Ultimate Homesteading School Link List – Where to Learn New Skills

It doesn’t matter how old or how experienced you are, you can always learn something new. There are some important homesteading skills that will make life easier after (and before) the SHTF. It is not only about guns and gear. Similar to the Ultimate Prepper School Link List, here is a list of various Homesteading School facilities and online courses:

• Abundant Permaculture – US (Online) – Take my free Video Course to quickly (and easily) learn how to:
  Get started with chickens, build a DIY coop, and cut feed costs 100%.
• Antiquity Oaks – US Illinois (Local) – Antiquity Oaks was founded as an old-fashioned homestead in 2002 by the Niemann-Boehle family. We are former city slickers who wanted to become self sufficient and have easy access to organically grown food.
• Aprovecho – US Oregon (Local) – Aprovecho’s mission is “Living, Learning, Organizing, and Educating to Inspire a Sustainable Culture.” Our goal is to provide the education, skills, and resources needed for our students to build sustainable livelihood within a regenerative, resilience-based economy.
• Arbor Vitaelog Craft – Canada (Local) – It is the vision of Arbor Vitae Log Craft to develop and enhance the natural and human resources in an efficient and self-sustaining manner.
• Arbutus Folk School – US Washington (Local) – The school provides enlivening learning experiences through a wide-range of activities focused on fostering appreciation, knowledge and access to craft, music, celebrations and lore.
• Bullock’s Permaculture Portal – US Washington (Local) – For over 34 years we have applied our shared experience to create what experts refer to as the finest permaculture site in North America. Together we develop and implement practical solutions for sustainable living while offering hands-on permaculture courses, workshops, skill-building, and more.
• CedarRoot School – US Washington (Local) – CedarRoot teaches skills for living…a revival of our whole person and the power of participating in our own sufficiency. Our focus is on hand to hand instruction to all ages and backgrounds, hoping to deepen an understanding of the natural world, and bring these skills of sufficiency into our modern life.
• Driftless Folk School – US Wisconsin (Local) – Driftless Folk School is a regional center for the preservation, promotion and training of traditional crafts, the art of homesteading, natural building, energy self-sufficiency, sustainable farming, animal husbandry, and wilderness skills. Crafting connections~Creating Community.
• EcoNest – Living Sanctuaries of Clay, Straw and Timber – US Oregon (Local) – An EcoNest incorporates timber-frame, straw-clay walls, earth plasters and natural and non-toxic finishes. This combination of time-honored building traditions with modern innovations results in a home of unsurpassed health and comfort.
• Emerald Earth – US California (Local) – Emerald Earth is an intentional community in the hills above Anderson Valley. With four full time residents, we care for the land, grow the majority of our own food, and sustain a community designed to benefit rather than deplete the planet.
• Everdale – Canada Ontario (Local) – Everdale’s mission is to be a farm-based organization that provides hands-on, solution-based food and farming education to build and engage healthy local communities.
• Farm School – US Massachusetts (Local) – The Farm School connects people to the land by serving as a family farm for the coming generations.
• Fox Maple – US Maine (Local) – Fox Maple was founded in 1975, at a time when the timber framing revival was just beginning to take root. Our motivation to begin building new timber frames grew from our desire to fully understand the nature of this ancient building system.
• Great Lakes School of Log Building – US Minnesota (Local) – The Great Lakes School of Log Building was started in 1974 by Ron Brodigan.
• Heartwood Folk School – Canada British Columbia (Local) – Heartwood focuses on teaching practical, joyful, Earth-caring, and community-strengthening skills, to adults, and also younger folks.
• Homegrown Herbalist – US (Online) – Online School of Botanical Medicine.
• Homesteading University – US (Online) – Online homesteading classes with over a 100 topics.
• House Alive – US Oregon (Local) – House Alive is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable organizations in North America for teaching natural building, earthen construction and appropriate technology.
• Island School of Building Arts – Canada British Columbia (Local) – ISBA offers exceptional training in timber framing, log building & related disciplines.
• John C. Campbell Folk School – US North Carolina (Local) – John C. Campbell Folk School provides experiences in non-competitive learning and community life that are joyful and enlivening. Located in scenic Brasstown, North Carolina, the Folk School offers year-round weeklong and weekend classes for adults in craft, art, music, dance, cooking, gardening, nature studies, photography and writing.
• Log Home Builders Association – US Nevada (Local) – The Log Home Builders Association is a non-profit educational association that teaches average men and women how to build a log cabin. We do not work with commercial or “kit” builders, only owner-builders and others who are interested in building a “real” log home for themselves.
• Log Building School – Canada Ontario (Local) – A Pat Wolfe Log Building Course is designed to expand knowledge – both of log building techniques and tools, their correct use and maintenance. It is a hands on course. Practicality is stressed from the outset. All students become familiar with the basic notches of the European chinkless style of logbuilding.
