Permaculture Workshop

Heritage Wheat Harvest at Crabapple Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Where are the queers) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:29:00 +0000

Sash Bruce/ Beet Street Cabana Design Concepts

noreply@blogger.com (Where are the queers) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:46:00 +0000

Here is some images on a project I am consulting on with lead designer/ builder Jesse Cooper. The Cabana shed is a mixed use storage and community "hub" facility located in Washington D.C. Here is what they say on their website: Beet Street Gardens is a nonprofit that builds gardens on the grounds of social service organizations that work with disadvantaged adults, teens and families. They aim to create a space where economic and social divisions do not dictate who has access to nutritious food, outdoor spaces and the enjoyment of gardening.

Beet Street Gardens partners with Sasha Bruce Youthwork to give youth the chance to experience working with the land to yield produce and to build the skills necessary for growing one’s own food. The garden is located at Bruce House and continues to thrive due to the efforts of the Beet Street Gardens team and SBY youth.

Holy Crap

noreply@blogger.com (Where are the queers) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:55:00 +0000

Holy Crap! from Xuan Vu on Vimeo.

Holy Crap! is a film which marvels at the work of SOIL, a non-profit organization working in Haiti to convert human waste into rich, viable fertilizer using dry, composting toilets. www.oursoil.org www.holycrapthefilm.com

Katherine Mallory: Origins of Private Property

noreply@blogger.com (Where are the queers) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:53:00 +0000

With a goal of integrating social and economic justice work with the Permaculture community here is a recent lecture from my UMass Summer PDC course with Katherine Mallory from the Social Thought and Political Economy Department. It is a prelude to our class's design project that is working to integrate private, and shared joined back yards. More Soon!

Planting Brown Rice at Whole Systems Design Research Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Where are the queers) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:26:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Sun, 15 May 2011 22:35:00 +0000

L/A/N/D "Raising"

Montview Neighborhood Farm, 38 Henry St, Northampton, MA 01060
May 28th all day starting at 9am
Please RSVP and Walk or Bike to the farm if you are physically able

RSVP to montview@pedalpeople.com
www.montviewfarm.org

Artists in Context is working in collaboration with C3 (a creative community collective) and Montview Neighborhood Farm to present L/A/N/D, a series of participatory events and projects centered around creative place-making, food-growing, and story-telling. L/A/N/D takes place at Montview Neighborhood Farm, a human-powered farm, forest garden, and learning site situated on three acres of conservation land at the corner of Monview Ave and Henry St near downtown Northampton.

"Raising" is planned as an interactive building event during which participants construct the temporary structure that will serve as the locus of L/A/N/D programming at the farm. The outdoor classroom, part arbor, part gazebo, will be built largely from salvaged materials and feature on-site construction of a reciprocal roof.

Help C3 and Montview Neighborhood Farm raise the roof and see what else is happening at the farm on "Raising" day.

About the structure:

Permaculture looks to ecology for principles, patterns and examples to help design for healthy, resilient and beautiful human systems. We have named the structure we are creating a "gaz-arbor," part Gazebo, part Arbor. The gaz-arbor takes its inspiration from the pattern of the honey comb. Bees are able to calculate, design, and construct a hexagon structure that provides the most living and storage space for their larvae, honey and pollen utilizing the least resources and energy.

Like the honey comb the gaz-arbor is a public gathering space that feeds the neighborhood and greater community with ideas and inspiration to pollinate a cultural transformation within the landscape from that of scarcity, pollution, and oppression to abundance, health and solidarity.

The gaz-arbor is built with black locust posts (Robinia pseudoacacia) an incredibly rot resistant wood often referred to as natures answer to pressure treated wood. Considered a waste wood by many, the tree is in the Fabaceae (Pea) family and hosts a bacteria on its roots that takes atmospheric nitrogen and transforms it into a form of nitrogen that plants can uptake. Nitrogen (N) is one of the three basic nutrients that all plants need to thrive.

The gaz-arbor roof is reciprocal, also known as a Mandala roof, and has been used since the twelfth century in Chinese and Japanese architecture. Its assembly resembles the pattern of the spiral and consists of mutually supportive rafters.

The neighborhood will come together on May 28th to raise the roof in an event titled 'the raising'. The Montview Neighborhood is a community supported farm and like the rafters in the roof depends on a larger network of neighbors, artists and community members for its support.

The function of the gaz-arbor will be a community gathering space used, among other things, for potlucks, as an outdoor classroom and will feature edible vines to provide shade.

