East Nashville Spring Fling offers celebration, education

The music industry-entwined among us will likely be spending St. Patrick’s Day dodging sudsy coeds on the streets of Austin during South By Southwest. Here in East Nashville, things’ll be a little more dignified — if not as flush with free tacos. March 17 brings the 2nd Annual Spring Fling on the Eastside, set for noon to 6 p.m. at The Green Wagon.

The event offers a full afternoon of food, beer and neighborly merriment, plus a workshop component that’ll let you leave more informed than when you showed up.

Specifics: the beer will be free (and green, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day), the food will come from Terra Delicious and Blackbird Heritage Farm. And as the Fling’s being wrangled in part by education outpost The Skillery — which offers a wide array of workshop opportunities at TheSkillery.com — the learning will be plentiful.

Spring Fling workshops on offer:

• FOODSCAPING: STOP MOWING AND START GROWING
  Nashville Foodscapes helms this one (you’ve likely seen their work in the yard out front at The Green Wagon), offering tips on how to “turn your green space into a multi-functional oasis of food, beauty and fun.”
  Details: 1 to 2 p.m., free, more Foodscaping workshop info and tickets

• LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY
  The Skillery’s Fling partners Landscape Solutions head up this workshop, which is aimed at helping ease those with land to scape into the warm weather with tips on preparing your landscape for spring and yard sustainability. (LS’ focus is on organic, sustainable landscaping processes.)
  Details: 3 to 4 p.m., free, more Landscape Maintenance workshop info and tickets

• HOME BREW 101: A BEER-MAKING WORKSHOP
  Ben Harris of All Seasons Gardening & Brewing offers a primer on home-brewing beer, including the equipment you’ll need, the ingredients you’ll need, and how to turn those ingredients and that equipment into the good stuff. All told, you’ll get the map to making your first five-gallon batch of beer.
  Details: 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., $10, more Beer-Making Workshop info and tickets

Workshop attendees need to register (even for the free ones) over at TheSkillery.com.

Along with all that learning and celebration, the Spring Fling will also be a gathering ground for donations to East Nashville’s Martha O’Bryan Center, which aids needy local children and adults — many of whom reside in and around public housing development Cayce Place — through education, employment and outreach programs.

The whole event centers at The Green Wagon at 1100 Forrest Ave. For more info, dig around at TheSkillery.com. (Above photo: The Green Wagon Facebook.)