The Permaculture Podcast

My guest today is Lindsey Bender, the chief mycologist for Field and Forest Products, Inc., a mushroom spawn and supply company located in Wisconsin.Find out more about Lindsey and Field and Forest Products, Inc. at fieldforest.net.

Rob Avis, of Verge Permaculture, joins me to talk about rainwater harvesting. This conversation is based on his book from New Society Publishers, Essential Rainwater Harvesting. Rob wrote this book along with his wife and Verge Permaculture Partner, Michelle. Though they began their professional careers as engineers designing solutions in the oil fields, they now live on a productive permaculture homestead in Alberta, Canada, and use that experience to create and share all the formulas, calculations, and components needed to create a productive system for capturing clean, healthy water. You can find more about Rob's work at VergePermaculture.ca, and his book, Essential Rainwater Harvesting at NewSociety.com.Resources Rainwater Harvesting Toolkit Peter Coombes - Urban Water Cycle Solutions Dr. Anthony Spinks PhD Thesis on Biofilms and Sludges American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA) North American Rainwater Harvesting Code

This episode is a look at the large-scale operations at D.C. Water to turn municipal waste into fertilizer and energy at the Blue Plains Waste W10ater Treatment Plant and looks at ways we can take the principles of permaculture and move them from the home to the community scale. The audio of the interview comes from a video which you'll find on the podcast's YouTube Channel at: YouTube.com/thepermaculturepodcast You can view the video directly by visiting: bit.ly/bloomsoil

In this episode Co-host David Bilbrey continues to explore the edge between permaculture, business, and social change by sitting down with Dr. Otto Scharmer. Together they talk about Dr. Scharmer’s work on Presencing and Theory U, the development of effective organizations, and how each of us can become more powerful changemakers. ResourcesOtto Scharmer Presencing Institute Theory U Books MITx u.Lab Peter Senge The Limits to Growth (Wikipedia) Club of Rome EdX Transforming Capitalism Lab

In her storytelling way, Rosemary Morrow joins me to share why, after all these years, she continues to practice permaculture and finds this design system so important to our present and the future. Her newest book is Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture, which you can find in the store at PermaculturePrinciples.com. Listen to the first conversation with Rosemary: Rosemary Morrow's Journey to Permaculture Visit Our PartnersWild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You!Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastJoin Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show. 

My guest for this episode is Brad Lancaster author of the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond series. In this episode, Brad and I discuss the value of infiltrating water into the soil so that it becomes a resource that we invest during water-rich times and withdraw from that bank only when needed during dry times. As Brad’s work includes more than just drylands the conversation also includes ideas for storing water in rich areas. Along the way we also look at several listener questions including fog harvesting, using living systems to hand wet basements, and observing to find the right match for plants suitable to wet clay soils. What I really enjoyed about this conversation was Brad’s continued reference to creating and using living systems. Visit Our PartnersWild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You!Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastJoin Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show.  Other resources of interestBrad's blog post on Fog Harvesting David Eisenberg and the Development Center for Appropriate Technology Zephaniah Phiri Maseko's biography at National Geographic.

Looby Macnamara, with Delvin Solkinson, joins me to discuss Looby's work on Cultural Emergence, her vision for our work as permaculture practitioners, and the tools she's developing to help facilitate this transition.Find out more about Looby and the Cultural Emergence deck at Cultural-Emergence.com. Delvin is at VisionaryPermaculture.com. Cultural Emergence Kickstarter Visit Our PartnersWild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You!Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastJoin Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show. 

