Episode 50 - Green Door Folk School
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Christa Hein: Hey there, welcome to the Farm Educator’s Roadmap. I'm Christa Hein, former nonprofit girl turned farm education entrepreneur. I've spent the last 30 years creating hands-on programs that connect people to the land, animals, and the traditions that nourish our daily lives.
If you're listening, you probably believe what I do - that farm education is needed now more than ever. Not just on rural farms, but in suburbs, cities, and everywhere in between. In this podcast, you'll hear real stories and practical advice from farm educators all across the country, people who are creating change through their programs in creative and inspiring ways.
Whether you're dreaming about starting your first program, are already knee deep in your own farm education work, or are just curious about how others are impacting their communities through farm education, you're in the right place. [00:01:00] Let's dig in.
Christa Hein: Hello, welcome back to the Farm Educator's Roadmap. There are certain skills that not very long ago were just a part of everyday life. People knew how to mend clothing, preserve food, grow a garden, make things out of wood, sew, knit, repair something that broke, or they knew someone who did. Today, many of us can go through our entire lives without ever learning these things.
But something interesting seems to be happening. Knitting, quilting, sewing, baking, and other so-called grandma crafts are having a resurgence, particularly among younger generations. And I was curious about what's behind that. Is it nostalgia? Is it a reaction to how much time we spend looking at screens? Is it the satisfaction of actually making something with our own hands? Or have we lost [00:02:00] something more important as these skills have gradually disappeared from everyday life?
Those questions led me to Green Door Folk School in Cedar, Michigan. Green Door offers hands-on classes in everything from woodworking, quilting, and basketry to cheese-making, mushroom foraging, gardening, and other practical skills. And it's built around the much older tradition of folk schools, where adults gather to learn not for grades or credentials, but because they're curious or want to know how to do something.
Green Door's founder, Kristina Schnepf, came to this work after more than 30 years in the corporate world. Her own search for a place to learn woodworking eventually led her to folk schools across the Midwest, and ultimately to the realization that perhaps what she was looking for needed to be created closer to home.
[00:03:00] Today, we're going to talk about what it actually took to build Green Door Folk School, how this kind of education works, and why skills that sometimes get dismissed as old-fashioned may be exactly what people are looking for right now. Kristina, welcome to The Farm Educator's Roadmap.
Kristina Schnepf: Thank you. It's great to be here.
Christa Hein: So, I want to start with you because starting the folk school was a pretty significant change in direction. You spent more than 30 years in the corporate world before founding Green Door Folk School. What kind of work were you doing, and what was happening in your life that made you start questioning whether you wanted to continue doing it?
Kristina Schnepf: Well, I was working in corporate spaces as an executive in a couple different businesses, and then in a private equity-held company. So, I was working in marketing and commercial areas. I had a number of teams [00:04:00] and was responsible for expansion and growth and all of that in the businesses that I was involved with.
And I was getting disillusioned. It took a while, it was a 30-year career, but I was getting frustrated with the relentless need for growth, the relentless focus on quarterly earnings. And really, one of the things that hit me in a moment was outside of the window of my office a building was going up next door.
And every day I could see their progress and the people out working in the construction area. And I was like, "They see their work. There were no doors before today, and now there are doors on this building... or windows or walls or whatever," and it was just such a profound thing to watch day after [00:05:00] day.
And it was just reinforcing what I knew I was becoming frustrated with and less satisfied with in my own work. And so, it was a time there were a number of things converging at that point. My parents' situation was different. My kids were grown and nearly finished with college.
And I made a decision to retire from corporate work long before retirement should have been on my radar. And decided I wanted to pursue what was next. I started calling it phase three, and then I started calling it phase me.
Christa Hein: Oh, that's beautiful.
Kristina Schnepf: Yeah. But it wasn't really about me. It was about what was going to fulfill me and my life. The skills that I had gathered as a professional and the experiences that I had, I'm like, "How can I use this for something more significant?" And I pursued a lot of different things, and a folk school was [00:06:00] not the obvious answer.
But when I went looking for woodworking classes, because that's what I was particularly interested in, and thus the construction really getting my attention. I was really interested in finding some quality woodworking classes that taught traditional joinery and wood finishing and things like that. And I was really struggling to find something that wasn't a degree program or something for construction per se. And so, I found folk schools in that process.
