Workshops and Training
We believe that the most important thing we can do is to share information about how to build your soil ecosystem. This way the word will spread more quickly and the world will benefit.
We hold workshops at our base in Crosby Ravensworth Cumbria.
Upcoming Workshops (scroll down to see full range)
20th May: Living Soil 1: £40 full day
23rd May: Microscope Day One: £80 includes extras
9th June: Living Soil 2 full day: £40
20th June: Microbes for Ecological Restoration £40
Full Course! Soil Regeneration Training: 10 weeks with one week residential
For food producers, ecologists, anyone with land to manage, or people looking for a career change.
Restoring full function to soil is one of the most useful things we can do today. It is a source of considerable hope for the future as it leads to regeneration of our food, health, ecology and even mitigation of social divides and climate impacts.
On this course we teach you skills, knowledge, and practical applications, and support you as you move forward to regenerate your own soil and/or establish your own enterprise.
We make the knowledge accessible through clear concepts backed up by a variety of resources, enabling you to visualise the critical microbial processes that drive all life. Amongst the many skills we teach you, one of the most important is how to measure soil health. This involves identifying different groups of organisms, using a microscope, taking samples and being familiar with other ways a land manager can assess the health of their soil.
Growing your own microbes will be a central part of the course, and different approaches to this will be covered in both theory and practical sessions.
The nutrient complexity of food is important to us, and the benefits of regenerative food on our health will be covered through diet and nutrition sessions.
The course consists of a week residential (self catered) at our site, followed by 9 online sessions spread over 9 weeks. We support you in the running of an investigation of your choice and producing this, if you wish, as both a science backed study and journalistic piece for potential publication. We can also help you to use the course to become a teacher of soil health or a soil health advisor.
The course will suit a variety of abilities and we give one to one support. It will involve reading and discussion and the microscope work requires some concentration and patience! We welcome people from a variety of backgrounds, subsidies can be given for a range of reasons, please get in touch.
There will be extra optional sessions both on the residential course and online. These will vary from visits to local food producers, and sessions from guest speakers.
We have limited spaces so please get in touch early to ensure a place. The 8 week online course then starts in July. It will be recorded for those who miss a week due to holidays etc. There will be an optional weekend reunion at the end of the course where certificates will be presented.
We are located in a beautiful part of the country, with both the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales close for visiting. Sessions will finish each day by mid afternoon with optional sessions/visits following that, or time for you to explore, relax and mull over the days learning.
You have a choice of two residential weeks: 13th - 20th of July, second to be confirmed. The online course will then commence the first week in August.
Accommodation will be tents with different bed options.
The cost of the course is £560, please get in touch to discuss discounts.
Please get in touch for further details.
Living Soil Workshop
(The Soil Food Web and Beyond!)
This is the workshop to come to first as the information it covers forms the basis of the other workshops, and is knowledge that will underpin all of our decision making as land managers.
3 hrs £30pp
Whole day with Living Compost £40pp
It works well to combine this with the living compost workshop to make a full day.
We cover an introduction to the most influential groups of micro-organisms and the benefits of nurturing these in your soil.
Find out the processes these organisms use to:
-create a nutritional pulse for your plants
-manage water and other environmental stressors
-suppress diseases, pests and weeds.
-stimulate stages of plant development
-stabilise carbon
- create structured soil that provides a home for a thriving diversity of life.
Microscope Training and Ongoing Support
Learn how to do your own biological soil assessment and how to use the data you get to monitor the progress of your soil.
1 day £80pp
2 days £160pp -this includes ongoing support to help develop techniques and organism identification skills.
4 further hours of one-to-one sessions plus continual email support
Pay for one day first (£80), and then come back when you are ready for the second, or do two in a row with accommodation options here (indoors/glamping).
Further details of content on request.
Living Compost Workshop
How to grow your own microbes, perfectly suited to your land, your plants, and your animals.
3 hrs £30pp
We compare 2 thermophilic methods and go through the construction, ingredients, method, use, variations, and look at assessing quality. We then look at different options of application methods that suits your size of land etc.
We look at some common situations that call for an adaptation of some of these processes, and we give pointers for keeping everything 'in house' and cyclical.
You will create a plan to suit based on your land, the crops/pasture/ecology you are working with so that we can help you increase productivity, vibrancy and abundance.
Living Soil 2: Practicalities, Soil amendments and Foliar Sprays
3 hrs £30pp
This session looks at two main areas.
1) Development of compost to boost organisms needed by your soil conditions. Plus innovative methods to get microbes going when starting off with microbe application
2) Production and Use of Effective Microbes. This includes ferments and bio fertilisers that provide specific benefits
Included in this discussion is activated biochar, toxin removal and other useful amendments such as rock dust, kelp products and more.
Microbes for Ecological Restoration
1 day £40pp
Microbes can be used in a variety of ways for ecological restoration.
Understanding their role in cleaning up toxins, boosting soil health and plant health and climate health is important as we attempt to mitigate climate impact and biodiversity loss.
Each site is different and understanding where and how a microbial boost can be facilitated can move ecological restoration on rapidly.
Due to the history of human activity -some sites benefit from a microbial 'reset.'
You will gain knowledge across these areas that can be applied across terrain, microclimate and weather events.
Plant plans/Pasture design to give nutritional complexity and medicinal properties for animals
3 hrs £30pp or full day £40
Plants can perform a vast array of benefits and the combination of different plants has a considerable effect on forage quality, the nutritional complexity provided, the medicinal content of the plant and how different medicinal properties work together for optimal health and robust protection.
We look at different plans, depending on your aims, and help you design a staggered programme to increase nutrition and medicine on your land.
Developing the Common Mycorrhizal Network: advanced understanding of Fungal Types, associated benefits and how to get specific species going in your soil.
3hrs £30pp
A comparison of different types of filamentous organisms.
Looking in particular at mycorrhizal fungi, the varying sorts and which plants associate with which.
How mycorrhizal fungi benefits plants and how to nurture it.
We consider plants that support the common mycorrhizal network and revise why this is the kingpin of ecological health.
T.A.M.P. Synergy Approach
A great intro to microbes and how they relate to terrain, animals and plants.Perfect for those interested in, and working in, ecological restoration
.Regain Full Landscape Functioning and Productivity.
1 day £40pp
Using the 4 tools of plants, animals, microbes and land, speed up your journey to soil/plant/animal/land health: the benefit is speedy and ‘bigger picture’ ecosystem restoration, and for farms it has both ecological and productivity benefits.
This workshop is intended for land managers who want to look at their land as a whole, looking further at the benefits of a fully functioning soil and how the terrain, animals microbes and plants interact.
The nutritional quality of food produced with fully functioning soil
(and selling this to customers!)
3 hrs £30pp
Although the results vary for the improved nutritional density of regenerative food in terms of increased minerals and vitamins etc -the real benefits emerge when we look at the connection between our microbiome and the nutritional complexity of regenerative food.
Once some basic concepts are understood the science is straightforward and can be presented to customers in a way that they can access.