In-Person & Online Homesteading Classes for Self-Sufficiency

The dream of a simpler, natural life speaks to a deep place in all of us and has inspired thousands of students to participate in our homesteading classes. Modern-day homesteading is both an embrace of the past and a revolutionary act for the future. Urban and suburban life can feel shallow and disconnected. Learning to live with the land at our homesteading school brings meaning, purpose, and empowerment.

Grow your interconnected, land-based life with our homesteading classes


In-person Homesteading Classes

Women’s Basic Carpentry Classes

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This class is intended to get ladies up-to-speed on basic building skills,read more
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Tiny House Workshops

A class photo of smiling students in front of the Tiny House shell they've built during a 10 day carpentry tiny home construction workshop at Wild Abundance
Gain the skills you need to build your own tiny house from local, natural,read more
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Wildcrafted Apothecary Classes

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Identify and wild forage medicinal plants in the Appalachian mountains.  Lread more
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NC Timber Framing Classes

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Learn how to lay out, measure, cut, fit, assemble, and raise a 16′ by 20′ read more
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Rewilding Retreat for Women

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Gather with other women for a long weekend of connection, learning, and reread more
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Four Month Hands-on Carpentry Program

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Get confident building for yourself and others. Our hands-on carpentry proread more
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Beginner Woodworking Classes for Adults

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Get deep satisfaction from learning carpentry In a culture that’s zooming read more
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Gardening & Permaculture Apprenticeship

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Learn to grow vegetables and tend food forests in this one-day-per-week prread more
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The Nourishing Food Retreat

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On This PageWe welcome you to read through this page for a whole-picture pread more
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Women’s Advanced Carpentry

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So, you know how to use a drill and a skillsaw and you can build a basic sread more
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Permaculture Design Course

A male permaculture design student smiles up from drawing his final map project for a Permaculture Design Certificate program at Wild Abundance
This permaculture class empowers students to become effective ecological dread more
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Online Homesteading Classes

Online Tiny House Academy

A woman smiles in front of a DIY Tiny House she's building with help from the Online Tiny House Academy, a comprehensive online program teaching each step of the building process for custom tiny homes.
Gain the confidence to design and get started building your own ecologicalread more
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Online Gardening School

Organic vegetable gardening instructors Natalie Bogwalker and Chloe Leiberman smile holding their favorite gardening tools in the midst of a lush thriving garden at Wild Abundance
Are you ready to grow some serious food? This online video course will givread more
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10 Spring Wild Foods That You Can Find Almost Anywhere

Sochan, one of the 10 Spring Wild Greens you can find just about anywhere, a short online foraging class available at Wild Abundance
Do you want to be able to feed yourself from the wild? Discover delicaciesread more
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Are you ready to transform a deer hide into buckskin with your own hands?

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Learn from expert brain-tanners the process of transforming deer hide intoread more
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Top 10 Vegetables to Plant That Will Really Feed You

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Do you dream of growing your own fresh, organic food? Getting started gardread more
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Living in a Tiny House

A DIY tiny house nestled in the woods is seen from above
Learn about tiny house living from people actually doing it!With this freeread more
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Take a step closer to your dream of a self-sufficient homestead at our Homesteading School

Only a few generations ago, most people grew up in roughly the same place as their great-grandparents. Back then, children learned from older family members how to contribute skillfully to the homestead. But nowadays, things are a bit different. Few of us were raised with extended family around. It’s common for children to focus on book learning at school; they may never wield a shovel, hoe, or hammer as part of their education.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t, as adults, renew our relationships with self sufficiency. Our homesteading classes grew out of a love for practical skills and the desire to make learning these skills accessible in a culture that has virtually abandoned them. We are here to welcome you back to your roots and build a sustainable future together.

Why take a homestead class with us?

You may wonder what sorts of skills you need to live your dream of a self-sufficient homestead? Our instructors have been experimenting with this vision for decades. You can learn a lot from their experience in our homesteading classes. As a result you’ll be able to get started with your own project on solid footing.

Our homesteading classes combine traditional Earth-based living with the modern language of permaculture design.

We believe that permaculture design and principles are incredibly useful tools when it comes to homesteading. Our traditional, 14-day Permaculture Design Course teaches them through lots of hands-on learning, site visits, and a theoretical foundation. In our experience, living with the land, permaculture, and earthskills enrich one another, which is why we’ve created a homesteading school here at Wild Abundance.

Wild and cultivated plants are the stars of our homesteading school.

Getting to know the plants around you is important for every homesteader. We are out-of-the-closet plant nerds. Botanical education works its way into all of our homesteading classes.

If the green world is what draws you most, we offer Wildcrafting & Apothecary Classes where you’ll learn all about foraging, wildcrafting, and making medicines from healing plants. We also dive into connection with the plants in our Women’s Rewilding Retreat.

Our Permaculture & Gardening Apprenticeship takes things a big step further. Of all our homesteading classes, it provides the most hands-on experience with plants in the fields, woods, and garden.

Want to explore the culinary art of cooking with wild plants and garden-grown produce? Join us for the Women’s Nourishing Food Retreat, featuring healthy cooking classes for women, traditional foods, open flame cookery, wild foods, and time devoted to gathering and circling with other women.

Self-sufficient living depends on diverse abilities, including practical and natural building skills

Everyone needs carpentry and building skills. Whether you hope to build your own home, renovate one, or just do your own maintenance and repairs, learning carpentry is important and valuable. We offer Women’s Basic Carpentry Classes and Adult Beginner Woodworking Classes that impart the essentials of carpentry and tool use.

One of our most popular homesteading classes is our Tiny House Workshop, which covers so much more than the basics. It’s 10 days long, in-person, and includes an impressive online video library full of tutorials that weave in natural and sustainable materials & building design.

For an even deeper dive into building & infrastructure development, check out our 4-Month Carpentry Training, which includes our 10-day tiny house workshop PLUS 2 days/week for 4-months of building, maintenance, and repair instruction on our permaculture homestead campuses.

For female-bodied people who may not feel comfortable with hand and power tools yet, we offer two classes designed with carpentry for women in mind: our Women’s Basic Carpentry Class and Women’s Advanced Carpentry. The difference is that we dive into structural building in the advanced class.

Homesteading classes help us reclaim the practical skills that have sustained our ancestors for generations.

Homesteading is all about being resourceful. That means learning how to use what you have at hand. When your homestead includes raising livestock and/or hunting, the knowledge of how to use the whole animal is crucial. That’s why we teach you how to tan a hide so that you can make the best quality leather right on your homestead. You can see that our homesteading school covers both the macro and the micro levels of sustainable living. As a result, we provide you with the skills you need to make your land-based living dreams a reality. Come take a homestead class with us!

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