Christa Hein: So, then once you started finding folk schools, what was different about the experiences that you were finding there? Or was there a specific moment when you thought that your area needed something like that, and that you should be the person to create it?
Kristina Schnepf: That's a good question. No, I never once thought I was the person who should create it. Folk school [00:07:00] people will tell me I'm not a regular folk school person. A lot of people that are involved with folk schools are traditional crafts people, or farmers, or homesteaders, or things like that, and I am not.
And so, what I found interesting though with folk schools is the focus on skills for the sake of learning and being more self-sufficient, and not for the sake of being an expert craftsperson or being an artist. It was really much more focused on self-fulfillment and living a more sustainable life, and that's what I really appreciated about folk schools.
Christa Hein: So, once you had the idea that maybe this was going to be your next direction, then you had to build it. So, this is the part of the story I really want to dig into, because people [00:08:00] often see an organization after it's already operating, and they don't know all the messy steps that had to happen before that opening day. So, once you had the idea, what was the first concrete thing that you did?
Kristina Schnepf: The first concrete thing I did was talk to our community and really identify what people wanted, and whether I was crazy in thinking that this was a good concept for our community. So, we live in northern Michigan, which is a beautiful lakefront area with beautiful dunes and nature, and it's a fantastic place to live and to visit. And so, a folk school here makes so much sense.
But we also have this super rich community of artisans and experts and people who are pursuing different lifestyles and different ways of existing in the world in a way that is really inspiring. And then we also have this group of people who are [00:09:00] extremely interested in learning and wanting to build their capabilities and be more resourceful in the way they live.
And so, those kind of three things coming together made so much sense to me that we had something here. But then I just started talking to people, and I talked with nearly 100 people before I started this because I wanted to make sure I wasn't replicating something.
And so, I spoke with, yeah, 75 to 100 people and really just asked them, “What are we missing? What are we seeking? Are there things that could be helpful to our community? Why is this different than the extended ed programs through the community college? Why is this different than other programs that schools and businesses are doing?”
And people really felt like it was the ability to define it and own it themselves. And also dig [00:10:00] deep because there's a lot of classes that are... Like, I took a mushroom hunting class one time, and we never went outside. And all I learned in the class was that I had no business foraging mushrooms, because I was going to kill myself with poisonous mushrooms. And so, I'm going, "No, we can do better than that." There are good practical ways to make this work.
And so, yeah, after talking with people, I heard young people in particular wanted places other than bars and places with alcohol to be able to be with friends and meet new people. And people wanted deeper, longer form education where they could really get into a flow state, and be focused on an activity for an extended period of time. And with that I was like, "Okay, I guess we're going to do this."
And then I went and visited some folk schools. So, I did a tour of three folk schools throughout the Midwest and took classes at each [00:11:00] and talked with the executive directors. And basically asked them every question I could possibly ask about whether it be financial aspects, and attracting students, and how did all of this happen, and their histories, and how they came to be. And I took a little bit from each one and was able to create Green Door Folk School.
Christa Hein: I love that you really started this journey by so many hours of listening to what people wanted and what they had to teach. I'm sure that guided you so much in the whole journey.
Kristina Schnepf: Oh, it absolutely did, and it kept shifting. Like, everything took different turns and courses, but ultimately there was absolutely a through line in the process that said that this kind of education, this longer form immersive, hands-on, traditionally focused education, is what people want.
And there's a saying in the folk [00:12:00] school movement that is, "Stick your hands in the ground and smell the soil," and that will tell you what the convergence of what the earth is giving and what your people need.
And I really use that as a guide for what we're doing, is that...I'm not necessarily always sticking my hands in the soil, but I do that a lot, too. But the community is the guide. They tell me, either verbally or through interest in the classes what they want to know. And so, we were able to create the programming and space that the community wants.
Christa Hein: So, I've read that some instructors agreed to teach even before you knew where the classes would take place. So, where did those first classes happen?
