Community Links

Community Links is a monthly community program designed to connect people and the planet through learning, building, sustaining, and growing together! Join us on the Second Saturday of each month for educational homesteading workshops, New Volunteer Orientation, workshop and garden tours, and shopping in the EarthLinks Store. Community Links promotes garden-based skills for sustainable urban lifestyles. Events feature experts and participants of EarthLinks, as well as leaders from the local community, coming together to build community and share wisdom.

Community Links 2013 Workshop Schedule:

$5-20 suggested donation for all workshops.
All events located at EarthLinks, 2828 Larimer St., Denver, CO 80205. Topics/details subject to change. Stay tuned for more details throughout the year!

February 9th: Extending The Season

Learn how to grow fresh produce beyond Colorado’s limited growing season in this Coldframe Gardening and Indoor Produce Workshop led by Grow Local Colorado’s Barbara Masoner. Workshop 10am-12pm, lunch provided by the Women’s Bean Project.

Grow Local Colorado is a group of volunteers dedicated to promoting local food, local community, and local economy. The Women’s Bean Project assists women in poverty by teaching job readiness and life skills for entry-level jobs through employment in a gourmet food production and handmade jewelry manufacturing businesses.

March 9th: Garden Ground Prep

This hands-on Ground Prep Workshop will teach you how to assess and amend your garden soil in preparation for the coming growing season. Led by Clara Morris of the Cow Town Grangers and members of the EarthLinks Community, workshop participants will learn the basics of traditional and worm-based composting as a soil amendment, how and when to till the garden plot, seed starting techniques, and more. Workshop 10am-12pm, lunch provided by Kassia’s Pasta Farm and Open House to follow until 2pm.

The Cow Town Grangers is a grassroots community organization providing consulting for small nonprofits and producing urban farming and garden-themed community events in Northeast Denver.

April 13th: Backyard Beekeeping & Native Pollinators

Learn all about natural, holistic beekeeping and native pollinators in this very special Backyard Beekeeping & Native Pollinators edition of Community Links! The Backyard Beekeeping Workshop will be led by local beekeeping expert, Judith Moran, who has over 5 years of experience with Top Bar, Warre, and Langstroth hives. Come prepared to learn a more natural approach to beekeeping, including bee biology basics, hive maintenance, tips on a successful swarm season, how to build a pollinator-friendly garden, and (back by popular demand) a Honey Taste Test! After a delicious complimentary lunch from The Garden, we’ll gather for a very special Native Pollinators Workshop led by Amber Partridge (Entomologist) and Amy Yarger (Horticulturalist) from the Butterfly Pavilion. Bring the whole family down to learn about pollinators and meet Amy and Amber’s real live insect friends!

10am-12pm: Backyard Beekeeping Workshop ($5-20 suggested donation) 12-1pm: Lunch from the Garden 1-2pm: Native Pollinators Workshop ($5-20 suggested donation)

May 11th: Mother’s Day Plant & Garden Sale

Join us for EarthLinks’ first ever Mother’s Day Plant & Garden Sale! Pick up beautiful flowers, veggies, herbs, and other plants for your or your mother’s favorite garden, all grown by participants and volunteers of the EarthLinks Workshop Program. Also learn the basics of hardening off and transplanting your new starts into the garden with short Transplanting Workshops every hour.

June 8th: Handmade Homemade Market at EarthLinks

We’re excited to announce the second annual Handmade Homemade Market at EarthLinks! Join us as we host the Denver Handmade Homemade Market Club for an exciting outdoor market, take a moment to stroll through the Peace Garden, and enjoy fresh sun tea made from our own organically-grown herbs. This special market will feature over 40 of Denver’s best artisans, vegan food and smoked delicacies, workshops for garden and craft, coffee roasting demonstrations by Pablo’s Coffee and live music by DJ Cavem and Poet’s Row! New this year, the market will also feature an exhibition of the Lexicon of Sustainability. Market 3-8 pm. Click here for more details.

The Handmade Homemade Market is a truly local market, showcasing food and craft grown and produced in Denver homes and backyards without the high costs of commercial production. The HaHo strives to bring people together to cultivate community-based sufficiency and grow community resilience.

July 13th: Urban Livestock

Interested in raising chickens or goats in your backyard but don’t know where to start? Want to learn the basics of beekeeping or worm wrangling? Don’t miss this special day of Urban Livestock Workshops! We’ll kick things off with a family-oriented workshop on raising Goats and Chickens with locals Emily and Jonathan Power, covering all the basics and answering the question “What’s it like raising KIDS with KIDS?” Be ready to meet the Powers’ two dwarf goats, and please leave your dogs at home.

After a light lunch at noon we’ll gather for a workshop on Beekeeping Basics and an Intro to Worm Farming in the EarthLinks Garden.

10am-12pm: Raising Goats & Chickens ($5-20 suggested donation) 12pm: Lunch 1-2pm: Beekeeping and Worm Farming Basics  ($5-20 suggested donation)

Emily Power is the creative mind behind A Denver Home Companion. This popular blog started as a means to document the Powers’ simple life in Denver, eventually growing into a platform to share how-tos with friends, inside tips on Denver to visitors, and celebrations with strangers. Emily’s other half, Jonathan Power, is the chef and co-owner (with Noah Price) of Upper Larimer’s beloved Crema Coffee House and new restaurant, The Populist.

August 10th: Preserving The Harvest

By now the garden should be bringing us ripe tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, tasty greens, and other veggies and fruit… but what to do with all this bounty? Join us for a day of workshops focused on Preserving the Harvest! We’ll start at 10am with a workshop on Canning and Drying food with Clara Morris of the Cowtown Grangers. After lunch at noon, we’ll reconvene for an Intro to Fermentation at 1pm with Eileen Roscina Richardson of Cook and Culture.

10am: Canning and Drying Workshop ($5-20 suggested donation) 12pm: Lunch 1-2pm: Fermentation Workshop ($5-20 suggested donation)

The Cow Town Grangers is a grassroots community organization providing consulting for small nonprofits and producing urban farming and garden-themed community events in Northeast Denver.

Eileen Roscina Richardson provides natural foods and personal chef services, as well as cooking and fermentation classes through Cook and Culture.

September 14th: Urban Foraging

Back by popular demand, join the Urban Forager Kate Armstrong for a fascinating Urban Foraging Workshop. Learn how to identify, harvest, and prepare edible weeds, flowers, and herbs in this hands-on workshop and foraging tour of the Peace Garden. More details to come…

October 12th: Composting 101

As we approach the end of the growing season, it’s time to think about how to use up excess produce and build fertile soil for next year’s garden. Join us for our October Composting Workshop and learn how to get started with a traditional or worm-based composting system for your home and garden. More details to come…

December 14th: Holiday Open House

Every December, we turn the EarthLinks workshop and office into a winter wonderland of Earth-friendly gifts at the Annual Holiday Open House! Come shop for the perfect holiday gift from the Workshop Program, meet our staff and participants, tour EarthLinks HQ, and enjoy the lovely community! More details to come…

Back to EarthLinks Events.