Austin Day
A series of epic snowstorms has bleached the landscape along Wagner Street in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
I focus on the few bits of color: a dark curve of road, the green smudges of a distant grove of trees, and the splashes of red barns that make up Three Pines Farm. A rooster crows from a nearby building as I dart through the French doors into a neat brick-walled barn, shedding my coat and shaking off the deep chill of the snow. Our host, Kara Grupp, is a petite, contagiously energetic mother of two young boys and six dwarf goats. She feeds, greets a dozen guests and settles us into an airy, modern kitchen with work space. The fifth-generation farm and the barn itself opened as an elementary school in late 2014. We gathered for an afternoon class to make chocolate babka, a swirled loaf that is a staple Jewish delicacy. Tying into vintage aprons sparks conversation between strangers. We share memories of making holiday cookies and grabbing pieces of grandma's cinnamon sugar dough. Today's bread class will come soon enough, but these unscripted moments of sharing and connection are what sustain Kara.
“We're more fragmented and distracted than ever before,” he says of our age with technology. So she built her family school-turned-farm as a retreat. “Happiness and prosperity depend on connection.”
Austin Day
Three Pines Farm fits into an explosion of folk schools across the country and around the world. There were about nine known “folk” schools in the United States in the 1970s, says Dawn Jackman Murphy, with the Folk Education Association of America. That number has now surpassed 80, with 70-plus openings since 2011.
“There was a second wave,” Kara says. “They call it the modern popular school movement.” He thinks that technology and the non-stop pace of modern life create a longing for spaces that slow down and focus on creative activities. Online tutorials make it easy to learn new skills at home, but they lack the intimacy of face-to-face instruction and the camaraderie of classmates.
Austin Day
A Folk What?
Folk schools appeared in the 19u-Denmark century. These grassroots schools channeled life skills, cultural identity and the natural world into the dignity of rural life and farmers. The Nordic heritage still anchors many Midwestern folk schools, with day and weekend workshops in rosemary, woodworking, metalworking or fiber arts.
Some people buy folk school classes as a holiday gift—an opportunity for couples, mother-daughter twins, and friends to spend time together learning a new skill. Others come as individuals, looking for a way to relax the soul when the pressures of life (and the freezing winter) constrict it. “January and February are two of our biggest months here,” says Kara.
Different strokes
The idea of a folk school dates back to the 1830s, when the Danish philosopher and educator Nikolai Grundtvig encouraged schools designed for everyone, not just the moneyed aristocracy. He envisioned hives of activity that would teach crafts and song and dance, instill a sense of cultural pride and connect informed citizens as democracies began to replace monarchies. More than 50 folk schools started in Denmark after 1850, and several appeared in the United States in the early 1900s. The John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina has been going strong since 1925.
Austin Day
Modern American folk schools preserve and present skills that were once passed down by parents and elders. Each has a unique curriculum, shaped by seasonality, landscape and local history and ethnic traditions. But self-sufficiency and sustainability are common threads. Lessons may cover building a brick bread oven, canning garden produce, or hand-crafting snowshoes.
At Minnesota's North House Folk School, opened in 1997 in Grand Marais, you'll hear the rhythm of looms and pounding hammers year-round. The soundtrack is mixed with smells of sawdust and wood shavings from handmade paddles, skis and even coffins. Last year, North House expanded its campus on the North Shore of Lake Superior to meet the demand of more than 3,000 students who take 400 courses each year. Weekend and week-long festivals celebrate the changing of the seasons and feature fiber art, acoustic music or wooden boats. North House's popularity recently inspired elementary schools to open in Duluth and Ely, each within a two-hour drive.
“The Midwest has the highest density of public schools,” explains Dawn with the Public Education Association of America. The region also has the best track record of success. “People come together for the craft,” he says, “and stay for the community.”
Reinventing the family farm
Cara didn't have public schools on her radar until six years ago, when she was working as a science and research associate at Iowa State University. But in 2013, the caretakers of her family's farm relocated and she had the opportunity to take their place. Kara's great-great-grandparents moved into a log cabin on the land in 1856. The name, Three Pines, comes from the seedlings her great-grandfather brought from logging in Wisconsin to build a barn. He planted them in memory of his three daughters who died while he was away in the winter of 1865. Kara felt she could sow something here too.
