Chris and his work are at WildWise.co.uk and his book, Wild Nights Out, is available from Chelsea Green Publishing.

What I like about Chris’s work, for anyone looking to create more nature connections personally with children, friends, and family, or as a professional, is the many ways you can readily use the materials provided in Wild Nights Out to create a variety of experiences. Choose an individual activity and you can create a short experience that a family can fit in before bedtime or a teacher can give as an assignment to send home with students. Adding multiple activities together into a longer curriculum, you can quickly have everything you need to fill a week or weekend with wonder, extending well past when the lights go out and the stars and moon emerge.

Have you read Wild Nights Out? Or do you have your own favorite nighttime activities? Share your thoughts on these, or anything else that comes to mind, by leaving a comment below, or, if you'd like to connect with me one-on-one, you can send me a direct message here on Patreon.

Until the next time, inhabit the wild wonder of nights out, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.

You can find the guest host for this episode, Drew Grim, and more of his conversations about the skills and knowledge needed for homesteading on The Schoolhouse Life Podcast.

As Andrew shared, there are better ways to have meat than factory farms. Raising animals ourselves and giving them the best lives possible is part of that, so I appreciate that the conversation included caring for animals and raising them on a homestead can be a compassionate and ethical way of including them in our systems and when considering meat consumption.

I also enjoyed all the little pieces of wisdom from Andrew’s experiences as a butcher. That there’s no need for power tools. That a small set of the right tools can meet our needs and get us through most jobs. That we can care for and keep our tools in great shape ourselves and when they are past our ability to do so there is likely someone in our community who has the skills to return them to a maintainable condition while acknowledging that there are times when we’ll need to replace something beyond repair. As I’m a knife nerd, I agree with his knife and tool selections and have included links in the resource section to some of the knives mentioned and tools for caring for them once you have them.

I also see this advice as applying to our garden tools as well so that we can select a tool that is the right size for our bodies and the job at hand. To learn how to sharpen our shovel, hoe, or shears. To care for the wooden handles before, during, and after the season. 

Let me know about that, or continue this conversation about craft butchery, by leaving a comment below. Or, if you prefer, as a Patron, you can use this platform to send me a direct, private, one-on-one message.

Until the next time, spend each day honing your crafts, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.

Find out more about Katy’s work, including her programs and numerous books, at NutritiousMovement.com. While you are there be sure to pick up a copy of Grow Wild, a complete approach to moving children and the rest of the folks we call family.

I carried the thought of permaculture design as self-care into this conversation with Katy; the idea that permaculture starts with our self and our well being as a Zone 00. As we perform a needs and yields analysis for the landscape, our communities, or invisible structures, we should do the same for our selves. Doing this analysis ensures that our needs are being met and our yields are useful and utilized. When we discover places we are lacking, we can address that deficiency. Doing this over time, we can design our lives around our needs, strengths, and abilities, so we can perform this work, as we are able, throughout a lifetime.

Caring for our selves, we are better equipped to care for the land, all life on Earth, and each other.

But, that’s just a few of my thoughts on this in the moment. What are yours? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

In this newly edited and re-mastered conversation, Dennis shares what he’s learned investigated bee die-offs ever since Dave Hackenberg, a Pennsylvania beekeeper, first reported large colony losses in 2006, which lead to the coining of the term and research into the condition, of colony collapse disorder. During this conversation, Dennis also talks about the ongoing loss of bee colonies in the United States and elsewhere—which continue even now, years after this conversation—and the role of bees as pollinators in our food supply, and what we can do to support honeybees and native pollinators.

You can find out more about his work by watching his TED talk, “A Plea for Bees.” There you will also find more information on what we can do to create pollinator habitats and more research into what is harming bees.

In addition to those resources, I also recommend listening to my interview with Owen Wormser on Turning Lawns into Meadows so you have even more tools to get rid of grass, tear up the lawn, and create space for the insects of the world.

Listening to this conversation with fresh ears, I  enjoy the precise and technical conversation regarding the research and issues surrounding bees, while what we talk about remains accessible. For all of his work and research, Dennis clearly communicates what is happening so we can understand what to do and take action while allowing his love and passion for bees to come through.

As Dennis described the co-evolution of flowers and pollinators reminded me of the beauty of nature, why I love permaculture and remain hopeful in a world that feels ever more chaotic, and how each of us can care for our little space to build a better world that includes habitat for pollinators and the other-than-human-life that also call this world home.

Would you be interested in a live stream about creating a permaculture-based pollinator garden? Let me know about that or any other topics to cover in an upcoming broadcast by leaving a comment in the show notes.

