The Permaculture Podcast: Recent Episodes
Scott Mann
This episode comes from Geoff's request to compare Solarpunk and Permaculture.
Suggested reading from this episode:
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin's
Kim Stanley Robinson's Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
The anthology: Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World
This episode started with the question:
How do you approach working with clients and understanding their needs and goals?
Suggested reading from this episode:
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
This episode is based on a question I received asking:
What is your design process? (site analysis, implementation, and how you approach a design)
Based on this, I walk through the three phases my design process has evolved through over time:
- Collecting Everything
- Refining Focus
- Educating Clients
In this episode, I talk about something that we don’t address enough: the hard work of Permaculture is boring. It’s not heroic. It doesn’t make for a great YouTube short or video to add to your story. The pictures that come out of it are rarely art, or something you’d want to post to Instagram.
I hope this episode reminds you why we show up day after day, week after week, for the small, routine tasks of permaculture.
If you found this helpful, share it with a friend who might be struggling on their journey right now, so it can be a bit of encouragement to keep going, even when it’s tedious.
Until the next time, spend each day showing up and putting in the work, as you care for Earth, yourself, and each other.
An update with a bit of big news: we found, made a winning offer on a house in Cleveland, Ohio!
When I decided to relaunch the show, I knew it was going to be a rollercoaster-like adventure, with possible delays, ups, downs, and time spent waiting. Thank you for your patience while we move our lives across state lines. Once the dust settles, things are shaping up to bring you new stories, experiments, and voices, from Cleveland, from Ohio, and from around the world.
And if you have ideas for what we should tackle first, I’d love to hear from you. Send me an email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com or visit thepermaculturepodcast.com, click on contact, and send me a message there.
Until the next time, spend each day exploring, enjoying, and building your local community, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Today, I want to talk about another question from Owen:
"What are some common mistakes beginners make in permaculture design, and how can they be avoided?"
The thoughts shared in this episode are only one perspecitve, my own. I'd love to hear other ideas on the need to slow down when practicing permaculture, so reach out if you'd like to share how you would do things differently.
Text: 717-827-6266
Send me an email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or stop by thepermaculturepodcast.com, click on Contact, and send me a direct message.
My family and I are in the process of finding a house in a new city, which will bring a new future for us and the show. Listen to find out more about where we're going and what this means for The Permaculture Podcast.
Today's question comes from Owen:
What does it look like to put a permaculture garden to bed for the winter? Mulching / tilling / planting cover crops / none of the above / something else?
The question for this episode is from Geoff:
I'd love to hear your thoughts about how homestead sites can create a "whole nutrition" landscape with permaculture.
What I mean, is that a "healthy balanced diet" typically includes sources for necessary nutrients, calories, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates/starches, etc. Growing the leafy greens, berries, fruit, vegetables is all very well and good -- but if we are seeking to create a 'whole nutrition' landscape, we need to re-evaluate how much area in the gardens are devoted to tubers/roots and protein sources like nuts (hazelnuts) or seeds (sunflower, serviceberry seeds) versus the more typical perennial greens. Ie Maybe way larger portions of the landscape should be devoted to tubers and fast-growing nuts/seeds than is typically seen in Permaculture Designs, for instance for PDC courses?!
Recommended reading to accompany this episode:
- Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon
- Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé
- Recipes for a Small Planet by Ellen Buchman Ewald
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Today I’m joined by my friend Joshua Hughes as he shares the continued work of the team he’s a part of to create a jungle to marketplace supply chain with the launch of Rewild Organics.
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Joshua Hughes return to share information about his latest venture Blacksheep Regenerative Resource Management, a invest with social responsibility.
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In this episode are resources you can use to learn more about building shelters, creating cordage, creating your first everyday carry, foraging for food, elevating that food to cuisine, and the basics of first-aid if you're ever on your own or with a small group far away from a clinic or hospital. These skills also form the basis for building, or rebuilding, our communities in times of decline or disaster.
My First Bushcrafting Book, Bushcraft by Richard Graves (Thriftbooks): https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/bushcraft-a-serious-guide-to-survival-and-camping_richard-h-graves/279713/item/1100554/
Stop the Bleed Online Class: https://www.stopthebleed.org/get-trained/online-course/
Where to Buy a C-A-T Tourniquet:
https://www.narescue.com/combat-application-tourniquet-c-a-t.html
Interviews With
Sam Thayer (2013): https://thepermaculturepodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-1345-foraging-with-sam-thayer/
Sara Bir (2018): https://thepermaculturepodcast.podbean.com/e/1822-the-fruit-forager-s-companion/
Dina Falconi: https://thepermaculturepodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-1516-foraging-and-feasting-with-dina-falconi/
Pascal Baudar (2016) - The New Wildcrafted Cuisine: https://thepermaculturepodcast.podbean.com/e/1625-the-new-wildcrafted-cuisine-with-pascal-baudar/
Pascal Baudar (2018) - The Wildcrafting Brewer: https://thepermaculturepodcast.podbean.com/e/1825-the-wildcrafting-brewer-with-pascal-baudar/
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My guest today is Laura Oldanie, a permaculture practitioner and the author behind the website Rich and Resilient Living, which focuses on how we can live a life and make financial decisions that lead to a regenerative future.
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Today's guest, in an interview recorded by co-host David Bilbrey, is the microbiologist and soil researcher Dr. Elaine Ingham.
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My guest for this episode is Joshua Peace Seeker Hughes, an American permaculture practitioner living and farming in Costa Rica. His work there, which forms our discussion today, includes issues of land preservation through bottom-up solutions, regenerative resource-based economies, divestment, changing our lifestyles, the real wealth in of resources versus the illusion of money, and how we are in a period of transformation that requires transitional ethics.
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Thoughts from a conversation with my friend Nathan, on how we can act in a world on fire, when we know we're not able to protest or be in the streets.
Question: What causes and organizations do you support with your time and resources?
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My guest today is Jeff Speck. Jeff is the author of Walkable City and Walkable City Rules. As an urban planner and city designer he specializes in, and advocates for, human modes of transportation: first and foremost walking, but also biking.
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A response to Geoff's comment about designing out the designer, from my recent episode about my design process.
What I'm Reading: People and Permaculture
What I'm Listening To (Music Video): Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads
Getting to Know One Another:
What song(s) or musical artist(s) defined your life, now or when you were growing up?
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In this episode from 2014, one of my favorite people from the permaculture community, Karryn Olson, joins us to share a pattern language she’s identified for women in permaculture, which we can use to create a constructive permaculture movement so that together we can design a world with ever greater beauty, abundance, and inclusivity.
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My guest for today is Rhonda Baird, editor of Permaculture Design Magazine, and designer and educator at Sheltering Hills Design, LLC.
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Rhonda Baird, the editor of Permaculture Design Magazine and teacher and designer at Sheltering Hills Design, LLC., joins me to continue our conversation about creating change. In our first interview, we spoke about the way that we can work on ourselves as individuals. Today we move from the inside to the out with how we can organize and support others and our community.
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When I left my permaculture design course I was fairly comfortable walking the landscape and looking for areas of shade or full sun, and tracking how that would change throughout the day. To walk barefoot after a brief rain to feel where the soil drained quickly or to find spots where water pooled, even if I couldn’t see it with my eyes. To build either a water or an A-frame level to plot and map contours. I knew how to make a base map, a plant list, and to use those to put together a design. With shears and a pocket knife, I could prune limbs or loosen pot-bound roots. With a shovel and spade, I could dig holes and put plants in the ground.
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In the first of the new, Q&A episodes, Owen asks:
"What is your design process? (site analysis, implementation, and how you approach a design)"
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My guest today is Owen Wormser. Owen is a sustainable landscape designer from Western Massachusetts and author of Lawns into Meadows: Growing a Regenerative Landscape, from Stonepier Press.
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Can you live an enjoyable, self-indulgent life while remaining thrifty and at the same time not overtaxing Earth’s resources? To have all of that sounds too good to be true.
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If you’re new to the world of permaculture, you may not be familiar with the work of Dan Palmer, who passed away in 2022, as his website and podcast don’t circulate or get mentioned as often as they used to.
His website, makingpermaculturestronger.net, is still available, where you can explore his archives. I recommend taking the time to do so, as it’s worth the journey.
It’s because of Dan, as the host of this episode, that I reshare this interview. With his gentle nature, his desire to go deeper into what made design and implementation more effective, and how he synthesized all that knowledge into something actionable, Dan was a positive voice for change to so many, including myself.
Enjoy this interview, originally released in 2020.
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The world is on fire and needs us, all of us, to care and show up. Each of us needs permaculture, so here I am, back at it again, sharing more from beneath this big, beautiful umbrella of philosophy, design, and implementation.
In this episode, I share a bit about where things are at, what the show will look like moving forward, and what to expect from here.
Support the Show
- Become a Patron on Patreon: patreon.com/permaculturepodcast
- Donate directly at paypal.me/permaculturepodcast or using Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
- You can also book me for a meandering or design consultation. Find out more about those at: thepermaculturepodcast.com/meandering
- If you’d like to drop something in the mail, contact me, and I’ll send you my current mailing address, as we’re in the process of moving to a new city hundreds of miles from our current home.
Contact the Show
If you’d like to share your thoughts on this episode, have ideas for types of episodes to try, questions I can answer on air, or want to contact me about a potential collaboration, you can reach me by:
- Leave a comment
- Use the contact form at thepermaculturepodcast.com
- Sending me an email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
- Sending a message via Text or WhatsApp to: +1 717.827.6266
Should I relaunch the podcast later this year in a new format? Your opinion matters! Let me know!
In this episode, Byron Birss speaks with Mary and Andrew as they talk about Byron’s transformation from someone with no knowledge of permaculture or gardening into a professional designer and food forest aficionado in just a few years. Growing up in the United States, Byron moved to New Zealand nearly a decade ago for a change of life that wound up being a life-changing experience.
Resources
Backyard Paradise
Byron Grows (YouTube)
Byron Grows (Instagram)
Larry Santoyo - Exploring Permaculture
Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market
Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast
Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
Can you live an enjoyable, self-indulgent life while remaining thrifty and at the same time not overtaxing Earth's resources? To have all of that sounds too good to be true.
If you follow what Annie Raser-Rowland suggested in her book The Art of Frugal Hedonism, however, the answer rings out as a resounding Yes!
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Rebecca Anderson joins Mary and Andrew to discuss her work with National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and government body under the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Steeped in Permaculture, with a degree in Environmental Science and Resource Management, and time as a Woofer, Rebecca shares what the NRCS provides and what she does in her job to support anyone interested in conserving soil, water, and other natural resources with technical and financial support.
As a permaculture practitioner, I recommend listening to this conversation because assistance from NRCS is free and isn’t just for farmers and it’s easy to start the process. All you need to do is contact your local NRCS office.
Resources
- Natural Resources Conservation Service
- NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP):
Environmental Quality Incentives Program | Natural Resources Conservation Service (usda.gov) - National Payment Schedules:
Payment Schedules | Natural Resources Conservation Service (usda.gov).
Recommend navigating to individual states and choosing the EQIP link. Definitely overwhelming regarding choices for each practice, which is why working with a local planner is super key.
* NRCS Service Center Locator:
Service Center Locator | Natural Resources Conservation Service (usda.gov)
* NRCS Solutions for Small-Scale Farms Fact Sheets:
Solutions for Small-Scale Farms | Natural Resources Conservation Service (usda.gov)
Additional National Funding Sources
* AgWest Farm Credit New Producer Grant:
https://agwestfc.com/about/community-engagement/grants/new-producer-grant
* American Farmland Trust Brighter Future Fund: https://farmland.org/brighter-future/
* Farm Service Agency Farm Loan Programs: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-loan-programs/index
* Farm Service Agency Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/disaster-assistance-program/noninsured-crop-disaster-assistance/index
* National Young Farmer Coalition Young Farmer Program: https://www.youngfarmers.org/young-farmer-grants/
* Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grants: https://cig.sc.egov.usda.gov/
* RAFI FOCN Infrastructure Fund Grants: https://www.rafiusa.org/programs/farmers-of-color-network/farmers-of-color-network-infrastructure-fund-grants/
* Rodale BIPOC Famer Micro Grants: https://rodaleinstitute.org/education/bipoc-farmer-micro-grants/
* Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program (REAP):Rural Energy for America Program Renewable Energy Systems & Energy Efficiency Improvement Guaranteed Loans & Grants | Rural Development (usda.gov)
* Rural Development Value Added Producer Grant: https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/business-programs/value-added-producer-grants
* USDA Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Grants: https://www.usda.gov/topics/urban/grants
* USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife: Partners for Fish and Wildlife | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (fws.gov)
Additional Washington State Funding Sources
- Tilth Organic & Sustainable Farming Grant:
https://tilthalliance.org/our-work/wa-farming-agriculture/washington-state-organic-sustainable-farming-fund/ - Western WA Food Systems Partnership Project Accelerator:
https://wwfsp.org/food-systems-project-accelerator/ - Washington State Conservation Commission (WSCC) Grant Programs:
Grant Programs (wa.gov) - Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) Farm to School Program:
https://agr.wa.gov/departments/business-and-marketing-support/farm-to-school/wsda-farm-to-school-program - WSDA Local Infrastructure Grant:
https://agr.wa.gov/departments/business-and-marketing-support/small-farm/infrastructure-grant.
Note: Most states will have a state department of agriculture that funds programs like this whether it’s for infrastructure, beginning farmers, etc.
In this episode, Andrew Tuttle sits down with Mary Marshall as she draws out his story: what brought him to Permaculture and why this work matters; what he’s up to currently, and what he sees in the months and years ahead. Throughout, we hear his stories, directly, in his own, unique voice.
Find out more about Andrew and his design and educational work at EdgePerma.com, and our new community at skool.com/thepermaculturecollective.
Listen to his initial interviews on The Permaculture Podcast, sitting with Mary Marshall as his co-host, using the links below.
Creating a Permaculture Life and Livelihood with Michael JuddFunctional Hedgerows with Jude HobbsExploring Global Permaculture with Andrew MillisonInspiration Farm with Brian Kerkvliet and Alexandra King
In this episode, Mary Marshall sits down with Andrew Tuttle to talk about her history, what brought her to Permaculture and design, and Mary’s thoughts about the future. Along the way, they share the stories from their time together, over many years, as partners in many aspects of life traveling, living, and creating with one another.
Find out more about Mary and her design work with Andrew at EdgePerma.com, and our new community at skool.com/thepermaculturecollective.
Resources
Interviews from Mary and AndrewCreating a Permaculture Life and Livelihood with Michael JuddFunctional Hedgerows with Jude HobbsExploring Global Permaculture with Andrew MillisonInspiration Farm with Brian Kerkvliet and Alexandra King
Welcome to the Podcast Update for July 2024. In this episode, I’ll let you know about the future of the show as it currently stands including:
- How things are going with the co-hosts Mary and Andrew of Edge Perma.
- Plans for new episodes.
- Welcoming you to our new, free community.
- An update on my personal recovery.
Resources
The Permaculture Collective
Interviews from Mary and AndrewCreating a Permaculture Life and Livelihood with Michael JuddFunctional Hedgerows with Jude HobbsExploring Global Permaculture with Andrew MillisonInspiration Farm with Brian Kerkvliet and Alexandra King
Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast
Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
My guest today is Jerome Osentowski, founder of Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, a long time permaculture practitioners and teacher, and author of the new book The Forest Garden Greenhouse, available from Chelsea Green Publishing.
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastWant to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
My guest today is Robyn Mello, the program director for Philadelphia Orchard Project, and is a deeper look at her life, work, and thoughts within and beyond that project, which she provided a brief overview to in Episode 1609: An Introduction to the Philadelphia Orchard Project. Give that episode a listen to learn more about how this non-profit installs orchards throughout the city of Philadelphia.
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastWant to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
This Permabyte is a reading by Byron of his article "A Lesson in Identity".
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In this episode Mary and Andrew sit down to interview Brian and Alexandra of Inspiration Farm to talk about their journey with their farm and permaculture, starting in 1994 when they moved to the land and named the farm, to their encountering Permaculture for the first time 12 years later. Throughout, you’ll hear how they create a thriving, viable, farm, on a little less than 9 acres, with perennials and annuals with an ever-evolving experimental blend of enterprises growing food, producing art, and teaching others. With this work, Brian and Alexandra are also deeply involved in their local and regional communities, drawing in like-minded people, supporting one another, and providing ongoing inspiration.
Resources
Inspiration Farm
Salish Seed Guild
Whatcom Permaculture
Regenerate Cascadia
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Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
Enjoy this episode? Become a Patron.
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastWant to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
My guest for this episode is Dina Falconi, an herbalist from the Hudson Valley of New York and the author of the gorgeous book Foraging and Feasting, which you’ll find at botanicalartspress.com.
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Today’s episode is a new interview with Andrew Millison, recorded by Mary Marshall and Andrew Tuttle.
Starting with Andrew's history with permaculture, in 1996 through to the present, first with ecological landscape design and construction in Arizona and how it has bloomed into a broader outreach through not only his teaching, but also through his work as a videographer documenting projects around the world. Throughout, he discusses the problems we face, on global, local, and personal scales and the realities of what it is to do this work, and to do it well.
Resources
Andrew MillisonAndrewMillison.comYouTube Channel
Instagram
OSU Permaculture Design Certificate Program
Natalie Topa
Profile at Permaculture Women’s Guild
Natalie’s YouTube
Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast
Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
Like this podcast? Support the show on Patreon.
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastWant to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
My guest for this episode is the rewilder Peter Michael Bauer, from Portland, Oregon, who is also a trained permaculture practitioner who studied under Toby Hemenway. Peter is the executive director of Rewild Portland, an environmental education non-profit that uses hands-on workshops and classes to teach earth-based arts, skills, and technologies.
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In today's episode, co-hosts Mary Marshall and Andrew Tuttle sit down with Jude Hobbs of Cascadia Permaculture to talk about functional hedgerows.
Listen for another new interview from Mary and Andrew, where they talk to Andrew Millison about his work and journey as a content creator and educator. That episode is out in a few weeks.
Until then, spend each day expanding your knowledge and deepening your understanding, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Support the Podcast
1. Donate to Scott's Health Journey and the Future of the Show.
2. Join our Patreon Community!
Resources
Jude HobbsCascadia Permaculture
Current Courses and Trainings
What Are Hedgerows?
The Functions of Hedgerows and Living Fences
Multi-Functional Hedgerows: A Book in Progress
Multifunctional Hedgerows (PDF Download)
Earlier Material with Jude Hobbs
Jude Hobbs - What is a Permaculture Teacher Training? (2015)
Review: The Permaculture Teacher Training (2011)
Jude Hobbs Defines Permaculture (2011)
Other Resources
Salmon-Safe
Support the Podcast
Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast
Join our Patreon community!Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
My guest for this episode is Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, The Art of Fermentation, and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. If you’ve practiced any kind of fermentation and went looking for a recipe, reference, or just read about the wee yeasties and bacteria that transform our foods with their microbial magic, then you’ve probably read something by Sandor, and I recommend reading even more.
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Today’s episode is a new interview with Michael Judd, recorded by Mary Marshall and Andrew Tuttle, of Edge Perma.
During this conversation, Michael shares a quick sketch of his background for listeners who aren’t familiar with him and his work, including time at the Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead Brother’s Farm on Orcas Island in Washington State. Michael then leads us through how he came to his permaculture career and how suggestions on how he makes it work for him and his family, from his early days as an edible landscaper and designer to his current role as a nurseryman, educator, and an event planner focusing on regenerative systems and education. Throughout, he shares stories and personal anecdotes as only he can.
Ten years ago, in 2014, I traveled from my home in Pennsylvania and journeyed down to Michael’s family home and homestead to record my first in-person interview, ever, with him, meeting his wife, and his son Wyatt, who was still a babe in arms at the time. Since then, we’ve recorded multiple interviews together, he was a keynote speaker at the Mid-Atlantic Permaculture Convergence, and I’ve attended his Paw Paw festival.
Throughout this decade knowing Michael, personally and professionally, what I’ve always loved is his ability to take what he knows, examine where his life is at the moment, decides where he wants to go, and pivots in that direction. However he changes his life he does that with intent, while remaining rooted in his mindset as a permaculture practitioner and the lessons he learned during his time in Nicaragua with Project Bona Fide.
If you’re working on the next steps of your journey, I highly recommend listening to Michael’s earlier conversations with me and hear more about his journey. You’ll find numerous useful insights that connect to the ones he shared today, that you can apply to your journey, wherever you want to go.
Resources
Michael JuddEcologia Design
Instagarm - Permaculture Life (@permacultureninja)
Youtube - @permacultureninja
Michael’s Books
Fruit Patch iOS App
Earlier Interviews with Michael Judd
Edible Landscaping (3.2014)
Starting Out and Getting Involved in Permaculture (8.2014)
MAPC Keynote Address (8.2016)
Honoring the Dead and Holding the Dying: Natural Burial (1.2018)
For the Love of PawPaws (9.2019)
Other Projects and Resources
Project Bona Fide
Bullock Brother’s Homestead
Punta Mona Center (Stephen Brooks project in Costa Rica)
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Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
Clare Kenny of The Mudgirls Natural Building Collective joins me to continue our conversation about how she and the others of the group come together to create community and opportunity with natural building, and the lessons they share through The Mudgirls Manifesto, a book they wrote together which was released earlier this year.
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Support the 2023/2024 Campaign to Save Scott's Liver (and Heart)
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Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
My guests today are five members of the Mudgirls Natural Building Collective, a Canadian women-owned and operated group of builders who focus on materials and techniques like cob, earthen plaster, earthen floors, and living roofs, and authors, together, of the recently released Mudgirls Manifesto from New Society Publishers.
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Support the 2023/2024 Campaign to Save Scott's Liver (and Heart)
Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
Today, Michael Judd joins me to discuss his book: For the Love of PawPaws: A Mini Manual for Growing and Caring for PawPaws - From Seed to Table.
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastWant to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
Like this podcast? Support it on Patreon.
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastWant to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
My guest today is Lisa Rose, author most recently of Midwest Foraging, which was supposed to be the basis of our conversation and we do touch on that some, but also spend our time telling stories about family traditions; place and the lands we each feel connected to; and how foraging and food can return seasonality to our lives, along with a host of new flavors, once we leave the grocery store behind.
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast
Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastWant to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
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My guest for this episode is Katrina Blair, author of the wonderful book The Wild Wisdom of Weeds recently released by Chelsea Green. Katrina lives in Durango, Colorado at Turtle Lake Refuge, home to the Turtle Lake Community Farm and Wild Food CSA, and Local Wild Life Cafe.
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My guest for this episode is Craig Sponholtz, a permaculture practitioner who operates Watershed Artisans. One of Craig’s specialties is in building regenerative earthworks to capture water and restore degraded land, which forms the basis for our conversation today.
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Like this podcast? Support it on Patreon.
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastWant to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
Like this podcast? Support it on Patreon.
Learn More
Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast
Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
My guest for this episode is Dr. Talia Fletcher, a Canadian veterinarian, who takes a holistic approach to animals and medicine, that includes knowledge of permaculture and a background in WWOOFING. During the conversation today, she shares with us what it means to take a holistic approach to veterinary medicine and how it can reduce the need to treat animals, including antibiotic use. She also shares, from her experiences, how to find a good vet, including questions to ask, and how to honor a vet's time. Talia also gives advice on how to prepare yourself to have animals on your homestead or permaculture farm
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My guest for this episode is Lisa Fernandes, a permaculture practitioner and teacher, from Portland, Maine who is involved with the Eat Local Foods Coalition.
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Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
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Donate Directly: via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast
Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
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This episode is a review of Ben Falk's recently released book The Resilient Farm and Homestead, published by Chelsea Green.
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My guest for this episode is Penny Livingston-Stark. Penny is a long-time permaculture practitioner and teacher who operates the Regenerative Design Institute in Bolinas, California.
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My guest for this episode is Ben Falk, owner of Whole Systems Design, LLC, and author of The Resilient Farm and Homestead.
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Gianaclis Caldwell is the author of a modern classic on cheese production, Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking from Chelsea Green Publishing, and her new book to help get anyone started, Mastering Basic Cheesemaking from New Society Publishers.
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Today's guest is the author, cheesemaker, and goatherd Gianaclis Caldwell of Pholia Farm Dairy. She joins me to talk about her book Holistic Goat Care from Chelsea Green Publishing.
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My guest for this episode is Philip Ackerman-Leist, the author of A Precautionary Tale: How One Small Town Banned Pesticides, Preserved Its Food Heritage, and Inspired a Movement, from Chelsea Green Publishing.
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Peter Michael Bauer, executive director of Rewild Portland, returns again to talk about the re-release of his book Rewild or Die.
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How did animals and people influence the landscape for hundreds of thousands, and even millions of years, before the rise of civilization?
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Today's guest is Michael Judd, a permaculture practitioner from Frederick, MD, and the author of Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist. You can hear his first interview on the podcast here: https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/2014/michaeljudd/
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Today's guest for this episode is Michael Judd, a permaculture teacher, designer, and author from Frederick, Maryland. He and I sat down at his home to talk about his background and work, including his recently released book Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist. In addition to his book and design company, we talked about his introduction to permaculture that began at Earthaven Ecovillage with Chuck Marsh, Peter Bane, and many others. We also discuss Project Bonafide, an organization he started with Chris Shanks in Nicaragua. This is an inspirational conversation because of Michael's "Go do it!" attitude. He encourages all of is, new and old to gardening and permaculture alike, to get digging, get dirty, and start learning. Find out more about Michael through his website: EcologiaDesign.com. And here is a short video from Michael discussing his roundwood timber-framed home.
Want to get in touch with the show? Here are the usual ways: E-Mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/thepermaculturepodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst Postal Mail: The Permaculture Podcast The Permaculture Podcast (Episode: MichaelJudd)
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Today's guest is Tao Orion, author of Beyond the War on Invasive Species. Her book and the concepts of war and invasion form the basis of our conversation.
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Today's guest is Andrew Mefferd, author of The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower's Handbook. Drawing on his years of research working at Johnny's Selected Seeds, he shares what it means to grow plants in an environment we can control, be that a cold frame in our backyard, an unheated hoop house, or a heated greenhouse.
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Support the 2023/2024 Campaign to Save Scott's Liver (and Heart)Would you like to hear more conversations about Permaculture?
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Today's guest is Victoria Redhed Miller, who joins me for the second part of our conversation on Craft Distilling, this time to talk about the art of the process that turns fermented sugars, whether from grains, fruit, molasses, or honey, into tasty, tasty liquor.
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My guest is Victoria Redhed Miller author of Pure Poultry and From No-Knead to Sourdough. These books pull on her experiences as an off-the-grid homesteader in the Pacific Northwest and are available from New Society Publishers.
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My guest today is Oliver Goshey, founder of the regenerative design and natural building company Abundant Edge, and host of the Abundant Edge podcast.
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Today's guest is Akiva Silver of Twisted Tree Farm in Spencer, New York. He joins me to talk about his life and the experiences that led to his book Trees of Power from Chelsea Green Publishing.
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Today's guest is Leslie Crawford, author of Spring the Rescue Pig, a children’s book about the journey of a pig on his trip from industrial agriculture to a sanctuary, and Rory, the child who helps him along the way. Using that book and story as a starting place, Leslie and I talk about agriculture, food activism, parenting, and the lessons we as adults can learn from children.
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This episode looks at what brought David Holmgren to the present moment and writing RetroSuburbia. From David Bilbrey’s questions, David Holmgren shares the past and ongoing influences that guided the development of permaculture from those first days in the 1970s through to how this work continues to grow to the current day.
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In this episode recorded by co-host David Bilbrey, David Holmgren returns for the first of a two-part conversation about his latest book RetroSuburbia.
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This is an atypical episode of the show as you can probably tell from the title. In this conversation, I sit down with Joshua Hughes of VerdEnergia Pacifica and Blacksheep Regenerative Resource Management to talk about the intersection of permaculture and politics to engage, get involved, and change the system to create the world we want to live in.
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My guest for this episode is Peter Michael Bauer, who returns to share with us his thoughts on the distinction between human versus conservation rewilding, and a critique of what they get right and what they get wrong as we develop the understanding and language to discuss these broad, far reaching views on how to undo domestication of people and of the land.
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A few days before my 44th birthday, I received the news managing my Celiac Disease and family history of diabetes had damaged my liver and made my non-alcoholic liver issues worse. So much so, that I am at a significant risk of liver failure in my lifetime. In a follow-up with my doctor about that news, I was also diagnosed with High Blood Pressure (Hypertension 2). To manage these health issues, I need to step away from the show, indefinitely, in the near future.
To ensure that the podcast website, archives, and email address remain available, and the lights stay on for the show through these ups and downs without having to worry about where the money will come from, I've created a GoFundMe campaign to cover the show's expenses for the next 15 months while my team of doctors, specialists, and I work on creating and implementing a treatment plan that is manageable and will get me back to good health.
Donate to the Crowdfunding Campaign: bit.ly/liver2024
Until the next time, spend each day caring for your self, so that you can keep caring for Earth and each other.
A review episode ofThe Regenerative Landscaper: Design and Build Landscapes That Repair the Environment by Erik Ohlsen, with a foreword by the great Penny Livingston.
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Show Notes
The Regenerative Landscaper (Synergetic Press)
Related Interview: Erik Ohlsen - Professional Permaculture
Related Interview: Erik Ohlsen - Professional Permaculture Education
This Episode of The News includes two updates from the podcast, a look at rescheduling Marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act, concerns over the shrinking supply of freshwater in the United States, and close with an opportunity for permaculture practitioners.
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Show Notes
Rescheduling Marijuana
America is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow
Enter the 2024 PINA Design Contest!
In this episode of The News from The Permaculture Podcast are updates on the growing investment into sustainable and regenerative agriculture, how agrivoltaics is bridging the political divide in America, and on rewilding efforts in Argentina.
Show Notes Farmland LP Farmland LP launches $250M fund focused on organic and regenerative agriculture
Agrivoltaics Is Making Friends Across Partisan Lines, Thanks To Farmers
Rewilding Argentina The return of the wild in Argentina's Patagonia Park
Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America
When sitting down with a storyteller like Rosemary Morrow for a series of open conversations about her life and work that spans decades, and results in more than 10 hours of recordings, it's never clear what will emerge. Today's episode is a great example of that, as in a few moments while we discussed other things, Rowe mentioned working with the folks at Perma Queer and shared her thoughts on how to use one’s position, role, and respect within a community to make space for marginalized voices, and the importance of inclusion in permaculture as part of the teachings.
