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Tag Archives: PDC
Pruning the Edible Forest Garden March 31
Posted by on February 23, 2018
Hands on- Fruit and Nut Tree Pruning
A day long exploration of the science and practice of ecological tree crop management for diverse yields.
Willow Crossing Farm
Johnson, VT
SUNDAY, March 31
10 am – 4 pm
Join Tree Farmer Keith Morris for a day of hands-on practice with fruit and nut tree pruning, in a diverse permaculture forest garden setting. Spend the morning in the large yurt learning the science and ecology of how trees lose limbs and ‘heal’, and explore the deep traditions of how humans beings observe and interact with this phenomenon.
We’ll synthesize a variety of pruning ideas, strategies, and techniques to help you develop your own philosophy, understanding, and confidence to go out and work with trees in your landscape in a regenerative and yielding way. After lunch and some hot cider we’ll go outside to explore one of VT’s oldest permaculture designed food forests- a reforestation of old pasture and hayfield in the floodplain of the Lamoille River.
We’ll briefly tour ‘Productive Buffers’, wildlife corridors, and stop to work in zones of Plums, Apples, Peaches, Pears, Berries, Vines, Hazelnuts, Walnuts, and more– driven by the group’s interest, and discussing pruning techniques for trees both young and old. We’ll look at and evaluate previous years of pruning decisions and ensuing consequences, and explore some natural tree injuries and healing responses, helping participants to better understand the implications of our pruning decisions over varying periods of time. We’ll finish the day practicing with different tools to cut wood cleanly- with an eye towards maximizing production, fruit quality, ease of future maintenance, and minimizing pest and disease pressure. We’ll also set the stage for top-working, multi-variety grafting, species changes (i.e.. Peaches on Plum roots), and other forms of propagation. In preparation for our April 7 Grafting Workshop and Scionwood Exchange We’ll also prune mature, bearing Hazelnuts and manage black locust, walnut, butternut/ buartnut, pecans, and more for nuts, firewood, high-value lumber, succession, aesthetics, and other long-term aims.
We’ll pass around, demonstrate, and allow you to trial favorite tools, including pruners, saws, pole saws, etc.; speak to their selection and maintenance, and discuss hygienic practices to promote orchard health and reduce cross-contamination.
This workshop kicks off our series for 2018!
Please enter your email in the box on the right hand side of the page, or ‘like’ us on Facebook to get the calendar and details for our other offerings such as: fruit tree grafting (April 7), nursery plant sale, natural beekeeping workshop, nut production, diverse understory planting, spring development for gravity fed irrigation, natural building, compost heat, season extension, earth oven construction, stone masonry, and more. Our Nursery Plant Sale pre-orders are open now, with plant pick ups scheduled to begin April 23.
Our 2018 Permaculture Design Certification Course will be offered July 22- August 3, and they are filling quickly. Applications for our Advanced Permaculture Design / Build /Grow / Teach internship, and APDC guided portfolio development will now be accepted on a rolling basis!
Event is $40-60 suggested donation/ sliding scale, including warm or cold cider during lunch and a round of hard cider tasting (21 and over) afterwards. No one will be refused for lack of funds.
*We are looking for photographers or videographers to help document the event, or create a short educational video.*
Please pre-register, and dress to spend the day outdoors.
We’ll need your email address if you’re planning on coming because the weather will determine where we’ll have people park. Feel free to bring your *clean, sterile, and sharp* pruners and saws.
Felco’s F 13s- the pruner of choice for large hands, or thick branches
Keith Morris has been collecting and experimenting with rare fruit and nut trees for 20 years, and teaches ecological design throughout the northeast. He has worked to help create resilient, diverse, socially just, and economically viable food systems around the world since 1996. Please spread the word to potentially interested friends and networks. Thank you for your support of our work!
Thanks, Keith and Crew Willow Crossing Farm www.willowcrossing.org
For rideshares, conversation, or sharing with facebook friends- please visit the event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/270680720016950/
You can view some photos from last years event HERE.
Grafting Workshop and Scionwood Exchange
Posted by on February 21, 2018
It’s really starting to feel like SPRING!
Please Join our
7th ANNUAL Fruit Tree Grafting Workshop and Scionwood Exchange!
