Driftless Folk School
Instructors
Botan Anderson
In 1983, Botan read The One Straw Revolution by M. Fukuoka, and has been inspired to seek ways of farming more ecologicaly ever since. Botan believes that the future of farming will actually be more people, farming on less land, and growing more high quality food. This will be accomplished by duplicating natural eco-systems, and utilizing appropriate technology such as the Austrian scythe. In 2000 he started Mystic Prairie Eco-Farm. He raises heritage breed, ducks and geese, and sells organic duck eggs and goose meat at a farmers market. The scythe is used for harvesting all the hay, mulch, and bedding on the farm, as well as for mowing lawns and pathways. In 2006, Botan attended the International Scythe Symposium in Canada, and was trained as a scythe instructor by Peter Vido (author of the “Addendum” to The Scythe Book), and six instructors from Europe. Botan now imports scythes from Europe and Canada, and has a scythe shop on his farm in Wilson, Wisconsin. Botan teaches scythe workshops at his farm and in the surrounding area. For more information see www.mysticprairie.net.
Rose Barlow
Rose has been an herbalist for over 20 years, practicing in the Wise Woman tradition. This is a tradition of healing through optimal nourishment using simple, safe herbs found in our own backyards, prepared by our own hands. She specializes in nutritive herbs, developing recipes for wild foods and integrating wild foods into modern diet and lifestyle. She conducts workshops, walks and presentations, maintains an educational website, and is currently director of the Coulee Region Herbal Institute. You can learn more about Rose’s work at www.prodigalgardens.info.
Loren Cade
Loren is a lifelong resident of the upper Newton Valley area of Vernon County. His interest in archeology began at an early age, when he discovered his first artifact in a tobacco field on his father’s farm. During those early years, Loren discovered several prehistoric Native American campsites and later became active as a volunteer with the Mississippi Valley Archeology Center (MVAC). The Cades were hosts to several archeology field schools for history and archeology students over the past 13 years.
Linda Conroy
Linda is an herbalist, cheese maker and whole food enthusiast, who has dedicated her life to connecting with the natural world. After apprenticing on several goat farms, Linda continues to make cheese in her own kitchen. She has been doing so for close to a decade and has been teaching this lost art for the past 6 years. Linda has a certificate in permaculture design, a degree in social work, has studied with Isla Burgess of the International College of Herbal Medicine, and has completed residential herbal apprenticeships with Susun Weed at the Wise Woman Center as well as at Ravencroft Gardens. She is the founder of Moonwise Herbs and Wild Eats: A Movement to Promote Whole, Local and Wild Foods in Community. Linda is a vibrant woman who continually seeks to deepen her connection to the natural world! You can learn more at www.moonwiseherbs.com.
John Holzwart
John is a broom maker, artist, gardener, wildforager, and along with his partner is the proprietor of Moonwise Herbs. He has been collecting and using things from nature since childhood. Whether he is collecting branches for broom handles, mushrooms for supper, or fiberous plants for cordage, he is always inspired by the natural world. John has studied beginning and advanced broom making, cordwood masonry, has mastered the art of cordage making and creates rustic furniture, fences and trellises.
Christie Homstad
Christie lives in Westby, WI and she received her small beekeeping certification from the University of Minnesota and she has kept bees now for 5 years, during which time she has had colonies both thrive and fail. She has spoken with many groups about the joy of keeping bees and how a person can do it with relative ease. She has been the president of her local bee group, Hands On Beekeeping (H.O.B.), for the last 3 years. Most of all, she has found that the most humbling spot is right in the middle of 100,000 buzzing bees.
Sue Hulsether
Sue is a freelance dance educator, specializing in American folk dance. A captivating flatfoot dancer in the Appalachian clogging tradition, she’s taught people of all ages to enjoy its rhythmic delights. After 13 years in an elementary music classroom, she now travels hither and yon to call barn dances and work with schools as a folk dance artist-in-residence. She lives with her husband on a small acreage outside of Viroqua. Between dance travels she finds herself raising vegetables for the Viroqua Farmers’ Market.