If you have any thoughts, questions, or follow-up on this episode: Get in Touch
Resources Earth Restorer's Guide to Permaculture Permaculture Principles Perma Queer
Related Interview: Why Practice Permaculture? - Rosemary Morrow Related Interview: Rosemary Morrow's Journey to Permaculture
Welcome to The News for the week of 21 August 2023, from The Permaculture Podcast. In this episode we have a look at a climate solution in Toronto, recently released books of interest to permaculture practitioners, and an announcement from our friends at Permaculture Principles.
Show Notes 2024 Permaculture Calendar Early Bird Offer
Toronto’s Deep Lake Water Cooling RetroSububia Bushfire Resilience - Free Download
Books Salt and the Art of Seasoning by James Strawbridge The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz The New Wildcrafted Cuisine by Pascal Baudar The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer, Revised Edition, by Jeff Carpenter with Melanie Carpenter
Related Interviews The Art of Wild Fermentation The New Wildcrafted Cuisine The Wildcrafting Brewer
In this edition of The News from The Permaculture Podcast, for 15 August 2023, are a Permaculture Design Contest, a friend of the pod in the news, and how we can help their farm, along with two updates from the podcast.
Show Notes Save 20% from Rewild Organics
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Using PayPal: PayPal.me/PermaculturePodcast Via Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
PINA 2023 Permaculture Design Contest (Submissions are open from 1 Sept. to 1 Oct. 2023)
Blacksheep Regenerative Resource Management / Rewild Organics World Wildlife Fund - Reducing Greenhouse Gases with Incentives at the Farm (Pp. 14 - 15)
In this Q&A episode, I address a question from Duncan, who reached out and asked:
Is technology anathema to permaculture?
Software That Can Be Used While Designing Adobe Creative Cloud AutoCAD Google Earth Google Meet Google Slides Procreate ShapeWorks Sketchup
Two Drones I Like DJI Air (I flew the 2 for a Summer. The 3 is now out) Skydio 2+ (Recommended to me by a friend who is a professional drone pilot for a Made-in-the-USA alternative to DJI.)
Today’s News of the World includes a rewilding project, a surge in a nation’s move towards renewable energy, and a look at how Unbuilding can help limit the impacts of climate change on our communities.
Resources Rewilding How an Iberian rewilding plan aims to repopulate ‘empty Spain’ Rewilding Spain
Books Eager by Ben Goldfarb Coyote America by Dan Flores Bringing Back the Beaver by Derek Gow
Interview: Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
Renewable Energy and Climate Change China on course to hit wind and solar power target five years ahead of time How ‘Unbuilding’ Can Help Weather Climate Disasters
Show Notes
Support the Podcast with a One Time Donation Via PayPal Or, using Venmo
Become a Sustaining Supporter Join our Community Patreon
Michael Judd Replacing Your Lawn? Instead of a Meadow, Consider a Food Forest Interview: Edible Landscaping Interview: Starting Out and Getting Involved with Permaculture Interview: Honoring the Dead and Holding the Dying: Natural Burial Interview: For the Love of PawPaws Interview: MAPC Keynote Address Review: Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist
Rewilding Prince William to expand Duchy of Cornwall’s temperate Rainforest
Join The Permaculture Podcast Discord Server!
The 2023 Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize Learn More About the Prize and Enter Today!
Ben and bEartha Watch the Trailer!
The Regenerative Landscaper by Erik Ohlsen Pre-order today from Synergetic Press
Facing a Future of Drought Click Here to Access the New Yorks Times Article
Gardening for Dummies Bundle Brought to us from the great folks at Humble Bundle Charity:Water
Geoff Christou GeoffChristou.com Utopia: A Permaculture Vision Our Interview: We Are Time Scouts, Designing for the Future
What Holds You Back? Is it:
- An issue of education, such as taking a permaculture design course, a bachelor’s degree, or returning to school as a non-traditional student?
- An issue of information, such as the right book or resources that helps make sense of an issue you’re stuck on?
- A matter of access to land, whether a garden plot, backyard, homestead, or farm, and trying to find land where you live?
- A financial problem, such as having the income to support your work or project while it grows, to rent, lease, or buy land, or acquiring the tools you need to work it?
- A technical issue, such as setting up the right business structure for your work, or an on-the-ground problem an expert could help you solve?
- A community problem, where you don’t have the folks around you or the right social groups to help you overcome your obstacles?
Let me know by sending me a direct message using the contact form.
In your message, tell me about yourself to the extent you are comfortable, answer as many of the questions as you care to, and, if you’re sharing information about a specific project, be sure to include:
- The name of the project.
- The names of the founder or leadership team
- Contact information, including email, phone, and a website if there is one.
- A brief description of what the project does.
- A list of the project’s needs.
Dan Palmer’s Legacy Watch David Holmgren’s Video: “Dan Palmer’s Legacy” Interview: David Holmgren’s Design Journey (Part 1) Interview: David Holmgren’s Design Journey (Part 2) Interview: Allan Savory - Managing Complexity
David Holmgren’s Live, Online PDC Class starts on July 13th, 2024, so register today!
Storytelling for Climate Change Project Drawdown I’m planning to be there on July 19th at 12 Noon, Eastern, so, register now and I’ll see you there!
Do with Su Sign up to be one of the first to learn more.
The Pemaculture Podcast Patreon
Terraso
- Terraso
- Terraso’s YouTube Channel
- EcoAgriculture Partners
- 1,000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People
Costa Rican Permaculture
- VerdEnergia
- Black Sheep Regenerative Resource Management
- Interview: Creating a Regenerative Supply Chain - Rewild Organics | Joshua Hughes
- Interview: Joshua Hughes - Regenerative Investing
Just Action
- The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
- Just Action by Richard Rothstein, Leah Rothstein
Geologist’s Primer
- Geologist’s Primer Kickstarter
- Interview: Anna Urbanik - Herbalist’s Primer
Scott’s Appearances on The Urban Farm Podcast
- 743: Scott Mann On The Ripples Of Permaculture Pt 1.
- 744: Scott Mann On The Ripples Of Permaculture Pt 2.
Eddy Garcia of Living Earth Systems joins me to discuss Natural Aquaponics and how we can create beautiful, functioning systems whether we prefer to nerd out on the numbers or learn through observation and experience.
Find out more about Eddy and his work at Living Earth Systems and view these systems in action on Instagram.
My guest is Natalie Bogwalker, the visionary behind Wild Abundance, a permaculture skills center and homestead near Asheville, North Carolina. As a primary instructor at Wild Abundance, she teaches a variety of classes, including tiny house building workshops, women's carpentry, and permaculture design courses. She likes to share her passion with others to help them live in an empowered and Earth-centered way.
Find out more about Natalie and her classes at WildAbundance.net.
After more than a decade producing long-form, guest-driven, interview-based episodes, there are changes coming to The Permaculture Podcast.
Listen to find out what's happening and how you can be a part of this transition.
My guest today is Tim Krahn, a Canadian engineer, builder, and author of Essential Rammed Earth Construction from New Society Publishers.
Tim joins me to share his thoughts and experiences with rammed earth as a natural building method. This includes the distinction between raw and stabilized rammed earth and how rammed earth can reduce the amount of cement required for a long-lasting wall. Tim also gives an estimate of the price difference between stick-built walls and professionally installed rammed earth, while acknowledging that natural building is a growing but still niche field. We close with a discussion of the importance of valuing our time when considering the cost of erecting a building or other project to come to the real price for any of our work.
You can find his book, Essential Rammed Earth Construction at NewSociety.com.
What does it mean to go back to the ground and learn the fading skills necessary to work the forest with our hands? To read the land assisted by tools we sight with our own eyes? To create new visions of old roles, such as a land steward or cottager?
I explore those thoughts and more with my guest today, Hazel, who some of you may know as Tom Ward.
You can find out more about Hazel and his work at siskiyoupermaculture.com.
Resources
Hazel's Collected Videos and Recordings
Heartwood Institute
Brock Dolman - Occidental Arts & Ecology
Traditional Aboriginal Burning (Cool Burning)
Recommended Reading
Beyond the War on Invasive Species by Tao Orion
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron
Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Brown
Keeping it Living by Nancy Turner
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram
Tending the Wild by Kat Anderson
World Without Mind by Franklin Foer
My guest today is Lindsey Bender, the chief mycologist for Field and Forest Products, Inc., a mushroom spawn and supply company located in Wisconsin.
Find out more about Lindsey and Field and Forest Products, Inc. at fieldforest.net.
Rob Avis, of Verge Permaculture, joins me to talk about rainwater harvesting.
This conversation is based on his book from New Society Publishers, Essential Rainwater Harvesting. Rob wrote this book along with his wife and Verge Permaculture Partner, Michelle. Though they began their professional careers as engineers designing solutions in the oil fields, they now live on a productive permaculture homestead in Alberta, Canada, and use that experience to create and share all the formulas, calculations, and components needed to create a productive system for capturing clean, healthy water.
You can find more about Rob's work at VergePermaculture.ca, and his book, Essential Rainwater Harvesting at NewSociety.com.
Resources
Rainwater Harvesting Toolkit
Peter Coombes - Urban Water Cycle Solutions
Dr. Anthony Spinks PhD Thesis on Biofilms and Sludges American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA) North American Rainwater Harvesting Code
This episode is a look at the large-scale operations at D.C. Water to turn municipal waste into fertilizer and energy at the Blue Plains Waste W10ater Treatment Plant and looks at ways we can take the principles of permaculture and move them from the home to the community scale.
The audio of the interview comes from a video which you'll find on the podcast's YouTube Channel at: YouTube.com/thepermaculturepodcast
You can view the video directly by visiting: bit.ly/bloomsoil
In this episode Co-host David Bilbrey continues to explore the edge between permaculture, business, and social change by sitting down with Dr. Otto Scharmer. Together they talk about Dr. Scharmer’s work on Presencing and Theory U, the development of effective organizations, and how each of us can become more powerful changemakers.
Resources
Otto Scharmer
Presencing Institute
Theory U Books
MITx u.Lab
Peter Senge
The Limits to Growth (Wikipedia)
Club of Rome
EdX
Transforming Capitalism Lab
In her storytelling way, Rosemary Morrow joins me to share why, after all these years, she continues to practice permaculture and finds this design system so important to our present and the future.
Her newest book is Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture, which you can find in the store at PermaculturePrinciples.com.
Listen to the first conversation with Rosemary: Rosemary Morrow's Journey to Permaculture
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Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
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My guest for this episode is Brad Lancaster author of the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond series.
In this episode, Brad and I discuss the value of infiltrating water into the soil so that it becomes a resource that we invest during water-rich times and withdraw from that bank only when needed during dry times. As Brad’s work includes more than just drylands the conversation also includes ideas for storing water in rich areas. Along the way we also look at several listener questions including fog harvesting, using living systems to hand wet basements, and observing to find the right match for plants suitable to wet clay soils. What I really enjoyed about this conversation was Brad’s continued reference to creating and using living systems.
Visit Our Partners
Wild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You!
Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food!
Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast
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Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?
Browse the extensive archives of the show.
Other resources of interest
Brad's blog post on Fog Harvesting
David Eisenberg and the Development Center for Appropriate Technology
Zephaniah Phiri Maseko's biography at National Geographic.
Looby Macnamara, with Delvin Solkinson, joins me to discuss Looby's work on Cultural Emergence, her vision for our work as permaculture practitioners, and the tools she's developing to help facilitate this transition.
Find out more about Looby and the Cultural Emergence deck at Cultural-Emergence.com.
Delvin is at VisionaryPermaculture.com.
Cultural Emergence Kickstarter
How do we limit the damage of the greatest terrestrial environmental disaster ever, climate change? By drawing down carbon.
How we do that, and the most effective ways possible, form the base of this conversation with Eric Toensmeier, as he shares his ongoing research about the impacts of agriculture and how we can use agroforestry to increase productivity and sequester carbon.
Find out more about Eric at perennialsolutions.org, and The Carbon Farming Solution at ChelseaGreen.com.
Resources
The Carbon Farming Solution Project Drawdown
Perennial Solutions
The Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri Agroforestry at Virginia Tech
IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Trees on Farms by RJ Zomer, et al. (PDF)
Savanna Institute
Steve Solomon - Gardening When It Counts
John Jeavons - Grow Biointensive
Legal Pathways to Carbon_Neutral Agriculture by Peter Lehner and Nathan Rosenberg (PDF)
Diet for a Small Planet
Related Interviews
Dr. Laura Jackson - Modern Agricultural Systems
Keefe Keeley - The Savanna Institute
Jean-Martin Fortier - The Market Gardener
Dave and Lee O'Neill - Radical Roots Farm
Jerome Osentowski - The Forest Garden Greenhouse
My guest today is the adventurer, activist, and humanitarian Rob Greenfield. Rob joins me to talk about the Food Freedom project he launched in Orlando, Florida, where he is growing and foraging for all of his nutritional needs.
Find out more about Rob, his work and other projects, including those mentioned during his introduction, at RobGreenfield.TV.
Resources
National Farmers Market Directory (USA)
Trash Me
Green Riders
Free Ride
Orlando Permaculture Meetup Group
Shad Qudsi - Atitlan Organics
My guest today is Akiva Silver of Twisted Tree Farm in Spencer, New York. He joins me to talk about his life and the experiences that lead to his book Trees of Power from Chelsea Green Publishing. You can find Akiva, his farm, and work at twisted-tree.net and you can find his book, Trees of Power, at chelseagreen.com. Resources Twisted Tree Farm Trees of Power (Chelsea Green) Tom Brown Jr. Tracking School The Graves Tree - Arthur Graves Chestnuts Empire Chestnut Company (Route 9 Cooperative) Related Interview: Foraging with Sam Thayer
In this guest episode, the final in this series, naturalist and writer Shane Sater, shares his insights and thoughts on kochia as it relates to sparrows; a reflection on how an introduced plant species create novel ecosystems and adaptations. And that was Shane Sater. You can read more of his nature writing and view the photographs from his journey in the natural world at WhatsGoingOnBlog.org.
In this episode, Chris Knapp, one of the founders of Maine Local Living School in Temple, Maine, returns to talk about their immersive educational experience, The Understory. During our conversation, Chris shares how this program came to be, his influences, and the knowledge, skills, and encounters he and his fellow instructors seek to impart to students during the multi-week, onsite program. If you are interested in permaculture and what permaculture education can look like beyond the Permaculture Design Course, or you are an instructor looking to build upon your existing curriculum and offerings, this is an interview to dive into.Find out more about Chris, the school, and The Understory at MaineLocalLiving.org.
My guest today is Chris Knapp, an instructor and one of the founders of Maine Local Living School, a homestead and education center in Temple, Maine.In this conversation, Chris shares how he came to develop a deep love for the land and created a connection to the place he calls home. This is an experience he seeks to share with each of his students, whether school-aged children, young adults transitioning to adulthood, or adults seeking a change in their path on their journey through life. Find out more about Chris, the school and programs, including The Understory, at MaineLocalLiving.org.Chris will be back on the show for the second part of our conversation, as we dive into The Understory and what Chris and his fellow instructors seek to impart through this immersive homesteading and permaculture experience.Until the next episode, or I hear from you, spend each day deepening your sense of place, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
This is the second in a series of three guest episodes from Shane Sater. A naturalist and writer based in Montana, USA, Shane shares his deep passion for nature and community through writing and recordings like this one, bringing together his education in environmental science, botany, and field biology with his experiential work in community, integrating the wonder embodied relationship with nature to the human experience. In addition to this work and with a love for all creatures, Shane feels a special affinity for silk moths, stinging nettles, cottonwoods, and meadowlarks. Read more of Shane's nature writing and view the photographs from his journey in the natural world at WhatsGoingOnBlog.org.
My guest for this episode is Sam Thayer, the expert forager and author.You can find Sam's personal experience working with wild foods in his books, The Forager's Harvest and Nature's Garden. Resources Sam Thayer The Forager's Harvest Nature's Garden Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate
My guests for this episode are Violet Brill and her father “Wildman” Steve Brill. Violet and Steve are foragers from New York. Violet assists her father on his plant tours, leading groups of people and teaching them about wild edibles. You can find out more about Violet and Steve at wildmanstevebrill.com.
Chef and writer Sara Bir joins me to share her work as a foodie and author of The Fruit Forager’s Companion, from Chelsea Green Publishing.Using her book and those experiences as a place to start, we explore her interest in wild fruit and foods, including first falling in love with the paw paw, and about how shared experiences, in the forest or around the table, bring us together. You can find Sara on her website sausagetarian and her book at Chelsea Green. I also recommend following her on Instagram, if you’re on there, as she posts some really great pictures about food. Just as with her website, you’ll find her there as sausagetarian.ResourcesSara Bir (sausagetarian.com)Sara on InstagramThe Fruit Foragers Companion (Chelsea Green)
This episode is the first in a series of guest permabytes from Shane Sater. Shane, a naturalist and writer based in Montana, USA, has a deep passion for nature and community which he explores through his writing where he brings together his training in environmental science, botany, and field biology with his lived experiences in his community, speaking to wonder and the embodied relationship with nature that all of us can have. Throughout his journeys, Shane feels a special affinity for silk moths, stinging nettles, cottonwoods, and meadowlarks - among many other of Earth’s creatures. Read more of Shane's nature writing at: https://whatsgoingonblog.org/
My guest for this episode is Katrina Blair, author of the wonderful book The Wild Wisdom of Weeds from Chelsea Green Publishing. Katrina lives in Durango, Colorado at Turtle Lake Refuge, home to the Turtle Lake Community Farm and Wild Food CSA, and Local Wild Life Cafe.
My guest for this episode is Stephen Barstow, author of Around the World in 80 Plants. Together, we talk about his incredibly diverse garden in Norway where he grows over 2,000 edible plants in a rather small space. We begin with his background and how he came to have an interest in edibles, from his beginnings as a foraging vegetarian, to his beginning to eat and collect plants from wherever he traveled. He shares with us his love of edible ornamentals, or what Stephen calls edimentals, and he also recommends some to start with when first beginning to introduce more of these species into your garden. Resources Edimentals.com (Stephen’s Website) Around the World in 80 Plants (Chelsea Green Publishers) Around the World in 80 Plants (Permanent Publications) Sturtevants Edible Plants of the World (PDF. Large File)
My guest today is Nathan Carlos Rupley. A member of my permaculture community, he spends his time as a stay-at-home dad, self employed-artist, and aspiring hunter-gatherer.
When not hanging out with his family or walking in the woods, you can find him reading about a wide range of subjects including simple living, foraging, native agriculture, natural building, “primitive” technology, philosophy, applied ecology, theology, and much more. He brings this knowledge to the table today as we discuss what he’s learning from the native plants of his ancestors.
The exploration of these plants and the related cultures provide insights into his place in the world and where he comes from. This leads to a conversation that ranges around a variety of thoughts including how we can learn more about plants and their uses by studying folk and Latin binomial names. What understanding ancestral plants can teach us about our identity. The impacts of colonization, on the colonized and colonizer. And being good mentors and ancestors now and for the future.
You can email Nate at nathanrupley@yahoo.com, with any comments, or questions, if you want to rewild your yard, or, if you’re ever in Central Pennsylvania, would like to join him for a foraging class or plant walk.
ResourcesNathan Carlos Rupley (Website)Nathan Carlos Rupley (Patreon)Nathan_Carlos_Rupley (Instagram)Gathering on YouTubeSamuel Thayer / The Forager’s HarvestSteve BrillBackyard Medicine by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew SealWild Urban Plants of the Northeast by Peter Del TradiciFandabi Dozi (YouTube)Ron Eglash - The fractals at the heart of African designs (TED Talk)
My guest for this episode is Tradd Cotter, a microbiologist, and mycologist who, along with his wife Olga, owns and operates Mushroom Mountain near Greenville, South Carolina. He is also the author of the book Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation from Chelsea Green Publishing. In this interview, we talk about his book, the science of microbiology and mycology, entrepreneurship, and also touch on the power of mushrooms for remediation.
My guest for this episode is Ben Goldfarb who joins me to talk about his book, Eager: the surprising, secret life of beavers and why they matter. Drawing from his work and our experiences in resource management, conservation, and environmental education we talk about the role beavers had in creating and shaping the landscape, history, and people of the United States, and the importance of reintroducing and protecting beavers to return the world to the wetter, boggier place it once was. Resources Ben Goldfarb Eager The Methow Beaver Project Thinking Like a Mountain - Aldo Leopold The Beaver Institute Worth a Dam
My guest for this episode is Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, The Art of Fermentation, and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. If you’ve practiced any kind of fermentation and went looking for a recipe, a reference, or just read about the wee yeasties and bacteria that transform our foods with their microbial magic, then you’ve probably read something by Sandor, and I recommend reading even more.
Resources:Wild Fermentation (Sandor's Website)Wild Fermentation (The Book)The Art of FermentationThe Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved
This is the second half of the conversation with Shaun Chamberlin, editor of Lean Logic and Surviving the Future, on the work of David Fleming. This time we focus on Shaun including his background, current activities, and what it means to bear David's Legacy. Along the way, the conversation touches on a variety of subjects related to our work in the modern world, including the role of education, the apolitical need for action in the future, and what we can do to live inexpensively and with directed intent. This is candid, on both of our parts, as we share more of our own private stories as much as the public. Find out more about Shaun and his work at DarkOptimism.org.Resources Lean Logic (Chelsea Green Publishing) Surviving the Future (Chelsea Green Publishing) Dark Optimism (Shaun's Site) Schumacher College The Moneyless Manifesto - Mark Boyle The Dark Mountain Project The Transition Timeline The Happy Pig (Permaculture Magazine UK) The Power of Time Off (TED Talk)
Shaun Chamberlin, the editor of Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It and Surviving the Future, joins me to discuss the life, work, and importance of the late David Fleming (1940 - 2010).
Resources Lean Logic (Chelsea Green) Surviving the Future (Chelsea Green) David Fleming (Wiki) Shaun Chamberlin The Transition Timeline Rob Hopkins and The Transition Town Movement (Interview) Transition Network Transition US Richard Heinberg Michael Meacher (Former UK Environment Minister) Ron Oxburgh LeanLogic.net (First publication of David’s manuscript) The Dark Mountain Project Jonathon Porritt
Giulianna Maria Lamanna, of The Fifth World, drops a huge two-part question in this episode:
- Are there people in the permaculture community talking about climate change and the impact of global warming on invasive species?
- Is it our responsibility as permaculture practitioners to create new ecosystems for the changing climate?
This leads to a conversation where we discuss:
- Preserving native ecosystems
- The creation of novel ecosystems
- The role of exotic species
- The influence of human disturbance
- The impacts of erosion.
We’re also asked to examine our role in tending the wild, and what responsibility, if any, we have to domesticated species such as chickens.
In doing so, can we take back the stewardship of our own habitat?
(A remastered episode. Original Release: 25 May 2017)
Today's guest, in an interview recorded by co-host David Bilbrey, is the microbiologist and soil researcher Dr. Elaine Ingham. In this episode they look at:
- The microbiology of soil
- The impact of this life on the health of our plants and agricultural system
- How we can be citizen scientists
- The power of a microscope to bring all these ideas together, right in front of our eyes.
All wrapped in a framework so we can understand the importance of healthy, living soil for human well-being, as individuals, participants in a community, and citizens of the world.
Find out more about Dr. Ingham's work on soil microbiology at soilfoodweb.com. Her classes and other work with Environment Celebration Institute at environmentcelebration.com.
Related Interviews Dan Kittredge - Nutrient Dense Foods Stephen Harrod Buhner - The Citizen Scientist Elizabeth Farnsworth - GoBotany! and Citizen Science
Resources Dr. Ingham’s CV Soil Food Web Environment Celebration Institute Dr. Ingham's Online Classes Ecological Monograph (1985 - PDF) EcoThinkIt
Over more than a decade, The Permaculture Podcast has explored the landscape-based practices which lead to permanent agriculture, as well as the invisible structures necessary, as individuals and in our community, to create permanent culture.
Today’s episode examines our ability to create culture and continues the 12th-anniversary celebration of The Permaculture Podcast, as Alasdair Stuart joins me to share his insights on how media and culture influence the community and countries we live in, and how those stories shape who we are and our experiences. Through those lenses, Alasdair and I look at representation in media, the importance of inclusion and diversity as creators and consumers of fictional works, the importance of cultivating kindness, and changing outlooks on mental health.
We also share how we find hope through storytelling, on the page or through the screen, as we face an uncertain future, and invite you to join us on that journey.
If you’re not familiar with Alasdair, he is the co-owner of Escape Artists Incorporated, which produces the wonderful short-fiction podcasts Cast of Wonders, EscapePod, PodCastle, and PseudoPod. Alasdair is also the regular host of the horror podcast PseudoPod, where he not only introduces the author, narrator, and fright to follow but also shares his commentary and critique on the story for each episode and how that unique tale fits into our lives and world.
As you might imagine when a pair of media-loving folks who grew up immersed in comic books, TV shows, movies, and games of all kinds come together to talk about how those works create our society and a vision for the future, it leads to nearly continuous references to the personal and pop culture that shaped us and that we see as continuing to mold current generations. If you love anything like Dr. Who, video games, Terry Pratchett, Tik Tok, Henry Rollins, Heavy Metal, or George Carlin, there is each of those and so much more somewhere in today’s interview.
You can find Alasdair's at alasdairstuart.com. While you are there, be sure to sign up for his newsletter, The Full Lid. He is also on Twitter @alasdairstuart
Escape Artists Incorporated and their amazing slate of podcasts are at EscapeArtists.Net.
I’d also like to give a big thank you to the artist SerHawke for allowing me to the drawing of Alasdair in a She-Hulk T-shirt as the cover image for this episode. Their commissions are open and you can find them on Twitter @serhawke.
I enjoyed this conversation with Alasdair because of how he points to the ways media, in whatever form it might take from TV shows to spoken word albums to podcasts, can have an impact on us as individuals and help us develop or change our worldviews. How media as a shared experience can create a culture or subculture we feel at home in and want to be an active participant in. Media can create a cultural zeitgeist that changes a country or the world.
As we permaculture practitioners share our vision of the future through fiction, such as Utopia by Geoff Christou 470 by Linda Woodrow, it shows others what is possible. As we share the stories of our lives and experiences through podcasts or memoirs, we link the past to the present and share them with others. This work, of telling our stories with voice, body, and bones, is vital to what permaculture has to hold now and for future generations.
If you have a story inside of you, find a way to tell it. Your voice matters.
Before closing this episode, I’d like to give a hearty thanks to Alasdair for joining me, as this conversation was a special one for me, as it’s been a dream of mine to interview Alasdair after hearing his voice—both his literal, spoken voice and voice as an expression for his point of view and talent as a writer—all those years ago when I downloaded my first episode of PseudoPod. It was a pleasure to have this experience and chat like old friends.
I continue to tune in to PseudoPod and remain a dedicated listener because I am inspired by Alasdair’s message that we can shine a light into the darkness and find hope, even when we face real monsters in the world. That hope, along with a story well told, reminds me that we are not alone, that there are others like us in the world, and we can stand together with others, whatever comes in the days, years, and decades to come.
Until the next time, listen to an episode of PseudoPod while you spend each day discovering the media that inspires you while creating a culture that takes care of Earth, your self, and each other.
For nearly 40 years, Rosemary’s work as a teacher has brought permaculture directly into the lives of her thousands of students. As an author, she has touched innumerably more. As her students became teachers and other teachers used her works in their classrooms, her ideas and methods continue to ripple through the world and reach even more.
With this reach, her work touched has touched my own, first as a student, through her book Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture, and later as an instructor, when I used that book as one of the student texts for the course paired with the companion book to that, Earth User’s Guide to Teaching Permaculture.
Now, we celebrate Rowe’s newest book, from Melliodora Publishing, Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture, with a series of conversations covering her thoughts on the breadth of permaculture as a practice, interwoven with stories from throughout her journey.
To start things off, I knew a lot about Rowe’s writings, but not about her early life, how she came to permaculture or her career as a teacher and author. So, we begin where so many interviews do on The Permaculture Podcast, with a conversation about her biography and background, which includes some insights into the development and growth of permaculture over the years, the kinds of character and teacher Bill Mollison was, and how Rowe reframes permaculture education into a local, lived experience, whether she’s teaching in Australia, Vietnam, or Cambodia.
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You can find Rosemary's books, including Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture, at the PermaculturePrinciples.com store.
As we close this conversation and prepare for the others which will follow, I’d like to re-extend the invitation for you to answer Rowe’s questions:
- What is your country?
- Do you speak a language from there?
- Do you know how the indigenous peoples lived on that land?
Visit Our Series Partners Permaculture Principles Melliodora Publishing Abundant Earth Foundation
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In this episode, an old friend returns. Together, we relax and celebrate the 12th anniversary of The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann.
Erin Harvey, and I met one another and became friends in 2010 when we took our Permaculture Design Course with Ben Weiss and Dillon Naber Cruz in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After graduating, Erin returned to Ohio to begin her own farm, The Kale Yard.
Erin was one of the first guest on the show, back in early 2013, when we talked about how she started The Kale Yard. If you haven’t heard that, you’ll find a link to that interview in the show notes.
Today, we talk about how life has changed over the last decade, including The Kale Yard transitioning from a Market Garden to a nursery business, and Erin’s current role as a farmers market manager and what that means for both her, the farmers, and the community they serve. We also spend some time on her interest in propagating figs and other plants; the role of a hoop house and greenhouse on her farm; and what Erin sees in her future.
Related Episode Starting a Small Scale Farm - Erin Harvey
Resources The Kale Yard Keller Market House
This month marks the 12th anniversary of The Permaculture Podcast with Scott. To celebrate this latest milestone, I asked my friend Erin Harvey to join me again to discuss how her life and work have changed since we graduated from our Permaculture Design Course on October 10th, 2010, and the show began.
In preparation for that new conversation, here is my first interview with Erin, recorded and released in the Winter of 2013.
Note: This is from the earliest days of interviews on the podcast and does not benefit from later improvements in microphones or recording tools.
