2026 Speaker Series
SAND INTO SOIL
Speaker Schedule
Saturday April 18
10:30am Chaitanya Massera
Exploring the Soil Food Web with Compost Tea
with demonstration
Compost tea is a microbial extract that increases vital nutrients and minerals in your food by feeding soil to increase soil vitality. This method is based on Elaine Ingham’s research and teachings.
11:30am Matt Batchelder
How to Develop Johnson Su Compost
with demonstration
I built my first Johnson-Su Bioreactor in Spring of 2018 after attending a Dr David Johnson lecture. We’ve built almost 40 bioreactors since then and continue to build them throughout Texas and New Mexico. Dr David Johnson et al stress the importance of building healthy soil by increasing biodiversity and by propagating natural processes. We are dedicated to working with farmers to promote the building of healthy soils through the practice of the five principles of soil stewardship, especially increasing microbiodiversity.
12:45pm Elena Miller ter-Kuile
Sheep-Soil, Textiles, Food and Community
Elena is the heart and soul behind the Cactus Hill Farm Fiber business. After lambing, she runs over 600 head out on farm pastures! It is a farm run with lots of heart and hard work with the help of many hands from family and friends. The farm as a whole is run by Elena along with her father, Alan. An organic certified farm, they rotate various grains on the fields in sync with the sheep grazing.
2pm Community Updates Hour
Please join us in the event yurt and share projects you are involved in relevant to seeds, soil, farming, earthworks, and more! Vendors please share your offerings!
3pm Lydia Sprouts and Michael Keefe
What to do do with your poo poo?
Michael and Lydia steward 42 acres on the border of the great sand dunes National park where they created a 1 acre garden and orchard, using regionally specific permaculture techniques. They believe in the resilience of the living earth, and seek to deeply learn and practice those life ways that restore connection, sanity, and wholeness.
4pm Michael “Maciek” Musialowski
Food Forest Movement: Planting Perennial Polycultures for Food, Water, and Resilience
Michael "Maciek" Musialowski has master’s degrees in chemistry and experiential education. He spent 1 1/2 years in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem living and breathing field-based environmental education. He has taught adolescents science & math in the field and in schools for 15 years in the Rocky Mountain states. He planted his orchard in Spring of 2013 in Taos, NM. Though initially self-taught, he finished a 72-hour Permaculture Design course in 2018. He began hosting food forest tours in 2020, and soon after shifted from K-12 to focus on permaculture education. He founded the Food Forest Movement nonprofit in 2022. In addition, he is working on a food forest manual and a card curriculum aligning the climate-polycrisis with addictions. He is also an amateur passive-solar home designer.
Saturday April 18
10:30 Jeffrey deMers
The Universal Benefits of Biochar
with demonstration
Jeff deMers is a lifelong learner and enthusiast of gardening, permaculture and restorative agriculture. He'll be demonstrating how to make biochar and talking about its benefits for all soil types.
11:45 Katrina Blair
Radical Remediation
Katrina Blair began studying wild plants in her teens when she camped out alone for a summer with the intention of eating primarily wild foods. She later wrote The Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants of the San Juan Mountains for her senior project at Colorado College. In 1997 she completed a MA at John F Kennedy University in Orinda, CA in Holistic Health Education. She founded Turtle Lake Refuge in 1998, a non-profit, whose mission is to celebrate the connection between personal health and wild lands. She teaches sustainable living practices, permaculture and wild edible and medicinal plant classes locally and internationally. She is the author of a book titled Local Wild Life- Turtle Lake Refuges Recipes for Living Deep published in 2009 that focuses on the uses and recipes of the local wild abundance. Her latest book is "The Wild Wisdom of Weeds: 13 Essential Plants for Human Survival" published in 2014 by Chelsea Green
12:45 Diamond Mauriello
Turning Sand Into Soil
Diamond , who no longer supports the inhuman, oligarchic empire model destroying our planet and our true nature as human beings. As an activist he decided to do something about it, so he opted out of his former life to begin anew. My qualifiers are 11 years of permaculture experience in Pagosa Springs, Colorado and years of teaching at the university level in Geology. He is currently transforming alpine desert wilderness into a self-sustaining homestead and organic farm with his partner in preparation for the upcoming collapse. If you're curious about homesteading, permaculture, or climate change check out our website.
Turning Sand into soil may seem like a daunting task, but with the right approach, you can create a thriving garden in even the most unlikely locations. If you have ever struggled to grow plants in sandy soil, you know how frustrating it can be to watch your hard work crumble away. But don't worry, I'm here to help you transform your sand into a nutrient rich soil that will make your green thumb proud!