The Permaculture Podcast

Starting a Small Scale Farm

This month marks the 12th anniversary of The Permaculture Podcast with Scott. To celebrate this latest milestone, I asked my friend Erin Harvey to join me again to discuss how her life and work have changed since we graduated from our Permaculture Design Course on October 10th, 2010, and the show began. In preparation for that new conversation, here is my first interview with Erin, recorded and released in the Winter of 2013. Note: This is from the earliest days of interviews on the podcast and does not benefit from later improvements in microphones or recording tools.Resources: The Kale YardThe Organic Farmer's Business Handbook (Chelsea Green Publishing)

Creating a Miraculous Abundance

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Today's guest is Perrine Hervé-Gruyer author, along with her husband Charles, of Miraculous Abundance: One Quarter Acre, Two French Farmers and Enough Food to Feed the World.
 
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Wild Fermentation

 
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My guest for this episode is Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, The Art of Fermentation, and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. If you’ve practiced any kind of fermentation and went looking for a recipe, reference, or just read about the wee yeasties and bacteria that transform our foods with their microbial magic, then you’ve probably read something by Sandor, and I recommend reading even more.
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Building Soil

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In this episode, Natalie Bogwalker shares her technique to quickly build soil for growing food in a temperate climate. You can watch the video of Natalie’s work on soil building at Wild Abundance, which is where today’s audio comes from, at: YouTube.com/ThePermaculturePodcast 
Find out more about Natalie, her work, and Wild Abundance at: WildAbundance.Net

Bee the Change

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The guest for this episode is John Kotab to discuss his book Bee the Change, a travelogue about his discovery of what we can do to save bees and other pollinators.Find John, his permaculture consulting business, and his books at:cotabconsulting.com

Edible Perennials and Broadscale Permaculture

Visit Our Sponsor: Foraged.MarketThis episode is a remaster of my first interview with Eric Toensmeier, originally recorded in the early days of the show way back in 2012 when I still lived on the land in Pennsylvania. I’m sharing this as a follow-up to the most recent episode before this one where Eric joined me for another interview to talk about his current work on Alley Cropping. Depending on when you are listening to this, if you haven’t heard that show, definitely give it a listen. You’ll find that right before this one in the archives.If you are not familiar with Eric and his work, he is the author of numerous permaculture and permaculture-adjacent books, all of which I highly recommend for your library. Most recently, that includes Carbon Farming: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security. Another title where Eric is the sole author is Perennial Vegetables: From Artichoke to Zuiki Taro, a Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious, Easy-to-grow Edibles. He is the co-author, along with Dave Jacke, of Edible Forest Gardens and also wrote Paradise Lot with Jonathan Bates, the former of which is probably his most popular title in the permie community.Our conversation begins with Eric’s bio. He then answers some listener questions on perennials, then delves into perennial plants, the broad-scale application of permaculture, and removing some of the fear factors of implementing a forest garden. Throughout you will hear both of us touch on plants we would like to see improved and simple ways anyone who is growing a garden can help domesticate and improve edible perennials.- You can find Eric at PerennialSolutions.org- His latest venture, The Perennial Agriculture Institute, is at PerennialAgriculture.Institute.- You can also read Eric’s current writing and support his ongoing efforts at patreon.com/erictoensmeier.ResourcesEric ToensmeierPerennial SolutionsPerennialAgriculture.InstituteEdible Forest GardensKeyline DesignUSDA PLANTS DatabaseBooksBilly Joe Tatum's Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook (Out-of-Print. Bookfinder.com link)Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties by Carol DeppeCreating a Forest Garden by Martin CrawfordEdible Water Gardens by Nick Romanowski (Out-of-Print. Bookfinder.com link)The New American Landscape: Leading Voices on the Future of Sustainable GardeningReturn to Resistance: Breeding Crops to Reduce Pesticide Dependence by Raoul RobinsonUncommon Fruits for Every GardenWild Urban Plants of the Northeast - A Field Guide

Alley Cropping with Eric Toensmeier

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In this episode, Eric Toensmeier returns to share some of his research on alley cropping, from his forthcoming book on this subject which he is writing in cooperation with Interlace Commons, an organization spreading the benefits and evidence of agroforestry, including alley cropping, with farmers.


Resources




Perennial SolutionsEric's PatreonInterlace CommonsKernza Perennial GrainAgroforesterie (Book)AGROOF (French Agroforestry Organization)Alley Cropping (Univ. of Missouri Center for Agroforestry Training Manual - PDF)Savanna Institute


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Related Interviews

Stream Restoration and Riparian Corridors - Dr. Bern SweeneyThe Savanna Institute - Keefe Keeley



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Remembering Dan Palmer

GoFundMe: Support for Dan Palmer’s FamilyCW: Death, Grief, and LossIt is with a heavy heart that I share the tragic news that Dan Palmer, of Making Permaculture Stronger, passed away suddenly in the first week of August, 2022. Dan was an activist, designer, permaculture practitioner, and teacher. He was also the driving force behind numerous events and organizations including permablitz, Very Edible Gardens, Holistic Decision Making, the still-in-progress film Reading the Landscape, and his blog and podcast.I knew Dan half as well as I would have liked, but am thankful for the many long hours we spent in conversation over the years, separated by half the world, asking what we could do to make one another, and by extension permaculture, stronger. My thoughts are with his partner, children, and other loved ones. If you are someone who prays, I ask you to offer words into the universe for those who are hurting. You can also use the link above to donate to a GoFundMe for his family during this time of transition. 

Natural Farming and Masanobu Fukuoka

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This episode begins with a history lesson on Natural Farming and the work of Masanobu Fukuoka and leads into a conversation comparing and contrasting that method and his ideas to Permaculture, delivered in the voice and words of someone who was present in both movements from their earliest days, the late Larry Korn.


Resources




The One-Straw Revolutionary



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Terra Preta and Biochar - Mark Ervin

 
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Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show. 
The guest for this episode is Mark Ervin of GreenGro Biologicals. He joins me to share his passion for terra preta soil and biochar and how he turned that love into an entrepreneurial business bringing a regenerative product to market. Along the way, he shares the difference between simply burning something and calling biochar versus creating a carbon-rich, mineralized biochar, the importance of nutrient ratios for sustainable growing, and much more.
 
More Information on Terra Preta and Biochar
Terra Preta (Wikipedia)
Biochar (Wikipedia)
The Biochar Solution by Albert Bates
Burn by Albert Bates and Kathleen Draper
Related Interviews
Dr. Elaine Ingham - The Soil Food Web
Eric Toensmeier - Drawing Down Carbon: Agroforestry and Climate Change
Permabyte: Biochar, Gasification, and Woodlot Management
Mary Johnson - An Introduction to Nutrient Dense Farming
Connor Stedman - Carbon Farming - Soil
 
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