Happy Solstice Season!
The rains have finally come to green up the California hills, knock the leaves off our deciduous trees and create some sense of season after an endless 9 months of dry dry dry. The longest night is soon upon us with its promise of verdant spring and people are abuzz with the festivities of the season.....Here at IUH we finished up our last classes of the seasonI in time for a mellow restful Thanksgiving and we are now gearing up with the homesteading elves for our fabulous year end party! Please join us and bring along a friend!

Winter Open House ~ It's a Party!!!
Holiday Social, Tasting and Shopping
Saturday and Sunday December 13 &14, noon- 4:00pm each day
Straggler Sale Monday December 15 6-8pm for those who were too busy over the weekend!

contact us for location

Please join IUH Founder, Ruby Blume at her home for a year end social and sale! There will be a gazillion things to taste and explore plus amazing deals on homemade goodies. As always everything here is ultra-local, super small-batch and only available once a year. OIfferings are under-priced (compared to a market price for a similar hand-crafted item) and a round-up/round down policy applies (this means if you feel like it is all together too cheap, feel free to round up. If you need a price break, ask and we'll see whatweI can do). For those of you too busy to stop by on the weekend, the doors will be open for straggler on Monday evening. Straggler sale will be more casual, without full tasting, but with extra discounts on some of the remaining iitems. If you can make none of these times, but still want to shop private appointments can be made for any time after the initial day of the event.

Tasting will include: Homemade mustard, mead, fermented sodas, ginger beer, cheese, cordials, candies, jam, herb salt & honey

A sample of what will be available for purchase:
Pantry: Over 10 kinds of low-sugar homemade jams, Bee-centric all natural raw honey, artisan mustard, hand-crafted cordials, herb salt, caramels & truffles,
Bath & Body: Handmade soaps, tinctures, salves, lip balm, tooth powderand more
Mercantile: Dream pillow sachets, genuine feedsack totes, cat toys, beeswax candles, Cheesemaking kits, one-of-a-kind sandblasted water bottles butcher block conditioner, catnip toys
Books: Urban Homesteading, Rabbit Zine, Beeswax Zine, Every Day Cheesemaking
Herbal Preparations: Salves, tinctures, smoking mixtures and a limited qunatity of locally growl bulk herb
Stocking Stuffers: herbs grown here, seeds, seed balls, mini-soaps and more
Art: Handmade tiles, cups bowls, arts cards, postcards and wall art

Accepting Applications
2015 will be an interesting year here at IUH. We'll be squeezing our main teaching season into 2 two month chunks, spring and Fall (April/May & Ocotober/November), Increasing the number of Farm Tours we offer and exploring the idea of offering more land based residential learning experiences in the summer (keep your eyes open for The Whole Pig Experience and A Wine & Cheese Making Weekend at the new eco-village of instructor Jim Montgomery, Groundswell in Boonville, CA). Nevertheless we will be running both our 3 springs administrative internship (2-3 positions open) and our Beekeeping Mentorship (2-3 positions open) and are looking for folks to apply. As well, we are now accepting proposals for new classes for 2015.
Api-centric Beekeeping Mentorship - Can start any time but best to inquire before January 15. DETAILS
Three Springs Internship Deadline to Apply: Feb 15, Notification of Acceptance March 5 Internship Begins March 26 DETAILS APPLICATION
Teaching at IUH Deadline to Apply January 15 DETAILS

IUH Past & Present
Since 2008 the Institute of Urban Homesteading has been offering the best in Bay Area sustainability education. One of the first organizations to offer skills based classes grouping urban agriculture, heirloom kitchen skills,and ecological principles under one umbrella, we have grown from offering a handful of classes to a wildly diverse array of classes and teachers each year. In 2014 we offered more than 90 classes from 30 teachers, plus a series of events through the year including a movie night and urban ag social, our fabulous farm tours and our day of the dead celebration. We schedule classes seasonally, aligning the topics with the agricultural year--roughly the seasonal cycle of the honey bee. As a small business we are committed to keeping our prices low through a sliding scale format, while paying teachers a high hourly wage for their expertise and time. In this way we strive to create "a culture of value" encouraging people to make choices with their money and to actively value the good work, education and re-skilling. After seven years in Oakland, IUH is looking to expand and evolve. We want to broaden our scope and constituents and keep things interesting for everyone involved. In 2015 the Institute will start looking North. We seek to develop skills based curriculum for new farmers and longer land-based experiences for urbanites. To do so we will be seeking to develop a national marketing strategy....this is something we could use help with--if you have skills or contacts, please be in touch! As well, we will be expanding our Urban Farm Tours to include areas outside the direct Berkeley-Oakland corridor and creating a package to support people in other states to produce similar tours.

Gifting Classes This Holiday Season
Several people have written to inquire about our 2015 season and how to purchase 2015 classes for their friends and family. Unfortunately our 2015 main season will not be posted until February 15, 2015. and we cannot sell classes that are not yet posted on our calendar. You may however purchase any of our Winter Season classes using our regular registration system. For other classes we encourage you to purchase a gift certificate. Gift certificates allow the recipient to choose the class of their choice (or you can specify a class of your choice if you wish--include this in special instructions from the buyer) and are redeemed at the top of our sliding scale to allow for the extra work it takes us to issue and administer the certificate. This little extra is a boon to our organization and we thank you for choosing this option. If you cannot afford this option we suggest making your own handmade gift card telling the recipient that you will pay for the specific class once it becomes available. More details and buy it now button for gift certificates can be found HERE.

Winter Session Classes Open for Registration
January 17 10am-1pm Winter Fruit Tree Pruning with Molly Bolt
January 18 10am-3pm Winter Gardening Essentials
January 24 & 25 Winter Cheesemaking Intensive
February 14 10-3 Herbal Medicine Demystified
February 21 10am-12:30pm Dormant Season Fruit Tree Grafting
February 21 2-4pm Bare Root: Selection and Planting of Your Urban Orchard
February 28 12-4pm Fermentation Intensive
March 7 & 8 Mosaic Making Intensive
March 28 10-3 Organic Gardening 101
March 29 10-4 Introduction to ApiCentric Beekeeping

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from IUH

photo courtesy Jreed