Kristina Schnepf: Oh my gosh. That was actually a really funny period because yeah, I did. I was talking to instructors, and I'm like, "So I'm going to [00:13:00] start a folk school." And I'm sure they were like, "Sure you are. What... How does that... You're just going to start a folk school out of nothing?" And I'm like, "Yeah, but with you."
And 12 instructors actually agreed to come on before we even had a space, before we had a website, before we had anything. And basically, I'm like, "I'm going to build this first season of classes," this spring season in March of 2025 was our first class "I'm going to build this around you."
And it was 12 instructors, and there were some fiber arts, and there was some woodworking, and there was some permaculture garden planning, and some basket weaving. Yeah, so all kinds of really cool and interesting things. Some storytelling. Yeah, so a number of things that were of interest to our community.
And they showed [00:14:00] up and we actually filled almost every class in that very first season because there was so much excitement and passion for the project. So, it was fun.
Christa Hein: And so where was that first season taking place then?
Kristina Schnepf: So, we were using community spaces. We had some spaces that were wedding venues that weren't really used much in the spring. We had some township halls. It was basically anywhere that I could get relatively inexpensively or free. And we knew that wasn't a long-term prospect, but one of the other folk schools I visited had done the same thing. And I'm like, "If they can do it, we can do it."
And then what it did is brought people forward. I all of a sudden had people offering their barns, and their farms, and their spaces because they wanted to be part of it. And so, it just kept growing and expanding. And people were able to feel more and more a part of it as we went.
Christa Hein: So, I want to ask, Green Door is [00:15:00] structured as a L3C, a low-profit limited liability company, which is something many listeners might have not encountered. So, why did you choose that structure instead of becoming either a traditional business or a nonprofit?
Kristina Schnepf: So, yeah, an L3C is a low profit mission-driven business that is available in, I think, eight states right now, as kind of a hybrid between a nonprofit and for-profit. I really started focusing on a nonprofit when I was establishing the organization and I was getting hung up at the point of creating a board and getting funding before we had anything to show.
It's hard for somebody to get onto a visionary project when it's not their vision, right? And there were several people who were supporting me, but it was feeling clunky and it wasn't feeling right.
And then on the money side of things, [00:16:00] it's hard to raise funds when you don't have any impact to show for your work, which of course we didn't because we hadn't existed yet. And I had some money I could invest in it, but not the kind that I wanted to donate per se. My hope is eventually I'm able to pay myself back some of that if not all.
So, I'm like, "My problems are solvable if I just make this a for-profit." And then I learned about the L3C. I wasn't even familiar with it. And an L3C enables you to be able to get corporate foundation funding, and family foundation funding, and some other non-state and federal funding options.
And so not that... We have not gotten any of that yet, but that is a possibility. It's a little bit of work, but it's a possibility. And so, I'm like, "Okay, let's just go and see where we head from here." And the reality is it isn't hard to switch [00:17:00] from a for-profit to a nonprofit eventually. There's just some legal things that need to happen.
And so, the long term is not for me to stay at the helm of the financial aspects. I love the idea of creating a co-op, or a nonprofit, or have a mutually owned organization. I don't know what it could become, but the long term isn't that this lives and dies with me. It belongs to the community and so we just need to figure out how we transfer that when the time comes.
Christa Hein: So, when you started all of this, were you the only one working on this, or did you bring in staff, volunteers? And then I'm also curious how that's transformed as you've been in existence and who's helping support the folk school now?
Kristina Schnepf: So, I started initially with just me and my adult daughter, who was [00:18:00] 25, 26 at the time, who was starting her own marketing consulting, social media consulting organization. She was getting really interested in the establishment of this and the possibilities for what it could mean to our community, and really the world as far as putting more and more self-skill and mutual support into the world.
And so, she and I really got it started. And then I was able to bring on somebody from another folk school who had done an internship there, and at the end of her internship was able to come on and help us get some programming started. And that was really where we started, was with the three of us and really just envisioning it from the ground up and making the next right decision about where we were going to go next.
And as things do, times change and people change, and there [00:19:00] were other needs for the two of them in their career paths. And so, I have just recently brought on a new team that is focusing on our community engagement and some of our operational things, and then I'm handling most of the programming.
