Speaking

Do you need a speaker to talk about homesteading, living sustainably, or  animal husbandry? Deborah speaks at conferences and workshops across the U.S. and Canada. Below is a list of topics, which she has covered in the past, but she is also open to creating a special talk geared towards your unique audience. To see a list of past and upcoming speaking events, click here. Please contact us for more information. Thank you!

For general audiences:

Why Homegrown and Handmade

Why on earth would anyone want to have a garden, milk goats, or cook from scratch? Learn why homegrown and handmade food is not only cheaper but better for you and the environment.

Ecothrifty Living 

Make greener, healthier choices while saving money. You’ll be surprised to discover all the artificial chemicals hiding in your home, food and personal care products, but you can easily replace them with natural alternatives that cost far less!

 

Homesteading and sustainability:

Choosing Animals for Your Homestead 

We’ll start with an overview of livestock and talk about how to choose the right animals for your homestead and your life, depending upon your property, your personality, and your goals.

The Natural Home Dairy

With the partnership of a few animal friends, you can produce all of your family’s dairy products while letting mothers raise their own babies as nature intended. Discover how to choose dairy animals, how to share milk with babies, and what equipment you need to make all of your dairy products. Recipes included!

Raising Chickens and Turkeys

Whether you want eggs or meat, adding chickens or turkeys to your homestead can be a wise investment. Learn where to buy chicks and poults, how to make a homemade brooder, and what to feed them. We’ll discuss breed choices, housing options, and end of life alternatives for layers and meat birds.

Goats as the Centerpiece of a Diversified Homestead

Did you know that goats can provide you with milk, meat, and fertilizer? We’ll quickly cover the basics of raising goats and then talk about what it takes to make your own soap and a variety of cheeses, yogurt, butter, buttermilk, and meat. We’ll also discuss whey and milk as fertilizer, as well as the basics of composting, so you’ll never need to buy fertilizer again.

Fiber Animals for Fun and Profit

Whether you have a hundred acres or just a couple, you’ll discover what type of fiber animals will work for you. We’ll talk about fiber from rabbits, goats, sheep, and camelids (llamas and alpacas), as well as the basics of caring for fiber animals, how to harvest fiber, and how to process it for selling.

Time Management for Homesteaders

There is always more to do on a homestead than could possibly be done! So, how do you do it all? You don’t! We’ll talk about prioritizing tasks and how to move out of crisis mode (where you are constantly putting out fires) and move into a place of empowerment.

Value-Added Products

If you want to make money on your homestead with value-added products, there are a lot of things you can do! We’ll talk about various options for selling milk, cheese, soap, meat, compost, leather, and more.

Goat Businesses

Do you want to make money with your goats, but are not sure what you can do? Discover what you need to legally sell goat milk, cheese, soap, meat, and compost. Learn how to prepare skins for sending to a tannery, and see what a finished goat hide looks and feels like. Finally, we’ll talk about putting your goats to work in the growing field of goat landscaping.

 

Cooking and food:

Cheesemaking 101 

We’ll talk about the difference between milk from cows, goats, and sheep, as well as the history of dairy in this country. Then we’ll demonstrate how to make mozzarella, queso blanco, and ricotta. We’ll also talk about how to make yogurt, buttermilk, and chevre, as well as hard cheeses.

Deborah demonstrated things well and also talked about her own failures and experimentations.”

I really enjoyed this class — will recommend it to my friends if it is offered again.”

Deborah’s knowledge of cheese was great. She explained the information well.”

The Joys and Challenges of Eating Seasonally 

Eating seasonally and locally doesn’t mean you have to eat snow for three months a year! On the contrary, it means eating food that tastes better and is more nutritious than industrialized food. Discover the health and financial benefits of fresh food, and learn what our ancestors knew about eating well year round.

 

Gardening:

Composting

Stuff rots, right? Well, yes, eventually. In this session, you’ll discover the difference between hot and cold composting, and learn the basics of vermicomposting, so you can efficiently create black gold for your garden.

Vegetable Gardening for Cowards

This is the talk for people who are absolutely convinced that they cannot grow anything. Deborah is not a master gardener, but her family grows the majority of their fruits and vegetables, and you can too. She has made just about every gardening mistake imaginable, and she shares her humorous insight and hard-won knowledge to put you on the path to growing vegetables that you can actually eat and enjoy.

 

Writing:

Never Give Up! 

If you want to be a writer, rejection is part of the job description. It took Deborah twenty years to get her first book published. There were dozens of rejections that could have been the end of the road, but she kept building her platform and honing her craft. She’ll talk about being discouraged, taking wrong turns, and getting sidetracked. But ultimately, if you’re a writer, you have to write, and regardless of how many times you get thrown off that horse, you keep dusting off your ego and stumbling back into the arena.

Building Your Platform 

You’ve heard over and over again that you have to have a platform before you can get published, but what does that mean? How can you be an expert without a book, and how can you publish a book without being an expert? It might seem like a catch 22, but Deborah explains how you can build your platform and increase your chances of having an agent or publisher say, “Yes!”

Blogging for Beginners 

Learn why you should have a blog and how to get started. You’ll leave with ideas on what to write and how to build your audience.