At Willow Crossing Farm in Johnson, VT
April 7 10am – 2pm 2018
(Thank you for sharing this with potentially interested friends and networks)
Join us for a day of hands-on fruit tree grafting! We’ll begin the day in the classroom understanding the science of grafting, and practice bench-grafting apples, pears, plums, and other stone fruits.
Everyone will have the opportunity to graft their own trees to take home!
After lunch, we’ll go out and tour grafted and ‘multi-grafted’ fruit trees (including peaches grafted onto plums) and ‘top work’ multiple varieties onto pears, apples, plums, and other stone fruit. We’ll discuss some pruning basics, different grafting strategies for ‘fruit salad trees’, healing damaged trees, reworking new varieties, revitalizing old orchards, enhancing cross-pollination, and space considerations. We’ll also look at and evaluate both successful and failed past grafts.
We’ll contextualize our work in briefly telling some history of our farm and touring our incredibly diverse collection of nuts, berries, vines, nitrogen-fixing plants, and debt-free natural buildings. We’ll also explore the incredible history of grafting, the range of grafting possibilities, and practice with professional grafting tools which make for more successful grafts by novices and experts alike.
Each attendant will leave with an apple or pear variety of their choosing on semi-dwarf or standard rootstock, or a stone fruit variety of their choosing on native american plum rootstock.
$60 suggested donation sliding scale includes cider and tea, and your own grafted fruit trees to take home. No one will be refused for lack of funds, but everyone must pre-register.
Visit the Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/468266296716690/
Due to the popularity of this event, you must PRE REGISTER HERE. There is a possibility of another event later in April, please send an email to express your interest.
Please RSVP by filling out the registration form and submitting payment via paypal (Keith@ProspectRock.org), Facebook Messenger (easiest), or sending a check to:
‘Prospect Rock Permaculture’
P.O. Box 426
Jeffersonville, VT 05464
We must get your email address from you, as the weather will determine where we park cars. and we will also send you some information about how to best collect scion wood if you want to propagate some favorite fruit trees.
The workshop will be taught by:
Nicko Rubin is the owner of East Hill Tree Farm, where he has been growing and propagating hardy fruits and nuts in the foothills of the Groton Mountains. He completed the master’s program for sustainable landscape design at the Conway School.
Dave Johnson is a timber framer with a passion for fruit trees. His competence with sharp tools and wood translate readily into many successful grafts and a legacy of multi-grafted old wild apples throughout the hills of Vermont.
Keith Morris has been collecting and experimenting with rare fruits, nuts, and medicinal plants since 1996, and is professor of ecological design at the University of Vermont. He’s slowly built his family’s farm debt-free with sweat equity and has contributed to creating resilient and diverse food systems on 5 continents.
Thank you,
Keith
(802) 734-1129
Willow Crossing Farm
Johnson, VT
http://www.WillowCrossing.org
REGISTER NOW for our 11th Annual Permaculture Design Certification Course: July 22 August 3, 2018. Farm and Nature Immersion! World Class Ecological Design Education and Portfolio Development for new and experienced practioners. Full scholarships for income eligible Vermonters. Available for up to 5 credits through the University of Vermont.
Our Fruit, Nut, Berry, Vine, and Medicinal Plant Sale pre-orders are open now! Plant pick ups begin April 23 and continue through May 22.
Nuts for the Northeast at NOFA NH
Posted by on January 29, 2016
Nuts for the Northeast- Keith Morris presenting at NOFA NH Saturday, January 30, 2016
Snowy Greetings!
We’ve been taking some time away from the computer- but now that the days are getting longer, our minds are on spring and all of the great things we have in store!
Nuts for the Northeast
With Keynote by WES JACKSON!!
Rundlett Middle School, 144 South Street, Concord, NH
Since the dawn of time, nuts have been some of the most important food plants for human beings. Nut trees and shrubs offer some of the most nutrient dense foods, provide habitat, show the potential for a ‘carbon-negative’ and flood resilient agriculture, and are economically valuable for a variety of products in addition to nuts themselves.
Join with grower and international farm designer Keith Morris to explore the fascinating ecology and mythology of a few nut trees particularly suited to growing on farms and in neighborhoods throughout in the northeast. We’ll focus of hardy proven nuts, and introduce some of the breeding, trailing, and hybridizing happening at Willow Crossing Farm in Johnson, VT to select for disease resistance, organic production, high quality timber, oils, medicinal properties, and to migrate some important nuts typically grown in warmer regions. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding and appreciation of some trees commonly found in towns and hillsides, and be introduced to promising less common nuts.
