Dr. Mobus was brought to my attention by a listener around the time of the release of the episode with Nicole Foss and I found his work to be a nice compliment to that. If you’re not familiar with Ms. Foss, I recommend you listen to that interview in addition to this one, but you don’t have to listen to her first. In this interview, I reference an article on child poverty.

There is not a lot of commentary from me on this episode, as Dr. Mobus covered the spread of what we talked about fairly well, and his understanding of permaculture connects his ideas to how we, as permaculture practitioners, can provide a way forward through what the future holds. The picture is bleaker than I personally see ahead of us, but the hope in all of this is that by taking action we can make a difference. We have a model, a way to do that, now all we need to do is apply it, and create the world we want to live in.

Resources:
Dr. George Mobus (University of Washington, Tacoma)
Question Everything
David Pimentel (Click on "Publications" to read some of his work)
Charles Hall
'Crack baby' study finds poverty is worse for development than exposure to drug in the womb (NyDailyNews.com)

Do you have questions or comments related to this episode? Leave a comment below to start the conversation.

Native Plants in the Landscape Conference @ Millersville Though the conference normally spans three days, I attended the sessions on Friday, June 6th, but oh what a day it was. The sessions were divided into a series of concurrent, as well as all attendee, sessions. I went bounced around from as many as I could to get information on what was happening to share with. Here are my thoughts on each piece I was able to get to, and how you can find more information on each of the presenters detailed below.

Dick Brown – Planting Pollinator Meadows
he opening slide to Mr. Brown's Lecture[/caption]I started my day with Dick Brown and his lecture on Planting Pollinator Meadows. I enjoyed his presentation because it reflected my own work of creating an intentional meadow where before there was only lawn. Mr. Brown is a retired 8th-grade science teacher who then went about working to prepare and create meadows in central Pennsylvania. His experience as an educator came through because he had a very well-prepared talk, and an excellent handout to accompany it that clearly articulate what he does, his goals, and how he goes about it. I also smiled as he referred to the presentation from the previous day on foraging, which had been offered by past guests of the show Jon Darby and Ben Weiss. Not only was Dick there as a speaker, but also as a participant to learn more and apply it to his own passion. Mr. Brown also shared that he uses fire for the management of his meadows, which piqued the interest of my inner 12-year-old. I remember my time spent by a campfire and how beautiful it was, and here is a way to use it as a tool to create even more beauty and to heal the landscape. He runs the blog Native Plant Action Network, at nativeplantactionnetwork.blogspot.com.

Dr. Elizabeth Farnsworth – Go Botany! A 21st-Century Tool for Learning About Plants
Next up in my tour was Dr. Elizabeth Farnsworth who was talking about a tool she and others created called “Go Botany” that can help you to identify and learn about 3,500 different plants, created by scientists for everyone to use. This is a tool for children and adults, and if you have questions and reach out to the organization, you’ll be reaching a live human being who does this work, not an automated response. This is a great tool if you live in or near the Northeastern United States, from Pennsylvania through Maine and surrounding areas, and for anyone interested in plants, foraging, and wild foods elsewhere in the world. I found Dr. Farnsworth to be incredibly dynamic, passionate, and engaged in this material, and continually humorous in her presentation. Though I didn’t make it to her later talk about the role of citizen scientists, I’m looking to speak with her about both that topic and the Go Botany tool and how we, as permaculture practitioners and enthusiasts, can add to the body of scientific knowledge. You can find out more about Go Botany! at gobotany.newenglandwild.org.

Eric Toensmeier – Permaculture with Native Plants: Ecological Edible Landscaping

I’ll admit that I did not get to spend as much time listening to Eric’s presentation as I would have liked, because I wanted to cover as much of the event as I was able to, but I will say this: he’s good. He’s really good at what he does and is even more engaging in person. The first few minutes of his presentation was getting to know the audience, who was familiar with what would follow, and then setting up where he would lead the audience over the next hour. He and I did get a chance to sit and talk before his presentation and touch on a lot of little questions and pieces of what’s happening in the wider permaculture world, including how incredible the IPC in Cuba was. I would like to have him back on the show in the future to share his thoughts from the IPC and how we can use what he learned there to expand what we’re doing as practitioners, as well as to have a conversation about permaculture and native plants. Eric’s website is perennialsolutions.org.

