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Book an Adult Workshop

Gain new skills and knowledge with the Compost Education Centre! Learn more about our classes. Looking to register for one of our public workshops? Click here.

We are happy to come to your organization and share knowledge about the topics listed below. Online options are also possible, and workshops can be delivered to your group on Wednesdays through Saturdays. Daytime offerings are preferred, but evenings are also possible.

Custom workshops are also available. Please be in touch using the form below to share what you are looking for. Composting Basics, Worm Composting, and Soil Life workshops can be shortened for a one hour-long “lunch and learn” format.

Workshops

Growing Indoor Microgreens and Sprouts

$265 · 1.5 hrs
Do you wish you had a mini garden all winter long to harvest from right in your kitchen? You can! Come learn the ins and outs of microgreen growing and sprouting in your home so that you can have nutrient dense greens all year round, rain or shine, cold or hot.

We’ll cover:
- helpful equipment
- difference between microgreens & sprouts
- how to grow these tender greens (seed selection, timing, care)
- nutrition benefits
- troubleshooting
Since the equipment and skills are similar, we’ll also spend some time learning the specifics of how to grow healthy vegetable seedlings for your garden.

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Food Preservation Basics (onsite)

Contact for price quote · 1-2 hrs

Come learn the basics of how to preserve the abundance from your garden or local farmers. We will learn the basics of dehydrating making use of the Compost Education Centre’s two solar dryers (which are available for loan!) We’ll also cover freezing, storing, and hot water bath canning. Preserving foods is not only a delicious way to taste summer in the dark rainy days of winter, but it is also an act of sustainability and creates more security in the food system.

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Seedling Starting

Contact for price quote · 1-2 hrs
Learn simple techniques for analysing your soil quality through this hands-on workshop

We’ll measure the physical and biological quality of soil using the following practical tools you can also use at home:
- Soil texture test
- Soil aggregation test (slake test)
- Water infiltration rate
- Earthworm count
- Rizosheath assessment
- Nodulation of legumes
Knowing these details can help inform next steps for stewarding your soil, and provide important baseline information for your gardening journey.

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Practical Tools for Measuring Soil Health

Contact for price quote · 1-2 hrs
Learn simple techniques for analysing your soil quality through this hands-on workshop

We’ll measure the physical and biological quality of soil using the following practical tools you can also use at home:
- Soil texture test
- Soil aggregation test (slake test)
- Water infiltration rate
- Earthworm count
- Rizosheath assessment
- Nodulation of legumes
Knowing these details can help inform next steps for stewarding your soil, and provide important baseline information for your gardening journey.

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Composting for Businesses

Contact for price quote · 1 hrs
Join us for an eye-opening discussion on how businesses can tackle food waste and composting practices!

Are you a business owner or employee of a business in the Capital Regional District on Vancouver Island that creates a lot of unavoidable or avoidable food waste (think – vegetable trimmings, spent coffee grounds, past due food, plate scrapings, employee lunch time waste etc.)? Do you have a good system of avoiding this food waste or composting the unavoidable food waste? If you’re curious about these questions – attend this free webinar to learn more from the Compost Education Centre about what is possible at your business. Learn the possibilities for:
- Avoiding food waste in the first place
- How to process all sorts of food waste in a sustainable, affordable, responsible way
- Explore different options for onsite, and offsite composting
- Saving money
- And understand why it all matters
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Yard-Free Composting

$200 · 2 hrs
We’ll cover options that are available for composting without a yard. Surprisingly, there are many, and we’ll discover the benefits and drawbacks to each so you can determine the system that is right for your life & home. We’ll learn about:
- countertop electric food dehydrators & “composters”
- private food scrap pick up, municipal food scrap pick up & proper use of greenbins
- bokashi composting
- worm composting
Bring your questions, we’ll have time for Q & A.

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Gluten-Free Sourdough

Contact for price quote · 2 hrs

Learn the basics of how to make a successful gluten free sourdough starter, which flours are the best for gluten free bread baking, and methods for how to make wholesome home-made loaves of bread. We’ll start by discussing the background of what fermentation actually is, and perhaps even taste some yummy delicacies.

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Fermenting Vegetables

Contact for price quote · 2 hrs

Did you know that you can not only preserve vegetables, but also make them into sources of healthy bacteria, simply by adding salt? At this workshop, we’ll talk shop about the basics of fermenting vegetables and there will be a demo of how to make sauerkraut. Go away with a recipe and method to make your own batch!

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Fermenting Kombucha

Contact for price quote · 1-1.5 hrs

Start brewing your own yummy, good for your tummy, fermented Kombucha with this crash course. Having mysterious histories, these fermented, probiotic rich delicacies are known for being full of good things that promote overall digestive wellness. They are delicious and satisfying and there is a great number of ways you can flavor your goods! In this workshop we’ll go over the basics of how to ferment kombucha, and we’ll learn how to create effervescent kombucha with unique flavoring, like purchased kombuchas so often have.

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Zero Waste Living

$200 · 2 hrs

Ever dream of a life where you create no waste? With some thought and planning, it’s possible! In this workshop, we’ll explore a typical home – from the bathroom to the kitchen, the garden to the living room, and identify a variety of ways that you can go waste free by making simple changes in your everyday life. At the end of the workshop, we’ll each make a commitment to an action that we will hold each other accountable to in weeks to come. Bring something to write with?

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Food Preservation Basics (offsite)

Contact for price quote · 1-2 hrs

Come learn the basics of how to preserve the abundance from your garden or local farmers. We will learn the basics of dehydrating, we’ll cover how best to freeze foods, store foods, and we’ll learn the science behind hot water bath canning and fermenting too. Preserving foods is not only a delicious way to taste summer in the dark rainy days of winter, but it is also an act of sustainability and creates more security in the food system.

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Resilient Lifestyles: Permaculture 101

Contact for a price quote · 2 hrs

Resilient Lifestyles are necessary in these times of climate change, forest fires, and a pandemic. Learn about how you can model your garden, home and life after nature, using the permaculture principles. Permaculture is a sustainable design theory modeled on natural ecosystems. With attention paid to where these practices and where this knowledge originated, come and learn about the ethics and principles of permaculture, and scale-able ways to apply the theory to your garden, home and life.

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