Keith Morris is the founder of Willow Crossing Farm and is Professor of Permaculture Design at the University of Vermont. As a grower, builder, and designer, he has created ecologically regenerative and economically viable food systems in New Zealand, Colorado, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Quebec, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nigeria, Ghana, Denmark, and the Netherlands- working regularly throughout New England and in New York City. He has spent over 20 years developing permaculture with farms, towns, schools, indigenous peoples, squats, activists, and in solidarity with exploited populations.
Willow Crossing Farm is Vermont’s longest established permaculture research and education facility, and a debt-free ‘financial permaculture’ working family farm. We host one of the most diverse collections of tree crops in the northeast, offer farm-based dining and educational opportunities to the local communities, and host annual events that attract people from across the country and a surprising variety of international students. We grow a variety of fruits, nuts, berries, and vines in an organic nursery; experiment with new crops, techniques, and regenerative farm infrastructure; manage production to create wildlife refuge and pollinator sanctuary; and have been focused on developing ‘productive buffers’ to reforest floodplain and riverside banks with marketable production.
Also- subscribe to our blog (just enter your email above to the right) to receive announcements about Farm Tours and to view our fruit, nut, and medicinal plant collections, view the listing for the Nursery Sale, and other related workshops and conferences.
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Medicine Womyn’s Winter Retreat– February 6, 2016 SOLD OUT
In the heart of the winter, we are invited to go deep within and learn different ways to heal and connect with ourselves and our community. Join us for a day of connection, of inspiration, of nourishment, healing and sisterhood. We will be offering many amazing workshops throughout the day – some based on Botanical medicine aka Plant magick: Aromatherapy, Flower Essence and Herbalism…some based on different types of Art; Fiber arts-Weaving/Felting….some based on Movement and Yoga. There will be Kirtan, music and sacred song. There will be herbal teas, healing broths, yummy foods, and nourishment all day long. This amazing space has saunas that we can use, and hot tubs to soak in…
Stay in touch for more info about the Summer Medicine Womyn’s Summer Retreat August 13-14
1st Annual Medicine Womyn’s Retreat – 2015
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Pruning the Forest Garden- February 27, 2016 REGISTER NOW
Hands-on in Vermont’s most diverse collection of Fruits, Nuts, Berries, and Vines!
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5th Annual Grafting Workshop and Scionwood Exchange- April 2, 2016 REGISTER NOW
Learn how to make more of your favorite apples, plums, peaches, pears, and more- and go home with your own grafted fruit tree!
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Our 9th Annual Farm and Wilderness Immersion PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATION COURSE- July 17-29, 2016 REGISTER NOW
An unparalleled learning experience- with the most experienced teaching team in the northeast and beyond!
https://prospectrockpermaculture.wordpress.com/2014-pdc/
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FRUIT, NUT, BERRIES, VINES, and MEDICINAL HERB PLANT SALE! Pre-orders open now, for pick up beginning April 23.
https://prospectrockpermaculture.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/plant-sale-details/
Thank you for reading and sharing with your friends and networks! Look forward to seeing you.
Best,
Keith and Family
INHABIT- A Permaculture Perspective: Pre-Order for Earth Day release!
Posted by on March 20, 2015
Screening for FREE at WILLOW CROSSING FARM- This WEDNESDAY, July 22, 2015
Thanks to everyone who came out and made the Burlington screening such an overwhelming success! Stay tuned (add your email to the top right of this page) for some other special film events coming in the future.
We are honored and humbled to be included in this stunningly beautiful work of filmmakers Costa Boutsikaris and Emmet Brennan. Catch it before its Earth Day release to the public, and enjoy it on a big screen! Join with filmmakers and cast for questions, and a celebration of the film’s completion after the screening.
All proceeds from ticket sales will support the Permaculture Institute of the Northeast, and farm-based permaculture research and education.
Read more about the film below. You can also pre-order a digital rental or purchase for Earth Day release HERE!
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We’re also excited to announce an Herbal Labyrinth Building Workshop with Ivan McBeth and Fearn Lickfield- more details will be posted here soon, but you can check out the event on Facebook
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This summer’s Permaculture Design Certification Courses are filling fast!
