Happy Holidays from the fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and earthworms.
Merry Christmas from the falling leaves, the never ripening green tomatoes still on the vines, and the bright garlic shoots popping up through the mulch.
Happy Chanukah from the sauerkraut fermenting, the milk coagulating and the herbs dehydrating.
Happy Solstice from the cool crisp nights, the wild wind and the regenerating rains.
Happy Kwanzaa from the persimmons, passion fruit, satsuma tangerines and pineapple guava currently ripening on the stem in the winter crisp.

Here at IUH we wrapped up our last class of the year with a fantastic day picking and brining olives out at Hillcrest Ranch in Sunol. We had a fine clear crisp day. Now in preparation for our winter open house celebration...the last mad rush of activity before the homsteading elves go into hibernation for a month or so. Please do join me for a mid-month sip of mead or bit of homemade cheese and crackers.
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Winter Open House ~ It's a Party!!!
Holiday Social, Tasting and Shopping
Saturday and Sunday December 14 & 15,12 pm- 4:30pm each day
Straggler Sales Monday December 16 6-8pm, Tuesday December 17 10am-noon
contact us for address

Please join IUH Founder, Ruby Blume at her home for a year end social and sale! There will be a gazillion things to taste and explore plus amazing deals on homemade goodies. As always everything here is ultra-local, super small-batch and only available once a year. OIfferings are under-priced (compared to a market price for a similar hand-crafted item) and a round-up/round down policy applies (this means if you feel like it is all together too cheap, feel free to round up. If you need a price break, ask and we'll see whatweI can do). For those of you too busy to stop by on the weekend, the doors will be open for stragglers a couple hours each day on Monday and Tuesday. Straggler sales will be more casual, without full tasting, but with extra discounts on some of the remaining iitems.

Tasting will include: Homemade mustard, mead, fermented sodas, ginger beer, cheese, cordials, candies, jam & honey

A sample of what will be available for purchase:
Pantry: Over 10 kinds of low-sugar homemade jams, Bee-centric all natural raw honey, artisan mustard, hand-crafted cordials, caramels & truffles,
Bath & Body: Handmade soaps, tinctures, salve, lip balm, mineralizing tooth powder, lotions by Lila
Mercantile: Dream pillow sachets, genuine feedsack totes, cat toys, beeswax candles, Cheesemaking kits,
Books: Urban Homesteading, Rabbit Zine, Beeswax Zine, Cheesemaking Zine
Stocking Stuffers: herbs grown here, seeds, mini-soaps and much much more
Art: Handmade tiles, cups bowls and wall art

Plus seconds and pay-what-you want grab bag!

You are wonderful!
A big shout of gratitude to all of you wonderful people who attended our classes and events this year. You really are a high quality crew of folks, passionate and curious about new skills and new ways of living. It was a pleasure to have so many of you at repeat classes so I could get to know you. Our absolute best promotion is word of mouth, so if you value what we are doing, please tell a friend.

Response Requested
Call for feedback, suggestions proposals
We'd like to hear from you. Do you have feedback or suggestions for improvement? Are there classes you would like to see on our 2014 calendar? Are there teachers you'd like t turn us on to? Classes you'd like to teach yourself? Although things get all quiet after our open house, it is because we are cogitating and wotking to improve what we do for next year. This is the time we seek out new topics and teachers, try to upgrade our website and plan the coming year.

Three-Springs Internship 2014 ~ Call for Application
If you have ever wanted to see behind the scenes of running a small organization on a shoestring or want the opportunity to attend LOTS of our classes, please consider applying for our 9 month internship:
Three Springs Administrative Internship March 15-December 15, 2014 Deadline for applicaton: February 15, 2014. Our nine month internship gives you a good sense of the flow and work required to run a small non-profit. You will be involved in learning to manage some of the day to day aspects of running IUH as well as mentorship in a specific area such as grant writing, promotion or outreach. In addition you will attend many classes and events as a representative of the school. A great opportunity to expand both your small business skills and homesteading knowledge. This internship requires your availability Wednesday mornings as well as some weekend days and weekday evenings. The time commitment is otherwise not terribly strenous, something like 12-20 hours/month.
Download Application for Spring Internship

IUH Winter Schedule
IUH will be on winter break from December 18-January 18. We'll still be processing registrations and answering emails, but there wont be any classes going on. The winter session of classes runs January 19--March 15. The 2014 season of classes will be posted February 15, 2014 and officially starts March 29, 2014.

Classes Winter Session
Winter Gardening Essentials
Sunday January 19, 2014 10am-3pm

Winter Cheese Making Intensive
Saturday January 25, 2014 12 noon-6pm & Sunday January 26, 10am-2pm

Dormant Season Fruit Tree Grafting
Sunday February 9, 2014 10am-12:30pm

Bare Root: Selection & Planting of Your Urban Orchard
Sunday February 9, 2014, 2pm-4pm

Winter Fruit Tree Pruning
Saturday February 15, 2014 10am-1pm

Ferment! Lacto-Fermenting for Flavor & Health
Saturday, February 15, 2014 1pm-4pm

Herbal Medicine Demystified
SurdayFebruary 16, 2014 10am-4pm

Mosaic Making Mini-Intensive
Saturday March 8, 2014 10am-4pm & Sunday March 9, 10am-1pm

Living Earth: Soil Health and Science for Gardeners
Saturday March 15, 2014 1pm-5pm

Organic Gardening 101
Saturday March 29, 2014 10am-4pm

Cheese Making 101: Yogurt, Fresh Cheeses & Feta
Saturday April 5 2014, 1-4pm