—  Birds of Maryland  — Ernie Willoughby

$75 for you + up to 4 family/friends; Members N/C, 2 hr, 3 sessions. Day trippers welcome $10 pp, children under 18 free

—   The Art of Flower Growing & Design — Priscilla Leitch
Anchor Roots Farm is a floral wonderland. Established by owner Priscilla Leitch in 2018, her flower gardens provide a teaching laboratory of flowers. From the garden to the vase, Priscilla will set the stage for you to plan your own flower gardens for future enjoyment.
$85pp; Slack Farms Members $50, 3 hr, All Materials Provided

This seminar will be at Priscilla’s Home in California, Maryland. Instructions to get to her farm will be provided upon registration. This class is limited to 12 participants.

Painting the Rural Landscape

Plein Air

Walking the Farm October 2023

Three to four days $400 to $450 a session

Includes meals?

Daily demonstrations with individual critiques daily

An exhibit on the final afternoon/evening with critique, questions, comments and celebration

Readying for take-off to Paris and the Burgundy, Kate and Tuck are here today readying their and your palates. They are also incredibly excited about the new garden which is a preview of what is to come with our larger farm ambitions this year: you may want to join them and learn to prepare, plant, manage and harvest a little plot of your own. If you’ve never done this before but wanted to, a little nudge is here and it’s time to dig in…

And drink on. Wines are another notch up on the learning curve. All French, a Côtes de Gascogne, Côte de Duras, and a special wine from the Côtes du Rhône, Les Peyrouses par Alain Voge. This latter one is unlikely to be on a typical wine flight, so be sure to join us!

Best wishes,

Maggie O’Brien 2/13/2023

Lawn Games anyone?

Ping pong with the local pros?

Ever walked a Slack line? Try it, but before you have a glass of wine. $15/Slack Farm Members Free

Lagom is a Swedish word meaning just the right amount. Skap is a suffix from Old Norse -skapr which wraps up a bit like -hood as in neighborhood or brotherhood, showcases Lagomskap’s gentle change approach to landscaping. Come and meet a few of the Nigerian dwarf goats that do the natural clearing of forests for us. $15/Slack Farm Members Free

Wine: Three of our favorites paired with chèvre. Also some Gjetost, if we can get our hands on it.

Welcome to families who come as teams and get a list of 20 items to identify at Woodlawn Farm. Bring good shoes and clothing to suit the weather, and we’ll provide a learning book for you to identify trees, plants, and animals, and explore a bit of 18th C history at Woodlawn from the clues we provide. Bring good shoes, your family team and your deductive skills. Onward, Dr. Holmes! $15/Slack Farm Members Free

Welcome to the Woodlawn Woodland Hunt for the trees we love. Hollies, river birch, beech, pin oaks, white oaks, tulip poplars, magnolias, loblolly pines, and ornamental blue spruce are just a few of the species we will encounter on this walk as we identify the shape, leaves and bark of several trees that we love. We’ll also see an off-spring from the remarkable Wye Oak that Ginny and Tom Cox planted 50 years ago. That old Wye Oak is gone, but its off-spring live on. $15/Slack Farm Members Free

Refreshments after the hike.

Capability Brown reshaped many of England’s great houses over a prolific sixty years. A great lover of the land, he thought everything had “capability” to be transformed. We’ll share with you a brief practicum, outdoors, with Tucker Grube-O’Brien who will showcase the transformation of the woodlands through the gentle Lagomskap technique, with three stages showcased for your review. After a brief walk to the nearby woods (30 min), we’ll head back in to discuss the fall’s vineyard harvest and taste some of our wines along with a few other big-bodied reds. $15/Slack Farm Members Free

Wine: First look at Slack’s fall harvest wines along with several big-bodied reds

Hey, you want to know what forest bathing is all about. Join us for a ritual fun time, and a little wine.

