Relearning the ways of yesterday: Reskilling festival teaches earth-friendly arts
They came throughout the day Saturday to get back to basics and learn the skills their grandparents practiced everyday: milking a goat, darning a sock, hanging laundry out to dry.
Transition Ann Arbor and Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor held its Fall Reskilling Festival to teach the art of living simply as a way to move away from oil dependence and toward a clearer environment.
Transition Ann Arbor, formed last March, is part of an international movement founded in the United Kingdom to help communities deal with climate change. The Ann Arbor group held its first reskilling festival in July.
The festivals are a way to build the reskilling movement locally, teach sustainability skills and have fun, said Laura Smith, one of the organizers. “Climate change and oil issues are heavy issues. But days like today, we don’t want to hit people over the head with it. We want to celebrate how we can have a low-energy future.”
People often see moving toward a sustainable lifestyle as having to give up the luxuries, she said. “We want to reframe that. There are other benefits to changing the way we live.”Skills such as canning and preserving, using a root cellar, composting and beekeeping were on display at the all-day event. Judy Alexander and her son Clay, 11, came from Northville to learn how to knit. Alexander had attended the July festival, where she learned to make flavored vinegar, including a blueberry batch. “I want to learn what I should have learned a long time ago,” she said. “I’ve read ‘Little House on the Prairie’ to my older son. It’s inspiring to learn to be self-sufficient.”
Some of the other skills demonstrated:
• Goat milking: Sue Shink of Northfield Township brought one of her six goats, a Nubian named Muffin, to a milking demonstration. “I want to encourage people to farm,” Shink said. “There’s nothing like a hands-on experience to encourage it.” She talked about the sweeter taste of fresh goats milk (no goaty taste like the kind bought off the shelf) and how she uses it to make ice cream, cheese and yogurt.
• Clothes hanging: There is an art to hanging clothes out to dry. The idea is to hang laundry so it creates a pocket to catch the wind, said Marsha Traxler of Ann Arbor. “The objective is to see our clothes dancing in the wind.” Winter shouldn’t discourage anyone who wants the fresh smell that comes from hanging laundry outside, she said. As long as there’s a wind (a little sunshine also helps), clothes can be hung outside. They may freeze, but the wind will still blow them dry and they will defrost dry inside, she said.
• Food foraging: The grocery store isn’t the only source for food. Liz Durfee and Blake Marshall talked about foraging in nature for food, from acorns to cattails to the weed leafy spurge. White pine needles make a nice tea; sumac can produce lemonade, and roasted chicory makes a passable coffee, albeit a bit bitter. “I’ve made flour from acorns,” Durfee said. “It’s a labor intensive process, especially cracking them all open. But it shows that food sources are everywhere.”
Jeanne Mackey, one of Transition Ann Arbor founders, said the next step is to move into the neighborhoods, encouraging people to organize and make lifestyle changes such as car pooling, tool sharing, gathering urban fruit and even helping one another with household chores. “We’re not used to being frugal,” Mackey said. “But life can be more enjoyable if we live it in a better balance. Life is better when we are connected to nature.”
Janet Miller is a freelance writer or AnnArbor.com. Contact the news desk at 734-623-2530.