• Living Arts School – US Colorado (Local) – Located in Boulder County, The Living Arts School is Colorado’s folk school. A folk school, also known as a craft school, is a place for “folks” of all ages to pursue a unique and life-changing education–one that focuses on the renewal of traditional living skills, crafts and music.
• Marblemount Homestead – US Washington (Local and Online) – For over a decade, people from all over the world have learned and laughed with us. We teach artisan cheese making, homesteading skills, goat husbandry, organic gardening, bow making, wilderness skills, and so much more – both on the homestead and online.
• Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) – US Wisconsin (Local) – MOSES educates, inspires, and empowers farmers to thrive in a sustainable, organic system of agriculture.
• Moose Mountain Log Homes Course – Canada (Local) – Moose Mountain Log Homes Inc. has been handcrafting log homes since 1978 and Lloyd Beckedorf has also been an instructor in different parts of the world over the decades.
• Montana School of Log Building – US Montana (Local) – Al Anderson teaches a 5 day log building – Handcrafting Log Home classes – at the Montana School of Log Building log yard in Three Forks, Montana.
• Mullers Lane Farm – US Illinois (Local) – Small farm (not a hobby farm!) that teaches classes on a variety of topics including: Canning, Wood working, Harness repair, Gardening, Bee Keeping, Spinning and Basic Blacksmithing.
• Northeast Organic Farming Association – US Massachusetts (Local) – Welcome to NOFA/Mass. The Massachusetts chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association. NOFA/Mass welcomes everyone who cares about food, where it comes from and how it’s grown.
• North House Folk School – US Minnesota (Local) – Our mission is to enrich lives and build community by teaching traditional northern crafts in a student-centered learning environment that inspires the hands, the heart and the mind.
• Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC)
• Onalaska Log Building School – US Washington (Local) – One-day classes, you will learn to build a log building in that one day, guaranteed. The key to this success is the Butt and Pass building method, no notching and no need to season the logs before building, and no real building expertise is needed. We believe the biggest hurdle keeping people from reaching their dream of a log building is lack of confidence, we want to give you that confidence.
• Organic Growers School – US North Carolina (Local) – Organic Growers School is the premiere provider of practical and affordable organic education in the Southern Appalachians, building a vibrant food & farming community by boosting the success of organic home growers and farmers in our region.
• Ozark Folk Center – US Arkansas (Local) – Arkansas’s unique Ozark Folk Center State Park is America’s only facility that works at preserving the Ozark heritage and sharing it in an entertaining way. We keep the crafts, music and herblore of the Ozarks alive. Travel to Mountain View, Arkansas and tap your toes to mountain music at one of your favorite Arkansas state parks located in the heart of the Ozarks.
• Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture – US Pennsylvania (Local) – Promoting Profitable Farms that Produce Healthy Food for All People While Respecting the Natural Environment.
• Peters Valley School of Craft – US New Jersey (Local) – Peters Valley School of Craft is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation, founded in 1970 in partnership with the National Park Service to promote and encourage education and excellence in craft. From our humble beginnings as an artist colony to our recognition today as an internationally renowned center of fine craft, our presence in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area defines Peters Valley and the experience for our visitors, resident artists and students.
• Ploughshare Institute for Sustainable Culture – US Texas (Local and Online) – A 510 acre farm near Waco, Texas on which is located the Homestead Craft Village, also the home of the Ploughshare campus. We built a small cafe and gift shop there, then soon a larger gift barn, a pottery shop, a woodworking/furniture-making shop and a blacksmith shop. Eventually we added a restored gristmill and a fiber crafts shop, along with other buildings.
• Quaker Farm Sustainable Living and Arts Center -US Michigan (Local and Online) – Located in Harrisville, Michigan, Quaker Farm Sustainable Living and Arts Center provides education through lectures, workshops and classes. Online videos, and articles about a wide range of living arts topics are also available.
• Quiet Creek Herb Farm & School of Country Living – US Pennsylvania (Local) – Quiet Creek’s year-round classes cover sustainable topics such as integrated pest management, vermicomposting, creating raised beds, soil food web, herbal soap making, bread making, shiitake inoculation and many more!
• Reevis Mountain School of Self Reliance – US Arizona (Local) – Reevis Mountain School, located in the eastern Superstition Wilderness of Arizona, provides a place of inspiration, peace, and reverence for nature, where students and interns can learn natural healing and self-reliance skills, experience growing their own food, develop spiritual awareness, enjoy a spirit of community, and live healthfully.
• Richsoil – Permaculture Design Course for Homesteaders – US Montana (Local and Online) – This PDC will have a strong focus on DESIGN. Students attending this PDC will probably walk away with four times more experience with designing than students attending other PDCs.
