The Permaculture Podcast

My guest today is Tim Krahn, a Canadian engineer, builder, and author of Essential Rammed Earth Construction from New Society Publishers. Tim joins me to share his thoughts and experiences with rammed earth as a natural building method. This includes the distinction between raw and stabilized rammed earth and how rammed earth can reduce the amount of cement required for a long-lasting wall. Tim also gives an estimate of the price difference between stick-built walls and professionally installed rammed earth, while acknowledging that natural building is a growing but still niche field. We close with a discussion of the importance of valuing our time when considering the cost of erecting a building or other project to come to the real price for any of our work. You can find his book, Essential Rammed Earth Construction at NewSociety.com.

What does it mean to go back to the ground and learn the fading skills necessary to work the forest with our hands? To read the land assisted by tools we sight with our own eyes? To create new visions of old roles, such as a land steward or cottager? I explore those thoughts and more with my guest today, Hazel, who some of you may know as Tom Ward. You can find out more about Hazel and his work at siskiyoupermaculture.com. Resources Hazel's Collected Videos and Recordings Heartwood Institute Brock Dolman - Occidental Arts & Ecology Traditional Aboriginal Burning (Cool Burning) Recommended Reading Beyond the War on Invasive Species by Tao Orion Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Brown Keeping it Living by Nancy Turner The Shallows by Nicholas Carr The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram Tending the Wild by Kat Anderson World Without Mind by Franklin Foer

My guest today is Lindsey Bender, the chief mycologist for Field and Forest Products, Inc., a mushroom spawn and supply company located in Wisconsin. Find out more about Lindsey and Field and Forest Products, Inc. at fieldforest.net.

Rob Avis, of Verge Permaculture, joins me to talk about rainwater harvesting. This conversation is based on his book from New Society Publishers, Essential Rainwater Harvesting. Rob wrote this book along with his wife and Verge Permaculture Partner, Michelle. Though they began their professional careers as engineers designing solutions in the oil fields, they now live on a productive permaculture homestead in Alberta, Canada, and use that experience to create and share all the formulas, calculations, and components needed to create a productive system for capturing clean, healthy water. You can find more about Rob's work at VergePermaculture.ca, and his book, Essential Rainwater Harvesting at NewSociety.com. Resources Rainwater Harvesting Toolkit Peter Coombes - Urban Water Cycle Solutions Dr. Anthony Spinks PhD Thesis on Biofilms and Sludges American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA) North American Rainwater Harvesting Code

This episode is a look at the large-scale operations at D.C. Water to turn municipal waste into fertilizer and energy at the Blue Plains Waste W10ater Treatment Plant and looks at ways we can take the principles of permaculture and move them from the home to the community scale. The audio of the interview comes from a video which you'll find on the podcast's YouTube Channel at: YouTube.com/thepermaculturepodcast You can view the video directly by visiting: bit.ly/bloomsoil

In this episode Co-host David Bilbrey continues to explore the edge between permaculture, business, and social change by sitting down with Dr. Otto Scharmer. Together they talk about Dr. Scharmer’s work on Presencing and Theory U, the development of effective organizations, and how each of us can become more powerful changemakers. Resources Otto Scharmer Presencing Institute Theory U Books MITx u.Lab Peter Senge The Limits to Growth (Wikipedia) Club of Rome EdX Transforming Capitalism Lab

In her storytelling way, Rosemary Morrow joins me to share why, after all these years, she continues to practice permaculture and finds this design system so important to our present and the future. Her newest book is Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture, which you can find in the store at PermaculturePrinciples.com. Listen to the first conversation with Rosemary: Rosemary Morrow's Journey to Permaculture Visit Our Partners Wild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You! Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show. 

My guest for this episode is Brad Lancaster author of the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond series. In this episode, Brad and I discuss the value of infiltrating water into the soil so that it becomes a resource that we invest during water-rich times and withdraw from that bank only when needed during dry times. As Brad’s work includes more than just drylands the conversation also includes ideas for storing water in rich areas. Along the way we also look at several listener questions including fog harvesting, using living systems to hand wet basements, and observing to find the right match for plants suitable to wet clay soils. What I really enjoyed about this conversation was Brad’s continued reference to creating and using living systems. Visit Our Partners Wild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You! Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show.  Other resources of interest Brad's blog post on Fog Harvesting David Eisenberg and the Development Center for Appropriate Technology Zephaniah Phiri Maseko's biography at National Geographic.

Looby Macnamara, with Delvin Solkinson, joins me to discuss Looby's work on Cultural Emergence, her vision for our work as permaculture practitioners, and the tools she's developing to help facilitate this transition. Find out more about Looby and the Cultural Emergence deck at Cultural-Emergence.com. Delvin is at VisionaryPermaculture.com. Cultural Emergence Kickstarter Visit Our Partners Wild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You! Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show. 

How do we limit the damage of the greatest terrestrial environmental disaster ever, climate change? By drawing down carbon. How we do that, and the most effective ways possible, form the base of this conversation with Eric Toensmeier, as he shares his ongoing research about the impacts of agriculture and how we can use agroforestry to increase productivity and sequester carbon. Find out more about Eric at perennialsolutions.org, and The Carbon Farming Solution at ChelseaGreen.com. Visit Our Partners Wild Abundance - Top 10 Vegetables to Grow that Will Really Feed You! Marjory Wildcraft - How to Grow Food! Donate Directly to the Podcast: PayPal -or- Venmo @permaculturepodcast Join Our Patreon Community: Patreon.com/permaculturepodcast Want to listen to more conversations about Permaculture? Browse the extensive archives of the show.  Resources The Carbon Farming Solution Project Drawdown Perennial Solutions The Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri Agroforestry at Virginia Tech IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Trees on Farms by RJ Zomer, et al. (PDF) Savanna Institute Steve Solomon - Gardening When It Counts John Jeavons - Grow Biointensive Legal Pathways to Carbon_Neutral Agriculture by Peter Lehner and Nathan Rosenberg (PDF) Diet for a Small Planet Related Interviews  Dr. Laura Jackson - Modern Agricultural Systems  Keefe Keeley - The Savanna Institute  Jean-Martin Fortier - The Market Gardener  Dave and Lee O'Neill - Radical Roots Farm  Jerome Osentowski - The Forest Garden Greenhouse