Spaces are continuing to fill up for the 11th annual Back to Basics. The theme this year is “The Power of Change” and highlighting this theme are a few of the presenters.
One Back to Basics 2017 presenter, Dawn Molaison of Swatara has taken a different route that emphasizes change. After owning and operating a farm in rural MN for years, it’s only recently that she and her husband have embraced online sales as a way to supplement their local operation. It was only a few years ago that Molaison’s niece introduced the idea of expanding their operation into the online world. Boondock Farm morphed into Boondock Enterprises.
Molaison said, “She began taking us through the baby steps of internet sales and we have been riding the wild waves since, but, I try to keep the foundations sure and solid, while introducing flashes of trendy, unusual, and new. There has to be a balance and it is a continuous juggling act.”
Boondock Enterprises offers over 80 different jams, jellies, syrups, teas, and herb mixes.
Boondock Enterprises has a large catalogue of homemade wares.
Reaching out through online avenues allowed Molaison to realize how difficult it can be to get tread the line between tradition and the new & trendy.
Molaison said, “Traditions are the old recipes and hearing my grandmother’s voice as she teaches me the art of jelly making or listening to my grandfather as he tells me where to find the best berries.”
Molaison will be giving two presentations on February 11. One will be the basics on making your own homemade jellies and jams while the other will be focusing on the ins and outs of creating a successful online business out of your home. Selling online has only highlighted the importance of adaptation to Molaison.
Molaison said, “When I began to sell some of my product and found that people actually wanted to spend money on something I created, it gave me so much confidence to go even deeper.”
While Molaison has made the change from a strictly local business to an online presence, another presenter for this year’s Back to Basics is committed to facilitating change on a personal level. Sara Sherman, owner of Discovery Horse, is a life coach who utilizes a technique called the Equine Gestalt Coaching Method (TM) which incorporates horses into therapy sessions. In other words, she partners with horses to help foster change.
Sherman, right, facilitates a group at the 10th Annual Back to Basics in 2016.
Sherman said, “‘Change is inevitable. Growth is optional’ is one of my favorite sayings. Whether or not change is ‘easy’ is truly a choice. Change requires us to step outside our comfort zone and approach something unfamiliar.”
Encouraging participants to embrace the change they would like to see, Sherman will be hosting a two hour workshop during this year’s Back to Basics called “Change Your Story. Change Your Life,” and she acknowledges that embracing this change can be difficult.
“This [workshop] experience could create some vulnerability”, Sherman said, “but I find these conversations allow people to leave with a much deeper sense of community and a little more hope that they can make some positive changes in their lives.”
The 11th Annual Back to Basics sustainability event will take place on Saturday, February 11 at the Pine River-Backus School from 8am to 5pm. Registration is open and a full list of workshops can be found at www.HappyDancingTurtle.org Happy Dancing Turtle is a non-profit organization located at the Hunt Utilities Group Resilient Living Campus in Pine River. For more information, contact Happy Dancing Turtle at 218-587-2303, info@happydancingturtle.org.
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