Register now to save your space. We continue to deepen our practice at Vermont’s longest running Permaculture Research Farm, and invite you to join with students from all over North America and the world in
farm, nature, and ecological design immersion!
We’ll be offering two courses this year one June 20 – July 2 and another July 19 – 31. Both are optionally available for up to 5 College Credits.
We’re very excited to announce we’ll be joined by author and founder of FOOD Not Lawns HEATHER FLORES and other VERY SPECIAL Guests!
Past special guests in our courses have included Joel Salatin, Dave Jacke, Darren Doherty, Starhawk, Scott Kellogg, and more.
We’ll tour some of the nations most inspiring orchards, vineyards, herb, vegetable, and seed farms, and other ecologically regenerative businesses and develop design for real clients- as well as your own sites!
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Plant sale details will be announced very soon! We’ll have thousands of fruits, nuts, berries, vines, nitrogen fixers, medicinal herbs, and other very rare plants available in late April and early May.
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Follow this link: http://ykr.be/1efr84hjx5 to watch a preview with the ability to purchase or rent the movie.
Humanity is more than ever threatened by its own actions; we hear a lot about the need to minimize footprints and to reduce our impact. But what if our footprints were beneficial? What if we could meet human needs while increasing the health and well-being of our planet? This is the premise behind permaculture: a design process based on the replication of patterns found in nature. INHABIT explores the many environmental issues facing us today and examines solutions that are being applied using the ecological design lens of permaculture. Focused mostly on the Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States, Inhabit provides an intimate look at permaculture peoples and practices ranging from rural, suburban, and urban landscapes.
From the filmmakers:
The World Premiere of INHABIT had an amazing turnout at Permaculture Voices in California, and got lots of cheers and whoops as each new scene began. We’re estimating a crowd of 500. The following day at our booth we spoke with many people eager to setup their own screenings and many wanted to “finally show a film to their families that explains what this is all about!” We are very excited to see how this film can act as an on-ramp for people new to these ideas and allow the permaculture community to setup screenings as a way to begin the conversation.
Grafting Workshop / VT Scionwood Exchange March 18
Posted by on January 16, 2015
Hi Friends,
Please share this with potentially interested friends and networks. Hope to see you!
Fruit Tree Grafting Workshop and 5th Annual Scionwood Exchange
March 18, 10 am – 4 pm
Willow Crossing Farm
Johnson, VT
Join us for a day of hands-on fruit tree grafting. We’ll begin the day in the classroom understanding the science of grafting, and practice bench-grafting apples, pears, plums, and other stone fruits.
Everyone will have the opportunity to graft their own trees to take home!
After lunch, we’ll go out and tour grafted and ‘multi-grafted’ fruit trees (including peaches grafted onto plums) and ‘top work’ multiple varieties onto pears, apples, plums, and other stone fruit. We’ll discuss some pruning basics, different grafting strategies for ‘fruit salad trees’, healing damaged trees, reworking new varieties, revitalizing old orchards, enhancing cross-pollination, and space considerations. We’ll also look at and evaluate both successful and failed past grafts.
We’ll contextualize our work in briefly telling some history of our farm and touring our incredibly diverse collection of nuts, berries, vines, nitrogen-fixing plants, and regenerative DIY farm infrastructure. We’ll also explore the incredible history of grafting, the range of grafting possibilities, and practice with professional grafting tools which make for more successful grafts by novices and experts alike.
Each attendant will leave with an apple or pear variety of their choosing on semi-dwarf or standard rootstock, or a stone fruit variety of their choosing on native american plum rootstock.
$80 suggested donation sliding scale includes cider and tea, and your own grafted fruit trees to take home. No one will be refused for lack of funds, but everyone must pre-register.
Due to the popularity of this event, you much pre-register. There is a possibility of another event later in March or in April, please send an email to express your interest.
Please RSVP by filling out the registration form and submitting payment via paypal to: Keith@ProspectRock.org, or sending a check to:
‘Prospect Rock Permaculture’
P.O. Box 426
Jeffersonville, VT 05464
We must get your email address from you, as the weather will determine where we park cars. and we will also send you some information about how to best collect scion wood if you want to propagate some favorite fruit trees.
The workshop will be taught by:
Zach Leonard is a master horticulturalist and as been the farm manager of Elmore Roots Nursery for 15 years. He and his family have created High Hopes Farm, a diverse off-grid homestead.