Until the next time, spend each day caring for our pollinators, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.

You can find more about this project and my colleagues at RegenerativeMediaAlliance.com.

In the year ahead, for our podcast listeners, we’re coordinating our guest lists and the directions of our shows so you can hear more from the authors and speakers, scientists and experts we have on air. You’ll also receive episodes the members of the RMA collaborate on and create together.

If you are currently creating media of any kind in the regenerative space, we’d like to invite you to join in our quarterly RMA calls to share the issues you face as a creator. We can then share our experiences with you and open the floor to find the solutions needed so your project can grow and thrive.

The next of those calls will be in the third quarter of this year, and I’d love to have you join us.

We are also organizing a virtual, online summit for the end of this year, where creators can come together and learn from one another through a series of professional presentations and break-out room discussions.

To find out more about either the RMA quarterly calls or the Summit, connect with us by sending a message through the RMA Contact Form.

We’ll answer any questions you have and add you to the mailing list so you’ll know when registration opens for those events.

Until the next time, spend each day creating what you love, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.

Sitting down with The Renegade Economist Della Z. Duncan, they discuss what right livelihood can mean and how we can manifest it in the world, in this moment. They also share the structural issues which currently exist, that we can advocate changing in order to create a future that provides more equitable opportunities for everyone to pursue their own vision of a right livelihood. Throughout, Della and Karryn touch on alternative economic models, how many of us use them already in our everyday life, and how to consider implementing the various options, such as the gift economy or time banking, in our lives and communities.

Della’s work, including the Upstream Podcast, her retreats, and Livelihood coaching, the last of which is offered on a donation basis, can be found at DellaZDuncan.com.

You can find our host for this episode, Karryn Olson, at Regenepreneurs.com.

Though I’ll be sharing more conversations from this series with you in the future, until the next of those is out, if you’d like to see what’s coming up from Karryn and her guests, including how you can join a live session, visit:

Cultivating Livelihoods In Service to Life: A Conversation Series

I’m thankful to Karryn for allowing me to share these conversations and her series with you because her work and life’s passion is on creating a right livelihood and helping others do the same. Whereas I’m interested in sharing the breadth of permaculture and connecting you with the resources you need to live a deep, meaningful life, steeped in permaculture, wherever you find yourself.

These connections and our own particular focus, allow me to bring your more than I can on my own. If there is anyone you know who you’d like to have guest host an interview for the podcast, let me know.

Until the next time, spend each engaging in the systems and work that delight you, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.

Related Interviews
Karryn Olson - A Pattern Language for Women in Permaculture
Carmen De Jesus - Consent and Our Livelihoods
Charles Eisenstein, Dave Jacke, and Ben Weiss - Right Livelihoods

When it comes to The Permaculture Podcast, I’m trying some different things with the show this year.

First, episodes will be the length that they need to be. This arises as there are episodes where the interview closed abruptly and should have had a soft end with a follow-up that picked up again where we left off. Trying to match the long-format The Permaculture Podcast has become known for has resulted in episodes that were longer than they needed to be, diluting the content. While in others a tighter edit would have created a clearer conversation and better served the guest’s message.

Second, there are episodes I’ll be releasing that aren’t interviews and don’t fit the longer format. These include responses to your specific requests; conversations with colleagues about particular questions; and the special series documenting Rosemary Morrow’s on permaculture, and impacts on permaculture and the community. And the possibility for a lot more.

Third, rather than pushing to get things out on specific days, I’m moving away from a regular release schedule in order to focus on production and projects, releasing and announcing these when they are ready and complete.

All of this taken together, I’m expecting to release more content this way, both in the number of episodes and hours of material, than in the past several years, while at a higher standard and level of production.

This will not impact the weekly updates and other regular posts for Patrons. Those at the Sprout and higher tiers will receive their ad-free episodes three-days before the public release. These changes also do not impact the live stream schedule.

Some of the projects include several online classes this year.

They are:
Ecological Literacy and Design.
The Permaculture Practicum.
The One Yard Schoolhouse.

Ecological Literacy and Design is a six-week online course to teach you everything you need to know to practice permaculture in your day-to-day life, without taking a permaculture design course.

The first Ecological Literacy and Design session starts in June. You can find out more about this class at thepermaculturepodcast.com/ecologicalliteracy

The Permaculture Practicum is an eight-week online class for permaculture professionals or those who want to become permaculture professionals. Together, we’ll take a deep dive into a specific, broad area of permaculture such as garden and homestead design, cities and small spaces; or invisible structures. Those are by no means the only possible subject, let me know if I can offer a practicum in an area where you would like to specialize.

