http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture hourly 1 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://gmane.org/img/gmane-25t.png http://gmane.org http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22361 <pre>hi has this book been translated to portuguese or spanish ? http://burlingtonpermaculture.weebly.com/uploads/4/2/8/9/4289790/anotherkindofgarden.pdf thank you João Gonçalves "Permacultura (Cultura Permanente) é um sistema ético de design ecológico." (+351) 96 96 80 009 Chão Sobral - Oliveira do Hospital - Serra do Açor http://permacultureglobal.com/users/902-joao-goncalves http://chaosobral.org/index_pt.htm http://agricultura-familiar-tradicional.blogspot.pt/ https://picasaweb.google.com/joaovox http://picasaweb.google.pt/uniprochaosobral http://picasaweb.google.pt/festerrar Visite Permacultura na Serra do Açor - Portugal http://permaculturinginportugal.net/blog/ "Comida que nunca acaba" / Permacultura no Malawi http://www.neverendingfood.org/ Centro de Ecologia Integral http://www.integralecology.org _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> joao pedro goncalves 2013-05-23T08:39:14 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22360 <pre> Greetings ,  We atill have an internship position available at Three Sisters Farm. This is an intensive market garden and permaculture farm projects internship. June through September. For details email  Darrell Frey at          threesisters&lt; at &gt;bioshelter.com Thanks, Darrell Darrell E. Frey Three Sisters Farm defrey&lt; at &gt;bioshelter.com www.bioshelter.com Author; Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm. New Society Publishing, 2011 _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture&lt; at &gt;lists.ibiblio.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Darrell E. Frey 2013-05-23T04:08:08 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22359 <pre>It is my experience that most 'fire-prone' landscapes would see nearly a 90% reduction in fire frequency... if MAN was taken out of the equation. I have seen this with 'natural fires" in the forests of Finland and Russia. Upon closer investigation most of these fires were actually lit, even in very dry years. And isn't it amazing how much broken glasses and discarded beer bottles can be found along-side roads and near habitation in semi-arid regions with steppe-like vegetation? And on the Fukuoka farming lists there are some examples of people who had their farms torched in India by neighbors... for those neighbors believed that all that mulch attracted pests to the neighboring farms... And yet, miraculously, all that mulch, even under 8 months of dry season with daily temp. at 30 Celsius or above, never 'spontaneously' caught fire in previous years. Hope these examples help any discussion. In my opinion: Education is the key... Or the building of very high concrete walls. Daniel _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Daniel Jager 2013-05-22T00:43:16 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22358 <pre> ecolandtech &lt;dirt.4arm&lt; at &gt;...&gt; wrote: Thanks very much for your helpful and informative reply, Michael. This certainly explains much of what CEC and AEC are all about. I will read your page on this topic and in time will buy a copy of your book. My thoughts: I can see that the quarry rock dusts won't improve my soil's CEC but it will feed the soil microbes, weeds and crops growing in it. The weeds can be turned under thus returning nutrients to the soil and adding OM which may increase CEC on its own. My soil is Georgeville silt loam. It is bright red, high in iron and is exactly the same consistency and color (except for topsoil on or near the surface) 3 to 6 feet down where you encounter parent material which is lighter colored and larger particle size, like a very fine sand, which blends with eroded fractured pieces of bedrock (where the parent soil originated) and below that partially eroded bedrock, a kind of bluestone used to make crushed rock for roads, second hardest rock in North Carolina. GnC—Georgeville-Urban land complex, 2 to 10 percent slopes http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.**gov/Manuscripts/NC037/0/**Chatham.pdf&lt;http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/Manuscripts/NC037/0/Chatham.pdf&gt; Fundamentals of Soil Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) http://www.extension.purdue.