Local Community Learning Emerges through Winter Wednesday Workshops in South Hero

Spring 2024 Newsletter

Group photo from our Natural Dyes workshop with Christel Nase of Meadow Lane Macrame

Not many libraries would be open to having a butchery workshop on their ground floor or painting among the stacks. But the Worthen Library (along with the Healthy Roots Collaborative) has been our co-conspirator for the last five years in bringing land and food-based fun to the community throughout the winter months through our Winter Wednesdays series.

As Guy Maguire, our Director of Programs, says, “we can conserve all the habitat we want, but conservation is ultimately empty if there isn’t a group of people who care for and who want to be stewards of that land.” Christine Poracro, Farm & Food Business Coordinator for the Healthy Roots Collaborative, adds “giving people the opportunity to connect with each other, local food, nature, art, and community has created a vibrant network that contributes to the health and vitality of our community year-round.”

Over the course of three months, some amazing local folks shared their passions and we learned how to paint chickadees, identify and learn about plants and animals through phone apps, butcher a lamb, make hot sauce, create cocktails and mocktails with local ingredients, make fresh handmade pasta, and use ingredients from the garden to create beautiful natural dyes.

Winter Wednesdays help South Hero residents and visitors connect with each other and the land around us. Library Director, Keagan Calkins, says this series is “something wonderful and powerful.” A huge thank you to our local and local-ish teachers: Aprille Soons Palmer, Chuck Hulse, Mary Lake of Can-Do Shearing, chef Jackie Major, bartender Matt Farkas, Gloria Ruvalcaba of Grand Isle Pasta and Christel Nase of Meadow Lane Macrame.