The Permaculture Practicum begins in September and you can find out more at thepermaculturepodcast.com/practicum

Taken together, these two classes represent a complete, 72-hour permaculture design course. Students who take both classes are eligible to receive a Permaculture Design Certificate after review of their final portfolio.

I’m also excited to share The One Yard Schoolhouse. This is an enrichment program for homeschooling parents where they’ll learn activities to partake in and share with their children, while receiving homeschooling educational support from me. This allows parents to spend more time with their children, rather than creating course content or curriculum, while their children receive a rich, place-based, permaculture-focused education.

The next session of The One Yard Schoolhouse begins on April 1st and is open for enrollment.

You can find more detailed information at thepermaculturepodcast.com/schoolhouse

I am also organizing an in-person Ecological Literacy and Design retreat from September 7th to the 11th of this year at Earthaven Ecovillage near Asheville, North Carolina.

We’re offering an early-registration special until February first where you can save $150 and only need to pay a deposit to sign up.

See the complete details and register today at learnfromtravel.com/permaculture

The other project is shifting more of my permaculture work towards video.

For the last six months or so I’ve been experimenting with that via the listener live streams. Behind the scenes, I’ve been shooting videos around the house and in my community to practice with the equipment since this is a different direction for me personally, though not necessarily permaculture content.

I find that specific, listener-driven projects help me to decide what to create, so if there are any videos you’d like me to make to further your permaculture journey, let me know.

I’m also planning to get on the road once my family and I feel it’s safe to travel again for the in-person interviews and on-site video tours that were initially in the works for the growing season of 2020 before the pandemic wrecked all of those.

I have the first such trip tentatively planned for late Spring of this year, of course with the caveat that may be rescheduled as the world is still in flux. I’ve also made a number of connections with regional regenerative agriculture folks through Future Harvest, and they’ve agreed to site tours later in the year.

If there is any person or site you’d like me to visit, anywhere in the world, let me know. I’m happy to add them to my list and see what I can do about getting there.

In addition to all of that, I recently updated this website. Here you’ll find a calendar page where you can see at a glance the list of episodes I’m working on over the next several weeks; the dates, times, and subjects for live streams; and any workshops, classes, or events I’m teaching, attending, or otherwise participating with.

There is also a new Support the Podcast page where you can see all the ways to assist the podcast in the year ahead.

If at any time there is a way I can help you with your permaculture journey by including something on the show, in a live stream, or by offering a specific class or workshop, are always welcome to share your suggestions with me.

Until the next time, spend each day engaged in what you love, while taking care of Earth, yourself, and each other.

The result which follows is a frank conversation about agriculture and the impacts of systemic practices and policies on African-Americans, Indigenous, and People of Color. This includes the issue of land access and the need for each of these communities to have equitable quantities of land if current and future generations will ever have a chance to learn vocational agriculture, at a meaningful scale, from members of their own community. We also touch on how, as these are systemic issues, we aren’t individually at fault for the policies and practices that got us here, but that as we become aware of them we can take action in solidarity towards the liberation of all.

Find out more about Renard and his farm at: Vanguard Ranch Natural Gourmet

Renard is also the keynote speaker at the upcoming Together We Can Conference, presented by Future Harvest. I’ll be attending this virtual event on Thursday and Friday, January 13th and 14th, 2022. As this is completely online, it is a great way to start the New Year and I look forward to you joining me, Renard, and all the amazing speakers and presenters. Find out more and register to attend today at FutureHarvest.org.

Sign-up for the Ecological Literacy Retreat

Join the Podcast Patron Community

Stepping away from this interview, I want to reiterate what I said in the opening and that Renard and I touched on throughout our conversation. Systemic forces like those we discussed and how they impact all levels of society can be a lot to take in. Often, we are also, in the deepest meaning of the word, ignorant to these realities for a variety of reasons. Once we give ourselves that grace and become aware of these issues, we can then take meaningful action, to the best of our abilities.

If after listening to this interview you would like to learn more, I recommend reading some of the books that changed my perspective. Those include:

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein.

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenburg.

The following past episodes of the show also, in their own way, expand on various pieces of the conversation with Renard.

Jeff Speck - Creating Walkable Cities

Brad Ward - Permaculture and Reforming International Development

Permaculture, Land, and Land Access

1. Permaculture, Land. and Land Access
2. Jesse Frost
3.  Sarah Mock
4.  Amyrose Foll
5. Reana Kovalcik
6. Improving Land Access
7. Final Thoughts

When you are ready to take action, look for your local mutual aid or sustainable agriculture organizations. Through them, you’ll meet folks looking to liberate rather than simply lift up. So, reach out to them for more information and to get involved.