And those are paid positions, contractor positions, but we also do a lot of bartering. So, with a for-profit, you can't really have volunteers, because that's a little bit of a slippery slope. It's not paying people for work for an organization that makes a profit. Not that we're making a profit , but we could. And so, we do some bartering.
So, I have a group of hosts for classes that will support a particular class in return for being able to take the class for free. We have some photographers that work on that same kind of barter system where they'll take photographs for us in order to take the [00:20:00] class. And so, we try to find creative ways to bring in the skills we need and give people what they want in return.
Christa Hein: I read that on your website, and I thought that was just a brilliant way of doing it because you have someone then there staffing the class, and they're getting something so valuable for themselves, but then they're also taking a big logistical hurdle off of your plate. Yeah, that's such a great idea.
So, as you've been building this, are you still moving from place to place, or do you have a set location now?
Kristina Schnepf: We do have a set location now at a beautiful farm in Leelanau County that has a classroom space that we're using, and we're looking at expanding into other spaces, too. But it's a beautiful pastoral place with a herd of Alpine dairy goats and some cows and beautiful flower and vegetable gardens and things like that. It's a, a 50-acre parcel that's being regenerated by the couple that [00:21:00] owns the farm.
Christa Hein: Nice. I was going to ask about how you meet the different logistical needs of the classes because things are so different. So, it sounds like though, the space that you have has different areas that you can use for the classes.
Kristina Schnepf: Yeah. Right now, the classroom is just basically an open slate. I do a lot of schlepping of tables and things, the right thing for the right class. Right now, most of our instructors bring the tools necessary for what we need to do. So, I'm working on building out a workshop and things like that where there's like big heavy units and things.
But most of the work that we've been doing from a woodworking perspective or even a leatherworking perspective is more hand tools than big, like woodworking or heavy power tools and stuff. So, I'm working in building out a workshop and a leatherworking studio and things like that. But that's all in the works.
Christa Hein: Nice. So, I want to talk about the school itself because [00:22:00] I imagine some listeners aren't familiar with the term folk school. So, when somebody asks you what a folk school is, how do you explain it?
Kristina Schnepf: I usually say, at its most fundamental level, it's a learning environment for adults to learn traditional skills. Folk schools take lots of different forms in the United States. There’re about 80 different folk schools, I think, right now, and there are some that are focused on music, there are some that are focused on the region they're in, there are some that are focused on more art side of things. Some are more focused on the natural aspects and farm-based aspects of learning.
But all of them are non-competitive, non-certified education, all for the purpose of self-fulfillment and personal growth. And folk schools actually began back in the late 1800s in Denmark [00:23:00] as, almost more like what we would consider a trade school kind of concept.
So, for immediate post-high school students in rural areas who didn't have the opportunities to continue their education beyond high school, and because there was a significant divide between the elite that would go to universities, and then the rural population.
And so, folk schools were created in particular to give that post-high school population of students an opportunity to learn things that would help them survive as the country was industrializing in many cases. So blacksmithing, construction practices, and other woodworking, cabinetmaking, things like that. So that they could extend their skills and make money, in large part, in the cities.
But the purpose of it was to establish more of a middle class, a way to bridge the gap between the rural population and the lower level of [00:24:00] earning there versus the higher level of earning of the elite. And folk schools in Denmark, at that time, were credited in part with the establishment of democracy in the country and the overthrow of the monarchy, because there was a stronger middle class, a stronger group of people who were being educated beyond, eighth or 12th grade.
And so, it's got a very cool history from the standpoint of personal fulfillment and even just national structure and creating an empowered civic population.
Christa Hein: Yeah. One thing that you mentioned was that it was this non-academic way of learning. And so, your instructors also aren't necessarily academics. They're people with this deep practical knowledge. So, I'm curious, how do you identify someone who is not only excellent at their skill, but also can successfully teach what they know? Because I can imagine those [00:25:00] are two very different things.
Kristina Schnepf: Yeah, and I've gotten much better at being able to identify that. But thankfully I've had, for the most part, really exceptional instructors as well as artisans and experts. But there's some guidelines around what I require for education.
I require a one-page document that outlines how they're going to teach the class so that I know that they've actually thought it through, and they have steps and we can see how the day is going to flow. I really want for this to be more than just a, like you pop in and learn needlepoint or whatever.
