✯Upcoming Events ✯
Soil Science & Magic : A 4-part workshop series for gardeners and lovers of our Planet Earth
Come learn about the magic of the earth under our feet! Delight in the mystical interconnected web of life which we are a part of! Learn the practicalities of how to feed and nourish the soil that feeds us!
You will learn about:
✯Soil food web
✯Soil biology and chemistry
✯Remineralizing your soil
✯Composting - kitchen compost, compost tea, humanure
✯Biochar and other homemade soil ammendments
✯Growing nutrient-dense food
Workshops will include lectures, hand-outs, and hands-on experiential learning. Come get your hands in the dirt!
✯ Four classes on Thursdays ✯
April 3, April, 10, April 24, May 1
5-7:30pm
@ SunSong Community Pole Barn, 30 Rocala Dr Barnardsville NC
Each class will be a distinct and important dive into soil science & magic...
April 3rd -- Soil Care Basics!!
Topics covered include: Soil food web, Compost science, Carbon sequestration, No-till gardening and farming, Mulching. Role of mycorrhizal fungi, Soil inoculation and more
April 10th -- Microbes!!
Topics covered include: Building a compost pile, Compost ingredients, balancing Carbon and Nitrogen, Home and farm-scale composting options, Making actively aerated Compost Tea, Humanure composting
April 24th -- Growing nutrient dense food
Topics covered include: Soil testing & how to analyze, Amending soils, Soil remineralization, Soil chemistry, Organic fertilizers
May 1st --Homemade garden amendments
Topics include: Making biochar, History and benefits of biochar, Eggshell, plant and bone extracts, Cultivating indigenous microorganisms from Korean Natural Farming
About Scotty Greenheart…
Scotty (he/him) is a devoted father and co-founder of Soul Gardens and SunSong Community. He manages the ½ acre community garden here at SunSong, the community orchard at the Big Ivy Community Center, and is the perennial caretaker and permaculture teacher for the Wild Abundance Garden and Permaculture apprenticeship. Scotty comes from a lineage of composters and learned composting from his grandfather and parents. His passion for soil and care for life has led him to study many soil building technologies over the last 15 years.
Sign up for one class or all four!!
$33 for 1 class and $99 for all 4 classes
~~No one turned away for lack of funds~~
To register, please send your paypal payment to [email protected] or venmo @maayanchelsea. When you send your payment, include your email and which classes you are signing up for.
If you are ready to learn more about the soil we walk upon every day, join us! This class is for gardeners of any scale, farmers, permaculturalists and anyone interested in knowing more about the life in the soil.
Come learn about the magic of the earth under our feet! Delight in the mystical interconnected web of life which we are a part of! Learn the practicalities of how to feed and nourish the soil that feeds us!
You will learn about:
✯Soil food web
✯Soil biology and chemistry
✯Remineralizing your soil
✯Composting - kitchen compost, compost tea, humanure
✯Biochar and other homemade soil ammendments
✯Growing nutrient-dense food
Workshops will include lectures, hand-outs, and hands-on experiential learning. Come get your hands in the dirt!
✯ Four classes on Thursdays ✯
April 3, April, 10, April 24, May 1
5-7:30pm
@ SunSong Community Pole Barn, 30 Rocala Dr Barnardsville NC
Each class will be a distinct and important dive into soil science & magic...
April 3rd -- Soil Care Basics!!
Topics covered include: Soil food web, Compost science, Carbon sequestration, No-till gardening and farming, Mulching. Role of mycorrhizal fungi, Soil inoculation and more
April 10th -- Microbes!!
Topics covered include: Building a compost pile, Compost ingredients, balancing Carbon and Nitrogen, Home and farm-scale composting options, Making actively aerated Compost Tea, Humanure composting
April 24th -- Growing nutrient dense food
Topics covered include: Soil testing & how to analyze, Amending soils, Soil remineralization, Soil chemistry, Organic fertilizers
May 1st --Homemade garden amendments
Topics include: Making biochar, History and benefits of biochar, Eggshell, plant and bone extracts, Cultivating indigenous microorganisms from Korean Natural Farming
About Scotty Greenheart…
Scotty (he/him) is a devoted father and co-founder of Soul Gardens and SunSong Community. He manages the ½ acre community garden here at SunSong, the community orchard at the Big Ivy Community Center, and is the perennial caretaker and permaculture teacher for the Wild Abundance Garden and Permaculture apprenticeship. Scotty comes from a lineage of composters and learned composting from his grandfather and parents. His passion for soil and care for life has led him to study many soil building technologies over the last 15 years.