I’d also like to hear your thoughts after listening to Renard and his perspective. Leave a comment in the show notes, or get in touch in the usual ways:

Email: The Permaculture Podcast

Until the next time, spend each day making the world a more just, beautiful, and egalitarian world while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.

Resources

Systematic Land Theft by Jillian Hishaw, Esq. (Book)

Jane Elliot - Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise and Fighting Racism (Video)

Jesse
For me, the conversation with Jesse Frost spoke to the realities of what it means to be a farmer on a small site. That you can make this work on a little piece of land, but that it takes training ahead of time and figuring out your particular approach. Knowing where you want to be and how that can impact what you’re going to sell in order to maximize the profits of your labor while tending and building the soil. If you want to follow a similar path to Jesse, you may need to relocate to have access to a piece of land or the right markets. I also appreciate his candor that even though he had years of experience, it still took time to get things right, and he continues to learn and adapt.

I also enjoyed the idea of having aspirational goals, such as his example of reducing plastic, or my own of producing an interview of the same caliber and quality as Terri Gross of Fresh Air.  We may not be able to attain that at the moment, or ever, but we can still continue to work in that direction.

Then there were Jesse’s thoughts on land access. That leasing may be the right option, as well as finding partners and working together. There was a time I was looking at leasing land from a friend’s family to grow on, or there is my friend Erin Harvey of The Kale Yard, who started on a half-acre leased from some people she knew. There was also a time when Wilson Alvarez, now of The Reintegration Project, ran a garden installation and maintenance company where he traded part of his labor for a share of the garden harvest to sell or use at his home.

Sarah
From Sarah Mock, the realities she shared into the wealth, resources, and capital available for farmers, farms, and farming was like having the veil ripped-off of my understanding of farming. That the people we call farmers are often not, in reality, the actual farmers, rather it is often the people they hire to work the land for them. Understanding that distinction matters when we get involved with policy or legislation in order to remove the special treatment, as it exists today, for farms. Similarly, her deconstruction of the family farm also shows how farming is a business, with its own risks and rewards.

That growing food for people is the least valuable use of land, and there are systemic forces at play that restrict our ability to get on the land. There’s an interview I recorded with Dr. Laura Jackson that is linked below which expands on agriculture as a system and the difficulty of pivoting production, further detailing much of what Sarah shared with us.

In Sarah’s thoughts on land access, she reiterated the need to partner with others and look for diverse voices, mentors, and skillsets to work with. This is one of the most important steps I would recommend to anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur, build their permaculture dreams, or live into their agricultural aspirations.

Though I’m not a farmer, from my own experience as the producer of this show, there are a ton of skills I don’t have. The show wouldn’t be where it is today without friends, colleagues, volunteers, or freelancers I’ve hired. Even now, as I shift from production to more education, I wouldn’t be considering this move were it not with the current folks who answered my call for help. To them, I’m ever indebted and recommend that you build your team before starting your business.

Amyrose
I enjoyed Amyrose Foll’s honestly on getting involved with or creating organizations that liberate individuals and communities rather than stifle them. That there are a lot of us involved in this work, so let’s get together and increase our reach, speak more broadly, and show up as we’re able.

Speaking to food as freedom and that we’re all in this together, we can free ourselves and others by growing food, in whatever ways we are able. And that Amyrose reminded us that we can grow so much food if we abandoned lawns. Grabbing some quick numbers from The Washington Post, as of 2015 there were 40 million acres of lawns in the United States, alone. Even if we kept a quarter of that for recreation and were to grow imperfectly on the rest, lawns alone could feed more than 100 million people in the United States. Intensively and closer to perfect, the United States could feed everyone within the nation from just that 2% of the country covered in lawns.

But even if we cannot grow a quantity of food, we can still reduce food insecurity by volunteering with programs that serve people, like Food Not Bombs, donating money to our local food bank,  or placing non-perishable goods in a local little food pantry. If we want to take it further, we could set up a community fridge in our yard, or start a community fridge project in our community as Taylor Scott did.

I’ve mentioned this idea of community fridges to a few of my friends in the community, and it seems to have struck the right chord, as they all said it sounded like a fantastic idea for permaculture practitioners to get involved in. So, coming up in a few weeks, I’ll be interviewing Taylor to discuss Community Fridges, her project, and what we can do to get involved or start our own. If you have any questions you’d like me to ask Taylor during that conversation, leave a comment.

