About this year’s, Dick says:

What: Permaculture Design Course - 12 days – Martha’s Vineyard, MA

When: Sept 14 - 25, 8:30 – 5:30 daily; 1st day start at 12:00; last day ‘til early PM

Cost: Course: $600 (Is.-Residents, $500); Hostel Room, $220/11 nights; Meals, $280 est.

Presented by: DickPierceDesigns and hosted at Hostel Int’l – Martha’s Vineyard

Desc: Permaculture Design Certificate Course - Join Dick Pierce and a great crew of local experts/practitioners - gardeners, farmers, organics, Green/natural builders, land owners, small/coop businesses, renewable energy folks - in scenic, small-farm, self-reliant MV for this 12-day residential Permaculture Design course. For old pro’s to beginners, tenured land owners to those just starting out (even thinking about it), professionals, students, teachers, parents, retirees. Learn Permaculture design principles, see them in operation, talk with folks who live on/care for the land, create a professional design for your own property. Join a great, like-minded group for a wonderful experience – in the Fall beauty and charm of Martha’s Vineyard.

For more info please visit www.DickPierceDesigns.com, Or Email DickPierceDesigns@gmail.com; or, call Dick on his cell at 512-992-8858.

I went for a peek at the garden the other day, and I liked what I saw. It’s a great location — in the five or so minutes I spent looking around, plenty of folks walked by. Patrick and Tracy have great signs explaining what the project’s about. Things were nice and tidy for this time of year, too, with just a bit of grass peeking through the mulch.

I’ll be interested to track the progress of this project, and hope there’ll be more work days coming up in which to meet Patrick, Tracy, and the others involved.

In skimming Sharon’s latest update, I’m reminded that there’s a specific format to this genre; here goes using it.

Planted something: not exactly, though we did transplant some squashes from the hill where they all germinated to the one where none did.

Harvested something: lettuce, radishes, mustard greens, basil & varied herbs. One snap pea went directly into my mouth — the plants are finally growing more vigorously, but haven’t managed to produce so much.

Preserved something: I don’t think putting stuff in the fridge counts here.

Ate the food: all the stuff we picked! Pretty easy at this point.

Waste not/Managing Food Reserves: finally remembered to pull one of the 5 gallon water containers out that I’d filled 6 months ago. Still tasted fine.

Want Not/Prep and Storage: installed cucumber trellis from leftover fencing & bamboo stakes.

Build Community Food Systems: drafted a schedule for Board and committee staffing at the rest of the year’s in-store tabling and member dinners at Harvest (felt a little like solving the Travelling Salesman problem). Started looking into what the Transition Network is doing, and pondering how that might look in Boston — there are some interested folks in various parts of the state, but not so much here yet.

• Helped friends install a raised bed in their front yard. We used stones that had been piled in the back yard to define the space — no lumber needed! I’m also encouraging them to try planting in sheet mulch, rather than buying a bunch of soil. To that end, recommended Gaia’s Garden for more on sheet mulch, and generally being an awesome resource.
• Picked up a used copy of Taylor’s Master Guide to Landscaping (recommended in GG). Far from permaculture in its outlook — one passage talks about grass as being way easier to keep up than plantings — but there looks to be plenty of use.
• Asked some pros about my knotweed mulch project. Loose consensus: as long as the knotweed bits are root free, it’s not totally crazy.
• Weeded the garden, mounded some soil around those corn plants that are growing the best, added some more knotweed leaf mulch.
• Tabled on behalf of the Board at the JP Harvest Co-op for Member Appreciation Day. Signed up at least one new member, and had some good conversations with long-time members.
• Last and definitely not least: picked some strawberries at The Food Project’s Lincoln farm, turned them into some fabulous dessert.

a 10-day Permaculture Design Course

when

mid-September

who

instructor Dick Pierce; over a dozen Vineyard residents whose farms, businesses and homes we visited; me & 10 other students.

where

the Hostelling International on Martha’s Vineyard — a shining example of the breed. Very clean, with a super friendly staff, very reasonable rates for the Vineyard, and a flock of chickens & ducks to boot. The staff was very supportive of the class, letting us mostly take over the common room, and also install a few things on the property.

why

Before and during the course, I had some good conversations along the lines of what is permaculture anyway and why study it? Obviously I had some ideas when I signed up, or I wouldn’t have committed my money & time — I’d say that I had a general sense of permaculture as a body of theory and practice refined over the last few decades, having to do with designing & implementing ways to live ethically in the face of declining energy supplies.

what it was like

Some days were mostly listening, with some projects thrown in (turning the compost, or walking the property looking for wind, water and elevation changes). Some days were mostly field trips.