How do we limit the damage of the greatest terrestrial environmental disaster ever, climate change? By drawing down carbon. How we do that, and the most effective ways possible, form the base of this conversation with Eric Toensmeier, as he shares his ongoing research about the impacts of agriculture and how we can use agroforestry to increase productivity and sequester carbon.Find out more about Eric at perennialsolutions.org, and The Carbon Farming Solution at ChelseaGreen.com. Visit Our PartnersWild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You!Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastJoin Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show.  ResourcesThe Carbon Farming Solution Project DrawdownPerennial SolutionsThe Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri Agroforestry at Virginia TechIPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Trees on Farms by RJ Zomer, et al. (PDF)Savanna InstituteSteve Solomon - Gardening When It CountsJohn Jeavons - Grow BiointensiveLegal Pathways to Carbon_Neutral Agriculture by Peter Lehner and Nathan Rosenberg (PDF)Diet for a Small Planet Related Interviews Dr. Laura Jackson - Modern Agricultural Systems Keefe Keeley - The Savanna Institute Jean-Martin Fortier - The Market Gardener Dave and Lee O'Neill - Radical Roots Farm Jerome Osentowski - The Forest Garden Greenhouse

My guest today is the adventurer, activist, and humanitarian Rob Greenfield. Rob joins me to talk about the Food Freedom project he launched in Orlando, Florida, where he is growing and foraging for all of his nutritional needs.Find out more about Rob, his work and other projects, including those mentioned during his introduction, at RobGreenfield.TV.  Visit Our PartnersWild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You!Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastJoin Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show.  ResourcesNational Farmers Market Directory (USA)Trash MeGreen RidersFree RideOrlando Permaculture Meetup GroupShad Qudsi - Atitlan Organics  

My guest today is Akiva Silver of Twisted Tree Farm in Spencer, New York. He joins me to talk about his life and the experiences that lead to his book Trees of Power from Chelsea Green Publishing. You can find Akiva, his farm, and work at twisted-tree.net and you can find his book, Trees of Power, at chelseagreen.com.Visit Our PartnersWild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You!Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastJoin Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  Resources Twisted Tree Farm Trees of Power (Chelsea Green) Tom Brown Jr. Tracking School The Graves Tree - Arthur Graves Chestnuts Empire Chestnut Company (Route 9 Cooperative) Related Interview: Foraging with Sam Thayer

In this guest episode, the final in this series, naturalist and writer Shane Sater, shares his insights and thoughts on kochia as it relates to sparrows; a reflection on how an introduced plant species create novel ecosystems and adaptations. And that was Shane Sater. You can read more of his nature writing and view the photographs from his journey in the natural world at WhatsGoingOnBlog.org.

In this episode, Chris Knapp, one of the founders of Maine Local Living School in Temple, Maine, returns to talk about their immersive educational experience, The Understory. During our conversation, Chris shares how this program came to be, his influences, and the knowledge, skills, and encounters he and his fellow instructors seek to impart to students during the multi-week, onsite program. If you are interested in permaculture and what permaculture education can look like beyond the Permaculture Design Course, or you are an instructor looking to build upon your existing curriculum and offerings, this is an interview to dive into.Find out more about Chris, the school, and The Understory at MaineLocalLiving.org.

Visit Our Partners: Wild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You!Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcastJoin Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture?  Browse the extensive archives of the show.  My guest today is Chris Knapp, an instructor and one of the founders of Maine Local Living School, a homestead and education center in Temple, Maine.   Resources Learn More

This is the second in a series of three guest episodes from Shane Sater. A naturalist and writer based in Montana, USA, Shane shares his deep passion for nature and community through writing and recordings like this one, bringing together his education in environmental science, botany, and field biology with his experiential work in community, integrating the wonder embodied relationship with nature to the human experience. In addition to this work and with a love for all creatures, Shane feels a special affinity for silk moths, stinging nettles, cottonwoods, and meadowlarks. Read more of Shane's nature writing and view the photographs from his journey in the natural world at WhatsGoingOnBlog.org.

My guest for this episode is Sam Thayer, the expert forager and author.You can find Sam's personal experience working with wild foods in his books, The Forager's Harvest and Nature's Garden. Resources Sam Thayer The Forager's Harvest Nature's Garden Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate