You can find out more about Jesse and her work at insideedgedesign.com, and Penny is at regenerativedesign.org. 

Jesse and her daughter

Permaculture accessibility is of ongoing importance to me, as well as those of us who call Seppi’s Place home. Though my work on the podcast continues to push the edges of social, economic, and community permaculture, the core corpus of knowledge that comes with designing a series of permacultures rests in the Permaculture Design Course, which requires steeping one’s self in the language of the land, food, and gardens; water, clothing, work, and shelter. Through that one gains a core understanding of the language and lexicon of practicing permaculture. It isn’t the destination of the journey, but the starting point, a place too often one cannot start down because of barriers of time, cost, or burden to family. That is changing, however, as more permaculture teachers, such as Penny and Jesse, see this problem and try different solutions. In their case, they provide child care and couples discounts. In others, the format is broken up and spread out over a series of weekends. Some are even being offered in the gift-economy. As time and needs change, so does our approach to permaculture. I remember a time speaking of permaculture beyond the landscape seemed completely foreign and antithetical to the work, but more books and articles emerge on social and economic permaculture each day. The more teachers and students who take up the mantle to teach and learn this material, the more options we have in sharing it with others, and in continuing to make it more accessible and affordable. Whether you are a student looking for an alternative to the traditional design course intensive or are a teacher who is offering something different, I’d like to hear from you.

Resources
Permaculture Design Course with Broken Ground
Inside Edge Design
Regenerative Design Institute
Institute of Permaculture Education for Children
Sarah Wolbert David
Sobel David’s Books

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This leads us to talk about the Ecological Landscape Immersion program taught at PSC, the role of mentoring, the results of Miriam Volat at The Farm School, and we eventually touch on the shortcomings of a Permaculture Design Course for anyone wanting to practice as a professional.

As I continue to navigate social permaculture and living in community, the work of Erik, his colleagues, and others like him are important for creating the next generation of landscape oriented permaculture practitioners. The Permaculture Skills Center offers a variety of trainings focused on creating a career for students whether that involves ecologically focused landscaping, regenerative agriculture, or permaculture education. If you are near Sebastopol, California and considering any of these path, these programs are definitely worth investigation. Permaculture Artisans and The Permaculture Skills Center continue to raise the bar of what it means to practice permaculture professionally.

Find out more about Erik and his work at permacultureartisans.com and the numerous education offerings, as well as their own blog and podcast, at permacultureskillscenter.org.

Along the way if I can assist you, wherever you call home and whatever leg of the journey you are on, get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Resources:
Permaculture Skills Center
Permaculture Artisans
Clear Creek Schoolhouse

My guest for this episode is Adam Campbell, a permaculture teacher who lives at the Stillwater Sanctuary and teaches at the Peace and Permaculture Center. This is the second of several episodes that come from one long conversation I had with Adam.  As this picks up right where things left off, it’s best if you start with that first show and then join us again afterwards.  In this case we begin with him sharing a story about his friend Megan who started her a Personal Honesty Project, and what making a radical change in one’s life is like. We also talk about having confidence and trusting yourself to do transformative work, and move to more about thoughts on education and learning, inside and outside the traditional school system and hall of academia. I think this episode fits well with the past interviews from Natasha Alvarez, Stephen Harrod Buhner, and of course Ethan Hughes (Part 1) (Part 2). I have another 2 hours of raw audio from the day he and I spoke, so expect to release another 2 episodes with Adam in the future. Something I want to speak to is near the beginning of this conversation when Adam and I were talking about making new models that work for our selves and others, and about giving up things to find what we do and don’t need. One of my fellow martial arts students and I were working through some fencing material and he kept saying, “Make it smaller.  Make it smaller. Keep making it smaller until it doesn’t work, then make it a bit bigger.” That’s how I've come to think about these changes we make in our lives. Start with little changes and keep removing pieces and removing pieces, until you get to a place that doesn’t work, where something isn’t right, and then add a bit more back to it. Then you’ll know what your tolerances are for something and can find what really works for you. What you really need. What you are capable of. And have a place to take action from. But, you need to act. Resources: Peace and Permaculture Education with Adam Campbell (Part 1 of this series) Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken Non-Violent Communication by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg The Heroes Journey (Monomyth) as considered by Joseph Campbell (Wiki Links) The Four Agreements and Don Miguel Ruiz Think Little (Links to a PDF) by Wendell Berry A Note From Scott: I’ll be attending A Gathering of Farmers on March 8^th, 2014 being held by Certified Naturally Grown. This event is on the grounds of Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.  If you are in the area and would like to attend perhaps we can take a few moments to meet and catch up. Contact the show: E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/ThePermaculturePodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst (Episode 2014-010)

My guest for this episode is Marisha Auerbach, a permaculture designer and teacher from Portland, Oregon. She joins me today to talk about her work in the urban environment and her intentional choice to move to Portland to build working examples of the systems needed to exemplify what we can do. From there we touch on biodiversity and savings seeds, then cover some educational opportunities coming up that Marisha is involved with, and end with a general conversation about permaculture education and whether or not the on-line space is an appropriate one in which to teach permaculture. We cover a lot of ground and Marisha's long involvement in the community means there are copious resources listed below. You will also find links to several past guests she mentions to support our conversation together. If you enjoy this episode, or any of the others from the podcast, please consider making a donation so I can keep on keeping on. Find out how at: thepermaculturepodcast.com/support. You may enjoy these past episodes: Edible Forest Gardens and Permaculture with Dave Jacke Exploring Permaculture with Larry Santoyo Financial Permaculture with Eric Toensmeier Teaching the PDC with Andrew Millison Resources: Herb'n Wisdom, Marisha's Blog. Marisha's upcoming events: Maya Mountain Research Farm (Belize PDC) The 2014 Local Food Enterprise Summit: A Financial Permaculture Convergence People and places: Bullock Brothers The Evergreen State College Forest Shoemer Gary Nabhan Wild Thyme Farm Organizations: Abundant Life Seed Foundation (Now merged with Territorial Seed Company) The American Livestock Breed Conservancy Seed Savers Exchange Plants and Animals: Ahimsa Silk Coast Strawberry Lower Salmon River Winter Squash Sedum Silver Fox rabbit Join in the conversations: E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/thepermaculturepodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst (Episode 2014-003)