We spend a lot of time talking about the traditional aspects of a craft, how it started, why it started, where it started, and the evolution of it, and why it either has remained important to modern life, or whether it hasn't, or how it was replaced and what materials are used and why is it [00:26:00] important to understand the woods used for certain things- I mean, people used the wood that was available to them.
And so, the reason there's a lot of oak and maple in furniture and building construction in this area, is because that's what we have a lot of. The tie to why this thing and why now or why, this raw material is really important to me.
And then I also like for them to focus on any issues with the craft. There's a lot of appropriation. There are even resource issues with harvesting certain things. And so, I think it's important that we really understand the impact we're having and what that means to our Earth and our society.
Christa Hein: So, I want to move into why people are coming back to these skills now. We've spent several generations now making life more convenient. We can buy clothing instead of making it. We can replace things [00:27:00] instead of repairing them. Buy food prepared, look up almost anything we want to know instantly, but yet we're still seeing a renewed interest in knitting, sewing, quilting, woodworking, gardening, baking, and these other very slow hands-on activities.
Why do you think people are coming back to these skills now?
Kristina Schnepf: I think that there's a number of things converging right now. I would say some people have always been interested in these skills. And the fact that there's a really wide population right now I think does have a lot to do with people wanting to get away from screens.
Not necessarily knowing or having hobbies beyond their work or their screen time or the day parts that drive our world. I think that people are so hungry for community that things that can create some real genuine connection [00:28:00] are super important.
More often than not, the revelations that happen in a class have nothing to do with the craft. It has to do with understanding themselves better, or making a connection with somebody from another generation, or another way of thinking. You know, somebody they might never have been in a conversation with and have gained some insight.
And so, that's, I think, what people walk away with in addition to the ability to learn something new.
Christa Hein: Yeah, it sounds like there's also this deeper need that's being met through the classes.
Kristina Schnepf: Yes. Yeah. And that's what I really try to focus on. I really just try to see what people need and want, and try to create the environment that enables that. And so, one of the things we've talked about is that we are a vessel through which the community can express itself. And so, what we teach, and how we teach it, and how long, and who comes in, and whatever, [00:29:00] is not decided by us.
Christa Hein: So, one of Green Door's recurring ideas that I noticed on your website is process over perfection. Why do you think adults need permission to be beginners again?
Kristina Schnepf: Wow, that is a hard one. We've been trained and educated, and I think older adults have a lot more issue with that. The start of the second day of a class is always one of my favorites, because people come in having wrestled with, the night before, their either frustrations or concerns about what happened that day. And learning something new as an adult is vulnerable and can be frustrating. We tend to do things we're good at over and over again as an adult.
And so, not being able to do something well is frustrating. And that second day morning of a two or more day class is always people talking about [00:30:00] how they dreamt about things, or they reckoned with themselves about their need for perfection, and today I'm just going to go for it, and just let it be and not have to do something perfect. And so, yeah, it's a thing.
And I had a situation in a class one time, and this instructor is actually going to be teaching at our school in a couple weeks, but it was a class I felt like I had no business being in. It was a song leadership class where you teach call and response singing.
And I'm like, "I've sung before," and whatever. That's fine, but I am no musician, right? And I was in this class with a lot of very, at least active musicians, if not accomplished, right? People who sing weekly or in organizations and stuff. And my little perfectionist got so bent out of shape in that class.
And I am not a quitter, and I almost didn't go to the final day of class because I was feeling so uncomfortable. [00:31:00] And I went, and in my frustration the night before I was like, " they're putting me in this situation, and I'm feeling uncomfortable because it's something..."
And then I walked in that last day and was like, "They are all holding me so beautifully as I have my little mental temper tantrum." And, “This is all you, girl. Get over it and process it. And understand that the people here are holding you, and with you, and want you to succeed.” And anyway, it was a pretty profound experience for me.
But people go through that at various stages. That was a particularly long class, and I was particularly uncomfortable, but people go through various stages of that. Part of it, it may be that I would have never walked into a corporate boardroom unprepared or unable to answer any question, or you show up for [00:32:00] your kids and your family in a way that you're always set up and you're always prepared. And to be in a situation where you're really vulnerable like that is hard.
