Regenerative Skills

I have many heroes in the regenerative economy and my guest today certainly ranks up at the top. Wayne Dorband and his online educational platform, the Ecolonomics Action Team (or EAT for short) has been putting an amazing webinar series with some of the best educators and practitioners out there for years now and Wayne himself is a great example of a successful serial entrepreneur of regenerative enterprises. Above all though, I reached out to Wayne to get his expert opinion on aquaponics and aquaculture systems. In this interview Wayne uses examples from his own commercial aquaponics system centered around a two acre pond on his land in Colorado to explain the major components and concepts behind the success of his systems. We start by defining the differences between hydroponics and aquaponics and work through the essential components of the cycles within the system. We talk nutrient cycling, trouble-shooting and how to observe a tough-to-diagnose underwater system before killing all your fish by accident. This is a really in-depth look at aquaponic systems so grab your notebook and I’ll turn things over to Wayne Resources: EAT community

Welcome back to the regenerative round table. Today Neal and Oliver are joined by "Bamboo" Charlie Rendall, natural builder and founder of Return to the Forest as we talk in depth about new developments and progress on the Abundant Edge farm (aka Finca Tz'ikin). We recently had a new drainage channel open up right next to the farm so as we scramble to shore up the northern border of our land and divert any potential water away from the house we discuss the many ways that you can mitigate the risks and damage from a severe weather event when it comes to building and landscape management. We also talk about a new joint venture that Charlie and the Abundant Edge team are planning around permaculture gardening services and we talk about all the ways we are planning to use the business venture to benefit our communities in the process. The audio quality is not as good as I would like on this episode due to a problem I had with the microphone so sorry in advance but there shouldn't be any trouble hearing what is being said Resources: Abundant Edge course returntotheforest.org

In my focus and passion for designing beautiful, functional and holistic buildings and landscapes, it’s easy to get caught up in the macro and forget the micro, or to put it another way, for as important as the big picture is, the interactions at the ground level and the beauty of the relationships that you can develop with the plants that enrich the earth are certainly not to be forgotten. For insight on these relationships I turn today to Lee Reich, a master gardener who holds a graduate degree in soil science and a doctorate in horticulture and who has written many books on gardening over the years to talk about his new book “The Ever Curious Gardener” in which he explores the observations he’s made from his own experiences with his plants, and some of the science behind why they behave the way they do. Resources: Get the book "The Ever Curious Gardener" leereich.com

Welcome back to part two in our series speaking with Crystal Honeycutt about the idea of regenerative health. Crystal is a naturopathic doctor and registered clinical herbalist who has been sharing incredible insights on the topics of nutrition, self-assessment and diagnosis and how to find out just what your body needs to maintain itself in top form. For more on Crystal’s background and superhero origin story you can listen to the beginning of last week’s episode. In this session we’ll pick up where we left off and start to explore the topics of supplementation for faster recovery, the nuanced definition of regenerative health and how you can rise above our low standards of health today to reach your superhuman potential, so let’s get started Resources: Crystal on Facebook balancedliving4u.com

Regenerative living can be a very wide and nuanced topic. Today we’ll start on a two-part journey into a tricky and sometimes controversial world of holistic health and what it means to experience regenerative well-being. My guest today, Crystal Honeycutt, is an accomplished naturopathic doctor and registered clinical herbalist who has been in private practice for more than 10 years specializing in chronic illness, stress, and trauma. I’ve been a client of hers in the past and she’s helped me immensely in my recovery from chronic digestive problems and through working with her I’ve gotten a completely new perspective on just about every aspect of personal health and how closely it relates to emotional and environmental health as well. In this first installment of the two-part series, Crystal talks about how her interest in health comes from her own experiences with chronic disease and trauma. We start by exploring the fundamentals of nutrition and how to navigate the mine-field of fad diets, nutritional advice and more. Crystal helps to guide us through basic self-reflection and self-diagnosis to make the best dietary decisions for our bodies too. In the second episode in this series we’ll explore why you may want to look to your herb garden before heading to the pharmacy, the role that supplementation can play in helping us to recover from disease, what regenerative health means, and so much more. I hope that you get as much out of this conversation as I did and don’t miss next week’s session for the conclusion too. Now I’ll hand things over to Crystal Resources: Email Crystal Honeycutt Crystal on Facebook balancedliving4u.com

