Author Archives: ethanappleseed

Permaculture Business Internship – Winter 2014

Posted on by

Unlike many landscape design firms, web AppleSeed Permaculture LLC continues full-time permaculture design, pharm research, and development work straight through the winter. This year, we are offering an exclusive internship opportunity focused on permaculture business management and research.

OVERVIEW

AppleSeed Permaculture LLC is a cutting-edge permaculture & sustainable farm design firm dedicated to regenerating ecosystems and multi-capital economies around the planet.

This internship uses hands-on action learning and direct mentoring from firm principals Ethan Roland and Dyami Nason-Regan to train you in the nitty-gritty realities of a permaculture business. This is not the “sexy” part of permaculture – You will not participate in hands-on planting projects, tour permaculture sites, or travel the world. You will learn basic entrepreneurial skills like project management, client communications, web development, bookkeeping, and accounting.

The internship runs for 1-2 days per week, depending on experience. 1 day per week takes place in AppleSeed’s Accord, NY office. Internship runs until April, 2014.

 Position begins when filled – apply immediately if interested.    

INTERNSHIP INCLUDES:

  • Project Management: Designing and developing systems for task tracking, accountability, and completion; managing business development projects.
  • Permaculture Research: Plant species and varieties, sustainable farm business planning, multi-local market research, eco-social investing research.
  • Finances: Quickbooks accounting; supporting tax preparation and filing for multiple enterprises.
  • Technology & Social Media: AppleSeed website maintenance and updates, including blogs and social media integration. Building and managing Facebook pages and email lists for AppleSeed and allied enterprise educational events. (e.g. Terra Genesis International Permaculture Design Courses.) Troubleshooting routine technology problems and coordinating tech support as needed.
  • Other business management opportunities, to be determined depending on competency and experience of Intern.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Clear, direct, peaceful communication.
  • Internal resilience and self-sufficiency.  Ability to cheerfully improvise and adapt in changing circumstances.
  • Systems thinker, highly organized, able to clarify and simplify complexity.
  • Ability to attend to diverse details while staying connected to the big picture.
  • Excellent writing and speaking skills.
  • Warm, welcoming, connected phone presence and email “voice”.
  • Experience with Word, Excel, WordPress, Gmail, Google Docs, & Dropbox.
  • Familiarity with Quickbooks accounting.
  • Solid familiarity with Apple/Mac software and hardware.
  • Ability to design, streamline, and maintain efficient systems of operation and record-keeping.
  • Strong desire to contribute to regenerative eco-social enterprise development.
  • Familiarity with any of the following tools and languages is a plus:
    • Permaculture Design
    • Spiral Dynamics
    • Re-evaluation Counseling
    • 8 Shields / Art of Mentoring
    • 4-Hour Workweek
  • Passionate about personal growth and organizational development.
  • Willingness to go to new edges, learn new skills, and try new approaches.
  • Sense of humor, curiosity, and creativity.
  • Local to Accord, NY (mid-Hudson/Catskills region) is a plus.

Please reply to jobs@appleseedpermaculture.com with a resume, three references, and a concise letter describing:

  1. Your business management experience and qualifications related to the Internship,
  2. Your reasons for applying for this Internship.

Cheers,

Ethan Roland & Dyami Nason-Regan

Principals, AppleSeed Permaculture LLC

Permaculture Consulting for Farmers

Posted on by

Ecological production by design.

To support our local and regional farming community, store AppleSeed Permaculture offers low-cost agricultural consulting to full-time farmers. Our areas of expertise include:

  • Crop selection & market development
  • Agroforestry plantings & tree crops
  • Keyline design for soil-building & water harvesting
  • Whole farm financial planning & design

Using a specialized design process co-developed with Mosaic Farm, price we help farmers choose appropriate permaculture crops, cialis 40mg landscape patterns, and productive polycultures for ecological and economic prosperity. Contact us today for more information.

Open Enterprise Budgets

Posted on by

AppleSeed Permaculture designs diversified organic farms using permaculture principles and processes. Our designs integrate agroforestry, keyline planning, holistic management, biodynamics, aquaculture, and restoration agriculture.

