Sheep Camp: Hide Tanning & Introduction to Animal
Processing Workshop
4 - day Sheepskin Tanning &
Introduction to Animal Processing Workshop
Thursday August 20th - Sunday August 23rd
9-5pm (or until finished)
A hearty locally sourced lunch made up of
wild and cultivated
foods will be provided each day
with snacks and herbal tea offered
~Rustic Camping available upon request~
Dryden, NY - exact location upon registration
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Overview
In this 4-day workshop, we will focusing on honoring the many gifts of
our local, domesticated sheep-- the gift of their skin, meat, bones, fat, blood, and organs.
This workshop is two part - sheepskin hide tanning and harvesting & processing a locally pasture-raised sheep, to feed workshop participants over the duration of the four days.
Participants will have the option to learn about working with different parts of the sheep including sinew, intestines, brain, stomach, heart, liver, tongue, hide and bones.
Interest and time will determine the depth in which we'll dive into hands on learning with different parts of the sheep.
Mentors and Support Staff
Danielle will be supported in the animal process & harvest by her partner Darren Johnson. Darren grew up hunting, harvesting and processing animals, holding such deep natural empathy and technical skill. He will be bringing his embodied knowledge, refined even more as an adult, alongside his over a decade of experience as a professional chef to co-facilitate an introduction to animal processing section of this workshop. Between Darren's technical skill and Danielle's creative, resourceful nature participants will learn a full range of information on how to honor the many gifts of our local, domesticated sheep.
Darren will be preparing and cooking all the lunches provided in this workshop.
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Tanning Methods
This workshop will focus on combining two different tanning methods
- mineral & smoke -
to gain the benefits of both methods on these beautiful sheepskins.
The finished sheepskins will be water/humidity resistant, repel rodents & bugs (who'd destroy the hides over time),
and with your persistent effort be soft & subtle to be used for a beautifully finished rug or even clothing.
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This workshop will be held entirely outside, which means the weather will be a factor impacting the sheepskins.
The length and flow of this workshop was created with the intention of accommodating the weather.
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Unfortunately, our relationship with many of these sheep does not begin until their hides
have been salvaged from local butchers (who often discard hides into a compost heap),
or directly from local sheep farmers.
I fleshed & salt or dry preserve the hides until their time arrives to tan.
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Dates and flow of the program
Thursday August 20th -- General overview of sheepskin tanning & hands-on tanning work: washing, fleshing/wet scraping, framing and opening up the sheepskin. Butchering and processing of our communal sheep will occur in the morning and last into the early afternoon.
Friday, August 21st-- Hands-on tanning work: Dry scraping, pumicing & combing/cleaning the wool, preparing the smoker & smoking sheepskins
Saturday, August 22nd --Hands-on tanning work: Finish smoking sheepskins, hand softening
Sunday, August 23rd -- Hand softening and wrapping up!
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Come join us at this beautifully gratifying community practice to continue to preserve such a rewarding and connective skill!
$550-650 slide scale per participant -- partial trade/barter options available - please inquire -
$100 non-refundable deposit due upon registration. Deposit goes towards the full cost of the program.
Remaining payment due August 1st, 2026. Payment plans are available, please inquire at onthewoodedpath@gmail.com
Disclaimer: Hide tanning is physically (and often emotionally) hard and sometimes smelly work! This skill requires patience, persistence, and self-care, which is why this program has been split over two weeks! We will be working in a deeply heart-centered, intentional and held way, where I will pass along my personal rituals around animal processing. My intention is to make sure everyone feels safe as this process is for your learning. Taking a break to stretch and move your body, root yourself in the Earth, and step away is always welcome. These hides were all sourced from local sheep farmers.
In honor & acknowledgement of reciprocity and the converging lineages of ancestral earth living skills, 10% of the proceeds of my adult workshops are donated to local BIPOC led organizations dedicated to reconciliation and reparation efforts.
