Rural Arts Courses: for our blacksmith’s forge, wood workshop and pottery, see the Rural Arts Centre.

Gardening Courses: for courses on Permaculture, vegetable growing and mushroom growing see Gardening Courses.

Many of our courses are also listed on www.environmentjob.co.uk

Urban chicken keeping

11am-3pm Saturday 20th April 2013 at Stepney City Farm. Advance bookings only: £25

The course will cover:
- Basic Chicken Biology
- Pests and Predators
- Housing
- Nutrition
- Breeds
- Health
- Buying your own chickens
- Chicken behaviour

The course will be held in a small group with plenty of opportunity for friendly discussion. The day will be led by Stepney City Farm trustee and vet student Josh Strycharczyk.

Download as PDF:
Chicken course 20 April

One-Day Workshop: Get Yourself Published
With Dixe Wills, bestselling author and Guardian travel writer

11am-3pm Saturday 27th April or Sunday 28th April 2013 at Stepney City Farm. Advance bookings only: £40

So, you’ve finally got around to writing (or at least vaguely thinking about) that novel or non-fiction blockbuster. Unfortunately, you’ve now realised you don’t know how to get it published. It sounds like this one-day workshop is for you.

Sit back and let Dixe Wills unravel the mysteries of the publishing process. By the end of the workshop you should have a finished proposal for your book ready to send off to publishers and agents, even if you haven’t actually got around to writing your sure-fire hit yet.

Part 1 of the workshop will include:
- How to choose a publisher and then wow them
- Agents – should you get one? If so, how?
- What a publisher can and can’t do for you
- Contracts – how not to get ripped off
- Self-publishing – cutting out the middle man
- E-books – almost certainly the future
- Crowd-funding your book
- Vanity publishing (argh!)
- And a huge number of top tips along with useful advice to help you turn your masterpiece into the first Truly Great Book of the 21st Century

Part 2 will be spent learning about all the different elements that go into a successful proposal. You’ll then write one (with Dixe’s help, if needed) that will give your book the best possible chance of being snapped up.

There will be a maximum of ten people on the workshop so book yourself a place with all celerity (see PayPal link above).

Dixe Wills has written books for Icon and Punk and has signed a three-book deal with AA Publishing, for whom he’s just written Tiny Islands, which comes out in May. His works include The Z-Z of Great Britain (as beloved of Stephen Fry), Places to Hide in England, Scotland and Wales and The Armchair Naturalist. His most recent book, Tiny Campsites, has sold over 20,000 copies. He is also a freelance journalist writing frequently for the Travel sections of The Guardian and The Observer, and has contributed to The Ecologist, Esquire, Country Walking and a host of other worthy magazines. He is represented by Ben Mason at Mason and Fox, and – best of all – he’s a plot-holder at Stepney City Farm.

Half-day workshop: Starting vegetables from seed

10am-2pm Saturday 2nd March 2013 at Stepney City Farm. Advance bookings only: £25 or £15 concessions.

What will the course cover?

- The theory behind plant propagation and the basic requirements of a seed
- Mixing seed composts –ingredients and recipes.
- Choosing seeds and knowing when to sow
- Different methods of sowing– under cover sowing, pricking out, transplanting, direct sowing.
- Caring for seedlings – correct watering, hardening off, pest and weed control
- Troubleshooting and special requirements of unusual crops

Download full Course Description Growing veg from seed