skyr and Quark.
On the third day we look at rennet cheeses, preparing, in the morning, the basic curd that can become many different styles of cheese. By the afternoon, the curd’s acidity will have developed and we’ll be able to stretch the cheese into Mozzarella, Burrata and other Pasta Filata cheeses. We also explore the different rind ecologies of rennet cheeses including the white fungus of Camembert and the orange rinds of Limburger
On the fourth day we make a Stilton, and explore the cultivation of blue fungus that gives this cheese its veins. With a slight variation in the make we will also prepare Cheddar/Cantal. On this day, we will also prepare rennet from a young calf’s stomach.
And on the fifth day we make an Alpine cheese, and see how one cheese can evolve in many different directions including Tomme, Comte and Caciocavallo. With its leftover whey we prepare a batch of traditional Ricotta.
Five days of learning allows students to see many styles of cheese through the many stages of their evolution, and provides insight into how all cheeses can evolve from the very same milk, with the same culture and the same rennet. The course will focus on natural methods and a full circle, small-scale cheesemaking: no freeze-dried cultures or synthetic enzymes will be used in any of our makes.
Bio: David Asher is an organic farmer, farmstead cheese maker and cheese educator based on the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada. A guerrilla cheesemaker, David does not make cheese according to standard industrial philosophies - he explores traditionally cultured and organic methods of cheesemaking.
David offers cheese outreach to communities near and far with the Black Sheep School of Cheesemaking. Through workshops in partnership with food-sovereignty-minded organizations, he shares his distinct cheesemaking style. His courses teach a cheesemaking method that is natural, DIY, and well suited to the home kitchen or artisanal production. He is the author of The Art of Natural Cheesemaking.
Cost: Deadline has been extended to first day of class! $600 per person. Please send e transfer to borchfam@hotmail.com Once we get a final number. If we get 20 students the cost will go down to $500 each. Max 25 Students.
Location: Looma Hall 10 minutes East of Beaumont, Alberta
Accommodation: Please contact Maryann at borchfam@homail.com if you want billeting with a local, or seek out hotels near the Edmonton International Airport.
Please do take advantage of this incredible knowledge and help us spread the joy of real cheese made by real happy cows (etc :) )
Homesteading for Homeschoolers - 10 weeks of farm fun coming again in the fall. Details
Soup Jam - Twice Monthly Beginner Fiddle Jam Every 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month. Bring a Stone soup ingredient at 4:20. It will slowly simmer away while we jam for about an hour til 5:30. We can then enjoy a quick tasty soup and still get home in time for quiet time before bed! borchfam@hotmail.com for the current list of tunes and links to the sheet music. Cost: Free Facebook event
City Arts Centre Basketry Classes - Here
Fort Saskatchewan Heritage Precinct Classes - Here
Monthly Basket Practice Sessions Will resume in October: First Saturdays of every month. Pick your project, cut your willows and practice your weaving. I will be weaving as well and this way we can motivate each other and learn together. In return for mentorship, you can help with Labyrinth maintenance throughout the summer. Cost: Free Facebook event
Our farm's focus includes Food production using Permaculture principles and Regenerative Agriculture, Cooking "from scratch" workshops, Basketry workshops and growing healthy heritage Chickens, Turkeys and Ducks on a local, slow diet. We are continuing to reach out to children and families needing space to grow. Our wwoofers have made it all possible and we thank them so much!
Want a Garden?? Want to learn and grow in our shared crops??
Garden Plots (50 feet x 4 feet) are available to rent in the summer for $50. They are aligned North/South and will not be tilled or sprayed (except with rain!). There is also a $50 weeding deposit that is returned once the gardens are left in a state worth using for next year! We share our Asparagus Patch, Rhubarb Patch, Garlic patch, Strawberry patch, Raspberries and the few Saskatoons with anyone who wants to help us weed them. The Honeyberries, Cherries, Apples, Plums and Currants are happily growing up and now also ready to share.
We rent out five incubators throughout the spring and early summer. The cost of $40 includes, 30 eggs, incubator, thermometer, instruction sheet, feed for the first few weeks, waterer, heat lamp and shavings. There is a $50 damage/cleaning deposit. You're welcome to keep the chicks for as long as you like or return them as soon as they wear out their welcome! Use the contact form above to state your preferred time to host these cuties. Count on at least 21 days to incubate and as long as you want to keep them once hatched.
Workshops that we are willing to host include Soap making, Mozzarella making, Wool Felting and Spinning and Weaving, Basketry with willows, bulrushes and cattails in winter, Sourdough Bread Baking, Gardening and Primitive Clay Firing.
Please contact us in the "Connect" tab above to set something up.
There will always be time for music here.....fiddles, guitars, pianos, harmonicas, banjos, recorders and singing around the campfire. Live music, people harmonies and great food are what makes life worth living!
Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter for Interesting links and classes
Upcoming Classes and Workshops:
Natural Cheesemaking with David Asher:
Oct. 23 - 27, 2019
Join us for 5 days of Cheese Heaven. Learn how with natural ingredients Milk can become a rich, delicious, nutritious food, full of all the goodness the cow (or goat or sheep...) can give us. We will take Milk, add culture, rennet, time and safe handling to turn this gift into a long lasting staple for kitchen and pantry.