S. Edgar David – Nature, Schools, and Educational Landscapes
The thing about an event like this, when there is so much going on, is that you can’t attend everything, and I do wish I’d been able to have a team with me to cover the native plant conference, as the next two presenters had some great information that I only caught a part of. The first of those was Mr. Edgar David a Landscape Architect who works on projects integrating sustainability and nature into schools and other educational environments. He shared a number of projects through pictures and explanation about how he’s able to accomplish this, get the buy in from others, as well as how he includes a good mix of elements in his design for students to learn about the natural world. You can see some of what Mr. David spoke about at his site, seddesignstudio.com.

Derek Stoner – Native Plants for Nesting Birds: Connecting Flora and Fauna
The second of those was Derek Stoner, the Conservation Project Coordinator for the Delaware Nature Society. His lecture was on Native Plants for Nesting Birds, and he walked the audience through 10 difference species of plants to include in their landscape, chosen for individuals living along the Piedmont plateau which stretches up from Alabama through Georgia along the eastern United States, through Pennsylvania and into New Jersey. Mr. Stoner’s focused discussion allowed him to show illustrative images that walked us through the details of how the chosen plant species provided benefits such as food, building material, or nesting locations for birds. I was at this presentation long enough to see four of his ten species. They were:

• Elderberry
• Possumhaw
• Highbush Blueberry
• Black Willow

Find out more about Mr. Stoner and his work at Delawarenaturesociety.org.

Tyler Case – More than a Stool for your Garden Gnome: How Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms can add New Dimensions to Your Garden Because I’m still on a mushroom kick my last presentation that I was able to cover was with Tyler Case, and I wound up staying for the entirety of. Tyler is a listener to the show who has begun a commercial mushroom operation in Philadelphia, PA, and he was the reason I was reminded about the conference coming up. 

A Mushroom Polyculture Diagram. Shiitake, Shaggy Mane, Winecap Stropharia, and other mushrooms I don't remember.

Tyler gave a nice overview of mushrooms, the types, how they’re grown, where to find them, good edible species, and how to use them in the landscape. He framed this conversation around four ways that mushrooms can help us.

1. Beauty. Mushrooms come in a variety of shapes and colors that can add beauty to the landscape. Some are even bio-luminescent.
2. Bounty. Mushrooms are food we can eat, converting woody material and other refuse into something edible.
3. Bio-degrade. Mushrooms can turn waste into food, but also sharing some of the research of how mushrooms can handle fossil fuels and other soil contaminants.
4. Bank soil. Mushrooms help to create the building blocks of soil by decomposing material.

What he shared with the audience was impressive and reflected a lot of the current research about fungi, as I understand it from my own readings, as well as including his personal experience. Tyler’s professional website is mycopolitan.com, and you can read his blog at chickenmushrooms.com. I’ve asked many of these individuals, and several others I met at the conference, to be guests on the show. I’ll let you know as we get those interviews set up and recorded. If you'd like to see the presentations, workshops, and lectures I wasn't able to cover this time around, check out the full conference brochure (links directly to a PDF). With where the direction of the podcast is headed, which I’ll share with you in an upcoming Permabyte, I’m planning to be in a place where I can attend this event next year, and others like it, with a team of individuals to cover it more fully. Finally, whether you are a plant nerd, a permaculture professional, or someone just starting out, events like the Native Plants in the Landscape Conference are a great way to get introduced to ideas and connect with individuals who are making a difference in the world. I'll leave you with this last picture which came from dinner that followed the conference at a local restaurant. By my rough count there were around 40 people from the conference who came, sat, and ate together in order to carry on the conversation. I was humbled and inspired to be around so many people who care and are doing what they can to support animal habitat, to grow native plants, to educate and integrate children with the natural world, and so much more.

