permaculture short courses in wilmington

I am not an expert, and I hope to never be one. The world has too many so-called experts and not enough people actually unafraid to fail. Failure provides education, something that cannot be taught by an expert or a textbook. It is a personal risk in the unknown and a strengthening process that makes the end product that much better. Many of the things I tried with this project have been miserable failures the first time around but are now successes. Through this process I hope to relay to you what is working and how things can be improved with local food.

I have been thinking about doing a presentation about local food, and now, with a new series of workshops, I get a chance to write it and break it out. This will be a good opportunity to start building a local foods community in Wilmington and elicit ideas on what that means to other folks. It will also be a good time to talk about what hasn’t worked with Cricket Bread, what the drawbacks are, where the support is minimal.

Some of the ideas I have for the presentation include defining our sources, discussing regional availability, settling on substitutions, preserving, basic foraging and scavenging, sample weekly menus based on the season, where to buy or find the basics, buying in bulk and my personal experiences with local food. Thanks to April and Jessica for helping me brainstorm a bit yesterday on the subject of “what would you want out of this workshop?” If you all have more ideas, please comment.

There are other short courses in this series besides the Seasonal Eating class. Contact Neal Taylor (info at bottom) about these workshops. All courses are in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Principles of Permaculture – 10/30/2007 6-7pm

This will be a more in-depth discussion of the principles from each of the two founders of Permaculture. We hope to give everyone enough background with this class that you’ll leave knowing some good starting places to implement Permaculture in your own place.

Starting Your Own Vegetable Garden – 11/6/2007 6-7pm

Want to know where, when, and how to get started with a vegetable garden of your own? This course will discuss different ways of building good garden soil, appropriate fertilizing techniques, options for layout and size, and recommendations for maintaining soil fertility.

Seasonal Eating – 11/13/2007 6-7pm

One of the best ways to decrease your “food miles” is to eat foods that are in season and grown locally. In our climate, that also means learning to preserve that fresh food so it’s available at other times of the year. This course will introduce ways to gear your eating habits to the seasons and how to can, freeze, dehydrate, etc. those summer crops that you want to enjoy in winter! (Guest Speaker – Trace Ramsey)

Natural Building – 11/20/2007 6-7pm

With everyone talking about green building these days, why not take it to the extreme? Natural building is sustainable, with low embodied energy, using materials found locally. Whether it’s cob, straw bale, timbers, or thatch, this is a building option that is beautiful and easy on the Earth. This presentation will focus on a straw bale project in Raleigh, with examples from other parts of the country as well. (Guest Speaker – Brent Bishop)

All courses will be held at Tidal Creek’s Community Room, above the Co-op. The topics are subject to change, but I will email everyone a week before each class to confirm the topic and/or guest speaker. The fee will be $20 per class, or $50 for all four classes. Please respond to this email or call Neal with the class(es) you would like to attend so we’ll have the facilities in order. We are also organizing classes and workshops after the holidays for all the other topics from the survey, especially indoor gardening, beekeeping, and passive heating and cooling designs. Thanks again, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Neal Taylor
One World Design
oneworlddesign -at- ec.rr.com

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