The Sacred Gardener School

This is a two year program.
First year: MAY 10-14 AND AUGUST 16-20, 2023
Second Year : JULY 10-14 AND SEPTEMBER 11-15, 2024

Payment plan options are available, option to choose this is within the checkout process.

This fee is for one year (MAY 10-14 AND AUGUST 16-20, 2023) of the two years of the School.

Payment for the second year will be arranged after the second session. (JULY 10-14 AND SEPTEMBER 11-15, 2024).

We offer you the chance to name your price for the School, please type what you choose into the box below and proceed to checkout. The registration form is within the checkout process.

Regular Price: $1350 +HST
Benefactor Price: $1800 +HST (offer this fee to support someone who would like to come but is in need of support).
Financial Support Price $1150+ HST (2 spaces available. We offer this on trust that you know your situation best).

TO Register:

Sacred Gardener School 2023/24
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Fee + What's Included

Schedule

Accommodations

Payment Plans

Contact

This is a two year program.
This fee is for one year (MAY 10-14 AND AUGUST 16-20, 2023) of the two years of the School.
Payment for the second year will be arranged after the second session. (JULY 10-14 AND SEPTEMBER 11-15, 2024).

We offer you the chance to name your price for the School, please type what you choose into the box below and proceed to checkout. The registration form is within the checkout process.

Regular Price: $1350 +HST
Benefactor Price: $1800 +HST (offer this fee to support someone who would like to come but is in need of support).
Financial Support Price $1100+ HST

Payment plan is available. This fee includes your camping spot (we also have our timberframe with a dorm space, $30/night), teachings and all your meals for the time you are here. All the meals are created as much as possible from food grown here, either in our gardens, preserved from the previous year's bounty, or from our wild food gatherings. Many of the meals you will help gather or harvest for. The teachings are brought home in your body through what has been grown here on the land.

Schedule : The first day of each session is a Wednesday, arrival time is 4pm to set up and settle in, then we have dinner together at 5 and our first circle. Thursday to Saturday: breakfast 8-9am teachings are 9- 12 and 1:30 -5 (with lunch break between) Sunday breakfast 8-9am Teachings are 9-2, ending with lunch. Each session grows out of the teachings of the time of year that it happens. Enfolded within each session is learning about edible wild plants, herbal medicine, deeper teachings from the land, wildculture gardening and real nourishing food. What we do on a particular day depends on the weather and what's happening on the land. The dynamic of the group also has a part to play in how things unfold.

Your camping spot is included in the School fee. If you would prefer to stay indoors, we have a beautiful timberframe house that can sleep 8. Each person has their own visual privacy, access to nearby outhouse. It is heated with wood, and is set up for you to make tea and coffee. Learn more here: https://thesacredgardener.ca/product/dragonfly-house/

If you are interested in a private space and indoor bathroom, please have a look at nearby airbnb's here:
https://www.airbnb.ca/golden-lake-canada/stays

Payment options:

Most people choose 6 or 2 payments, but are open to however you would like to split payments up, if something works better.

Please go through the purchase link below, our registration form is within it, and if you are sending an etransfer, or choosing a payment plan, please choose the etransfer/cheque option.

Please contact us with any questions.

megan@thesacredgardener.ca

"The Sacred Gardener has taught me the elements of a most basic human way of honouring Earth. With Steven’s guidance and Megan’s culinary arts, I was offered a path to engage dynamically with Earth’s gifts of nourishment. Their approach has given me an intimate understanding of what is asked of me by plant beings in order to find my proper place in the natural order. I feel a greater sense of being at home and of knowing who I am. There is no other way of thanking The Sacred Gardener than to tend carefully in my corner of the world to the seeds they have sown." -Lorraine

Spending these past two years with Steven and Megan at The Sacred Gardener School has been the most life-affirming time for me in so many ways. Steven's ways of teaching about plant and land life takes you to a place that resonates with a deep remembering of how it is to be with those kin that have supported us since birth. Steven invited us and wove ways each time we came of being in relationship, strengthening our understanding of reciprocity to the land and all the living animate beings that we dwell with. Over the two years, Steven's ability to hold space and nurture opening our hearts and spirits in a gentle way to our humanness and to what we are indebted to was extraordinary. Megan along with her beautiful assistants provided the container and the sustenance through which we were nurtured and held every day. So needed and welcomed! I have never been so held by a people and place as The Sacred Gardener School allowing for learning to be rooted, deep and meaningful. Bringing home with me a deeper understanding of what is available to us in the plant and tree world and how to deepen my relationship to all those that we live among. Warmly, Barb