Vince and Dawn Hundt
Vince grew up as the seventh of thirteen children on a small dairy farm near Middle Ridge, WI and Dawn hails from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Together, they have operated their own ridgetop dairy farm near Coon Valley since 1978, transitioning to organics in the late 1980s. They have raised 4 children and established the Rotochopper company, which designs and markets industrial ginders. Both Vince and Dawn are long time volunteers with local organizations such as Norskedalen, Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School, and the Youth Initiative High School. Woodland conservation, sustainable forest management, traditional Wisconsin foods play important roles in their lives
Jacob and Sofya Blyum Hundt
Jacob grew up on a Driftless Region dairy farm near Coon Valley. He was one of the founding students of the Youth Initiative High School in Viroqua, where he currently teaches humanities, Bulgarian, and Earth science. He attended Deep Springs College in California, where he worked as a cowboy before receiving a BA in History from the American University in Bulgaria and an MA in Social Science from the University of Chicago. Sofya grew up in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the former USSR. She also graduated from the American University in Bulgaria, before coming to Viroqua in 2003. She taught in Viroqua’s Waldorf schools, before turning to gardening, farming, and baking sourdough bread. Jacob and Sofya are currently establishing a small farm and vineyard near Viroqua with their daughter, Josephine.
Marcee Murray King
Marcee Murray King has had a love affair with herbs for over twenty years. Having completed Rosemary Gladstar’s Science and Art of Herbalism, she also has studied herbs independently, and has completed the first level certification with The School of Homeopathy in of Devon, England. Creating her own flower essences at her rural Rising Sun home, she lives with her family, their animals, and her many green allies.
Our Green Allies, Herbs Part 1
Dale Kittleson
Dale lives in a wind and solar powered home with Frances, Alex, Clara, Mitts the solar cat, two goldfish, one hamster, and (out in the coop) 20 chickens. During the day he works at Wild Rose Timberworks where he and his two partners build timberframes. He can hardly wait for summer to try out that electric riding lawnmower.
John Madden
John has been a teacher of mathematics, English, drama, social studies, and art history at the Youth Initiative High School in Viroqua since 2002. He holds a B.A. in History, English, and Mathematics from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. He is also a computer specialist, web designer, freelance writer, playwright, producer, actor, manager of the Richland Community Food Pantry, and teen mentor. He lives in Richland Center
Chuck Meyer
Chuck has a B.S. degree in Animal Ecology from Iowa State University, and graduate research and coursework at the University of Minnesota. He has traveled all over the lower 48 states after receiving his undergraduate degree working for an environmental consulting firm. He also has experience with banding and tracking birds electronically (radio telemetry). Much of his work focused on bird surveys. He was born in Iowa, moved to Minnesota for graduate school, and finally decided to settle in the Viroqua area. He will also be teaching bird watching classes at Western Technical College in Viroqua this fall.
Dan Peper
Dan taught for ten years in the public schools teaching art and industrial arts. He is presently a consultant and designer for Green Peper Building and a grass farmer raising Scottish Highlander beef cattle and Suffolk Punch draft horses. The team of Valerie and Vonda help do most of the heavy work on the forty acre homestead of Dan and his wife Ruth. Dan strives for a degree of self sufficiency within an aesthetic and sustainable context.
Robert Schulz
Robert Schulz has been blacksmithing since 1996, focusing on the techniques of traditional joinery. He has been a student at UW-LaCrosse, John C. Campbell Folk School (NC), Tillers International (MI), and has lived and worked on several organic farms in the U.S. and abroad. His interests include beekeeping, natural building, stonework, and animal-powered agriculture. Robert lives south of Hillsboro, WI, homesteading with his family.
Blacksmithing: Forging a Traditional Candlestick