SWARM! Catching my first (two) swarms

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:04:00 +0000

Alaska's First Permaculture Design Course

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:56:00 +0000

We are on the last day of an intensive 2-week Permaculture Design Course. The students are all about to present their final designs! Fun filled week of eagles, moose, and had my first (and probably last) taste of seal jerky. Here is the blog for the course, more to

Art in the Park this weekend 7/22-7/25

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:15:00 +0000

Check out our Natural Building demo and seed ball making! On hand will be a copy of the Feed Northampton Project.

In a town who's prestige was built by artists, during the Northampton Sidewalk Sale's ritual four days of ardent shopping in July, artists will be taking back some of the cultural space that they themselves created. In other words: Pulaski Park is ours (!), to habitate, to perform in, to make/sell work in, to make noise in -- to connect the dots of Northampton's economic development with the exodus of artists, non-profits, and other demographics from the city, or just to get a big fruity piece of the capitalist pie.

Feed Northampton Plan is out

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 01:11:00 +0000

Feed Northampton: First Steps Toward a Local Food System is a food security plan prepared by graduate students at the Conway School of Landscape Design for a transition town community group in Northampton, Massachusetts. The project addresses the potential for food production within Northampton, and analyzes the patterns of open space and development in the city center and how different patterns may be conducive to different kinds of production. The student team determined an approximation of the broader foodshed from which Northampton residents draw their food (and an overview of the general kinds of foods being used) as well as the kinds of social and ecological systems that might be created (or already exist) to effectively support food production in the city.

Meditation Hut From Waste Wood

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:47:00 +0000

This is an awesome meditation hut made from the ends of scrap 2x4's. Ready to drop into your garden or even your bedroom. It is at the Yestermorrow Design school in Vermont and is being sold as a fundraiser for the school. I can attest that it is a great place to catch some breaths. Room for one with a hand hammered tin roof and custom door handles. Turning waste to resource.

Permaculture Workshop Details

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:14:00 +0000

It looks like we will have a beautiful sunny day. Please dress to be outside for most of the afternoon sun hats, water, cloths you don't mind getting dirty...We will spend the morning at Town Farm's community room learning the "seed" of Permaculture-- its history,definitions, ethics. principles and main techniques.

There will be a vegetarian lunch of a monstrous quinoa salad with salad greens from Red Fire Farm, spinach from our coldframes at Montview Neighborhood Farm, sourdough bread from Hungry Ghost Bakery and homemade hot soup made with the last of our stored carrots, sweet potatoes and garlic. If you have any food allergies please let me know. Hot Coffee and Tea will be available throughout the day. If you cold bring a mug, bowel and spoon that would be great.

After lunch we will take a tour of the farm and spend the majority of our time in design teams doing what the British have coined a "Perma-Blitz", a period of intense collaborative design. We will end our blitz with a series of design concepts for the farm based on the farms goals and an understanding of the ecological and social situation of the site. If you have some of your own design materials (trace, markers, pencils) you can bring them. If not we will provide them. We will end our workshop with ways to plug in to this international movement and happenings in our local area.

Directions:
From the Center of Northampton head south on Pleasant St (towards Holyoke) make a left on Holyoke St. (after Northampton Coffee) and take a right at the T onto Williams. Take your first left onto Montview ave. Town Farm and Montview Neighborhood farm is the long driveway on the Left right before Henry St. Please park by the soccer field. We'll meet at Town Farm's community room head toward the greenhouse and you will see us.

Payment:
You can pay by check to Montview Neighborhood Farm or Cash. I am open to barter. If $ is stopping you from taking this workshop please talk to me.
If you would like to take all 3 Permaculture workshops it will be sliding scale $120-$250

Questions:
Feel Free to call me at 610-955-7168

See you Saturday!

2010 Montview Workshops

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:27:00 +0000

Building Resilient Communities

All workshops are $25-$40 sliding scale unless otherwise marked, no one will be
turned away due to lack of funds. Space is limited. Please register one week in advance
by emailing MONTVIEW@PEDALPEOPLE.COM or call 413-825-6795 x306.

