The Permaculture Podcast

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

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.  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 Revolutionary Learn More

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.  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 Er

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.  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. Resources Urban Homesteading Rachel Kaplan - EcoSomatic Action K.Ruby Blume - Rogue Ruby The Institute of Urban Homesteading Daily Acts North Bay Institute of Green Technology Grey Water Action

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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 

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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   Learn More

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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 de

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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. Resources: Dennis vanEnglesdrop, PhD Dennis vanEnglesdorp: A Plea for Bees (TED Talk Video)

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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 to 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   Learn More

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  This episode is a guest interview from my friend Karryn Olson, continuing the conversation series on right livelihoods.

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  This episode is the annual update looking at the year ahead, including some announcements and insights from behind the scenes.

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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.

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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.  

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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.  

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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.  

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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.  

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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.  

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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.  

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.Market Donate to the Podcast via PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Community of Patrons on Patreon  Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  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.