Building Stronger Communities Through Preparedness

Few skills pay back like the ability to preserve meat at home. This August, the Topeka MAG welcomes Angela Allard of Grumpy Acres Farm for a hands-on meat canning workshop that takes the mystery (and the worry) out of pressure canning. Meat is one of the highest-value, highest-risk foods to put up — done right, a jar of home-canned beef or chicken can feed a family for pennies and sit safely on a shelf for years; done wrong, it can be dangerous. Angela walks us through the whole process the right way: selecting and prepping cuts, packing methods (raw vs. hot pack), dialing in your pressure canner for our altitude, safe processing times, and how to test a seal you can trust. We'll cover the gear you actually need vs. the gear that's just nice to have, how to troubleshoot cloudy liquid or failed seals, and how to build a pantry rotation that keeps your family fed through winter, power outages, and lean seasons. Whether you've never touched a canner or you're looking to refine your technique, you'll leave with a clear, repeatable process and the confidence to put up your own meat at home. Bring a notebook and your questions — and bring a friend. Preparedness is better in community.

Our flagship six-day event featuring 9–12 expert instructors, ~15 vendors, food trucks, youth events, live podcasts and performances, and incredible community fellowship.

So you signed the papers. The land is yours. Now what? This October, Julie Pennington Falk of Pure Lamb joins the Topeka MAG to walk new and aspiring landowners through the unglamorous, make-or-break first year of farm stewardship — the part nobody puts on Instagram. Julie raises lamb the slow, honest way and has lived through the steep learning curve that comes with turning acreage into a working, self-reliant operation. Her talk, "So You Bought a Farm. Now What?" covers the practical foundations: reading your land and soil, prioritizing what to fix first (fences, water, shelter), choosing livestock and enterprises that fit your acreage and your time, budgeting for the hidden costs, and building the routines — feeding, fencing, grazing, record-keeping — that keep animals healthy and a farm solvent. More than a checklist, it's a mindset: how to avoid the common first-year mistakes that exhaust new owners and drain accounts, how to scale ambition to reality, and how to build a farm that feeds your family and your community for the long haul. If you've got land — or you're dreaming of it — this is the conversation you need before you break ground.

Survival isn't a single moment of heroics — it's a stack of small, boring, well-practiced decisions made before things go wrong. This November, William from The Tactical Wizard joins the Topeka MAG for "How To Survive," a grounded, plain-spoken training on the skills and mindset that actually keep people alive when the plan falls apart. William breaks survival into the priorities that matter: the rule of threes, shelter and core temperature, water sourcing and purification, fire under bad conditions, signaling and self-rescue, and the often-overlooked first-aid and decision-making skills that matter more than any gadget. We'll talk kit — what belongs in a real bug-out bag vs. what's just weight — but the heart of the session is mindset: situational awareness, managing fear, and building the reps now so that stress doesn't freeze you later. You'll leave with a survival framework you can actually use, a short list of gear worth carrying, and a clear next step to level up your readiness. Whether you're new to preparedness or sharpening an existing kit, this is the training that turns "I hope I'd know what to do" into "I know what to do."

A year of preparedness is best celebrated together. This December, the Topeka MAG closes out the year with a Christmas Potluck & End-of-Year Celebration at Seaman Community Church — a longer, warmer gathering from 4 to 8 pm to share food, reflect on what we've learned, and look ahead to the new year. Bring a dish to share — a family favorite, a home-preserved treat, or something from your own harvest — and join us for an evening of community over a meal. We'll recap the year's workshops and milestones, swap stories and lessons learned, recognize the members who stepped up, and talk through what we want to build together in the year ahead. This is the meeting where the MAG feels most like family. New faces are warmly welcome — if you've been meaning to check us out, this is the perfect first visit. Come hungry, come ready to share, and come celebrate a year of growing stronger, together.