Design for Living, Home-Scale Permaculture Course offered at Heathcote Community

Heathcote Community, in Freeland Maryland, is offering a 7-day course in “Permaculture Design” with an additional 2-weekend Design Certificate option. Beginning February 14th, the course meets every other weekend through June 2010.

Ecologists and authors, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, from the University of Tasmania, created the concept of Permaculture to infer permanent culture, and permanent agriculture. The term implies a way a life that insures the survival of all earth’s species and natural resources. Mollison’s theories evolved from childhood observations of traditional stewardship behavior of the neighboring aboriginal community.

Using both ancient and modern knowledge, Permaculture Design mimics universal survival patterns found in nature. As both a theory and practice, it is a system of designing human-initiated ecosystems that relate food production to other human needs (such as shelter, water, and community), bioregional resource flow and conservation. Permaculture is a frame of reference for analyzing specific human habitats and finding sustainable solutions to their inherent problems or needs. A small-scale backyard, or large-scale farm, village or city, can be transformed into a healthy ecological human habitat. Permaculture principles provide basic criteria for ecologically informed decision-making, suggesting limits to land development, and individual independence.

This course will appeal to anyone interested in living a more community-reliant, environmentally responsible life-style. Class time will involve hands-on outdoor demonstrations, lecture and scale drawing (no experience necessary). Students will apply sustainable concepts of biological diversity, water harvesting, food production, renewable energy, natural building, ecological waste management, and wilderness conservation in a design exercise for a familiar property of their own choice.

Heathcote Community, a School of Living land trust, provides a focus for interdisciplinary study and research, illustrating practical applications of sustainable living. To register see http://www.heathcote.org/cms/content/home-scale-permaculture-design-course-2010

For more information call 410-357-9523 or email education@heathcote.org.

Seed Conference - 3rd Annual, Lehigh Valley, PA

On Saturday and Sunday January 23 and 24 from 9am to 5pm ,on both days, the Alliance for Sustainable Communities-Lehigh Valley and the School of Living will be holding its third annual SEED Conference at the Fowler Center--The Northampton Community College South Bethlehem Campus on Third Street. A suggested donation will be on a sliding scale based on your ability to pay. $10-25 for one day and $15-35 for both. The Conference will be co-sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Food Coop and the School of Living. The Lehigh Valley Food Coop will handle lunch and refreshments.[Lunch is not included in the donation] Registrants will get more detailed information on this. Several organizations will have information tables set up for educational purposes. Groups and individuals are welcome to bring old seeds or seeds thay have saved to exchange with other participants.

The Conference was begun in 2008 as a way to address Seed isues in local agriculture and food growing. We addressed food quality[organic vs nonorganic and GMO's], seed saving, seed catalogues, permaculture and general issues of the food supply. It has expanded into a gathering to cover a broad range of local food concerns.

The public can register by calling Steve Hoog at 610-756-6867, or emailing him at steve@sustainlv.org payment can be made at the door----please register by Weds. January 20.

Tentative schedule---subject to change

Saturday Jan.23

9am-Opening remarks--Steve Hoog

Comments on GMO"s, Monsanto, Obama and world agriculture

9:30-DVD-Power of Community----how Cuba respnded to their own peak oil situation when Russia reduced their oil shipments to the island country

10:45- Kelle Kersten-School of Living Board member and founding member of the Ahimsa Village near State College. PA.-----Planting Seeds of Compassion in the Hearts and Minds of Young People

12 Noon--Lunch

1 pm--Bill Mineo--LC'S Farm-near Reiglesville---Seeds for Sustainability--Heirloom seeds from around the world for use in the Lehigh Valley

2 pm-Karen Stupski--School of Living and member of the Heathcote Community in Maryland--Talk on basics of Permaculture,specific real world applications of it and opportunities for learning

3:30--Video--The Synergistic Garden--Based on the work of Masanobu Fukuoka, French Emelia Hazelip details her method of organic no-till gardening without fertilizers.

Another video will follow to be selected.

5pm--End of Saturday session

Sunday-January 24

9am--Opening remarks

9:30--Video or DVD---Urban Permaculture---followed by discussion and getting to know each other

10:45--School of Living Representative----Talk on Community Land Trusts

12 Noon- Lunch

1pm-Lou Cinquino--spokesman for the group Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley--Talk on Community Gardens--this group dedicated to helping local residents establish Community Gardens in their neighborhoods

2pm-Eve Minson-owner of new business called Just One Seed---Local Food Systems---There is a growing interest and demand for developing local food systems beyond the CSA model creating a need for local farm and garden educational programs for kids thru adults-she will review farm based educational programs in the NorthEast.

3:15--Video or DVD to be announced----followed by discussion and looking to the future

5pm -end of Sunday session

Stephen Hoog--Alliance for Sustainable Communities

Member of LV Food Coop

Board of School of Living

610-756-6867

Ancestral Tree

The Norway spruce in the picture on this Blog was planted by my ancestors who purchased the land it sits on in 1833. Under it sits the "smokehouse/kitchen" that served the nearby farmhouse. This farm supplied settlers moving West down the Ohio River after the American Revolution. On this site I hope to found a "school of living" to be held in a community land trust dedicated to living sustainably on this and all of the Land that is our Earthright.

Community is about sharing all that we have, all that we make and all that is given to us for our caring. I have just come from a "retreat" where I found that community and profoundly felt what it means to become part of such a community. I am truly blessed.

Pictures from Retreat

School of Living Retreat July 09 Best Large Size

View over 100 pictures from the School of Living Retreat held on July 10-12, 2009 at Julian Woods Community, Julian, PA at http://picasaweb.google.com/schoolofliving

School of Living Retreat - Reaching In, Reaching Out

From the Ahimsa Village Blog: We just finished the School of Living (SOL) Strategic Planning Retreat – Reaching In, Reaching Out - held at Julian Woods Community on July 10-12, 2009. It was a unique event in the history of the SOL. The SOL was founded in1934 by Dr. Ralph Borsodi in Suffren, NY to teach people how to live the "good life" in trying times. His vision was carried on and expanded by Mildred Loomis at Lane's End Farm inOhio and later Heathcote Center in Maryland . The SOL was the leading organization for the "green revolution" and inspired such people as J.I. Rodale, Adele Davis, Paul Keane, the Nearing and many, many others. It pioneered many movements including organic agriculture, permaculture, alternative currency, alternative education, intentional community, “back to the land,” community land trust, etc.The recent history of the organization has focused on maintaining 6 community land trust communities and less so on “green education” (although each community is engaged in educational activities). What made this retreat so unique is that it is the first time in memory that the SOL has held a retreat with the specific purpose of reevaluating its mission, vision, and goals. The event marked a unique opportunity in the organization’s 75 year history to determine its future direction.

The retreat used the Future Search method of strategic planning and was skillfully facilitated by Grace Potts and Alice Leibowitz of Insight Unlimited, a nonprofit that helps organizations “be the best they can be.” Over 50 people attended the 3 day event that featured looking at the past, present, and future. We are living in extraordinary times and are on the cusp of a major paradigm shift culturally, physically, spiritually, and materially. We feel the SOL can play a critical role in this transition as it did in the past. Our thinking is that at this moment in human history that the time is right for the SOL to reinvent itself in the spirit of Borsodi and Loomis but with a focus on our times and world situation. A new SOL will seek to teach people not only practical living skills but also social, cultural, spiritual, and communication skills that are as important as practical skills for living in the new paradigm. We hope to have a report from the retreat soon. We will post a summary here.