Mother Earth News Fair
 

Anybody attending the Mother Earth News Fair this Spetember in Seven Springs, PA?

Will be there in spirt. If u go please post and tell us your expirence.


~~ pelenaka ~~

I was thinking of going as it is relatively cheap for the 2 days and I have that weekend off. I figured it would be a great place to start and get some very useful knowledge. Also, was wondering if anyone had any previous experiences with this event.

I definitely would if it was closer.

Sounds like fun.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/fair/home.aspx

The only downside is there is no clear time schedule of presenters.

Has anyone ever been to like an event like this? Like are there hands-on workshops?

We'll be there (tickets are purchased and room booked). An exact schedule of event is supposed to come out in Aug.....they better hurry up or they will be late......according to the e-mail we received when we asked them questions in July. No extra fees for workshops and they are supposed to be hands-on. Lots for kids to do, too, again according to the e-mail they sent.

There will be 3 generations of my family there.

Ooooh! Thanks for posting this! I had no idea.

If you are somewhat in the area, here is another you might be interested in the week before.

http://www.paenergyfest.com/

Unfortunately I will be working the week of the energy fest which has me bummed out because that sounds like a very good event to attend also.

My husband and I will be there also. Planning to take our RV on our first "long" trip so hopefully we won't have any problems. We are staying at the Laurel Hill State Park and MENs said they'll most likely be running shuttles. We are excited!

Thinking about going to either one since we are only a couple hours from each..Leaning towards the Energy Fair more than MENS..but can't decide ?????

Please tell me the Renewable Energy one is done yearly!? That would be another great one to go to....but we can't do both in one year.

They hold it every year around the same time. I highly recommend it - it's a really nice fair and very informative.

Is this held every year? If yes,at the same place?
I'm only 2 hrs away but decided too late that I would really like to go....
Chris

Did anyone attend this weekend? How did it go?

I attended and I learned alot of very useful things. Everything went well and the speakers were awesome and answered any questions people had even if it meant staying a little bit later than scheduled. I will be a regular attendee and Seven Springs is beautiful also.

Thanks. There was no way that I could make it this year. I am looking forward to the next one!

My hubby and I also attended the fair. It was great! They had booklets with the program schedules and it was really hard narrowing it down to the one you could attend as I always found at least three being held at the same time that I was interested in!

Our favorites were "Raw and Living Foods", "Building a natural first aid kit", "reversing and preventing chronic disease", "organic living on a dime", "making tinctures", "build your own electric car", "wood powered car", "masonry stoves and heaters", "powering your homestead with renewable energy".

We both attended a few that we wished we hadn't but that goes with the territory. The weather was great, the resort was just gorgeous, and the people were friendly and it appeared everyone had a great time. The food was pricey so it came in handy having our camper in the parking lot where we could fix a meal. We camped at a local state park along with many, many others and met a lot of nice folks. Our Kentucky "neighbor" brought over some passion fruit, and our "Virginia" neighbor brought over a bottle of wine to share.

I understand Mother Earth News will be having more of these fairs across the country. We'll definitely sign up again!

I'd love to hear what others who attended liked the most.

Yes I also had the same problem picking between choices. I went with livestock and gardening classes since I am new to homesteading. As I previously stated the speakers were great and the resort was beautiful honestly was a steal at 25 bucks for a two day pass.

With ~100 classes/workshops/speakers offered "per day" if was hard deciding which ones to go to! (and still leave time to check out the booths and eat!). My husband and I rarely saw each other during the day because we split up so we could gather lots of information.

I've seen conferences that charge at least $250 for two days. Definitely a steal at $25 (bought early passes). I just tried "youtube.com" and searched mother earth news fair and found lots of videos available to check out (fyi to those interested).

You know the 4 person early pass brought the price down to $12.50 per person for 2 days so $25 wasn't such a steal. I learned alcohol fuel sounds difficult but pressure canning and soap making seem surprisingly easy. Oh and can't forget determining a good chicken from a poor one their was alot of info in the seminar. The fair needs to go on for a week to get to everything, two days just isn't enough.

I went with a friend. I think it would have been nice if they offered the classes more than once. There were plenty of people there, and the few we wanted to attend were overflowing.

The resort was beautiful, and the weather was great. I was a bit disappointed in the food selections. Other than the extremely pricey resort food, the other venders were your typical carnival/festival food wagons. I expected to see something much healthier.

Also, I wish there had been more craft type venders. I would have loved to shop for some nice homemade gifts.

We were very glad we went. It wasn't as perfect as we expected. Every conference/fair I have gone to before that had kid activities were the kind where you "check your kid in" and then go see your class then come back and get them. This was "stay with you kid" activities. Fine, but that means I couldn't go to the classes I wanted. I took the kids with me to some, but chose different ones so that they might get something out of it too (or at least not be as board), and I let them pick a few. I had to skip the ones I really wanted to see. But we know for next year, so we will be better prepared for our kids.

We also learned that 4 people and 2 double beds is BAD math, even with a sleeping bag and pillow so one kid could sleep on the floor each night. No one really slept for 2 nights. But we'd do it all again!

I agree, there were too many good choices each session.....making choosing very hard. DH and I, luckily, are wired differently so we could split up and share later. He could go to the more technical classes and then explain when he learned to me. Food prices were a bit too high. 4 sandwiches came to $30! DD and I ran out to the truck and got our own drink while DS and DH stood in the mile long lines. Saved $10-12 that way!