I hadn’t thought much about the fact that the course was going to be on the Vineyard, but that turned out to be a hugely influential aspect of the experience. Dick lined up 10 field trips to area farms, orchards, homesteads, and organizations, all of which exemplified some aspects and approaches to sustainable living. I was struck by how much consciousness our hosts had about looming challenges of climate, energy, water and soil, and food production, and how generous everyone was with their time and with their hard-earned knowledge. Not everything we saw fit exactly into the principles we were studying, but that’s the real world for you; discussing the similarities and differences was instructive.

What was it like living in a hostel with a dozen strangers (and dozens of others passing through), taking this course for a week and a half? The overall experience was surprisingly good, though there was definitely some friction and frustration. I think that the main controllable factor was that the course had a tremendous amount of material and activities crammed into 10 days. This was the first time for this particular configuration of the course, so I’d hope that future incarnations would either cover a bit less, or spread it out over another few days. Despite / because of this, the group did build a great relationship & will hopefully continue to collaborate.

where I could go with the experience

The last few days of the course consisted of a design exercise. I worked on a design for the yard of the property I’m renting, focusing mainly on protecting and building the soil, and will be pursuing implementation of that design. I’ve also talked to a few friends who own land about doing designs for their properties, and hope that the chance arises to pitch in on other students’ projects as they come up.

Longer term is less clear. I can definitely see the potential to turn permaculture design into a part-time pursuit, if the above projects go well. Even if I find that it’s not as good a fit for me as I’m currently thinking, I’ve got a whole new set of skills and ideas for evaluating and dealing with any property I’ll be living on in the future.

thinking of signing up for a course?

Apart from the money, spending 10 days away from family and job is a big commitment. It’s really worth thinking through what you want to get from the experience, and verifying with the instructor that what you’re interested in is going to happen. For courses such as this where students do a design exercise based on a piece of property of their own choosing, it really does pay off to get to know the property ahead of time. I’d definitely do it again, and it sounds like Dick’s intention is to do the two trainings again next year, one in Vermont and one on the Vineyard — I’d expect details to be posted at http://www.permie.us/ as the time draws nearer.

Though I’d been reading about permaculture and talking to permaculturists for a few years, there’s really no replacement for spending some concentrated time going through a well-ordered learning process. In particular, some of the basic concepts about energy flow and the benefits of different sorts of edges had previously escaped me, but now I’m starting to see them all over the place.

Based on my experience, I heartily endorse the two-day course for anyone interested in the stuff I write about on this blog, and I’m happy to pass on the news from Dick _{(after sitting on it for quite a while)} that the same two-day course is being offered this coming weekend, April 12-13, and as of a few days ago there were still a few slots — more info here (PDF).

If that’s not an option or not enough permaculture for you, Dick is going to be doing two full-length (nine day) courses later in the year, one in June in Greenfield, NH (PDF) and one in September on Martha’s Vineyard (PDF). Of special interest for people such as myself who’ve been through the two-day course, is that having done so cuts the full course down to seven days. Although getting the time free will be a challenge, I’m fixin’ to find a way to get out to the Vineyard course — maybe I’ll see some of you there.

• Volunteering at registration and for a workshop missing one of its presenters reinforced a lesson I’ve learned before: gardening people are, by and large, friendly and laid-back folks.
• I’d forgotten that there was a Boston Community Garden Council, but there is and it meets every month. I fear that another monthly meeting is not something I should contemplate, but it would be interesting to check out once.
• Will Raap, founder of the Gardener’s Supply companies, presented at the opening session. While his talk veered dangerously into advertisement zone, I really appreciated his discussion of the company’s origins in the 70’s energy crisis, and their work to build a sustainable food economy in Burlington.
• The Saturday morning talks by gardeners and coordinators from New Orleans was really moving. In particular, Noel Jones of the God’s Vineyard project told a story of perseverance in the face of very difficult circumstances. The NOLA food map is a totally different kind of inspiration — while I can see how the absence of food in New Orleans post-Katrina created the necessity for that particular example, I think every community should have one. Certainly Boston.
• A Sarasota gardener’s story about the city’s seizure of her garden’s land (for development purposes) really emphasized the importance of having city buy-in to the value of community gardens. My understanding is that Boston is in good shape in this area, but it’s a sobering reminder of the possibilities.
• Living south of the Charles, I confess that I have little idea about food and garden issues north of the river. I was lucky to be able to attend a tour to Somerville, visiting the Union Square farmer’s market and the Somerville Growing Center, both well worth experiencing.

