Upcoming Events
Hudson Valley Nut Fest
Join me at the 2025 Hudson Valley Nut Fest, where I’ll have a table of books and baskets for sale!
The event aims to showcase the resilience and diversity of local Northeastern nuts while uniting producers, foragers, and community in celebration. Highlights include:
Nut cracking, delicious nut products, & roasted chestnuts
Games & fun for all ages
Screen printing & walnut dyeing
Talk on the importance of nuts to Northeastern Native Peoples w/ Justin Wexler
Acorn processing & hide tanning workshop w/ Mark Ressl
Chestnut flour cooking demo w/ Chef Renee Baumann
Local vendors, growers, and educators
Talk & Book Sale
Join me for a talk and book sale at the David Hills Gallery in Orleans! There will be snacks:)
Harvest Market
It’s time for the Wellfleet Farmers Market Annual Harvest Market! I’ll be there with handmade willow baskets for sale. Come pick one up and then fill it with Thanksgiving veggies, fruits, pies, and more!
1st Ever Nut Stomp
Come join the Outer Cape Commons Keepers for our first ever Nut Stomp! Bring your acorn and black walnut harvest and a nutty baked good or savory dish to share—there will be prizes for the biggest harvest and the best dishes! There will be a hands on demo on how to process both acorns and black walnuts, and live music, where we’ll co-create the nut stomp dance!
Foraging Walk & Book Talk
Join me at the Wellfleet Audubon for a book talk and foraging walk! We’ll explore oak and hickory stands, talk acorn processing, and discuss the importance of these nut trees in our ecosystems.
Author Talk: Sustainable Brunswick Series
Join me at the Curtis Memorial Library in my hometown of Brunswick, ME for an author talk, Q & A, and a hands-on acorn processing demo.
Feed Us with Trees Talk at MOFGA's Common Ground Fair
Join me at the 49th annual Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) Common Ground Fair for a presentation in the Hayloft Tent! This is one of my favorite agricultural events each year—so much fun and so much to learn. I’m very excited to be a presenter for the first time. Look for the details below in the schedule of events!
Title: The Future is Nuts
Description: How would you like to live in a world where we produce an abundance of food? Where biodiversity is increasing rather than disappearing? Where more carbon is being stored in the ground than is being pumped out of it? Where dead-zones and topsoil loss are memories, and where diet-related diseases are exceptions, not the norm? This world is not a fantasy: it is the future. All over the northern hemisphere, humans once tended nut trees like oaks, chestnuts, and hazelnuts to produce abundant food, and in doing so we created thriving ecosystems for countless other species. Join Elspeth to learn why it's time to bring these nut trees back as staple crops, more about the work that's already begun, and how in tending our keystone nut trees, we can revitalize our world.
Venue: The Hayloft Tent
Book Talk at the Provincetown Monument
Join Elspeth for a talk on her new book, Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food. More details coming soon!
Reading at the Orleans Library
Join Elspeth for a reading from her new book, Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food. More details coming soon.
Reading at the Truro Library
Join Elspeth for a reading from her new book, Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food, due out with New Society Publishers this summer. Details coming soon.
NNGA Talk: Feed Us with Trees
How would you like to live in world where we humans produce an abundance of food and revitalize the life around us? A world where our species plays a key role in increasing rather than decreasing biodiversity, where we store more carbon than we emit? Where we reverse dead-zones and topsoil loss, and where diet-related diseases become exceptions, not the norm?
This world is not a fantasy: it is the future. All over the northern hemisphere, humans once tended nut trees like oaks, chestnuts, and hazelnuts to produce abundant food and in doing so created thriving ecosystems for countless other species. Join Elspeth Hay, author of Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food, to learn why it's time to bring these nut trees back as staple crops, and how in tending our keystone nut trees, we can revitalize our homes.
A Conversation at the Brewster Book Store
Join Elspeth Hay, author of Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food and Kate Woodworth, author of Little Great Island, for a conversation moderated by Kristin Andres of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. Though one book is non-fiction and the other fiction, both center on questions of our human role in a rapidly changing world. Through the lens of our local environment, come learn more about how our stories can shape our physical reality, and what tangible steps we can take to protect our home. Find more details and register here.
Book Launch Party!
On Tuesday, July 15, Elspeth’s first book will be released into the world! Come celebrate this huge milestone and send her off into the next few months of book talks, readings, and interviews with a good solid evening of nutty fun. Tickets are free, but required. Please use this link to RSVP on Eventbrite.
Foraging Walk at Steepletop
Have you ever wanted to learn more about the abundant resources of the forest? Join Elspeth Hay, author of Feed Us with Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food, for a family-friendly foraging walk at the Berkshire Natural Resources Council’s Steepletop Reserve. From 1-3pm Friday, July 11th, Hay will lead us in an exploration of the edible world that’s hiding in plain sight all around us.
Water Keepers
Water Keepers is the first gathering of a new initiative: Commons Keepers. From June 11-14, co-founders Elspeth Hay and Jaye Johnson invite a group of young women from the Outer Cape and beyond to explore what it means to become a modern-day commoner: a water keeper. For hundreds of years, commoners have been stewards of collectively managed resources; today, we're remembering and reconnecting sacred and innovative approaches to caring for our shared land, water, and air—and to caring for one another. Learn more at commonskeepers.org.