A Day at the Retreat

We’re working like busy bees here in the CITR underground retreat laboratory, preparing for the event! If you’re coming to the retreat, here is what you have to look forward to. And if you’re not coming, here is what you’re missing.

Attendees will check in at noon on Friday, September 2, in the great hall at Camp Sheppard. There, they will each be feted with a bag of goodies and samples from sponsors such as Springer’s Yarn Nook, Stone Buhr Farm, Bramble Berry, Oliverio Peppers, Rain’s Farm on the Hill, and more. Each one will receive a folder packed with all the information they need for their weekend plus their name tag, a notebook, and a Chickens in the Road pen.

Sample folder.

Each folder is being stickered with a printout that includes each attendee’s name and their selected class schedule along with their cabin assignment and any buddies they requested to be grouped with in classes. Classes will start right away at 1 p.m. with the first 3-hour session. Three-hour sessions are being offered in breadbaking, soft cheese, hard cheese, bar soap, liquid soap, boiling water bath canning, and pressure canning.

We’ll break for dinner at 7 p.m. before starting the evening mini-sessions in candlemaking, homemade beauty products, and woodworking projects (cheese presses, bird houses, and soap molds).

Throughout the retreat, we’ll be holding random giveaways for all kinds of wonderful items from sponsors including New England Cheesemaking, Still Meadows Farm, Walton Thriftway, Springer’s Yarn Nook, and more. (See ALL of our sponsors here.)

At 9:30 on Friday night, we’ll let them sleep! They’ll need it! Breakfast will be come-and-go between 7 and 9 a.m. before we start up the next 3-hour session. After lunch, we’ll have two more 3-hour sessions before dinner and the evening mini-sessions.

Then we’ll let them sleep again!

Sunday morning will be another come-and-go breakfast in the hall before attendees ramble on over to the Party on the Farm here at Stringtown Rising Farm with more food, more fun, more prizes, and more chances to learn. After the party, they’ll either spend another night at the camp, if they choose, or start on their way home loaded up with goodies, samples, prizes, and everything they created themselves in classes during the retreat. Most importantly, they’ll get to take home everything they learned and, we hope, some fantastic memories.

We’ve had a few last-minute cancellations, freeing up a few spots, so if you want to come, you still can. Let us know and we’ll make a name tag for you!

Go to CITR Retreat 2011 for more info. Even if you can’t come to the retreat, you can still come to the party. The party is a FREE event, but you must sign up. Access the party registration form here: Party on the Farm.

It’s gonna be a blast!

P.S. If you’d like to be a sponsor for door prizes or goodie bag items, you still can! Email us at [email protected].