There are several workshops in the works for 2023, so stayed tune! We will update the website with dates and listings by early March 2023. Please reach out if you have particular interests you would like to explore with us (i.e. natural building, horse draftsmanship, etc.) and we may be able to suggest a host and time of year that will best fit your interests!

2019 Spring & Summer Workshops

• Back-to-the-Land Immersion Week — May 25th to June 1st
  Come join our community for a week of activities, getting a taste of simple homestead living! We will spend time learning some of the basics of growing food in an annual vegetable garden, an orchard, and by foraging for wild edibles. You will learn some basic herbal medicinal remedies (that you can bring home!) with wild-foraged spring herbs. And you will learn some of the basics of natural building—making and using earthen plasters, paints and wattle and daub. Other activities will include beeswax crafts, basketmaking, natural fabric dying and more. All ages are welcome to attend this workshop.

• Family Camping Week — June 22nd to 29th
  This fun-filled week is especially oriented to kids and families, but is open to anyone young at heart! Come join us in the beautiful Missouri woods for a week of camping, outdoor adventures and natural crafts. We will spend time each day immersed in kid-friendly activities in the garden, with farm animals, getting our hands dirty and cooling off in the pond. Crafts will include beeswax candle making, cheese making, natural fabric dying and printing, sculpting a cob pizza oven, wild-harvesting and making an herbal salve to take home, and more. Delicious, healthy meals and campfires under the stars will round out our days together.

• Empowered Kids Building Week — August 10th to 17th
  Calling all kids who love to build and create! This week-long workshop is all about empowering your creative ideas and teaching you the steps and appropriate tools to make them a reality. Working together as a group, we will co-create a play structure, as well as smaller models for you to take home. Each participating kid needs to be accompanied by an adult, and there will be some fun “down time” nature and craft activities to balance our busy days together. (Suggested ages for participating kids are 7 and up). Builder-teachers Cynthia Main and Julia Jack-Scott will co-lead the project.

• Camp and Craft Long Weekend — August 30th to September 2nd
  Come spend Labor Day weekend in the great outdoors with our community, getting to sample the best of our garden and orchard harvests, while learning different natural crafts! Missouri’s wildflowers will be in full bloom and ready for making natural dyes and herbal products. We will also be hand-carving spoons while learning how to make and can your own preserves. A relaxing retreat for anyone who wants to discover the simple beauty we can create by hand.

More Workshop Information

• Accomodations— All workshops will be taught primarily outdoors, with a beautiful wooded tent camping area set up adjacent to a covered pavilion and outdoor kitchen. Limited indoor lodging with beds are available upon request. Outhouses will be available at the camping site and at all teaching locations, which may rotate. Bathing can happen at nearby ponds or by solar shower, or an an indoor bucket-style shower stall.

• Pricing— No one will be turned away from a workshop for lack of funds! The suggested donation amount for each week-long workshop is $300 per person or $600 per family. For our three-day workshop, the suggested donation is $150 per person. This all-inclusive fee covers instruction, craft materials, and three delicious meals each day. We list a suggested donation because we endeavor to make our workshops available to all, regardless of ability to pay (need-based scholarships available upon request). But all donations, whatever the amount, will help us build the future of our community and we are grateful for them.

• Food— We will prepare and serve 3 meals a day, with as much nourishing, local food as possible. We can work with a range of dietary needs – let us know your particulars (or your child’s) when you register. Please note that we do our best to accommodate different dietary needs but cannot guarantee that we will be able to.

• Instructors— Workshops will be co-taught by the members of Bear Creek Community in addition to visiting instructors, who have a diverse range of experience and backgrounds in natural building, herbalism, gardening, wild foraging, animal husbandry and crafts. We hope that the diversity of teaching styles will enhance your time learning with us.

• Registration— To register for a course, please email or contact John Bambrick-Rust by calling 660-332-4026, or email BearcreekCLT@gmail.com with your name, the course you are interested in, and your address. We will send you a registration form (by email or post) and more detailed information about the course. Along with your returned registration form, we ask that you submit a $50 deposit to hold your place in the course. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

• Directions– Our community is accessible by train, plane and motor vehicle or bike. We are five miles away from the La Plata, MO Amtrak station that connects to Chicago, IL and Kansas City, MO on the Southwest Chief Line. Please see Amtrak’s website for more information about pricing and arrival/departure times. We can arrange vehicle pick-up from the station upon request. We are also around five miles away from the Kirksville Airport with daily flights connecting to St. Louis, MO through Cape Air Airlines. Vehicle pickup can be arranged from the airport as well. By vehicle, we are located several miles from highway 63, off of county road E. If coming from Kirksville (or north of there), take highway 63 until you see exit sign for highway E, which will be on your left. Drive for 2 miles on E until a sign for Frontier Ln. will be on your left. Turn onto Frontier Ln. (a gravel road) and drive for a half mile down the hill until you see Ferrier Ln. on your right. Turn onto Ferrier and make a right at the sign for “White Rose Catholic Worker” on your right. There will be a parking area right there which will bring you within walking distance of the campsite. Please contact us with other direction inquiries!