Author Archives: ethanappleseed

14 Things to do after a Permaculture Design Course

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s a list of 14 things to do after a Permaculture Design Certification Course. This list came to me from Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, and Christian Shearer of the Panya Project and I added to it at the January 2009 PDC at the Panya Project.

1. Start at your own back door! Design and Implement!
2. Create or join a local permaculture guild.
3. Travel to other permaculture sites. (UK Permaculture database; PRI projects; Permaculture Activist Directory)
4. Take another PDC or focused course.
5. Volunteer or work in a related field.
6. Give intro talks about permaculture to groups in your area.
7. Practice making designs.
8. Host a course taught by someone else.
9. Apprentice or intern with an experienced designer or teacher.
10. Start a locally impacting enterprise.
11. Do a Diploma of Applied Permaculture Design (more info coming soon!).
12. Get an accredited permaculture degree through Gaia University.
13. Eventually become a permaculture contsultant or teacher.
14. Register as a Tagari-certified teacher.

Would you like to add to this list? Or reorganize it? Go for it the comments!

Posted on by
Reply

“Hi Ethan,
I’m doing a research project at Umass for my climatic change class. I want to do a case study of some different permaculture sites that are using permaculture to deal with and adapt to changes in the climate. My professor is skeptical and I really want to knock his socks off with my project. Do you know of any good sites/projects I could research? Also know of any good resources for finding more info on these projects?”

In Australia, look for Crystal Waters Ecovillage. And Melliodora on www.holmgren.com.au – one of the best-documented permaculture sites in the world.

And, Murrnong: A Permaculture Subdivision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOW-RdCFax0
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOW-RdCFax0&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6]

And look for Village Homes in California — best example of a permaculture development — there are several books about it.

Good luck!
Ethan

Panya Project Smorgasbord

Posted on by
1

A slew of fresh photos from the incredible Panya Project in northern Thailand, where we’re 9 days into a Permaculture Design Certification Course…

In the mud-pit, the class mixes up a fresh batch of adobe for brick-making & earth-plastering. Clay, sand, rice hulls, water, and feet.Geoffroy

Students pour adobe into 4x8x16″ brick forms. On a good morning the Panya crew makes 150 bricks. Many of the structures on site are built from 1200-1500 bricks. These will sun-dry…
Everything you see in this food forest was planted 2 years ago. Incredible how quickly things grow in the tropics!
In the food forest, wow. Papaya. We just don’t grow fruit this big in the temperate climate. Wait till you see the jackfruit.
One of the many fast-growing nitrogen-fixing shrub species — a pioneer species to provide shade and improve the soil for the longer-term tree crops.
The fruits of tropical labor — Parkie brews up a ginger-chile wine named “The Ginger Temptress”.

More from the Panya Permaculture Course soon! Also check out www.panyaproject.blogspot.com for the ongoing COMPOST SAGA —->

Permaculture in Croatia

Posted on by
Reply
Check this out! From the International Permaculture Listserv…

Dear friends,

yesterday the national Croatian television showed a documentary about

permaculture and Fukuoka, where also the place where i live now was

included. We started a new ecovillage initiative with 3 grown ups and 2 kids

in an abandoned village named Furuli in Istria, Croatia. The video can be

seen on http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=53795486100&h=NJHmv as the

first part, and the second part on
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=51353174895&h=8QMky. we have also

a web page www.sensemanufacture.com, where Armano’s artistic work is

presented. He use natural materials and waste for his work. The ecovillage

concept is to combine art, permaculture and spirituality, which we already

live here, as a natural and easy sustainable lifestyle. There is a lot of

work which is going on, we want to broaden the garden, secure water supply,

and bring more people here to join. Any volonteering, advice and other

support is warmly welcome.

I wish you all the best for the New Year, just keep on going and never

stop…

Marijana

naTerra – AppleSeed Permaculture students in action!

Posted on by
Reply
Check out my student Hugo’s new project naTerra — Permaculture land & community development in East Timor and beyond!

The organizations tagline:
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it“

Hugo took the 2007 Panya Project Permaculture Design Certification course with me, Christian Shearer, and friends. I’m teaching another one there in January…

Rudolf Steiner – The World Economy

Posted on by
Reply
A discussion with Seth Jordan from ThinkOutward has alerted me to Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on the ‘World Economy‘. Seth thinks there may be some solid connections between this text and Financial Permaculture — head on over and check it out!

Rudolf Steiner was an incredible visionary — the founder of Anthroposophy, Biodynamic Agriculture, Waldorf education, and more.

Here are the Steiner Archives: http://www.rsarchive.org/index.php
The home of the Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association: http://www.biodynamics.com/
Wikipedia on Anthroposophy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthroposophy

WOW. LocallyGrown.net ROCKS.

Posted on by
Reply

Seriously. This is one of the most awesome presentations I’ve seen yet at the Financial Permaculture Course.

In a Nutshell: Eric Waldrop of www.locallygrown.net has solved the major challenges of Traditional Farmer’s Market’s, Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs), & Buying Clubs with an easy-to-use piece of internet software. (No nerds required! – Did I saw “wow?”)

The virtual farmer’s market he runs in Athens, Georgia has 60 growers, 1500 customers, and does over $10,000 of sales every week. By Eric’s reckoning, that makes it the largest Farmer’s Market in Georgia and the One of the largest in the Southeast USA. (Did I say “wow?”)

I almost can’t believe the ease and grace with which Eric has used the permaculture principle “the problem is the solution” to transform the challenges of small-scale ecological farming into stunningly simple solutions.

The Food & Agriculture business design group is in complete awe. I’m not even sure if we need investment capital to get this business started! Eric has made this so easy that half the participants (myself included!) are running home to start up their own local virtual farmers markets.

Watch a video explaining locallygrown.net: Click Here

One word descriptions of Eric’s presentation by Financial Permaculture Course participants:
Awesome, fantastic, connective, wow, congratulations, nouveau, hopeful, excited, hunky dory, impatient to do, inspired, valuable, do it, possibilities, resourceful, cool, great, brilliant, cutting edge!!!

WOW.

Chaordic Permaculture Institute picks up Financial Permaculture discussion

Posted on by
Reply

The Financial Permaculture Course is stirring up some discussion in the international permaculture community!

Stella of the Chaordic Permaculture Institute writes on the international permaculture list: (edited for relevance)

It’s great that the term [Financial Permaculture] seems to have gotten all sexy, perhaps also thanks to this initiative, http://www.financialpermaculture.org (crashed servers with the traffic etc.)…

I’ve attempted to get my head round all the links (is anyone else confused?) and tried to ‘map’ some sort of wider scenario this might fit into … and need help! please let me know how you would edit this brief panorama here:

http://permacultureinstitute.pbwiki.com/FinancialPermaculture

which you can edit yourself (as any of the rest of the site). just ask
me or any of the design team for the password. …

thanks
Stella