Regular readers have remarked that I’ve been in a FiB slump for the last few months, but this event, like all good conferences, was a real burst of inspiration. Fortunately, I’m involved in the early stages of an exciting new & related venture, which I’ll be saying more about in the future.

If you’re thinking about signing up, I’d advise taking a look at your options a bit ahead of time - it’s possible to take on the whole three day event, or a subset, depending on your schedule. After June 15 (Friday!) the rates go up. If you’re not already an ACGA member, you still save by signing up for a year, but if you’re reading this, it’s probably not a bad idea to join regardless of that fact.

Non-profit farms:

• Bob Burns and Danielle Andrews at The Food Project, in Roxbury.
• Matt Kochka at ReVision House, in Dorchester.
• Jean-Claude Bourrut at the Farm at Long Island Shelter, on the harbor.
• Mark Smith of Brookwood Community Farm, on the Canton / Milton line.

Community Gardens:

• Jeremy Dick of Boston Natural Area Networks, downtown.
• Betsy Johnson of the South End / Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust.

From the Boston metro’s only for-profit farm, John Lee of Allandale Farm, in Brookline.
Finally, representing the 43 orchards in the Boston metro, Ben Crouch of Earthworks, in Roxbury.

I’d welcome any information about producers or related organizations not listed here, along with other information related to the survey. Still working on how to communicate what I learned, and figuring out where the information will be of use. More to come!

1. Allandale Farm, the only for-profit food producer in Boston, takes in around $500,000 / year. I believe that number also takes into account some aspects of the business that aren’t directly related to food production, but do go into making the farm business viable.
2. The four nonprofit farms I talked to all primarily track their output in terms of pounds. Given yearly variations, they collectively produce 50,000 - 60,000 lbs. of vegetables a year.
3. Community gardens are tricky to summarize, in that there’s not so much organization. BNAN estimates that the average plot in its gardens produces enough vegetables for three people for the growing season. BNAN’s 29 affiliated gardens have 620 plots; if this is extrapolated out to Boston’s 150 total community gardens, that would be 3100 plots.
4. Trickier yet are Boston’s urban orchards. Earthworks has its hands in most of those, which number 43, and contain around 450 food-producing trees and shrubs.
5. So tricky as to be unquantifiable, at least for now, are Boston’s many personal gardens. There’s plenty of food being produced on private property, to be sure, but I’m not aware of any even rough estimates about how much. For example, the Food Project has done soil testing in about 150 gardens right around their offices, but how many other hundreds of plots are there?

The above quantities include dollars, pounds, persons-fed-with-veggies, and plants. Time for some wild speculation to reconcile these various units.

First, pounds to dollars - I have a notion that the fresh, chemical-free foods produced locally might retail for somewhere around $2/lb. if you could average out the many types of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and herbs collectively produced.

Next is the persons-fed-with-veggies number - according to the USDA (PDF), families with 2 or more people and two wage earners spend $144/week on food. But what portion of that might be veggies? Perhaps better as a measure would be a CSA, which provides comparable quantity and quality of veggies for around $30 / week. Multiplied by 10 weeks of reliable production in the growing season, that gives us $300/year per plot.

If we knew the average yield per orchard plant, we could come up with something persuasive given our knowledge of how many plants are bearing fruit and nuts in Boston’s urban orchards. Anyone? Failing that, here’s a wildly speculative chain of reasoning: Earthworks estimates that their orchards yield somewhere around 1000 bushels of apples per year. A bushel of apples is 48 pounds, giving us about 50,000 lbs. of apples. There’s a similar amount of pear production to apple production, and together those two crops comprise about 2/3 of the orchard’s output, so there may be something on the order of 150,000 lbs. of food produced in the orchards.

Of course, suggestions or corrections for any of these estimates or methods are more than welcome. Particularly in the next 24 hours.

minor update: cut a few weeks off the estimate for length of growing season, updated numbers accordingly.

minor update 2: after further thought, further reduced the estimated time of productivity for community garden plots, and calculated value by comparing to CSA’s (thanks Simca and Lisa)