It is a gift to have discovered a school whose teachings are truly alive and attuned to what is needed at this strange time that we find ourselves inhabiting. The Sacred Gardener is for those seeking to brush the dust of deep forgetting from their eyes and bodies. Steven’s constellation of teachings, from traditional skills and herbalism to story to ceremony, creates a space for remembering the indigenous soul and its ability to be in relationship with the living earth. Megan and Steven’s beautiful partnership is woven with integrity and playfulness, and I am so grateful for everything that they offer. -Jonelle

Such a sense of sanity and wellbeing is found at the Sacred Gardener. Daily living is reduced to simple tasks that connects us to ancient ways that are being remembered and cultivated in relation to the land. Time and space are orchestrated in a way that allows one to sink in and come to know a place as well as an expanded sense of self. Steven and Megan work in a collaborate dance to bring a fullness to the teachings that are offered. Time spent a the Sacred Gardener is a perfect antidote to urban living for those who desire a better way to life. Gratitude for your teaching and all that is being offered through your efforts, Barbara

The heart and soul of The Sacred Gardener are the cocreators, Steven, Megan and Mother Earth. The School facilitated a time to ground, reconnect and tune into the divine gifts and wisdom of Mother Earth. Steven weaved his practical, ritual and spiritual teachings so beautifully, supporting and enriching my personal growth on all levels. Above all, I've incorporated the teachings and rituals that resonate with me strongly, which has made a shift in my thinking and my perception of the everyday. Megan nourished my body and spirit by lovingly transforming the harvest into delicious satiating handcrafted meals. Steven and Megan's complimentary partnership always has me leaving feeling whole. I eagerly look forward to our second session‎, to continue our journey in community! Melissa

I arrived for the first session of the Sacred Gardener School, after a day of travel from San Francisco. More than one of the participants, remarked about how long it was to travel, and wasn't there anything like this where I live? No. No, there isn't. Nothing even close that I know of. I am a licensed herbalist and acupuncturist, and I have my finger on the pulse of the herbal schools, permaculture courses, and Buddhist meeting groups in my region. What Steven and Megan are living, teaching, and inviting us to embody - is in a category all itself. At the Sacred Gardener School, I experienced the integration of a deep love and reverence of and for the Earth, with the practical skills of homesteading. The days were rich with insight and medicine - for the soul, belly, and lineage. This school is everything I have been looking for, and has refined my compass of where to aim my heart and my life, moving forward. -Amanda

The Sacred Gardener School is for those inspired to move into a deeper level of being; to live in a connected, sustainable and soulfully present way with the Earth. The school will foster your growth over time, enabling you to embody the living skills and ceremony needed to engage the larger spirit and ecology of the Earth, so She may bless and redirect our collective and personal path.

Many pieces must be in place for these teachings to unfold within us. To move into this deeper sacred space and then to be able to carry the knowledge in our life, takes years of personal work, a supportive community and guidance from elders who have gone through the transformation. The continuance of the Sacred Gardener School will afford our soul these gifts. The School and land Herself give students safety and nourishment to grow into a thick grape vine, that flows up, through and over the spiny armature of our life, bringing beauty and bearing heavy fruit.

At The Sacred Gardener we teach these skills and practices, not in an abstract detached way, but experientially, as we live them. Through these experiences, the culture of these arts inoculates the student. These arts, these cultures want to grow again, they want to be fed. When we connect with the Earth through them, they are being fed, and we in turn get fed, sheltered, clothed and healed. It’s a good deal for everyone.

These old arts are living beings that can open the way back to our ancestry and our mythic roots. They are mysterious gifts that lay at the foundation of our civilization. But these mysteries that we wed long ago, must be practiced within a sacred context or they lose their magic and become just another commodity, collecting dust with our other badges and trophies on a shelf in our mind.

At the Sacred Gardener we will help these living beings claim you, help you and them find a home again. These arts are an essential part of our humanity, and they are our inheritance. Handed down from our ancestors, these ancient ways form a chalice for us to carry the ‘holy’ to the next generation; and for us to sustain our soul. When we claim back these rites, we drink deeply from the holy and the wild elixir turns our life into art; into ceremony to feed the deep unnamable mystery that sustains us each moment.

Through the continued guidance and community of the school, through the nourishment to our wild soul, our spirit will rise up from the deepest spring of our being into wholeness, and pour out over the walls of our heart-well in wisdom and gratitude.