• Spiral Ridge Permaculture – US Tennessee (Local) – You can learn Permaculture Design, Regenerative Farming and Homesteading Skills to improve your quality of life, create resiliency, care for the environment and have fun!
• Straw Bale Home Building – US Oregon (Online) – My name is Andrew Morrison and welcome to my straw bale building site dedicated to anyone interested in building their own straw bale house. If you are brand new to straw bale or are a straw bale construction specialist there’s something for you at StrawBale.com.
• Sustainable Living Association – US Colorado (Local) – Our educational programs, community events and workshops offer creative challenges, delivering valuable, long-term benefits for a wide range of community interests that improve the relationship between people and the environment. These programs forge connections between ideas, principles and resources and harness communication to better understand and express essential relationships that combine a local sense of place with global respect for sustainability.
• Sustainability Centre – UK (Local) – The Sustainability Centre is an independent learning and study centre, a beacon for sustainability and an award-winning social enterprise charity in the heart of Hampshire’s South Downs, UK.
• The Clearing Folk School – US Wisconsin (Local) – The Mission of The Clearing is to provide diverse educational experiences in the folk school tradition, in a setting of quiet forests, meadows and water. The Clearing is a place where adults who share an interest in nature, arts or humanities can learn, reflect and wonder.
• The Farm – US Tennessee (Local) – In 1971, a caravan of 80 school buses and assorted other vehicles carrying 320 hippie idealists landed on a cattle farm in central Tennessee with a single log cabin and barn. They had a mission. As the banner on their band bus read, they were “Out to Save the World!” Today The Farm is home to roughly 200 people living on nearly 8 square miles of forested highland — a fourth generation of families and friends.
• The Folk School of Fairbanks – US Alaska (Local) – The Folk School of Fairbanks offers year-round, affordable classes and programs in a wide variety of hands-on disciplines for adults and youth. Woodworking, Boatbuilding, Pottery, Carving, Basketmaking, Blacksmithing, Sewing, Tanning, Book Arts, Survival Skills, Summer Camps for Kids and Adults, Cooking, Music, Wild Plant Identification and Harvesting, Food Preservation, Farming, Writing, Journaling and Drawing, Navigation, Botany, Biology, and so much more…
• The Institute of Urban Homesteading – US California (Local) – Featuring small class sizes and experiential learning, IUH offers the best in Bay Area sustainability and urban farming education with classes in gardening, urban animal husbandry, food preservation, brewcraft, foraging, fermenting, and much much more!
• The Michigan Folk School – US Michigan (Local) – The mission of the Michigan Folk School is to build community by providing educational programs that promote learning, teaching, and renewal of traditional folk arts and to promote the preservation of forest and farmland.
• The Old School – US New Mexico (Local) – Old School is a hub of experts happily sharing their user-friendly skills to further the revolution of sustainable and frugal living.
• Tillers International – US Michagan (Local) – In the USA, we offer 100+ classes a year in numerous homesteading skills, including blacksmithing, timber framing, farming with oxen, cheese making, beekeeping and more.
• Urban Homestead – US California (Local) – Offering affordable homesteading & skill share classes + workshops. Educating, inspiring and equipping modern homesteaders with practical skills needed for a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
• Urban Homesteading School of Powell River – Canada (Local) – The Urban Homesteading School of Powell River organizes individual workshops and classes, evening intensives, and weekend-long bootcamps on themed topics useful to anyone who wants to improve their urban homesteading skills.
• Villages Folk School – US Iowa (Local) – The Villages Folk School specializes in providing learning experiences in traditional arts and skills, while drawing upon the uniqueness of each of the eleven historic Villages of Van Buren County Iowa. Classes are held in peaceful rural settings so students can return to a simpler time and witness the importance of the artisan in village-life.
• Wild Abundance – US North Carolina (Local) – Wild Abundance offers classes and consultations in off-grid living, organic gardening, natural building, permaculture, primitive skills, and eco-homesteading in a community setting on a real, functioning and breathtaking homestead. Our instructors and consultants bring deep knowledge, vast experience and unbridled passion to make learning and reconnecting a joy.
• Wild Willow Farm & Education Center – US California (Local) – Wild Willow Farm is where we teach people essential sustainable farming skills, host homesteading and gardening workshops, hold community events, and train the next generation of sustainable farmers for our region.
• Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, USA (WWOOF-USA®) – US California (Local) – Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, USA (WWOOF-USA®) is part of a worldwide effort to link visitors with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices. Become a member today and gain full access to our network of organic farms.
• Yestermorrow Design/Build School – US Vermont (Local) – Yestermorrow Design/Build School teaches over 100 hands-on workshops a year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft and offers a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design. Our intensive, hands-on courses are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country. For people of all ages and experience levels, from novice to professional.

Are There More Homesteading School Links Out There?

If you know of a great school or course, please send me information. I’ll add it to the list.