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Adult Programming

We believe in a reciprocal relationship between community and skill building, finding that community enriches the adoption of new skills and skills enrich community. Whether you join us for a single workshop or one of our extended earth skills programs, we welcome you into our community and hope you will take what you have learned back to yours. AND WE ARE HIRING!

Double the fun. Bring a friend and you each get $25 off your workshop enrollment!

Adult Earth skills series

Select Saturdays by Season

AGES 18+

10:00AM – 4:00PM

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Adult Workshops

Selected Dates by Season – NEXT UP: Winter Tracking

AGES 18+

10:00AM – 4:00PM

Learn More

Adult Skills Workshops

Winter Tracking 

Ages 18+ | February 7th 6-8pm and Feb. 8th 9am – 3:30pm
Locations: TBD

    Whether tracking for the first time, blowing the dust off your neural search images, or looking for an adventure with other aspiring trackers and mentors – this weekend workshop will get you on the path! Long-time tracking instructors Jed Jordan and Jason Hamilton will review the foundations of mammal track identification, and then guide you through some of the best tracking hot spots our area has to offer. You and other participants will practice the art of seeing and identifying the clues left behind by all the creatures out there, with instruction and coaching for all experience levels. This workshop will also demonstrate replicable teaching methods for anyone looking to teach tracking to others. Includes one evening of indoor instruction and a full day of field studies in multiple wildlife areas. Grab your thermos and bag lunch and come join the fun!

    Winter Tracking Fee
    Fee: $125-$225*

    Sliding scale and scholarships are available!* Applications can be accessed through your Account

    REGISTER For Winter Tracking

    INTRODUCTION TO HIDE TANNING

    Ages 18+ | April 26 – 27, 2025 9am-5pm
    Locations:     4-H Acres, Lower Creek Road, Ithaca, NY
    Instructor: Danielle Prizzi (see bio on our people page).

      Photo credit: Danielle Prizzi and Lyla White

      Ready to partake in the revival of learning to create a durable, reliable textile that breaks down into the Earth when its usability is complete?

      In this 2 day introductory tanning workshop, we will be transforming local white-tailed deer hides into buckskin using the smoke tanning method.

      Participants will practice:

      • bucking a hide
      • fleshing & graining – wet scraping method
      • prepping the hide for applying fat emulsion
      • framing & dry scraping
      • rehydrating & stretching
      • smoking a hide
      This workshop will be set up with different deer hides in the various stages of smoke tanning. These workstations will allow each participant to get valuable hands-on experience taking part in each step of this tanning method, without having to commit to working an entire deer hide on their own. Participants will leave the workshop with a small section of smoke tanned hide and with exposure and knowledge of smoke tanning to begin tanning on their own.  As hide tanning is a lifelong skill, with lots of nuance and regionally adapted methods, what is covered this weekend will be an overview to inspire those curious about tanning to feel equipped to go further.

      In addition to processing the hides we will discuss methods for storage and preservation of fresh hides, creating your own at-home hide step up, and future hide tanning opportunities.


      Background:
      The process of turning animal skins into usable cloth or leather is a universal earth living skill, very likely in all of our ancestral lineages in some form.  Regionally adapted methods of tanning hides, using the earth-based resources provided, have been a part of human existence for thousands of years! More recently evident in history, indigenous cultures all across the world still use/used the entire animal when processing them, turning raw hides into usable cloth.  The warm, soft, durable and water-resistant buckskin being a highly valued resource for clothing, structures, vessels, shoes etc.

      Tanning hides in old, natural, from the Earth ways using smoke, bark, brains, eggs, soap, salt, oil and minerals is having a slow revival. Over the last two centuries, much of the specific land-based nuance of  tanning hides regionally has been lost  due to the invention of chromium and harsh chemical tanning has dominated tanneries all over the world, having huge environmental impacts.