Some of the skills and rights you will be initiated into at The Sacred Gardener School, over two years, are:

Horticulture and Wildculture
Learn to recognize, sacredly harvest and process over a hundred wild plants at all stages of growth. Students will also learn many different homesteading skills and growing techniques; propagation, seed saving and breeding, grafting, sylviculture, indigenous forest gardening, polyculture annual crops and year round greenhouse growing. “The aim of my agricultural teaching isn’t just for you to replicate my techniques but rather to broaden your understanding of the land to the point where you can co-create in a hundred different ways that courts the place you’re working with into fecundity.”

Food Preparation and Storage
Participants will learn hands-on about preserving and storing food from the wilds and gardens; learn about drying, canning, freezing and ferments aplenty; miso from our own heritage beans, kraut and kimchi, keifers and Juns and many more living ferments. “Over the years Megan and I have worked out simple, efficient and ‘kid approved’ tasty ways to cook, process and store the bounty so that we can ‘live off the land’ year-round”.

Building
In our bioregional building projects we focus on the approach, not just on being off-grid and green but on using local and free recycled materials co-creatively to manifest unique and elegant, passive-solar heated houses that work with the land. Learn about Earthship, cob, stack wall, log and timber frame buildings, humanure systems, large-scale solar dehydrators. In 2018 we’re building a traditional timberframe (post and beam) with straw slip insulation. A beautiful building for the school. “We’ve built new buildings using ancient techniques and refinish-eco-fitted our 140 year old log house, with a year round greenhouse, and water jacket wood stove for hot water and heating the greenhouse at night. What was a cold, dark drafty house is now bright and warm. On sunny days the greenhouse heats not only itself but the house is filled with moist warm oxygen-rich air”.

Making Tools and Utensils
Learn how to make willow, birch or pine baskets, how to burn bowls, carve spoons.

Through the continued guidance and community of the school; the nourishment to our wild soul, our spirit will rise up from the deepest spring of our being into wholeness, and pour out over the walls of our heart-well in wisdom and gratitude.

The Sacred Gardener Philosophy

Simply said, these sacred arts and practices ground, transform and elevate our daily routines. So, while we might have felt lost in the daily “grind”, we feel a daily rite of passage that keeps us aligned and connected with our soul, our ancestors and the spirit of the land. Through the continued guidance and community of the school, through the nourishment to our wild soul, our spirit will rise up from the deepest spring of our being into wholeness, and pour out over the walls of our heart-well in wisdom and gratitude.

Workshops and School Details

To help our guests become deeply, spiritually and personally connected with the real Earth is our goal. Part of the journey to becoming connected is to reconnect with our selves; grieving and healing. When the seed of wisdom that resides within all of us awakens with this deeper (watering) connection it naturally begins to grow. As this indigenous wisdom grows and blooms within us, a more meaningful dimension is revealed and the World literally comes alive. When this happens our guests go home with a new vision of Nature, and a host of relationships with the plants, animals, people and other relations. These relations who have come alive for them during the workshop can act as their teachers and guides even in the depths of the city.

Part of keeping the spirit of the Earth alive in our hearts involves rekindling these first deep connections when our fire runs low. This is why over the years of running workshops at The Sacred Gardener, we’ve noticed many of the participants return annually or in different seasons. Each time people come back they see new things and connect more deeply with this land.

Overwhelmingly, what people loved and want more of, from Algonquin College where I (Steven) taught and from those at the Sacred Gardener workshops, is the “hands-on experience.” When we are in the right place and we have been instructed in how to approach medicinal plants, our bodies receive direct teachings from the plants themselves. Because of the feedback and our move back to longer workshops in 2015, we will set aside a few hours each day for hands-on farm tasks. These tasks are very diverse and happen in accordance with the time of year, the plants, the weather and the needs of the farm. Much of the work will be plant related seasonal activities such as planting, weeding, harvesting and processing herbs and food. But our guests in this coming years might also be working a day or two making a cob floor or building a grape trellis or a hundred other small jobs that keep the farm running and growing. Because everything is so connected at the farm even unrelated tasks bring surprising insights and revelations to the workshop topic.

For part of the day we will also share in an intensive workshop format, with a teacher and hands-on demonstrations in the kitchen and field. Each day participants are also given time for themselves and encouraged to “find a spot” to sit and reconnect with the Earth.

