We are just tightening up our Permie Primer Weekend in Roberts Creek! Take a peek, choose one or choose them all! Registration is now open … email info@ediblelandscapes.ca or call Robin at (604) 885-4505

We often end up stewarding land with fewer basic skills than we thought. This weekend was designed to cover some first steps in land analysis, plant propagation, plant maintenance, simple framing, making the most of a chicken and more! Stay tuned for more of these summer and fall courses!

Friday July 9 Chickens can be vital to the sustainable farm as they quickly return our kitchen waste back into food, and their manure is a rich source of nitrogen for our sandy soil. We will learn chicken care later this summer, and for now, will learn gentle dispatch of these valuable creatures, and then how to maximize every bit

4:30 – 5:30 Gentle Butchering (instructor TBA)
Sometimes we have to put a chicken out of its misery after a dog attack, or we may be culling an assertive rooster. Knowing how to do the deed with the least distress to the animal is crucial. And there is now an opportunity to analyse the organs to assess flock health, or to prepare the animal for the table. ($20)

Introducing - Chicken from Beak to Cheek with Ian Lai
We will huddle around the picnic table for outdoor cooking of the following:

5:30 onwards Part one - From block to board.
Learn how to butcher the chicken professionally with the greatest of ease. Utilize the right parts of the chicken for the right dish by understanding moist and dry heat cooking methods. Techniques such as marinates, salt cure and dry rubs will help you enhance flavour and tenderness.

Part two – Liquids and solids.
It all starts with the stock – learn to make a flavourful stock that can be utilized as a broth , turned into a stew and converted into a pot pie. Use constituent parts to smoke, grill and fry to incorporate into light summer fare. ($32 includes dinner) (BYOB)

Ian Lai is a consultant and Chef Instructor at the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver. He is the Founder and Project Coordinator of the Terra Nova Schoolyard Society. The Terra Nova Schoolyard Society is a non-profit urban agriculture project for elementary school children located in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Ian has been in the hospitality industry since 1979 and has worked for the Four Seasons Hotel, the Sheraton Hotel, Cara Flight Kitchen and he was the Resident Chef for the Consulate General of the United States of America. Ian is the Principal of Urban Agriculture Consulting. He lives in Richmond with his wife and daughter.
604-767-9264
ianlai@telus.net

Saturday July 10 –

10:00 – 11:30) Basic Permie Plant Care with Robin Wheeler – What if we decide to follow the no prune/no spray method of plant care? What to do with those raspberries, rhubarb, fruit trees and other traditional plants to keep them in good year round condition? We will look at that as well as Permie plants like mashua, cinnamon yam and discuss overwintering needs. ($25)

11:30 – lunch – your brown bag or order $5 snack lunch.

12:15 - 3 or so Beginner Framing with Tim Forester
Many of us begin to build a coldframe, plantstand or chicken run without any idea of framing the structure for strength and weightbearing. It’s good to have some basics and Tim will guide us through ground prep and design and get us going on a vine arbour. ($30)

3:30 – 4:30 Understanding Your Land - for the new small scale food producer with Robin Wheeler

Growers face many challenges, and having a firm understanding of their own strength and weaknesses, and of the assets and drawbacks to their land will help direct them to use energy efficiently. Participants will be led through a series of lists that will help them use space and time better and to direct resources where needed. Also excellent for any new landowner or wannabe. $20

4:45 – 5:45 – Understanding your Woodshed/Woodstove with Robin Wheeler
Siting of a wood shed can make a huge difference in pollution at burning time. We will talk about the ideal shed, and then go inside to look at the physiology of the wood stove and how to use it to best reduce smoke pollution. Also good for beginner woodstove users ($12 – priced low to encourage people to use carbon reducing skills)

Sunday July 11
10:00 – 11:30 Intro to Plant Propagation with Robin Wheeler
We want our land covered in a diversity of healthy plants and few of us can afford the nurseries. Robin will guide us through sourcing, seed growing, divisions and cuttings and participants will go home with a few babies. ($25)