Nicko Rubin is the owner of East Hill Tree Farm, where he has been growing and propagating hardy fruits and nuts in the foothills of the Groton Mountains. He completed the master’s program for sustainable landscape design at the Conway School.
Dave Johnson is a timber framer with a passion for fruit trees. His competence with sharp tools and wood translate readily into many successful grafts and a legacy of multi-grafted old wild apples throughout the hills of Vermont.
Keith Morris has been collecting and experimenting with rare fruits, nuts, and medicinal plants since 1996, and is professor of ecological design at the University of Vermont. He’s slowly built his family’s farm debt-free with sweat-equity and has contributed to creating resilient and diverse food systems on 5 continents.
Thank you,
Keith
(802) 734-1129
Willow Crossing Farm
Johnson, VT
http://www.WillowCrossing.org
As a reminder- only a few spaces remain for our 9th Annual Prospect Rock Permaculture Design Certification Course, July 17 – July 29, 2016
Our Fruit, Nut, Berry, Vine, and Medicinal Plant Sale pre-orders are open now! Plant pick ups begin April 23 and continue through May 22.
Rising Appalachia with Barika at Willow Crossing Farm!
Posted by on July 17, 2014
A day long, farm-based mini festival, with special guests; irie food; labyrinth walks, permaculture, wild-crafting, and herbal workshops; and opportunities to connect with various environmental and social justice campaigns.
Stay tuned for updates and more details.
Tickets available paypal Keith@Prospectrock.org $25: ‘send money to a friend’.
Tickets will also be available online and by phone through Flynn Tickets ($3.50 service charge) and downtown Burlington at the Flynn Ticket Box Office (no service charge). You can also buy tickets in person at the farm, downtown Jeffersonville, and soon to be announced locations in Johnson.
Join the conversation, ask questions, and stay in the loop with last minute details at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1633723003574469/
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-Vermont’s Community Supported Permaculture Institute since 2000-
Hi Friends- Happy summer to you all! We’re pleased to announce some new events, some opportunities to share in the fun of our 8th Annual Permaculture Design Certification Course– and a very special FARM BASED CONCERT with RISING APPALACHIA! Join with Food Not Lawns author Heather Flores– presenting free and open to the public on Monday, July 20.
Food Not Lawns: Neighborhood Design Workshop
Explore friendship based community organizing with author & founder of Food Not Lawns, Heather Jo Flores. Food is central to a thriving community; a hub around which people gather. Learn through community dialogue, games and envisioning what’s possible for your yard and your community. Are you ready to start a neighborhood-based garden project or to turn your yard into a garden and your neighborhood into a community? Then this workshop is for you.
Heather will also join our course teaching team to include aspects of social permaculture. IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO SIGN UP! 
We’ll be diving in to permaculture design at Vermont’s longest running permaculture research site- and designing the new home for High Mowing Seeds! (FB EVENT PAGE)
Grow Food- Not Lawns!
INHABIT- A Permaculture Perspective 
Screening Free and Open to the Public- Wednesday, July 22, 7 PM
You are also welcome to join us for an all farm-sourced meal- dinner is served at 6pm, and is $14 buffet style. Reservations are required for dinner. Please contact head chef Candace Taylor with number in your party and dietary preferences and restrictions (we are happy to meet the needs of omnivore, vegetarian, gluten, vegan, etc.) to make dinner reservations. Candace: healin.irie@gmail.com
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Medicine Womyn’s Retreat!
Join us to nourish and nurture your inner divinity. Come gather with sister allies and connect deeply with your authentic self. This will be a day filled with ritual, creative expression and blissful self love! The workshops throughout the day will be based on Aromatherapy, Herbal crafting, Flower Essence, Fiber arts etc…There will also be a medicine walk, a labyrinth journey, rituals and songs, sacred Heartfire Henna, guided meditation, Yoga with Fletcher Boote and a rockin Kirtan to end the evening. $60-75 sliding scale August 8th, 10-5 at Willow Crossing Farm RSVP with Kori Gelinas to reserve your spot: https://www.facebook.com/events/1084317594930782/
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RISING APPALACHIA
-LIVE AT WILLOW CROSSING FARM! with special guests BARIKA–
Details TBD- Save the Date! Please help us spread the word.
Also COMING UP:
August 9 – Mayan Fire Ceremony for Families with Mayan Grandmother Nana Wilma
NURSERY PLANTS!
