Saba Cooperative seeks to provide education on naturally and sustainably meeting basic needs for water, food, shelter, heating, water recycling, and composting.
Contact us if any of these workshops pique your interests, whether you want to help teach or just want to learn.
All Saba workshops are free and donations are always welcome.
– Meeting Basic Needs Through Permaculture
Participants in these Saba workshops will learn permaculture principles and how to practice permaculture to meet human needs while conserving and restoring the health of the environment:
– Water catchment, gravity plumbing, gray-water recycling
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn essential water conservation techniques and all the elements of designing and implementing a sustainable water system, including: how to build a shed roof for catching rainwater, how to filter and store rainwater, how to use gravity for plumbing, how to design and implement a gray-water recycling system, and more.
– Solar hot water and solar power installation
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn how to catch and store energy from the sun in order to meet basic electric and hot water needs, including: how to orient and install photovoltaic panels, how to wire an off-grid battery bank, how to build a solar water heater out of recycled materials, how to orient and install a solar water heater, and more.
– Building an earth integrated wofati house
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn all of the elements of designing and constructing a wofati house, including: how to harvest and prepare local timber, how to scavenge for windows and other building materials, how to pick a suitable location, how to design and implement wraparound ditches on the uphill side, how to design and build a pole structure with a shed and gable roof, how to make sure that every drop of water that lands on the roof has a complete downhill soil path, how to waterproof and insulate the roof with layers of local, natural, and recycled materials, how to orient and install windows to optimize solar gain and ventilation, and more.
– Building a rocket mass heater
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn essential fire science principles and practices, and all the elements of designing and building a rocket mass heater, including: how to build an insulated heat riser that will create a strong convective current and reburn the smoke, how to use thermal mass to store heat and release it slowly over time, how to use a rocket mass heater for cooking, and more.
– Building a composting system
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn essential composting techniques including: how to build and use a multi-bin composting system, how to compost food scraps and other organic materials, how to build and use a sawdust composting toilet, how to cultivate a composting environment conducive to thermophilic microorganisms, how to cure compost, how to use the resulting humus to enrich soil, and more.
– Designing an edible forest garden
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn the strategy and techniques of designing and implementing a food forest based on natural patterns, including: how to identify at least 8 layers of a natural forest ecosystem, how to fill those different ecological niches with species beneficial to humans, and more.
– Growing a spiral herb garden
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn the basics of how to efficiently grow a wide diversity of useful herbs in a relatively small space, including: how to design and build a raised spiral garden bed, how to consider the relative moisture and shade tolerance of different plants when planning their placement, how to grow multiple different plants together in polycultures that promote their growth, and more.
– Hugelkultur / raised bed gardening
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn the basics of hugelkultur and raised bed gardening, including: how to use a pile of rotting wood as the base for a fertile raised garden bed, how to encourage the growth of beneficial microorganisms in the soil, how to design and implement a hugelkultur system that will increase in yields over time with minimal maintenance, and more.
– Building a mobile chicken coop and pasture paddock shift system
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn essential skills and knowledge regarding one of the most efficient ways to raise healthy and happy chickens, including: how to design and build a bottomless mobile micro coop that’s heated by the sun, how to design and build pasture paddock fencing, how to cultivate a perennial polyculture of plants and insects ideal for feeding chickens, how to cycle the chickens through the pastures to promote sustainable growth, and more.
– Wildcrafting
Participants in this Saba workshop will learn skills and knowledge regarding how to responsibly and sustainably harvest edible and medicinal plants and fungi from uncultivated or “wild” land, including: how to identify and avoid poisonous plants and fungi, how to identify and harvest beneficial plants and fungi without harming the natural environment, how to prepare food and medicine from harvested plants and fungi, and more.