**edu/extmedia/ay/ay-238.html&lt;http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/ay/ay-238.html&gt; Table 1. Normal Range of CEC Values for Common Color/Texture Soil Groups. Soil groups Examples CEC in meg/100g ------------------------------**-------------------------- Light colored loams and Clermont-Miami 10-20 silt loams Miami Dark colored loams and Sidell 15-25 silt loams Gennesee My goal was to turn red dirt into tan or brown garden soil to as great a depth as I could afford given the resources I had at the time. I accomplished this. Higher CEC is what I need now as my garden beds have gained a fair amount of compaction with resulting loss of water holding capacity and plant growth. Over the three years spent on this soil building program I blended, spread and tilled hundreds of tons of manures and rock dusts (four kinds, from four different quarries) on 5 acres of land then ended my project and sold the equipment. I now have a jungle of dense tall weeds in the fields, more this year than ever before. I can confidently say that Fukuoka was right. Here are galleries of pictures of the project: Preparation: 1) https://plus.google.com/b/**106181639516457096425/photos/** 106181639516457096425/albums/**5873426643820858097&lt;https://plus.google.com/b/106181639516457096425/photos/106181639516457096425/albums/5873426643820858097&gt; 2) https://plus.google.com/b/**106181639516457096425/photos/** 106181639516457096425/albums/**5873409948529968017&lt;https://plus.google.com/b/106181639516457096425/photos/106181639516457096425/albums/5873409948529968017&gt; Preparation &amp; Equipment 3) http://www.ibiblio.org/london/**venaurafarm/raisedbeds/&lt;http://www.ibiblio.org/london/venaurafarm/raisedbeds/&gt; For tool, implement and tractor nuts, the most useful pictures of my tractor and IMO world class implements. See especially: Equipment, Ponds, Bed Preparation Roll-A-Cone-Hiller-Bedder HowardRotavator-50inch Howard Rotavator YeomansPlowToolbar bottomplow-tillagetool-**YeomansPlowToolbar Yeomans Plow 1 Yeomans Plow 2 Yeomans Plow 3 Yeomans plow 4 Yeomans plow 5 Yeomans plow in use hiller-bedder-1 hiller-bedder-2 hiller-bedder-3 hiller-bedder-4 hiller-bedder-5 hilling-bedding1 hilling-bedding2 hilling-bedding3 hilling-bedding4 Fields: 4) https://plus.google.com/b/**106181639516457096425/photos/** 106181639516457096425/albums/**5871242339766436321&lt;https://plus.google.com/b/106181639516457096425/photos/106181639516457096425/albums/5871242339766436321&gt; 5) https://plus.google.com/b/**106181639516457096425/photos/** 106181639516457096425/albums/**5871242339766436321&lt;https://plus.google.com/b/106181639516457096425/photos/106181639516457096425/albums/5871242339766436321&gt; _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture&lt; at &gt;lists.ibiblio.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Lawrence London 2013-05-20T23:24:10 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22357 <pre>I have a friend that teaches a course that includes trips to the farmer's market. One thing that surprised her was the amount of students who had never seen a persimmon before (I think she said one thought they were bad tomatoes). An interesting question to include could be along the lines of "Are there any fruits/vegetables you've never seen before?" And maybe an encouragement to try said alien produce. Also, to add to the price comparison question, where (what country/how far away) is the supermarket produce from? Alia On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 12:52 PM, venaurafarm &lt;venaurafarm-Bdlq13kUjeyLZ21kGMrzwg&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org&gt;wrote: _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Alia Tsang 2013-05-20T21:50:45 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22356 <pre> On 5/19/2013 3:13 PM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote: Michael Astera of http://soilminerals.com replies to my question: "It sounds like you did a wonderful job of mineralizing your soil, but what you added won't necessarily add CEC. Exchange capacity is the ability of components of the soil to hold onto minerals via a static electrical charge. A soil particle with a positive + charge can hold a negative ion (an anion) like NO3- nitrate; a negative - charge can hold a positive ion (a cation) like K+, Potassium. See http://soilminerals.com/Cation_Exchange_Simplified.htm Soil components with high CEC, cation exchange capacity, include some clays, humus and humate ore, and charcoal. Humus, humates, and charcoal also have significant AEC, anion exchange capacity. (AEC is not usually measured on soil tests.) Rock dusts generally have little or no exchange capacity because they don't have significant static electrical charge. Florida soft rock phosphate is an exception, because it contains a good amount of high-CEC clay. Limestone powder, Calcium carbonate, has effectively zero exchange capacity; ditto for basalt, granite, etc no matter how small the particles. Adding fresh rock dusts can easily skew a soil test to read too high in exchange capacity because Ca, Mg, K, Na etc will be etched from the rock particles, rather than only from exchange sites. One can tell if they are likely to have that problem by pouring vinegar on a dry soil sample; if it fizzes considerably that means high levels of freely available cations, especially Calcium. The best way to find out the actual CEC of the soil would be to test a sample that has not been amended with rock dust." Michael A