Sign up for one class or all four!!
$33 for 1 class and $99 for all 4 classes
~~No one turned away for lack of funds~~
To register, please send your paypal payment to [email protected] or venmo @maayanchelsea. When you send your payment, include your email and which classes you are signing up for.
If you are ready to learn more about the soil we walk upon every day, join us! This class is for gardeners of any scale, farmers, permaculturalists and anyone interested in knowing more about the life in the soil.
Join us for a day of tuning in with the spirit of maize.
PRAISE MAIZE :: a reverent workshop on corn growing & cooking
Saturday May 3rd 2025, 10am-3pm
SunSong Community Barnardsville, NC
Day includes: corn planting ceremony, teachings & handouts on growing & cooking corn & a beautiful meal of homegrown corn!
We acknowledge we are folks of European ancestry that have settled here on this native land. We also acknowledge that these corn seeds we carry, grow, tend and cook are not our ancestral seeds. We long to find ways of honoring the histories and living people tied to these seeds. In an effort to make a step in that direction, half of the proceeds of this workshop will go to Tierra Fertíl Cooperativa, a Hispanic worker-owned farming cooperative in Hendersonville, NC and to CiMA (Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en acción), an organization dedicated to supporting immigrant rights in Western North Carolina.
We've been growing corn as a staple crop for over 10 years and want to share with you all the beauty and nourishment we've gathered from this incredible, generous & delicious plant teacher.
We will learn:
~the history and magic of corn
~the ins and outs of growing a field of corn
~the different kinds of corn and how to grow them (flint, flour, dent & sweet)
~corn harvesting and corn storage
~how to nixtamalize corn and make different corn recipes
::Exchange::
$55-111 sliding scale per person, no one turned away for lack of funds.
To register, please send venmo payment to @maayanchelsea or paypal to [email protected].
Workshop facilitated by Scotty & Maayan Greenheart
We'll also have some corn seed available for anyone who wants to take some home!!
PRAISE MAIZE :: a reverent workshop on corn growing & cooking
Saturday May 3rd 2025, 10am-3pm
SunSong Community Barnardsville, NC
Day includes: corn planting ceremony, teachings & handouts on growing & cooking corn & a beautiful meal of homegrown corn!
We acknowledge we are folks of European ancestry that have settled here on this native land. We also acknowledge that these corn seeds we carry, grow, tend and cook are not our ancestral seeds. We long to find ways of honoring the histories and living people tied to these seeds. In an effort to make a step in that direction, half of the proceeds of this workshop will go to Tierra Fertíl Cooperativa, a Hispanic worker-owned farming cooperative in Hendersonville, NC and to CiMA (Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en acción), an organization dedicated to supporting immigrant rights in Western North Carolina.
We've been growing corn as a staple crop for over 10 years and want to share with you all the beauty and nourishment we've gathered from this incredible, generous & delicious plant teacher.
We will learn:
~the history and magic of corn
~the ins and outs of growing a field of corn
~the different kinds of corn and how to grow them (flint, flour, dent & sweet)
~corn harvesting and corn storage
~how to nixtamalize corn and make different corn recipes
::Exchange::
$55-111 sliding scale per person, no one turned away for lack of funds.
To register, please send venmo payment to @maayanchelsea or paypal to [email protected].
Workshop facilitated by Scotty & Maayan Greenheart
We'll also have some corn seed available for anyone who wants to take some home!!
Death is a rites of passage that unites us all. We will all die. We will all know people who will die.
Our current dominant culture around death tells us to be scared of this process.
This workshop is an invitation to embrace the journey, to reclaim death as a sacred initiation.
☼♢ RECLAIMING DEATH ♢☼
A 2-part workshop with Death Midwife Katherine Savage
May 14th and 28th 2-6pm
Join us at SunSong Community for a potent call to create a village, a village where we uphold a web of belonging with concentric circles of support around people as they transition from one phase of life to another. As a people, we are working on reclaiming this wisdom with birth, the postpartum period, and all of the unique coming of age rites.
This workshop will expand our wisdom and skill sets for how to tend our dying and dead, so that we can strengthen our embrace of our beloveds during their final transition. We will begin again by growing a bigger vision of what dying could be, so that we can leave behind our death fears and grow the generativity of our dying times and spaces. We will learn how to organize layers of support consistent with what our dying people vision as bringing comfort and peace to their last days. If we get it right, everyone in the village will have something to do.
Understanding our strength is a necessity in these days, we aim to reclaim our communal capacity to hold space for death, the giver of life.
~~ About Katherine Savage ~~
Katherine is a death midwife based in Celo, NC who strongly believes the way we attend to those who are dying is an act of love with culture-making ripples. She roots her work in a vision of death as the foundation of our awareness, offering ways and means for people to attune their lives to the universal forces of creation and dissolution. Her teaching makes possible the regeneration of citizenship skills that dignify the dying process and build networks of community care. Katherine plants the seeds for a culture of mutual care unafraid of grief and death, and living harmoniously with the earth that conjured us. She recently co-created a short film called the Midwife's Shroud that tells the stories of the shroud she made for herself from growing her own flax.
~~ Exchange ~~
$66 for both workshops
No one turned away for lack of funds
To register: please send your payment via paypal to [email protected] or venmo to @maayanchelsea
~~ Location ~~
At SunSong Community in Barnardsville, NC
30 Rocala Dr Barnardsville, NC
This gathering will be outside and on the Earth. We may have a fire if weather allows, and we will be under the roof of the pole barn if it's raining. Bring what you need to be comfortable. There are some chairs and cushions available.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May we walk towards more generous and generative death experiences for ourselves, our family and communities.
We hope you'll join us,
Love,
Maayan Greenheart and Katherine Savage
Our current dominant culture around death tells us to be scared of this process.
This workshop is an invitation to embrace the journey, to reclaim death as a sacred initiation.
☼♢ RECLAIMING DEATH ♢☼
A 2-part workshop with Death Midwife Katherine Savage
May 14th and 28th 2-6pm
Join us at SunSong Community for a potent call to create a village, a village where we uphold a web of belonging with concentric circles of support around people as they transition from one phase of life to another. As a people, we are working on reclaiming this wisdom with birth, the postpartum period, and all of the unique coming of age rites.
This workshop will expand our wisdom and skill sets for how to tend our dying and dead, so that we can strengthen our embrace of our beloveds during their final transition. We will begin again by growing a bigger vision of what dying could be, so that we can leave behind our death fears and grow the generativity of our dying times and spaces. We will learn how to organize layers of support consistent with what our dying people vision as bringing comfort and peace to their last days. If we get it right, everyone in the village will have something to do.
Understanding our strength is a necessity in these days, we aim to reclaim our communal capacity to hold space for death, the giver of life.
~~ About Katherine Savage ~~
Katherine is a death midwife based in Celo, NC who strongly believes the way we attend to those who are dying is an act of love with culture-making ripples. She roots her work in a vision of death as the foundation of our awareness, offering ways and means for people to attune their lives to the universal forces of creation and dissolution. Her teaching makes possible the regeneration of citizenship skills that dignify the dying process and build networks of community care. Katherine plants the seeds for a culture of mutual care unafraid of grief and death, and living harmoniously with the earth that conjured us. She recently co-created a short film called the Midwife's Shroud that tells the stories of the shroud she made for herself from growing her own flax.
~~ Exchange ~~
$66 for both workshops
No one turned away for lack of funds
To register: please send your payment via paypal to [email protected] or venmo to @maayanchelsea
~~ Location ~~
At SunSong Community in Barnardsville, NC
30 Rocala Dr Barnardsville, NC
This gathering will be outside and on the Earth. We may have a fire if weather allows, and we will be under the roof of the pole barn if it's raining. Bring what you need to be comfortable. There are some chairs and cushions available.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May we walk towards more generous and generative death experiences for ourselves, our family and communities.
We hope you'll join us,
Love,
Maayan Greenheart and Katherine Savage
✯ Past Events ✯
PRAISE MAIZE : a reverent workshop on growing and cooking corn at SunSong Community
June 9th, 2024 10am-3pm
June 9th, 2024 10am-3pm
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Join us for a day of tuning in with the spirit of maize.
