Mobile Design Lab

We’re honored to announce we’ll be hosting Starhawk and team for an Earth Activist Training (EAT) Permaculture Design Certification course- for the first time in the northeast in several years!

At Willow Crossing Farm and Wildlife Refuge

Johnson, VT

September 7 – 21, 2013

with Starhawk, Charles Williams, Keith Morris, Lisa DePiano, Skotty Kellogg, and Special Guests.

Permaculture, earth-based spirituality, organizing and activism… with Starhawk and a team of stellar teachers and designers.

An Earth Activist Training can set your life on a new path…or show you how to save the world. Green solutions are sprouting up all around us, but permaculture shows us how to weave them together into systems that can meet human needs and regenerate the natural world. EAT is practical earth healing with a magical base of ritual and nature awareness, teaching you to integrate mind and heart, with lots of hands-on practice and plenty of time to laugh.

Our two-week intensives are Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) scourses, offering the basic, internationally-recognized 72-hour permaculture curriculum with an additional focus on social permaculture, organizing tools, and spirit.

ABOUT THE SITE:
Willow Crossing Farm is Vermont’s longest established permaculture research and education facility, and the only debt-free ‘financial permaculture’ working farm we’re aware of. Its a family-run homestead; organic fruit, nut, and medicine nursery; wildlife refuge and pollinator sanctuary; natural building and regenerative infrastructure experimentation site; and venue for farm dining, education, and music.
We host one of the most diverse collections of tree crops and other multi-use plants anywhere- providing unique opportunities to practice permaculture directly hands-on, and to immerse yourself in wild ecology. Our location allows us close working relationships with (and to visit) some of the nation’s leading herb farms, organic seed companies, winter vegetable production operations, farm restaurants, and other food-system revolutionaries- as well as immediate adjacency some of the best hiking, boating, biking, and rock-climbing around!

ABOUT THE FOOD!
Head chef Emily Wheeler is a clinical herbalist, Permaculture Design Course graduate, and specialized in creating culinary works of art from seasonal local organic food to deeply nourish us all. As Emily is also a member of the teaching team- the meals, food sourcing, modern nutritional science, food preservation, wild-crafting, and localvore innovations are central to the course experience. We are happy and experienced in meeting the needs of gluten or dairy intolerant, vegetarians and vegans, food allergies, and other special diets.

Many people have expressed interest in the last few open spaces in the course- we will fill them based on first come, first served upon receipt of the deposit.

For details or to register, please visit www.ProspectRock.org, call (802) 734-1129, or email Keith@ProspectRock.org

To register http://permaculturefeast.org/?page_id=34

This weekend permaculture design course moves from principles and patterns to details in a supportive, respectful and collaborative atmosphere to promote rapid learning of whole systems design. The course will center around experiential learning and hands-on skill building, including local field trips where we will see theory in action.

The course will conclude with a design practicum,

students giving their design presentation

where participants will work in small groups to develop a design for the course client.

Topics  include:

• Permaculture principles & ethics 

  

  Forest Garden Bed at the Montview Neighborhood Farm, Northampton MA

• Reading the Landscape & Understanding Natural Cycles
• Urban Homesteading
• Forest Gardening
• Water Harvesting
• Soil Regeneration
• Creative Waste Cycling
• Micro-livestock
• Energy & Building Systems
• Social Justice
• Food Systems Planning
• Cooperative Economics
• Design for Climate Change
• Community Building
• Aquaculture
• Soil Regeneration & Land Restoration
• Design Projects, Methods, & Tolls

Challenged with both environmental and economic crises’, humanity must work to create an ecologically sustainable society.

A great opportunity to build your portfolio and gain skills in permaculture design by touring existing projects and then working as a team to design a permaculture homestead.  This course is open to the public through continuing education and runs Tuesday and Thursday nights 6:30-8:30 July 9th -August 15th with field trips on Saturday July 13th, 17th and August 10th.

For more information and to sign up for the course go to: http://www.umassulearn.net/component/cpeclasses/?view=class&clid=11195&pid=158

This three-credit course includes in-class lectures, field trips, design studio and a hands-on field component, to offer students a deepened practice in permaculture design process and techniques. The course culminates with students completing their own permaculture design for a site in the pioneer valley.  The framework behind the theory and practice of permaculture is rooted in the observation of natural systems. By observing key ecological relationships, we can mimic and apply these beneficial relationships in the design of systems that serve humans while helping to regenerate the natural world. This course trains students as critical thinkers, observers, and analysts of the world(s) around them, and provides tools needed to design for positive change.

Successful completion of this course and PLSOILIN 197G in the fall semester will enable students to be eligible for the internationally recognized permaculture design certificate.

For the syllabus see: http://www.justfoodnow.org/PermSummerClass.pdf

Part of the Certificate in Sustainable Food and Farming at Umass, Amherst

Click here for a full list of permaculture courses offered at Umass 

• Important Dates
• Last Day to:
• Register 7/11, Drop 7/12, Withdraw 7/26

Refund Schedule:
Full refund through 7/12 (registration fee not refundable)
No refund after 7/12

Did you know that the average home in Western MA sheds over 36,000 gallons of water a year? Rainwater harvesting is a simple and empowering way that we can reuse this valuable resource. Come learn how you can harvest rainwater and not only stop it from flooding your basement and overwhelming our sewers but use it on site for rain gardens, ponds and other water features.

Paw Paw’s, Persimmons, Currents, Raspberries, Figs oh my. Learn how to garden like the forest and turn your yard into an edible paradise. In this workshop we will learn about site prep, species selection and planting methods to grow your own backyard food forest. For thousands of year’s people have been using these gardens to provide their own food, forage, fuel, fodder, fertilizer and medicine, you can too.

Permaculture Basics
Permaculture uses ecology a model for designing integrated systems for community resilience. We‘ll cover definitions, history and principles & see examples of permaculture in action. You will walk away inspired with techniques you can try at home.

Permaculture For Professionals
Register by April 15th
Register here: http://www.connsoil.com/

Join permaculture designer, teacher, and professional planner, Lisa DePiano for this unique program. Lisa initiated Feed Northampton, one of the first Food Security Plans in the country and she runs the Mobile Design Lab, which focuses on participatory design and planning.
This training is for professional Planners, Architects, Engineers and Landscape Architects and Designers who want to understand and incorporate the principles and techniques of Permaculture Design into their practice. Permaculture is an interdisciplinary design system that mimics principles of ecology to meet human needs while increasing the health of the ecosystem.

In this training participants will gain knowledge in the following outcomes:
Understand permaculture history, ethics, principles and language

Identify connections between social, cultural, environmental, and political challenges

Recognize and analyze patterns found in society and the natural world

Apply whole systems thinking to problem solving through design

Observe, analyze, and assess a site to determine its resources and constraints

Gain knowledge of a whole systems design process

Learn techniques for clean water, soil, food production, buildings, and economics

FOr Learn how to garden like the forest. In this workshop we will learn about site prep, species selection and planting methods to grow your own backyard food forest. For thousands of years people have been using these gardens to provide their own food, forage, fuel, fodder, fertilizer and medicine, you can too.