370 Summer Street
Duxbury
MA
DCR’s ForestsWork Program will hold a From Woods to Farm: Practical Forest Products in Action workshop at Fowl Play Farm & Miss Bee Haven in Duxbury on November 8th from 9 am to 2 pm.
Join South Shore Permaculture instructors Todd Breitenstein and Stephen B. Sovick along with Wildland Timber owner and master tree feller George Thibeault for a look into ancient methods of wood preservation, soil building and soil fertility methods. Through creating biochar and using practical agroforestry techniques they have developed silvopasture on the 10 acre, Historic DeLorenzo Farm in Duxbury.
Discover practical, low-cost ways to turn local timber into tools for resilience on your farm & forest. This hands-on workshop will show you how to:
✅ Preserve fenceposts naturally using the Japanese Shou-SugiBan (Yakisugi) charring method
✅ Produce biochar from local timber and explore its applications in soil health, composting, and livestock systems
✅ How Silvopasture is applied at the forest level.
What You Will Experience
- Live demonstration of fencepost charring using a roll-through system
- Step-by-step biochar kiln operation (loading, burning, inoculating, application)
- Expert-led discussions: Why Biochar? Why Char Fenceposts?
- Forest and Silvopasture walk
- Q&A on applying biochar and charred posts to real farm systems
- Lunch: light farm-sourced boxed lunch included
- Space is limited. Please contact Mike Downey at 413-212-3039 or michael.downey@mass.gov to pre-register.