http://soilminerals.com _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> venaurafarm 2013-05-20T20:10:54 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22355 <pre> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Help with planning a farmers market lab? Date: Mon, 20 May 2013 12:57:34 -0400 From: Richard Moyer &lt;ramoyer-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org&gt; How would you recommend helping students understand where food comes from? Am teaching an online course this summer. Including labs. One lab goes along with class concepts of carbon cycles, foodsheds, watersheds, food webs, etc. And with human microbiomes and how to nourish them (see Michael Pollan's article at NYT Magazine.) Here's the lab draft, please comment and help me improve: 1) Visit one or more local farmers markets (this will be in July.) Photodocument (with permission) the variety of foods available. Compare prices with a local supermarket (excluding sale items). 2) Goal is to buy, locally, all the primary ingredients for the complete meal, from the one(s) who grew the foods. Take pics (with permission) of the foods and the growers. Ask for recipes. 3) During purchase, ask farmer/grower if they could please share why they grow and why they sell direct to consumers. If they are still willing to talk, ask farmer/grower where the crop nutrients (fertilizers, etc) come from, and what they depend on for water. 4) Cook this locally purchased meal and share it with at least one other. (Been doing this part for years, as an in class activity with a single food at a time.) 5) Reflect, with writing, pics, narrative, etc, on the experience of sourcing a local meal. Would you be willing to do this more often? Explain reasons why/why not. Suggest changes to any or all of the above. Again, goal is to help students connect with the abstract concepts of foodsheds, watersheds, food webs, and to experience a single supply line: one grower to one eater. Thanks for any and all feedback! Richard Moyer Castlewood, VA _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> venaurafarm 2013-05-20T19:52:01 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22354 <pre>http://permaculturaportugal.ning.com/events/florestas-de-alimentos-e-agro-florestas-em-zonas-de-inc-ndio O quê/What: 1º Ciclo de Encontros "Ambientes comestíveis - Florestas de Alimentos e Agro-florestas em Zonas de Incêndio" em Chão Sobral Cada encontro é independente do anterior ou próximo. O programa é co-criado pelos participantes e vai ser em detalhe adaptado aos interesses e perguntas dos participantes de cada encontro. 1st Cycle of Meetings "Edible landscapes - Food forests and Agro-forestry in Fire-prone Landscape" in Chão Sobral Each meeting is co-created by all participants and is independant from previous or next meetings. Interests and questions of each participant will be addressed in detail. Porquê / Why: "Porque vivemos num barril de pólvora ... " e precisamos testar práticas, gerar conhecimento e entender as diferentes maneiras de lidar com o nosso ecossistema, reduzindo o potencial destrutivo do fogo e gerando economia, serviços ecológicos e saúde. "Because we live in a gunpowder barrel ... " and we need to test practices, enacting knowledge and understand the different ways to deal with our ecosystem, reducing the destructive fire hazard and generating economy, ecological services and health. http://chaosobral.org/incendio.htm http://florestaparasempre.no.sapo.pt/19jul001.htm Como/How: Visitas de estudo guiadas a zonas de incêndio, ambientes comestíveis e sistemas agro-florestais locais Apresentações e oficinas temáticas Actividades práticas agro-florestais e florestais para apoiar projetos locais Guided study tours through fire-prone landscapes, edible landscapes and agroforestry systems Presentations and workshops Agro-forestry and forestry hands-on activities to support local projects Quando/When: Sábados / Saturdays - 25 Maio/ May, 1, 8, 15 e 22 de Junho / June 2013 9h-17h com intervalo para almoço. Onde/Where: Chão Sobral - Serra do Açor - Freguesia de Aldeia das Dez - Concelho de Oliveira do Hospital - Distrito de Coimbra - Portugal Organizado por João Gonçalves - Terras Altas - Permacultura Aldeia Pedagógica Organised by João Gonçalves - Terras Altas - Permaculture Learning Village </pre> joao pedro goncalves 2013-05-20T17:39:43 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22353 <pre>In the 70s, an aunt and uncle brought some of their relatives from the Soviet Union for a visit to New Jersey. The first thing they said upon seeing the greenswards of suburbia where my parents lived: "if we lived here, we'd plant potatoes" (or something like that) _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> tanya 2013-05-20T05:02:26 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22352 <pre>On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 9:43 PM, Pete Gasper, Gasper Family Farm &lt; farmer1-wf87oBPzlMlIqCWfrpycBw&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org&gt; wrote: Thumbs-up Pete, you've got the picture. That happens. What can we do to help change that? I have been thinking of a long essay to post about why we need multi-nation/culture collaboration and cooperation and exchange of knowledge, new ideas, old ideas, experiences, traditions and nuts and bolts how-to on survival on all fronts. I have posted many times on the value of researching, identifying, observing, documenting and preserving all the best agriculture and survival-related traditions of all cultures worldwide. This is what permaculture is, using the most sensible regenerative methods possible leading to sustainability and living in harmony with the Earth and its creatures. With knowledge comes power and ever-increasing numbers of those retaining and using this knowledge and passing it on for future generations. Tell me that isn't important. Ex: there are rural dwelling folks in southeast asia, maybe the Phillipines, who build wiers in their aquaculture streams and ponds, catch fresh water fish then after cleaning pack them with certain herbs and salt in vats for aging, storage and use for 15 years or more; the Chinese for centuries have been doing the same with dried fish, stored in barns for 20 years or more and the flavor of the fish improves over time. That's technology, low-tech nuts and bolts that is absolutely essential to their survival and good health, providing them with the sustenance needed for continued survival. Survival on a homestead, urban or rural where you provide yourself with as much of your diet as you can produce yourself is and will become even more in the future is one of the most important things you do with your time, money and energy. More later. LL _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Lawrence London 2013-05-20T02:25:29 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22351 <pre>We don't need peasants from other countries to teach us, the only folks who'd listen them don't need the information. We have plenty of information already. What we need is to break the grip of the merchant class on the minds of the people. Also our government at all levels fights against the people growing their own food. Getting land to grow on is a gargantuan task. We also lack 'widespread mutual assistance'. In this country you are more likely to be shunned than helped. Pete On 05/18/2013 02:34 AM, dwoodard-GBIL5D3FnXPYtjvyW6yDsg&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org wrote: _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Pete Gasper, Gasper Family Farm 2013-05-20T01:43:39 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22350 <pre> My original reply with typos corrected: MP: that if the Dacha gardeners grew 41% of Russia's food, that 49% is grown by Russia's state agriculture. What was missed in this equation is that Russia is one of the world's largest food importing countries. Russia imports a lot of its food. This means that it's agricultural sector isn't doing very good. LL: And there is no excuse for that. Russia has some of the best farmland in the world. Russia HAD some of the best farmers in the world and they knew how to work that prime farmland. Soviet Stalinism changed the face of traditional Russian farming. They converted all farming operations to collective farms generating food to ship to the party elite well away from where it was grown, leaving farmers, their families and relatives, communities and villlages living and working in a state of near poverty or thereabouts, otherwise not fairly compensated for their labors. The Russian farmers of old, called Kulaks (as far as I know) were the experts carrying forward the best traditions of Russian agriculture. The Kulaks were not happy with the changeover. Their displeasure did not go unnoticed in the ceners of political control so they were either exiled to Siberia or exterminated. Russia was left with no new generation who knew how to work those magnificent lands (Black Earth Region stretching from Ukraine to Siberia). That's what you have now, no new national agricultural infrastructure serving the Russian people at large. Just oligarchs and their schemes, one of which is to sell or lease some of that Black Earth region. But you have dacha gardeners and community and village gardens with larger farms distributing food throughout their regions. You will like this: I met a Krishna follower in Whole Foods one evening years ago and struck up a conversation asking him about organic agriculture there. He replied that after the Soviets left their traditional farming resumed without missing a beat. Most of their farms were small family units with some medium large with all food sold locally or distributed within the immediate region, if they were one of the few larger commercial operations. It was an assumed fact that the food sold at markets was organically grown. If a grower tried to sell food produced using methods involving pesticides, it