Resources: The Kale Yard The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook (Chelsea Green Publishing)
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Today's guest is Perrine Hervé-Gruyer author, along with her husband Charles, of Miraculous Abundance: One Quarter Acre, Two French Farmers and Enough Food to Feed the World.
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My guest for this episode is Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, The Art of Fermentation, and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. If you’ve practiced any kind of fermentation and went looking for a recipe, reference, or just read about the wee yeasties and bacteria that transform our foods with their microbial magic, then you’ve probably read something by Sandor, and I recommend reading even more.
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In this episode, Natalie Bogwalker shares her technique to quickly build soil for growing food in a temperate climate.
You can watch the video of Natalie’s work on soil building at Wild Abundance, which is where today’s audio comes from, at: YouTube.com/ThePermaculturePodcast
Find out more about Natalie, her work, and Wild Abundance at: WildAbundance.Net
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The guest for this episode is John Kotab to discuss his book Bee the Change, a travelogue about his discovery of what we can do to save bees and other pollinators.
Find John, his permaculture consulting business, and his books at:
cotabconsulting.com
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This episode is a remaster of my first interview with Eric Toensmeier, originally recorded in the early days of the show way back in 2012 when I still lived on the land in Pennsylvania. I’m sharing this as a follow-up to the most recent episode before this one where Eric joined me for another interview to talk about his current work on Alley Cropping. Depending on when you are listening to this, if you haven’t heard that show, definitely give it a listen. You’ll find that right before this one in the archives.
If you are not familiar with Eric and his work, he is the author of numerous permaculture and permaculture-adjacent books, all of which I highly recommend for your library. Most recently, that includes Carbon Farming: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security. Another title where Eric is the sole author is Perennial Vegetables: From Artichoke to Zuiki Taro, a Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious, Easy-to-grow Edibles. He is the co-author, along with Dave Jacke, of Edible Forest Gardens and also wrote Paradise Lot with Jonathan Bates, the former of which is probably his most popular title in the permie community.
Our conversation begins with Eric’s bio. He then answers some listener questions on perennials, then delves into perennial plants, the broad-scale application of permaculture, and removing some of the fear factors of implementing a forest garden. Throughout you will hear both of us touch on plants we would like to see improved and simple ways anyone who is growing a garden can help domesticate and improve edible perennials.
- You can find Eric at PerennialSolutions.org
- His latest venture, The Perennial Agriculture Institute, is at PerennialAgriculture.Institute.
- You can also read Eric’s current writing and support his ongoing efforts at patreon.com/erictoensmeier.
Resources Eric Toensmeier Perennial Solutions PerennialAgriculture.Institute Edible Forest Gardens Keyline Design USDA PLANTS Database
Books Billy Joe Tatum's Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook (Out-of-Print. Bookfinder.com link) Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties by Carol Deppe Creating a Forest Garden by Martin Crawford Edible Water Gardens by Nick Romanowski (Out-of-Print. Bookfinder.com link) The New American Landscape: Leading Voices on the Future of Sustainable Gardening Return to Resistance: Breeding Crops to Reduce Pesticide Dependence by Raoul Robinson Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast - A Field Guide
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In this episode, Eric Toensmeier returns to share some of his research on alley cropping, from his forthcoming book on this subject which he is writing in cooperation with Interlace Commons, an organization spreading the benefits and evidence of agroforestry, including alley cropping, with farmers.
Resources Perennial Solutions Eric’s Patreon Interlace Commons where you can find his book on Alley Cropping, later this year.
Kernza Perennial Grain Agroforesterie by Christian Dupraz and Fabien Liagre AGROOF (French Agroforestry Organization) Alley Cropping - University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry Training Manual (PDF) Savanna Institute
Related Interviews Stream Restoration and Riparian Corridors - Dr. Bern Sweeney The Savanna Institute - Keefe Keeley
GoFundMe: Support for Dan Palmer’s Family
CW: Death, Grief, and Loss
It is with a heavy heart that I share the tragic news that Dan Palmer, of Making Permaculture Stronger, passed away suddenly in the first week of August, 2022.
Dan was an activist, designer, permaculture practitioner, and teacher. He was also the driving force behind numerous events and organizations including permablitz, Very Edible Gardens, Holistic Decision Making, the still-in-progress film Reading the Landscape, and his blog and podcast.
I knew Dan half as well as I would have liked, but am thankful for the many long hours we spent in conversation over the years, separated by half the world, asking what we could do to make one another, and by extension permaculture, stronger.
My thoughts are with his partner, children, and other loved ones. If you are someone who prays, I ask you to offer words into the universe for those who are hurting.
You can also use the link above to donate to a GoFundMe for his family during this time of transition.
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This episode begins with a history lesson on Natural Farming and the work of Masanobu Fukuoka and leads into a conversation comparing and contrasting that method and his ideas to Permaculture, delivered in the voice and words of someone who was present in both movements from their earliest days, the late Larry Korn.
Resources The One-Straw Revolution The One-Straw Revolutionary Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson
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The guest for this episode is Mark Ervin of GreenGro Biologicals. He joins me to share his passion for terra preta soil and biochar and how he turned that love into an entrepreneurial business bringing a regenerative product to market. Along the way, he shares the difference between simply burning something and calling biochar versus creating a carbon-rich, mineralized biochar, the importance of nutrient ratios for sustainable growing, and much more.
Resources
More Information on Terra Preta and Biochar
- Terra Preta (Wikipedia)
- Biochar (Wikipedia)
- The Biochar Solution by Albert Bates
- Burn by Albert Bates and Kathleen Draper
,
Related Interviews
- Dr. Elaine Ingham - The Soil Food Web
- Eric Toensmeier - Drawing Down Carbon: Agroforestry and Climate Change
- Permabyte: Biochar, Gasification, and Woodlot Management
- Mary Johnson - An Introduction to Nutrient Dense Farming
- Connor Stedman - Carbon Farming - Soil
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This episode on Urban Homesteading with Rachel Kaplan is the conversation that started me down the road of what the show has become known for: long-format, interview-driven, guest-focused conversations you won’t hear anywhere else. It is also the first interview I ever recorded for The Permaculture Podcast so, unless you were here in the early days of the show or took a deep dive into the archives at thepermaculturepodcast.com in later years, it’s one you’ll hear for the first time, today.
Listening to Rachel again, her words hold as much meaning to our practices now, as when they were recorded more than a decade ago. If you are interested in permaculture in and around cities or are looking to take your practices and orient what works in the home and garden towards our communities, relax, take some time, and enjoy this interview.
Resources Urban Homesteading Rachel Kaplan - EcoSomatic Action K.Ruby Blume - Rogue Ruby
Other People and Organizations The Institute of Urban Homesteading Daily Acts North Bay Institute of Green Technology Grey Water Action
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Our guest for this episode is Chris Salisbury, author of Wild Nights Out. He joins us to share his work acclimating people of all ages to nature through experiences and encounters in a world shrouded by the dark, so we may do the same for others in our lives, whether as professional educators, parents, or community members. Throughout the interview, Chris shares ways to find nature all around us and extends an invitation so that we can discover, or rediscover, the joy, majesty, and mystery of night.
Chris and his work are at WildWise.co.uk and his book, Wild Nights Out, is available from Chelsea Green Publishing.
Resources Wild Wise Wild Nights Out Wilderness Awareness School 8 Shields Institute The Art of Mentoring Sharing Nature Institute for Earth Education
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This episode is a guest interview from my friend Drew Grim of Schoolhouse Life, as he sits down with Andrew Magazine to discuss the art and craft of whole animal butchery, as it applies to the homestead. Throughout, Andrew shares tips from his professional experience as a craft butcher on setting up one’s workspace, how to select the right tools and equipment for this work, and how raising and butchering our own animals is an act of care, compassion, and an ethical way to include meat in our diet.
Resources
- Applied Anatomist (Website)
- Applied Anatomist (Instagram)
- Wonderland Hollow (Andrew's Farm with Christina Chumbley)
- The Schoolhouse Life Podcast
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Caring for Earth includes caring for ourselves.
To help us find ways to stay active throughout our lives, I’m joined by Katy Bowman as she shares her work on the importance of incorporating regular, whole-body movement throughout the day, with a focus on stacking activities to make sure we stretch, flex, reach, push, and pull, during our regular routine. In this way, we can express a full range of motion, inhabited in our bodies, without needing to worry about making time to go to the gym, unless we want to. Throughout the conversation, she includes numerous ways to redesign our current habits into ones with more use of our body, while framing the conversation as one not of exercise but with movement as a form of nutrition and how we can look for and address any deficits we may find.
Resources
- Nutritious Movement
- Grow Wild
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40% of all insect species have declined globally in recent decades, and a third of those are considered endangered. The impacts that wild insects have on our lives are incalculable, while the benefit to humanity by domesticated honeybees is measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
With this decline in insect populations, including the bees that pollinate our food, what can we do? Searching for answers and to understand what was leading to a bee decline, several years ago I reached out to Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a research scientist and associate professor of entomology at the University of Maryland and the former Chief apiarist for Pennsylvania to find out more.
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Resources:
- Dennis vanEnglesdrop, PhD
- Dennis vanEnglesdorp: A Plea for Bees (TED Talk Video)
- Bee Informed Partnership
- Crop Pollination Exposes Honey Bees to Pesticides Which Alters Their Susceptibility to the Gut Pathogen Nosema ceranae
Related Interview * Owen Wormser - Turning Lawns into Meadows
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In this episode I sit down with my friends Jill Cloutier, of Sustainable World Radio, and Oliver Goshey, of Regenerative Skills, as we have a round-robin conversation about what brought us to the permaculture community and why we started and continue to produce our respective shows. This is an introduction not only to ourselves but also a collaborative project we’ve been working on for more than a year, the Regenerative Media Alliance.
Resources
- Regenerative Media Alliance
- Contact Regenerative Media Alliance
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This episode shares some of what I learned at the Together We Can Conference from Future Harvest on January 13 and 14, 2022. This includes some reflections (or ramblings if you prefer) as they relate to my own experiences and practices, along with people, organizations, and ideas I recommend you connect with or learn more about to grow, improve, or pivot your permaculture practices.
Resources
- Future Harvest
- Maryland Food System Resiliency Council
- Jonathan Bardzik
,
New Age Agrarianism
- Renard Turner - New Age Agrarianism (Interview)
- Booker T. Whatley (Wiki)
- Booker T Whatley Part 1: The Ten Commandments (Video)
- Booker T Whatley Part 2: The Clientele Membership Club (Video)
- Rodale Institute
- Save Three Lives: A Plan for Famine Prevention by Robert Rodale
,
Care Farming
- Care Farming Network
- Red Wiggler Community Farm
- Fields 4 Valor Farms
- Benevolence Farm
- UNC Farm at Penny Lane
- Blawesome, LLC
,
Anne Biklé and David R. Montgomery
- Dig2Grow
This episode shares some of what I learned at the Together We Can Conference from Future Harvest on January 13 and 14, 2022. This includes some reflections (or ramblings if you prefer) as they relate to my own experiences and practices, along with people, organizations, and ideas I recommend you connect with or learn more about to grow, improve, or pivot your permaculture practices.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/TogetherWeCan.mp3Click here to download the episode. | Open Player in New Window
ResourcesFuture Harvest
Maryland Food System Resiliency Council
Jonathan Bardzik
New Age AgrarianismRenard Turner – New Age Agrarianism (Interview)Booker T. Whatley (Wiki)
Booker T Whatley Part 1: The Ten Commandments (Video)
Booker T Whatley Part 2: The Clientele Membership Club (Video)
Rodale Institute
Save Three Lives: A Plan for Famine Preventionby Robert Rodale
Care FarmingCare Farming NetworkRed Wiggler Community Farm
Fields 4 Valor Farms
Benevolence Farm
UNC Farm at Penny Lane
Blawesome, LLC
Anne Biklé and David R. Montgomery
Dig2Grow.com
The post Together We Can – Recap and Resources appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
This episode is a guest interview from my friend Karryn Olson, continuing the conversation series on right livelihoods.
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Sitting down with The Renegade Economist Della Z. Duncan, they discuss what right livelihood can mean and how we can manifest it in the world, in this moment. They also share the structural issues which currently exist, that we can advocate changing in order to create a future that provides more equitable opportunities for everyone to pursue their own vision of a right livelihood. Throughout, Della and Karryn touch on alternative economic models, how many of us use them already in our everyday life, and how to consider implementing the various options, such as the gift economy or time banking, in our lives and communities.
Della’s work, including the Upstream Podcast, her retreats, and Livelihood coaching, the last of which is offered on a donation basis, can be found at DellaZDuncan.com.
You can find our host for this episode, Karryn Olson, at Regenepreneurs.com.
Though I’ll be sharing more conversations from this series with you in the future, until the next of those is out, if you’d like to see what’s coming up from Karryn and her guests, including how you can join a live session, visit:
Cultivating Livelihoods In Service to Life: A Conversation Series
I’m thankful to Karryn for allowing me to share these conversations and her series with you because her work and life’s passion is on creating a right livelihood and helping others do the same. Whereas I’m interested in sharing the breadth of permaculture and connecting you with the resources you need to live a deep, meaningful life, steeped in permaculture, wherever you find yourself.
These connections and our own particular focus, allow me to bring your more than I can on my own. If there is anyone you know who you’d like to have guest host an interview for the podcast, let me know.
Until the next time, spend each engaging in the systems and work that delight you, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Related Interviews
Karryn Olson – A Pattern Language for Women in Permaculture
Carmen De Jesus – Consent and Our Livelihoods
Charles Eisenstein, Dave Jacke, and Ben Weiss – Right Livelihoods
The post The Renegade Economist on Right Livelihoods appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
This episode is the annual update looking at the year ahead, including some announcements and insights from behind the scenes.
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When it comes to The Permaculture Podcast, I’m trying some different things with the show this year.
First, episodes will be the length that they need to be. This arises as there are episodes where the interview closed abruptly and should have had a soft end with a follow-up that picked up again where we left off. Trying to match the long-format The Permaculture Podcast has become known for has resulted in episodes that were longer than they needed to be, diluting the content. While in others a tighter edit would have created a clearer conversation and better served the guest’s message.
Second, there are episodes I’ll be releasing that aren’t interviews and don’t fit the longer format. These include responses to your specific requests; conversations with colleagues about particular questions; and the special series documenting Rosemary Morrow’s on permaculture, and impacts on permaculture and the community. And the possibility for a lot more.
Third, rather than pushing to get things out on specific days, I’m moving away from a regular release schedule in order to focus on production and projects, releasing and announcing these when they are ready and complete.
All of this taken together, I’m expecting to release more content this way, both in the number of episodes and hours of material, than in the past several years, while at a higher standard and level of production.
This will not impact the weekly updates and other regular posts for Patrons. Those at the Sprout and higher tiers will receive their ad-free episodes three-days before the public release. These changes also do not impact the live stream schedule.
Some of the projects include several online classes this year.
They are:
Ecological Literacy and Design.
The Permaculture Practicum.
The One Yard Schoolhouse.
Ecological Literacy and Design is a six-week online course to teach you everything you need to know to practice permaculture in your day-to-day life, without taking a permaculture design course.
The first Ecological Literacy and Design session starts in June. You can find out more about this class at thepermaculturepodcast.com/ecologicalliteracy
The Permaculture Practicum is an eight-week online class for permaculture professionals or those who want to become permaculture professionals. Together, we’ll take a deep dive into a specific, broad area of permaculture such as garden and homestead design, cities and small spaces; or invisible structures. Those are by no means the only possible subject, let me know if I can offer a practicum in an area where you would like to specialize.
The Permaculture Practicum begins in September and you can find out more at thepermaculturepodcast.com/practicum
Taken together, these two classes represent a complete, 72-hour permaculture design course. Students who take both classes are eligible to receive a Permaculture Design Certificate after review of their final portfolio.
I’m also excited to share The One Yard Schoolhouse. This is an enrichment program for homeschooling parents where they’ll learn activities to partake in and share with their children, while receiving homeschooling educational support from me. This allows parents to spend more time with their children, rather than creating course content or curriculum, while their children receive a rich, place-based, permaculture-focused education.
The next session of The One Yard Schoolhouse begins on April 1st and is open for enrollment.
You can find more detailed information at thepermaculturepodcast.com/schoolhouse
I am also organizing an in-person Ecological Literacy and Design retreat from September 7th to the 11th of this year at Earthaven Ecovillage near Asheville, North Carolina.
We’re offering an early-registration special until February first where you can save $150 and only need to pay a deposit to sign up.
See the complete details and register today at learnfromtravel.com/permaculture
The other project is shifting more of my permaculture work towards video.
For the last six months or so I’ve been experimenting with that via the listener live streams. Behind the scenes, I’ve been shooting videos around the house and in my community to practice with the equipment since this is a different direction for me personally, though not necessarily permaculture content.
I find that specific, listener-driven projects help me to decide what to create, so if there are any videos you’d like me to make to further your permaculture journey, let me know.
I’m also planning to get on the road once my family and I feel it’s safe to travel again for the in-person interviews and on-site video tours that were initially in the works for the growing season of 2020 before the pandemic wrecked all of those.
I have the first such trip tentatively planned for late Spring of this year, of course with the caveat that may be rescheduled as the world is still in flux. I’ve also made a number of connections with regional regenerative agriculture folks through Future Harvest, and they’ve agreed to site tours later in the year.
If there is any person or site you’d like me to visit, anywhere in the world, let me know. I’m happy to add them to my list and see what I can do about getting there.
In addition to all of that, I recently updated this website. Here you’ll find a calendar page where you can see at a glance the list of episodes I’m working on over the next several weeks; the dates, times, and subjects for live streams; and any workshops, classes, or events I’m teaching, attending, or otherwise participating with.
There is also a new Support the Podcast page where you can see all the ways to assist the podcast in the year ahead.
If at any time there is a way I can help you with your permaculture journey by including something on the show, in a live stream, or by offering a specific class or workshop, are always welcome to share your suggestions with me.
Until the next time, spend each day engaged in what you love, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
The post State of the Podcast Address appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Renard Turner, an independent, African-American, sustainable farmer. Along with his wife, he raises gourmet goats and squab at Vanguard Ranch Natural Gourmet in Virginia. He is also the opening keynote speaker at the upcoming conference, Together We Can, from Future Harvest. I wanted to learn more about Renard and how those experiences inform his upcoming keynote speech, New Age Agrarianism: Growing for a Regenerative, Sustainable, and Equitable Planet.
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The result which follows is a frank conversation about agriculture and the impacts of systemic practices and policies on African-Americans, Indigenous, and People of Color. This includes the issue of land access and the need for each of these communities to have equitable quantities of land if current and future generations will ever have a chance to learn vocational agriculture, at a meaningful scale, from members of their own community. We also touch on how, as these are systemic issues, we aren’t individually at fault for the policies and practices that got us here, but that as we become aware of them we can take action in solidarity towards the liberation of all.
Find out more about Renard and his farm at:
Vanguard Ranch Natural Gourmet
Renard is also the keynote speaker at the upcoming Together We Can Conference, presented by Future Harvest. I’ll be attending this virtual event on Thursday and Friday, January 13th and 14th, 2022. As this is completely online, it is a great way to start the New Year and I look forward to you joining me, Renard, and all the amazing speakers and presenters. Find out more and register to attend today at FutureHarvest.org.
Sign-up for the Ecological Literacy Retreat
Join the Podcast Patron Community
Stepping away from this interview, I want to reiterate what I said in the opening and that Renard and I touched on throughout our conversation. Systemic forces like those we discussed and how they impact all levels of society can be a lot to take in. Often, we are also, in the deepest meaning of the word, ignorant to these realities for a variety of reasons. Once we give ourselves that grace and become aware of these issues, we can then take meaningful action, to the best of our abilities.
If after listening to this interview you would like to learn more, I recommend reading some of the books that changed my perspective. Those include:
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein.
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenburg.
The following past episodes of the show also, in their own way, expand on various pieces of the conversation with Renard.
Jeff Speck – Creating Walkable Cities
Brad Ward – Permaculture and Reforming International Development
Permaculture, Land, and Land Access
1 – Permaculture, Land. and Land Access
2 – Jesse Frost
3 – Sarah Mock
4 – Amyrose Foll
5 – Reana Kovalcik
6 – Improving Land Access
7 – Final Thoughts
When you are ready to take action, look for your local mutual aid or sustainable agriculture organizations. Through them, you’ll meet folks looking to liberate rather than simply lift up. So, reach out to them for more information and to get involved.
I’d also like to hear your thoughts after listening to Renard and his perspective. Leave a comment in the show notes, or get in touch in the usual ways:
Call or text: 717-827-6266
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Until the next time, spend each day making the world a more just, beautiful, and egalitarian world while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Resources
Systematic Land Theft by Jillian Hishaw, Esq. (Book)
Jane Elliot – Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise and Fighting Racism (Video)
The post Renard Turner – Land-Based Culture and New Age Agrarianism appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Here we are at Episode Seven, the finale, of the focused exploration of Permaculture, Land, and Land Access, with my final thoughts as a series of ramblings, reflections, and ruminations stemming from the earlier episodes. If you haven’t listened to all of those, or you just found the show and this is your first time tuning in, I recommend going back and checking the preceding six episodes before continuing. You’ll find numbered and ordered links to those in the show notes, along with past episodes of the show related to this series, and a long list of resources.
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Jesse
For me, the conversation with Jesse Frost spoke to the realities of what it means to be a farmer on a small site. That you can make this work on a little piece of land, but that it takes training ahead of time and figuring out your particular approach. Knowing where you want to be and how that can impact what you’re going to sell in order to maximize the profits of your labor while tending and building the soil. If you want to follow a similar path to Jesse, you may need to relocate to have access to a piece of land or the right markets. I also appreciate his candor that even though he had years of experience, it still took time to get things right, and he continues to learn and adapt.
I also enjoyed the idea of having aspirational goals, such as his example of reducing plastic, or my own of producing an interview of the same caliber and quality as Terri Gross of Fresh Air. We may not be able to attain that at the moment, or ever, but we can still continue to work in that direction.
Then there were Jesse’s thoughts on land access. That leasing may be the right option, as well as finding partners and working together. There was a time I was looking at leasing land from a friend’s family to grow on, or there is my friend Erin Harvey of The Kale Yard, who started on a half-acre leased from some people she knew. There was also a time when Wilson Alvarez, now of The Reintegration Project, ran a garden installation and maintenance company where he traded part of his labor for a share of the garden harvest to sell or use at his home.
Sarah
From Sarah Mock, the realities she shared into the wealth, resources, and capital available for farmers, farms, and farming was like having the veil ripped-off of my understanding of farming. That the people we call farmers are often not, in reality, the actual farmers, rather it is often the people they hire to work the land for them. Understanding that distinction matters when we get involved with policy or legislation in order to remove the special treatment, as it exists today, for farms. Similarly, her deconstruction of the family farm also shows how farming is a business, with its own risks and rewards.
That growing food for people is the least valuable use of land, and there are systemic forces at play that restrict our ability to get on the land. There’s an interview I recorded with Dr. Laura Jackson that is linked below which expands on agriculture as a system and the difficulty of pivoting production, further detailing much of what Sarah shared with us.
In Sarah’s thoughts on land access, she reiterated the need to partner with others and look for diverse voices, mentors, and skillsets to work with. This is one of the most important steps I would recommend to anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur, build their permaculture dreams, or live into their agricultural aspirations.
Though I’m not a farmer, from my own experience as the producer of this show, there are a ton of skills I don’t have. The show wouldn’t be where it is today without friends, colleagues, volunteers, or freelancers I’ve hired. Even now, as I shift from production to more education, I wouldn’t be considering this move were it not with the current folks who answered my call for help. To them, I’m ever indebted and recommend that you build your team before starting your business.
Amyrose
I enjoyed Amyrose Foll’s honestly on getting involved with or creating organizations that liberate individuals and communities rather than stifle them. That there are a lot of us involved in this work, so let’s get together and increase our reach, speak more broadly, and show up as we’re able.
Speaking to food as freedom and that we’re all in this together, we can free ourselves and others by growing food, in whatever ways we are able. And that Amyrose reminded us that we can grow so much food if we abandoned lawns. Grabbing some quick numbers from The Washington Post, as of 2015 there were 40 million acres of lawns in the United States, alone. Even if we kept a quarter of that for recreation and were to grow imperfectly on the rest, lawns alone could feed more than 100 million people in the United States. Intensively and closer to perfect, the United States could feed everyone within the nation from just that 2% of the country covered in lawns.
But even if we cannot grow a quantity of food, we can still reduce food insecurity by volunteering with programs that serve people, like Food Not Bombs, donating money to our local food bank, or placing non-perishable goods in a local little food pantry. If we want to take it further, we could set up a community fridge in our yard, or start a community fridge project in our community as Taylor Scott did.
I’ve mentioned this idea of community fridges to a few of my friends in the community, and it seems to have struck the right chord, as they all said it sounded like a fantastic idea for permaculture practitioners to get involved in. So, coming up in a few weeks, I’ll be interviewing Taylor to discuss Community Fridges, her project, and what we can do to get involved or start our own. If you have any questions you’d like me to ask Taylor during that conversation, leave a comment.
Reana
I grew up in a family that was larger-than-most, where my maternal grandmother and many of her children, lived through and remembered the crushing poverty of growing up in Appalachia. They had so little for so long, that they weren’t the kind to donate money, but who believed in a generous spirit and to help others with your time, skills, and labor. That, paired with growing up in one of the historic peace churches, left an impression on me to aid whoever I can, whenever I’m able, through direct action and activism.
Hearing Reana dive into our conversation and talk about that along with mutual aid was another refreshing reminder that we have a number of adjacent allies in the world. As she shared from all the mutual aid organizations she’s partnered with, we can likely find opportunities in our own area. As a permaculture practitioner, go ahead and hop onto your favorite search engine and type mutual aid and where you live into the search bar. Find those folks in your area you can collaborate with.
If you are a person of faith, does your house of worship have any food outreach programs you can get involved with?
Similarly, as Reana shared if we can’t find something, what about starting our own? Can we partner with our local farmer’s market, or an event, or even our corner bar or pub, to setup a table and raise awareness of food access and food insecurity? By being out there and engaged, we encourage and inspire others to get involved.
To extend our reach, whether or not the DSA is your party of choice, political action is required if we’re going to move forward on any of this, and it takes more than showing up and voting to make it happen. If you are in the United States, lobby against anything egregious you see in the Farm Bill. Run for office. Protest. Write letters to your elected officials. Support candidates who align with your goals, or the opponents of candidates who don’t.
Together, we are legion, and our voices will be heard.
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
Online: via PayPal
Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
c/o Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
If you’d like to connect with any of these guests and continue the conversation:
You can find Jesse at RoughDraftFarmstead.com. His work on caring for soil, with business partners Jackson and Josh is at NoTillGrowers.com, and his book, The Living Soil Handbook is at Chelsea Green Publishing, chelseagreen.com.
Sarah is at sarakhmock.com or on Twitter @sarah_k_mock. Her book, Farm (and Other F Words) is at Bookshop.org.
Amyrose is at VirginiaFreeFarm.org. Virginia Free Farm is also @virginiafreefarm on Instagram or VAFreeFarm on Twitter.
Reana, Slow Food DC and Share a Seed are at SlowfoodDC.org.
And so, as we draw this series to a close, my final thoughts.
The first is to work your net. Whatever you do, wherever you are, consider who you already know and what they do. From there, look at what you want to do next and see if anyone on your list could help you or we be open to collaborating. Reach out, let them know what you’re doing, that you were thinking about them and what they’re up to, and if there is any way you might work together.
The second is to persist. For as long as your work and efforts serve you and your community, keep showing up. You’ll make a world of difference if you do.
Now that this series is complete, I’d like to know your thoughts about this approach to addressing a single subject through a variety of perspectives and voices. You can leave a comment in the show notes, or contact me directly.
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Call or text: 717-827-6266.
Next up is a guest interview from my friend Karryn Olson, as part of her work exploring right livelihoods, in a conversation with the Renegade Economist, Della Z. Duncan.
Until then, spend each day applying your permaculture knowledge to your unique and wonderful life, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other. Listen to the other episodes in the series1 – Permaculture, Land. and Land Access
2 – Jesse Frost
3 – Sarah Mock
4 – Amyrose Foll
5 – Reana Kovalcik
6 – Improving Land Access
Related Interviews
Erin Harvey – Starting a Small Scale Farm
Dr. Laura Jackson – Modern Agriculture Systems
Zev Friedman – Co-Operate WNC, Mutual Aid, and the Scale of Collaboration
Additional ResourcesPeople, Organizations, and ProgramsComfort Farms (Facebook)Common Good City FarmCommunity Roots Garden
Cultivate the City
Democratic Socialists of AmericaFarmer Veteran Coalition / Homegrown by Heroes
Fields 4 ValorFood Not BombsFRESHFARMFuture Harvest – Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture
Kyanite Pantry (LinkTree)
Miriam’s KitchenMLK Urban Agriculture CenterMount Pleasant Library FriendsOAK – Organic Association of Kentucky
PASA Sustainable Agriculture
Peter Scott, found of Fields 4 Valor Farms (LinkedIn)
Plantita Power (Facebook)
Stag Vets, Inc.
Richmond Food Justice
Richmond Indigenous Society (Facebook) (Instagram) (Twitter)
Veterans Healing Farm
Virginia Fresh Match
Wangari Gardens
Direct Action and Mutual Aid
Direct Action (Wiki)
Mutual Aid (Organization Theory) (Wiki)
So You Want to Get Involved in Mutual Aid? (Article)
How to create a mutual aid network (Article)
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
Mutual Aid Hub
Nonviolent Action
Gandhism (Wiki)
Anarcho-pacifism (Wiki)
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
Online: via PayPal
Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
c/o Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
The post Final Thoughts – Permaculture, Land and Land Access. Episode 7 appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In this episode, we hear from each of the guests in the Permaculture, Land and Land Access series, as they address the question: What can we do to improve land access, particularly for those who want to grow food for people? We’ll hear from each of them in the order they appeared in the series so far, beginning with Jesse Frost, followed by Sarah Mock and Amyrose Foll, and ending with Reana Kovalcik.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/5-PLLA-Land-Access.mp3
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What do you think of their answers to the question about improving land access? Whose response do you resonate most with? How would you answer this question?
