Knowledge Share Description
Join us for a three-day, hands-on workshop where you’ll learn the basics of carpentry while building a simple, functional compost toilet structure. This workshop is perfect for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of sustainable living practices, including the critical role composting toilets play in climate resiliency.
Through practical, step-by-step guidance, we’ll cover everything from the basics of carpentry to the ins and outs of composting toilets. You’ll leave with the knowledge to build and install your own compost toilet, as well as a deeper understanding of humanure, proper composting practices, and how this simple solution can have a significant impact on the environment.
Immersion Focus
Carpentry Basics: Learn the fundamental carpentry skills required to build a compost toilet structure.
Composting Toilets & Humanure: Explore the crucial role of composting toilets in climate resiliency. Learn the ins and outs of humanure and how to compost properly to minimize environmental impact.
Practical Implementation: Gain the confidence and knowledge to build and maintain your own compost toilet at home.
Learning Outcomes
Hands-on experience in building a compost toilet structure from the ground up.
A solid understanding of the composting process and humanure, and how to compost effectively.
Practical tools and knowledge to implement sustainable, self-sufficient practices in your own home
Spark important conversations about waste management and its role in the larger context of environmental sustainability.
To recognize the impact of existing “waste” disposal practices on the land and explore solutions that contribute to climate resiliency.
Learn skills to build and use a compost toilet
Create a compost toilet that will better serve the land and help support the activations at Plants to the People Farm, enabling us to hold and nurture more people on the land in a regenerative way.
This immersion aims to bring awareness to the importance of properly managing our poop and pee and engage participants in creating a more regenerative future. Reframing our body waste from something considered "waste" to an essential offering to the land is a powerful shift. Our poop and pee, when properly composted, are not waste but nourishment that enriches the earth. This process helps us recognize the cyclical relationship we have with the land, where every element—our bodily offerings included—plays a vital role in sustaining the health of the environment.
Schedule & Details
Dates: Friday April 25th, Saturday April 26th, and Sunday April 27th
Time: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM each day
Total Hours: 20 hours of hands-on instruction and learning
Location
This workshop will take place in West Saugerties, NY at Herban Cura: Plants to the People Farm a school and sanctuary dedicated to supporting our community in deepening its relationship with plants and the land. At Herban Cura, we focus on cultivating medicinal herbs, diasporic and native ancestral seeds, fruit and nut trees, and wetland restoration. By learning and sharing skills, we believe we strengthen our community ties and build climate resiliency. The compost toilet we build will be an integral part of holding space for our activations and future gatherings on the land.
Cost
Sliding Scale: $333 - $888
Early bird sliding scale (ends Friday, 3/28): $333 - $444
Our Sliding Scale is meant to make these offerings as accessible as possible while also honoring all of the labor and resources that have gone into the preparation and facilitation. Please reference this sliding scale resource to support you choosing the amount that best reflects your resources and capacity.
Only 10 spaces available
Facilitator
Harrison is a multi-disciplinary artist, builder, ecologist, and musician from Accord, New York. He was born and raised in the Hudson Valley, where his connection with the Earth, the arts, and community was fostered.
Harrison’s passion for the environment led him to Olympia, Washington where he studied Botany, Mycology, Ornithology, Ecology, and Agriculture, earning a BA in ecosystem studies from The Evergreen State College. While studying, he worked as teacher’s assistant/shop aid for the college’s Woodshop, hoping to learn a new skill and fulfill a desire to work/create with his hands.
Seeking to bridge the worlds of environmental science and building led him to study at the Earthship Academy in Taos, NM where he deepened his understanding of sustainable design in construction. This path brought him to Oakland, CA where he lived and worked in the activist community Canticle Farm, as a carpenter helping to create an adobe art studio as well as renovating housing for migrants seeking asylum.
He has over a decade experience in construction/woodworking, having built from ground-up to finish over half a dozen residential houses, and has worked in 7 different custom furniture woodshops. He currently runs a custom woodshop in Kingston, NY.
Harrison’s work is grounded in reflecting nature through land stewardship, diversity resilience, and creating connections between disciplines.