became known rapidly and that vendor was shut out of the marketplace. MP: This should be a fact that should sober up the USA and other western countries who rely on agribusiness agriculture to feed people. Agribusiness and agriculture suffer mightily when empires crash. LL: People in the US need to wake up to the fact that they need clean nutritious food in order to live a normal healthy life and that food needs to be grown using natural methods and materials and produced within a reasonable proximity to consumers. MP: The US does not have a counterpart to Russia's dacha food production. In case of a collapse, the US will be in a tough spot for food. LL: They can begin now to create one. It would be really fine if we had Russian dacha gardeners and American cottage gardeners here together in this mailing list. What would it take to get that ball rolling? a special permaculture or PDC event or events focusing on that, for starters. LL On 5/19/2013 2:36 PM, Lawrence London wrote: This sounds like a dream and long as there is religious tolerance. _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> venaurafarm 2013-05-19T19:18:43 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22349 <pre> Michael Astera of http://soilminerals.com writes: Rock dusts &amp; CEC: Apart from remineralizing your soil would CEC be improved with application of large (medium or small) quantities of non toxic, environmentally clean, rock dusts from quarries, i.e. siltation pond fines? Reading the MSDS freely supplied by each rock quarry would tell you the array of minerals in their product and the percentage of each one. You could then decide which fines you want to use and how much you want to apply. The material is usually free; you pay for trucking or haul it yourself. Rent a skid loader for 4 hours and spread it out on your fields or gardens when soil is not moist or wet, i.e. very dry, to reduce compaction from loader or truck. These quarries are under close scrutiny by the EPA because the large water flow from the siltation ponds affects the local watershed, ecosystems, streams, rivers and creeks. I have two piles of dust at the edge of my field to use in top dressing or making potting soil. Rainfall has washed small amounts o these powders, pyrophyllite and granite, across my lawn and dirt driveway. Grass and white and red clover growth in these areas is incredible, never before seen, especially the white clover. Melilotus alba or tall white sweet clover has also benefited from the rock dusts. Every deciduous hardwood tree seed that falls on this land seems to sprout and grow at a record rate. Using a skid loader I mixed clean, aged, black, natural cow straw manure with equal amounts of a mix of quarry rock dusts, a small proportion of bagged and bulk mineral amendments (idaho rock phosphate, tennesee rock phosphate, florida colloidal and rock phosphate, greensand, azomite) then applied to areas where I wanted to establish gardens. I have photos of all this inluding pix of farm implements used. BTW a Yeomans keyline plow is a must have for a small farm. This was an expensive project that I could only afford to do once in a lifetime so I laid down a lot of materials and a lot of intensive, deep tillage, created a lot of tall wide raised garden beds, sold off all the equipment and now only use no or minimum till garden methods and top dress as needed to maintain soil fertility with compost made from weeds in the gardens, bagged chicken manure, granulated seaweed, rock phosphate, azomite and greensand. Biochar: My experience with applying charcoal from my outdoor wood fired cook stove/water heater was very good. The particles ranged in size from dust to 1" chunks plus a little ashes. I spread the charcoal over an adjoining weedy area. Plant growth there has been phenomenal for the past 5 years. If there is a way to make large quantities of biochar using readily available biomass,, tree trimmings, etc., i.e. materials on site, without generating more than a minimum of creosote-laden smoke, then this should become a standard gardening procedure to follow when materials need to be recycled and soil amendments are needed. Biomass and tree trimming could be divided between biochar production, Hugelkulture mound gardens and compost making. I assume that there is a near pollution-free method of making biochar that mostly exudes steam; anyway it should be possible with the right equipment configured and operated properly. _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Lawrence F. London, Jr. 2013-05-19T19:13:36 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22348 <pre> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashkirs _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Lawrence London 2013-05-19T18:36:11 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22347 <pre>Barking Frogs Permaculture is happy to announce that Pamphlet 4 of the free public domain permaculture design pamphlets, Island Permaculture, is