It was a busy year at TLC Farm - we hosted many happenings this year and look forward to many more in 2025!
A place to Gather
Monthly movie nights
Potlucks and song circles
Ofd time music jams
Hosting meetings and conversations: Oregon Humanities, Jewish Voice for Peace, Red Machete, Pacific NW Forest Climate Alliance
A place to Learn
Willow Creek Forest School – pre-school & summer camps
TLC Farm’s Hands-on outdoor education program hosted field trips from Cottonwood School, Rvierdale School, Carpe Mundi, University of Portland, Lewis & Clark College, Girl Scout troops and more!
Skillshares and workshops
Elderberry School of Botanical Medicine classroom
Becoming Poeple of Place book club
A place to Celebrate
Annual Apple Fest – with over 200 people!
Tu B’shvat Seder with Havurah Shalom
Ten birthday parties – from thre years old to 37
A place to Grow
Many work parties focused on removing invasive species and tending the ecosystem. Joining our awesome land tending volunteers were our partners at the Tryon Creek Watershed Council, and the awesome goat herd!
Basic pruning of fruit trees and grapes.
with Bernard Bach
Saturday January 5th
1:00 -> 3:00
Bernard will be walking us through the basic ideas of pruning to keep trees in their optimum health.
Please bring tools you like to use.
Dress appropriately for the weather.
Bernhard Bach received a degree in horticulture in 1990, completed a Master woodland Manager course with the Yamhill Co. Extension Service in 1994 since then he managed small apple orchard and worked for a local retail nursery.
Sliding Scale: 10-$30
This working group works to support people in sharing life, learning, and liberation together as part of the land. We do this through
If you'd like to use the space for an event, please email events@tryonfarm.org.
If you'd like to join the team that organizes, or you have an idea for an awesome workshop, email workshops@tryonfarm.org
Thanks so much!
TLC Farm is an amazing place to learn ideas and practices for growing sustainable culture.
Past workshop topics have included:
Most workshops ask for a donation on a sliding scale or offer work-trade, to assist in paying for the presenter, facilities, and materials. Want to present a workshop? email work...@tryonfarm.org or call our office at 503-245-3847.
Get your hands dirty and learn versatile natural building techniques. The class will be focusing on light straw/clay insulation and earthen plaster to finish the inside of TLC Farm's beautiful old barn. Open to all skill levels.
Class will be taught by expert earthen plasterer, Joshua Klyber (visit http://www.livingwallspdx.com to view Joshua's work).
Sliding scale $20-60 per day, with limited work trade available. Contact brenna@tryonfarm.org to register.
Just in time for harvest! Learn about and practice various methods of food preservation, including canning, freezing, drying and long-term produce storage. Using TLC Farm's garden, orchard and outdoor kitchen as a classroom, this class will involve both discussion (your ideas, thoughts and wisdom invited!) and hands-on engagement with canning jam and sauce. We'll focus on the fruits & vegetables that grow abundantly in this region, including berries, squash, cucumber, apples, tomatoes and alliums.
Sliding scale fee of $15-30, with limited worktrade options available. Kids welcome!
We will be running a shuttle from People's Food Co-op (SE 21st & Tibbetts) at 9:30, returning at 4:30 pm. Please register for the class and let me know if you will be riding the shuttle at brenna@tryonfarm.org. Please bring your own lunch.
TLC Farm's Monthly Workshop series presents:
Plant Medicine Workshop Series & Community and Herbal Approaches to Disaster Situations
Come join us on the land for a weekend of learning about plant medicine, community building, and emergency preparedness! There will be a day of Plant Medicine Workshops on Friday, Sept. 9th, followed by a two-day intensive on Disaster Herbalism on Saturday and Sunday (the 10th and 11th).
The plant medicine workshops will be hosted by local herbalists, with topics ranging from hands-on medicine making and plant meditation, to facilitated conversations about herbalism, dynamics of privilege and efforts for healing both people and place! The Disaster Herbalism intensive, brought to the farm by our local Rosehip Medic Collective, will focus on the importance of plants and further education in preparing for ecological/social emergency.
Our intention is to gather together to share skills and ideas - regardless of prior experience. If you're brand new to herbalism, a seasoned medicine-maker, or anywhere in between: know that you're welcome! You can register for both events, or come to just one. Registration for both events is separate, more details below...
Workshop Descriptions:
Friday, 10AM - 6PM
-- interactive plant walk through the farm and Tryon Creek Forest
-- The Body Remembers: The Physiology of Stress, Health Disparities and Botanical Interventions with Lydia Bartholow
While the title sounds daunting, this fun workshop will cover the basic physiology of stress in the body, discuss why it so darn important to understand it, how stress effects health on a community/population based level and wrap up by talking about some herbal interventions (and support) for the over-stressed body and mind. This workshop is geared towards a radical understanding of political-economics, oppression and health.
*Lydia is a registered nurse, a writer, an organizer and a practitioner of both allopathic and botanical medicine. She has been studying botany and botanical medicine since 2001 and teaching since 2007. Currently a doctoral student at Oregon Health and Science University, Lydia focuses her practice on mental wellness and radical public health. Past and current roles in care providing include heavy emphasis on harm reduction, cognitive behavioral therapy and trauma based care. She is deeply interested in the political and social implications of care work, mental health and the body. Lydia lives in North Portland with too many animals and often obsesses about the prison industrial complex.*
--- Put the Craft Back in Wildcrafting: How to Tend Plants in the Wild and Make New Medicinal Stands with Sam Spikenard
We will discuss how to take care of and grow plants outside of the garden setting and why that is becoming more and more important.
