Homesteading Conference
Building the Independent
Farmstead for
Health and Freedom
April 1 & 2, 2022
Steubenville, Ohio
Thanks to everyone who attended and helped with our conference!
TO SIGN UP FOR INFO ON FUTURE HEALING LAND EVENTS, PLEASE VISIT OUR CONTACT US PAGE.
Workshop Day
Friday, April 1
9:30am-11:30am - Morning Session
SOLD OUT!
2:30pm - 4:30pm - Afternoon Session
SOLD OUT!
6:00pm - 7:00pm - Book Signing with Shawn & Beth Dougherty at Bookmarx Bookstore (Open to Public)
181 N 4th St., Steubenville, OH 43952
PLUS
7:00pm - 9:00pm - FRIDAY SOCIAL at Leonardo’s
Coffeehouse (Ticketed Event)
159 N. 4th St., Steubenville, OH 43952
SOLD OUT!
Conference
SOLD OUT!
Saturday, April 2
8:30am - 6:30pm
Building the Independent Farmstead
Cows, Chickens, Pigs, Goats, Sheep, Bees
Water Systems, Grazing Techniques, Gardening
Off-Grid Power, Food Preservation, DIY Building, Soil
Human Nutrition & Fertility, Integrating Home & Stead
Urban Homesteading, and more!
Blacksmithing, Sheep Shearing, Pottery, Crossbows
Sawmill, Chicken Tractor, Buttermaking, Cooking
Fencing, Chicken Butchering, Ram Pump, Smokehouse
Cheesemaking, Knife Sharpening, Woodcarving, and more!
Young Adult Farmers Track and Demos
PLUS Social with Live Music!
Featured Speakers
Shawn & Beth Dougherty, One Cow Revolution
Brian & Johanna Burke, Holy Family Farm
Clint Finney, USDA/NRCS; Spring Valley Stock Farms
Megan Krivoniak, Wild Sycamore Farm
Marcus Grodi, Highlands Valley Cottage Farm
Justin Sofio, Youth Bee Works
Gwen & Mike Sullivan, Twin Cedar Farm
Dale Prey, Off-Grid
Sara Hildebrand, Mount Tabor Goat Farm
John-Paul McNamara, Whiffletree Farm
Kathryn Hodskins, Andrew Ellis, Ashley Felock
Masha Dougherty, Stone Hearth Bakery
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Attendees from 20 different states!
Talks
Building the Independent Farmstead
Sky-high land costs, lack of capital and limited farming experience need not be obstacles for anyone who wants to build an abundant, fertile cottage farm. Using the techniques of regenerative agriculture (including intensive grass management, captured water systems, home dairying, four-season gardening for food and forage, and whole-farm “no-waste” composting), homesteaders can grow food, fertility, and a future on land like the Sow’s Ear. Shawn and Beth Dougherty, authors of The Independent Farmstead from Chelsea Green Publishing, built the self-sustaining Ohio farm with their family on land designated by the state of Ohio: Not Suitable for Agriculture.
The Homestead Dairy Cow
Safe, wholesome raw milk is the rocket fuel that powers the whole homestead. Shawn and Beth Dougherty, authors of The Independent Farmstead (Chelsea Green Press), take you through selecting, buying, and caring for a homestead dairy cow. Look at the basics of grazing, fencing, hand-milking and milk handling, affordable shelter, breeding, calf care (including milk-sharing and weaning), as well as all the amazing uses for milk on the homestead: feeding calves, pigs, poultry, and even the garden, as well as simple butter and cheese making.
Know Your Land; Know Your Body-The Role of Fertility Awareness in Optimizing Your Health
Knowledge of land health and fertility is vital to a successful homestead. Soil characteristics, garden and forage species, and animal condition are negatively impacted by stress, environmental degradation, and poor nutrition. Dr. Brian Burke and his wife, Johanna, will explore how human fertility awareness is just as important as knowledge of our land, discussing the role of nutrition, stress and environmental factors, both positive and negative, that impact human fertility and total health; factors that can be used to monitor the health of the couple and detect early signs of deficiencies or stressors, allowing them to be corrected in a timely manner.