$15/Slack Farm Members Free

Nothing says weddings like flowers, and no-one does wedding florals better than Kathy York of Scarborough Farms. Join us for a discussion of naturally available greens and flowers that shape in to arrangements for weddings and how greens and florals are gathered and purchased for the wedding day. DIY brides, sisters and moms, as well as those of us long married who want new ideas for their garden greens and florals on the table, or a holiday wreath. $15/Slack Farm Members Free

Wine and tea: Enjoy a sampling of Darjeeling tea alongside our new Yellowlegs.

Bruce Wilson is Professor Emeritus of English at St. Mary’s College where he was a founding member of the Asian Studies program. He studied Ikebana at Daikakuji Temple in Kyoto, Japan, where he was awarded the rank of Seikyoju by the Saga Goryu School of Ikebana in 2008.  He perceives his role as an Ikebana artist as an act of recreating the unfolding life of Nature.

He has exhibited or given presentations at a variety of venues, including the U.S. National Arboretum; the Japan-America Society of Washington, DC; the Japan Information and Culture Center; the National Geographic Society; the Walters Gallery, Hillwood Gardens, and the Washington National Cathedral.  He has exhibited abroad in Kyoto, Japan; Dusseldorf, Germany; and Amman, Jordan. Bruce perceives his role as an Ikebana artist as an act of recreating the unfolding life of Nature.

Wine: Sake, along with rice cakes and rice crackers. $15/Slack Farm Members Free

Plan to dig the summer geraniums and pot them for the indoor season. Plenty of ideas and tips for the beginning gardener and plant explorer. We’ll enjoy all of this with wines that work for the month of warmth and relaxation — but, then, thinking ahead just a bit to make the months ahead as enjoyable as summer. $15/Slack Farm Members Free

Wines: Light Reds heading into early Fall.

Tour of the Woodlawn Manor House decorated for the Holidays. We will take you back to two periods: 1798 as Colonel Matthias Clarke constructed his home as a tribute to the New Republic, and 1991 when Ginny and Tom Cox completed an 18 year renovation to win the Gold Medal for Historic House Restoration from the National Trust. Decorations will be modern and part of our family’s holiday traditions including ornaments from our childhoods. Join us for the tour with a glass of wine and snacks. $15/Slack Farm Members Free

Lawn Games anyone?

Come and join us for a day of croquet, badminton, bean toss and trail walking.

Ever walked a Slack line? Try it, but before you have a glass of wine.

At the Wine Cottage: A sampling of summer whites and roses from the Southern Hemisphere - Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.

Tidewater Barn: Join Tucker Grube-O’Brien for Sunday Funday games.

The smell and taste of fresh coffee — now there’s a game changer. Yes, Pete’s and Starbucks will do in a pinch, but there is nothing like a cup of St. Inie’s. Owner Catherine Grube showcases the art of the roasting and the attention she brings to correct roasting technique and freshness. Join us for some coffee, iced coffee and appropriate biscuits as we welcome St. Mary’s wonderful coffee roaster and connoisseur.

Lawn Games anyone?

Come and join us for a day of croquet, badminton, bean toss and trail walking.

Ever walked a Slack line? Try it, but before you have a glass of wine.

At the Wine Cottage: A sampling of summer whites and roses from the Southern Hemisphere - Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.

Tidewater Barn: Join Tucker Grube-O’Brien for Sunday Funday games.

In honor of Summer Solstice we celebrate with an afternoon of dancing. DJ Ernie Riviere will help us celebrate with some favorite dancing tunes, including several versions of Where the Hell is Matt’s joyous Trip the Light. Bring the kids and get ready to dance with friends and family, in the barn, on the porch, and on the lawn, to Matt’s video and other greats like Martha & the Vandellas “Dancing in the Streets”. Tune suggestions welcome.

Bring the kids, or the kid in you, and meet some of the Nigerian dwarf goats that make up the brigade of organic goatscaping as part of Lagomskap’s trade. Lagom is a Swedish word that means just the right amount. Skap is a suffix from Old Norse -skapr which wraps up a bit like -hood as in neighborhood or brotherhood, giving the concept name Lagomskap a shade of landscaping leaning towards the natural or gentle change rather than abrupt remaking. How goats come in to play and how their habits benefit a natural clearing of suckers, brambles, grapevines and the like is the topic Tucker Grube-O’Brien will share. Goat keeper Brandon Perkins will introduce you to Amy, Lois, etc.