We still have plenty of CURRANTS, SEA BERRIES, BLACK LOCUST, and many other rare FRUITS, NUTS, BERRIES, and VINES available for sale!
Thank you for your support and for SHARING our events with your networks!
-Keith and Family
2015 Permaculture Design Certification Courses June or July
Posted by on August 19, 2013
2016
Permaculture Design Certification Course
July 17-29
This world-reknown course fills early! Please clear your schedule and confirm your space now.
We are excited to announce that as the only Fully Accredited Permaculture Institute in Vermont
we have secured full scholarships for income eligible Vermont State residents.
Scholarship applicants should be in touch with as much notice as possible.
The 2014 summer course was a blast with students coming from across the country and with a wide variety of backgrounds and intended applications for permaculture design! Stay tuned for photos, design work, and student comments- students’ final designs ranged from farms to apartments, communities, and businesses in a wide variety of ecological contexts.
Student Design Work for the UVM Horticulture Research Center and Catamount Farm
Unlike all other Permaculture Design Certification courses- students work to create both collaborative and individual designs, allowing the opportunity to practice the design process twice, work with real-world clients and sites, as well as developing ideas for your own sites, bioregions, and specific interests with professional guidance. Students’ final individual design presentations are from a wide geographical and cultural diversity- ranging from 100+ acre farms, to vacant-lot community gardens, to natural building renovation, ‘renter’s permaculture’ apartment / urban strategies, and more! The balance between collaborative and individual work, combined with the diverse students we attract make each design a highlight, and broaden our collective experience and practice. This ‘two-design’ format, increasingly being used by other courses and other instructors, is Prospect Rock Permaculture‘s unique innovation to augment the requirements of an fully accredited and internationally recognized Permaculture Design Certification Course.
Read below for more course details and 2013 flyers. Click here for more information about the Registration Process.
Burlington Permaculture and Prospect Rock Permaculture are pleased to offer our Eigth-Annual summer Permaculture Design Certification course.
Immersed in wild ecology, beautiful scenery, and the abundance of Willow Crossing- our Family Farm and Vermont’s oldest Permaculture Research Site- we practice the art of re-visioning and remaking Heathy Human Whole Systems.
The two week residential intensive course goes above and beyond the internationally recognized standard curriculum with focus on Community Resilience, Social Justice, Food Security, Farm Design, Transition, Environmental and Outdoor Education, Natural Building, Horticultural Therapy, Community/ Commercial Scale Production and Propagation, Appropriate Farm Machinery and Tools, and visits to the vibrant farms, homesteads, nurseries, and ethical businesses that contribute to the resurging agricultural economy of this most Fertile Valley of Northern Vermont.
All food served during the course will come from our farm and immediately local farms visited during the course. With opportunities to see, practice, and implement permaculture solutions at varying scales; thorough grounding in the process of design, first-hand study of ecology- and guided by the most experienced designers, farmers, and educators in the U.S. – this course affords opportunities for development and engagement in personal and community abundance and security like no other.
Hands-on Design and Co-Creation of Vibrant, Wholly Nourishing Human Landscapes:
Together, we engage in whole-systems ecological design and implementation of permaculture solutions for a multi-use community garden specifically focused on the needs of food-insecure Vermonters. Learn alongside students, architects, activists, community planners, homesteaders, farmers, natural builders, business owners, and others while solving real-world design problems as a team, and generating full designs for a site of your own choosing– while guided by some of the world’s foremost professional designers and being immersed the wild and cultivated beauty of a 12 year old permaculture site.
Our approach explores the way human beings- as individuals and communities- can participate in the creation of ethical, socially just, and ecologically regenerative perennial support systems. We apply the sciences of Ecology, Anthropology, Ethnobiology, and Evolution to agriculture, the built environment, and social and economic organization (‘invisible structures’) by integrating plants, animals, buildings, people, communities, economies, and the landscapes that surround us through careful analysis and thoughtful design. We also practice permaculture ethics, principles, techniques, and skills by collaborating on real-world projects repairing, restoring, and regenerating human ecosystems.
We welcome graduates of other permaculture design courses to refresh their certification, gain new perspective and experience, build their networks, and advance their practice with the Advanced Permaculture Design and Teacher/ Facilitator Training opportunities available through this course.