Let me know.
Leave a comment in the show notes.
Send an email to: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or get in touch by sending a text or calling: 717-827-6266.
Up next is the last episode in the Permaculture, Land and Land Access series, with my final thoughts.
Until then, spend each day working to improve land access for those who want to grow food, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
Online: via PayPal
Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
c/o Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
Listen to the other episodes in the series
1 – Permaculture, Land. and Land Access
2 – Jesse Frost
3 – Sarah Mock
4 – Amyrose Foll
5 – Reana Kovalcik
The post Improving Land Access – Permaculture, Land and Land Access. Episode 6 appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In this episode, Reana Kovalcik and I discuss direct action and mutual aid to get seeds into the hands of people who want to grow food. Using that same overlay, to find and connect with local allies and organizations to spread the message and amplify our impact. Throughout, she uses her work with Slow Food and the program she started, Share a Seed, as effective, on-the-ground models to inspire and encourage you in your next steps for local change.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/4-PLLA-Reana-Kovalcik.mp3Click here to download the episode. | Open Player in New Window
Reana, Share a Seed and Slow Food D.C. are at SlowFoodDC.org.
This conversation with Reana ends the individual interviews in the series. In the next episode you’ll hear from each of the guests again as they share their thoughts and insights on what we can do to improve land access for those who want to grow food.
Until then, spend each day working to get seeds and food where they’re needed while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
Online: via PayPal
Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
c/o Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
Listen to the other episodes in the series
1 – Permaculture, Land. and Land Access
2 – Jesse Frost
3 – Sarah Mock
4 – Amyrose Foll
The post Reana Kovalcik – Permaculture, Land, and Land Access. Episode 5. appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Continuing the series on Permaculture, Land, and Land Access, in this interview I’m joined by Amyrose Foll, of Virginia Free Farm. Amyrose shares how she and the team at VFF use the farm as an incubator of ideas that empower individuals and organizations to get food and gardens into communities. She also discusses: How growing food is a liberating experience for everyone. Ways to find land to grow on. And, some organizations working with gardening and growing as therapy.
Throughout you’ll hear her thoughts on what we can do to make a difference, right now, where we are.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/3-PLLA-Amyrose-Foll.mp3
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You can find Amyrose and Virginia Free Farm are at: VirginiaFreeFarm.org
Next in this series is Reana Kovalcik of Share a Seed and Slow Food D.C., as we look at seed swapping and mutual aid as acts of community outreach and empowerment.
Until then, spend each day expanding your impact as a seed saver, grower, or activist, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Join the Podcast Patron Community on Patreon.
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
Online: via PayPal
Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
c/o Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
Listen to the other episodes in the series
1 – Permaculture, Land. and Land Access
2 – Jesse Frost
3 – Sarah Mock
The post Amyrose Foll – Permaculture, Land, and Land Access. Episode 4. appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In this interview, I’m joined by the author of Farm (and other F words), rural and agriculture writer, and researcher Sarah Mock. Sarah shares her discoveries about the sustaining myths versus realities of farms, farmers, farming, and agriculture profitability in the United States. She also takes us deep into systemic incentives for holding agricultural land as an investment and how this, and other policies, limit first-generation farmers from accessing or retaining land in order to grow food.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2-PLLA-Sarah-Mock.mp3Click here to download the episode. | Open Player in New Window
You can find more about her, her writing, and her broadcast coverage at sarahkmock.com. She is also on Twitter @sarah_k_mock and her book, Farm (and Other F Words) is available from Bookshop.org.
Next in this series is farmer Amrose Foll, of Virginia Free Farm, offering more insights into the life of a farmer and working with the land and growing food for the people who live there.
Until then, spend each day considering the impact of perception and story on our knowledge and understanding, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Register for the 23rd Future Harvest Conference
Join the Podcast Patron Community on Patreon.
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
Online: via PayPal
Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
c/o Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
The post Sarah Mock – Permaculture, Land, and Land Access. Episode 3. appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
This conversation continues the series on Permaculture, Land, and Land Access as Jesse Frost joins me to share his experiences as a small-scale farmer. This includes: Where he sells. What he grows. Insights into market gardening, or French intensive, methods. How he’s working towards reducing plastic around the farm. Whether or not you need to mechanize with a walk-behind tractor. And the use of living paths. We close by touching on his thoughts on farming on the small side in cities and how to reframe our mindset and the crops we choose to the resources and space available.
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We’ll hear more from Jesse in Episode 6 of Permaculture, Land, and Land Access, where he shares his thoughts on making land more accessible.
You can find Jesse and Hannah’s farm at RoughDraftFarmstead.com.
His book, The Living Soil Handbook, is from Chelsea Green Publishing, at ChelseaGreen.com.
His work on No-Till Growing, with working partners Jackson and Josh, is at NoTillGrowers.com.
Up next in this series is Sarah K. Mock. She shares the realities of large-scale, commodity agriculture, and the impacts of policy on farming and the value of land.
We’ll hear from Jesse again in Permaculture, Land, and Land Access Episode Six, where he shares his thoughts on making land more accessible.
Until then, spend each day increasing soil fertility and scaling to the space you’re in while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Get you copies of Rosemary Morrow’s Books at:
The Permaculture Principles US Webstore
The Permaculture Principles AUS Webstore
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
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Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
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The Permaculture Podcast
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Falls Church, VA 22046
The post Jesse Frost – Permaculture, Land, and Land Access. Episode 2. appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
This episode starts the series on Permaculture, Land, and Land Access. I wanted to explore this topic because I’m currently landless and the opportunity to buy land or purchase a house with enough space for a garden, shrinks each year as the price goes up and the size of plots goes down. Living in an apartment in a city, there are plenty of parks and green spaces, but accessing a community garden or place to grow can require a car, years on a waitlist, or both. When an affordable place comes, it may require relocating away from friends and family, or be hours from the viable markets needed to sell on-farm products, requiring regular long-distance commutes to town and the associated added expenses of transportation, fuel, maintenance, and time.
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From my conversations with listeners over the years, I know many of you are in a similar situation, so here is a series on what we can do, without land, to practice permaculture where we are, in our homes and among smaller green spaces, while supporting growers in cities and periurban places.
If you do own land where you farm or practice permaculture, there’s a lot for you to learn as well.
Listen to understand how to care for the ground beneath your feet in the interview with Jesse Frost. Sarah K. Mock dives into the systemic problems at play that limit profitability in agriculture. Learn about how farmers give back to their communities and support food access with Amyrose Foll, while in the final interview, Reana Kovalcik shares how to get food, plants, and seeds where they’re needed through community partnerships and mutual aid.
In addition to those four interviews and this introduction, in episode six of this seven-part series, you’ll hear each of those guests address the question of how to improve land access for people who want to grow food where people live. Episode eight, similar to this beginning, serves as the bookend, with my final thoughts on this series and what we learned, as well as a large section of resources and organizations to explore and connect with if you’d like to take your journey of land, agriculture, and access, further. This series runs through the month of November.
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The Permaculture Podcast
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As you’ll be hearing from Jesse, Sarah, Amyrose, and Reana, in the weeks ahead, here is a bit of their biography and background, and my interest in having them join me.
Jesse Frost’s interest in farming began in the late 2000s because of wine. He was working in a wine shop in NYC that specializes in small-scale, artisanal, certified-organic, biodynamic wineries. After visiting some of those farms around the world he returned to his home state of Kentucky to start his life as a farmer with a two-year on-farm internship. He and his wife, Hannah Crabtree, now live in central Kentucky and farm using no-till practices on certified organic soil with a focus on intensive methods.
I discovered Jesse because of his recently released book The Living Soil Handbook from Chelsea Green Publishing. Learning more about him and his practices, I discovered that, though he’s worked on farms of a variety of sizes, his current farm, Rough Draft Farmstead, is under five acres in production, something more attainable for those of us in and around cities, and for us to hear about the experiences of someone who farms on the smaller-scale in a suburban location, rather than a rural setting, and who makes their on-farm living by selling to farmer’s markets.
What Jesse spoke to during our interview, particularly his answer to the question on land access, opened up my thoughts on Landcare and growing food into the broader perspective which this series became.
Sarah K. Mock is an agricultural journalist and the author of Farm (and Other F Words). Sarah grew up on a small family farm in Wyoming while participating in 4H and FHA, and began her personal foray into agriculture at the age of 13 when she wanted her own dairy goat operation. Her father said he would loan her the money if she wrote a business plan.
In speaking with dairy goat farmers and reading all the books in the library on farming, homesteading, and goats, available, when Sarah started putting the numbers down on the page for her plan, something didn’t add up. Knowing she was only responsible for the goats and their overhead, not rent or facilities, she couldn’t find a way to make her operation profitable. This experience drew Sarah deeper into her appreciation for the agricultural lifestyle while also recognizing there was an economic mystery at play that didn’t make sense.
Leaving college, Sarah spent several years searching for the solution to this conundrum of farm profitability before turning to journalism as the way to work and be paid to find answers to big these problems. Starting out with a national news organization covering Congress, the White House, and USDA as an agriculture and rural issues reporter, she went freelance in 2019.
I began following Sarah on Twitter after seeing people quote-tweet her comments on a series of articles from Chris Newman of Sylvanaqua Farms on race and land access in America. Those posts and her tweets since show a perspective that cares for agriculture and farmers, but not for the myths or everyday narratives we see on the news or hear repeated by politicians and pundits. Her interview gives us the factual realities about farmers farming on a large scale, how that is supported by government policy while eschewing small-scale, regenerative, or permaculture practices, and what we can do to start changing the system.
Amyrose Foll grew up in the woods of Western Pennsylvania foraging and hunting with her father while surrounded by a mother and grandmother who gardened intensively and traded with other community gardeners for what they didn’t have, which inspired her love of plants and growing things. Her farm came about as a legacy of love to cultivate, preserve, and distribute rare and indigenous seed varieties to tribal entities and reservations, and to garden programs, in Virginia and across the United States, so these cultivars would not be lost to climate change. Those beginnings grew into a permutation that now encompasses urban agriculture, food justice, mutual aid, and community fridges.
Her farm, Virginia Free Farm, is a nonprofit with the mission to deliver free nutritious, responsibly produced healthy food to their neighbors in need. She started out distributing food because they had too much and needed to do something with the surplus. They now feed around 500 people directly from the farm, which has inspired a movement in central Virginia that gives food to Food Not Bombs and unhoused communities in the area, while supporting a dozen community gardens, food sovereignty gardens at several Virginia indigenous tribes, as well as working on legislation at the state level for equal access to food for BIPOC communities, urban areas, and food deserts.
This isn’t just giving food away, but also sharing the knowledge, supplies, and resources so that communities and individual families build resilience. When I learned about all of this direct action in practice, in a way that cares for Earth, cares for people, and creates a surplus to return to the community, I had to interview Amyrose, who I discovered as this series was coming together, and she was a perfect fit.
Reana Kovalcik has been in the food and farm world for a decade working in communications and policy. While working for a school food organization in New York City, in 2010 she was pulled into Slow Food NYC on the work there on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization, a legislative package that funds nutrition programs, and later joined the Slow Food NYC policy committee. She relocated to Washington D.C. five or so years ago to work for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition on Federal Farm Policy, while continuing her work with Slow Food at the national level and on the local level with Slow Food D.C., where she is the Vice-Chair and Governor. Reana also started the Share a Seed program at the beginning of the pandemic, something we talk more about in her interview.
It was through Share a Seed that I found Reana and reached out to her to talk about that program as another practical approach to get involved in our local community, without needing land or to grow food. Our conversation, which does talk about that as well as the role of the Slow Food movement in food and food access, also continues the thread of mutual aid and how we, each of us, can work directly to increase food security and create food justice.
I’ll include links to each of the guests, their projects, and related resources in the show notes for their individual episodes, and recap all of that in episode seven.
Until the next time, spend each day considering how you came to the land where you currently reside, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post Permaculture, Land, and Land Access appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
If you’ve been listening to this podcast since near the beginning, you may remember shorter episodes that introduced an idea or topic. This episode, and others you’ll hear like it, irregularly in the future, is a call back to the days of those perma-bytes. With so many amazing people and organizations doing good work in the world, I want to be able to share more of them with you.
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So, today, I’m joined by Hadley of Lobelia Commons, a mutual aid organization in Louisiana, to hear about how they connect people with food through dozens and dozens of small, local, initiatives. Hadley is also here to tell us about the Earthbound Farmers Almanac, a farmer’s almanac for the Anthropocene, with an invitation for you to get involved by submitting an article, recipe, story, or poem to the 2022 edition.
Listen to this conversation with Hadley to learn more about the organization and what they’re looking for submissions, and I’ll join you again after.
I’d like to give a thank you to Hadley for agreeing to join me so we could get this out to you quickly so you could join in and submit your pieces. As was mentioned you can submit your piece for the Earthbound Farmers Almanac via email to:
lobeliacommons@protonmail.com
Find Lobelia Commons
On Twitter
On Instagram
Listen to Partisan Gardens: Earthbound Farmer’s Almanac
Read Earthbound Farmer’s Almanac (PDF)
Purchase Earthbound Farmer’s Almanac
I’m looking to produce more of these shorter episodes throughout the year, as they make sense. If you know of a person or organization which you think would be a good fit for a quick discussion like this, please let me know.
Until the next time, write that article, put that poem down on the page, tell your story, and share it with others, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
Online: via PayPal
Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
c/o Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
The post Lobelia Commons – Earthbound Farmer’s Almanac appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
We know that pesticides have an outsized impact on insects in the environment, particularly when broad-spectrum chemicals are used, killing nearly all the invertebrates they touch. If you’ve read a warning label on these, or many of the other garden, yard, or farm sprays available, you’ll find cautions about keeping the contents of the container out of waterways or away from amphibians.
But what about the other harms of human impacts? Like the destruction of habitat. The ever-increasing noise of industry. The lights that fill the sky with brightness throughout the night.
And once we’re aware of this mess, what can we do to start repairing the damage?
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To look at these problems and find solutions, I’m joined by Vicki Hird, author of Rebugging the Planet. In addition to sharing a wide overview of the harms to insects in the modern age, we also dive into ways we can make a difference in our homes, across the green spaces near us, in our communities, and how to tackle the systemic problems, in order to care for the microfauna of the soil, water, and air.
Vicki Hird, who you can find at rebuggingtheplanet.org. While you’re there, I also recommend clicking on the menu for Photos of Urban Bugs, to see dozens of pictures of insects from her garden. Her book, Rebugging the Planet, is available from Chelsea Green Publishing. I’ll include links to all of those, and more, in the show notes.
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
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Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
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As with every interview, there’s so much to take away or comment on from this conversation, whether that’s the impact of fashion and clothing on the environment or the policies which subsidize commodity crops, making junk food overly cheap, while keeping fresh organic food out of the hands of many.
As my children reconnected me with insects and inspired a newfound love of bugs, and my own work on changing ourselves to change the world, I’d like to speak to that as my closing thoughts.
When we look at all the animals and insects in the world, many can be considered charismatic, especially the megafauna like pandas or polar bears. We’re drawn to them when we see them, including some of the smaller ones like a brightly colored and contrasted Monarch butterfly or the bumbling flight of a bee. But we also need to fall in love with the creepy-crawlies which don’t always inspire love at first sight.
Watching my children fearlessly interact with creatures that made me uncomfortable to touch or, in the case of spiders, even to be near, made me wonder why I had those aversions. Though I never discovered the source of my discomfort, stopping to ask where those fears came from was the first step in my reformation.
The next was to get out in the grass and garden to look for all the insects I could find making their way across the ground or crouched on plants. With my camera in hand, I took close-up pictures of everything I could, especially spiders. Then, sitting at my desk, pulling those images up on a large screen so that each creature stood perched before me larger than life, seeing if I could identify them. In doing this, giving a name to what I once avoided and beginning a relationship with each one.
I encourage you to do something similar to connect with the life inhabiting your unique little piece of the world. Whether with a camera, sketchbook, or field guide, spend some time with all the beautiful bugs you can find.
Those, however, are just my thoughts. I invite you to share your observations or questions with me, whether you want to talk about this episode or any of the others in the archives. Leave a comment below.
From here, there is no new episode next week as I’m off to celebrate my birthday on October 31st. If you’d like to get in touch, I will still be available by direct message here on Patreon, or by phone, text, or email. The show will return with a new episode on November 8th.
Until we meet again, make decisions each day that help to rebug the planet, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
ResourcesVicki Hird – Rebugging the Planet Website
Photos of Urban Bugs
Rebugging the Planet at Chelsea Green Publishing
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Silent Summer by Dave Goulson
Xerces Society
National Audobon Society
World Wildlife Fund
Conservation International
Related Interview on Insects
Bees
Related Interviews on Citizen Science
Mycology and Citizen Science
The Citizen Scientist
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We can expect change to occur continuously throughout our lives. We’re likely to call several places home. Friends will come and go. We’ll move between jobs multiple times and likely even switch career paths.
As permaculture practitioners, in the landscape, we play with change. Slowing succession in some places of our design, advancing it in others, to arrest or encourage this process on a timeline that matches what we want within any given zone.
But how do we change as people and plan the succession of an organization, and the land it inhabits, through time?
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To examine this question, I’m joined by Shantree Kacera, founder of The Living Centre, an eco-spiritual learning space and demonstration situated on fifty acres near London, Ontario, Canada. In our conversation, Shantree shares his personal transformation and continual recreation over four decades as a farmer, herbalist, and teacher, as well as how the site changed from a small herb farm to a site that has drawn thousands of visitors from dozens of countries. We also touch on how he and his wife and partner Lorraine are planning for the next generation of participants on the land, and for the future succession of The Living Centre.
Find Shantree and The Living Centre at: TheLivingCentre.com
There is a quote from Bill Mollison, which I’ve shared at least once before on the show, in my interview with Geoff Christou, author of Utopia: A Permaculture Vision, which states:
When we design, we are always building for future floods, future fires, future droughts, and planting a tree a few inches tall that will be future forest giants, throw future shadows. Future populations will need future soils and forest resources, shelter, security. So somebody needs to range ahead in time, scout out the next century. We are not daydreaming. We are time scouts.
I see this vision and planning to respond to change as vital if we are ever going to “design out the designer” and ensure that the designs we lay down in our lifetime can continue without our management or influence.
Part of that comes through the classes I teach so we can get deep with ourselves, our stories, and our practices. My goal with students is to develop a grounded, rich understanding of what matters to us and create a cohesive vision and narrative that flows and grows with us throughout our lifetime.
Another piece is to have conversations like this one on the podcast in the months ahead. Through the stories of Shantree and other guests, we can learn different ways to adapt to the changes we’ll face throughout life, and how to plan so our work carries on for generations after our hands have left the soil and our words are lost to the winds of time.
If you would like to continue the conversation and expand on these ideas of planning for the succession of projects and organizations, I ask you to get involved. Check out what Shantree and Lorraine are doing via their website and, if you’re near London, Ontario, Canada, go take a workshop or propose your own project to become an ecosystem participant.
Send me your questions so I can include them in a future episode. If there’s something you’d like answered on-air, there are at least ten other people listening, right now, who would like to hear the answer.
And, if you know someone involved in succession planning at any level from the personal to the systemic, send me their information so I can see if they’d be a good fit for this ongoing, occasional exploration of long-time horizons.
Whether you have questions or would like to suggest a guest, the best way to reach me is by email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
I look forward to hearing from you.
From here, the next episode is an interview with Vicki Hird to discuss what we can do to reverse the bug-pocalypse and rebug the planet.
Until then, spend each day planning for success, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Resources
The Living Centre
The Living Centre on Facebook
The Living Centre on Instagram
Learn More about The Living Centre Crowdfunding Campaign: https://chuffed.org/project/thelivingcentre
Donate to The Permaculture Podcast Fall Campaign
Online: via PayPal
Or with Venmo: @permaculturepodcast
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
c/o Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
The post Shantree Kacera – The Living Centre appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Food. Something we think about regularly. Whether that’s what we’re having for our next meal; trying to remember the contents of our cabinets or refrigerator; or what we need to buy on our next trip to the grocery store. As permaculture practitioners, these thoughts are also likely to include what we’ll be harvesting from our garden; searching for a local source from a producer we can meet face to face; or reading labels to find the indicators of where something comes from and how it was produced.
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Each of us are likely to have our own way to ask and answer questions related to whether or not the food systems we participate in and the food we take into our bodies are the right ones for us, our particular circumstances, and the planet.
What if there was a uniform method, however, to ask and answer these questions? Something we could use in our own lives, which is also easy to share with others. A way to examine, consider, and discuss our food choices, whether the scale is personal or planetary, and covers the range from policy to production to purchase.
This kind of model forms the conversation for this episode, as I sit down with Gigi Berardi to discuss FoodWISE, the system she’s developed and writes about in her recently released book of the same name. In a conversation where I share my own complex relationship with food, Gigi talks about the passion for food that led her to write the book, her sources of inspiration, additional resources you might find helpful, and how to keep ourselves informed and up-to-date on the latest food and agriculture science and research.
If you eat food, you’ll want to listen to this interview.
Click here to find out more about Gigi, her book, and additional resources
I wanted to interview Gigi and have this conversation because the foodWISE model reminds me of the ethics and principles of permaculture. The initial concept is quick to pick up and easy to teach. It provides a consistent way to talk with others about our interests, concerns, and how to resolve them. As a model and not a prescription, it is adaptable to a wide variety of situations. And, it allows room for us to make choices that best suit the resources we individually have available whether we need to find food at a farmer’s market, convenience store, or in our own backyard. I’ll definitely be sharing this with others in my personal life, so we can look and talk about our food choices more deeply.
What do you think about FoodWISE? Will you be picking up a copy of Gigi’s book? Are there other models, oriented around food or otherwise, which you use to navigate the many complex decisions we face every day?
From here, the next interview is a conversation with Shantree Kacera of The Living Centre, an eco-spiritual site located near London, Ontario, Canada. He joins me to share the ways he’s reinvented himself and The Living Centre over four decades engaged in ecological education and outreach, and how he’s planning for the succession of the location and organization.
Until then, spend each day making WISE food choices that take care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post Gigi Berardi – FoodWISE appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Today’s interview is a casual and relaxed conversation, as I sit down with my co-host, David Bilbrey, and turn the mic towards him to discuss what brought him to permaculture and the ideas that influence how he sees the world. We touch on the work of Ken Wilber and Integral Theory, what community can mean in an internet-connected age, how podcasts make the world smaller as we hear from people we might not encounter otherwise, and the importance of sitting down to listen to a conversation between two people.
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David’s website, which includes the interviews he recorded for The Permaculture Podcast, is ecothinkit.com.
We’re looking to have David turn the mic towards me sometime in the future. If you have any questions you’d like David to include in that conversation or ones you’d like me to ask him, leave a comment.
Until the next time, show up every day while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Join the Podcast Patreon Community
Schedule a Meandering
More Information on Integral Theory
Ken Wilber – Integral Theory (Wiki)
Spiral Dynamics (Wiki)
Integral Recovery (Website)
Integral Recovery by John Dupuy (Book – GoodReads)
Developmental Politics by Steve McIntosh (Book – GoodReads)
Post Progressive (Website)
Integral Life (Website)
Crowdocracy (Book – GoodReads)
Integral Theory PodcastThe Daily Evolver
Everyone is Right – Integral Life (iTunes)
Everyone is Right – Integral Life (Google Play)
Also Mentioned:
Doxacon – Faith and Fandom Convention (Online Conference)
The post Wake Up, Grow Up, Clean Up, Show Up appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Today’s episode is a collaboration with my friend, Karryn Olson. She’s currently hosting a series of conversations exploring what work could look, feel like, and give rise to, if our efforts were dedicated to collective thriving and evolution.
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During these times with Karryn and her guests, we’ll hear them explore visions of what the world could look like if we dedicated more of the hours of our day towards work in service to life. And what it could mean—to us, our communities, and the world—if we earned our living through this work.
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Find the guest for this episode, Carmen Leilani DeJesus at museyouneedmost.me and on Instagram @consentisapractice.
You can find our host for this episode, Karryn Olson, at Regenepreneurs.com and additional resources from her session with Carmen at Regenepreneurs.com/dejesus.
I’m collaborating with Karryn to share more conversations from this series with you in the future on The Permaculture Podcast. If you’d like to see what’s coming up from Karryn and her guests, including joining in on an upcoming live session via this link:
Cultivating Livelihoods In Service to Life: A Conversation Series
Karryn’s next session is on Wednesday, October 6th, at 8 pm Eastern with the folks from the Meaningful Work Project.
In hearing what Karryn was working on, I wanted to share these conversations with you on The Permaculture Podcast, because the specific interviews and themes of the overall series speak to the growing dissonance I’ve experienced myself and heard from listeners between trying to make our way through the world while staying true to your values and the ethics of permaculture, while trading one’s work energy for dollars that are earned through practices that seem extractive, meaningless, or, in the words and title of the book by the late David Graber, like a bullshit job. And as if that weren’t enough, we’re navigating all this while feeling, in our bones and in our souls, the impacts of growing climate disruption, increasing wealth inequality, continual social injustice, ongoing pandemic chaos, and the myriad of other social and environmental ills all around us.
To help us with this, Karryn is speaking with numerous guests across a variety of disciplines to explore topics that move our individual mindset and shift our cultural paradigms.
Some of those include:
Right livelihoods.
Collective liberation.
Regenerative entrepreneurship.
Social innovation.
Decolonizing our concepts of “work.”
And the importance of embracing pleasure and grief.
Listened to individually or taken together, it is Karryn and I’s desire to revitalize you and your work as we, all of us, stand together and cross the thresholds of our time.
Until we meet again, spend your days ranting about your needs and wants, meditating on whether you are saying yes willingly or out of a sense of obligation, and considering what work feels like in your body, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post Carmen De Jesus – Consent and Our Livelihoods appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Our individual permaculture practices are rooted in the teachers we learn with. In the books we read to expand our knowledge. In the videos we watch on YouTube to answer a particular question. Or the documentaries we find on Netflix that give us a sense of connection to the larger world.
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Our practices are also grounded in the hyper-local. In the bioregion where we tend the soil and care for plants and animals. Among the communities, people, and cultures we come from and where we find ourselves at this moment.
As someone from the United States living in Central America, my guest today, Scott Gallant, shares his experiences in these different regions and how his location in the world influences his approach to design, universal lessons, and specific solutions. We also talk about the cultural and economic differences between Costa Rica and the United States, and adapting to our local conditions.
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Find Scott and his design work at Porvenirdesign.com. The design project he mentioned working on is Finca Luna Nueva Lodge. And he’s part of a Permaculture Design Course in Costa Rica from November 13th to the 26th, 202 at Finca Luna Nueva and Brave Earth Community Permaculture Design Course
I would like to encourage anyone who is able to travel and visit permaculture sites within their own bioregion and elsewhere, including Scott’s invitation to head to Costa Rica. If you haven’t seen permaculture on the ground in a variety of contexts, it can be different from what we might imagine, especially as the techniques move away from the conditions in Australia that started the movement or the often discussed temperate climate food forest. Permaculture is, as Scott shared, different in all the places where it’s practiced as it spreads across the world.
I’ve often joked at times, though I still believe the core idea to be true, that if you wanted to you could create a permaculture design that looks like a Victorian tea garden. By applying our ethics, principles, strategies, and techniques to that form, the results can function within the ecosystem.
By imagining designs like that and being exposed to what people are doing and the practices they’re engaging in, the plants they use to fill out their design, and then how they incorporate it all together, we can be inspired and filled with ideas to take back to where we’re from and radically transform our ideas of what permaculture looks like in our landscapes and in our communities.
The post Scott Gallant – Tropical Permaculture in Costa Rica appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My longest-running hobby—one I’ve participated in since I was a child, long before discovering permaculture—is playing tabletop roleplaying games. Perhaps the most well-known of those that you’ve heard of, or played yourself, is Dungeons and Dragons.
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Growing up hearing my family members tell stories, I experienced how they drew you in and spun a yarn, but it was at the gaming table where I learned to create collaborative tales with others and engage in oral storytelling of my own. This is also where I found my voice and how to engage others in conversation. Though the technical skills for podcasting came from experiences as a radio DJ in college and later working in Information Technology during my 20s, The Permaculture Podcast and hundreds of interviews in the archives wouldn’t exist without this lifelong love of developing characters, rolling dice, and experiencing imaginative adventures.
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When not working on the show, I play role-playing games with my friends or have conversations about those types of games on Twitter. It was there that I found and began to follow the work of today’s guest, Anna Urbanek. She is the author of Herbalist’s Primer, a book designed as a gaming supplement, with a broad appeal not only to gamers but to anyone interested in plants, gardening, magic, or folklore. We explore those subjects, and more in the interview.
Kickstarter: Herbalist’s Primer
Anna’s Twitter: 2xproficiency
Anna’s Website: DoubleProficiency.com
This was a fun interview for me and I’m super enthusiastic about Herbalist’s Primer. The book draws together these different interests into one place and invites people who might only know one or two of these areas to explore so many more. And it reminds me of something I heard many years ago about how to bring more people into permaculture. The reply, which I believe came from David Holmgren though I am not certain at the moment, was that we approach people that are already looking over the fence. Maybe they don’t want the whole design but would love to learn to compost, save rainwater, or organize in their community. Reaching out to them and sharing books like Herbalist’s Primer is one approach to blending what we love so much with the desires of others.
From here, the next interview is a conversation with Scott Gallant about Permaculture in the Global Tropics.
Until the next time, spend your days playing games, telling stories, and taking care of Earth, your self, and each other. The post Anna Urbanek – Herbalist’s Primer appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
A note on the content for today’s episode. The interview which follows is a discussion of disasters and their impacts, including food insecurity, personal injury, and suicide. Listener discretion is advised.
How do we prepare ourselves for disasters, whether natural or manmade, such as a seasonal storm, global pandemic, economic collapse, or political upheaval?
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This question forms the basis for co-host David Bilbrey’s interview with David Dodd. Mr. Dodd is the founder of International Sustainable Resilience Center, a non-profit focused on helping communities recover from disasters and build the capacity necessary to prepare for and withstand these disruptions in the future.
