Christopher Shein - The Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture
My guest for this episode is Christopher Shein, a permaculture designer and teacher from the Bay area of California, who recently co-authored the book The Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture: Creating an Edible Ecosystem.
We discuss his book from the context of how he got involved with writing the book, working with a publisher, and the process of why and what got included in the final product. We also talk about his role as a teacher at Merritt Community College, where he's taught for 11 years, graduating around 700 PDC students in that time, the way he approaches the class as a hands-on endeavor, serving as another model for teaching Permaculture, and the permutations and changes coming as Permaculture continues to mature.
Christopher clearly came from a place of knowledge and experience with Permaculture, so the book sounded interesting, coming from someone so steeped in the design and practice. That caused me to reach out to Christopher for an interview as well as his publisher about an advance copy of the book to read in preparation. Even though my copy was an uncorrected proof, the material stood out solidly and I liked it. If you would like to learn more about Christopher, you can find him at his personal website: wildheartgardens.com, or at the Merritt College Landscape Horticulture website: merrittlandhort.com, or at Timber Press, where you can pick up a copy of the book, timberpress.com.
Resources:
Wildheart Gardens Christopher's Website
Merritt College Landscape Horticulture
Timber Press Christopher's Publisher. Links directly to his book.
Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (B.A.S.I.L.)
Detroit Summer Program
Linnaea Farm Where Christopher studied Permaculture.