Part of the Plant and Permaculture Dinner Party

Get in touch with the organizers of local events that interest to you, and help to create a better world by getting involved when you can to take care of the earth, your self, and each other. If you have a local event I should know about, or would like to share you own field coverage of something, please get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Experimentation is important to our work as permaculture practitioners because it expands our personal understanding though experience, adds to the body of knowledge available to the community, and allows us to expand on the common permaculture answer, “It depends.” This topic came to mind because of the experiences I’ve had recently sitting in and documenting an apprentice program being run by my friend and colleague Ben Weiss, and the experience of sealing a pond with natural methods. The gley technique currently being tried is the third different attempt. As the newspaper was peeled back from the fermented manure, a conversation began peppered with questions:

• “What should we expect to see under the paper?”
• “Ben, what are you looking for?”
• “Did the manure ferment long enough?
• “How long will it take the suspended solids to filter out?”
• “When can plants go into the pond?”

Even as the water filled the pond space and it appeared to be holding water, more questions arose and the conversation continued. In many cases, there were no clear answers, just a diverse consideration of what was possible, and what would be learned whether or not the pond held water, with an understanding that we could learn as much, if not more, if the pond lining failed. At that time we didn’t know if the pond would hold water. Even after filling it, several hundred gallons later, more questions arise. As we work through this, there will be more places for success, and failure, but on the other side of it all everyone involved in the project, even me documenting and discussing from the sidelines, will have learned something from the process. We’ll know more than was known at the beginning of the process, and be able to say more than simply, “It depends,” when asked a question about pond building. You can see pictures of this pond building exercise at facebook.com/thepermaculturepodcast and I’ll be adding more as the experiment continues. An episode is also planned with Ben Weiss to discuss the process and what was learned throughout. I use this as a single example of experimentation and learning more, but implore all of you engaged in this work to ask questions, experiment to find answers, and share what you find with others. Be, as Stephen Harrod Buhner implores us, to be citizen scientists. Add to the wealth of human knowledge, and the application of permaculture. If you’ve seen a tree growing in shade, but all the literature says that it shouldn’t do well there, plant one of your own and see whether or not that example you found was an outlier, something distant from other observed data, or something unobserved before. Take the permaculture model and design something you do with it. Jason Godesky wrote The Fifth World Role Playing Game with permaculture in mind. I use permaculture when designing educational materials in cooperation with friends, an when creating the online PDC+ programs. Even with this podcast, a lot of the work is an experiment within the framing of permaculture. Stepping back to see what is and isn’t working. Asking for feedback, applying it and trying new things, such as the Permabytes. Now, when a friend asks me for advice about running a podcast, I can answer their questions. When sitting down to talk with a friend about permaculture, the answer now makes more sense than it ever did when I tried to define the word succinctly. There’s a method, a dialog, and understanding that I could not properly relay before gaining further personal experience. We can all do this. We can all experiment. Use the prime directive, the ethics, and a set of principles, whether Holmgren’s or someone else’s, and play with them. Try different things. See what works. See what doesn’t work. Then share it with the community. Whatever your experiments and experiences are, I’d like to encourage you to keep trying and doing more, and let me know how things work out. Get in touch. E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/ThePermaculturePodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann The Permaculture Podcast (Episode: 2014Byte0606)

There’s a little bit of everything in this episode, which I recorded in February of this year. Evan and I talk about his background, the work of the Ecology Center, and practicing our work professionally, including the power of collaboration. Just as we support various functions in the landscape, so should we in our communities as well. Part of The Ecology Center’s success stems from partnerships with other individuals and organizations, as well as from the mission-driven, hands-on focus. Evan and his team work together with the public and private groups to deliver education that is experiential and benefits everyone interested in sustainability. This is taken a step further by offering continuing education in partnership with the local school district to offer continuing education to teachers, which in turn benefits students.