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Specializing in economic development and drawing from his experiences in Louisiana, Japan, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, David begins by sharing ways to achieve resilience throughout a local region by investing in small businesses, growing individual entrepreneurship, and creating continuity plans. The conversation then shifts in a more personal direction as he provides an intimate look at several transformative experiences from his own life and his perspective on the four steps to take to move our individual lives and communities towards resilience. Throughout, he shares stories and anecdotes that weave all these lessons together.
Find David Dodd’s work with the International Sustainable Resilience Center at isrc-ppp.org.
When I first sat down to edit this episode, I wasn’t sure where this conversation with the heavy initial focus on economic development would fit into the catalog of The Permaculture Podcast. Though I take a broad view on what it means to practice these ethics and principles in our individual lives and society and focus less on the landscape during interviews in order to expand the community discussion of what permaculture can look like beyond that space, there was quite a bit of this interview which initially sounded like it was steeped in the world of business as usual.
As I listened to David talk about the kind of work he’s engaged in, however, the way these systems move resources and knowledge, from government to small business, from the national to the regional and local level, began to make sense and made me think of Chapter 14 of Bill Mollison’s Designers’ Manual. That chapter highlights many different ways to look at permaculture outside the garden or homestead and remains a reminder from one of permaculture’s co-founders, of all the pieces of our society that need the application of our beloved design. So far, however, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface. Knowing what David and the International Sustainable Resilience Center, and other related organizations, are doing provides us an opportunity to engage with these allies and ensure people, communities, and Earth are considered and planned for in all of their actions.
If you know of or work with communities, companies, or non-profits that apply permaculture to their practice of inculcating resiliency, I’d like to learn more about them. Leave a comment below.
Until the next time, explore what you find most sustaining to your well-being and participate in the activities that build you personal and community resilience, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Related Interviews
Community Development Finance with Bill Sommers
Zev Friedman on Co-Operate WNC, Mutual Aid, and the Scale of Collaboration
Designing for Disasters: Understanding and Mitigating Wildfires | Matt Fidler
Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness (Chris Gilmour)
Designing for Disasters with Natural Building (Olive Goshey)
Resources
International Sustainable Resilience Center
Doughnut Economics
The post David Dodd – Disasters and Resilience appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In this episode, I’m joined by my friend Eric Puro as we catch up on what he’s been doing since we last saw each other in 2016. Quite a bit has changed since then, as he’s now living in Finland running a biotech company that cultivates chaga fungi, manages forests holistically, and explores the nutritional qualities, health benefits, and medicinal properties of mushrooms.
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Though he’s now in the for-profit world, he continues to bring the spirit of permaculture and connection to all of this work.
Find Eric and his biotech work at KaapaBiotech.com. Their line of single-species extracts, including chaga, lion’s mane, reishi, and shiitake, at KaapaHealth.com. Their work on mushroom cultivation in Finland is at NordicMushrooms.com and forest management at KaapaForest.fi.
Below are my other interviews with Eric, including our first time together, talking about The Poosh all those years ago, as well as round-table, community conversations recorded when I visited Eric and friends while he was still in Kentucky. In the episode Community and Traditions, Eric facilitated the conversation when I stepped away to call my children, so you can hear him in the host seat for bit.
Though they’re all different from the interview today, I’m sure you’ll like those glimpses into the history of the show and hearing more about Eric’s worldview and philosophy about connection to place through engagement.
Long before I went off to university to study computer science and worked as a radio DJ, the skills and experiences that lead me to create this show, I wanted to be a medical doctor who incorporated holistic health, clinical herbalism, and plant-based options into my practice. As a teenager, I attended classes and workshops, grew a small herbarium, made tinctures and extracts, and read whatever I could get my hands-on when it came to plants as medicine. Unable to find a program that I felt fit this particular path at that time, it was the mid-90s after all, I went in a different direction. Still, I continue to hold a broad whole-person approach to how we can create, sustain, and promote our health and well-being.
Now, in addition to working regularly with my doctor on preventative medicine and to resolve acute issues, with the ongoing research that shows the benefits of fungi for human health, part of my wellness plan includes incorporating mushrooms into my diet. As we closed out the interview, I’d like to continue the conversation with Eric to go further into the world of medicinal mushrooms and see if something like an extract or tincture is right for my overall goals.
If you’re using mushrooms in your life for food or medicine, or have a question you’d like included in a follow-up interview with Eric about Medicinal or Psychedelic mushrooms, let me know. Leave a comment below or get in touch in the usual ways.
Until the next time our paths cross, spend each day caring for your health, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Related InterviewsCommunity and Traditions (Where Eric takes over the duties as host.)
Community Building
We Can All Be Builders
Natural Building and The POOSH
The post Eric Puro – Chaga and Medicinal Mushrooms appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In today’s interview, Dan Palmer of Making Permaculture Stronger, and David Holmgren continue their conversation about David’s design journey. In this episode they discuss founding Holmgren Design in the 1980s, David’s work as a professional designer and how that influenced his thoughts on permaculture over time, and the ideas that lead to his authoring Permaculture Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability and RetroSuburbia. Throughout, they share more about how David’s knowledge and understanding of reading the landscape developed.
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As I share this interview with you, if you’d like to learn how to read the landscape, David and Dan are working on a film to demonstrate and teach you David’s methods of Reading Landscapes. To complete this film, they’re looking to raise $35,000. As this podcast comes out, in early August, they’re at over $15,000 raised, with less than a month to go.
I see this video and the knowledge presented as vital if we’re going to implement permaculture and regenerative agriculture on a broad scale, which is one of the reasons I personally supported this effort.
You can find and back this effort at readinglandscape.org
Find out more about the development of David’s demonstration site and other work at melliodora.com. You can dive deep into his principles and pick up many of his books, including RetroSuburbia and the revised edition of Permaculture: Principles and Pathways at permacultureprinciples.com.
Dan is at makingpermaculturestronger.net.
After speaking with hundreds of guests over the years, and trading thousands of emails and phone calls with listeners to the show, every person I’ve been in contact with shared a unique story of how they discovered permaculture, learned design and then implemented these ideas in their lives and in the landscape. I found it interesting in these interviews between Dan and David, that, even as a co-originator of permaculture, David’s journey changed and developed so much over time, from those earliest days with Bill and developing the concepts that became permaculture, to deepening his design understanding in conversations and mentorship with Haikai Tane, the decades as a professional designer at Holmgren Design, and the implementation at his mother’s property and at Melliodora.
Wherever we begin, and however our path changes, as students and teachers, advocates and practitioners of permaculture, we can work together to create a world of verdant abundance.
From here, the next episode is a conversation with my old friend Eric Puro who updates us on how he’s transitioned from natural building to biotech, growing 10s of thousands of kilos of chaga mushrooms in the forests of Finland.
Until the next time our paths cross, spend each day exploring your design path, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Related InterviewsDavid Holmgren – RetroSuburbia
Revising Permaculture with David Holmgren
David Holmgren on Permaculture
The post David Holmgren’s Design Journey (Part 2) appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In today’s interview, the first in a two-part series, my friend and colleague Dan Palmer of Making Permaculture Stronger, gives me a sense of vicarious joy to share with you, as he’s done something that’s on my list of dream podcast experiences. Dan sits down face-to-face with David Holmgren at Melliodora and together they have a conversation about the early history of permaculture. From David’s lips to our ears we hear the first-hand account of his days at university, meeting Bill Mollison and their initial work together, to the impact of David’s second permaculture mentor Haikai Tane.
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Find out more about the development of David’s demonstration site and other work at melliodora.com.
Dan is at makingpermaculturestronger.net.
David and Dan are also working together on a film project Reading Landscape. You can find out more about the film and donate to that project at ReadingLandscape.org. As this episode goes live they’ve raised $11,000 of the $35,000 goal, with another month left to go in the campaign. I don’t just share that with you as a link to follow, I also donated to the campaign, as it’s something I believe we need, now more than ever.
Until the next time our paths cross, spend each day considering your design journey and own unique story while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Related Interviews
David Holmgren – RetroSuburbia
Revising Permaculture with David Holmgren
David Holmgren on Permaculture
The post David Holmgren’s Design Journey (Part 1) appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
With the release of this episode, the podcast is back to full-time production.
In this episode I’m joined by Hannah Eckberg, to discuss what she’s been up to since we last spoke in 2017, and her work with Abundant Earth Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, to move philanthropic resources and support to permaculture projects around the world. Along the way we talk about the resources that are available, the role that non-financial support plays in overall success, the kinds of projects Abundant Earth Foundation is looking to work with, the best way to contact the foundation, and much more. If you’re interested in developing an organization, finding like-minded projects and partners around your specific niche, the role which structures like a nonprofit can play in advancing permaculture, or ways to contribute to the movement, this is a conversation for you.
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Find out more about Abundant Earth Foundation and Hannah at abundantearthfoundation.org or get in touch with the team by emailing info@abundantearthfoundation.org.
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If you are in a place to contribute to any of the many projects they’re working with or to the mother-ship, as Hannah calls it, your donation is tax-deductible and will go to help a number of worthy causes creating impactful change around the world.
To go with this interview, below I’m linking to some earlier conversations, like those with Brad Ward and Trevor Tychon, to expand on the ways that nonprofit and philanthropic organizations have an impact on the people and communities they serve.
From here, as I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, my sabbatical is complete and the show is back in full production. Over the next 12 months, I’m aiming for 45 long-format podcast episodes. To supplement those and cover your questions as well as the books, resources, and materials that don’t fit into a podcast, I’ve been live streaming on YouTube for the last few months and am adding, at least, 24 of those to the calendar, as well. If you’re able to join those live, they’re also a way for us to have a real-time conversation via your comments and questions in the chat, with my responses coming live on-air during the stream.
This production plan is tied to the Summer to Fall fundraiser. My goal this year, between now and the end of October, is to raise $25,000 and fully fund a year of the show. In addition to the episodes and live streams, having the budget for the year taken care of early allows for planning other opportunities like in-person interviews, video site tours and documentaries, and event coverage.
If you’re not able to donate at this time, I completely understand, and you can help by sharing your favorite episode of the show, subscribe to the YouTube channel, or dropping me a line with questions to include in an upcoming live stream.
If you’re able to contribute to this campaign financially, please do, as your giving allows this work to continue and touch the lives of tens of thousands of people making a difference, for themselves and their communities, every day.
If you’d like to learn more about this fundraiser and discuss it with me one-on-one, feel free to get in touch and we can talk about this need in more depth.
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Call or Text: 717-827-6266
Or drop something in the mail:
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
Until the next time, spend each day engaged with projects you believe in while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Related Interviews
Permaculture & Reforming International Development with Brad Ward
Community Development at the Indiana Community Gardens with Dr. Amanda Poole
Connect Africa with Trevor Tychon
The post Hannah Eckberg & Abundant Earth Foundation appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In this episode co-host David Bilbrey sits down again with Martin Ping. Martin is the executive director of Hawthorne Valley Association, a non-profit whose mission is social and cultural renewal through the integration of education, agriculture, and the arts.
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Today’s discussion is one of social permaculture: how to engage hearts, minds, and consciousness during this time of climate chaos. Martin uses his time at Hawthorne Valley and his thoughts as an educator and elder within the region to look at how we can build community, cultural, and personal resiliency.
Find Martin and Hawthorne Valley Association at HawthorneValley.org. You can also listen to David’s earlier interview with Martin.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hawthorne Valley Association they recently released a new podcast, Roots to Renewal, which began with an interview with Francis Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet, and followed by an episode with Bill McKibben, and more on the way.
Though I’d like to hear more about Martin’s ideas of Freedom, that is a discussion for another day, as what stands out for me as we draw this to a close is the idea of engaging with listening more than we speak, and finding shared connections.
Over the many years of hosting The Permaculture Podcast, I’ve encountered practitioners from all walks of life, with a range of personal and political perspectives that vary widely and are often in opposition to my own background and worldview. What I’ve found time and time again, is that what separates us from one another is often only a small part of our lives. If we can recognize one another’s humanity and what we have in common, that what we don’t agree on is rarely a reason to divide ourselves from one another. In all but one case out of thousands, we were able to find common ground, often around growing food for ourselves and future generations, or on the intricacies of what it means to design for human use.
As Martin said, let us listen twice as often as we speak, so we might all be heard.
If you have a question you’d like answered on air, start the conversation by getting in touch. Send a text message to: 717-827-6266
An email to: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or write:
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St.
300
Falls Church, VA 22046
Until the next time, spend each day creating resilience, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
The post Social Permaculture: Raising Up Resilience with Martin Ping appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
This episode is a re-release of a conversation that was originally shared as a bonus episode on Patreon back in 2016 after co-host David Bilbrey attended the Prairie Festival and had a chance to talk to Martin Ping of Hawthorne Valley Association. I’m releasing this again to everyone as an introduction to Martin’s work and influences ahead of a new interview David and Martin recently recorded.
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During this conversation, David and Martin talk about a holistic approach to education and how these ideas can be integrated into cooperative farm life and farm living, and the work of Hawthorne Valley Association over now 50 years to create an integrated learning campus that has brought agricultural experiences and education to 10s of thousands of children with the goal to educate the whole child and raise up full human beings.
Links
Hawthorne Valley Association
Earth in Mind by David Orr
Interviews with Fred Kirschenmann
Farming for Future Generations
Planning for Future Generations
The post An Introduction to Martin Ping and Hawthorne Valley Association appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In today’s episode, co-host David Bilbrey continues his exploration of business and permaculture as he sits down to hear from Mark Simpson about how Mark applied the ideas of Holacracy and Self Management to a hierarchical business. This resulted in a flattening of that vertical organization into a vastly more horizontal one that creates empowerment and opportunity for employees to influence their work and direction.
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Bones to Bloom Online Ecological Design Course Mark doesn’t have a website, but if you’d like to get in touch with him, send me an email and I can connect you.
If you’d like to find out more about Holacracy and Self-Management, I’ve included a number of resources in the show notes to explore this further.
Listening to this conversation, because of the political theory I’ve been steeped in over the years, Holacracy reminds me of the work of communalists and mutualists and people like Murray Bookchin to flatten hierarchies and create collaborative environments to create change. That we can come together around a problem or idea and create a dynamic structure with guiding rules and principles that get us from an idea to a goal. But, that’s just my initial read on this. Have you worked with holacracy or self-management in your business or personal practices? Do you have some specific resources that you would recommend? Let me know.
Until the next time, spend each day taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Schedule a Consultation or Meandering
Join The Permaculture Podcast Patreon Community
RESOURCESHolacracyHolacracy: A Radical New Approach to Management (TEDx Talk)Brave New Work
Reinventing Organizations
Crowdocracy (The Evolution of Democracy)Article: What is the Integral Approach?
Book: The Integral Vision by Ken Wilbur (Goodreads)
Book: Gettings Things Done by David Allen (Goodreads)
Book: The Next Revolution by Murray Bookchin (Goodreads)
The post Holacracy and Self-Management – Mark Simpson appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
As you read these notes or listen to the accompanying podcast, I’m on a sabbatical. With all these years of producing long interviews, I need to take some time to experiment with new ideas, while reading, writing, and exploring what working with permaculture means. What do our practices look like in a world substantially changed since these ideas were first shared more than 40 years ago. How does the Zone model of permaculture shift when we don’t have access to land, particularly with more than half of the world living in cities and urban environments. When those spaces become their own unique ecosystems, some that we can walk through and others that demand motorized transportation. Some with green spaces and others the epitome of the concrete jungle.
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What new stories do each of us have to craft and tell to create personal and societal transformation?
Those questions, and others, lead me to this place of reflection, reskilling, and planning the future of podcast.
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At the moment I have some ideas of what the show may look like when I return from this break, but am not setting anything in stone for now. Instead I want to focus on taking this time to come back with clear thoughts and intentions. I also don’t know how long this sabbatical will last. I want to take at least three months away, though others have suggested taking a year to work on this.
With that said, however, I’m still going to be around sharing resources to further permaculture journeys. That includes the podcast Patreon community, where I share weekly updates about what’s going on with the show, as well as what I’m reading and listening to. There is also a monthly Ask Me Anything thread, Patreon discounts on consultation and meandering sessions, and access to a Patreon Discord server. I also host live streams there twice a month to talk about recent events behind the scenes and whatever comes up in our chat.
You can find all of that at: patreon.com/permaculturepodcast
I’m also live streaming on YouTube a few times a month and continue to post on Twitter and Instagram.
Find me on Social Media:
YouTube
Twitter
Instagram
For people who would like to work one-on-one regarding their permaculture project or to discuss their personal permaculture path, I also have regular consultation and meandering sessions available during this break from the show. You’ll find more information about those via the links and can sign up for the podcast newsletter, where I’ll be sharing information about classes and workshops, at thepermaculturepodcast.com.
Finally, I’m here if there is anything I can help you with. My email and phone line remain open throughout this period.
You can send me a message at: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Send a text message or call: 717-827-6262.
You can also reach me by mail:
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
I don’t know where this break from the podcast will take me, but I’m looking forward to having you join me on this experience, in whatever way fits your journey. Find me somewhere in the world and until we meet again, spend each day taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post Sabbatical appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Today I’m joined by my friend Joshua Hughes as he shares the continued work of the team he’s a part of to create a jungle to marketplace supply chain with the launch of Rewild Organics.
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Starting with farms like VerdEnergia and surrounding neighbors, and the protection and investment of Blacksheep Regenerative Resource Management, the umbrella of Rewild Organics provides cooperative ownership and collaboration for farmers, farm partners, and suppliers along the way. As these organizations put the final pieces in place to this logistical network, they’re bringing the first line of turmeric products to the marketplace in cooperation with farmers in the United States, continuing the spirit of partnership and collaboration.
As Joshua and I try to release an update on this process every year or so, and continue the conversation off-air throughout that time, we begin our discussion with a formal introduction to Rewild Organics and then slip into a more casual talk about how this integrated, equitable, and regenerative vision is coming to fruition after nearly 15 years in the making.
Find out more about the team and products from Rewild Organics at rewildorganics.org.
Other organizations from Joshua and the team:
Blacksheep Regenerative Resource Management
VerdEnergia Pacifica
Other Interviews with Joshua:
Scaling up Blacksheep
Permaculture Politics and a Regenerative Future
Transitional Ethics
From here, the next episode is the end of the year wrap-up, with more information about my upcoming sabbatical.
Until the next time, spend each day supporting the people and products you believe in while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post Creating a Regenerative Supply Chain – Rewild Organics | Joshua Hughes appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
The episode with Jeff Speck left me curious about what the details Jeff mentioned look like in practice. I followed up that conversation by sitting down with my guest for this episode, Steve Nygren, founder of Serenbe.
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Serenbe is a model community located half an hour south of Atlanta, Georgia. Bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders, Steve and the others instrumental in this project created a suburban town based around conservation, preservation, and nature connection.
During our conversation today, Steve shares his vision of what one model of sustainable suburbs can look like. This includes the actions, policies, and practices necessary to pull it off.
And that was Steve Nygren. Find out more about him and Serenbe at serenbe.com and the podcast, Serenbe Stories at serenbestories.com.
As I prepare for the end of the year and consider the direction of The Permaculture Podcast in 2021, I’ve been reviewing and typing up my notes from the last ten years of classes, workshops, and interviews. While working on this, one of the recurring themes from my teacher training was that permaculture education should focus on how rather than what. In this way, we look at a site, design, or solution holistically from the top-down, rather than in a mechanistic one-size-fits-all reductionist fashion.
This was on my mind while editing this episode and that what Serenbe offers is a model that reveals the ways, as Steve shared with us, we can adapt the methods of this project to bring something similar and wholly unique into the world. By looking at what exists, we have a concrete guide to what is possible. So when we engage to preserve or create more green space where we live, we can point to places like Serenbe. We can advocate for transfer development rights to increase, rather than decrease, housing density and the work done in Montgomery County, Maryland or Boulder, Colorado, and discuss whether the holistic or patchwork results of one versus would work best in our community. If we live in an area without a lot of places that allow us to connect to nature, we can work with organizations like The Rodale Institute or Children and Nature Network to adapt our specific place and situation to create a more bountiful, verdant, and integrated world.
In time, what we do today can be an example for others in the years ahead.
But, those are just my thoughts at the moment. What are yours?
Leave a comment in the show notes or get in touch:
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or Write:
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St. #300
Falls Church, VA 22046
From here there are only two episodes left in the year. Next up is a conversation with Joshua Hughes to check-in about his work with Blacksheep Regenerative Resource Management and the recently launched RewildOrganics. From there is the final episode of 2020, a look at the future of The Permaculture Podcast.
If you’d like to join in the conversation, including The Permaculture Podcast discord, join the community at patreon.com/permaculturepodcast.
Until the next time, spend each day creating community while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Resources
White House Council on the Environment
Biophilic Design (Wiki)
Urban Land Institute
Transfer Development Rights (ConservationTools.org)
Live Works
Nygren Placemaking
The Rodale Institute
Richard Louv – Last Child in the Woods – Children and Nature Network
Wholesome Wave Georgia
Biophilic Institute
The post Sustainable Suburbs – Serenbe | Steve Nygren appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
We live in a world that seems ever more chaotic and outside of our control. From a global pandemic that is unlikely to be the only one we experience in our lifetimes to devastating natural disasters exacerbated by climate change that leads to weather weirding and chaos beyond our ability to properly map and mitigate. In the face of all of this, how do we avoid burnout and continue to practice permaculture and develop meaningful designs that fulfill the three ethics while improving the wellbeing of the natural world, our clients, and ourselves?
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To discuss how to manifest motivational longing in our lives is my guest, Bonita Ford, author of Embers of Hope, a meditative journal meets memoir. Bonita guides us through her feelings of loss of friends and family. The sorrow she feels over the state of the world and encompassing climate chaos. How these feelings can catalyze us to seek out what truly matters as inspiration rather than desperation. Through all of this, we share how we’re navigating the tension between our grief in the moment and the hope we hold for the future.
Find out more about Bonita’s work and the book Embers of Hope at EmbersOfHopeBook.com
Become a Patreon of The Permaculture Podcast
When you find yourself in a moment of grief, how do you foster hope? Let me know.
Leave a comment in the show notes, or get in touch:
show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Until the next time, spend each day holding space for your feelings, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Schedule a Consultation
Schedule a Meandering
Resources
Embers of Hope
Drawdown– Paul Hawken
Drawdown Solutions
Joanna Macy – The Great Turning
A Paradise Built in Hell – Rebecca Solnit
The post Embracing Hope | Bonita Ford appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Seafood represents the largest traded food commodity market in the world. 3 billion people depend on fish and other farmed or wild-caught foods as a source of protein, according to figures from the World Wildlife Fund. Regretfully, the majority of fish stocks are not sustainable, as they are overfished or fully exploited. Seeking sustainable and regenerative approaches to fishing and fishery management help to secure the future of food for large portions of the world.
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Become a Patreon of The Permaculture Podcast
As permaculture practitioners, is there something we can do in our designs and processes on small spaces to decrease our reliance on commercial food sources while using the byproducts of raising fish to grow other crops?
To help us explore this question, Jonathan Martinetto joins me today to share his work helping people create viable home and backyard aquatic ecosystems. These systems, whether a countertop tank or outdoor pond, allow us to grow fish and food, while caring for our environment and community, using aquaponics.
In this introductory conversation, Jonathan shares some of the basics to consider when putting together a system, including minimum yield, some of the species appropriate for his environment in Melbourne, Australia, and resources to learn the basics before setting up your own system.
You can Jonathan’s aquaponics work at Melbournequaponics.com.au and his free, online course at aquaponicsrevolution.com.
As permaculture practitioners, we need to have as many tools that are appropriate to our needs in our toolkit as possible in order to find the right solutions. All the solutions to our problems are out there, but it’s a matter of knowing about the options in order to be able to implement them, so conversations like this with Jonathan to introduce aquaponics, or the recent episode with Matt Arthur to talk about bokashi, expand on what we can bring to bear to solve out design, systemic, or community problems.
With that need to know in mind, are there any subjects that you would like to hear an introduction to in the future? If so, send me an email and let me know that topic and any people or resources I should consider.
show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
The Patreon bonus episode to accompany this release is out on Friday, November 13.
Until the next time, spend each day building and restoring ecosystems, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
The post An Introduction to Aquaponics | Jonathan Martinetto appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
During our lifetime we will encounter a variety of short to long-term disasters. The form the problem takes will vary depending on where we live, and how widespread the incident is that occurs. In late 2019 and throughout 2020, we’ve all been finding ways to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/Wildfires-MattFidler.mp3
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More regular and localized are man-made and natural disasters. Though not a comprehensive list, arising from society, those problems may be a hazardous material spill, power disruption, nuclear radiation leak, chemical or biological threat, communication blackout, and civil unrest. While the natural cycles of the world, compounded by human decisions and climate change, include earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, extreme heat, winter storms, wildfires, and flooding.
As permaculture practitioners, understanding the nature of a given disaster we can prepare and plan for these disruptions so we can respond proactively based on emerging news or local conditions. From that information and our landscape and life designs we can provide comfort for ourselves and mutual aid within our community.
In my own life, living in a rural location for more than a decade, I would often spend two or three weeks, spread across the year, cutoff from the world and supplies due to flooding or severe winter snow storms. In those times my family learned to keep extra food
But, those problems arose from living in a wet, temperate area prone to flash floods, the impact of hurricanes, and long cold winters. Something I’m not familiar with, that many people around the world face, are wildfires. Whether from lightning strikes, volcanic eruptions, arson, or gender reveal parties, wildfires threaten tens of millions of acres of land and hundreds of millions of people worldwide each year. So today, I’m joined by Matt Fidler, one of the producers behind California Burning, a five-part National Public Radio series examining wildfires in California.
He joins me today to share what he learned through his interviews with landmanagers, architects, and others, to understand the ecological role of fire, how misguided land management practices make the problem worse, and the ways climate change will continue to create drier, more fire-prone areas across the globe. He then shares solutions we can take to mitigate these problems through personal action, better neighborhood and building design, and advocacy for improved resource regulations.
Find out more about wildfires and what Matt learned through his podcast, California Burning, at californiaburning.net.
For Patreon supporters, I’ve released a bonus episode with additional resources on wildfires, the ecology of fire, and land management. You can get that, the weekly updates, a discount on consultations and meanderings, and join in the monthly Ask Me Anything thread at Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast.
Also, through the end of the year, to anyone who donates $50 to the show, I’ll send you a USB drive with the first ten years of the show from October 2010 to October 2020.
Donate Online
Or drop something in the mail:
Scott Mann
210 East Fairfax St.
300
Falls Church, VA 22046
Finally, if there’s any way I can help you on your journey, please get in touch with me.
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Until the next time, spend each day creating the world you want to live in by taking action to plan for and mitigate disasters while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Upcoming Classes
On November 17th, 2020 at 7 PM EST / UTC – 5, join Karryn Olson and I for our workshop, Discerning Permaculture Niches for Your Livelihood. In this free 90-minute workshop we’ll help you expand your thinking about livelihood niches beyond the permaculture staples of design, teaching, applying permie knowledge as a grower, or building a personal homestead.
Sign-up for our Workshop: Discerning Permaculture Niches for Your Livelihood.
I’m also running a pilot program on Storytelling for Design in December to share some of the processes I’ve used over the years to turn an idea into a narrative we can use to share our vision with others. This is not an open class, but a limited program offered in The Gift Economy. If you would like to be added to the participant list please contact me directly: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
The post Designing for Disasters: Understanding and Mitigating Wildfires | Matt Fidler appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In the United States alone, more than 38 million tons of food is thrown away every year. 94% of that winds up in landfills, to rot and release methane, and lock all the nutrients from being returned to Earth for future fertilization.
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As permaculture practitioners, the principles set forth by David Holmgren and beautifully detailed at permacultureprinciples.com, implore us to Use and Value Renewable Resources, to Catch and Store Energy, and Produce No Waste.
These principles lead us to a strategy to refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle. In the context of the food system, we refuse to create additional waste by not buying food we won’t eat or use. We reduce our waste by saving and eating leftovers from our table, taking any unfinished portions home from a restaurant, or donating excess canned goods to a food pantry.
We reuse our food by taking ingredients from one dish, such as leftover rice, and turning it into something new, like fried rice or rice pudding. As things can easily go awry in the kitchen, we can learn to save dishes that at first seem over seasoned, too spicy, too thick, or too thin.
After all of this, if we do have food that needs to go into the bin, we can recycle what remains. If we have a homestead, that could include feeding the waste to our animals or placing it in our compost pile. A compost pile, however, requires space, maintenance, and additional materials that may not be available to everyone. This is especially true for those of us living in smaller or urban spaces.
With these concerns in mind, I’m joined today by Matt Arthur of BLH Farm to introduce us to Bokashi, a form of anaerobic composting that destroys human pathogens, preserves nutrients and biomass, and which we can use to increase soil fertility and health. Bokashi is also inexpensive to implement and can be used whether you live in an apartment, on a homestead, or a farm.
You can find out more about Matt, Bokashi, and the farm at BLHFarm.com.
If have some land and are looking to create a niche business in composting, you’ll find some details about how Matt and his family make this work on the website, along with a store to purchase supplies to help you get started.
As I mentioned during the interview, I’m always looking for ways to simplify the process of reducing waste. From what Matt shared with us today, it sounds like bokashi was designed specifically for the needs of urban and suburban households. This allows us to keep those nutrients in our local environment, and limit the export of useful materials away from where we are to a nebulous somewhere elsewhere we don’t have to think about it.
Just as learning to cook with whole ingredients provides us a greater connection to the food we eat and the life that produced our meat or vegetables, processing food waste in and around our home allows us to have an intimate understanding of what we make, what we use, and what we throw away. As we deepen our knowledge, we can rely on biology rather than technology, capture more nutrients, and increase our yields.
But, those are just my thoughts in the moments. If you have a different lesson or would like to share your own experiences with bokashi or another form of composting, let me know.
Leave a comment in the show notes, or get in touch.
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
For Patreon supporters, I’ve released a short bonus podcast with additional thoughts and information related to this episode, including more details about reducing food waste, composting, and Bokashi. You can join the Patreon community and listen to that episode, as well as check out the weekly updates, and join in the monthly AMA, at patreon.com/permaculturepodcast.
The winners for the giveaway for a copy of Shawn Klassen-Koop’s Building a Better World in Your Backyard are Lauren Ames, Brad Harris, Nicole Heinaman, and Danielle Parsons. The winner for Nigel Palmer’s The Regenerative Growers Guide to Garden Amendments is Catherine Lightfoot.