11:45 – 12:30 Creating an Irrigation System (instructor TBA)

Using water properly is vital in terms of plant care and farm efficiency. A good irrigation system can be a boon to a grower. This class is geared towards the greenhorn who would like to learn the names of all the components, how they fit together, and why they should be selected. We will do a quick irrigation modification to end the class ($25)

1 pm – lunch – your brown bag or $5 snack lunch

2 pm onwards TBA

posted by Robin Wheeler

Hi, all -

Still a few spaces left in the Wild Weekend May 8 and 9th at Roberts Creek…register soon! Meanwhile, back at the ranch …I’m looking forward to our next weekend of workshops coming on May 14 & 15. Take one workshop or take them all. Looking forward to hearing from you, Robin

May 14/15/16 Roberts Creek - Bush Farming

New farmers are still seeking bushland to cultivate, without having any real experience in clearing land or making design decisions. This weekend offers basic skills often overlooked but necessary. Take the time to learn some unspoken laws, have some fun with rocket stoves, network with others, meet mentors and to Unhook with Peter Light.

Friday, May 14

6:30 – 8:30 pm- Creating Dimension lumber with the Mini Mill with Rob Corlett

It is hugely satisfying to create a stack of lumber from logs on your own property. Rob will show you finished products from his mill, and how to analyse a log for best use. He will guide you through safe use of the mill, proper stacking techniques and maintenance of the mill and chain saw. $25

Saturday, May 15

9:30 – 11:00 Woodlot Selection with Rob Corlett

Someday we will have to make decisions on how to “manage” a small woodlot for maximum yield. Rob will talk to us about light, spacing, disease, preservation of wildlife trees, watching property margins, and how to fall small trees so that we end up with the best spacing for firewood. $25

11:15 – 12:30 Post Setting with Rolef Ohlroggen

Whether keeping food competitors out or keeping animals in, we need fences. Many skills get learned the hard way. Most of us will inherit old fences or want to set new ones, and the proper setting of a post is an important art in the skill set of bush living. Rolef will show us how to interpret failure of old posts, how to choose new ones for the job, how to set in soil, how to save an old post using metal spikes. $25.

1:30 - 3:00 - A Farm is Born with Robin Wheeler

From logged forest to planet-friendly multiuse property, Robin will describe the steps she took to map the big picture - decide on a well type, position sheds, create fencing, bring in “recycled” housing and begin the gardens – all part time and on a shoe-string. $25

3:30 – 5:30 - TBA

6:00 pm - Shared dinner – contribute, or help clean up.

Sunday, May 16

9:30 – 11:00 Creating a Bush Market Farm with Alain Bergeron Off site – directions provided on registration.

Alain bought cleared land in the forest and spent months gathering seaweed, coffee grounds and leaves to improve the soil. He dug an irrigation pond, rigged up a propane shower and raised his family in a bus while building up his market farm that now produces hundreds of pounds of food a year. $25

11:30 am to 1 pm Rocket Stove Workshop ~ build your own camp stove! With Nadi Fleschhut

Understanding the basics of fuel-efficient, low-emission stove design. In this workshop we will explore the basic concepts of fuel-efficient stove design by building a zero-cost wood burning portable camping stove made from recycled cans. We will study the “rocket elbow” design of Dr. Larry Winiarski, and learn about the main principles that all rocket stoves employ to create the best circumstances for a high-efficiency wood burn that minimizes pollution and increases heat transfer. I’ll also introduce the concept of the “hay-box” as a complementary tool to minimize energy use by allowing the food to ‘cook itself’. You will go home from this workshop with your own little camp stove with which to impress your friends, and a good introduction to the concepts of fuel-efficiency. Please bring work gloves (as we’ll be working with snips and tin cans), tin snips if you have them, a notebook, and your joy of learning.