Home and Stead: Growing Your Homestead While Growing Your Family
For a young family that is eager to live their homesteading dream, it can be hard to know where to start! Dr. Brian Burke and his wife Johanna explore important considerations for beginning and growing your homestead – from setting short and long term goals, prioritizing building projects, and avoiding debt to planning for the "worst case scenario". They'll explore how lifestyle, career, and schooling decisions affect the homestead, and how much can really be done on a small footprint.
From Grass to Garden: No-Till Methods for Growing and Preserving the Living Soil
Gardening is all about the fruits of our labor, but there's another aspect of equal importance – soil fertility. And this is doubly true when your goal is all-natural, chemical free food from a low-inputs, ecologically-powered small farm or homestead. Megan Krivoniak shares her experience with starting no-till beds from sod, controlling weeds without tillage, building in drought resistance with mulch, and maintaining a vital, living soil; plus sourcing carbon – finding organic mulch materials wherever you are.
Starting Goats From Scratch: The Story of One Family
Sara and Steve share their own journey to managing a healthy, productive homestead dairy goat herd. From their beginning in 2014, with no outbuildings, no fence, and no experience with goat husbandry, the Hildebrands have built a strong dairy herd through intensive grazing practices and natural means of health and immunity – all on a limited budget. While they don't believe their methods constitute a 'one size fits all' in goat rearing, they hope to be able to give attendees ideas for how they can include goats on any homestead acreage – even a very small one.
Basic Homestead Food Preservation and Storage
Long experience informs Gwen's food preservation methods, and in this talk she shares with us the things that have worked well for her here in Appalachia. With large food gardens, as well as farm-raised beef, pork, and chicken for meat, she has extensive experience with preserving the harvest by dehydration, canning, pickling, fermentation, and dry storage. Growing food is just half the job; without preservation and storage, most of it would never reach the table. Build food stability into your homestead with these tried-and-true methods.
Beekeeping 101 – Starting beekeeping from scratch: What is needed and what to expect
Experienced beekeeper Justin Sofio walks attendees through their first year with a bee colony, providing basic information on:
· The costs of starting a beehive;
· The time it takes to manage bees each week;
· What is involved in beehive management/challenges? (Bee feed, disease check, queen check, nectar flow, honey harvest, winterization, mite and hive beetle control);
· Managing bees for value (honey, wax, pollen, propolis, and pollination services);
in addition to sharing his own experience of the trials and rewards of beekeeping in Appalachia.
Natural Mothers: Selecting, Grazing and Breeding Katahdins for Inputs-Free Productivity
Central Appalachia is just a natural setting for small ruminants; and Katahdins, an American breed, may well be the most natural sheep for the environment. Developed in Maine for hardihood, parasite resistance, and to thrive on forage alone, Katahdins are an excellent meat animal with good dairy potential. Over nine years of selecting individuals for good lambing and mothering skills, Masha Dougherty has built her small flock of all-grass, med-and-chemical-free animals to meet the high standards of ecologial farming: they live from the land, requiring no purchased inputs. In this talk she shares her personal experience grazing, breeding and selecting animals for the inputs-free homestead.
A beginner’s guide to raising pigs in your woodlot
Pigs can be one of the most intimidating animals on the farm: they’re strong as a bulldozer, smarter than a dog, and more stubborn than a mule. But with the right management, we have also found them to be one of the most useful. Dave Pié shares what he has learned in his first three years managing homestead pigs in a variety of settings. What worked and what did not: pasture and pen, temporary portable fencing and watering systems, comparative feeding methods, winter farrowing on silvopasture, and home slaughter.