Thank you to everyone who entered this giveaway, and a reminder that I still have copies of The 2021 Permaculture Calendar and 470 by Linda Windrow to giveaway. Send me an email with the subject 2021 Calendar or 470 in order to enter.
Tuesday, November 17, join Karryn Olson and me for a free workshop on Discerning Permaculture Niches for Your Livelihood. Find out more and sign up today at thepermaculturepodcast.com/niches/
Finally, if you’d like to receive a USB drive with a copy of every episode from the first decade of the show, you can do so by donating $50 or more to the podcast. Donate online at paypal.me/permaculturepodcast.
Or drop something in the post.
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St.
300
Falls Church, VA 22046
Until the next time, spend each day composting what you can, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
ResourcesBLH Farm
Bokashi at BLH Farm (Including Bokashi Starter Kits in their store)
The post Reducing Food Waste: An Introduction to Bokashi – Matt Arthur appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Every month I post an Ask Me Anything Thread over on the Patreon for the podcast at Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast. Most of the time these threads are about design and plants, like the best time to transplant Elderberry. Sometimes we get away from permaculture and a question will come up like, What is my favorite Halloween Candy? To which the answer is anything with chocolate and peanuts, whether that’s the whole legume or peanut-butter.
In the AMA for October 2020, however, Joey asked something different.
Their question was, “Do you have an opinion on the recent debate between Joel Salatin and Chris Newman of Sylvanaqua farms concerning racism and land access?”
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/RaceAndLandAccess.mp3Click here to download the episode. | Open Player in New Window
Their question was, “Do you have an opinion on the recent debate between Joel Salatin and Chris Newman of Sylvanaqua farms concerning racism and land access?”
If you’d asked me even a few years ago if race was an issue with land access, I would have said no. The issue for me then wasn’t race, but socioeconomic or class divide. Most of us were just too poor to buy any appreciable amount of land as wealth gets concentrated into the hands of developers and speculators, who could buy up the large chunks for cash and sell back ever smaller parcels at even higher prices for people who wanted a suburban or rural homesite. I saw this time and time again in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, my home from 1996 – 2007, as I knew several people with family farms that were offered millions of dollars for land that was later turned into developments. This same pattern repeated itself when I relocated to Harrisurg, Pennsylvania, as the price per acre climbed to $100,000 or more. Now living outside of Washington, D.C. undeveloped land here goes for over $1,000,000 an acre, if you can find any for sale.
Even if you do find something less expensive, you are going to be a long way away from a market where you can sell your goods. Even here in Falls Church, Virginia, the farmer’s market is populated by some farmers who travel two-hours one-way for the pop-up Saturday market where customers are willing to pay $6 for a dozen organic eggs or for two portobello mushrooms, and $8 for a quart of yogurt.
Through this lens of class and the concentration of wealth I came to read White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg in 2018, which challenged my ideas about race and inter-generational wealth as it relates to class. Then the work of urban planner Jeff Speck, who I interviewed earlier this year, expressed concerns about the displacement (gentrification) which occurs with development that disproportionately impacts people of color. Jeff suggested The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, which added clarity to why this is the case. For generations in the United States—with roots in the enslavement of people, red-lining of properties to exclude Black people from government services, and Black exclusion laws in the origins of Oregon—people of color have had less access to property and land. When and where property was available, the land was marginal compared to what whites could purchase, and at an increased price compared to white mortgages.
Because of those readings and by becoming aware of the systemic policies, both tacit and explicit, which existed and continue to exist within this society, I agree with Chris’s perspective that agriculture in America has been guided by racist processes. Land, wealth, and the ability to grow food have been excluded to BIPOC (black and indigenous people of color) folks for generations. Whereas white farmers can regularly inherit their family farms across generations—and Joel Salatin is clear he inherited his farm from his family—Black, and indigenous farmers rarely have this possibility and instead, like Chris Newman, must exist on rented land.
But, those are just my thoughts on Race and Land Access in America. If you have an opinion, leave a comment or get in touch: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com.
Until the next time, spend each day exploring how to decolonize permaculture, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
The post Racism and Land Access in America appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
The title for this episode is based on a quote from Bill Mollison that my guest, Geoff Christou, paraphrases in the middle of our conversation today about how Utopian literature, the need to imagine the future, and sharing that vision with others through stories, can help our work as permaculture practitioners. That we can create more abundant designs by first sitting down and thinking about what we want in the place where we live, in our relationships with Earth and other life, and in the wider world. By knowing those stories deeply—to inhabit them—we can teach others to yearn for a vast, bountiful, and regenerative life.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/GeoffChristou.mp3Click here to download the episode. | Open Player in New Window
Find out more about Geoff’s work and pick up an e-book copy of his novel at permacultureutopia.com.
As I said in the beginning, the title for this episode is based on a quote from Bill Mollison. The text of that is:
When we design, we are always building for future floods, future fires, future droughts, and planting a tree a few inches tall that will be future forest giants, throw future shadows. Future populations will need future soils and forest resources, shelter, security. So somebody needs to range ahead in time, scout out the next century. We are not daydreaming. We are time scouts.
Each of us can contribute to this act of scouting the future by taking those thoughts we have of what could be, of what might be, or what we can imagine, and putting them down somewhere where they can be shared. Though Geoff and I spoke about the idea today in a novel, any form of art whether painting or play, can share what is possible.
So, I’m wondering, do you have any examples of permaculture art? I’m interested in hearing about long-form literature, short stories, paintings, photographs, any medium that might inspire the imagination. If you have something like this floating about in your own collection, please send me an email with the subject, “Permaculture Art.”
As Geoff mentioned during the interview, I’ve been exploring the idea of The Permaculture Pit, and how each of us can move through the period of inspired uncertainty that follows a permaculture design course. If you find yourself in this place and are looking for the resources, opportunities, and ideas that can help you take your next steps, I’m here to help.
Schedule a Meandering
If you’re working on a permaculture design, homestead, or other work and would like me to bring my decade of experience and training to your project, you can schedule a 30 or 60-minute consultation for us to review what you’re working on.
Schedule a Consultation
Finally, if you would be interested in a workshop on Storytelling for Design, please get in touch and I’ll put you on the mailing list for the upcoming class. show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Until the next time, tell the stories that share your vision of the future, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Related InterviewManaging Complexity ResourcesHigh Park – Black Oak Savannah
Douglas Cardinal – Canadian Architect
Thomas More – Utopia (Wikipedia)
Utopia (Full Text – Project Gutenberg)
William Morris – News from Nowhere (Wikipedia)
News from Nowhere (Project Gutenberg)
Charles Fourier (Wikipedia)
Christopher Alexander – The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth (Oxford University Press)
The post We are Time Scouts, Designing for the Future | Geoff Christou appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
This episode marks 10 years of The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann, the longest-running English language podcast dedicated to the breadth and depth of permaculture.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/TajScicluna-10thAnniversary.mp3Click here to download the episode. | Open Player in New Window
To celebrate a decade of the show, the following interview is a personal one for me. In 2015, I interviewed Taj Scicluna, The Perma Pixie, and the two conversations we released were ones that transformed my personal perspective of permaculture. As Dave Jacke, Larry Santoyo, and Mark Lakeman moved my thoughts from permaculture as a land-based practice to a larger, holistic system applicable to most human needs for design, Taj’s thoughts on a fourth ethic, of transition, gave me an understanding of the precarious place we find ourselves in as we create the designs that lead to a more bountiful world for all life on Earth. Given all the issues we face from landscape degradation to economic programs that require our participation in systems we don’t agree with to politics and policies we have little individual control over, there is room to be gentle with ourselves and others as we find a way to navigate our own path through these dynamically changing times.
You can find Taj’s work at thepermapixie.com, which includes links to her Patreon and her presence around the web.
Become an ongoing member of the podcast Patreon community
Donate Online to the Summer to Fall Fundraiser
Or by mail:
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St.
300
Falls Church, VA 22046
This interview, this season, and the fact that this marks 10 years since I graduated from my permaculture design course, and started the show, leaves me in a reflective place. I think about what Taj said about passion, and all the things I love about hosting this show and sharing all of these personal stories with you.
With a decade and hundreds of episodes behind us, I’ll continue this work for as long as I can knowing that it will ebb, flow, and change over time. Starting next Spring, that includes expanding to visual storytelling with filmed interviews and site tours. Though I’ll keep producing the long-form interviews that became what this show was known for, I’m looking to partner with other people who have interviews they want to record and share.
I’d also like to teach you what I do so that more people get involved in recording their own interviews and sharing them with the world. These conversations reflect a form of community storytelling that connects us to other people around the world and, I think, make the world a smaller, more closely connected place as we create virtual villages of like-minded people.
So if you’re interested in becoming a contributor to The Permaculture Podcast, have a question you’d like answered in an upcoming episode, someone to suggest for an interview, or to become a student of podcast storytelling, get in touch:
show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
As this 10th anniversary episode draws to a close, whether this is your first time listening or you’ve been with me from day one, Thank You for being a part of the journey so far and for walking alongside me as we see what the future has to offer.
Until the next time, spend each day exploring your passion and sharing your unique story, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Resources
Taj Scicluna – The Perma Pixie
Gregory Bateson – Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Wiki)
Tyson Yunkaporta – Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
Gavin de Becker – The Gift of Fear
The post Passion in Practice: Resilience, Transformation, and Radical Self-Care appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Steve Henhawk (R) and Michelle Van Every (C) of the Gayogohono Tribe among the gardens on their traditional lands in New York. A common refrain in permaculture is about our need to develop a sense of place. To have an understanding of where we currently live, where we come from, and to find a connection to the land under our feet or where we call home.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/Gayogohono.mp3Click here to download the episode. | Open Player in New Window
For those of us within the anglosphere, we have a Nation that encompasses our state or province, and from there the city or town that defines our address. Those determine our polities within our biosphere. Many of us are fortunate enough to decide where we will live and how we will relate to these places by choosing earth, human, or bio-centric lenses to view the world.
As a result of colonial disruption, however—whether the conquest of Latin and South America by the Portuguese and Spanish, by the American drive West, by Dutch colonization throughout sub-Saharan Africa, or by British expansion into India and Australia—many native, First Nation, and Aboriginal peoples lost access to the traditional territories where their language developed and their ceremonies and cultures connected them to land.
To help understand how this affects the people whose land many of us now inhabit and to continue the conversation about how we as Permaculture practitioners can decolonize our actions and be better allies when asked, I’m joined today by Michele Van Every and Steve Henhawk, members of the Gayogohono tribe. Together they share their work to repatriate the traditional tribal lands in upstate New York, around the Seneca Falls region, and revitalize their community by continuing to teach their customs and culture to future generations through the Gayogohono language and community gardening in order to return the native people and plants back to the land.
As we mention in the interview, they’re running a Gofund Me to continue their efforts in the face of recent setbacks. As this episode comes out, that campaign ends in a few days, but you can find that at:
https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/cominghome
If the Gofund Me is closed by the time you read this, you can also mail a tax-deductible donation to Neto Hatinakwe Onkwehowe, Inc. a Goyogo̱hó:nǫʼ-led 501(c)3 that supports Native arts and culture. Mail a donation with the memo “Coming Home” to:
Cultural Revitalization Fund
Neto Hatinakwe Onkwehowe (U.S.)
41 Shoreham Parkway
Buffalo, NY 14216
For me, the ethics of permaculture encompass the whole earth, including the people and their connections to the land. Whether we find our way through a cultural identity, religious traditions, or an inherent love of life, if our practices are to create permanent culture through permanent agriculture, we need to know and acknowledge those who came before us and the efforts of their still-living descendants. As Michelle and Steve shared these are not peoples lost to history, but often displaced rich and vibrant cultures alive all around us. All we need to do is look, stop, and listen. If they are open to inviting us in, we can then ask how we can be an ally to their cause, and continue our work to care for all people.
But, those are just my thoughts at the moment. What are yours? Leave a comment below.
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The Summer to Fall Fundraiser continues for a few more weeks, so if you would like to see me add video tours of permaculture sites and projects, as well as in-person interviews to the offerings from the podcast in the future, please donate today. You can do so online at:
paypal.me/permaculturepodcast
Or by mail to my new address:
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St.
300
Falls Church, VA 22046
As a thank you to anyone who donates $50 or more, I’ll send you a USB drive with every episode from the first 10 years of the podcast, from my first tentative steps right after completing my permaculture design course in 2010, through to the 10th-anniversary episode, a conversation with Taj Scicluna, the Perma Pixie, out on October 10th of this year.
This is also a great way to get every episode of the show and explore the breadth of all Permaculture has to offer, as this Fall, in order to better manage the server where everything is stored, I’m going to start removing the first few years of the podcast from the website. For most folks who download the show through iTunes or Stitcher or wherever you find the podcast, you probably haven’t seen these in your feed for a long time, but they have been available for direct download through the individual show notes pages at thepermaculturepodcast.com.
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Until the next time, consider the land where you live and the traditions that arose there, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post Gayogohono Revitalization: Native Plants, Language, and People appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Permaculture practices begin in the landscape, with the training of a permaculture design course focusing on how to design in a way that restores soil, grows food and creates spaces for human needs, and cares for Earth, in ever-expanding zones. During our time in that class, we may spend some of the conversations on alternative economics and governance if the course uses Bill Mollison’s Designers’ Manual for the curriculum and discusses the material found in Chapter 14. Outside the PDC, many authors and practitioners have added to how to have an impact in our day to day lives as we apply design and systems thinking to where we live, work, and play.
As more and more of us, myself included, live in cities with little or no access to land or control over our living space—while others dream of returning to the countryside—we each have so many ways to practice permaculture.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/ShawnKlassenKoop.mp3
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That’s where books like Building a Better World in Your Back Yard, co-authored by my guest Shawn Klassen-Koop, fill a gap between those spaces. He and Paul Wheaton worked together to provide a book that gives inspiration and action for all of us. Through their insightful analysis and long-running knowledge of permaculture, they share ways we can achieve more than the latest green trends.
During the conversation today, Shawn shares some of those ideas and how to transform our lives wherever we live. He also talks about his experience of co-authoring a book, and how you can get that book inside yourself out onto the page and into the world.
Find out more about Shawn, his book, and the accompanying podcast series at buildingabetterworldbook.com/scott.
Join The Permaculture Podcast Patreon Community
Donate Online to the Summer to Fall Fundraiser
As we shared in the middle of the interview, we have several copies of his book to give away. If you’d like to enter this giveaway sending me an email and include “Building a Better World” in the subject line.
Stepping away from this interview and looking through the book, I think this is a great introduction to the concepts of permaculture and turning our energy into steps we can take each day to achieve our goals. In doing so, we can practice David Holmgren’s first principle of permaculture, Observe and Interact, every day by deeply considering our place and space, and making small, meaningful consistent changes.
It’s also a good book to introduce others to the ideas of permaculture, and it’s going on my gift list for friends and family wondering what this permaculture thing is all about.
But, those are just my thoughts. After hearing this conversation with Shawn, and especially if you’ve read the book already, what do you think? How will you use what you’ve learned to change your permaculture practices and design? Let me know.
Leave a comment below.
Until the next day, build a better world in your own backyard while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post Building a Better World in Your Backyard | Shawn Klassen-Koop appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
An example of Owen’s colored pencil-over-photograph design method, a process he described during our conversation. When I left my permaculture design course I was fairly comfortable walking the landscape and looking for areas of shade or full sun, and tracking how that would change throughout the day. To walk barefoot after a brief rain to feel where the soil drained quickly or to find spots where water pooled, even if I couldn’t see it with my eyes. To build either a water or an A-frame level to plot and map contours. I knew how to make a base map, a plant list, and to use those to put together a design. With shears and a pocket knife, I could prune limbs or loosen pot-bound roots. With a shovel and spade, I could dig holes and put plants in the ground.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/DesigningForClients.mp3
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I could effectively design for a residence and work as a gardener and, with a bit of practice and planning, as a teacher. What I didn’t know how to do was start a design company that could meet client needs efficiently. The scope of permaculture provided a huge number of tools, but I didn’t know how to select the ones to create an efficient toolbox.
I’ve learned a lot since then, but find that how to work as a professional designer remains something missing from broader permaculture education. Though I see permaculture as a bigger umbrella than just landscape design and teaching permaculture design courses, these are areas where people have had and can continue to find, successful livelihoods. As that is the case, I want to share more about professional practitioners so you can take up the mantle of a designer and hang out your own sign offering design services, if you would like.
As my main work is as an educator and not a landscape designer, to further this conversation I wanted to call on someone with experience to share their process. So, my guest today is Owen Wormser, a landscape designer from Massachusetts who specialized in low maintenance landscape designs with an understanding of the unique role and needs of permaculture practitioners.
Using the framework of his design business, Abound Design, as a model, he shares how he goes from finding clients, including his early days getting started, through to his design process, and how he lays out plants to finalize the design with his client. During our conversation he includes his thoughts on what work to accept; how as a professional we spend more time designing than just our time in the studio; and ways to consider setting our prices. We end with his thoughts on the DIY spirit of permaculture and how that translates to our work as professional designers.
Find out more about Owen and his design firm at abounddesign.com.
If you’d like to learn more about Owen’s background and his recent book, Lawns into Meadows, we recorded an interview about this recently, which you can listen to here:
Turning Lawns Into Meadows
You can learn more about his book and pick up a copy at stonepierpress.org.
Donate online to the annual fundraiser.
Or by mail:
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St.
300
Falls Church, VA 22046
One of Owen’s installed designs, a demonstration medicinal garden. If you choose to become a professional designer, over time you’ll develop your own process for speaking with customers, how you create your designs and the ways to go from paper to plants in the ground. If you’re already a designer, you probably have many of these established already. Wherever you find yourself, I hope this conversation with Owen provided a fresh perspective and tools you can use every day in your practice, whether that’s taking a more education-focused approach to your customer interactions, or finding ways to create functional designs more efficiently.
But, what Owen shared here is only the beginning. If you are interested in starting your own design company, what additional questions do you have? If you are already a professional designer, what would you add to what we discussed in this interview? Let me know.
Leave a comment in the show notes or send me an email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Schedule a Consultation
I’m here to help you with your permaculture journey, whether that’s deciding on your next steps, as a professional to bounce ideas off of for your next project, or to refine your permaculture design. You can schedule a one-on-one consultation, or casual conversation, at calendly.com/permaculture.
The post Designing for Clients: From Consultation to Implementation | Owen Wormser appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Nigel Palmer, author of The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/NigelPalmer.mp3
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In our conversation, which begins with his biography, he shares his inspiration from the work of John Kempf and Dan Kittredge, along with the JADAM Korean farming method, to create garden amendments at home from hyper-local sources: eggshells and bones from his kitchen, scraps, and remnants from the garden, and leaf mold from the forest floor. Using ferments, tinctures, and extracts, he creates the foliar sprays, fertilizers, and soil drenches to grow disease and pest-resistant plants, and nutrient-dense food, without the need for commercial chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or fungicides.
Rich with examples from his own garden, Nigel’s approach favors biology over technology to reduce the cost of gardening, improve his local soil, and the quality of his fruits and vegetables.
You can find more about Nigel, his book, and work with The Institute of Sustainable Nutrition at tiosn.com.
Download Nigel’s Recipe for Vinegar Extractions (With Permission from Chelsea Green Publishing)
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Or donate by mail:
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St.
300
Falls Church, VA 22046
Gardening can be incredibly wasteful from all the packaging and plastic, to harmful to our environment through the overuse of chemicals, from nitrogen-heavy fertilizers that runoff into our waterways, to the pesticides and herbicides that, even when narrow spectrum, kill a wide variety of soil life. In our waterways, many of these chemicals that seem to improve our gardens and growth of food, kill fish, and amphibians. I like Nigel’s DIY approach to sustainable fertilization, fertigation, and improvement of life in the soil because it dispenses with those harms while using and reusing items we can find in our local environment. Often from our pantry, garden, or own backyard, while aligning with so many of the principles of permaculture.
We can observe the rise of a disease or pest issue and interact with a creative response via the homemade remedy. We catch and store energy by creating tinctures, extracts, and ferments while they are available and create a form we can keep refrigerated or on a shelf. We obtain a yield by increasing the health, vitality, and nutrition of our plants. Though not written explicitly as a permaculture book, Nigel provides a holistic approach to Zone 1 and Zone 2 plant management.
But, those are just my thoughts. After listening to this interview with Nigel Palmer, what are yours?
Leave a comment in the show notes, or email me: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com.
Until the next time, feed yourself, your soil, and your garden from local sources, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Related Interviews
Nutrient Dense Foods | Dan Kittredge
Improving Broadscale Agriculture | John KempfResourcesThe Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden AmendmentsThe Institute of Sustainable Nutrition
Korean Natural Farming Resources
JADAM Organic Farming: The Way to Ultra-low-cost Agriculture by Youngsang Cho (Amazon)
JADAM Organic Farming
The post DIY Garden Amendments | Nigel Palmer appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Allen Clements, a permaculture practitioner who, when we recorded this interview in January, 2020, was completing his certification in Biodynamic Agriculture at the Pfeiffer Center in Spring Valley, New York.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/BiodynamicAgIntro.mp3
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I’ve been intrigued by biodynamic agriculture as a farming practice since first hearing about the growth of biodynamic wineries in Sonoma Valley, California. How did Rudolf Steiner’s philosophy impact the way we managed the land? How does Biodynamic Agriculture differ from permaculture or organic ag? And, what was the deal with the preparations, like stuffing a cow horn full of manure and burying it in a field?
Thankfully, I knew of Allen Clements through our local permaculture community and saw that he’d posted some info about biodynamic agriculture to his Instagram feed. Reading some of his blog entries, he was just getting started with all of this, so seemed like the perfect person for me to sit down with, in-person, to explore these ideas. Together, we could capture his perspective as a relatively new practitioner, and my bewilderment as someone with only a passing familiarity with the name, let alone the practices.
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You can find Allen’s at his blog ForestRancher.wordpress.com, on Instagram @forestranchregenerative, and his YouTube channel, Forest Ranch Regenerative. On his channel, you’ll also find an interview he recorded with me about The Permaculture Podcast.
As you can hear in this interview, I am skeptical of some aspects of biodynamic agriculture, but also convinced that there is something to these practices that leads to improved landscapes and healthy plants. Is it in planting and harvesting according to the calendar, mindful of the root, fruit, leaf, and flower days? Do the preparations offer the nutritional density missing in conventional, and even organic agriculture? Or do the changes come from the attention and connection to the land found by engaging with these practices?
I don’t know yet but would like to learn more about the origins, efficacy, and deeper practices. Not just the preparations, but also how the calendar is calculated. Why farmers chose to convert to biodynamic agriculture (Is to restore degraded land? As a branding opportunity? To increase returns?) and also to hear how Biodynamic Agriculture has grown from the ideas set out by the founder, Rudolph Steiner, a century ago.
If you’d like me to air this exploration on the show and join me through this period of discovery, let me know and I’ll produce more episodes on Biodynamic Agriculture. Also, do you currently practice biodynamic agriculture? What are your thoughts? What would you like to learn more about? Or do you see this as a system incompatible with permaculture?
Let me know.
Leave a comment in the show notes, send me an email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com, or drop something in the post.
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St.
300
Falls Church, VA 22046.
From here, the next interview is a conversation with Nigel Palmer, to discuss his work creating hyper-local soil amendments from mineral and biological ferments and extracts.
Until the next time, spend each day considering your preparations while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post An Introduction to Biodynamic Agriculture | Allen Clements appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Today’s interview was originally recorded by the Australian podcaster Dan Palmer for an episode of his excellent, Making Permaculture Stronger. I’ve known Dan since before he started his show and as I recall it was at 1 or 2 AM on the East Coast of the United States when we connected over Skype several years ago to talk about his plans for starting a new podcast with a deep focus on the design process as it applies to permaculture, and what we can learn from experts within and without the community.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/AllanSavory.mp3
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As my focus over the years has been on the breadth of what it means to practice permaculture, and not the specifics of design, I shared with Dan my thoughts on how to develop an interview-style and choosing how much to prepare for those conversations ahead of time. How to find your narrative voice and make decisions early on that establish your on-air presentation.
After a rather enjoyable chat that ended as I could stay awake no longer and he needed to head to his evening meal, I’ve continued to follow Dan’s show over the years and find my own inspiration in him taking on the vital subject of design. With this admiration, I jumped at the opportunity when he recently reached out to ask if I’d want to share an interview he’d recorded with the founder of Holistic Management.
Needing little introduction, the Zimbabwean ecologist Allan Savory has spent decades developing and refining how we can manage complexity in the environment, on our farms, and in our lives. In a forward-thinking approach that walks us backward from the vision of how we want our world, land, or life to be, we can then look well beyond the moment and see where we want to go and how to get there.
This is, of course, a simplified explanation of a fascinating and deep system for managing a wide range of issues, but which has roots in fighting desertification and reversing climate change.
You can find more about Allan and his work at Savory.global
Dan’s website and podcast are at makingpermaculturestronger.net.
You can read Dan’s original show notes at:
https://makingpermaculturestronger.net/permaculture-holistic-management/
Leaving this interview what Allan said about our ability to manage complexity stuck in my mind, and so I immediately picked up a copy of the audiobook of Holistic Management, Third Edition, A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment. What stood out both in the book and from this conversation is how Allan turns the language of complexity around so that we do not have to name what we face, but rather focus on the desired outcomes of our holistic context while allows us to quickly grasp what we need to do to achieve that end. Along the way we have checks to see whether or not what we’re doing is correct for reaching that long-term holistic context.
Why this stood out to me was that in my graduate program years ago, we used to break complex situations down into two main categories: issues and problems. Issues were the overarching conditions leading to detrimental effects which cannot be directly addressed through a simple on the ground action or small policy change. Problems were individual pieces we could create a plan or policy around and thus change. The issues we found drove what problems we could solve, thus ameliorating the impacts of the larger issues. Work on enough problems, the theory went, and eventually you’d solve the issue.
As I understand what Allan’s doing, Holistic Management takes all of that, wraps it up in one process, and allows us to continuously work on both the issues and problems in parallel. Though I know there’s much more to the method than my words here express, there exists a tangible power behind Holistic Management to achieve a beautiful, bountiful world where we’ve afforested the deserts and reversed climate change.
But, those are just my thoughts at the moment. What are yours?
Leave a comment in the show notes, or send me an email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
A few updates and announcements:
One of those, as we approach the 10th anniversary of the podcast, is the annual Summer to Fall fundraiser.
My goal for this fundraiser is two-fold. The first is to upgrade the computer where I edit the show. The second is to invest in some video equipment to record video interviews and site tours once the world recovers from COVID.
To go along with the fundraiser, for anyone donating $50 or more (please include postage, international listeners), if you include your address in the notes for your donation, I’ll send you a USB drive with every currently available interview, monologue, and discussion from the first decade of The Permaculture Podcast. That includes the first show from 2010 all the way up to the 10th-anniversary episode out on October 10th of this year.
If you’d like to donate you can do so online at paypal.me/permaculturepodcast
Or by mail, to my new address:
Scott Mann
210 E. Fairfax St.
300
Falls Church, VA 22046
Also, I’m here to help you find the resources necessary to bring your vision of permaculture into the world. You can now schedule a one-on-one consultation with me, or a more casual, meandering conversation if you prefer, at calendly.com/permaculture.
Finally, there are more voices in the world doing amazing work than I could ever have the possibility to record an interview with, so if you’ve ever thought, “I’d love to hear an interview with a member of my community on The Permaculture Podcast,” now’s the opportunity. I’d like to teach you how to record a conversation and send it to me to share on the show. You don’t need to edit or produce the interview, I’ll take care of all that.
I’m also particularly interested in stories recorded by women and young people and from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities.
If you’re interested, let me know. Send an email to:
show@thepermaculturepodcast.com with the subject, “My Community” and pitch me the story you’d like to share.
Until the next time, spend each day managing complexity, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post Managing Complexity | Holistic Management with Allan Savory appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is John Kempf, the author of the recently released Quality Agriculture. A farmer, teacher, and entrepreneur from Northeast, Ohio, John has spent more than 15 years developing a nutrition and farm management program that quickly restores soil health and maximizes plant resistance to disease and insects, while reducing costs and increasing profits for farmers who adopt these methods. Already applying these processes to millions of acres of farmland, his current mission is for these regenerative models to become adopted globally by 2040.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/JohnKempf.mp3
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Along the way, John shares the history of how he came to and developed these methods, as well as how existing food policies and intellectual property systems hamper farmers’ ability to steward the land and increase the health and resilience of our communities. By holistically meeting the needs of farmers and focusing on the results, rather than the methods, John leads farmers down the path of regenerative agriculture and a more abundant future.
Find out more about John, his podcast, and his new book, Quality Agriculture, at JohnKempf.com.
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John’s results represent what permaculture practitioners can achieve on a broad-scale by seeing to farmers’ needs while speaking the language of permaculture. John is doing for fruit and vegetable agriculture what folks like Allan Savory are achieving raising animals.
Permaculture folks have a fantastic number of tools in our toolkit. John extends those by providing a model for furthering our practices, whether we are interested in working directly with farmers and broad-scale agriculture or policy and politics. We can use the research and science he’s found to argue and advocate for practices and procedures that change agriculture as we know it. We can push organic and other operations further and further away from chemical use and closer to what we’ve known for more than 40 years: working with nature leads to bountiful results.
But, those are just my thoughts at the moment. What are yours?
Leave a comment in the show notes or get in touch.
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Call: 717-827-6266
Or drop something in the mail:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day caring for the soil and growing healthy plants while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Resources
John Kempf
Regenerative Agriculture PodcastDisease Resistance and Regenerating Soil with Michael McNeill
Kiss The Ground
Farmer’s Footprint
The post Improving Broadscale Agriculture | John Kempf appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Laura Oldanie, a permaculture practitioner and the author behind the website Rich and Resilient Living, which focuses on how we can live a life and make financial decisions that lead to a regenerative future.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/LauraOldanie.mp3
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Laura joins me as a sort of continuation of the conversation with Erin Axelrod, but focusing on the individual rather than the organization. During our time together Laura shares how we can make a difference by considering where our money sleeps. The ways to guide our finances towards banking and investment so our surplus provides benefits for our local communities. How non-financial capital can create an abundance. Throughout it all, we also remember, that the world we live in, and our lives right now, are in a period of transition so we can be gentle on ourselves and our decisions.