Reana
I grew up in a family that was larger-than-most, where my maternal grandmother and many of her children, lived through and remembered the crushing poverty of growing up in Appalachia. They had so little for so long, that they weren’t the kind to donate money, but who believed in a generous spirit and to help others with your time, skills, and labor. That, paired with growing up in one of the historic peace churches, left an impression on me to aid whoever I can, whenever I’m able, through direct action and activism.

Hearing Reana dive into our conversation and talk about that along with mutual aid was another refreshing reminder that we have a number of adjacent allies in the world. As she shared from all the mutual aid organizations she’s partnered with, we can likely find opportunities in our own area. As a permaculture practitioner, go ahead and hop onto your favorite search engine and type mutual aid and where you live into the search bar. Find those folks in your area you can collaborate with.

If you are a person of faith, does your house of worship have any food outreach programs you can get involved with?

Similarly, as Reana shared if we can’t find something, what about starting our own? Can we partner with our local farmer’s market, or an event, or even our corner bar or pub, to setup a table and raise awareness of food access and food insecurity? By being out there and engaged, we encourage and inspire others to get involved.

To extend our reach, whether or not the DSA is your party of choice, political action is required if we’re going to move forward on any of this, and it takes more than showing up and voting to make it happen. If you are in the United States, lobby against anything egregious you see in the Farm Bill. Run for office. Protest. Write letters to your elected officials. Support candidates who align with your goals, or the opponents of candidates who don’t.

Together, we are legion, and our voices will be heard.

If you’d like to connect with any of these guests and continue the conversation:

You can find Jesse at RoughDraftFarmstead.com. His work on caring for soil, with business partners Jackson and Josh is at NoTillGrowers.com, and his book, The Living Soil Handbook is at Chelsea Green Publishing, chelseagreen.com.

Sarah is at sarakhmock.com or on Twitter @sarah_k_mock. Her book, Farm (and Other F Words) is at Bookshop.org.

Amyrose is at VirginiaFreeFarm.org. Virginia Free Farm is also @virginiafreefarm on Instagram or VAFreeFarm on Twitter.

Reana, Slow Food DC and Share a Seed are at SlowfoodDC.org.

And so, as we draw this series to a close, my final thoughts.

The first is to work your net. Whatever you do, wherever you are, consider who you already know and what they do. From there, look at what you want to do next and see if anyone on your list could help you or we be open to collaborating. Reach out, let them know what you’re doing, that you were thinking about them and what they’re up to, and if there is any way you might work together.

The second is to persist. For as long as your work and efforts serve you and your community, keep showing up. You’ll make a world of difference if you do.

Now that this series is complete, I’d like to know your thoughts about this approach to addressing a single subject through a variety of perspectives and voices. You can leave a comment in the show notes, or contact me directly.

Next up is a guest interview from my friend Karryn Olson, as part of her work exploring right livelihoods, in a conversation with the Renegade Economist, Della Z. Duncan.

Until then, spend each day applying your permaculture knowledge to your unique and wonderful life, while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.

Listen to the other episodes in the series
1 – Permaculture, Land. and Land Access
2 – Jesse Frost
3 – Sarah Mock
4 – Amyrose Foll
5 – Reana Kovalcik
6 – Improving Land Access

Related Interviews
Erin Harvey - Starting a Small Scale Farm
Dr. Laura Jackson - Modern Agriculture Systems
Zev Friedman -  Co-Operate WNC, Mutual Aid, and the Scale of Collaboration

Additional Resources
People, Organizations, and Programs
Comfort Farms (Facebook)Common Good City Farm
Community Roots Garden
Cultivate the City
Democratic Socialists of America
Farmer Veteran Coalition / Homegrown by Heroes
Fields 4 Valor
Food Not Bombs
FRESHFARM
Future Harvest - Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture
Kyanite Pantry (LinkTree)
Miriam’s Kitchen
MLK Urban Agriculture Center
Mount Pleasant Library Friends
OAK - Organic Association of Kentucky
PASA Sustainable Agriculture
Peter Scott, found of Fields 4 Valor Farms (LinkedIn)
Plantita Power (Facebook)
Stag Vets, Inc.
Richmond Food Justice
Richmond Indigenous Society (Facebook) (Instagram) (Twitter)
Veterans Healing Farm
Virginia Fresh Match
Wangari Gardens

Direct Action and Mutual Aid
Direct Action (Wiki)
Mutual Aid (Organization Theory) (Wiki)
So You Want to Get Involved in Mutual Aid? (Article)
How to create a mutual aid network (Article)
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
Mutual Aid Hub

 Nonviolent Action
Gandhism (Wiki)
Anarcho-pacifism (Wiki)