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Mushrooms 101. Seventeen members of our Veteran community participated in a mushroom growing workshop at the Farm taught by Chris DeVault. Each person made, and took home their own mushroom grow bag including pink, golden, and blue oyster mushrooms. A great class and a fun day!

Making Flower Essences for Emotional Support with Rebecca Vann 

Flower essences are specialized botanical preparations, made from the flowers of various plants, that offer significant healing on the emotional, mental, and spiritual levels. The vitality of the flowers in bloom are a subtle, yet powerful preparation to help support your nervous system, which impacts every other system of your body. In this class we will craft flower essences from the flowers in bloom on the farm. Each participant will learn how to use flower essences and leave with several flower essences to begin their own collection at home.

When: Friday, August 4

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 1pm – 430pm

Creative Canvas

Creative Canvas Series. Experience the vibrant world of acrylic painting through our monthly Creative Canvas Series. Each session our instructor will guide you step-by-step through a completed painting and help boost your artistic confidence. Students will learn basic brush techniques, color mixing, and general essential painting skills.

When: Friday, August 11

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 10am – noon

Food Preservation Workshop (Jamming Jam) with Dale Billings

Learn how to safely preserve and use all of that great produce from your garden year-round! This hands-on workshop will teach the basics of water bath canning and jam making. Participants will use fruits and produce they hand-picked from the Veterans Healing Farm gardens. You will go home with your sweet creations as well as the knowledge of how to do it yourself.

This course is geared to beginners who haven’t tried canning in the past. 

During the workshops, participants will learn the basics of water bath canning, jam making, and basic canning safety. NOTE: This is water bath canning only - no pressure cooking will take place.

When: Saturday, August 12

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 10am – 3pm

Exploring The Grief Journey For Veterans and Their Families

with Jock Brocas

World-renowned spiritual teacher and best-selling author, Jock Brocas, is set to appear at the Veterans Healing Farm to deliver a transformative and enlightening series of workshops.

Recognized for his deep understanding and extensive work on grief management, Jock will educate veterans and their families on identifying, understanding, and dealing with grief, and the differing kinds of grief. The aim of these workshops is not only to equip attendees with essential coping mechanisms but also to instill a profound comprehension of what it means to truly support a grieving individual. In this crucial endeavor, Jock seeks to empower veterans and their loved ones to navigate through the challenging journey of loss, healing, and acceptance.

Join Jock on August 16, 6pm at Southern Streams CoffeeHouse for an introduction to the series.

When: Wednesday, August 16

Where: Southern Streams CoffeeHouse, 1628 5th Ave W, Laurel Park, NC 28739

Time: 6pm - 8pm

VETERAN "X"

Veteran “X” is a Peer-Led Recovery Program in which Veterans desiring to achieve recovery, within a group format, serve as the recovery team for a fictional Veteran “X” who has problems and issues similar to the group participants. By serving as Veteran “X”’s recovery team, the Veteran participants work to resolve Veteran “X”’s social barriers, and thereby develop solutions to their own problems.

Veteran “X” focuses on social barriers and issues that modulate risk for suicide such as:

• Social support
• Housing
• Substance Use
• Family/significant other relationships
• Problem-solving skills
• Future planning
• Psychosocial stressors such as legal and financial issues

Plant ID with Rachael Merriweather



Would you like to know what plants around you are edible? Or medicinal? Do you want to know how to spot poison ivy? Then this class is for you! Come learn about all the plants that surround you every day! We will discuss both common and Latin names, and why each is important. Key features that help with identifying any plant will be outlined and set you up to be able to find the names and uses of new plants you encounter as well. There’s a whole world right there in every yard and park if we just know how to see it!

When: Saturday, August 19

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 930am - 12pm

Botanical Sketchbook

Working from our local garden, students will learn to study the plants, flowers, and foliage around them to create realistic or stylized sketches and paintings. Bring your favorite sketchbook and we’ll supply the rest (various drawing and painting materials). If you don’t have a sketchbook, we have sheets of paper available.

When: Friday, August 25

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 10am - noon

Equine Therapy with Heart of Horse Sense

(First Responders are also eligible to participate)



Equine Therapy / Animal-assisted Therapy is effective in treating people, including combat veterans and first responders, with PTSD, depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and other issues.