Find out more about Laura and her work at richandresilientliving.com.
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Stepping away from this interview—though I’d love to live in a world where abundance is the rule and there isn’t a need to invest to prepare for the later stages in life or to ask for investment to sustain our projects—as we opened the conversation, I accept we’re in a period of transition to the world we want to live in. As permaculture practitioners creating abundance for ourselves, in this time we can also help others create similar opportunities in their lives by using every form of capital at our disposal and sharing our surplus with others.
But, that’s just my thought. What are yours?
Leave a comment below or get in touch.
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Call: 717-827-6266
Or Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day investing in your life and your communities while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other. Recommended Articles from Laura
Welcome to Your Guide to a Rich & Resilient LifeHow I’m Investing to Save the Planet
Looking Beyond Financial Capital on the Path to Financial Independence
Impact Banking: Do Good With Your Stimulus Check Even If You Can’t Afford to Donate
Related Interviews
Slow Money | Nancy Thellman
Limits, Our Future, and Slow Money | Woody Tasch
The Next Economy | Erin AxelrodResources
Rich and Resilient Living
Self Directed Retirement Account
Socially Responsible Mutual Funds
Environmental, Social, and Governance Criteria
Slow Money
Slow Food
Solo 401(k) (One-Participant 401(k) Plans)
Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP)
OneUnited Bank
Native American Bank
Global Alliance for Banking on Values
Koreen Brennan – Grow Permaculture
Michael Shuman – Put Your Money Where Your Life Is
American Homeowner Preservation
Stockwood Community Benefit Society
ORICoop (Organic Investment Cooperative – Australia)
Regenerative Enterprise: Optimizing for Multi-capital abundance
The Next Egg
CrowdfundingKiva
We Funder
We The Trees
The post Permaculture Values and Impact Investing | Laura Oldanie appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Owen Wormser. Owen is a sustainable landscape designer from Western Massachusetts and author of Lawns into Meadows: Growing a Regenerative Landscape, from Stonepier Press.
http://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/OwenWormser.mp3
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This specialty in landscapes forms our conversation today as we discuss his design process of creating meadows. This includes:
– Using nurse crops for establishing a meadow.
– Designing with a variety of plant heights, bloom colors, and a resilient mix of species in mind.
– How to make meadows appear intentional as well as appealing to neighbors.
– Using grasses as the framework that ties a meadow together.
– The role of a meadow in an ecological landscape.
– Workhorse plants for our designs.
– Getting started with our own meadow.
Find out more about him and his work at AboundDesign.com, and his book, Lawns into Meadows, at stonepierpress.org.
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As permaculture practitioners, establishing meadows can form an important part of our design toolkit. We can leave an area barren, but intentionally tended around, and allow the seed bank to grow up and select from the species that arise as the base for a meadow, or what to leave intact as we establish a food forest or design around for our garden paths. In areas with restrictive covenants on trees and tree heights, or in towns with weed ordinances, meadows can be a beautiful way to restore the landscape while skirting those restrictions. If we live along waterways or as farmers trying to reduce the total daily load from runoff and fertilizer, and to reduce topsoil losses, buffer strips of meadows along our streams and rivers can improve water conditions while saving our earth.
But, those are just my thoughts on meadows at the moment. What are yours?
Get in touch:
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Call: 717-827-6266
Or Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day restoring the landscape and establishing meadows, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Resources
Abound Design
Lawns into Meadows
Pollinator Pathways
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center
Wild Ones Native Plants, Natural Landscapes
The post Turning Lawns into Meadows | Owen Wormser appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Jeff Speck. Jeff is the author of Walkable City and Walkable City Rules. As an urban planner and city designer he specializes in, and advocates for, human modes of transportation: first and foremost walking, but also biking.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/JeffSpeck.mp3
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Using years of research and action, Jeff shows how cities become better places when we move away from an automobile focused life. As I spend a lot of my time walking through cities whenever I get a chance, preferring to travel on foot when possible, I knew there were some places that felt safer as a pedestrian and were generally more enjoyable to walk through. Jeff lays out exactly why that is, and what each of us can do to advocate for these changes in our local towns and cities. In the process we can limit gentrification, which Jeff expands on during the interview, making cities even friendlier to people and more sustainable for generations to come.
You can find Jeff and his book at JeffSpeck.com. In addition to his website, I’ve included copious links in the resources section below for you to learn more about what we talked about in this interview.
Since recording this conversation, I’ve gone on to read Jeff’s Walkable City Rules, which lays out in even more actionable detail what we can do to show up at planning meetings and be a force for change while preserving mainstreet and reducing the impacts of climate change.
As permaculture practitioners, our roles in cities and towns change towards an even more human focus to minimize the impacts of this increased living density on the surrounding environment and designing for living in place. For those of us who live in cities, and I’ll be doing so in just a few weeks as I relocate to Falls Church, Virginia, there’s a huge intersection between city planning, including the parks and rec departments, for us to get involved and take direct action through advocacy. We can argue for why we need to reduce speed limits, increase street trees, and expand green spaces.
Image the more beautiful, verdant world we could have.
But, that’s just my thoughts leaving this interview with Jeff Speck. What are yours? Leave a comment in the show notes or get in touch:
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Schedule a call with me
Or write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day advocating for the place you live while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Related Interview
The Commons – David Bollier
Resources
Jeff Speck
Books
Walkable City – Jeff Speck
Walkable City Rules – Jeff Speck
Suburban Nation – Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck
The Barefoot Architect – Johan van Lengen
The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein
The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
Policing the Open Road – Sarah E. Seo
The Death and Life of Great American Cities – Jane Jacobs
Garden Cities: Theory and Practice of Agrarian Urbanism – Andres Duany
People and Organizations
DPZ CoDesign – Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
Human Transit – Jarrett Walker
Jan Gehl – Making Cities for People
Related Ideas
Community Land Trust (Wiki)
A Pattern Language (Wiki)
Seaside – Resort Community designed by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
Serenbe
The post Creating Walkable Cities | Jeff Speck appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Rony Lec of the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura – IMAP) in Guatemala.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/RonyLec.mp3
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I first became aware of Rony years ago through my friends at the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute, but what I knew up until he and I sat down barely revealed the depth and breadth of his exploration and implementation permaculture. He leverages decades of experience applying permaculture to indigenous agricultural methods, and combines work, outreach, and activism into a cohesive approach to teaching and design.
The conversation which follows progresses from his early days of discovering permaculture through Ali Sharif and studying with Geoff Lawton, to his current work building networks and native food products. He also shares his concerns about land access, food sovereignty, and political will in Mesoamerica.
Find out more about Rony and his work at imapermaculture.org.
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Just as interviews end far too soon, it is also difficult to encapsulate the thoughts that remain after a conversation that ranges as widely as this and touches on issues bigger than our individual practices.
What I enjoy, at this moment, is Rony’s efforts to educate students about what permaculture is and is not. For those people in the countries he serves, to share the ways that permaculture can be applied to indigenous practices and can be viewed as something for them, not just for foreigners. For those of us who have studied permaculture, the advice to listen, slow down, and remain humble in the face of experience and the intersection with our permaculture knowledge and exuberance.
But, that’s just one lesson from this time together. What did you learn?
Let me know by leaving a comment in the show notes. Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com or write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Resources
Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (IMAP)
http://imapermaculture.org/
The post Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute | Rony Lec appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Over the last two decades, my guest Delvin Solkinson studied permaculture education all over the world by taking numerous permaculture design courses and teacher trainings, as well as completing multiple diplomas, with various teachers. Some of his mentors include Bill Mollison, April Sampson-Kelly, and Rosemary Morrow. From those years of experience, he works to make this knowledge more accessible for students, easier to teach for instructors, and empowering for everyone, by sharing his notes in an open-source approach to permaculture.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/DelvinSolkinson.mp3
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Find out more about Delvin and his work, including his Permaculture Design Notes Book and the Permaculture Design Deck, at visionarypermaculture.com.
Become a Patreon patreon of The Permaculture Podcast
Buy the show a cup of coffee
Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter.
I’m a long-standing advocate of open-sourced ideas and technology, using them wherever possible. I produced the podcast on a Linux laptop for years, and continue to do most of the audio editing in Audacity, so enjoy Delvin’s approach to making as much of what he can readily available, while also acting as a curator to assemble the best of what he’s discovered. You can find all of those essentials, distilled down from his years of work, for free in various forms on his website. You can download the PDFs to read on your digital device. Print copies of the cards and games to play with and use as your own design oracles. And, if you prefer, you can also purchase physical copies from Delvin to further support the ongoing production of these ever valuable tools.
Do you use any open-source tools or know someone else who curates knowledge to this level? Let me know.
Leave a comment in the show notes. Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or drop something in the post:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day deepening your understanding of permaculture, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other. ResourcesDelvin & Grace Solkinson website
Free downloads of books, cards, and games
www.visionarypermaculture
Training Permaculture Teachers book by Rosemary Morrow
Free download or on-demand printer edition
www.visionarypermaculture.com/trainingpermacultureteachers
Robin Clayfield teaching books, games and cards
www.dynamicgroups.com.au
Rosemary Morrow
www.bluemountainspermacultureinstitute.com.au
More games and tools at Kym Chi and Delvin’s site
www.permaculturedesign.ca
Recent video and podcast with Geoff Lawton
www.youtu.be/rRcqdF7YcD4
Delvin Doctoral Slideshow
www.youtu.be/3SAlzIlQPl0
Permaculture Institute : The Peoples Diploma
www.permaculture.org/diploma
Permaculture Association Diploma
https://www.permaculture.org.uk/diploma
Permaculture Institute North America Diploma
https://pina.in/diplomas/
Australian TAFE Diploma
www.tafensw.edu.au/course/-/c/c/AHC52116-01/Diploma-of-Permaculture
The post Empowering Permaculture | Delvin Solkinson appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Erin Axelrod, partner and worker/owner at LIFT Economy. She joins me to discuss how LIFT Economy is working to repatriate land, resolve housing issues, and create socially responsible businesses by investing in and providing support to women, indigenous, and people of color lead organizations. Using her years of experience as a framework, Erin provides multiple specific examples of what this work looks like in practice, what we can do to steer our economy towards regenerative businesses, and to heal our relationship with money.
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Find more about Erin and her work at LIFTeconomy.com
21 Choice Perennial Vegetables for 4-Season Climates
Schedule with Scott
UTOPIA: a permaculture vision
This conversation with Erin touches on something I’ve been working on and speaking to other folks in the community, including Karryn Olsen and Dan Palmer, about over the last few months: how can we break through the limitations we find ourselves in as a result of, to borrow from Erin, business as usual. Particularly, how do we get the education, resources, and support to implement permaculture ethics and principles at a broad scale, both in and beyond the landscape, given the dire need to do so right now and for years to come. From climate change, to oppressive policing, to improving the land where we grow food, the problems we face are numerous, with much deeper issues underlying what we see at the surface. Each of us can make a meaningful difference whether we do so through individual action or collaborating with others to dismantle harmful systems.
But, as I’ve heard in your dozens of replies to my recent inquiries into The Permaculture Pit, doing so can be difficult given the forces we find in our own life that resist change. That includes the concern about debt through university schooling, the lack of land access, or finding a quality PDC program and after PDC mentoring.
What Erin shared with us, however, opens up many different doors. There are alternative paths to the experience and education we need to become a lawyer if we so desire. I looked into that one in particular and found four states in the U.S.—California, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington—which allow you to do so with no law school required, but by completing a Law Office Study Program. Three other states, New York, Maine, and Wyoming, also offer apprentice programs, but do require some law school.
Beyond the legal realm, there are also trade apprenticeships, if you want to go that route with your work. I’m also interested in exploring and speaking to others about the one-on-one permaculture mentor programs that are both less and more than a traditional Permaculture Design Course.
If you don’t have land or are not interested in land-based permaculture, but want to assist those who are, there are programs like Agrarian Trust. We can also, if life provides us a bountiful income, invest in those programs and others like them.. We can donate scholarship funds to Permaculture Design Courses. If you’ve taken a PDC, reach out to your old teachers and see if there is something you can do to support what they are currently doing.
Or send a student to LIFT Economy’s Next Economy MBA program.
Seek out and spend money are the stores owned and operated by women, indigenous, and people of color.
There’s also room for us to work on policy change in our local communities. Lobbying, I know that sounds like such a dirty word, to repeal and replace laws that limit agriculture. Fight for food justice and cottage food industries. Support farmers markets in communities lacking fresh foods.
And, for those of us who are already teachers in the community, do you have the room and space in your life to mentor students beyond the class and classroom?
If you took a route outside business as usual to arrive where you are, let me know, so I can share these options with others via the podcast newsletter or in a future episode.
Leave a comment in the show notes, email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com, or drop something in the post:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day creating the new economy, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
ResourcesLIFT Economy
People of Color Sustainable Housing Network
Daily Acts
Agrarian Trust
Agrarian Commons Little Jubba in Maine
The Sustainable Economies Law Center
Cottage Food Law (California)
The Next Egg
The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
Defund the Policy – Imagining a world without prisons and police
Map link for traditional homelands (Erin recommends including a land acknowledgement in your email signature)
Winona’s Hemp & Heritage Farm
Greenwave
Native Conservancy
Jonas Philanthropies launches a 10M Tree Campaign
The post The Next Economy | Erin Axelrod appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Image: Kai Sawyer at the Peace and Permaculture Dojo.
(Source:YouTube: Peace and Permaculture Dojo Tour)
“The more generous we are, the more relaxed we’ll be, the more wealthy we’ll feel, and the more gifts these will cycle.” – Kai Sawyer
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As we embody our values and live ever differently, how do we change the communities we are a part of as we become ever more apart from them?
This is one of many thoughts I have as we enter this conversation with Kai Sawyer, as we look at his life as a practitioner embracing peace, permaculture, and the gift economy to bring about social and cultural change in Japan.
Find out more about Kai Sawyer and his work at:
Tokyo Urban Permaculture
Living Permaculture
Something Kai wanted me to mention, that didn’t make it into our conversation is the ongoing impact and questions as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant meltdown.
Something I didn’t know, that Kai shared in his follow-up email, is that Fukushima prefecture was one of the leading organic food growing regions in Japan.
What happens then, to the organic or natural farmer who carefully and with a lot of love, grew beautiful soil for decades that is now contaminated with cesium 134 and 137? Who will buy their produce? Who will help them rebuild their entire life?
Also in Fukushima prefecture was an innovative permaculture project at Iitate village that sought to redesign the community using permaculture to reverse the process of rural depopulation, to keep residents in this rural location rather than heading to the cities.
To Kai’s knowledge, it is the only initiative of the kind in Japan, one where an entire village was a permaculture design site. As you might imagine, the proximity to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the ways the wind blew, high levels of radiation fell on the village, and their entire village was evacuated by the government.
A project to preserve the community, destroyed by a single disaster, responded to with modern practices now so ingrained they seem traditional and the only path forward.
How could this situation have been different if more communities in Japan were transformed by the whole systems design of permaculture and a chance to the cultural and social structures and consciousness?
As we grow as practitioners, how can we change these ways of thinking and organizing in our own communities and, in turn, change the way they are governed and inhabited?
If you have thoughts on this or anything else Kai and I spoke about, I’d love to hear from you.
Call: 717-827-6266
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day creating the world you want to live in by taking care of Earth, yourself, and your community.
Resources
Tokyo Urban PermacultureLiving Permaculture
Peace and Permaculture Dojo Tour (Spring 2017) (YouTube)
The Center for Nonviolent Communication
Nonviolent Communication (Wiki)
Moved By Love, the Memoirs of Vinoba Bhave (Read Online at MKGhandi.org)
Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead
Humanure Handbook / Joe Jenkins
Iitate, Fukushima, a village scale permaculture project in Japan, evacuated due to the events at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plants.
Living On The Edge of Fukushima
The post Peace, Permaculture, and The Gift | Kai Sawyer appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Nathan Carlos Rupley. A member of my local permaculture community, he spends his time as a stay at home dad, self employed-artist, and aspiring hunter-gatherer.
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When not hanging out with his family or walking in the woods, you can find him reading about a wide range of subjects including simple living, foraging, native agriculture, natural building, “primitive” technology, philosophy, applied ecology, theology, and much more. He brings this knowledge to the table today as we discuss what he’s learning from the native plants of his ancestors.
The exploration of these plants and the related cultures provide insights into his place in the world and where he comes from. This leads to a conversation that ranges around a variety of thoughts including how we can learn more about plants and their uses by studying folk and Latin binomial names. What understanding ancestral plants can teach us about our identity. The impacts of colonization, on the colonized and colonizer. And being good mentors and ancestors now and for the future.
You can email Nate at nathanrupley@yahoo.com, with any comments, questions, if you want to rewild your yard, or, if you’re ever in Central Pennsylvania, would like to join him for a foraging class or plant walk.
Nate Rupley Nate reminds me that wherever we come from before studying permaculture, whether doctor, tech nerd, stay at home parent, or an artist in a copy shop, there’s more to learn than any of us can accumulate, even if we had lifetimes to study, and what we learn along the way can take us to unexpected places. Even though we start in the landscape, discussing plants, animals, ecology, and design, we only begin there. If we’re interested, our exploration can take us to a myriad of different places, as we seek to practice not only where we are, but as who we are. Whatever you are called to do, there is a place within the permaculture community for you.
What are you doing right now, that makes the world a more bountiful place? If you’re finding something difficult, or feel stuck, what would help to get you take your next step?
Until the next time, spend each day learning more about plants and your ancestors, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Related Interviews
Wilson Alvarez on Biomimicry, Landcare and The Reintegration Project
Foraging with Sam Thayer
Beginning Foraging with Violet and Wildman Steve Brill
Resources
Nathan Carlos Rupley (Website)
Nathan Carlos Rupley (Patreon)
Nathan_Carlos_Rupley (Instagram)\
Gathering on YouTube
Samuel Thayer / The Forager’s Harvest
Steve Brill
Backyard Medicine by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal
Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast by Peter Del Tradici
Fandabi Dozi (YouTube)
Ron Eglash – The fractals at the heart of African designs (TED Talk)
The post Plants as People Care |Nathan Carlos Rupley appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
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My guest for this episode is Rob Hopkins the creator of the idea of Transition Towns, a way for us to move from oil dependency to local resilience. That lead to his writing The Transition Handbook, something every permaculture practitioner should have in their library and which serves as a good introduction, along with Toby Hemenway’s The Permaculture City, to look at how we can move from the landscape to the people space.
Find out more about Rob and his work at TransitionNetwork.org and the other resources below.
If you are interested in starting your own transition town or want more information on the movement, let me know.
Call: 717-827-6266. Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com, or if you like, drop something in the mail.
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day eating wild and creating the world you want to live in by taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Resources
Transition Network
Rob Hopkin’s Blog
Reconomy Project
Atmos Totnes
Making Permaculture Stronger
LAND (Learning and Network Demonstration) Evidence based Permaculture
Green City Acres – Home of Curtis Stone, author of The Urban Farmer
The post The Transition Town Movement |Rob Hopkins appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In today’s episode, David Bilbrey returns to the host seat with Fred Kirschenmann. Fred joins us again to share more about his work at the Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and how those two places are working to allow us to plan not only for the world we have now but also for our descendants. The solutions come in multiple forms, from the ways we can use plants in our fields to increase yields while regenerating soil, and the cultural changes that are coming as the children and grandchildren of the Baby Boomer generation reject consumerism and focus on a more community-centered life.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/Planning.mp3
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What do you think of what Fred shared with David today? Are there places where you can favor biology over technology in your design? Do you make lifestyle decisions that have an impact on your use of resources and consumption?
I’d love to hear from you.
Call: 717-827-6266
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Connect with the Podcast
Patreon
Instagram
Twitter
Resources:
Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Sir Albert Howard
Dave Brown & Brown’s Ranch
Books
How to Thrive in the Next Economy by John Thackara
Growing a Revolution: Bringing our Soil Back to Life by David R. Montgomery
Building the Agricultural City – A Handbook for Rural Renewal by Robert Wolf
Collapse by Jared Diamond
The post Planning for Future Generations appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
After spending more than a year and a half balancing family; a day job; and the work of permaculture education, I’m returning to teaching and producing The Permaculture Podcast full-time as of the release of this episode. With this announcement comes a number of updates on what’s happening with the show and behind the scenes.
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First, there are a bevy of new interviews to look forward to. Some of those include a conversation with Nathan Carlos Rupley on the role of plants in understanding and healing our past trauma, both personal and systemic. Laura Oldanie of Rich and Resilient Living shares her expertise in creating a regenerative lifestyle, and Erin Axelrod of LIFT Economy focuses on the intersection of permaculture and economics. I’ll release the interviews as they come together in the weeks ahead while continuing to intermix episodes from the archives along the way.
I’m planning to release an additional 20 or so new interviews in the months ahead. Though I have a long list of potential guests, due to scheduling issues, we can’t always work something out. If you have any suggestions for someone to appear on the show, leave a comment or send an email to show@thepermaculturepodcast.com.
Intermixed with the singular episodes featuring particular guests, I’m also looking at series that examine a particular topic in-depth across multiple episodes. Some currently in development include Biodynamic Agriculture and Decolonizing Permaculture. If you have any thoughts on something to cover, let me know.
Additionally, as you know, I love helping people share their stories as guests on the show. I am now taking this a step further by offering two courses in the months ahead.
The first is Storytelling for Personal Transformation. We’ll spend a year in this mentored program, starting on the upcoming Summer Solstice, to explore your values, goals, and desires, as well as who you are, who you were, and the story you tell yourself. In the end, you’ll emerge with the personal knowledge and skills to master your inner and outer worlds, empowered to tell a new story.
Registration for this course is open, but closes soon, on June 17th. If you are interested, check out the complete details at thepermaculturepodcast.com/storytelling and register today.
The second is a class on podcasting that starts on September 1st and will take you from developing the idea for your own show to releasing your first complete episode within 8 weeks. Using my more-than-a-decade in radio and podcasting, I’ll show you how to inexpensively record, edit, produce, and release your ideas to the world, even if you don’t have a website or background in broadcasting.
Registration for this class is open, but spaces are limited. Find out more at thepermaculturepodcast.com/podcasting and enroll now.
I’ve also been receiving a number of calls from listeners lately. To make communicating with each other easier, I’ve set up an account with Calendly where you can choose the best day and time for us to talk.
You’ll find that at calendly.com/scott-mann.
For those of you interested in advertising with the podcast, I’ve updated the information at thepermaculturepodcast.com/advertise that lowers the cost and simplifies the process of partnering with the show.
Even with amazing partners, listener support remains important for this show to thrive and grow. You can become an ongoing member of the Patreon community at patreon.com/permaculturepodcast, make a one-time donation at paypal.me/permaculturepodcast or by sending a letter in the mail to:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Finally, thank you for the many years we’ve spent together, exploring the edges of what it means to practice permaculture. This October marks 10 years since graduating from my Permaculture Design Course and starting this show. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to share so many voices with you as each of us works in our own ways to take care of Earth, ourselves, and each other.
The post Returning to Permaculture Full-Time appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Can you live an enjoyable, self-indulgent life while remaining thrifty and at the same time not overtaxing Earth’s resources? To have all of that sounds too good to be true.
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If you follow what Annie Raser-Rowland suggested in her book The Art of Frugal Hedonism, however, the answer rings out as a resounding Yes! There is a process to all of this, but we can achieve this goal by making choices that lead to more of what we desire, as we discover what holds us in rapt attention: the true pleasures of our lives.
During our conversation, Annie uses her own life, as a artist, long-distance hiker, and forager, to model what we can expect by embracing frugal hedonism. The results lead to a life rich in time with those we care about and full of opportunities, for concerts, education, and the occasional luxurious restaurant meal. You might say this is minimalism, with a permaculture twist.
After listening to this conversation, can you see making the changes to live this way? Would you want to? Leave a comment below.
Get in TouchEmail: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Call: 717-827-6266
Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
ResourcesThe Art of Frugal Hedonism – Annie’s site.
The Art of Frugal Hedonism – Chelsea Green Publishing
The post The Art of Frugal Hedonism | Annie Raser-Rowland appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
This weekend I was talking with a friend in the permaculture community when we realized we’d had the same experience.
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When we completed our Permaculture Design Course we were excited and enthusiastic but weren’t sure what to do next. We had a certificate, but the only paths presented were to design or teach. We were full of possibilities, but few practical next steps. We found ourselves in The Permaculture Pit.
I’m trying to understand how many others felt this during their permaculture education.
Is this something you experienced? If so, what was missing for you?
Let me know:
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Call: 717-827-6266
Until the next time, spend each day practicing permaculture while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
The post Have you found yourself in The Permaculture Pit? appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Eloisa Lewis. Eloisa is an American permaculture consultant, community building artist, activist and healer. With her work as a project manager and educator she helps guide communities of individuals into holistically regenerative paradigms, and specializes in communal practices of decolonization.
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Eloisa joins me today to talk about her experiences in radical spaces, particularly Rainbow Gatherings but also in intentional community and activist camps, to put the principles of social permaculture into action. Throughout the conversation she shares the ways those manifest in the acts of nonviolence, communication, and community justice. She also shares how she began down this road, where she studied permaculture, and some of her mentors for others who would like to journey down this path.
Find out more about Eloisa at newlcimateculture.com and on social media @nomadsoulful and @newclimateculture.
Throughout this conversation with Eloisa I was thinking back to the experimental practices I’ve engaged in in-order to live into social permaculture, from launching permaculture convergences to visiting or living in intentional communities. These places served as vital opportunities to try non-violent communication, conflict transformation, restorative circles, and the other ways we can work together as human beings seeking to build permanent cultures that care for all life. The work is important to our long-term goals, but we need to see and experience them now before they’re necessary.
If we can attend radical gatherings or convergences, once they re-emerge from the pandemic, that’s amazing. I know, however, that that isn’t possible for everyone. In the meantime, or while we remain indoors, what are our options? The first place I would recommend starting is with Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication. Though Dr. Rosenberg has since passed on, his work continues to live and breathe through his book and the ongoing efforts of The Center for Nonviolent Communication.
I also linked to two other interviews below, one with Karl Stayeart and another with Ethan Hughes, that explore nonviolent communication and conflict transformation, so you can hear other voices engaged in this work. I also encourage you to reach out to Eloisa to see if she is currently hosting any workshops on these subjects you could attend virtually.
This conversation with Eloisa was also just the first to begin looking at radical spaces and how we can begin the ongoing processes of rewilding ourselves and working to decolonize our practices. If you know of anyone else working on these tasks who should appear in an upcoming episode, please let me know.
Call: 717-827-6266
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, put your principles into practice while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Related Interviews
Nonviolent Communication
Conflict Transformation
Resources
newclimateculture.com
@nomadsoulful
@newclimateculture
Find a Rainbow Gathering
Women’s Permaculture Guild
Heather Jo Flores
Urban Permaculture Institute of San Francisco
The post Principles in Practice | Eloisa Lewis appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Rhonda Baird, the editor of Permaculture Design Magazine and teacher and designer at Sheltering Hills Design, LLC., joins me to continue our conversation about creating change. In our first interview, we spoke about the way that we can work on ourselves as individuals. Today we move from the inside to the out with how we can organize and support others and our community.
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Visit Our Partner: Food Forest Card Game
In that frame, we look at the tools you can add to your toolkit to do this work and build your, and other’s, competencies. Some of those include Theory U, nonviolent communication, and dynamic governance (sociocracy). We also look at facilitation and what it means to step into a role of leadership.
Find Rhonda at https://www.shelteringhills.net/ and Permaculture Design Magazine, which she edits, at https://www.permaculturedesignmagazine.com/
What I keep coming back to from this conversation is that everything we talked about, from nonviolent communication to facilitation, and even leadership, are all skills you can learn. Though I’ve met a number of people who through charisma and their presence come across as natural leaders you can be taught how to lead others in the moment or on a project. This doesn’t require talent or exceptional abilities, just a desire to learn to lead.
A resource that can help you with this is the book, The Leadership Challenge. Based on copious research of businesses large and small, this has gone through multiple editions and printings and is one of the best I’ve ever encountered on organizational leadership and development. This has influenced countless leaders over the years and was required reading during graduate school.
This is well worth picking up, and I’m going to give away a copy of this and Giraffe Juice here on Patreon. Look for those in your feed on January 9 and January 8, respectively.
2019 marks a new year, and I’d like to bring you new knowledge, skills, and resources. If there is anything you would like to learn more about, let me know.
Leave a comment in the show notes, call: 717-827-6266, send an email to show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or send me a letter.
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until we meet again, spend each day creating the world you want to live in by taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
Additional Resources
On Feedback – The School of Life
The Four Agreements (Wiki)
Regenpreneurs
The post Organizing and Supporting Our Communities | Rhonda Baird appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Rob Avis – (C) 2016 Gavin Young Photography My guest today is Rob Avis, a permaculture practitioner from Calgary, Canada, and one of the founders of Verge Permaculture. He joined me during the Covid-19 pandemic to discuss what we can do to creatively respond to this and other crises.
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This includes our role as teachers and leaders while others are struggling for security, and how we can build resilience in our homes and our communities. He shares how together we can soften the blow to ourselves and others by preparing for the economic changes possible in the scenarios of hyperinflation, deflationary contraction, and hyper-stagflation, the latter of which he sees as the most likely outcome of those three at this time.
A past guest of the show we get rolling with his thoughts on how to handle what we’re currently facing, so I’ve linked to Rob’s earlier interviews in the show notes below if you’d like to learn more about his background, his work on harvesting rainwater, and the framework he and his business partner Takota Coen have developed to simplify the application of permaculture to agriculture.
Find out more about Rob and his work at VergePermaculture.ca, and more through the links below.
I agree with Rob that now is a vital time for us to continue our education, take a role in creating resilience in our communities, and shift the narrative of what is possible. For ourselves, we can turn to our books, the University of YouTube, or the online classrooms like Coursera to work on expanding our knowledge. Now would be a great time to take that online Permaculture Design Course if you’re still looking for one.
If you have skills to share, we can contact our friends and family and see what they want to learn more about. Can we help them with their garden design? Help them repair something around the home?