Christa Hein: Yeah, what a beautiful thing. In order to grow muscle, we have to stretch and get uncomfortable, and that builds us. And so, these experiences that you're providing are building that resilience in people. Yeah, what a great story. Thank you for sharing that.
So, I want to ask about this phrase that actually started the episode for me. The phrase is “grandma crafts”. My 21-year-old daughter uses this term, and even The New York Times recently used this phrase in an article where they talked about the resurgence of these hobbies among Gen Z and millennials. So, there's something affectionate about it, but I also wonder whether calling these things grandma crafts unintentionally minimizes knowledge that was once really valuable.
And so, I'm just [00:33:00] curious how you feel about that phrase being in that work?
Kristina Schnepf: Mm-hmm. I don't use that phrase. I appreciate the fact that there's a trend with that word right now, and it's being used across social media. And if it can bring attention to things that are fulfilling for people, then I'm all for it. But I personally don't use it. I prefer traditional skills to “grandma crafts”.
And also, we are all modern people living modern lives. There are very few of us who are going to go off and be homesteaders and make all our clothes, and slaughter all of our meat, and all of that kind of stuff. And that is a population that is important and I think is fabulous, but that's not most people.
And so, what I try to do is catch people where their creativity and their curiosity intersect with their desire to be more hands-on with things, have tactile experiences with their [00:34:00] hands. And in many cases, those are things our grandmothers did. And they were definitely onto something. There is something very calming, very peaceful about some of the repetitive aspects of some of those crafts.
But I think it's also important to know that these were things that people did to survive, too. And that also there is a life cycle of the materials that you're using as well. And so, we like, when we're doing yarn-based things, to go to a sheep farm and look at the sheep that the wool is coming from. And if it's not shearing season, then at least we can understand how wool is processed, how it's cleaned, what it has to be, before it gets to you in a skein of yarn.
And even, like dyeing processes and things like that, not that we're doing all of those things, but that you understand what this simple, somewhat repetitive craft, it comes from this very [00:35:00] long process of raw material production. And that's what's cool about it.
So, I like taking what modern people are trying to fit in their modern lives and helping them see it back to how and why it was important, and where those materials actually even come from.
Christa Hein: Yeah, it's like this blending of a hobby becoming this practical knowledge of understanding the world around you and how everything is made and produced and also knowing how to feed yourself and textile constructions and all of that.
Kristina Schnepf: Exactly. Exactly. And you find that once people get turned on to one thing, they get turned on to other things. You start knitting and all of a sudden weaving becomes a concept you really want to know and understand. And we've distanced ourselves so much from the understanding that most fabrics, are woven textiles that [00:36:00] are done with machines now instead of craftspeople. And how do we just make that connection?
And then where does your creativity spark to go, "Yeah, I want to eliminate that step for me," I want to do some of my own weaving," or, "I want to do some of my own knitting," or, "I want to do some of my own woodworking and not have to be just a consumer of goods but be a producer and serve yourself and your community.”
Christa Hein: So, since you're still very early in Green Door's story, I'd love to hear your reflections so far. So, at this stage, what feels really solid at Green Door today, and what still feels very experimental to you?
Kristina Schnepf: Weekly classes. We do most of our classes on weekends at this point and executing weekly classes feels really solid. As well as some of the community events we do. We do barn dances at each equinox, solstice and we do some [00:37:00] repair cafes with our local library so people can bring in things, and we have fixers that can fix them. And those things feel really good and solid, like we've got a really good platform for that.
But there's a lot of things that, you know, like I said, a proper woodworking studio, and a leatherworking studio, and a great teaching kitchen and stuff like that. So, some of those things are in the works and next phase, next evolution. I honestly didn't think we'd need to expand so quickly, but we are, and yeah, I'm here for it.
Christa Hein: Yeah. So, what have you learned about what adults are actually willing to invest their time and money in learning?
Kristina Schnepf: In our community people very much want things that combine the natural world with the craft or practice. We've done some classes that didn't connect earth to [00:38:00] practice, and they don't do well. And I'm like, "I hear you. I hear y'all. You don't want that."