Wine: Three of our favorites paired with Chèvre and Gjetost, if we can get our hands on it!

Welcome families and little ones especially for the Easter Egg Hunt to begin officially at 2 pm. There will be PLENTY of eggs to be found and a bit of candy as well, according to parental discretion of course. We’ll start at 2 pm and parents and children can enjoy the afternoon at the Wine Cottage Courtyard sipping tea and hot chocolate or drinking wine.

Daffodils are on our minds as they wave for weeks in early Spring, beckoning us to come closer to examine their variety and, sometimes, scent as part of the prolific genus Narcissus. We’ll review several of the daffodil species that inhabit Woodlawn and Jubilee Farms, then talk a bit about how to plant and care for this mainstay of any friendship garden.

Let’s make this more fun and bring a bucket to swap with others. If you know the name, all the better; if not bring a flower if available or a picture if not. We’ll line the buckets up and after a sampling of wines from France (daffodils are naturalized everywhere so we’ll celebrate the diaspora with favorite wines from Europe) then we’ll lend you another bucket and paper wrap to get a few clumps for home

Wines: 3 wines from European houses we like

With so much interest in learning the trade, we’ve devoted these second Sunday to the extended wallpapering workshop from 12-6 pm to teach groups of up to 8 how to DIY. Each team of 2-3 will tackle a space which will be prepped and hung. We’ll celebrate with a bit of bubbly afterwards, the elegant French Bouvet.

Wines: French Bouvet to celebrate your new talent!

A French gardener of ours once panicked to think of the poor preparation wrought from a very wet fall that would trouble in the fast spring to come. We concur with the troubled plight that awaits unprepared gardener. Get ready to learn what to do, when to do it, and how to quickly become a gardener with still a bit of time on your hands.

Wine: Three of our favorites paired with — in honor of Lagamska’s tiny little goats — chèvre.

Think ahead and plant your daffodils and lillies for next Spring. Buy your Amaryllis (just another Narcissus) for the pots. Then plan to dig the summer geraniums and pot them for the indoor season. Plenty of ideas and tips for the beginning gardener and plant explorer. We’ll enjoy all of this with wines selected for the last gasp of summer warmth.

Wines: Roses, all of them.

Carolyn Egeli began painting farm scenes as a child at her family farm in Valley Lee. The youngest of 5 children of Bjorn and Lois Egeli, Carolyn’s portraiture and landscapes were informed by the studio as much as the land. From “Lance” to “fields” and showcasing as well some of her more recent paintings of Vermont farms, including her own Brainstorm Farm, Carolyn will share with you her long-standing affection for farm scenes and farm communities.

Wines: From ABC Winey served with two of Carolyn’s favorite Vermont cheeses from Vermont Creamery. One of the original farms, Ayers Brooks Farm is 3 miles from Brainstorm Farm and Miles Hooper is a goat farmer and the son of Allison Hooper who founded the Vermont Creamery.

Lawn Games anyone?

Come and join us for a day of croquet, badminton, bean toss and trail walking.

Ever walked a Slack line? Try it, but before you have a glass of wine.

At the Wine Cottage: A sampling of summer whites and roses from the Southern Hemisphere - Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.

Tidewater Barn: Join Tucker Grube-O’Brien for Sunday Funday games.

Mother’s Day brings out the fun for mom at the Tidewater Barn. Join us for a tasting of white, red, and blush wines from one of our favorite Sonoma wineries. Four tasting wines on the menu plus a sampling of Woodlawn cookies and cakes. Self-service tea as well: Darjeeling, Assam or Earl Grey.

Tickets in advance are $20. Music with Invincible Entertainment with DJ Ernie Reviere ready to play mom’s Memory Lane request.