Find out more about Evan and The Ecology Center: theecologycenter.org

Before we begin I would like to thank Jason of The Fifth World RPG for sponsoring this episode. Imagine a collaborative, structured, storytelling experience where you and your friends can come together and explore what the future could hold for your descendants, hundreds of years from now. The Fifth World is a free, open source, open world tabletop role playing game that uses the framework of permaculture to consider the endless possibilities. Find out more at TheFifthWorld.com. Principle 4: Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback It sounds kind of simple, and I know I’m prone to simplification, but the practice of this principle, like so much of permaculture, is more difficult than it initially sounds. Part of that stems from this principle applying to more than just negative impacts and growth, but also the positive. With this principle, we’re reminded to work towards a balance between negative impact loops, things that take away, as well as too much of a good thing, the positive feedback loops. We’re also to take action when we come to understand the potential impacts. In the case of the positive loops, they can lead to ideas that at first glance appear good, such as the yields from mono-crop agriculture. As more information becomes available, and we see emerging patterns, then we change the system. Holmgren begins the chapter by walking us through feedback loops and energy hierarchies, but the meat of it, for me, begins when he starts looking at personal responsibility, reflecting the Prime Directive of Permaculture from Bill Mollison’s, Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual:

The only ethical decision is take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children.

David uses this as a framework for discussing how we can use personal responsibility, combined with ethics, to move away from a trap of consumerism and consumption. In order to do that we need to understand our wants, needs, desires, addictions, abilities, liabilities, and responsibilities. David follows this with a self-audit walking us through that process of self-discovery. I did this as part of my Permaculture Design Course in 2010 and was surprised by what I discovered about myself once I dug deep. I’m here, now, a voice in your ear, because of that process. I’d like to take that a step further and consider an idea that Dave Jacke shared with me, though he is not the originator for, of espoused values versus governing values. You might things these as “what we say” versus “what we do.” Have you ever met someone who said they believed in something, but their actions don’t line-up with their words? It’s like that. Knowing the places where our own thoughts and actions don’t line-up is important to the big work of becoming the permaculture practitioners we want to be, in a realistic way. We can then understand our own biases, our own hypocrisies, and own up to it. Face them. Admit them. Find strength in our vulnerability, and do something about it. That’s part of the active engagement required in the practice of permaculture. Permaculture is applied. It’s activity based. Or, to borrow from the interview with Jack Spirko, permaculture works and is inspiring because it’s a do-ocracy. We might accept feedback, but if we don’t do anything about it, what does it matter? How much permaculture are we really doing if we don’t do something? I’d rather you go out and plant a blueberry plant and get it wrong, like I did, and learn from it, again as I’ve done, than to sit and listen to this show if you’re just consuming it for no other purpose but to listen and feel like listening alone makes a difference. It might, but there’s more to it than just taking in information. Go. Do something. Once you have then come back and tune in again. Don’t worry. I’ll still be here chugging along when you’re ready to hear and learn more by adding to your experiential understanding. I also consider this principle as a reminder to tinker and tweak our designs. To work on a piece here, a piece there, and then to make changes by interact with it as necessary. The desire to create self-functioning systems may not be possible. From page 71 of Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Self-maintaining and regulating systems might be said to be the Holy Grail of permaculture: an ideal that we strive for but might never fully achieve.” And you know what? That’s OK, so long as we learn as part of the process and improve on our own abilities. I mention blueberries above, and my own mistakes, because in the beginning of my design experience my understanding of patterns over time was wrong. I didn’t have the understanding or body knowledge to create the design I envisioned. Now I know not to presume that a tree has reached maturity and will not change or expand in some way. I also know more about sun angles, the ideas of heavy shade, light shade, partial sun, and full sun exposure. I could also move the blueberries to where they would do better, but leave them there as a reminder of that first lesson. Plus, the Norway maple they rest under will probably be cut down in the next year or two, as it’s in poor health, completely changing the environment for those bushes. I speak to these experiences because the other information David provides in this chapter relies on an understanding of systems thinking and theory that I’m not in a place to cover at the moment. I understand it from within the confines of my computer science background, so won’t claim to be the best at this interconnected way of seeing the world when it comes to ecological systems. There are, however, ways we can all get better at that holistic understanding of the Earth. If you haven’t already, you should read Donella Meadow’s Thinking in Systems: A Primer. Many of the ideas presented by Holmgren in this chapter, including feedback loops and lack of direct feedback mechanisms, make more sense after reading Ms. Meadows book. With that recommendation I’ll draw this discussion to a close for now. I’m sure this principle, like all the others, will get revisited in the future. There’s so much more permaculture to cover than this byte allows. For those of you who follow the show on Facebook, as this episode comes out I’m meeting with Ben Weiss and his apprentices to see how the pond project worked out. They’re planning to fill the pond and see if the gley holds water. I’ll take and post more pictures to facebook.com/thepermaculturepodcast documenting the results. What are your thoughts on Principle 4? Get in touch: E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/ThePermaculturePodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann The Permaculture Podcast (Episode: 2014Byte0602)

