To celebrate the start of berry season, Red Wagon Plants invites you to a weekend of very berry fun. We are offering a palette of berry themed workshops and classes as well as free activities and learning opportunities with topics ranging from growing your own fruit and plant care to turning your harvest into tasty treats. You’ll also have a chance to weave your own harvest basket. To round out the weekend fun, we will have delicious berry-packed lunch, snack and drink options available for purchase.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
SATURDAY, JUNE 8
10:00 am - 5:00 pm Basket weaving workshop: Black ash berry basket with Penny Hewitt. $165. Sign up here.
Here is a unique chance to make your own basket and, in the process, learn one of the oldest crafts in human history. For thousands of years, baskets have served as indispensable objects in every culture. Let's carry on this tradition and take home a beautiful, durable and useful berry basket, crafted from local and responsibly harvested, hand-pounded black ash logs.
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm Free berry growing demo no sign-up required.
SUNDAY, JUNE 9
10:00 am - 11:30 am Growing berries in Vermont with Jacob Holzberg-Pill. $25. Sign up here.
From the common to the lesser-known fruit, this class will cover all the bases to get your backyard berry patch going. Vermont’s climate brings its unique challenges and opportunities for berry production. Participants will learn which varieties to choose depending on their site and how to care for them. This includes propagation to multiply your plants and pruning to keep them healthy.
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm Free berry growing demo no sign-up required.
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Making jams with local ingredients with V Smiley. $120. Sign up here.
What better way to celebrate berries than turning them into jam with local honey and fruit. In this class with V Smiley from V Smiley Preserves, you will learn how to make delicious berry jams with local ingredients. The class covers selecting, preparing and preserving fruit with honey and without added pectin. V Smiley will teach the fundamentals of flavor construction and the stages of jam cooking, using honey instead of sugar. Through tasting a wide selection of preserves and making variations on two berry jams, you’ll open up your jam making to the spice cupboard and herb garden. This is a hands-on workshop, and you’ll head home with multiple jars of berry jam.