Food is given priority at the farm here, growing, harvesting, preparation and eating. So as an integral part of our guest's stay here, we will also spend a good amount of time attending to our food. Over the years Megan has mastered cooking for everyone including those with dietary restrictions but she has struggled a bit with how much to ask for help from the workshop participants. Not having guests involved with food preparation and clean up was a mistake. And not just because Megan would be caught with so much work but because there are so many teachings and stories that go with food. When guests go to the farm to help with preparation, growing, caring for and harvesting the food then there are many gaps in their connection to the Earth that get filled in. The majority of our food is off the farm or from local organic producers so when we eat we are connecting into the lives and land of all the local growers. The food is our communion. It strengthens all the participants bonds to this place and each other in a real way and deepens the experience of the workshop. In eating together we are ritually enacting life’s sacred union, a ceremony that ties everything together.

What You'll Need to Bring

Please bring clothing to be prepared for all kinds of weather. Rain gear (waterproof coat with hood and boots), a toque, wool socks, long johns and a sweater are recommended. For the warmer days, bring light-coloured, lightweight, long-sleeves and long pants in case of bugs (they are repelled by light colours). Also bring a hat with a brim and bug repellent (Burt’s Bees is what we use) and a bathing suit to take a dip in the pond at the end of the day!

If you are tenting, bring your own ground cover, tent, sleeping bag, pillow—anything you'll need to be comfortable. Dorm spaces are provided with bedding and pillows, for a small fee. There are also nearby cabins, motels and B&Bs we can recommend upon request.

alarm clock
flashlight
toothbrush, facecloth, towel, other toiletries

We have a communal outhouse with washing station, and our enclosed outdoor shower and sink for washing. Please be sure your shampoo and soap do not contain Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, or any of its relatives, as the water from the shower is on a grey water system, and goes back into the land here. If you are unsure, there will be both shampoo and soap provided that you are welcome to use.

If you are an early morning riser, we have an outdoor kitchen, where you can make yourself a cup of tea or coffee.

Daily Schedule

The first day of the longer workshops is considered an arrival day, with arrival time at 4 pm. We will gather for our first meal together at 5 pm. The second day we will meet for breakfast at 8:30 am, start at 9 am, and finish at around 4 pm, with a lunch break and rest time afterwards. The last day of the workshop we will end at noon.

Location

All workshops take place in the Upper Ottawa Valley, either at our farm in Golden Lake or at our property in Whitney, both of which are accessible by bus. The distance to drive is about 1.5 hours from Ottawa and 4.5 hours from Toronto or Montreal.

Meals

We’re flexible, mostly ovo-lacto vegetarian food but can accommodate vegans as well as most allergies. We encourage participation in clean up. We find a rich balance happens at meals, through everyone’s eclectic taste and experience, nutritional information and political views, balanced by the simplicity of what’s coming out of the ground.

For booking or other questions please call us at 613-625-1106 or email megan.

What would the time in the school look like, relative to a workshop?

The workshops the Sacred Gardener offers are intensives, and so, for the most part while many “spiritual teachings” are shared, there is only time for physical activities, for learning the work and arts of homesteading and healing. But the harvesting and crafting are only a part of the circle we must practice to become whole human beings. The other primary piece is in the giving. And in hosting the full-emptiness of meditative perception, that is able to receive the blessings, grace and wisdom of Nature.

The school will afford us the time to offer sweet smoke to our Grandfather Sun, to help Him cross the sky, time to pour out milk and blood to feed the Moon and Earth. Time to offer mead, bread and fruit to the happy ancestors, and to the ghosts that haunt our life for want of food. All walking side by side with learning the traditional living skills and crafts.

In the school, I will endeavour to bring you with me; to bring you to a place where you can divine the present and future through the flight birds, where our thoughts are answered by a movement of Wind. Where the ancestors speak to you, laughing back from the coals of the fire. Where we court the Earth with art and She reveals Her wishes to us, and we have the ability to manifest Her dream through our skill. Where Her plants whisper their healing secrets to us in the twilight dew, and for our devotion and prayers She offers Herself to nourish us. Where we take the time to watch and learn from the animals, our older brothers and sisters how to build, craft and live in a good way with the Earth.

When we are with the Earth in this way She is constantly informing us, personally, locally and globally. A thousand messengers pour through our senses, the birds, animals, mist, fire, or dancing moonlight in a midnight forest. Like us, all these living beings hold information and want to whisper their secret knowings into an open ear, and open heart.