Harvest Moon Society Newsletter
Spring 2024

An active and productive winter has us ready to go for spring!

The new year kicked off with our Annual General Meeting where we added some new board members and formed some new committees, bringing a blast of energy to the Society. We collaborated with some great organizations on a fun and successful event in Winnipeg and continued our Board Training Series for non-profits with Volunteer Manitoba over Zoom. Our Fibre Arts group had a well-attended weekend with the 2nd Annual Fibre Arts Retreat and held the first workshop with our new rigid heddle tabletop looms. As we got closer to spring, HMS made an appearance at Seedy Saturday and had another successful Seed Exchange.

At the Harvest Moon Learning Centre we have lots of plants started (with more to come), logs are cut and ready for the upcoming Outdoor Mushroom Cultivation Residency and we’re super excited to welcome a pair of newly graduated emerging artists for our next Artist Residency. Planning has begun for our Work Bee and Perennial Exchange, we’re filling out the staff for our Summer Programming and setting dates for the New Moon Kids Camp, and preparing to award the Harvest Moon Scholarship(s). Maybe most exciting of all is that planning has started for the 23rd Perennial Harvest Moon Festival!

Winter Recap

Annual General Meeting

The Harvest Moon Society Hybrid Annual General Meeting was held mid-January, with some folks in-person in Clearwater and others joining online with our new Meeting Owl (so neat). A few board members’ terms were up which led to the addition of four new faces and the return of an OG Mooner to the board. Chris Lillies has re-joined the Harvest Moon Society Board as the co-Chair and we welcome Darcy Lemieux, Karly Marion, Kenny Ingram, Emily Robb, and Graham Hnatiuk.

Our committees (Facilities, Education Committee, and HR) have really benefited from the injection of enthusiasm as well as the Board Training and Development Series we’ve run over Zoom the last few months. We’re always looking for more help, though, so if you’d like to get involved in any aspect of HMS, let us know!

Harvest Moon in the City

Harvest Moon teamed up with The Dogs Run Farm and Fireweed Food Co-op to host Agrarian After Dark: Conversation and Connection with Ecological Producers at the Park Theatre and we were delighted with the interest and response. Our MC and presenters really came through with some excellent talks and we had a great night learning, connecting, and chatting. A lot of planning and organizing went into the evening and we’d really like to thank everyone involved, especially our sponsors and those who bought tickets. The ball is already rolling on next year’s event. If you’d like to participate as a presenter or a sponsor or if you have any ideas on how we can make the event even better, please let us know.

Fibre Arts Series

Over the last few years our Fibre Arts Subcommittee has gained some real momentum. Gatherings centred on Working with Raw Fleece and Square Loom Weaving led to the creation of our Fibre Arts Retreat. After a successful second retreat and our first Intro to Weaving class with Pat Lovatt, we’re excited to announce our partnership with some awesome local organizations on Weaving Together, the first Louise Heirloom Project.

United Community Arts (UCA), Louise Recreation, and the Louise Library will be running this project for the month of May and June and we are calling all community members (near and far!) to participate. Whether you have weaving experience or not, this project will be a woven collection of all who contribute. If you’re going to be in the area (or if you’re looking for an excuse to come visit), you should plan to come to the UCA (148 Moffat Ave Pilot Mound, Red Door) anytime during Library hours (which are Tues 11-5, Weds 11-7, Thurs 11-5, Sat 9-12) and weave to your heart’s content. For more info, connect with the UCA at unitedcommunityarts@gmail.com.

Preparing for Planting

As the snow melts and the ground warms, we’re itching to get planting. Our excitement really started building with Winnipeg Seedy Saturday at the Millenium Library a few weeks ago. Linda and Angie were there representing HMS and had a lot of interesting conversations with a lot of great folks.

We also had an increased level of participation in our annual Seed Exchange this year with more folks sending us seeds they saved so we could send them back new seeds to try out. We distributed some Queen Anne’s Lace and Payton Purple Poppies, Paprika and Popcorn, heirloom tomatoes, and Dolciva carrots donated by Tiny Monster Garden. We really like this event and we’re glad to see it grow, thank you for participating.

Looking Forward

HMS Scholarship

The deadline is rapidly approaching for the Harvest Moon Scholarship. Applications are due by April 30 and are open to youth between the ages of 17 to 21 who reside in Manitoba. We’ve tried to make it really easy to apply, and the scholarships could be used towards any form of further education. Encourage the youth that you know to apply!

Sprucing the Place Up

Come join us at the Harvest Moon Learning Centre on Saturday, April 27. We’ll apply the “many hands make light work” adage and then we’ll share some food, taste some cider, and hear some tunes. We’re looking to prep the garden and greenhouse, check and fix the chicken run, clear up some fallen trees at the school and on the trail, and clear the eavestroughs. If you are looking for some community and camaraderie and don’t mind pitching in, come on out to Clearwater. We’ve got Wooden Gate Cider coming in the evening, we’re making arrangements for some music and we’ve got dorm rooms and cabins available so you can stay overnight. Drop us a line and get involved.

Mushroom Weekend

If you’ve caught Tom presenting at a Harvest Moon Festival in the past you, know just how much fun this is going to be! We’ve got Tom Nagy from River City Mushrooms coming out in early May to host an entire weekend of workshops about outdoor mushroom cultivation. You can sign up for the whole weekend (5 workshops), entire days (3 workshops on Saturday or 2 on Sunday), or you can pick individual workshops, whatever works for you. Still a few dorm rooms available or you can bring a tent and camp in the schoolyard. More details and info on the workshops, can be found here. Come on out!

Recent Graduate Residency

Harvest Moon added the Recent Graduate Residency to our Artist-in-Residence program last year when we welcomed Rae Swann and Alice Hamilton for two weeks in May. This year we’re really looking forward to another pair of emerging artists, Leah Gertzen and Adelle Rawluk. In the back half of May they’re coming out to Clearwater for some shared learning experiences with our network of regenerative farms and land stewards. We’re hoping that they’ll also lead a workshop and give some Artist Talks so we can learn about their practices.

Come Work at Harvest Moon

With our summer shaping up the way it is, we’re going to need some help. It looks like we’ll once again have our superstar Land Based Learning Interpreter back for the summer. If you want to help Lauren host field trips, kids camps, youth nights, and keep our grounds and facilities looking great, you should consider sending us an application. The hiring process is about to begin so it’s time to get us your applications! Send a resume and cover letter to info@harvestmoonsociety.org and we’ll set up an interview.

Festival Planning

Last but most definitely not least, the planning has begun for the 23rd Perennial Harvest Moon Festival being held in beautiful Clearwater, Manitoba on the weekend of September 13th to 15th. The HMS Education Committee has begun thinking about the Festival workshops. If you’ve got a great idea and would love to lead a shared learning experience at this year’s Festival, you can see our blog post below. If you want to volunteer at our ECO Challenge held the Thursday before the Festival (and earn yourself a free pass!), you know how to contact us! We’re looking for “experts” to teach Grade 7s & 8s, as well as trail chaperones, and people to quiz the students on their trail test in the afternoon.