1:30 to 3:30: How to Unhook with Peter Light (off site – 2692 Highway 101)

How to stop doing what you don’t want to be doing and start doing what you do what to be doing. A discussion group tailored to the needs of each participant exploring what it means to disengage from the dominate paradigm traps of the mother culture by turning on, tuning in, and dropping out. Based on the life experience of the instructor and feed-back from course members. Oriented around permaculture.

Sunday afternoon: 4:00 - 6:00: A tour of the instructors developing permaculture, showing, step by step how he is reclaiming two and a half acres of blackberry with no machinery and no digging; developing and executing a permaculture design; and planting and tending it, all with a minimum of labour and a maximum of enjoyment. But one does have to work! We’re not kidding around here! And as spring rockets into growth, ten and twelve hour days were the rewarding price of self-sufficiency and freedom, month after month.  It is how one lives a day if one is a permaculture homesteader. Now, at 67, the instructor is trying to get it down to 2-8 hours a day. Sliding scale - $30 - $45.

A prerequisite for each course it to read the segment of the instructor’s autobiographical sketch to be found at http://slas.ca/peter-light/

6:30 to 7:00 - Cook-out around the doorstep firecircle

7:30 onward - firecircle hang-out.
Soup, beer and wine provided by the instructor.

Register with Robin: info@ediblelandscapes.ca or call 604-885-4505

2010 Sustainable Living Arts School
Permaculture Design Certification
and Food Cycles Program

Join Delvin Solkinson and Robin Wheeler for a dynamic year round adventure in education. We offer a full Permaculture Design Certificate with a complete Food Cycles Program to create an integrated system of both design concepts and functional living skills.

Permaculture is a holistic approach to conscious living. It promotes an awareness of the world with a focus on sustainability, low impact living and healthy community development.

The Food Cycles course promotes seasonal awareness with practical activities to do at every time of year.

Learn the role of native plants, tips for organic gardening, growth cycles, propagation, seed saving, harvesting, food preservation, water wisdom, medicine making, integrated composting and so much more as part of practical and relevant Timely Actions in the Garden. Other course topics include design methods, patterns in nature, climatic factors, water, soils, earthworks, design strategies for urban and rural applications, practical living for all climates on the planet, trees, aquaculture, waste management, sustainable architecture, ethical business practices and economics, bio-regional organization, and effective aid.

From dormant earth to finished season, the Food Cycles program will occur in conjunction with the Permaculture Design classes to round out and ground in the new permaculture practitioner’s certificate.

13 spaces only
register now to hold your space

Class will begin March, on every other Monday and last for 15 months.
Location: Edible Landscapes, Robert’s Creek BC

Contact
Robin Wheeler : info@ediblelandscapes.ca (604) 885-4505
or Delvin Solkinson : delvin@illuminated.com
for more details

A weekend long introduction to permaculture course is happening at the Heart Gardens, a branch campus of the Sustainable Living Arts School, in historic ‘downtown’ Roberts Creek this weekend . The course is offered through Capilano University. Join Delvin in a unique learning experience about permaculture in the Elphinstone rainforest.

Permaculture Design is a holistic approach to sustainable community development. This course is a basic introduction to permaculture principles and concepts. Organic gardening with native plants will be discussed, and there will be tours of the Heart Gardens and Gumboot Gardens in Roberts Creek. There will also be a discussion about composting and a hands-on workshop about making your own organic solid and liquid fertilizers with an easy to create and maintain worm farm.

Where? The class meets at the “Elfinhome”, at the back of the Gumboot Café in the Heart of Roberts Creek.

When?
Sat Sept 19 and Sun Sept 20

Noon - 5 pm

Register? via Capilano University

$69

http://www.capilanou.ca/ce/sunshine-coast/gen-interest.html
604.885.9350
conted@capilanou.ca

More info? Email Delvin at delvin@illuminated.com

Stay tuned for an upcoming learning party with Rin of the Farmhouse. In the meantime, check out this fabulous sounding workshop she’s offering around Vancouver over the next few weeks…

Do you want to grow more of your own food, but don’t know where to begin?  Think you don’t have enough space?  Are you interested in learning more about Permaculture and organic gardening?