--- Revolutionary Healers - a facilitated discussion with Dir'k & Rosemary
what are the connections between herbalism and liberation struggle? how does a healer's responsibility to those whom they support relate to addressing the root causes of the sickness? does ethical wildcrafting demand participation in defense of the earth? what are critical contributions that herbalists are situated to offer to revolutionary struggles? join us for an exploration of these and other questions, in an environment of critical engagement and mutual support.
If you want to attend this series, you must register by e-mailing tinderaceae@riseup.net by September 1st. You will then receive information about schedule, shuttles/transportation, food, and camping. The Friday series is available for a sliding scale of $15 - a million dollars...all of which directly supports keeping this educational center open and active! Some work trade positions are available.
On Saturday & Sunday, the Rosehip Medic Collective (www.rosehipmedics.org) presents Community and Herbal Approaches to Disaster Situations with Leah Wolfe, 10AM - 5PM both days...
"When disaster strikes, government response is often slow, leaving victims without help for days. Community preparedness and response is vital. This is an introductory workshop that will show you how to begin to prepare yourself and your community. Our approach recognizes the importance of plants, and community building, and further education. We will share important stories from recent disasters and relief efforts. Visit our website to see photos from our relief work in Haiti after the earthquake: http://serpentine-project. org/http://serpentine-project. org/ . Donations beyond travel expenses and fees will be used to support The Serpentine Project (based in NE Ohio & NW Wisconsin), a restoration and education project for indigenous plants and traditional medicine."
Register separately for Saturday & Sunday by September 1 at info@serpentine-project.org. Sliding-scale donation: $40-80.
Grow your dinner! Workshop at TLC Farm, in conjunction with Portland Community College.
Come to the farm to harvest this summer's vegetables, fruit and herbs. From salads to dessert, we'll pick, process and prepare a divine meal straight from TLC Farm's gardens and orchard, and learn ways to preserve the bounty year-round. We have antoher class on September 1st to gather all the new growth in the gardens!
Register for either non-credit class at PCC's website: http://www.pcc.edu/schedule/default.cfm?fa=dspCourse2&thisTerm=201003&cr...
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
The skillshare goes from 10am - 10pm on saturday. there will be an evening fire and trade blanket. on sunday, it goes from 10am to 5pm.
Please bring food for the community kitchen! it would be especially helpful if you could dumpster some produce on yr way over. skillshare participants will have access to a full kitchen but it'll take the self-organization of the group to make meals happen.
you can ride your bike to the farm (11640 sw boones ferry rd.) but we don't have any space for cars! Park at or ride the #12 bus to Barbur Blvd Transit Center Park and Ride, 9712 SW Barbur BLVD. Shuttles will bring you to the farm at 9, 10, 12, 4 & 5 on both saturday and sunday.
Camping is available on saturday night but you MUST reserve a space beforehand. that's a sliding scale of $5 - $25.
For more information or to volunteer to help, call aspen at 208 221 9536, aspe...@gmail.com, or tinder at 518 567 9044.
TLC Farm will be hosting a full 72-hour Permaculture Design Course this summer. This course will be a two-week intensive that will meet from June 11th to 27th. The course can be taken as residential, or not. The fee for the non-residential option is $1000 - 850 sliding scale. The fee for the residential option is $1300 -1100. Limited work trade may be available. More about the course: A Permaculture Design Course explores sustainable human habitation. We begin with the ethics and principles of permaculture which support a philosophical reverence for life and provide a framework for making healthy choices. The objective of a Permaculture Design Course is to provide a comprehensive overview of sustainable futures, based on permaculture philosophy, techniques, and strategies that one could incorporate into their everyday life, or enhance their career. These courses provide hands-on experience. The intention is to facilitate a systems approach to thinking about different issues, encouraging care for the earth and its inhabitants as a diverse community. Topics Include: * Permaculture Philosophy & Ethics * Permaculture Principles * Concepts and Themes in Design * Permaculture methodology * Pattern Understanding * Reading the Landscape * Climatic Factors * Edible Landscaping & Organic Gardening * Trees and their Energy Transactions, Tree Crops * Water, Water Harvesting * Soils & Composting * Earthworking and Earth Resources * Natural Building * Animal Husbandry * Urban Permaculture * Appropriate Technology * Intentional Communities * Sustainable Forestry & Agroforestry * Ethnobotany/ethnoecology * Plant Propagation * Ecosystem & Native Plant Restoration * Mycology * Permaculture Networks * Bioregionalism * Local Economics * Ecological Design * Ecovillages * And more.. Instructor Bios: Marisha Auerbach will be the lead instructor of the course. Marisha has been practicing, studying, and teaching permaculture in the Pacific Northwest for the past decade. She encourages sustainable futures through sharing knowledge with others on a variety of topics including: permaculture, polyculture gardening, seed saving, flower and gem essences, local economics, community building, ethnobotany, herbalism, edible landscape design, and organic gardening among others. Matt received his Master's Degree in Education with a focus on Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning from PSU in 2008 and is also a certified Permaculture Designer and Teacher. For more information about this course, please email perm...@tryonfarm.org or call Matt Bibeau at 503-245-3847. To be considered for this course, please fill out the questionnaire below and send to perm...@tryonfarm.org. TLC Farm PDC Application Full and Preferred Name: Address: Phone: Email: 1. What is your experience with permaculture? What do you hope to do with this certification? 2. Do you have any dietary restrictions or allergies that we should know about? 3. Do you have any medical conditions or physical limitations that we should know about? (TLC Farm is not currently an ADA-accessible site, so any alter-abled students should let us know about their needs and concerns). 4. Are you applying for the residential (camping) or non-residential (commuting) option? 5. How did you hear about the course?
Feedback and participation welcome! Please send bug reports to web@tryonfarm.org