PERMACULTURE FUNDAMENTALS, April 3,10-5
Permaculture is a design system that provides for human needs while increasing the health
of the ecosystem. It gives us a lens to obser ve and assess what is happening in the natural
landscape and use those principles to design food, buildings and communities that work
together to use less energy and produce higher yields. Students will walk away with a
framework for understanding the connection between social and ecological health as well
as a process for designing solutions that come from being able to “read” a landscape. Each
fundamentals session is tailored to the par ticular season. Ask about discounts for taking all
three. Sliding scale $60-$100, vegetarian lunch provided. With Lisa DePiano

GARDENING 101, April 18, 10-12
Want to have your own garden but don’t know where to star t? In this workshop we will
cover ever ything you need to know to get going. We will cover soil testing, site preparation,
planting schedules, weed and pest management and more. With Molly Merrett

MUSHROOM LOG INOCULATION, April 24,1-4
Come learn how to grow your own shitake mushrooms. Take home a log of your own.
With Jonathan Bates

PERMACULTURE FUNDAMENTALS, May 8, 10-5 (see above description)

RAINWATER CATCHMENT, May 16,1-4
We can har vest rainwater off of our homes, garages, and even our chicken coops and use
it to water our gardens while keeping it from overfilling our sewer systems and flooding
our basements. Come learn how to calculate how much water we can har vest, learn safe
har vesting methods and build a two barrel system.

MYCOSCAPING: MUSHROOMS IN THE EDIBLE LANDSCAPE, May 29 , 10-4
Even if you’re an avid gardener, if you are only gardening plants, you are missing out! There
is a whole other kingdom to explore - and eat! How can we incorporate delicious,
nutritious fungi in our veggie gardens, food forests, lawns, and landscaping? In this workshop,
we’ll learn some of the options available to us, and even tr y one or two! We’ll learn
how to look at mushroom crops through a holistic, permaculture lens, and find the niche
in the landscape where they can peform useful ecological functions, even as they produce
food and medicine for us. We’ll review common and less-common mushroom crops, and
different cultivation techniques. We’ll also talk about how to be smar t and safe when
dealing the mushroom kingdom. $60-$100 sliding scale. With Rafter T. Sass

SPRING/EARLY SUMMER PLANT WALK, June 6, 1-3
Join us for a stroll around Montview Farm and learn how to identify the local edible and
medicinal herbs, trees and shrubs growing abundantly right here in the Pioneer Valley! We’ll
focus on methods of identification and har vesting, and discuss easy ways to turn these
common “weeds” into powerful medicine!

BACKYARD COMPOSTING AND COMPOST TEA BREW, June 13, 1-3
Ever ything you wanted to know about building, maintaining and using your own backyard
compost pile but were afraid to ask. Topics include bin size and construction methods,
proper ratios of materials, to turn or not to turn, what to add and how, how to rescue a
pile gone astray, when is it finished and the stor y to decomposition. We will end the
workshop by learning how to brew and apply aerated compost tea.

PERMACULTURE FUNDAMENTALS, July 11, 10-5

HERBAL SALVE AND TINCTURE-MAKING, August 29, 12-3
Making your own medicine is fun, empowering and easy! In this workshop all par ticipants
will have the oppor tunity to experience the medicine-making process for salves and
tinctures from star t to finish. We’ll star t with a shor t herb walk around Montview Farm to
decide what we want to har vest. From there we’ll process the herbs and make some
medicine! Par ticipants will all leave with at least one homemade salve and one tincture.

JONATHAN BATES has been thinking and teaching ecologically since 1999. In 2001
Jonathan graduated with a masters degree from the Institute for Social Ecology. Currently
he is an energy advisor for the Center for Ecological Technology. He’s been studying, creating
and working with rural and urban gardens in the Connecticut River Valley for the last
six years, and is a co-designer and inhabitant of an edible forest garden in Holyoke, MA.

LISA DEPIANO is a cer tified Permaculture designer/teacher and co-founder of the
Montview Neighborhood farm, a human-powered farm and edible forest garden in the
Connecticut River Valley. She has a Master’s degree in Regional Planning from the
University of Massachusetts and loves working with people to create the world they
would like to live in. She also enjoys local histor y, community radio, playing contra dance
mandolin and riding with the worker-owned, bicycle-powered hauling ser vice, Pedal People.

JADE ALICANDRO-MACE is a Community Herbalist grounded in the Wise Woman
Tradition of Herbal Medicine. She has completed numerous herbal training programs
at schools throughout the New England Bio-Region, including the Nor theast School of
Botanical Medicine, Blazing Star Herb School, Clearpath School of Herbal Studies, and the
Gaia School of Healing, and holds a B.S. in Plant Biology from the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. Jade truly believes that herbal medicine is the people’s medicine, and that
this knowledge belongs to ever yone. Teaching the healing proper ties of the plants growing
right here in our own backyards, fields and forests is one of her greatest passions. She
is based in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts and offers herbal consultations,
perennial garden suppor t, and seasonal herb walks and workshops. For more information
contact her at Milk and Honey Herbs.

