With practical information on fermenting vegetables, fruits, grains, milk, beans, meats, and more…

Fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz has inspired countless thousands to rediscover the ancient art of fermentation, and with The Art of Fermentation he offers the most comprehensive and definitive guide to do-it-yourself home fermentation ever published.

Katz presents the history, concepts, and processes behind fermentation in ways simple enough to guide a reader through their first experience making sauerkraut or yogurt, yet in-depth enough to provide greater understanding and insight for experienced fermentos.

Home Brewing Beer 101 – Beginner and Advanced Methods

With Michael Thompson
Cost: $75  (Take both courses $115 and save). Limited to 15 people.
BYOBrown bag lunch – some sampling may go on.
We will brew an all-grain, 10-gallon batch, and simultaneously a malt-extract, 5-gallon batch of beer.  At the end of the class, we will have three 5-gallon vessels of fermenting beer. All-grain and Malt Extract methods… Then on to our bottling workshop June 12th. Brewing beer, what life skill could be more important?

Homebrew Kegging, Bottling, and Labeling

With Michael Thompson
Cost: $60.  Limited to 15 people
In this half-day workshop Micheal will set you on the road to safely and artfully bottling and labeling your own home brew. A basic life sill and an essential followup to our Home Brew class. 

Peak Performance Grazing: Planning and Management for Animals, Land, and Profit

Instructors: Jim Gerrish (grazing lands consultant, ranch manager, and author of Management-Intensive Grazing and Kick the Hay Habit) and Owen Hablutzel (Holistic Management Certified Educator and whole-ranch planning consultant)

• Create peak performance for your animals, pastures, soils, finances, land—for the whole ranch
• Discover the power of stock-density for land improvement
• Learn to match your forage and livestock resources
• Reduce or eliminate imputs
• Get your animals to the right place, at the right time, and for the right reasons
• Plan your grazing and infrastructure for optimal integration and synergy

Join us for a fun-filled four days of learning together optimal and effective ways to plan for and achieve the full power of peak performance grazing on your land. This four day workshop will include classroom as well as outdoor exercises and pasture walks for a full learning experience.

Course Pricing: $1500

Herbal Workshop: Growing & Making Your Own Medicinal Skin Products! 

With Dawne Vrabel and Stephanie Syson, of Dynamic Roots, LLC

Learn which medicinal herbs will grow beautifully in the Roaring Fork Valley and how to use them at home throughout the year.  Learn the medicinal and nutritive qualities and how to process them at home easily for family home remedies and body care products.  

Additional Info Available Here

KEYLINE DESIGN: Whole-Farm Planning for Water Abundance and Soil Fertility w/ Owen Hablutzel

With a focus on effective whole farm planning, this course will lead you through the process of developing a comprehensive land management plan. You will discover Keyline’s Scale of Permanence (Climate, Land Shape, Water Supply, Farm Roads, Trees/Plants, Buildings, Fencing, and Soil), to guide planning decisions and optimally design your farm or ranch infrastructure. Learn how to integrate a variety of tools to maximize the short and long-term fertility of your site.

• Generate an inspired vision for your landscape
• Increase yields and resilience of rangelands, pastures, and your whole operation
• Learn to create and implement a whole farm plan using the insights of Keyline Design
• Discover the secrets for rapid creation of healthy, biologically active soil
• Plan for whole landscape water harvesting
• Learn to connect and integrate farm infrastructure, layout, and functions for improved efficiencies and synergy
• Reduce costs and dependency on outside imputs, increase profits, and enhance livelihoods while improving your quality of life
• Position your farm or ranch for adaptive success in changing times

Additonal Info Available Here

Our Mission

Education and outreach is central to Sustainable Setting’s mission to cultivate a more abundant, prosperous and sustainable future, and is recognized as one of the most powerful ways to effect positive change in the world. Essential to Sustainable Settings’ education and outreach is the coupling of theory and technique with immersion and hands-on experience.

Sustainable Settings opens its whole systems learning center at the Thompson Creek Ranch to students of all ages – from pre-kindergarten through university and adult level programs – and makes available our research initiatives, design and implementation processes, and demonstration models for ecologically and economically sound development. These educational programs take many forms, and include Adult Internships, University Partnerships, Mentor/Apprenticeships, Workshops, the Sustainable Settings Lecture Series, Volunteer Opportunities, and, of course, Sustainable Settings for Kids.

Our focus on learning by doing, allows participants to experience first hand the practical systems and activities that form the foundation of sustainable living. We consider the buildings, landscape, agriculture and infrastructure of our whole systems learning center to be integral to our pedagogy, and look to the genius of place and nature’s intelligence to guide all of our learning and teaching endeavors. Thus at Sustainable Settings students of all ages are exposed to tangible and memorable experiences, that anchor their learning and provide them with tools to help create other sustainable settings.

Through civic influence and consulting, Sustainable Settings opens its research and demonstration capacity to policy and decision makers who operate on a variety of scales. Sustainable Settings also offers education and outreach tools via our on-site library, website, newsletter and media campaigns (press, radio, television programming).

Areas of Study

    Agro-ecology
    Anthropology
    Bio-dynamics
    Biometrics
    Bio-mimicry
    Botany & Horticulture
    Collaborative Design
    Cradle-to-Cradle Design
    Eco-entrepreneurship
    Ecological Literacy
    Green Building
    Holistic Management
    Indigenous Technique
    Integrated Ecology (5 Living Kingdoms)
    Land Stewardship
    Natural Capitalism
    Permaculture
    Renewable Energy Systems
    Social Ecology
    Sustainable Community Development
    Whole Systems Thinking

Core Competencies Taught

    Animal Husbandry
    Aquaculture
    Biological Waste Treatment Systems
    Constructed Wetland Design & Implementation
    Craftsmanship
    Ecologically Appropriate Building Design & Construction
    Efficient Irrigation Methods
    Energy & Resource Efficiency
    Fractal & Non-linear Natural Pattern Recognition
    Greenhouse Design & Construction
    Habitat Restoration & Bio-diversity Preservation
    Herbal Medicine Cultivation & Wild-crafting
    Landscape Assessment & Land-use Planning
    Medicinal & Culinary Mushroom Cultivation
    Nutrient Cycling
    Organic Food Production
    Physical & Intellectual Rigor
    Renewable Energy System Design & Installation
    Soil Building & Fertility Enhancement
    Surveying, Mapping & Site Design
    Sustainable Agriculture
    Sustainable Forestry
    Sustainable Livestock Management
    Water Quality Enhancement & Vitalization
    Zero Waste Systems Design