I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting what I found between the covers of this book. I try to approach my first interview with each guest as a novice, and to ask questions from a place of little to no-knowledge, so I wasn’t deeply familiar with Sam’s work and writings when I spoke with him. I didn’t know why Sam is considered one of the go-to gurus of foraging, including from other respected individuals such as Arthur Haines. Then I read Sam’s book and was blown away. Sam Thayer’s work, as represented in The Forager’s Harvest, is personal. He does this. There is an authenticity that comes through in what he writes. He expresses a genuine joy for those who forage, as well as admonishing those who repeat information without a personal understanding of what they do. I can respect that and it’s individuals like Sam who push me to get better and be better in my own permaculture work. I enjoyed this book a great deal not only because of the personal perspective but also because Sam’s writing is funny, and reminds me of Mary Roach, the author of books like Stiff of Gulp. The Forager’s Harvest is filled with one-liners and humorous offhand references. One that comes to mind as I work on this episode is in the section on parching grains.

Parching can be done in a metal container over virtually any heat source (but not a volcano; that’s dangerous).

The humor and personal touch makes this 360 page book enjoyable to read, and Sam provides all the information you need to get started identifying plants, including the recommendation you get additional field guides to compare your initial identifications against. Foraging and gaining enough understanding and knowledge is a slow process. I remember one of my earliest forays into wild food where I misidentified a plant and only someone else asking, “Are you sure?” that sent me back to the page and finding my mistake. Though this book is weighty, Sam doesn’t overwhelm you with a little bit of information about a lot of plants, like you find in something like Peterson’s Edible Wild Plants: Eastern/Central North America. Rather, there are 32 plant entries that Sam has extensive experience with and enjoys eating. Each of the plant profiles is a standalone essay, so you don’t have to read the whole book to make use of it. In each plant entry there is a personal anecdote from Sam regarding the plant and a piece of his history with it, along with a description, information on the range and habitat, and harvesting and preparation methods. Along with the text are full-color plates to aid in identification of the plants throughout the life cycle, not just when the plant is at the fullest leaf cover or the flowers are the most beautiful. This is important as the various parts of a plant you might use are harvested at different times of the year. I’ll admit my surprise in the number of useful edible parts available from an individual plant including root to leaves to stalks and stems, as my earliest memories about foraging and wild foods came as a Boy Scout, but much of what we were taught at the time, and I’ll date those experiences to the late 80’s and early 90’s, was about leafy greens and berries. We didn’t touch on roots, nuts, rhizomes, or tubers. Picking up this book, you should read pages 1-77 first before jumping into foraging and trying to eat something you’ve just found or think you know well. These first few chapters cover what you need to know about the book, getting started with edible wild plants, plants identification and foraging safety, as well as how to harvest, prepare, and store your wild foods, and a nice chart that shows when to find and harvest the plants profiles in the book. Overall, this book is worth the cover price just for the first first 77 pages, as well as the 8 page glossary, regardless of where you live. However, as plants have specific ranges and habitats, you may not live in an area where all the plants detailed grow. In the Eastern Woodlands of Appalachia in Pennsylvania where I live, I’ve seen most of the ones listed, but not all of them. You’ll find a list of the plants that Sam includes in this book below so you can decide whether or not this is an appropriate resource for you and where you live. Should you wish to pick up a copy to add to your library you can purchase this book directly from Sam at foragersharvest.com for $22.95, which is incredibly inexpensive given the wealth of information he’s included. If you pick up a copy, get two and give the extra to your friend and begin sharing the joy of foraging and wild foods with others. As a parent I find foraging is a great activity with my young children, and look forward to teaching their friends as they get older. Plants Profiled in The Forager's Harvest