Course Description:
From culture propagation to rennet coagulation and on to affinage, this comprehensive and hands on course covers nearly all aspects and styles of a natural farmhouse cheesemaking.
Students can expect to learn how simple traditional methods can lead to a safe and effective raw milk cheesemaking.
On the first day we learn to care for the cultures of our cheese. We beginwith a session on dairy fermentation, covering Clabber, Kefir, Crème Fraiche and yogurt.
On the second day we use our cultures and rennet to make fresh lactic cheeses such as Cream Cheese & Chevre, and Geotrichum-candidum ripened lactic cheeses such as Crottin, Valençay and Saint Marcellin. Also included are acid-coagulated cheeses like Skyr and Quark.
On the third day we look at rennet cheeses, preparing, in the morning, the basic curd that can become many different styles of cheese. By the afternoon, the curd’s acidity will have developed and we’ll be able to stretch the cheese into Mozzarella, Burrata and other Pasta Filata cheeses. We also explore the different rind ecologies of rennet cheeses including the white fungus of Camembert and the orange rinds of Limburger
On the fourth day we make a Stilton, and explore the cultivation of blue fungus that gives this cheese its veins. With a slight variation in the make we will also prepare Cheddar/Cantal. On this day, we will also prepare rennet from a young calf’s stomach.
And on the fifth day we make an Alpine cheese, and see how one cheese can evolve in many different directions including Tomme, Comte and Caciocavallo. With its leftover whey we prepare a batch of traditional Ricotta.
Five days of learning allows students to see many styles of cheese through the many stages of their evolution, and provides insight into how all cheeses can evolve from the very same milk, with the same culture and the same rennet. The course will focus on natural methods and a full circle, small-scale cheesemaking: no freeze-dried cultures or synthetic enzymes will be used in any of our makes.
Bio: David Asher is an organic farmer, farmstead cheese maker and cheese educator based on the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada. A guerrilla cheesemaker, David does not make cheese according to standard industrial philosophies - he explores traditionally cultured and organic methods of cheesemaking.
David offers cheese outreach to communities near and far with the Black Sheep School of Cheesemaking. Through workshops in partnership with food-sovereignty-minded organizations, he shares his distinct cheesemaking style. His courses teach a cheesemaking method that is natural, DIY, and well suited to the home kitchen or artisanal production. He is the author of The Art of Natural Cheesemaking.
Cost: Deadline has been extended to first day of class! $600 per person. Please send e transfer to borchfam@hotmail.com Once we get a final number. If we get 20 students the cost will go down to $500 each. Max 25 Students.
Location: Looma Hall 10 minutes East of Beaumont, Alberta
Accommodation: Please contact Maryann at borchfam@homail.com if you want billeting with a local, or seek out hotels near the Edmonton International Airport.
Please do take advantage of this incredible knowledge and help us spread the joy of real cheese made by real happy cows (etc :) )
Homesteading for Homeschoolers - 10 weeks of farm fun coming again in the fall. Details
Soup Jam - Twice Monthly Beginner Fiddle Jam Every 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month. Bring a Stone soup ingredient at 4:20. It will slowly simmer away while we jam for about an hour til 5:30. We can then enjoy a quick tasty soup and still get home in time for quiet time before bed! borchfam@hotmail.com for the current list of tunes and links to the sheet music. Cost: Free Facebook event
City Arts Centre Basketry Classes - Here
Fort Saskatchewan Heritage Precinct Classes - Here
Monthly Basket Practice Sessions Will resume in October: First Saturdays of every month. Pick your project, cut your willows and practice your weaving. I will be weaving as well and this way we can motivate each other and learn together. In return for mentorship, you can help with Labyrinth maintenance throughout the summer. Cost: Free Facebook event
Our farm's focus includes Food production using Permaculture principles and Regenerative Agriculture, Cooking "from scratch" workshops, Basketry workshops and growing healthy heritage Chickens, Turkeys and Ducks on a local, slow diet. We are continuing to reach out to children and families needing space to grow. Our wwoofers have made it all possible and we thank them so much!
Want a Garden?? Want to learn and grow in our shared crops??
Garden Plots (50 feet x 4 feet) are available to rent in the summer for $50. They are aligned North/South and will not be tilled or sprayed (except with rain!). There is also a $50 weeding deposit that is returned once the gardens are left in a state worth using for next year! We share our Asparagus Patch, Rhubarb Patch, Garlic patch, Strawberry patch, Raspberries and the few Saskatoons with anyone who wants to help us weed them. The Honeyberries, Cherries, Apples, Plums and Currants are happily growing up and now also ready to share.
We rent out five incubators throughout the spring and early summer. The cost of $40 includes, 30 eggs, incubator, thermometer, instruction sheet, feed for the first few weeks, waterer, heat lamp and shavings. There is a $50 damage/cleaning deposit. You're welcome to keep the chicks for as long as you like or return them as soon as they wear out their welcome! Use the contact form above to state your preferred time to host these cuties. Count on at least 21 days to incubate and as long as you want to keep them once hatched.
Workshops that we are willing to host include Soap making, Mozzarella making, Wool Felting and Spinning and Weaving, Basketry with willows, bulrushes and cattails in winter, Sourdough Bread Baking, Gardening and Primitive Clay Firing.
Please contact us in the "Connect" tab above to set something up.