If you’re a permaculture teacher, now is a good time to work on those online classes you wanted to put together. Begin sharing your knowledge through one-on-one consulting or webinars.
For our communities, we can coordinate seed swaps by mail, and eventually in person. We can make those phone calls to the city council or the mayor’s office to begin the conversation about chickens or other micro-livestock, or about expanding community garden efforts so people have access to land, or grow their own food.
To help with these, I’ve included links in the show notes to resources for each including some places offering online classes; software to connect remotely or run webinars of your own; and to organizations working on policy change. If you have any resources that come to mind others should know about, leave a comment in the show notes.
And of course, I’m always here to help you move your projects forward.
Get in touch.
Call: 717-827-6266
Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, creatively respond to these uncertain times, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Previous Interviews with Rob Avis
Rob Avis on the Essentials of Rainwater Harvesting
The Adaptive Habitat Program
Related Interviews
Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness
Edenspore
Resources
Verge Permaculture
Spanish Flu Waves (CDC)
The Great Influenza, a great book on the 1918 pandemic by John Barry.
Economist Mark Blyth
Online Classes (General Education)
EdX
Harvard University Free Online Classes
Coursera Free Classes
Online Meeting and Webinar Software
Cisco WebEx
GoToMeeting
Zoom
Micro-Livestock
Backyard Chicken Project
How to get your city to allow backyard chickens (Grist)
Raising Chickens in the City (Mother Earth Living)
The post Creatively Responding to a Crisis | Rob Avis appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest for today is Rhonda Baird, editor of Permaculture Design Magazine, and designer and educator at Sheltering Hills Design, LLC.
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We talk about the social side of permaculture and what we can do, as individuals and a community, to create boundaries that lead to deeper respect for ourselves and each other. To fight for something — rather than against — through small and slow solutions. The power we have as minority voices to create social change. The impact that being face-to-face with others can have in engaging with and resolving the issues facing our community and the broader world.
This is a conversation about sitting with things that are often uncomfortable, but necessary for transforming the world we have into the one we want to see.
Find out more about Rhonda and her work at permaculturedesignmagazine.com and shelteringhills.net.
Get in TouchCall: 717-827-6266
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
ResourcesPermaculture Design Magazine
Sheltering Hills Design, LLC
Small and Slow-Solutions: IPC India 2017
Safer Spaces Agreement
Great Rivers and Lake Permaculture Institute
How to Conduct a Community Inventory (Transition US)
Sociocracy aka Dynamic Governance (Wikipedia)
Dynamic Governance: A New System for Better Decisions (Triple Pundit)
Restorative Justice
Restorative Circles
Permaculture and The Commons. Permaculture Design Magazine #103 (February 2017)
Radical Faeries
Why Mobile Technology Matters for the World’s Nomadic Peoples
The post Being Present for Ourselves and Others | Rhonda Baird appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In this episode co-host David Bilbrey sits down with the teacher, activist, and permaculture practitioner Kanyon Sayers-Roods, also known as Coyote Woman, to talk about her work on the land at Indian Canyon, California to educate and inspire others in their understanding of the natural world, the connections between individuals and communities, and what we can do to approach our interactions with humility.
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Support the Podcast on Patreon During their conversation Kanyon and David also touch on the history of Indian Canyon and the role this location had for native peoples of California, being thoughtful with our words and actions, and to consider the impacts our choices have on ourselves, our descendants, and the land.
Find out more about Kanyon’s work at indiancanyonlife.org.
There is a lot to unpack from this conversation, with more emerging with each additional listen. I realized that my thoughts on what was expressed could easily take an hour or more to explore all the threads and thoughts that Kanyon raised, so I’ll try to keep this shorter than that.
A piece that continues to resonate is what we can do to ask better questions and seek deeper understanding. I hear this in Kanyon’s words when talking about the role of cultural recognition and identity and asking from a place of humility. To know the history of the land beyond the physical impacts of industry or previous development, but also of those who called that land home and how they got there. To recognize the distinction of being native to a place versus being indigenous to it.
One of the reasons I found permaculture appealing decades ago was that as Bill wrote about the foundational ideas in the Designers’ manual, something that stood out was that what we are doing in our thought and design processes to look for what we can give and then receive in return. We build relationships in reciprocity.
Let’s take that a step further and deepen our work to honor and respect those people who came before us and how they knew and worked the land. We have a lot to learn and a lot to share.
—
What are your thoughts after hearing this interview with Kanyon?
Leave a comment in the show notes or reach out to directly:
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
With only 4 regular episode left in the year, I’m not sure which will be out in a few weeks, as David and I are shuffling around the scheduled so that we can explore some topics in more depth through a series of related interviews in 2019.
Whatever may come, until the next time, spend each day creating the world you want to live in by taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Resources
Indian Canyon Life
Kanyon Sayers-Roods
Kanyon Konsulting
Dawes Act of 1887
The post Indian Canyon, Decolonizing, and Indigenous Value Systems with Kanyon Coyote Woman appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is William Padilla-Brown, a mycologist, teacher, and social permaculture practitioner. I’ve known William for a long time and as you’ll hear us mention, we’ve wanted to do this interview for years. I’m thankful that we finally had the opportunity. He has a unique background as a citizen scientist and educator working to propagate mushrooms, study them using molecular biology, and to share what he learns with the world through classes and an annual mushroom and arts festival, Mycofest.
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Visit our Partner: Food Forest Card Game
During the conversation today, William shares how we can get involved as citizen scientists to explore the genetic makeup of mushrooms, as well as plants and insects, with readily available supplies and skills we can learn with less study than you might expect. We also dig into his work on breeding mushrooms and the role that molecular biology plays in understanding mating types to create viable strains with the characteristics we are looking for, rather than having to breed out to random chance. We end with how you can get started, reflection on how we hope the explosion of mycology might extend to other disciplines, and some of his work on growing algae for food.
Where to find William Padilla-Brown
Mycosymbiotics
Mycofest
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Cognitive Function
Cognitive Function Instagram
Giveaway: Cordyceps Cultivation Handbook Vol. 1
I’m always impressed by William continuing to push the edges of his work with mushrooms, mycology, and food systems, and make this knowledge accessible to everyone around him. From setting up the right environment for growing fungi to how to identify different types to how to propagate and now how to create gene sequences, he develops his knowledge and skills and then shares what he’s learned. His interest, built on books and workshops, allowed him to become an expert in mycology in his own right in five years. Now he’s conquering microbiology and gene sequencing to get even better at what he already does. Imagine where he’ll be in another five years. Or ten. Or twenty.
I reflect on this because I’ve re-created myself every decade or so of my life. I studied computer science and worked in Information Technology through my late teens and twenties. Leveraging those skills, a few years in college radio as a DJ, and finally taking a permaculture design course, became a podcaster. I took all that and went back to school to learn about resource management to better understand permaculture while honing my interview skills to get better at drawing out people’s personal narratives. Now I go back to my years as a storyteller as a teenager and in my 20s and consider how we can tell better stories and integrate them into our lives, change ourselves, and transform the world.
I believe that each of us has the ability to become experts in multiple areas. We can do this in non-traditional ways, through personal reading and study, the University of YouTube, mentorships, immersive internships. The hard part is deciding what we truly care about.
Once we know what gives our life meaning, we can climb onto the shoulders of the giants that came before us and see horizons they’ve only dreamed about.
What do you love so much that you’ll take the first step towards the edge of human knowledge and use your passion to add to our collective understanding?
Let me know:
show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day learning more about what you love while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Additional Resources
Ryan Paul Gates (Instagram)
Fungi for the People
Mushroom Mountain – Tradd Cotter
Mycelial Connection – Willoughby Arevalo
Fungi Perfecti – Paul Stamets
Radical Mycology – Peter McCoy
Oxford Nanopore
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
MiniPCR
New York Genome Center
GenBank
Genewiz
Organic Grower’s School
The post Mycology and Citizen Science | William Padilla-Brown appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest today is Chris Gilmour. A permaculture practitioner and emergency manager, Chris works with individuals and organizations to map their community assets and help prepare for uncertain events
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We recorded this conversation during the emerging COVID-19 pandemic to discuss practical solutions we can apply right now to make sense of the situation and prepare a response appropriate for our individual lives. We begin introducing the four pillars of emergency management and a six-question approach. Chris finds this method useful when creating our assessments. We then move into a conversation about personal actions for each of us to take in the moment and as part of our long-term planning, using examples from Chris’s life to show the theory in practice. Throughout, we repeatedly return to what we can do to lighten the emotional load through activities that ground us in the moment and plan for days ahead as we focus on our values and what is bigger than ourselves.
Find out more about Chris at ChangingWorldProject.com. He also put together a resource page at ChangingWorldProject.com/permaculturepodcast where you’ll find more information from this interview. You can also check out the ecovillage he is working with on disaster preparedness, Our Eco Village, at ourecovillage.org.
As we returned to the Our Purpose Beyond Self several times during the interview, I want to come back to this in my closing remarks with two books to recommend.
The first is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Of all the books I’ve read in my life, this one slim volume, something most of us can read in a few hours, has had the most impact on my inner life and understanding how meaning can protect us and help us through the hardest moments of life.
The second is Robert Wright’s Why Buddhism is True, which looks at the modern research that shows how we can see ourselves and the world more clearly through mindfulness practices that lead to greater truth and happiness. I find the insights of this book and the different ways to be mindful, beyond just meditation, relate well to the discussion today, and in the interviews with Robyn Mello and Natalie Bogwalker, about finding our grounding activities.
Finally, as I said at the end of the recent interview with Robyn Mello, I don’t know what the future holds or how hard it will be, but we will get through this.
If I can help in any way, get in touch:
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, observe and interact, plan, and take small and slow solutions, while you care for Earth, yourself, and each other.
Related InterviewsEdenspore – Robyn Mello
People & Permaculture: Trauma-Informed and Radical Self Care with Jessi Bloom
ResourcesChanging World Project
Changing World Project Resource Page
Sprouting Seeds (Johnny’s Selected Seeds)
Sprouting Seeds (Sprout People)
Indoor Mushroom Grow Kit (Field and Forest Products)
The post Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
I’m joined by Robyn Mello, a permaculture teacher and designer, as well as the singer, songwriter, and herbalist, behind Edenspore.
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She spoke with me while I am currently self-isolating and wanting to record new interviews.
I’ve known Robyn for many years. As a past guest of the show, we started the conversation before I had a chance to start recording. This episode then begins with us talking about how we’re handling and thinking about the state of the world during the spreading COVID-19 pandemic. We then turn to building resilience and community and her work as a long-time permaculture practitioner working on lifestyle design. She shares how early motherhood has changed her perspective on future care and what we need to do to move away from a place of fear, as we trust ourselves and one another. We wrap up with a message of our role as permaculture practitioners to create more resilience in our local communities.
You can find Robyn at Edenspore.com, and on her Facebook page, Instagram, Bandcamp, and new blog site. Also, check out her Etsy page where you can find Robyn’s herbal remedies and more.
Today, I’m going to forgo the usual lessons learned recap for the episode and say this: I don’t know what the future holds, I don’t know how hard it will be, but we’re going to make it through this.
Whatever you are going through, leave a comment in the show notes to share with the podcast community so we can help you. You can also let me know what you are experiencing, and I’ll do what I can.
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Whatever we face in the world, we can find strength together, while taking care of Earth, ourselves, and each other.
Related Interviews
Permaculture Multi-Culture with Robyn Mello
An Introduction to Philadelphia Orchard Project
Philly Round Table
Philly Round Table Q&A
Horn Farm Center Q&A
ResourcesEmail Robyn: edensporedesign@gmail.com
Edenspore
Edenspore (Facebook)
Edenspore (Instagram)
Edenspore (Bandcamp)
Edenspore (Etsy)
Slow and Steady Resilience
Permaculture Women’s Guild
Permaculture Women’s Guild (Facebook)
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Reflective Listening (PDF)
The Basics of Nonviolent Communication
The Permaculture Handbook by Peter Bane
Reducing Wasted Food at Home
Spotted Lanternfly
The post Edenspore appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest for this episode is Holly Brown of Island Creek Farm, a small permaculture farm located in Huddleston, Virginia.
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Holly and I sat down at her home on a mild day in October to talk about her origins as a farmer and what it is like to run a permaculture-based farm on imperfect farmland in western Virginia complete with heat and humidity during the summer and the occasional hard freeze in the winter. On less than one acre farmed organically the farm supported herself and two interns financially, while keeping three restaurants stocked with vegetables, provided fifteen CSA shares, and also fed herself, those interns, and her extended family. She even had enough left over to give to local food pantries. She accomplishes all of this while married with two children, and without the use of insecticides, herbicides, or any tilling. I learned all of this in our time together recording the interview and while we ate lunch and spent several hours walking around her farm. That time together was incredibly inspirational to me and gave me a better understanding of what we can accomplish with the right systems and support.
My time with Holly really stuck with me, even now several months later, because this was the first time I saw a farm that was integrated and operating in a way that I would want to run a farm when consider creating my own permaculture demonstration site. Her farm showed the possibilities I read about in books like Peter Bane’s The Permaculture Handbook, while remaining true to her own ideals.
Holly invited me into the home she shares with her husband and two children, a modest place compared to most of the houses I’ve seen in America, more reminiscent of the ideas you’ll find in the books by Lloyd Kahn or Patricia Foreman, though not quite that small. In the time after the interview she and I shared lunch together, a curry consisting of on-farm vegetables with yogurt she made from local raw milk and a salad containing something like 12 different kinds of lettuces. We then walked around and she showed me her successes and failures, including two different gothic arch greenhouse frames, one of which was strong and supportive that Holly demonstrated by doing a pull-up on, and another that wavered in the wind a bit.
If anything, visiting Holly gave me hope that we can build productive permaculture farms that feed people. That we can use little urban, suburban, and rural spaces to grow the food necessary, in an ecologically responsible manner, that can make a real difference.
Are there any farms like Island Creek I should visit to bring back more working examples of permaculture in the world? If you know of any, leave a comment below.
As long as I am able I will be here to assist you on your permaculture path so please reach out to me if there is anything I can do for you.
Call: 717-827-6266
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Or Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, tend to a little piece of land, grow some of your own food, and take care of Earth, your self, and each other.
The post Island Creek Farm with Holly Brown appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest is Natalie Bogwalker, the visionary behind Wild Abundance, a permaculture skills center and homestead near Asheville, North Carolina. As a primary instructor at Wild Abundance, she teaches a variety of classes, including tiny house building workshops, women’s carpentry, and permaculture design courses. She likes to share her passion with others to help them live in an empowered and Earth-centered way.
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As a founder of Firefly Gathering, one of the most significant primitive skills events in the United States, Natalie brings years of Earth-focused skills and living to each of her classes. This focus forms the center of what she joins me to talk about today, as we discuss including hands-on primitive skills to create a more in-depth, grounded permaculture education. We also touch on how an extended experience, as her Earth-skills Permaculture Design Course takes 27 days spread over nine months, changes the nature of the PDC. We wrap up by talking about what students can bring to their course, and how permaculture instructors can improve Permaculture education.
Find out more about Natalie and her classes, including the upcoming Earth Skills class, at WildAbundance.net. You’ll find a link to that, as well as my interview with Eric Toensmeier and Ben Falk, and more, in the show notes.
I’m thankful for what Natalie shared with us about extending and expanding on Permaculture education, both for the amount of time spent in courses, the skills we develop while there, and on mentoring and advanced classes after we start down this road.
Her question, “How many hours did you spend in the fifth grade?” raises a point I’ve considered many times, though based more around college classes. A 72 hours PDC is about the equivalent of 6 college credits. So you can think of the Permaculture Design Course, as an introductory course, as about the same as Biology 101 and 102. It’s a great place to start, but there’s so much more to do.
Extended courses, such as Natalie’s and others, add to the time between teachers and students. This extra time allows us to add to our hard and soft skills, from fire starting and shelter building to carpentry, nutritional knowledge, and social justice. With a student-focused approach, this can include not only the core knowledge necessary to complete a PDC, but also create the shared lexicon required to discuss design, ethics, and principles, and apply these ideas to more than the landscape.
Through these, and advanced classes that focus on specific subjects such as water catchment, home building, foraging, conflict transformation, and personal change, we can gain the skills necessary for the creation of the permanent culture inherent in the work of permaculture.
If you’re still looking to find your area of focus, your calling, whatever your stage in life, teachers like Natalie, myself, and others, are here to help you find the way. If you’d like to learn more, get in touch with the folks at Wild Abundance, at WildAbundance.net, and, of course, you can write to me:
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Oh, and how long do we spend in the fifth grade? Over 1,000 hours in the United States.
Until the next time, eat something wild every day while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other. Related Interviews
Drawing Down Carbon: Eric Toensmeier on Agroforestry and Climate Change
Financial Permaculture with Eric Toensmeier
Eric Toensmeier on Perennials, Broadscale Permaculture, & Food Forests
Whole System Design & the Resilient Farm with Ben Falk
Resources
Wild Abundance
Wild Abundance Instructors
Firefly Gathering
(Photo Credit: Jenny Tenney Photography)
The post Earth Skills, Permaculture and Wild Abundance appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
To honor the release of Pascal Baudar’s new book, Wildcrafted Fermentation, I’ve re-mastered and re-released our conversations about his earlier works. Today, you can listen to our interview about The Wildcrafting Brewer. The episode posted last week covered his first book, The New Wildcrafted Cuisine.
Thanks to the great folks at Chelsea Green Publishing, who publish Pascal’s three amazing books, I am giving away a copy of Wildcrafted Fermentation through Saturday, March 21st.
Giveaway: Wildcrafted Fermentation
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Author, teacher, and forager Pascal Baudar joins me to discuss his exploration of primitive brews and fermentation, the basis for his book The Wildcrafting Brewer.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/TheWildcraftingBrewer.mp3
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He shares with us the way we can combine local ingredients as flavor, with water, sugar, and yeast to create sodas, beer, wine, and mead with local flavor and sense of place. If you are familiar with his first book, The New Wildcrafted Cuisine, then you know his thoughts push the limits of what we might think of when considering what to toss into our brew pot. Taking these methods, he again takes us in an unexpected direction that goes from the social drinks we might expect, to discuss how we might consider making culinary, healing, or even psychotropic beverages.
Find out more about Pascal and his work as a forager and teacher at urbanoutdoorskills.com and his books, including The Wildcrafting Brewer at ChelseaGreen.com.
Stepping away from this conversation, though he and I spoke about brewing and making wild-flavored beverages, I’m thinking more generally about how easy it is to complicate and over-analyze our journey and arrive at a place where the results we wish to accomplish gets lost in a messy process requiring more work than needed.
Pascal shows us that with his primitive, or as he also says archaic, brews and how the modern steps, and commercial flavors, limit the range of experiences we create as we scrub and sanitize our pots and fermentation vessels, or leave our brews alone; watched but untouched as the liquid transforms from sugary concoction into alcoholic elixir.
How often do we do seek this same sterile approach in our other work, only to find the effort falls flat because of a singular direction and only considering one way?
What if we tried more simplicity and creativity in our work as permaculture designers, and in our relationships and initiatives for community building? Can we strip away the unnecessary and arrive and something more concise, clear, whole, productive, and enjoyable?
I think so, and the skills of creating wild foods and beverages provide a place where we can safely explore these patterns, before searching for similar details in our other work.
What do you think of this conversation with Pascal? Leave a comment in the show notes, or get in touch with me if you would like to discuss this further.
Call: 717-827-6266
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until then, explore the wild and the uncivilized, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.
ResourcesPascal Baudar (Author’s Page at Chelsea Green)
Outdoor Urban Skills
The Wildcrafting Brewer
The New Wildcrafted Cuisine
Chelsea Green Publishing
The post The Wildcrafting Brewer appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
To celebrate the release of Pascal Baudar’s new book, Wildcrafted Fermentation, this and the next episode are about his earlier works, The New Wildcrafted Cuisine and The Wildcrafting Brewer. As this episode comes out, all three books are on sale at ChelseaGreen.com.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/TheNewWildcraftedCuisine.mp3
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Thanks to our friends at Chelsea Green, I am also giving away a copy of Pascal’s Wildcrafted Fermentation! You’ll find that giveaway at patreon.com/permaculturepodcast.
Pascal takes foraged food and elevating them to more than just something to eat, and creating rich meals from the common, such as wild mustards or acorns, to the uncommon, like lurp sugar or sand fleas, building on years of experience and hundreds of classes on primitive, wilderness, and survival skills. He ate with fervor at the plate of knowledge so that now we can dine upon meals of wonder with fresh and unexpected flavors.
Find out more about Pascal and his work at UrbanOutdoorSkills.com.
Where you live, what do you eat? Have you foraged for food? Is there a plant you want to know more about, such as how to prepare it, or plan a meal around it? Let me know.
Call: 717-827-6266.
Email: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
or, if you like, drop something in the mail.
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Until the next time, spend each day eating wild and creating the world you want to live in by taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Resources
Pascal Baudar
Pascal’s Author’s Page at Chelsea Green
The New Wildcrafted Cuisine
Chelsea Green
The post The New Wildcrafted Cuisine appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
In this episode from 2014, one of my favorite people from the permaculture community, Karryn Olson-Ramanujan, joins us to share a pattern language she’s identified for women in permaculture, which we can use to create a constructive permaculture movement so that together we can design a world with ever greater beauty, abundance, and inclusivity.
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The starting point for this conversation is Karryn’s article, which forms the title for this episode, “A Pattern Language for Women in Permaculture.” In this powerful piece Karryn outlines the patterns and provides solutions to create an environment for women’s full participation and leadership in the permaculture community, and be recognized as the permaculture superstars they are.
The eight patterns, some of which we discuss together, are:
- Shift our “Mental Models”
- Understand and Advocate for the “30% Solution” as a Vital Step Toward Parity
- Value Diversity
- Intersecting Identities
- Mentoring is Key to Building Women’s Leadership
- Value Archetypically Feminine Ways of Leading
- Nurture Women’s Leadership Through Women’s Gatherings
- Be an Ally
In addition to this pattern language, during her research Karryn found many women struggle to earn a living with their good work. To support these entrepreneurs, she offers three different courses: Pathfinders, Sweet Spots, and Abundance Models to help women design their regenerative right livelihood. Enrollment for the next Pathfinders course starts in late February 2020. If you are interested in this, or any of her other courses, you’ll find those hosted within the Regenepreneurs Network, which you can also join as a general member. Learn more at Regenepreneurs.com.
You will also find more of Karryn’s writing on Medium, where she writes as @Regenepreneurs.
References and resources from this episode:
Regenepreneurs
Earth Activist Trainings
Gender Schema Tutorials
Jeanine Carlson-Nelson
Karen Stupski
Microaffirmations
Timebanking
Margaret Wheatley
Pandora Thomas
Privilege and Allyship (Links to a PDF)
Starhawk
WPLI – Women’s Permaculture Leadership Initiative
Women Lead the Way by Linda Tarr-Whelan
Profiles of Women in Permaculture
Women Working with Permaculture in South Africa
Alex Kruger and Berg-en-Dal Ecovillage
Jeunesee Park Park at Food and Trees for Africa
Several other awesome women were also profiled in Karryn’s article.
The post Karryn Olson-Ramanujan: A Pattern Language for Women in Permaculture appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
Joel Salatin shares his thoughts on farming, the importance of experience, and the role of mastery over ourselves and our chosen discipline.
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These topics layout the major themes of the conversation that follows but touch only on the barest of the depth you’ll hear. Together Joel and I explore land access for new farmers, living frugally, agriculture based on skilled people, mentoring and apprenticeship, the nature of wisdom, and what it means to be well-read and with it well rounded: to be an interesting conversationalist with something to say and a provocative way to say it, so others find us and our message appealing.
I left this conversation thinking about the personal changes we can make now to become experts in our chosen field and how that serves as a model for others that continues the change that already began. Eventually, that daily change becomes the future we cannot imagine for generations to come.
Once you’ve given this interview a listen, leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts. Or, you can also get in touch with me directly in the usual ways.
Giveaway: Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal
Resources
Polyface Farms
Eager Farmer
The post Joel Salatin on Farming, Experience and Mastery. appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
My guest for this episode, which originally aired in 2014, is Mark Shepard, owner of New Forest Farm and author of Restoration Agriculture. This is the final piece in a series of three interviews Mark and I recorded to talk about Restoration Agriculture practices and to answer listener questions.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/Restoration_Agriculture_PartIII.mp3Click here to download the episode. | Open Player in New Window
In this episode we discuss four topics based around listener questions.
- What is Mark’s “Oil Cartel?”
- What place does keyline design have on a small scale site?
- What techniques does Mark suggest for water retention on a flat area?
- What tips does Mark have for starting seedlings where you are unable to water daily or weekly?
I enjoyed these conversations because of the different voice and perspective that Mark brought to the table. These really expanded my thoughts on how we can practice permaculture in many different ways underneath the same umbrella. Mark focuses on large scale agricultural restoration. My focus is on communication and outreach. We each have a role to fill.
Where do you see your niche in the permaculture community? Where do you fit into this big puzzle of creating a better world? Is there any way I can help you find your fit? I’d love to hear from you.
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Food Forest Card Game
The Fifth World
Support
If you value this show and the work of the podcast in spreading the word of permaculture to the world, lend your assistance in supporting these projects. Share links to your favorite episode with your friends. Leave reviews on iTunes or your favorite podcast sites.
The show can also use your financial support, either as a one-time or ongoing monthly contribution. Find out how to do that at: www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/support.
Get In Touch
E-mail: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Phone: 717-827-6266
The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Resources
Restoration Agriculture with Mark Shepard (Part I)
Restoration Agriculture with Mark Shepard (Part II)
The post Restoration Agriculture with Mark Shepard (Part III) appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
(Originally Aired: 17.September.2014)
My guest for this episode is Mark Shepard, owner of New Forest Farm and author of Restoration Agriculture. This is the second of three pieces that Mark and I recorded together to talk about Restoration Agricultural practices and to answer listener questions.
https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/Restoration_Agriculture_PartII.mp3Click here to download the episode. | Open Player in New Window
In this episode we discuss four topics based around listener questions.
- Mark’s nursery techniques.
- Grafting vs. Seeding.
- What tools and infrastructure are needed to start a nursery project?
- How Mr. Shepard markets his tree crops locally or otherwise.
We also discuss the importance for each of us, that means you and me, to be growing, selecting, and breeding our own plants from seed. To make this easier Mark shares his STUN method of seeing what plants are best.
What does STUN stand for? Sheer Total Utter Neglect.
After listening to this episode, even if you don’t have a green thumb, there’s no reason to not be playing with plants on a variety of scales.
Here is another discussion about how to bring profit and entrepreneurship into permaculture. It is something I continue to work on and struggle with at times, but it is something we can do. As Mark said, we do this and then ask other systems to try and keep up with us as we create a better world now and for the future. This is not a game or something we play at, but real work to make a difference. We can do it.
To support that, I have some interviews that will come out over the coming months with people like Ethan Roland to discuss the Eight Forms of Capital and Regenerative Enterprise and how we can apply permaculture to business. Then Carol Sanford joins me to discuss how we can apply business to permaculture, find the essence of our entrepreneurial work, and grow what it is we are doing to bring functional permaculture models into the mainstream.
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Get In Touch
E-mail: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Phone: 717-827-6266
The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
Twitter: @permaculturecst
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The post Restoration Agriculture with Mark Shepard (Part II) appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
(Originally Aired: 16.July.2014)
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My guest for this episode is Mark Shepard, author of Restoration Agriculture.
As you might expect from this show we start with his biography and background, work our way through a call to action for permaculture practitioners and a need to be realistic in our efforts, and finally wrap up this conversation by discussing his work of restoration agriculture. Don’t worry though, this is the first piece that Mark and I recorded together, so there will be more on this subject to follow, including listener questions in episodes two and three.
I’m can produce episodes like this one, and those that follow in this series, because of your support. You allow me to schedule large blocks of time to have expansive candid conversations with interesting guests for the good of the permaculture community and beyond. If you value this show and these experiences, and I think you do since you choose to tune in, then support the show. Go to www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/support to find out how.
I found this interview, and the other time I spent with Mark, delightful and challenging. He asks hard questions and proposes solutions that at first glance seem difficult, but that ultimately are necessary to doing this work in a meaningful way and getting beyond the “feel good” actions of a little here and a little there. The potentially unstable future posed by weather weirding and climate change requires action.
Now.
As part of that, and because I don’t believe in asking anyone to do something that I wouldn’t or haven’t done, I’m going to take up Mark’s challenge to eat a diet free of annual grains and annual legumes for 30 days. Actually, I’ll be doing it for 31, from August 1st through the 31st, 2014. Will you join me on this journey and see what the experience is like in a world of mass-produced foods and perceived scarcity? Together we can show the possible abundance that lurks beyond the shelves of our local supermarket.
Expect a month or so to pass until the next of these pieces with Mark, and the final one to come out in late September or early October.
Are you practicing restoration agriculture? Or just want to talk permaculture? Let me know:
E-mail: show@thepermaculturepodcast.com
Phone: 717-827-6266
Twitter: @permaculturecst
The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018
The post Restoration Agriculture with Mark Shepard (Part I) appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.
(This episode first aired on 10.December.2018)
My guest today is the renowned animal behaviorist Fred Provenza, who joins me to talk about how we can reconnect with the foods that feed our bodies and reclaim our nutritional wisdom.
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Visit Our Partner: Food Forest Card Game Drawing on decades of research with animals, upon retirement from Utah State University he turned his lens towards human beings to pull together the best studies and his own personal journey to provide a way we can begin to eat well for ourselves by outlining where we’ve gone wrong and what we can do to make a positive change.
You can find Fred’s book, Nourishment, at chelseagreen.com.
What do you think of what Fred shares with us today? Can you see the relationships between flavor-feedback, culture, and alternative availability on our nutritional wisdom
Let me know.
Leave a comment in the show notes, call 717-827-6266, email: show@thepermacutlurepodcast.com, or write:
The Permaculture Podcast
P.O. Box 16
Dauphin, PA 17018.
Resources
NourishmentChemical Ecology (Wiki)
Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani
Edward R Murrow’s This I Believe (Wiki)
The post Reclaiming our Nutritional Wisdom: Nourishment with Fred Provenza appeared first on The Permaculture Podcast.