now available in a Spanish translation. Download it at http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/panfleto4.pdf . Pamphlets 1 and 2 of the series are also available in Spanish, and the entire series is available in Portuguese. All of these documents are available for free download at http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/publications.htm . These free pamphlets are transcriptions of a PDC given by Bill Mollison in the US in 1981. The transcription and publication and now the translation of the documents has been facilitated by Dan Hemenway, Barking Frogs Permaculture. There's been some talk of a French translation, but thus far nothing has shown up. Feel free to pass this news on to others who might be interested. Bob Waldrop, BFPC web tadpole http://www.ipermie.net How to permaculture your urban lifestyle ebook, $1.99 On 5/15/2013 2:54 PM, Lawrence London wrote: _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture&lt; at &gt;lists.ibiblio.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Bob Waldrop 2013-05-19T01:25:41 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22346 <pre> I had a quick look over the lists and it is a good thing I am not jealous by nature Daniel. We are still suffering low temperatures and it is not even easy to grow lettuce. Potatoes have just broken ground and have been stuck there for a month. The lost crops of the Incas are more suitable for our conditions. Occa, mashua, quinoa, yacon and other Andes plants do quite well here normally. Our apple trees did not even flower this year for all the difference that would have made for pollinators are extremely scarce. John _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> John D'hondt 2013-05-18T20:30:26 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22345 <pre>The Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute (FLPCI) of Central New York has the pleasure of offering 4 partial scholarships for this year's PDC. The course runs from July 26 through August 11, 2013. Please help us get the word out. We will close applications very soon. Women, people of color, and individuals from other historically marginalized groups are strongly encouraged to apply. We appreciate your support locating great scholarship candidates. Applicants should have strong working relationships in their communities as organizers, educators and activists. We seek applicants who will share their new permaculture skills with their communities. The partial scholarship is $700 covering half of our fee for tuition, camping, and meals. It is need and merit-based. Please note that the scholarship funds will be disbursed after completion of the PDC, and requires a short video update in 2013. To learn more and apply, please visit http://fingerlakespermaculture.org/?p=1937 _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Michael G. Burns 2013-05-18T17:21:54 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22344 <pre>unsubscribe me please On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 3:34 AM, &lt;permaculture-request-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org&gt;wrote: </pre> Mary Farris 2013-05-18T14:25:30 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22343 <pre> Lawrence, the "kulaks" of Tsarist times in Russia were a small minority of relatively rich peasant farmers. The word means "fist." Some were into moneylending, partly it seems due to the difficulty of acquiring land when most of it was held by repartitional communes or nobles. Much of the pejorative use of the word in Soviet times was due to the attempt of the Bolsheviks to foster a class war in the countryside, something which the peasants did not take to naturally. Actually, kulaks seem to have been accepted as leaders in the countryside. (See "Stalin's Peasants..." by Sheila Fitzpatrick) The economist Alexander Chayanov suggested that the prosperity of the peasant household was often cyclic; households with many older productive children would be relatively rich; old couples living alone or young couples with small children would be relatively poor. Russian farming in Tsarist times was much less productive than in Western Europe, and this continues today. Some statistics in "The End of Peasantry? The Disintegration of Rural Russia" by Grigory Ioffe, Tatyana Nefedova, and Ilya Zaslavsky University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006: Wheat yields in hectolitres per hectare, 1870 UK...........23.5 Sweden.......19.7 Russia........7.5 Wheat yields in hectolitres per hectare, 2003 UK...........77.8 Sweden.......55.5 Russia.......17.1 Milk yields per cow in litres per year, 1870s Tyrol (Austria...............1780 Seine watershed (France).....2630 Russia, Baltic provinces......587 Central Russia................364 Milk yields per cow in litres per year, 2003 France........6045 U.K...........6844 Estonia.......5074 Russia........2733 Low farming productivity in Russia in Tsarist times was