Sunday June 9th, 10am-3pm SunSong Community Barnardsville, NC Day includes: corn planting ceremony, teachings & handouts on growing & cooking corn & a beautiful meal of homegrown corn! We will learn: the history and magic of corn, the ins and outs of growing a field of corn. the different kinds of corn and how to grow them (flint, flour, dent & sweet), corn harvesting and corn storage, how to nixtamalize corn and make different corn recipes ::Exchange:: $55-111 sliding scale per person, no one turned away for lack of funds. To register, please send venmo payment to @maayanchelsea or paypal to [email protected]. We acknowledge we are folks of European ancestry that have settled here on this native land. We also acknowledge that these corn seeds we carry, grow, tend and cook are not our ancestral seeds. We long to find ways of honoring the histories and living people tied to these seeds. In an effort to make a step in that direction, we will give 10% of proceeds to Bigwitch Wisdom Initiative, a Cherokee wisdom keepers organization and 10% to Tierra Fertil Cooperativa, a Hispanic worker-owned farming cooperative in Hendersonville, NC. |
The Gift of Maize: Tortilla Making Workshop at SunSong Community
January 12, 5-8pm
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Do you love tacos? Me too! Join me, Maayan Chelsea, in the kitchen at SunSong Community to learn how to make handmade tortillas with homegrown corn!!
Thursday January 12 5pm-8pm SunSong Community 30 Rocala Dr Barnardsville NC We will gather in circle to sit with the generous spirit of maize, the life-giving seed of this continent. We will meditate on the teachings that this plant has to offer us: generosity, resilience, collaboration and interdependence. We will discuss growing corn as a staple crop in your home garden and the many uses in the kitchen. We will learn about the process of nixtamalization (cooking corn in alkaline solution to prepare for making tortillas), hand grind the corn and press them into tortillas on the wood cook stove. Together we will enjoy a dinner of homemade tacos with beans, rice and homegrown salsa. $33 includes class, dinner, and packet of homegrown corn seeds 10% goes to Cherokee elder Aunt Amy Walker’s 4-acre ancestral seed garden |
SOIL MAGIC: the science and worship of dirt!
A soil science workshop with Scotty Karas, co-founder of Soul Gardens
January 14th 2023, 1-4pm
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Come learn about the magic of the earth under our feet. Delight in the mystical interconnected web of life which we are a part of. Learn practicalities of how to feed and nourish the soil that feeds us.
This workshop will include teachings on: ~Soil biology and chemistry ~Composting - kitchen compost, compost tea, humanure ~Biochar ~Growing nutrient-dense food If you are ready to learn more about the soil we walk upon every day, join us! This class is for gardeners of any scale, farmers, permaculturists and anyone interested in knowing more about the life in the soil. at Weaving Rainbows Native Art Gallery, 62 Wall St Asheville, NC Exchange: $33, no one turned away for lack of funds To RSVP ahead of time, please send your paypal payment to [email protected] or venmo @maayanchelsea |
Song of the Soup : a mindful eating food blessing soup & song circle
December 7th 6pm
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Join us at Weaving Rainbows, the new and wonderful native art gallery & event space in downtown Asheville. This is a special project started by our beloved friends Lena Eastes and Ernesto Borges.
What: Song of the Soup with Maayan Chelsea ! Let us circle around an altar of corn, squash and beauty and learn and sing food blessing songs, share in a pot of nourishing vegetarian soup. This event is an invitation to slow down, eat mindfully, honor the gift of nourishment and be together in celebration for all that we receive from the Earth. When: December 7th 6pm Where: Weaving Rainbows Native Art Gallery 62 Wall St. Asheville NC Exchange: This event will include a handout of food blessing song lyrics (many written by Maayan Chelsea), nourishing soup, a facilitated mindful eating experience and an evening of togetherness. For this we are asking for $10-50 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. To reserve your spot, send your paypal payment to [email protected]. Blessings! |
Fruit Tree Planting Party at Big Ivy Community Center
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We are gearing up for a family fun event planting fruit and nut trees at the Big Ivy Community Center. The intention for this event and project is to bring folks together in community in what most resembles our "commons" to create abundance and resilience for ourselves and future generations. To learn, play, and celebrate together while being in service. The fruit from these trees can be shared by all of us, our children, the children of tomorrow, and of course the food bank which serves hundreds of local families in need every week.
