Context: What is permaculture?

Transcription

1 Claymont Newsletter March 2018 IN THIS ISSUE: Introduction to permaculture at Claymont, a recap of what's happened already, and what's coming up! A committee has been set up at Claymont to build a collaborative permaculture center that integrates environmental stewardship, agriculture, and inner work. This center will one day offer a new approach to continuous learning that merges the innovations of permaculture with inner work through land-based projects and awareness-based workshops. For now however, it's just kicked off, and is in a listening and ideation phase. This newsletter has been created to keep the Claymont community abreast of the latest developments and give the broader community the opportunity to weigh in on the decisions that get made as this project grows. We hope you enjoy reading! Context: What is permaculture? 1 of 6 5/8/18, 3:21 PM

2 Permaculture is an idea that is confusing for a lot of people. One way it can be thought of is as a set of principles that you can use to guide decision-making around farming, energy, food, natural resources, urban planning, and even social systems. The basic gist is that through listening and observation, one can design systems that produce a yield (of crops, energy, water, experiences, etc.) that benefits human beings while enhancing nature's own interdependencies and efficiencies. Permaculture principles include ideas like stacking functions (e.g. having ducks that fertilize the land while weeding the land and providing eggs for consumption) and self-regulation (e.g. designing systems that can naturally regulate themselves without the need for additional inputs). One of the most important things to understand about permaculture is that is it not one particular philosophy. It is about understanding what the right solution is to the right problem, and about redefining problems (like waste) as resources that one can glean important knowledge from. This means that biodynamic farming, organic gardening, renewable energy sources, forestry, hydroponics, etc. can all fit underneath the umbrella of permaculture so long are they are all designed to follow and enhance nature's processes. Permaculture is often described as being regenerative, as opposed to base-line sustainable or extractive. For a list of the permaculture principles, click here. UPDATES What's already happened? Claymont Community Brainstorm On Jan 20th, the permaculture committee organized a community brainstorm that was attended by 20+ individuals who offered their ideas about how permaculture can contribute to Claymont. You can read the compiled list of ideas that were submitted here. 2 of 6 5/8/18, 3:21 PM

3 UPCOMING PROJECTS What's on the docket for this year? Besides designing the permaculture center, we've got three major activities planned for this year at Claymont: 1. Commissioning an Expert for a Property Analysis At the end of March, permaculture guru Andrew Faust will conduct a permaculture analysis of the entire property, and make recommendations about short-, medium-, and long-term land stewardship and cultivation opportunities and projects. Andrew got his start homesteading in West Virginia for 8 years before beginning his certification and teaching programs in the Northeast; he now runs the Center for Bioregional Living. He has experience creating permaculture designs across a wide variety of climates and acreage, and has graduated over 500 students through his design certification course. Come join the community potluck at the Barn on March 26th for a chance to meet Andrew (see below). 2. Permablitz Weekend On April 14-15, a large group of volunteers will be working on projects in the Barn Gardens and building with bamboo that's living on the property. Projects will include creating a mobile bamboo hoophouse, among others. If you would like to help out and participate in this weekend, please see how to in the section below! 3 of 6 5/8/18, 3:21 PM

4 Claymont Newsletter March Permabuild Pilot Week ACTIVITIES CALENDAR Please join any or all of the events! The Permaculture Committee will be working with the broader Claymont network to make this a co-created process that reflects the multitude of perspectives within the Claymont community. We invite you to please join any of the events below that speak to you! Permaculture Potluck with Andrew Faust March 6 pm Join the community potluck and expert Q & A! On Monday, March 26th there will be a community potluck dinner hosted in the Barn dining room, where Claymont community members can meet Andrew Faust and ask him about his background in permaculture and initial observations at Claymont. Open Permaculture Design Session April 5 pm Join the Permaculture Committee in the cafe of the Great Barn on Wednesday, April 4th to help prioritize short, medium, and long-term land stewardship and agricultural projects at Claymont. To find the cafe, go through the left-most door entrance (not including the Octagon entrance) when facing the Barn from the north side, and walk to the door in the back of the stairway entrance. Permablitz Volunteer Day 4 of 6 5/8/18, 3:21 PM

5 Saturday, April 14th -- all day -- The permablitz weekend is open to any and all! Volunteers can help prepare the grounds and materials leading up to the 14th, or come spend the day working on bamboo harvesting and building projects that Saturday. Please respond to this if you'd like to support the permablitz in any way shape or form. Thanks for reading! We're thrilled to be working on this project at Claymont, to be a part of this beautiful community, and to be thinking about how to offer eco-spiritual programming to the broader public. May it benefit all beings! With love, The Claymont Permaculture Committee The permaculture committee currently consists of Kit McGinnis, Lawton Rogers, Rob Creekmore, Barbara June Appelgren, Peter Shor, and (new Claymont community residents!) Sam Bodkin and Emily Chiappinelli. NEW RESIDENT BIOS Sam, 28, runs a classical music community building project called Groupmuse. He's a ukuleleplaying people's history enthusiast who is interested in building decentralized initiatives that merge the political, social, cultural, ecological, and spiritual. Sam was born outside of Boston, MA and has lived in between there and NYC, building Groupmuse communities in both. Emily, 26, works for the RSA, a think tank which supports people driving social change around the world. She's a meditator and impact measurement generalist coming from the social enterprise space; her drive is to make continuous awareness work more inclusive and accessible through a re-crafting of how we think about nature. Emily hails from upstate New York, and after meeting Sam while in college in Boston, she moved to NYC with him to help grow the emergent Groupmuse community there. Claymont Society, 667 Huyett Road, Charles Town, WV of 6 5/8/18, 3:21 PM

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