Horses are highly reactive and respond to human emotions - inviting calm and non-reactive communications which promotes emotional awareness, emotion regulation, self-control, and impulse modulation. Working with horses in a therapeutic setting offers instant and constant feedback to participants and is highly motivational – combining to make an exceptionally effective rehabilitation environment.

The Veterans Healing Farm will be closed to all other activities during these sessions.

When: Saturday, August 26

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 10am – 4pm

QPR Suicide Prevention Training (Question. Persuade. Refer.) Three steps anyone can learn to help prevent suicide.

Just like CPR, QPR is an emergency response to someone in crisis anTRAINING WILL COVER

•  How to Question, Persuade, and Refer someone who may be suicidal

•  How to get help for yourself or learn more about preventing suicide

•  The common causes of suicidal behavior

•  The warning signs of suicide

•  How to get help for someone in crisisd can save lives. QPR is the most widely taught Gatekeeper training in the world.

When: Saturday, September 2

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 10am - 12pm

Foto Flora: An Eclectic Flower Crown Workshop + Empowering Floral Photo Shoot

Learn how to design a unique and eclectic flower crown, and then you'll walk through how to design + set up a styled photo shoot using a variety of flowers/natural elements from the Farm. Each participant has the option to model their creation however they see fit in an empowering, editorial photo shoot with Sam as the photographer.

Each participant will be contacted prior to class to discuss what they’d like their photos to look like/represent. Each participant will take home their own crown, and be emailed a link to access + download their gallery of photos. 

NOTE: Participants should bring any extra clothes, props, or accessories they’d like to change into for the photos.

When: Tuesday, September 5

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 10am - 12pm

Mental Health First Aid

Identify. Understand. Respond. — Let’s make Mental Health First Aid as common as CPR.

Mental Health First Aid is a course that teaches you how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. The training gives you the skills you need to reach out and provide initial help and support to someone who may be developing a mental health or substance use problem or experiencing a crisis.

This class is provided free of charge. Books and lunch will also be provided.

Participants will receive a certificate of completion at the end of this course.

*All class participants will be sent a brief pre-class survey to the email that they register with. Pre and post test surveys are required for certification.

When: Friday, September 8

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 830am - 430pm

Organic Pest Control for Farms and Yards with Rachel Merriweather

In this class we will be learning about not only the forms of organic chemical control but also how to utilize the pest controls nature has already provided! We will be identifying beneficial insects and how to encourage them to inhabit your garden areas so that they can take care of those insects that can be pests for you. We will also cover resistant varieties and why those are important for disease control in our area, both for food crops as well as ornamentals. This class will be helpful for farmers and gardeners with any size yard or field!

When: Saturday, September 9

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 930am - 12pm

Herbs for Stress + Balance

This class is designed to support and empower you in your ability to manage stress with herbs and self-care. We will cover 10+ herbs to alleviate anxiety, improve mood, and manage stress. We will discuss lifestyle choices that steer your ship towards more balance and the best alternative remedies for dealing with life’s stressors. We have many of these plant allies in our medicinal herb gardens are participants will get to know these plants and take home herbal preparations to add to your home apothecary.

When: Saturday, September 9

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 1230pm - 430pm

Creative Canvas 2

The 2nd workshops in our Creative Canvas Series. Experience the vibrant world of acrylic painting through our monthly Creative Canvas Series. Each session our instructor will guide you step-by-step through a completed painting and help boost your artistic confidence. Students will learn basic brush techniques, color mixing, and general essential painting skills.

When: Friday, September 15

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 10am - noon

Free Veterinarian Care for Veterans with Service Animals (limited to 15 animals)

The vet and their supply representatives will conduct an annual physical and heart worm testing, give them all of annual vaccinations, rabies (1 yr/ 3 yr) depending on Veterans records for the dog. Each veteran will receive a years supply of flea/tick medicine, and a year supply of heart worm medicine. 

NOTE: This service is only for Veterans with certified service animals that need financial assistance. For example, while Congress has approved a trial of service animals for PTSD (PAWS Act) they did not authorize veterinarian care for those same animals.

