Courses

The black ash pack basket: It's beautiful, highly functional and can be made using simple materials. The first part of the class will be spent preparing black ash splint for your basket by pounding a locally harvested log. Next, you'll weave the basket and finish it with a rim, handle,…

Always wanted to try your hand at the forge? This is the place to start and continue to develop your blacksmithing skills. You will be introduced to the basic skills of the blacksmith including safety, fire control, tools and equipment in both a classroom and 'on the forge' setting. Student…

For those prone to picking plants and wondering what can be made of them as they wander through the forests and fields of this region, both basketry and natural dying offer many possibilities for humble leaves and sticks to become something much more. In this team-taught session, students will learn…

Make the wood chips fly! This course is for students ready to stand at the chopping block and learn to use classic wooden bowl-carving hand tools – the adze, axe, gouge and push knife. During this class, topics including selection of wood stock, elements of bowl design, strategies for hand-hewing,…

This course takes students through the step-by-step process of crafting a wooden longbow, wooden-shafted arrow and bow string. To facilitate learning about constructing a traditional bow, students start with a rough-cut stave of hickory. Bows are backed with flax-fiber linen. Arrows include field point and feathers. String is made using…

Commercial liverwurst (braunschweiger) can’t hold a candle to the real thing. Learn to make your own healthful liverwurst out of ingredients that you choose, with flavors that you can adjust. Craig and Dianne Peterson have always enjoyed eating various forms of liver, in gourmet recipes, liver pate and of course,…

Pick up your hammer! This course is designed for students with little or no building experience who want to build a tiny home, small cabin or workshop. The techniques for building a small frame building are not only for the skilled carpenter; nearly anyone can come away from this course…

Create yourself a comfortable living space: a spare bedroom, office, studio, sauna or whatever else you can dream up.  The 18-foot yurt is an excellent shelter option that provides comfortable living arrangements for all four seasons. Working with skilled yurt builders, you’ll build a simple yurt, complete with a door…

This is an ideal boatbuilding course for someone who has always dreamed of building a classic wooden boat and spending the time to fully enjoy the traditions, smells and trades of the wooden boat building shop. In just over two weeks students will mill the lumber, lay the planking and…

Students will learn the history and craft of the flintlock Trade Rifle, a muzzle loading firearm associated with the 19th-century American frontier, including the Great Lakes fur trade. Rugged, accurate yet inexpensive, it fully answered the big game shooting needs of this era and still remains a fine hunting arm.…

Immerse yourself in a stone building workshop at the Round River Farm (48 miles southwest of Grand Marais). The farm is an operating organic Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm that works toward balancing its needs with what the land can provide. It's the perfect setting for this building with stone…

To the seasoned Bushcrafter a walk in the woods is like a stroll down the aisles of the local superstore. In this two day basics of bushcraft course students will start seeing the woods like a Bushcrafter. We will learn the basics of how to live in the bush comfortably…

Create beautiful and useful things for your kitchen using simple hand tools and birch wood. Participants in this course will be introduced to the Swedish traditions of ‘köksredskap,' or the process of carving functional utensils, including butterknives, small spoons or bread boards. Students will start by splitting a green log,…

Rye is an ancient grain, and is among the more challenging. With an immense depth of flavor, but little gluten, it behaves differently from mainstream grain flours, but it also offers new opportunities. We explore rye beyond bread (although we'll make some buns) taking it into the realm of crackers,…

Traditional northern craft meets Don Draper? Fedoras are definitely back in fashion, DIY is all the rage, and in this fun course you can combine them both. Put a northern twist on a southern hat weaving tradition and make a woven cattail hat to protect yourself from the sun during…