If you have a 10 X 10 foot space and want to learn how to turn it into a full year of fresh, nutritious, yummy food without chemicals or hours and hours of work, this workshop is for you.

This one-day workshop with Rin from the Farmhouse Farm — an urban farm right here in Vancouver — will show you how to start from scratch and build a garden that will produce food all year long in just a hundred square feet!  Vegetables, herbs, and greens are all a part of the comprehensive garden plan that you’ll learn to build and maintain.  Perfect for those with small yards or working in allotment plots, this easy-to-follow plan incorporates Permaculture principles into a garden design you can follow to the letter or change and evolve to fit your space and goals.  We’ll spend the day going over the plan and then getting down and dirty and building the garden from scratch at the host site.  You’ll leave with a copy of the full garden design including crop rotations, maintenance routine, and all the information you’ll need to get started.

There are three chances to check it out:

Kitsilano:  Saturday May 16th,  12.00 - 6.00   13th and MacDonald.
Main Street:  Sunday May 17th, 12.00 - 6.00  Ontario & 24th.
New Westminister:  Saturday May 23rd, 12.00 - 6.00  Edinburgh & 16th.

The workshop is offered on a Pay-What-You-Feel basis, with a suggested donation of $60 to $100.

For more information or to register, contact farmhousefarm(at)gmail(dot)com or go to farmhousefarm.wordpress.com

–
www.farmhousefarm.wordpress.com

If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a seed,
If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree.
If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people.
- Kuan Tzu

Gaiacraft : Temple Permaculture

Permaculture Design Certification Course

Permaculture is a whole systems approach to conscious living. It promotes an awareness of the world in a new light with a focus on sustainability, low impact living, organic gardening and healthy community development. Using a series of principles, techniques and technologies, permaculture empowers people with the skills to evolve their relationship to themselves, each other, the land upon which they live and the planet.

Bill Mollison, the founder of permaculture, defines the world as such:

Permaculture (”Perm”anent “agri”culture and “Perma”nent “culture”) is a sustainable design system stressing the harmonious interrelationship of humans, plants, animals and the Earth.

Permaculture principles focus on thoughtful designs for small-scale intensive systems which are labor efficient and which use biological resources instead of fossil fuels. Designs stress ecological connections and closed energy and material loops. The core of permaculture is design and the working relationships and connections between all things. Each component in a system performs multiple functions, and each function is supported by many elements. Key to efficient design is observation and replication of natural ecosystems, where designers maximize diversity with polycultures, stress efficient energy planning for houses and settlement, using and accelerating natural plant succession, and increasing the highly productive “edge-zones” within the system.

Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted & thoughtless labour; & of looking at plants & animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system.

Join us for an adventure in learning. With the 72 + hour core curriculum we will learn together how to map and design our land and our lives, to plan for emergency, grow food organically and work together to build a more sustainable future. With the certification you will be empowered to use the word permaculture in your business and consider yourself a permaculture designer able to hire yourself out for permaculture consultations and teach permaculture workshops with confidence. Not only is this a course about learning how to practice permaculture, it is also about how to teach permaculture.

Course Topics include:

* design methods * understanding patterns in nature * climatic factors * water * soils * earthworks and their use in earth repair * techniques and design strategies for both urban and rural applications * the temperate climates * dry lands * cold climates * humid cool climates * humid tropics * trees and their energy transactions * aquaculture * waste management * energy efficient architecture * legal strategies and trusts * effective working groups * right livelihood * money and finance * ethical investment * bio-regional organisation * effective aid and much much more

The details:

• There are 13 classes, one a moon for a full year. All classes are required for completion of the course.
• Normally these courses cost $800 - $2000 but here in Roberts Creek at this time the course costs only $20 - $40 per class depending upon class size. The maximum class size is 8 to ensure an intimate learning environment. We will move around to different locations for each class, students have the option to host a class on their land if they wish.