• Ostrich Fern (Matteucia struthiopteris)
• Cattail (Typha angustifolia, T. latifolia)
• Wapato, Arrowhead (Sagittaria spp.)
• Wild Rice (Zizania aquatica, Z. palustris)
• Wild Leek, Ramp (Allium tricoccum)
• Smilax, Carrion Flower (Smilax herbacea, S. ecirrata, S. illinoensis, S. lasioneura)
• Butternut (Juglans cinerea)
• Siberian Elm (Ulmus pumila)
• Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)
• Wood Nettle (Laportea canadensis)
• Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
• Goosefoot, Lamb's Quarters (Chenopodium spp.)
• Spring Beauty (Claytonia spp.)
• Marsh Marigold, Cowslip (Caltha palustris)
• Swamp Saxifrage (Saxifraga pensylvanica)
• Serviceberry, Juneberry, Saskatoon (Amelanchier spp.)
• Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana)
• Pin Cherry (Prunus pensylvanica)
• Ground Bean, Hog Peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata)
• Hopniss, Groundnut (Apios americana)
• Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)
• Sumac (Rhus spp.)
• Wild Grape (Vitis riparia and other Vitis species)
• Basswood, Linden (Tilia spp.)
• Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)
• Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)
• Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
• Virginia Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum)
• Nannyberry, Wild Raisin, Black Haw (Viburnum lentago)
• Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum, V. edule)
• Burdock (Arctium minus, A. lappa)
• Thistle (Cirsium spp.)

The Forager’s Harvest is also one of the books featured in the Traveling Permaculture Library Project. If you’re not involved, you should be. Find out more about at thepermaculturepodcast.com/library. Are you already foraging and want to share your insights? Are there other experts, authors, or books you'd recommend? Get in touch: E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/ThePermaculturePodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann The Permaculture Podcast (Episode: 2014Byte0530)

Find out more about that work at his farm website, Wellspring Forest Farm. This conversation is an introduction to the idea of cultivating mushrooms on woody material. As this is Steve's second time on the show we jump right into the topic at hand. If you would like to learn more about his biography and background, check out our first conversation,  Agroforestry with Steve Gabriel. The four types of mushrooms discussed:

• Shiitake (Lentinula edodes)
• Lions Mane (Hericium erinaceus)
• Oyster (Pleurotus spp.)
• Winecap Stropharia (Stropharia rugosoannulata)

We end a bit abruptly, but covered everything that I wanted to in this introduction to farming mushrooms in the woods. You can find out more about the work at Cornell and Steve’s research in a document titled, “Best Management Practices for Log-Based Shiitake Cultivation in the Northeastern United States.” (PDF) I want to have Steve back on to answer listener questions, so if you have anything regarding these mushrooms species, or others, you’d like to have him discuss, please let me know. If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to learn more from Steve, the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute is running an in-person 15-day intensive Permaculture Design Course in New York from July 25 – August 10, 2014. Go to fingerlakespermaculture.org to find out more information and register if you’re able to attend. Because of this conversation I was encouraged to take the plunge into growing my own mushrooms. I’ll join you after the interview with Steve to talk about that experience. I’m going to be inoculating with Stropharia around my home design in the next few days, and will post pictures of that process. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Mushroom spawn, tools, and supplies.[/caption] My own mushroom inoculating experience so far involved having my photographer John join me for a day of plugging logs, along with assistance from my son, over a one day period. What I learned from that experience is that, as Steve indicated, it is a labor intensive process. Using a starter kit from Field and Forest Products, paired with a hand-drill meant that it took 45 minutes to inoculate each log, once we got started. Combined with the video and photograph production time, we ran until we were running out of comfortable daylight and my wife was calling us to dinner. Drilling 50 holes, [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Lining up and marking holes before drilling.[/caption] plugging, and sealing them for each log was rather intense, but satisfying. That day John, my son and I we were able to plug 5 logs with shiitake spawn that day: three red maple and two red oak. I’m now picking my way as time allows through some relatively fresh logs to plug more shiitake, and some reishi. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1280"] The logs at rest.[/caption] What I learned from this experience is that an ideal team for plugging logs is a 4 or 5 person team per station: 1 person to drill, 2 to plug, 1 to wax. That potential fifth would be there to turn the log for the driller and keep production moving. The Stropheria looks to be much easier, and I’ll know in a day or two of this episode coming out as I’ll be inoculating with 5lbs of sawdust spawn. More on that in the near future. Even though I have some time before I’ll be able to harvest the mushrooms, I’ve enjoyed experimenting with them and hope that you’ll take my step forward with this as encouragement to try your own hand at these species of mushroom as well. Download the document (PDF) from the team at Cornell for more ideas on how to grow your own mushrooms, as well as information on the cost and potential yields. Then check out the Field and Forest Products, Inc. website, fieldforest.net, and see what is appropriate to grow where you are. If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll have Steve back on to clarify what he can, or direct us to appropriate resources. What are your experiences farming mushrooms and fungi? What would you like to learn more about? I'd love to hear from you. Get in touch: E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/ThePermaculturePodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann The Permaculture Podcast (Episode: SG-Mushrooms)