Permaculture is a design science focused on the intersection of social and ecological health. We explore the relationships between the built environment, food security, energy, water, and natural communities, in order to retrofit this infrastructure to respond to the confluent crises of the 21st century with localized resilience, abundance, and ecological regeneration. Build your skills and capacity by taking part!
Our dynamic natural site in the midst of an agriculturally vibrant area affords ample opportunities to study and observe wild ecology, fruit, nut, vegetable, and medicinal herb production, natural/ alternative beekeeping poultry care, natural building, alternative energy, community-scale resilience, etc. In addition to all farm sourced food, immersion in wild ecology, radical sustainability, and the site offers us the opportunity to swim, hike, paddle, and camp in the beauty and inspiration of the early Vermont summer.
All farm sourced, local organic meals, travel to field trips, canoe and kayak use, and camping accommodation is included in the course cost of $1600. There are other lodging options available at additional cost. There are limited opportunities for professional development grants, work trade, scholarships, and other financial aid. Discounted registration for groups, couples, referrals, and travel to the course by boat, bike, foot, or other non motorized means, is available for early registrations. This course has historically filled quickly, please contact us to reserve your space as soon as possible.
As always, permaculture designers, activists, and alumni are welcome visit to present, review students designs, network, or just join us for a (very) local organic meal! Many sessions will be open and free to interested public.
Instructors and guests include: Keith Morris, Mark Krawczyk, Alissa White, Lisa DePiano, Andrew Faust, Skotty Kellogg, the Beehive Collective, and more!
This course is available for 5 credits through the University of Vermont. Please visit http://www.learn.uvm.edu for details about registering through the University.
Our partners at WAGN The UVM Extension Women’s Agriculture Network have set some funds aside to help Vermont Women Farmers with enrollment.
We are fully accredited with VSAC (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation), and funds are available for full scholarships for income-elligible VT residents.
Thanks!
Space is limited, and the course typically fill well in advance.
Please inquire about work trade and other scholarship opportunities.
Open Sessions: Dave Jacke!! Monday July 21
Posted by on July 17, 2013
We’re honored and excited to announce an evening presentation with Dave Jacke- author of ‘Edible Forest Gardens’ and the northeast’s most recognized permaculture pioneer-
FREE and open to the public.
Ecological Culture Design: A Holistic View
Monday, July 21
Willow Crossing Farm
Johnson, VT
Nature operates based on a set of foundational laws and principles by which all systems must abide, or they fail. These principles have much to teach us about how to organize human societies. Fundamentally, permaculture aims to design complete cultural systems that consciously mimic ecosystem properties, principles, patterns, and processes.
Ecologically, culture functions as the primary adaptive mechanism of our species, and it is culture, as a whole system, that we must redesign. What is culture? How might we approach the design of cultures as whole systems in an ecological context? We can design systems that minimize stress and competition, and maximize cooperation, harmony, productivity, and diversity, while allowing each community member to remain true to their intrinsic nature. We’ll get into some ecological nitty gritty and imagine how we might use what we learn for our own purposes.
Dave will join us with extra special guest and Gap Mountain Permaculture co-founder Doug Clayton!
This is the first of a series of events which will be open to the community over the next few weeks as we host people from all over the country (and world) for our 7th Annual Permaculture Design Certification Course.
We’re so excited to continue of tradition of sharing our most excellent guests and bringing folks in to share in the experience of one of the nation’s most highly regarded Permaculture Courses!
All evening lectures are FREE and start at 7:30, donations to support farm reforestation and ecological regenerations are gratefully accepted and shared with our guests.
ALL ORGANIC FARM-SOURCED DINNER is served at 6 pm, and available by reservation only for a sliding scale fee of $12-20. We are happy to meet the needs of vegetarians, vegans, wheat intolerant, ethical omnivores, and localvores.
To join us for dinner, please contact Head Chef Emily Wheeler by phone or text message at
(802) 505-8882
For questions or driving directions, please contact Keith@ProspectRock.org or call (802) 734-1129
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23- LISA DEPIANO
Will speak on Community Scale Permaculture and Permaculture Economics and share her experiences as a leading activist and empolyee-owner of a diversity of regenerative businesses.
MONDAY, JULY 28- MEGHAN GIROUX of VERMONT EDIBLE LANDSCAPES
Interested in attending the course? Please call to see if there are any last-minute cancellations.
Next year’s is already beginning to fill! It will be July 19-31, 2015.
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