We also install 1000-tree nut groves, plant permaculture food forests, dig earthen ponds, and more – whatever it takes to bring your farm to the next level. And, we do farm business planning to figure out how to make it all profitable.
Now, we’re collaborating with the good folks on FarmHack.net to offer new tools for the farming community: Open Enterprise Budgets. These tools are not for deep ripping or easy weeding – they’re economic. They’ll help you understand the numbers and choose profitable crops. They’ll help you make smart decisions and avoid costly mistakes. Basically, they’ll help you do less work and make more money.

Unlike standard enterprise budgets, which often offer an average of many farms’ finances and are focused on large-scale conventional agriculture, Open Enterprise Budgets use an online wiki-like format to preserve the diversity of different farms’ experiences. You can view a full range of financial realities and use them for your own farm planning. You can also contribute your own financial data, improving the overall usefulness of the tool for other farmers. For the first time, small farmers and organic farmers can pool their knowledge to create budget tools appropriate for their scale and management practices.

Extensions officers and university folks who have created the bulk of all enterprise budgets to date (Thank you!!!) are equally welcome to participate, adding your perspective and considerable knowledge alongside the voices of farmers who are on the ground growing food.

These budgets will stay up-to-date and relevant to farms of scales and management practices, simply by crowdsourcing (crowdfarming?) real time data from farmers around the world.

To view the budgets, head on over to our Open Shop on FarmHack.net. We look forward to your input.

Also, to continue our research for the farming community, we’re teaming up with the Carbon Farming Course and doing a Time Use Survey. Complete the survey and receive a 5% Discount on the next Carbon Farming Course!

Survey: Click Here

Permaculture Cohousing in Connecticut

Posted on by
1

AppleSeed Permaculture LLC is proud to join Centerbrook Architects on the design team for Green Haven Cohousing, drugs ambulance an exciting project in the West River watershed of CT. In collaboration with the people of Green Haven, malady recipe the Bethany community, treat and the local ecosystem, we look forward to bringing permaculture to Connecticut!

Sustainable, low-impact neighborhood planned for Bethany.

Bethany, CT—June 6—Green Haven, Inc., a group of area residents, has obtained an option to purchase a 31 acre parcel on Meyers Rd. in Bethany, where they hope to build a sustainable neighborhood of modestly priced homes.

Green Haven members, some of whom are long-time Bethany residents, plan to live in the community. They will be working closely with the architects, engineers, and contractors to ensure that the development is in keeping with Bethany’s rural character and community values as well as being consistent with the town’s Plan for Conservation and Development. Initial response from neighbors and local citizens has been positive.

The property was previously approved for a 48-unit senior affordable housing development that would have occupied the entire site with suburban-style homes, lawns, and driveways. Green Haven’s vision is for fewer, smaller units clustered around a large common facility, the activities hub of the community.

The multi-generational, family-oriented community will feature private and community gardens as well as small-scale farming, in a pedestrian-friendly layout that encourages healthy interaction. The shared common house may include amenities such as a large kitchen and eating space, children’s playroom, craft rooms, and a woodworking shop, allowing individual residences to be comfortable yet small and inexpensive to maintain.

Centerbrook Architects—nationally known for their beautiful, sustainable, energy-efficient buildings—will be the project architects. They will be working with AppleSeed Permaculture on the plan, with most of the site to be kept as open space for farming, conservation, and recreation.

There are more than 200 cohousing neighborhoods nationwide, but Green Haven’s will be the first in Connecticut. Cohousing is a form of intentional community in which families own private homes and participate in the community’s consent-based self-governance and, if they choose, in community activities.

The Green Haven group has been working for several years to find a site where they can develop their community, and securing the option on the Meyers Rd. property is a major step forward. Their intention is to live as sustainably as possible, with a low carbon footprint, low-impact design, and significant on-site food production. They intend also to participate fully in the wider Bethany community as good neighbors.

For more information on cohousing, visit www.cohousing.org. For more information on Green Haven, visit www.greenhavencohousing.org. The group hosts community dinners twice a month at which newcomers and future neighbors are welcome. The schedule is posted on their blog, newhavencohousing.blogspot.com.

