West Virginia School of Traditional Skills Takes Root

Bowden, WV (Hinton News) – Marsha and Kendall Waybright and their family have been running Laurel River Club Bed & Breakfast in Jenningston, WV for almost three years. They are constantly noticing how fascinated people are with the 200-acre educational farm that surrounds the B&B. So much so, that they began the West Virginia School of Traditional Skills. 

“We own and operate Laurel Fork Farm, which uses the property that surrounds the B&B for the educational farm, and provides most of the food for the B&B. When we started allowing people to follow us around they were excited and wanted to come back to learn more,” said Marsha. “This kind of experimental learning is often never forgotten once learned, and so we decided to get more organized and invite other businesses to join in on the fun. This is how I came up with the School of Traditional Skills, because it’s basically skills that are not taught anymore.” 

Guests of Laurel River Club B&B have access to many of these experiences, and off site educational experiences will be offered as well. “We will be teaching whatever is going on at the farm at that time,” she said. That might be birthing or butchering an animal for food, planting, harvesting or preserving the garden, making salves, soaps, tinctures, drying herbs, making bread, cheese, butter, Kombucha, Kefir, Kimchi, canning, or freeze drying techniques. 

The goal of the non-profit West Virginia School of Traditional Skills is to work with other businesses and organizations to provide experiential education using creation to empower people to reconnect with nature. Marsha said, “We encourage the use of natural resources in a sustainable way to achieve personal and community wellness. This school will allow little windows of opportunity for people to learn from our day-to-day lives.” 

Marsha will be partnering with several entities to bring these programs to the public, such as the WV Forest Farming Initiative, Mountain Medicine Trail, Yew Mountain Center, WV DNR Wild Yards Program, WVU Extension, Eastern College, 4-H groups, and more. 

Will Lewis, Forest Farming Coordinator for the Yew Mountain Center in Hillsboro, WV said, “I think it is a great outreach program that is very much needed.  There are a lot of people that want to learn these traditional skills, so I am very glad that they are offering this program.” He is considering a public program with the WV School of Traditional Skills in the summer.

Marsha is a Master Gardener and enjoys doing things with the Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists. In turn, “We love it when they visit and help identify plants so we can make checklists for our guests to mark off when they see different plants and animals on the farm. We enjoy talking about the different plants that we have and planning new things too.” She will be teaching many of the programs but has also assembled “a team of people to help and we have an awesome board of directors who have a heart for teaching, too.” 

“The Master Gardener program is a volunteer program where those interested in horticulture give back to their communities,” said Jodi Richmond, WVU Extension Agent for Agriculture & Natural Resources. Comprised of a 17-session online training program, participants receive 15 hours of instruction in a variety of topics such as botany, plant propagation, soil science and nutritional management, vegetable gardening, tree fruits, landscape design, woody ornamentals, and West Virginia native plants. After completing 40 hours of initial volunteer work, participants then earn the WVU Extension Master Gardener certification. 

The first program, Grape Pruning, kicked off on March 6. Upcoming programs will get participants into the garden and involve seed starting and planting. There is a high tunnel to be tilled and planted as well as the garden, a Mountain Medicine Trail to work on, a botanical garden, an herb garden, some thornless blackberries to be planted, the Golden Winged Warbler Project, and lots more! 

Workshops are open to guests of the B&B and the public. All ages are welcome and many of the programs are free, while some require a fee. Registration is required for programs in which materials are provided. 

For more information on upcoming classes, please visit www.lrcbnb.com or call (304) 402-7095.