Skills Off the Grid

Skills off the Grid is Westchester’s own Home and Garden channel – but it’s not TV; these are hands-on workshops on Backyard Beekeeping to Homemade Herbal Remedies that take place in a Pleasantville church, a county-owned farm in Yorktown and a school in Croton.

These popular classes are coming to the rivertowns beginning with Harvest Bounty on October 22, 2011, an afternoon of traditional "food arts" workshops. Offerings range from a canning, pickling and preserving class taught by Nancy and Mark Mazur of Irvington, NY, to a vinegars and oils workshop with herbalist Bonnie Rogers of Briarcliff Manor, NY.

Skills Off the Grid founder, Cameron Kelly, says, “This afternoon of food-skills workshops will teach people how, if only in a small way, to ‘get off the grid.’ People are looking for do-it-yourself, hands-on know-how that our grandparents had but many of us have lost. It’s also about building community and self-reliance, and increasing our ability to live creatively and sustainably.”

Skills off the Grid is Westchester’s wave of a larger movement of community-led, affordable learning opportunities taught by local experts. Other organizations with similar missions include Brooklyn SkillShare, Boston SkillShare, and Austin SkillShare.

Roots & Wings and Skills off the Grid are working on a regular schedule of learning opportunities for the rivertowns.