###

CONTACT

Green Haven Cohousing – Jack Nork, jack@nork.com, 203-500-2688

AppleSeed Permaculture LLC – design@appleseedpermaculture.com, 845-594-4518

AppleSeed Land Managers: Beyond Property Management

Posted on by
3

Dear Farmers, price shop Permaculturists, sales and Social Entrepreneurs, price

Are you interested in finding a piece of land to steward, manage, farm on and grow with for the next 1-10 years? Would you like to start an agricultural enterprise or educational farm without the challenges of purchasing land? Appleseed Permaculture is glad to announce our new project, AppleSeed Land Managers.

We match land owners (individuals, families, land trusts, retreat centers, schools, companies etc.) who want to
  • Grow food
  • Build community
  • Regenerate their local ecosystems
With land managers (individuals, couples, and families) who want to
  • Grow food, community, & local ecosystems
  • Build their skills and experience with land management  & eco-agricultural  enterprises
  • Develop long-term relationships with the land and local professional network

Essentially, we build symbiotic relationships that put people on the land and generate multiple forms of capital for everyone involved.  Land managers will receive compensation for their services, and land owners will achieve returns on their investments in financial, material, living, social, or cultural forms of capital. We are building this match-making service to meet the parallel unmet needs we’ve encountered among our design clients, our students, and our colleagues in the permaculture and organic farming communities. We invite you to be among the first people who try a new approach to meeting property management and development needs by engaging in the AppleSeed Land Managers process.

The types of people we’d like to engage as land managers are bright eyed, bushy-tailed, self-starter, situationally aware, go-get-‘em, positive, grateful, dependable, perseverant, clear-communicating, whole-systems thinking, and committed to personal growth and development. They have specific experience in permaculture, organic farming, or social entreprenurship. As of Spring 2012, we are looking to find one couple or family and two individuals (one farmer and one farm educator) to fill specific positions in the northeast USA.

Here’s what will happen if you meet the criteria above and would like to get involved:
  • You submit a resume and online application
  • We conduct a preliminary phone interview with you
  • We conduct an in-person interview with you
  • We invite you to join Appleseed Permaculture for trial work day(s)
  • We give you specific feedback and ask you to re-apply in the future
          • OR
  • We invite you to join our Land Managers Network!

Once you’re fully enrolled in our network, we will work with you to discover and outline your specific wants and preferences regarding land and a relationship with a land owner. From then on, we will pursue contacts with land owners on your behalf until we find a prospective match for you!  Finally, we will support you in the process of forming new relationships with the land and the land owners. This includes:

  • Understanding and developing a well-articulated vision and plan for the land
  • Business planning for eco-agricultural enterprises
  • Creating clear written legal agreements between land owners and land managers
  • Receiving continued mentoring from AppleSeed Permaculture staff

As the first wave of applicants to our Land Managers Network, you’ll have the opportunity to help us streamline and grow our new process.

We look forward to meeting you and networking on your behalf,
The Appleseed Team

Download the application questionnaire here: Land Managers Application

Edible Landscaping in New York’s Hudson Valley

Posted on by
Reply

This month, AppleSeed Permaculture was featured in the Hudson Valley Magazine article, “Landscaping and Gardening with Edible Plants and Fruits.” Owner and Project Manager Dyami Nason-Regan was interviewed for the article alongside gardening guru Lee Reich. This is a great step towards a resilient local food system for the Hudson Valley of NY – if you haven’t got your edible landscape designed for this spring, call us today!

You can read the whole excellent article here: www.hvmag.com

Financial Permaculture Update

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s an updated slideshow with my most recent thinking on Financial Permaculture.

What will you do?!? Let us know in the comments.

Social Entrepreneurship is Missing Something

Posted on by
1

I pitched this at the 2011 NY StartingBloc Fellowship as a finalist in the Ideas Marketplace.

Is your business an eco-social enterprise? Do you want to become an eco-social entrepreneur? Pitch us in the comments.

AppleSeed Permaculture Interview: The New Eco-Social Economy

Posted on by
Reply

AppleSeed Permaculture SignClick here to download an mp3 of Rebecca Collins (Sustainable Agriculture Examiner) interviewing Ethan Roland and Dyami Nason-Regan of AppleSeed Permaculture. We discuss wild food forests, this do-it-yourself universities, no rx local regenerative agriculture, decease and the creation of a cooperative eco-social economy. Enjoy!

AppleSeed Permaculture Interview

General Resources

Local Resources

Plant Resources