In the barn her grandfather built in the 1960s, she pictured taking out part of the barn for a vaulted entry and dining room and replacing the counters with a kitchen. “I could see this place,” he says. The vision came true – and so did others. A second barn is being prepared for wedding and event rentals. A third houses chickens.
Austin Day
Her dwarf goats live in the large family barn. The animals draw visitors to Three Pines in the summer for goat yoga and “cuddle parties.” Cooking classes and craft workshops increase in the fall, led by local artisans and out-of-state or international experts. Some classes use family history, such as making soap or wire brooms, as Kara's pioneer ancestors did. A different program encourages repeat visitors. And last winter she launched the Small Boat Supper Club, gatherings of eight people to share soup, bread and thoughtful conversation, often guided by a reading—what Kara dubs big talk, rather than small talk. “Everything falls under the umbrella of connection and happiness,” she says.
As we take the babkas out of the oven, a few people grab phones to take pictures, but the technology break is brief. Showing off our work can wait: Sharing happens here. We settle around the table to taste the sweet, chewy bread. The chatter meanders through Dutch oven cooking, trailer camping, and the joys and challenges of parenting. Storytelling closes the three hours together. Then we bundle up and head back into the windy afternoon, warmed by conversation, connection and loaves in hand.
Explore Folk Schools in the Winter
Iowa
Vesterheim School of Folk Art, Decorah
In the state's scenic northeast corner, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Heritage Center teaches rosemary, weaving, fiber arts, chip carving, woodworking, blacksmithing, and silversmithing. Cooking classes explore traditional dishes such as kransekake, a towering celebration cake, and lefse, a potato bread.
Michigan
The Michigan Folk School, Ann Arbor
With its new home at Staebler Farm County Park, this school features a blacksmith studio, a wood shop, and a classroom (with a teaching kitchen in the works). The category includes leatherworking, blacksmithing, bread baking, shoemaking and organic food production.
Minnesota
A newcomer to the Midwest folk scene, this school was founded in 2016 and is located in the Lincoln Park Craft District. Class offerings include making soft-soled leather shoes, carving wooden faces, sharpening blades, eco-printing silk scarves, and foraging for tea. The school also hosts live music at the Dovetail Cafe and Marketplace.
Courtesy of Duluth Folk School
North House Folk School, Grand Marais
Thousands of people have taken classes at this popular destination, housed in colorful wood-frame buildings on the shores of Lake Superior. In addition to a vast curriculum, the 22-year-old school hosts seasonal festivals and has a vintage schooner for day and evening trips on the lake.
Location is everything at this four-year-old school. A small town in the Iron Range, Ely is a gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the area was once home to migrant miners. Class topics are inspired by the setting: sewing with beaver skins, chain link jewelry, foraging, canoe building, pine needles, and sweet making, a traditional miner's lunch.
Wisconsin
Jens Jensen started The Clearing in 1935, making it one of the oldest folk schools in the country. The historic buildings host weekly residential workshops during the warmer months, one- to two-day workshops from June to November, and day classes in January and February.
Driftless Folk School, La Farge
The rolling hills of southwestern Wisconsin surround this 13-year-old school near Viroqua. Classes cover hard cider, cheese and fermented beverages. butchery and sausage making. wrought copper bowls; and even living off the grid.
Courtesy of Driftless Folk School
Going up to the farm
When it's freezing outside, see what you can learn inside Three Pines Farm (for just $50).
Herbal lotions and filters
November 16
Find your perfect scent in botanicals and essential oils with Ann Staudt of the Siberian Soap Company.
Sourdough Bread making
January 4th
Vicky Dunn of C'Est la V Bakery in Waterloo, Iowa, teaches the magic behind the perfect sourdough loaf, from start to finish.
Cooking with Miso
January 25
Tomie Sasaki-Hesselink shares traditional and modern recipes with Miso, the fermented soybean paste central to Japanese cuisine.
Choose your own private class
Book a group date (or give the gift of a holiday getaway). Options include making scones, sushi and French crepes.