Modes of farming; models of farms
John-Paul MacNamara brings four years of farm experience to the vital questions of how to farm well, and how to live well as a farmer. Physically demanding work, a complicated market, and the need to be your own manager, marketing agent, and labor force make small-scale organic farming for the market a real challenge. With extensive experience in three models of regenerative commercial farms, John-Paul takes a good look at the ecological farm, asking what works, what pays, and what makes a good life.
Ram Pump Demonstration
Move water with water power! In this outdoor demonstration Mike Sullivan will exhibit a working ram pump – a passively powered check valve system similar to a perpetual-motion machine, using gravity and water pressure to move water uphill. He will explain the process of building your own DIY ram pump, and discuss alternative ways to move water with a minimum of energy for maximum efficiency. Topics include: water sourcing, optimal water flow, system location, and design and implementation of ram pumps.
FAQs
Conference Location
Bell Chapel United Methodist Church (attendee parking lot)
GPS address:
3419 OH-213, Steubenville, OH 43952
Accommodations
Franciscan Square Inn & Suites
200 Franciscan Square, Steubenville, OH 43952
Located across from Franciscan University of Steubenville, we recommend Franciscan Square as it is the perfect setting for fellowship with a bar/restaurant, fire pits, and an adjoining square for kids to play!
The informal Saturday night social happens here!
Bayberry House Bed & Breakfast
813 North 4th Street, Steubenville, OH 43952
Two immaculately restored Victorian-era guest houses in downtown Steubenville, conveniently located a few blocks from both the Friday & Saturday night socials.
Friday Night Social Location
159 N. 4th Street, Steubenville, OH 43952
The beating heart of downtown Steubenville - don’t miss this landmark!
Airport
Pittsburgh International Airport (30 minutes)
Local Recommendations
Why should I attend this conference?
This conference draws upon the resources, experience, joie de vivre of an already vibrant farmsteading community in eastern Ohio. We don’t just offer the standard conference fare of talks, panels, and practical information, but will have a host of live demonstrations by local farmers and craftsmen throughout the day.
But our most unique feature is offering workshops on local farms with friendly and knowledgeable hosts who cover many of the fundamentals but who are are involved in a lot of interesting and diverse projects - there is literally a farm and a skill or animal for everyone!
I’m already homesteading - is this for me?
Well of course it is! That is unless you are that rarest of homesteaders who has already learned everything. While our workshops, talks, and demonstrations will cover most of the basics, we will also be diving into a lot more specialized areas that should be of interest to even the most seasoned of homesteaders.
It goes without saying that this conference is also for the aspiring homesteader - it’s our goal to give you the essentials and resources for you to get started on the right foot and be sustainable!
How do the farm workshops work?
We have a number of local farms and homesteads that are part of our community near Steubenville. The workshops are optional and are offered on Friday, April 1, the day before the homesteading conference.
We offer both morning (9:30am-11:30am) and afternoon (2:30pm -4:30pm) sessions. You can sign up for 1 or 2 sessions. Within a week of signing up, you will be emailed all of the available local farms along with what they offer in their workshops and you will then make your choice for which to attend.
We have already listed a number of confirmed farm hosts for your information on this website.
What about my kids? Is this family-friendly?
We love children and welcome yours, and have reduced prices for their tickets.
While we are not able to provide childcare for conference attendants, we will have a host of demonstrations throughout the day of the conference that are kid-friendly, and will have a room dedicated for parents to take their younger children, where we will stream the main talks. Please keep in mind the talks are geared towards adult education and we will not have specific talks or events for children.
Our policy is that all children under 16 must always be accompanied by at least one parent while at the conference or at a workshop.
LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS
Tickets
Farm Workshops
Friday, April 1
SOLD OUT!
Conference
Saturday, April 2
SOLD OUT!
Conference ticket includes admission to all talks, exhibitions, live demonstrations, coffee bar, and social!
Food is not covered but food vendors will be onsite
Sponsors
Conference Poster
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