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When: December 3rd 11-3
Where: Big Ivy Community Center, 540 Dillingham Rd. Barnardsville, NC Who: Adults and Children of all ages What: Planting fruit and nut trees, live music, singing, dancing, and shared meal Schedule: 11-1130: arrival and introduction. Compost mixing ritual 1130 - 12: Project overview, Fruit tree planting demonstration 12-2: Fruit tree planting with Live Music 2-230: Singing, Dancing, Tree blessings 230-3: Soup made by Maayan Chelsea To Bring:
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Corn Husk Doll Making Workshop with Cherokee elder Mary "Missy" Crowe
November 19th 2022 1pm-5pm
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We are delighted to invite you to SunSong Community for a Corn Husk Doll Making Workshop with Cherokee elder, indigenous rights activist & beauty maker Mary "Missy" Crowe.
When: November 19th 2022 1pm-5pm Where: SunSong Community Pole Barn What: Missy will lead us making beautiful corn husk dolls. She will share about the history and lore of these precious creations. Missy is a passionate activist and during our time together, she will share about her activism work with the Indigenous Environmental Network. Mary "Missy" Crowe is the Indigenous Just Transition Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee from the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, North Carolina. She is a contemporary Cherokee Corn Husk Doll maker and a member of the QuallaArts and Crafts Co-op. Exchange: $20-100 sliding scale per person There is space for 12 participants. To reserve your spot, please send paypal payment to [email protected] OR venmo @maayanchelsea. We'll be outside. If it's cold, we'll circle around a fire. Please bring what you need to be comfortable to stay warm and for seating. Please bring a mug for tea. You're invited to bring snacks to share! May we learn to uplift indigenous peoples and their wisdom every day. |
Cherokee Food, Plants & Medicine with the Bigwitch Wisdom Initiative
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Join us for a full day event at SunSong Community in Barnardsville, North Carolina with a collective of Cherokee wisdom keepers from the Bigwitch Wisdom Initiative.
::When?:: April 30th, 2022, 10am-5pm ::Where?:: SunSong Community Pole Barn ::Why?:: This land we live on is Cherokee land. Their ancestors' bones are here in this ground. Let us gather to honor their stories, language, and the knowledge they carry about native plants, food traditions and regional natural medicine. Throughout the day we will be blessed to hear the teachings from Amy Walker, Mary Crowe and other Cherokee wisdom keepers. We will learn about and get to prepare some of their traditional foods, hear about their rich relationships with the local plants and animals from these mountains we all love so much. We will be learning about local indigenous herbs, medicine making, and traditional Cherokee herbalism. |
So many of us living in these mountains now are new here - having arrived either within the past year, 10 years or 500 years. The intention of this event is to orient us newcomers to the indigenous wisdom that still exists in this land - so we can learn to live in right relationship with the people, plants, and animals who have thrived here for countless generations.
This event is a benefit for the Bigwitch Wisdom Initiative and their efforts towards food sovereignty** projects. All money will go towards paying the teachers for this event, supporting Aunt Amy's 4-acre garden (buying seeds, organic fertilizer & irrigation supplies) and helping Tyson start the Cherokee food truck (feeding Cherokee people their traditional food!!).
**“Food sovereignty is the right of people to healthy and culturally-appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems” (nffc.net)
Despite years of cultural genocide from settlers in these mountains, the Cherokee people still have kept in tact their sacred relationships to food and medicine plants. Let us continue to uplift and learn from these sacred relationships. We give thanks for the wisdom of these mountains, for the resilience of the Cherokee people and for their generosity of sharing their knowledge with us.
Looking forward to this special day together. Bless your life.
This event is a benefit for the Bigwitch Wisdom Initiative and their efforts towards food sovereignty** projects. All money will go towards paying the teachers for this event, supporting Aunt Amy's 4-acre garden (buying seeds, organic fertilizer & irrigation supplies) and helping Tyson start the Cherokee food truck (feeding Cherokee people their traditional food!!).
**“Food sovereignty is the right of people to healthy and culturally-appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems” (nffc.net)
Despite years of cultural genocide from settlers in these mountains, the Cherokee people still have kept in tact their sacred relationships to food and medicine plants. Let us continue to uplift and learn from these sacred relationships. We give thanks for the wisdom of these mountains, for the resilience of the Cherokee people and for their generosity of sharing their knowledge with us.
Looking forward to this special day together. Bless your life.