When: Saturday, September 23

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 9am - noon

Canine Therapy with Warrior Canine Connection

Warrior Canine Connection utilizes a Mission Based Trauma Recovery model to help Warriors recovering from the stress of combat reconnect with their families, communities, and life. By interacting with the dogs as they move from puppyhood to training to adult service dogs, Warrior Trainers benefit from a physiological and psychological animal-human connection. As a result of their efforts, Veterans with disabilities receive the finest in trained service dogs

Warriors participating in the program have reported that using these positive emotions to praise their dogs has significantly improved their family dynamics. NOTE: The dogs that you will be working with are brought to the Farm by Warrior Canine Connection and return with them after each session. No outside dogs are allowed.

When: Thursday, September 28

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 1pm - 3pm

Botanical Sketchbook 2



This is the second in our series. Working from our local garden, students will learn to study the plants, flowers, and foliage around them to create realistic or stylized sketches and paintings. Bring your favorite sketchbook and we’ll supply the rest (various drawing and painting materials). If you don’t have a sketchbook, we have sheets of paper available.

When: Friday, September 29

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 10am - noon

Equine Therapy with Heart of Horse Sense

This is our last equine session of the season at the Farm. First Responders are welcome.

Equine Therapy / Animal-assisted Therapy is effective in treating people, including combat veterans and first responders, with PTSD, depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and other issues.

Horses are highly reactive and respond to human emotions - inviting calm and non-reactive communications which promotes emotional awareness, emotion regulation, self-control, and impulse modulation. Working with horses in a therapeutic setting offers instant and constant feedback to participants and is highly motivational – combining to make an exceptionally effective rehabilitation environment.

The Veterans Healing Farm will be closed to all other activities during these sessions.

When: Saturday, September 30

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 10am – 4pm

PETS FOR VETS

For Pets for Vets, we wish to honor our military and their sacrifices for our country by making it easier for them to bring a loving animal into their homes. Studies show that owning a pet reduces stress, lowers your blood pressure, and staves off loneliness. We hope that not only will we find homes for some of the animals in our care quicker but that we will also be able to more easily provide the love and joy of owning a pet to members of our community who may not have thought of rescuing.

Bring the family and join us at the Farm for some great music on the JAM Center Stage this summer!

Veteran-owned BaseCamp Grub food truck will be onsite serving up some great chow!

All our concerts are BYOLC (Bring Your Own Lawn Chair). Private coolers are allowed.

Brian Ashley Jones

Brian Ashley Jones returns for a second season at the Veterans Healing Farm!

Brian Ashley Jones is a soulful singer, acclaimed guitarist, and versatile touring songwriter whose guitar-driven Blues and Country tunes are featured in film, television, and radio; Brian performs internationally at festivals, concert venues, clubs, and music education programs.  

Jones’ guitar chops and relentless touring earned him a nomination for Best Guitar Player in the 2023 Mississippi Music Awards and Best American Roots Guitar Player in Alternate Root’s 2011 Reader’s Choice Awards. Brian’s 2007 release, Courier, made the Top 40 of the Roots Music Report, broke the Top 100 of the Americana Music Association’s album chart, and has received widespread commercial, college, public, and international radio play. His swampy instrumental “Pull ’em Up” has been featured in the widely acclaimed PBS television series “Road Trip Nation” and “Free To Miss You” has been featured in the British ITV2 network television show: “Amanda Holden’s Fantasy Lives.”  What people are saying! 

When: Thursday, September 14

Where: Veterans Healing Farm

Time: 6pm - 8pm

We are looking for volunteers to help set-up, staff, and take down the Traveling Memorial Wall. The Wall will be open 24 hours a day while at the Farm for visitors. If you would to help out, please click below and we will provide you with more details. Thank you!

FREE NOTARY SERVICES

We are happy to announce 'free' Notary Services to our Veteran community. Forms we will have on-hand include: Health Care Power Of Attorney, Advanced Directive/Living Will, and

Advance Instruction for Mental Health Treatment. These forms are important to have in place for all of us, regardless of age. “It always seems too soon, until it’s too late.” Also, the notary services are not limited to advanced health care directives (i.e. transfer of titles, wills, etc.). This is by appointment only. 

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