due to factors such as climate including cyclical droughts, medieval technology, the organization of farming on the communes including strip cropping, the difficulty of innovation on the commune, illiteracy and ignorance, and poverty making investment in equipment difficult. Nevertheless Russian peasants of those times seem to have often been better fed than those of western Europe. Collectivization seems to have been a social as well as an economic disaster, leaving a legacy of apathy and rampant alcoholism. As of eight or ten years ago, apparently much small farming was conducted in a peculiar symbiosis with unprofitable "collective" farms, so one should be cautious about drawing conclusions from the statistics of small farms. I have the impression that the dacha horticulture/farming phenomenon is to a large extent an urban based middle class affair. Ioffe, Nefedova and Zaslavsky quote Vladimir Kagansky in a Russian magazine article of 2003: "In Bashkiriya [Bashkortostan, a Muslim Tatar area east of the Volga near Kazan], the traditional countryside is alive, a true village is still around....In rural Bashkiriya, they work a great deal, build a lot, and drink rarely - this alone makes the rural Bashkirian hinterland amazing beyond belief." They go on to comment "Large families, widespread mutual assistance and coordination between rural households, and incomparably less heavy drinking (or no drinking at all) distinguish rural communities in Muslim republics." Douglas Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada On Thu, 16 May 2013 21:53:33 -0400, Lawrence London &lt;lfljvenaura-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org&gt; wrote: &lt;snip&gt; http://naturalhomes.org/naturalliving/russian-dacha.htm http://www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_main/rosstat/en/figures/agriculture/ _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture-rm8PX32fqvbMZ2x0e22RKNi2O/JbrIOy&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> dwoodard-GBIL5D3FnXPYtjvyW6yDsg< at >public.gmane.org 2013-05-18T07:34:05 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22342 <pre>Cuba is one of our best post-collapse examples.  Did you know that permaculture was instrumental in Cuba surviving their "special period"  and developing their urban farming methods? It was primarily a crew of permaculturists from Melbourne, Australia working for PGAN. A NGO. I was visiting Melbourne in that time period and they told me all about it.  It is great that the 2013 International Permaculture Convergence is being held in Cuba.  Here is a url about it and how US people can attend. http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/11th-international-permaculture-convergence-and-research-tour I hope someone posts a good review on this list serve after it happens. Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski Permaculture - Wildcrafting - Medicinal Herbs &amp; Seeds --- On Fri, 5/17/13, tanya &lt;tanyagarden&lt; at &gt;gmail.com&gt; wrote: From: tanya &lt;tanyagarden&lt; at &gt;gmail.com&gt; Subject: Re: [permaculture] Dacha gardeners feeding the Russian nation | In 2011 the dacha gardens of Russia produced 40% of the nation's food. To: "permaculture" &lt;permaculture&lt; at &gt;lists.ibiblio.org&gt; Date: Friday, May 17, 2013, 10:39 PM There's the example of Cuba, which after the fall of the Soviet Union was forced to create an organic, sustainable urban agricultural system. On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:21 PM, Michael Pilarski &lt; friendsofthetrees&lt; at &gt;yahoo.com&gt; wrote: _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture&lt; at &gt;lists.ibiblio.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives:  http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared  http://www.avantgeared.com _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture&lt; at &gt;lists.ibiblio.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> Michael Pilarski 2013-05-18T05:57:18 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.politics.activism.permaculture/22341 <pre>There's the example of Cuba, which after the fall of the Soviet Union was forced to create an organic, sustainable urban agricultural system. On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:21 PM, Michael Pilarski &lt; friendsofthetrees&lt; at &gt;yahoo.com&gt; wrote: _______________________________________________ permaculture mailing list permaculture&lt; at &gt;lists.ibiblio.org subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list maintenance: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture message archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture/ Google message archive search: site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring] Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com </pre> tanya 2013-05-18T05:39:09 Search the mailing list at Gmane query http://search.gmane.org/?group=$group=gmane.politics.activism.permaculture