Register now to hold your space with

Delvin Solkinson delvin@crystalandspore.com

www.heartgardens.com

www.gaiacraft.com

The essence of Fukuoka’s method is to reproduce natural conditions as closely as possible. There is no plowing, as the seed germinates quite happily on the surface if the right conditions are provided. There is also considerable emphasis on maintaining diversity. A ground cover of white clover grows under the grain plants to provide nitrogen. Weeds (and Daikons) are also considered part of the ecosystem, periodically cut and allowed to lie on the surface so the nutrients they contain are returned to the soil. Ducks are let into the grain plot, and specific insectivorous carp into the rice paddy at certain times of the year to eat slugs and other pests.The ground is always covered. As well as the clover and weeds, there is the straw from the previous crop, which is used as mulch, and each grain crop is sown before the previous one is harvested. This is done by broadcasting the seed among the standing crop…

Fukuoka’s method and philosophy is about small scale farming, yet he claims “With this kind of farming, which uses no machines, no prepared fertilizer and no chemicals, it is possible to attain a harvest equal to or greater than that of the average Japanese farm.” (The One-Straw Revolution) Masanobu Fukuoka

Chances are if you’ve been periodically tuning into the campaign to Save the UBC Farm your impression is that the university is acting reasonably and things are on their way to being resolved. The farm has gotten good press. UBC heavyweights have been quoted making positive noises. It is therefore, a distressing experience to give a close reading to the latest vision and options document put forward by the good folks from the office at  Campus and Community Planning (Look for the jauntily titled “Phase 4 Consultation Discussion Guide.”)

For those of you keeping score we are now at phase 4 of a 6  phase process underway at UBC comprised of  many feedback documents, workshops, open houses, presentations to the Board of Governor’s and doubtless 1000’s of meetings. The Board will vote on the final plan sometime in 2009.

Which I guess means we are 2/3 of the way to a plan being adopted to direct the next phase of development of the campus of our public university (barring total global economic collapse or something crazy like that).  But wait — how can that be? Not one of the 3 options put forward in this latest opus include the current 24 hectare farm in its current location.

That’s right: not one option actually “saves the farm”. That option has been eliminated.

So what message did the folks at Campus and Community Planning take from all the thousands of hours of volunteer time dedicated to saving the farm by folks in the community and at UBC, all the public education at events, the thousands of signatures on petitions, the press, the letters and yes, the meetings, dedicated to saving the farm?

Maybe an 8 hectare farm, not necessarily in its current location.  I suppose the idea here is that the fields (the productive part of the farm, one presumes) can be packed up on a truck and dropped in a new spot, minus unfortunately the forest, the hedgerows and the gathering and teaching places, indoor and outdoor, for humans.

I am experiencing cognitive dissonance. And so back to Fukuoka: what I think we meant was SAVE THE FARM! The whole shebang — the system, including the current land-base, wildlife, researchers, the most excellent staff, volunteers, interns and community folk alongside the birds, insects and weeds and the complex connections. Except we want the farm to be truly supported, with all the energy, your ideas, and your funds. That’s what we meant.

This is critical because the research and academic work that is done at the farm happens in a context. A context that includes the study of soil micro-organisms and the laughter of kids in the children’s garden. Researchers at the farm interact with aboriginal elders, folks from the Mayan community, farm apprentices, farmer’s market devotees.

This gives me great hope. It’s research in a context of inter-connected systems, of habitat, of community. It’s permaculture in action.

Paving over this paradise for condos is just so deeply boring. We’ve tried that — paved over and over. Let’s, as a community, let our public university know we’d like to try a different experiment: one where we nurture the complex patterns of interaction, and all the beings, who are part of our last farm in Vancouver, to see what we can learn for the future.

Be creative in expressing your understanding, hopes and expectations! You can of course sign the petition, write a letter to Stephen Toope (presidents.office@ubc.ca) or the Board of Governors, you can learn more about what needs to be done via the Save the UBC Farm listserv:  friendsoftheubcfarm@gmail.com, blog and weekly meeting (check in via the listserv).