      Disclaimer:
      Hide tanning is physically (and often emotionally) enduring, hard and smelly work! This skill requires patience, persistence, and self-care. We will be working in a deeply heart-centered, intentional and held way, where Danielle will pass along my personal rituals around animal processing.  Her intention is to make sure everyone feels comfortable and informed as this process is for your learning.  Taking a break to stretch and move your body, root yourself in the Earth, and step away is always welcome.  The deer hides provided were all sourced from local hunters.

      Hide Tanning Fee:
      $250 – $350 (income based tiered pricing)

      Register Now

      About the Instructor:
      Danielle Prizzi is an ancestral earth skills guide, craftswoman, an earth-centered somatic healing practitioner, community herbalist, naturalist, and a humbly radical homesteader, who weaves together a deep connection with each step. She has dedicated my life to living the skills that she teachs. Through embodying ancestral skills as the foundation of her life, she has been facilitating workshops and programs for everyone from kids to adults for the last 12 years and offers private earth skills & hide tanning mentorship.   

      Danielle has been tanning hides for over a decade and is well practiced in smoke tanning, mineral tanning & bark tanning to make leather processing both domesticated and wild animal hides. She uses her tanned hides for making clothing, bags, and for straps or adornment on her wild harvested material baskets. Danielle has been teaching hide tanning consistently for the last 5 years focusing her teaching efforts on teens & adults through Primitive Pursuits and on her own. 
      Beyond tending her small homescale tannery, she also shares a passion for fiber arts, herbalism, foraging, making animal fat body products, making fire from friction, preserving homegrown & wild foods, wild basket weaving, and tending her homestead.

      https://www.onthewoodedpath.com/  Instagram

      Photo credit: Danielle Prizzi and Lyla White

      Adult Earth Skills Series

      Ages 18+ | Saturdays 10:00AM – 4:00PM
      Location:       4-H Acres, 418Lower Creek Road, Ithaca and various other locations TBD.

      Each session of this program focusing on skills and activities of the season. Scroll down for some details relating to Fall, Winter and Spring Sessions.

        Winter 2025 Dates:

        • January 11th + 25th
        • February 8th + 22nd
        • March 8

        Spring 2025 Dates:

        • March 22nd
        • April 5th + 19th
        • May 10th + 24th

        Winter Earth Skills
        Fee: $495-$595*

        Sliding scale and scholarships are available!* Applications can be accessed through your Account

        REGISTER For Adult Earth Skills

        Spring Earth Skills
        Fee: $495-$595*

        Sliding scale and scholarships are available!* Applications can be accessed through your Account

        REGISTER For Adult Earth Skills

        Winter SESSION FOCUS

        Winter is a time to gather around the fire, a time for crafting and telling stories. Winter is about trees and tracking. In this session we will take on advanced crafting projects such as baskets, stone hatchets, and atlatls.  We will enter the magical world of tracking and learn the secrets of fishers and bobcats. We will focus on learning our trees by bark and bud and end the season with a harvest of maple syrup.  

        Our Basecamp and main teaching location will be at 4-H Acres 418 Lower Creek Rd Ithaca. Other locations for exploring and foraging TBD. A pre-camp email will give details of where we will meet and what to bring.  

        REGISTER For Adult Earth Skills

        Spring SESSION Focus

        Spring is the time of birds, bows and ephemeral flowers. In this session we will focus on crafting handmade bows and arrows, foraging spring wild edibles and learning the birds as they return from the south. Spring is also about growing awareness. By opening our senses and learning to interpret what the land is telling us, we can reconnect to what it means to be part of the natural world.      

        Our Basecamp and main teaching location will be at 4-H Acres 418 Lower Creek Rd Ithaca. Other locations for exploring and foraging TBD. A pre-camp email will give details of where we will meet and what to bring.

        REGISTER For Adult Earth Skills

        FALL SESSION Focus

        Fall is all about celebrating abundance and preparing for winter. In this session we will focus on building shelters for our campout on November 9th and gathering and storing food for our final feast on December 14. We will learn fire skills including friction fire. 

        Our Basecamp and main teaching location will be at 4-H Acres, 418 Lower Creek Rd Ithaca. Other locations for foraging to be announced. A pre-program email will give details of where we will meet and what to bring.