Our baby goats, just a few days old One of the biggest challenges that we and many other peramculturalists face is how to balance the need for diversity and resilience in our ecosystems and enterprises and the need for efficiency and simplicity in their maintenance and operation. On this regenerative round table Neal and Oliver talk about their own experiences and mistakes along the way in finding this balance on the Abundant Edge farm as well as balancing the development needs of their site with the work they do for clients. Everything from moisture issues in hobbit houses to delivery systems for goats cheese and running the business sides of each. Join the discussion and share your own stories in the comments below.

This is an interview I’ve been looking forward to for a while now. I was fortunate enough to speak with two guests from opposite ends of the spectrum of permaculture learning. The first, Geoff Lawton, one of the original students of Bill Mollison and a permaculture designer and teacher for more than 30 years, and the second, Sam Parker-Davies, an intern with Geoff at Zaytuna farm in Australia who has jumped in deep with permaculture learning, especially at the community level. In this interview we talked in depth about the challenges and points of inspiration from each perspective and experience. Geoff talks about inspiring regenerative projects at the community level and what it takes to get the ideas to really stick. Sam discusses his experience getting involved in local politics and even running for a seat on the city council. Geoff and I also talk about his experience and memories from working in our region of Guatemala many years ago with our friends at IMAP (the Mesoamerican institute of permaculture) and gives great advice on gathering information and observing a site in depth before making assumptions. This is a great and nuanced discussion from both ends of the spectrum that I’m sure anyone out there can relate to on some level

Welcome to part two of the Abundant Edge design criteria checklist. If you're just tuning in now for the first time, I would recommend that you have a listen first to part one where we covered the goal and visioning exercise and the site analysis portion of our design criteria. Today we'll be starting where we left off by diving into "invisible structures and moving through the list until we've formed an actionable strategy with well defined roles and expectations. Remember, this list isn’t meant to be a replacement for your own judgement or creativity as a designer, but it reflects many of the criteria that have helped us the most and what we consider to be some of the most essential bits of information and observations that can be expanded on based on the needs of your clients (or your own projects). We are constantly updating and revising this list so feel free to let us know if there are other essential criteria missing from this list or considerations that you think are important. Resources: Get the Abundant Edge design criteria checklist here * indicates required Email Address * First Name * Last Name *

The biggest challenge for our team here at Abundant Edge when it comes to holistic design is that there are just so many considerations. Climate and landscape data, client’s wants and needs, economic constraints and many more can seem overwhelming but are crucial to creating designs that work in harmony with nature and solve real problems. This is why we put together our “Design Criteria Checklist” to help us remember some of the most important considerations and questions to ask when designing for individuals and organizations alike. This list isn’t meant to be a replacement for your own judgement or creativity as a designer, but it reflects many of the criteria that have helped us the most and what we consider to be some of the most essential bits of information and observations that can be expanded on based on the needs of your clients (or your own projects). We are constantly updating and revising this list so feel free to let us know if there are other essential criteria missing from this list or considerations that you think are important. Don’t forget to listen to the podcast episode that accompanies this list for more stories and explanations on how we’ve used many of the key points bellow to help us get past sticking points and challenges in our work. We hope you enjoy! Resources: Get the Abundant Edge design criteria checklist today * indicates required Email Address * First Name * Last Name *

Here we are once again to talk about the progress, projects and challenges of building the Abundant Edge homestead. On this episode Neal and I are also joined by our good friend Tim Reher. Owner of Shangrila Coffee Roasters in San Marcos just one town over from us here on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. In this episode we talk about setting up our four animal compost factory and the benefits of inoculating soil with bio-ferments and compost teas. I break down the process of slaking our own quicklime to make the mortar for laying slate stone tiles without any cement, and Tim dives in deep into the world of coffee production and processing as we investigate ways or improving the ecological impact of the industry for small producers and processors alike. This was a really fun and insightful conversation to record so I hope you enjoy it! Resources: Shangrila Coffee