MOLLY MERRETT is the primar y grower at the Montview Neighborhood Farm and has
been farming for over a decade. She graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in
sustainable agriculture and is a collective owner of Valley Green Feast.

RAFTER T. SASS has been learning, teaching, and practicing Permaculture design since 2003.
His work as consultant, designer, and researcher, covers themes as diverse as ecological
waste and water treatment, homescale mushroom production, whole farm design, and
urban agroforestr y. This work has taken him from the nor theastern US to Texas to Peru.
He is now studying ecological design at the graduate level in Vermont.
All workshops are $25-$40 sliding scale unless otherwise marked, no one will be
turned away due to lack of fun

Food Security Workshop this Weekend at the Youth Media Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:11:00 +0000

I will be doing a workshop on Food Security this weekend at Mount Holyoke College at the Youth Media Summit

Growing Local Food Security: we are what we eat
Youth Media Summit
11:15-12:45pm in Reese 301

Through small group discussion and games, we will uncover problems
with the current food system and create solutions that are healthy,
abundant, appropriate and resilient.

Feed Northampton Presentation Thursday, March 11th 7-9 Thornes Market

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:24:00 +0000

*Please pass this invitation on*

Gather with other concerned and energetic citizens as we meet to
unveil the Northampton Food Security Initiative, completed by
Northampton Residents and Conway School of Landscape Design!

Thursday, March 11 7-9pm Thornes' Basement (Old Dynamite Records)
-----------------------------------------------------
The Northampton Food Security Survey grew out of our collaboration
with the Conway School of Landscape Design, the Western Mass
Permaculture Guild, the City of Northampton, Grow Food Northampton and
Transition Northampton. It seeks to answer how capable we are in accessing and producing locally grown food.

Do you have a garden? Do you store foods? Do you fish or hunt? Would
you like to eat local produce but can't afford to?

Take the Survey Now (takes 2 minutes!)
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PXJMKKK

Share what you know in the survey so that we may begin to collect
resources, connect people and re-connect with our food sources! As
food and fuel prices increase, trucking in our food is already for many and may become
too expensive for most of us to afford.

Eating locally benefits our local economy and our quality of life while supporting local
producers and each other! Pass the link along to everyone in
Northampton, because everyone eats and everyone
benefits from a stronger local economy.

You can check results of the survey at
http://growfoodnorthampton.com/

See you soon,

Seth, Lisa, Jenn, Lily and the countless others that have made this possible

-----------------------------------------------------
This is a link to a food security project done in Shelburne Falls
http://issuu.com/conwaydesign/docs/foodsecurity

The Northampton Food Security Initiative, a project of the Conway
School of Landscape Design and concerned Northampton residents, seeks
solution-based responses to the need for a local food system that
provides abundant, reliable, safe, and nutritious food for its
residents in the face of rising fuel costs. The outcome of this
initiative will be a community organizing document that makes
strategic recommendations for Northampton based on an analysis of its
potential ability to produce, process, and distribute food to all of
its residents, regardless of income.

Seeding Perennial Vegetables

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:59:00 +0000

Jonathan Bates and I seeded 10 flats of Perennial Vegetables this weekend. Including Sea Kale, Welsh Onion, Turkish Rocket, Perennial Spinach, Beech Pea, Skirret and Good King Henry. To purchase some of these multipurpose plants visit Jonathan's nursery at www.communitysupportedforestry.com

In this video Jonathan tells us more about Skirret, a low maintenance root crop whose roots have the flavor of potato-parsnip. We will be teaching another 5-day forest garden Immersion class at Yestermorrow Design/ Build School in Warren Vermont the last week of April. There are a few spots left visit www.yestermorrow.org for details

Small Home Retrofit: Garage into Cottage

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:47:00 +0000

Here is a design I made using a free program called sketch up---

Instead of housing 2-cars the garage is adapted as a primary dwelling for two people. It is nestled in the heart of a walkable downtown neighborhood. The homes south facing walls welcomes the sun filling its spaces with natural light and heat. It is both open and mysteries, with nesting nooks, multi-use spaces, and a simple timeless earthen feel.