Do check Rocks and Water for UBC Farm stories. They write and photograph with energy and zest.

One more quote for the road, from Fukuoka again:

..if modern agriculture continues to follow the path it’s on now, it’s finished. The food-growing situation may seem to be in good shape today, but that’s just an illusion based on the current availability of petroleum fuels. All the wheat, corn, and other crops that are produced on big American farms may be alive and growing, but they’re not products of real nature or real agriculture. They’re manufactured rather than grown. The earth isn’t producing those things… petroleum is!
Masanobu Fukuoka, Mother Earth News interview, 1982^[1]

Saturday, November 15, 2008 10am to 4pm

Location: Langara College, room to be announced. 100 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver, BC. Directions

Cost: $85 includes a delicious lunch with local and seasonal goodies

Register: In person or by phone 604-323-5322 with Langara College Continuing Studies. Course code: 70709

Please bring a simple map of the space you’re working with: your home garden or community garden.

Learn more about the practical applications of Permaculture – a design system based on mimicking natural ecosystems. Permaculture offers much for the busy urban gardener who wants to sustainably grow more food in a small space with minimal maintenance time. Students will design their own perennial food systems based on a simple site plan they bring to class.

Schedule for the day:

10-11:30: Introduction to Permaculture – Exploring the (hard to define) concept, its history and ethics.
11:30-12:30 Lunch provided- local, seasonal and delicious!
12:30-2:00 Defining permaculture design principles and discussing examples of their application in day-to-day life.
2-2:15 Break
2:15-3:45: Learn the basics of site assessment and apply them to your own space. Bring a basic site plan of the space you are working that includes a rough sketch of your space, including any permanent structures, cardinal directons and rough dimensions or we can provide one for you.
3:45: Wrap-up including final questions.

Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to:
* define permaculture and briefly discuss its history and ethics
* articulate permaculture design principles and the basics of site design
* design a low maintenance perennial food system for their own space

Teachers:
Heather Johnstone is the coordinator of the Edible Garden Project on Vancouver’s North Shore (www.ediblegardenproject.com). She has spent years learning with organic farmers on the west coast, and now teaches urban home gardeners to help them grow food. She teaches workshops ranging from Permaculture to cooking to seed saving.

Sheryl Webster is a landscape designer and permaculture teacher who has worked and studied in both Vancouver and San Francisco. She has worked in both the public and private sector as a project manager for various sustainability initiatives focusing on native and edible plants. Her design experience ranges in scale from garden beds to habitat corridors.

This 10 hour class will take place:
Saturday November 1st  12 noon - 5 pm
Sunday November 2nd  10 am - 3 pm

It will be rain or shine, taking place both inside and outside.
Taking place at the Sustainable Living Arts School in Robert’s Creek on the Sunshine Coast: the Heart Gardens.

The cost is $20 per person. Limited to 13 people .
Register and pay in advance to secure your space.

Design is Destiny.

As the seams of the corporate-military world begin to unravel, local organic food production, conscious relating and low impact living become increasingly important. Enhanced by technological toolsets, there is a
vitalfocus on sustainable community development on a bioregional and planetary level.

Permaculture is an emerging approach to designing relationships and landscapes based on the history of agriculture and social organization with its roots in the tribal wisdoms of our deeper past.

This autumn a small group will gather in the fabled elphinstone rainforest for a 10 hr course in permaculture. We will explore introductory level practical permaculture including organic gardening with native plants, sacred food plants of the Coastal First Peoples and dynamic composting strategies. In addition we will focus on permaculture principles, design concepts and mapping strategies. There will be an
exploration of advanced level permaculture including discussion about permaculture education and media in the context of local and global strategies launched from the Heart Gardens.

In effect this will be both a class in learning about permaculture and learning how to teach permaculture, covering a range of interest from introductory to advanced.