Sharing with you the video from the Walking Elephant Theatre Company, "Rediscovering What it is to be Human." Watch, listen, delight, and share this with others.

A link to the video: Wild Neighbors - "Rediscovering What it is to be Human." The Show Updates: 1. I've made the decision to continue the podcast. I'm not going to bring things to a close this fall. We're on. 2. Your outreach was a big part of being able to continue. Thank you to everyone who has shared some of your surplus with me. C. A musician friend is working with me to create a new theme for the Permabyte episode. This is to provide an audio cue to what type of show you're listening to, and to transition better between episodes if you're binge listening. 4. Several students have signed up for the more personalized PDC. Join them, and learn at your own pace, for the new session starting June 1st. Contact me if you have any questions. You can register at this URL: https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/pdc-tuition/ 5. I'm moving some of my personal focus to more project based experience and documentation. Researching and quoting the same old material doesn't lead to new knowledge or breakthroughs. Examples of that positive experiential direction includes the mushroom plugging I did with John and my son, as well as the pond building workshop with Ben Weiss. This may change the Permabytes some as I write and record more, and include more details in the show notes. Updates to follow as that comes together. 6. Know that wherever you go you're not alone. There are many many people working to build a better world. Get in touch: E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/ThePermaculturePodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann The Permaculture Podcast (Episode: 2014Byte0526)

Though the title of this episode is Faith and Environmental Education, and we spend part of the conversation discussing his work in that role as part of the Faith and Earthcare series, that is only a portion of what we cover. Much of the discussion is around how to engage children, and adults, in establishing a sense of place, getting people interested in exploring the world around them, and how to foster a care for the world through knowing the earth and the plants, animals, and other life that call this place home. If you are a parent, grandparent, or teacher of any kind, you should listen to how Todd's many years of experience can help you on your own path with children. Todd and I also talk about the role of the "Citizen Scientist". For that reason, I recommend you compliment the interview with Todd by listening to the one with Stephen Harrod Buhner. Mr. Buhner inspires the reawakening of the personal interest in understanding the world, and then sharing that information with others. The Citizen Scientist with Stephen Harrod Buhner 

The focus went more towards the interrelation of the principles, and how obtaining a yield can influence the other guiding ideas of practicing permaculture. The show ends by turning back towards a need to obtain the yield of food, from the rules of 3 from disaster preparedness:

• We can only live 3 minutes without air.
• We can only live 3 hours without shelter.
• We can only live 3 days without water.
• We can only live 3 weeks without food.

Food is essential to life. Food as a yield is nearly a commandment to our practices. Things wrap up with another recommendation to read 8 Forms of Capital by Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua. What are your thoughts on Principle 3? Get in touch: E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/ThePermaculturePodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst The Permaculture Podcast with Scott Mann The Permaculture Podcast (Episode: 2014Byte0512)