Formerly Nature & Nurture
We bring nature programs to you!
603-229-1676
Email: info@naturerainbow.com

We can teach the following adult-level programs and skills on an individual or group basis.

Worm Composting
Composting with worms, or vermiculture, has many advantages over traditional composting - you can compost year- round, indoors, and without odor or pile turning. This workshop will cover everything you need to know to start your own worm composter. Along with the program, you may wish to order the book, Worms Eat My Garbage and a worm composting kit including bin, bedding, and many hungry worms.

Basic Basketry
Native Americans used readily available materials to craft baskets of unequaled beauty. Baskets were designed for food storage, hats, and for burying the deceased. Many baskets filled a cultural as well as practical need, with symbols woven into the design. Come learn basic basketry and recapture some of the spirit and craftmanship of this practical art as you create a plaited basket with natural materials

Twined and Plaited Basketry

Shelter Building
Aboriginal People worldwide have used available materials to protect themselves from the elements. We intend to follow some of the methods of our ancestors and create a shelter that will protect us in a survival situation in a temperate environment. The shelter may be a debris hut or other shelter.

Orienteering
Have you ever wanted to explore a large park or forest? In this six-hour course you will: use an orienteering compass to determine compass direction and map direction, determine how far you have travelled by foot, backsight, set up and follow an orienteering course, read map symbols and topographic maps, and pilot a map course.

Edible Wild Plants
Many of the plants that we think of as weeds can furnish the ingredients of teas, candies, salads, casserole and other dishes. This class will focus on field identification and preparation of edible wild plants.

Wildflower ID Walks
Have you ever wanted to know the names of the flowers of the woods and the fields? In this easy walk, we will learn how to use a key to identify plants in bloom at this time. Participants are encouraged to bring Newcomb's Wildflower Guide if they have or can borrow it. This is an adult-oriented program, but children under 6 are welcome with parental supervision.

Winter Signs: Tracks and Trees
Learn to identify trees without leaves and read tracks in the snow. This is an adult-oriented program, but children over 8 are welocme under the supervision of their parents. Heavy rain or heavy snow cancels.

Animal Tracks and Signs
In this program, Matt Schoeffler will cover a number (not all) of the following topics: Identifying animal tracks by their gate and compressions; using an individual animal track to lead to the next track; and using a tracking stick to follow tracks over more difficult terrain. Each participant should bring a four-foot-long, straight stick or pole, 5 rubber bands, as well as a shoe box full of beach sand or play sand.

Primitive Skills
Fire by friction
Flint-Knapping (Making Arrowheads)
Bipolar Knapping(Drill Bits)
Stalking
Arrow-straightening and making
Cordage (Making Rope and String)
Making Nets
Thatched Mats
Edible Wild Plant Walks
Bone working-awls, fishhooks, needles
Primitive Shelters (Debris huts)
Brain Tanning Deer Hides
Bowls and Spoons Burned in with Embers (coal-burned)
Felting Wool
Making Pump Drills
Tallow candles
Soap Making
Cecropia Coccoon Silk-spinning
Natural Dyeing
Making Acorn Flour

Other programs
Spider's Web Dreamcatchers (Menominee Band of Ojibwa or Chippewa)
Making Brooms
Making Wreaths
Harvesting and Using Invasive Alien Plants
Maple Syruping
Nature Drawing
Massachusetts Reptile and Amphibian Slide Show
Tree Identification
Basic Taxidermy
Skeletal Preparation
The Indoor Herb Garden
Butterfly Gardening
Tidal Pool Explorations