Welcome To ROOTS
Engage With Your Landscape.
Grow Your Wilderness Skills.
Craft A Handmade Life.
We offer classes to meet varied levels of skill and intensity, from beginner to expert, youth to adult. We offer limited class sizes, hands on learning, and highly experienced instructors. Roots is where you can build solid skills, connections to the world around you, and confidence and strength within. We hope to see you soon!
Bringing you the Stone Age since 2007.
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ROOTS Blog
Material Culture Of Origins Program
The Origins Program is a journey over nine months where we practice and build a variety of traditional skills, with the goal of going on a weeklong trip into the woods and utilizing them. The rules for the final trip are simple; no metal, no glass, no paper, and no...
I was asked today why we do what we do, and among the many answers is relationship.
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In this case, we can tell you what a plant is; willow/salix sp. we can teach you how to harvest process and weave it, here a diagonal plait. From here you can form your own relationship, full of depth a nuance with it. You`ll have made a beautiful basket that will also hold experiences of wading through deep mud to harvest from wild patches, the relationship to beavers and the year they built a lodge next to and ate the whole bunch you planted, or when harvesting you ran from paper wasps or ducked from cars when it was getting dark or found deer rubs in the spring as well as a polyphemus moth cocoon and how the weather and rain and level of the river affected the willow at the edges and how hard it can be to tell the different species apart but just trying informs you of details like some whose branches easily break and those that don`t and seeing the flowers in early spring and thinking about the bees who visit them or the galls that form and make for winter hotels for hundreds of insects...
and on and on....
this is the richness in relationship we wish for you.
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If you want to hang with us and other like minded students we work with willow a lot in the Gatherer`s program.
Yesterday I noticed American Yew being browsed by white tailed deer. I have to say after 20+ years of paying attention to what these animals eat I still constantly add new things to the list. Hundreds and hundreds of herbs, shrubs, and trees for them to browse.
#whitetaileddeer #wildlifetracking #deerbrowse #tracking #signtracking #americanyew #yew #treeid
Bow drill signal fires. This month our long term survival skill group had the challenge of making a signal fire using a knife and p cord to make a signal fire. This was tough bussiness as it rained all day the day before then dropped to 14 degrees. They persisted and learned some valuable lessons on their way to success. Fire can be a powerful tool to helping rescuers find you when you can`t get yourself to safely.
#wintersurvival #survival #survivalskills #wildernesseducation #wildernesssurvival #wildernessselfreliance #winter #vermontwinter #bowdrill #frictionfire #signalfire #skills
Hawkbill Sea turtle. What a blast it is to free drive along the reef and experience the variety and intricacies of the natural world. It makes me filled with awe like a little kid. Thanks again to @mattcorradino for being a great dive buddy and always being game to go out and see what we find.
#hawksbill #canebay #stx #stcroix #seaturtle #nikonz6 #wildlife #reef
Ash here holding a basket I wove from catsclaw vine carrying guava fruits. Inspired by the generosity of @sandra.kehoe.5 giving Ash baskets she wove and @mattcorradino `s kid, Ilee, being so cool as well as generous with Ash, this is now her basket to bring to the farmers market or fill with fruits or art supplies or iguanas -who knows! baskets always seem to find their place.
@Caribbeanearthskills
#stx #stcroix #craft #traditionalskills #handskills #basketry #guava
Built an osage take down bow so I could shoot this amazing 3d archery course they have here @caribbean_earth_skills . Shooting with @mattcorradino and Carmen is always a good time. Seriously tho, more than 30 full size 3d targets woven through the rainforest and ruins. Truly a hidden gem.
#3darchery #traditionalarchery #traditionalbowhunting #stx #stcroix #selfbow #usvi
star fruit for a star basket
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learned a bit about basket hoop vine, did a hex weave that I haven`t done for a decade and makes my brain work hard to turn up along with Carmen @caribbean_earth_skills giving pointers on where the corners are, and star fruit/carambola are just going off right now.
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weaving, gathering, learning ...
Happy New Year 💚 2023
📸 @naturally_amasa
Brad builds a bow, Sarah weaves a quiver and we both make a few arrows for her to play with.
Ash is just learning how to string an arrow, but for those of you who love to shoot there is an extensive 3d target range through the woods here at Mount Victory that is pretty awesome.
Winter Solstice. ☀️
We welcome back the growing light.
Bank beavers! These beavers are caching willow, red osier dogwood, poplar and more. The last shot has the elusive beavers poops for all to see.
#vermontwilderness #vermontbyvermonters #vt #wildernesseducation #wildlifetracking #vtnature #beaver
Sunsets on the west end don`t get old! Come check out this magic spot with us in December.
SAINT CROIX
Course is coming up December 4th!
Come learn with us and Matt and Carmen of @caribbean_earth_skills
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Ah, look at these lovely people who were a part of the course last year who wove beautiful baskets and gathered all sorts of plentiful foods.
We will be running a course with them December 4th - 9th.
This island is beautiful! Matt and Carmen are so knowledgeable with a love and respect for the land.
You can choose your own focus and take the path of basketry and foraging or tropical fishing.
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Link in bio to learn more.
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🌿Ash gnome in an Ash basket.🌿
Thanks to @lazymillhillfarm for running a great black ash pack basket class and helping me weave this beauty.
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Two years in, Ash`s second birthday. I am so excited to have executed this idea of dying silks all the colors of the rainbow with natural dyes. Ek! They are so beautiful...more to be done, can`t be stopped now!
We are delighted to know her and see her grow. May she tie one on as a scarf and keep helping me in the garden, jumping into piles of leaves, or pretending to weave baskets.
Beautiful days, @_rvnstone_ weaving basswood bark at a previous rendezvous courtesy of Barry Keegan leading the way.
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Coming up September 3, 4, 5.
Class schedule is up!
A few spots remaining.
Link in bio.
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#rootsrendezvous