But when we do cooking classes, we actually go to the farm and understand the organic processes of growing and why these flavors are different. And we taste different vegetables that were grown locally, and then we prepare them in super simple ways that just enhance the flavors and make the most of the bounty of that season. And so those are the things that people really love. That really beginning to end kind of practice.
But then there's also other things…We did a relatively short block printing class and we had a waiting list and people were like, "I have always wanted to do this." And it was just enough of a bite-sized class, but long enough that they felt like they could be able to do it when they left. And that's one of the things that's really important to me, is that you're not going and walking away with, "Oh, I did that once," but you're walking away with the ability to be [00:39:00] able to repeat it and do it on your own.
Christa Hein: So, to wrap up, can you tell us about some of the variety of upcoming classes that you have? Maybe some that you're especially excited about.
Kristina Schnepf: Yeah. I'm really excited about our upcoming quilt camp. We did this last year, too, and it's always a great time. It attracts people from across the country, and is an improvisational quilting class, so it doesn't require specific patterns and real intricacy. It's great for people who are wildly creative who don't have a ton of sewing experience, and just want to learn and grow and develop in their sewing practice.
As well as meet other people and have a great weekend of hiking in our area as well as quilting, and going to the beach and having a bonfire at night. That's why we call it Quilt Camp, because it's kind of like camp. And then we've got a song leadership class coming up, too, which is, [00:40:00] again, not for everybody, but I'm super excited to be able to bring it.
It's the first time it's been taught in Michigan, this particular practice, and we've got one of the nation's leading song carriers teaching that. And we've got a land reading class, which is all about knowing how to look at your land and understand water flow, and wind directions, and animal movement, and things like that.
We've got a sandal-making class, which I'm super excited about as well. And several basket weaving classes that are taught by a fabulous basket weaver in one of the old willow traditions, and so, that's fantastic.
And there are so many more, but that's maybe a good sampling.
Christa Hein: Ah, that's so exciting. You are just building what an amazing resource for community. And as you mentioned, most of us aren't going to start making everything we [00:41:00] own, or growing everything we eat, or abandon all the conveniences of modern life, but there is something so powerful of just knowing that we could make something.
We could mend it, grow it, repair it, and then learn directly from another person, which is something that we've disconnected to with so much learning through YouTube, which is so valid as well. But just learning from a person, it's so different.
Kristina Schnepf: It absolutely is.
Christa Hein: Yeah, and perhaps part of what makes places like Green Door Folk School so wonderful is that you're preserving not simply those skills, but that confidence that comes from knowing how to do something with your own hands, that overcoming of fear that you mentioned, and then that community that you mentioned as well that forms when people are just learning together.
Kristina, thank you so very much for sharing Green Deer's story with us today. I so appreciate it.
Kristina Schnepf: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.
Christa Hein: To our listeners, [00:42:00] I hope this episode reminded you that hands-on education is about so much more than the skills themself. Whether you're teaching someone how to care for animals, grow a garden, make cheese, weave a basket, or build a simple wooden box, you're offering something that's become increasingly rare, the chance to slow down, learn by doing, and discover the confidence that comes from creating something with your own two hands.
If you enjoyed today's conversation, I'd love if you'd share this episode with a fellow educator, maker, or anyone who's been feeling the pull to reconnect with practical skills and meaningful learning. And if you're enjoying the Farm Educator's Roadmap podcast, leaving a rating or review is one of the best ways to help other educators discover these conversations.
Until next time, keep creating meaningful learning experiences, keep sharing what you know, and keep cultivating the next generation of curious minds. Thanks for listening. [00:43:00]
Christa Hein: Hey, farm educators, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Before you go, I have a question for you. If you could build your own version of farm education around the way that you want to teach work and live, what would that actually look like?
Because there are a whole lot of ways to do this work. And the version that sounds exciting for someone else, well, it might be completely wrong for you because your strengths are different, your resources are different, and the kind of life you want to create is all yours.
That's why I created the free ‘Discover Your Farm Education Path Quiz’. In just a few minutes, you'll get a result based on your strengths, your goals, and how you want to work. It might point you in a direction you hadn't considered, or maybe it'll confirm that you're on the right path.
So, before you move on to the next thing, open the show notes, click the link and take the quiz. I can't wait to see what you [00:44:00] get.