Rustic, light, open, warm, raw,inspiring, free, safe, simple, relaxing, breath, fire, reuse, cozy, creative, innovative and smart, built in storage, flowing, inviting, local, curiosity, beauty

Food Security Plan takes off in Northampton

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:28:00 +0000

The above is a copy of a food security plan for the town of Shelburne, MA

Proposal. During the January – March 2010 winter term, a team of Conway
graduate students will prepare a food security plan for the 34.5 square mile city of
Northampton. The student team will create a working handbook that could be
used by other communities and groups interested in the transition town
movement. The report would include:
•
The potential for food production within Northampton
•
The patterns of open space (both private and public) and development in
the city center and how different patterns may be conducive to different
kinds of production
•
An approximation of the broader foodshed from which Northampton
residents draw their food (and an overview of the general kinds of foods
being used)
•
The kinds of social and ecological systems that might be created (or
already exist) to effectively support food production in the city
•
Analysis of 4-5 specific agricultural parcels leased by the city to local
farmers
•
The important questions or kinds of more detailed data that should be
explored in future phases of the development of this plan

Montview Neighborhood Farm August 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Honey Harvest 8.8.09

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:14:00 +0000

twenty pounds of neighborhood honey

Yestermorrow Forest Garden Node Update

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:37:00 +0000

The first forest garden "node" in a nodes that merge forest garden design

So after one month of no care and plants being planted in the middle of a killer frost the forest garden looks great. These plants are very strong.

Edible Forest Gardens 5-day Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:26:00 +0000

We just got back from a five day marathon edible forest garden fun camp at the Yestermorrow Design/Build school in Warren Vermont. The pictures above are from the first ever forest garden installation at yestermorrow. We did this with the intention that the patch will serve as a node for inspriration, education and plant materials for future forest gardens. The tree in the middle is a Juneberrry "coles select" is the variety we planted a 15 species support guild for the tree. The night we did the installation there was a killer frost. But the plants live on!

Photos from Montview Neighborhood Farm's last Workday

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 23:56:00 +0000

The photos above are from the "dead leaf harvest" an experimental no till bed making procedure, which yields living mulch and worm habitat. Many people walk over the layers of wet/dry leaves, coffee ground, compost and brush doing the dead leaf dance.

Here is an article I wrote for the Pedal People compost program

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 22:54:00 +0000

Pedal People Compost is Decomposing

The Pedal People pilot compost program is off to a great start. Not only have we been able to produce high quality compost but it has also greatly reduced the amount of trash that would have otherwise gone into our landfill. According to the Center for Ecological Technology, Compostable waste in Massachusetts accounts for as much as 70% of the states Municipal Solid Waste by weight, we are committed to bringing that percentage down.

What happens to the food scraps?

After the food scraps leave your home or office they get taken by bicycle to the Montview Neighborhood Farm, on Montview Avenue in Northampton. The food scraps go into a wire mesh bin and get layered with leaves, straw and other carbon rich materials. Once the 4’ x 4’ bin gets filled, about a month, the pile gets turned. This allows oxygen to get into the pile and helps to speed up the process of decomposition. At that time large pieces of food scraps that haven’t broken down get moved to a new pile and chopped up with a shovel. We also get a better idea of what is going on with the pile and can add the necessary amendments; cover it if it is too wet, water if its dry etc. After this first turn the compost heats up again and sits for another couple weeks and gets turned again. By this time we have finished compost. You can tell when the pile is ready by the sweet earthy smell of the material and the low temperature in the center of the pile. You can also find the famed composting worm Eisenia Fetida, or the California Redworm.

What do you do with the finished compost?

After the compost is finished the farm shovels an inch of it onto its beds. Compost has many benefits for the soil. It feeds the soils creatures all the way from the smallest bacteria to the longest worm. Once the organisms are fed it, allows more nutrients to be available to the plants. It also helps improve the soil structure by its crumbly texture that retains air and moisture, and when used as mulch can prevent weed seeds from germinating.

I want to have a compost pile but I don’t have enough space?

Pedal People can help you identify others in your neighborhood that would be interested in composting together. Three customers on Williams Street all share the same pile. One neighbor has room in her backyard, they take turns with maintenance and share in the benefits of the finished compost. Another option is an indoor worm box or vermicomposting.

I don’t know where to begin or I tried it once but it didn’t work?

Pedal People can help you set up a pile, answer questions about maintenance, send out a compost doctor and if there are enough people interested do a compost workshop. The Montview Neighborhood Farm also holds compost workshops both on outdoor piles and indoor worm boxes. You can contact Lisa DePiano for more information at lisa@pedalpeople.com

American Chestnut Tree - audio about one mans atempts to bring back the American Chestnut Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa DePiano) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:02:00 +0000