Farm Small Farm Smart Daily

Community food forests are rapidly emerging as part of a new trend in the local food movement to promote food literacy and build community. This talk will discuss what community food forests are and the motivations that are propelling their establishment in urban areas across the United States. The social dimensions of partnerships and management processes that can help them succeed will be highli...

What if you had all the time, money and energy in the world? What would you do? Frank’s wife asked him that question 5 years ago, and he realized he needed to get out of the Navy, make mead and share it with people. Hear how connecting with his passion to do good for people and planet through mead making has inspired a ton of personal growth and now a successful business that is shifting paradigms...

Week 1: It's mid-February and the farm season is just beginning. Most of the work on the farm is preparing for the warmer months ahead. A lot of time is spent planning and preparing for the year ahead. This show is the story of urban farmer Curtis Stone. Curtis is an urban farmer who farms on 15,000 sq.ft. in Canada. He has been farming in an urban setting profitably for 5 years. We are going to f...

This episode is a recording of Luke Callahan's presenation at PV2. Want to start your business, but don’t know where to begin? Does starting your business feel scary and overwhelming? In this session, you’ll learn the seven surprisingly simple steps to easily start any business. We’ll analyze a few successful permaculture businesses through this step by step framework so you can see exactly how it...

We are experiencing the end of an era as a new era in human civilization is beginning. It is a time of great risk but also a time of great potential. We now know that it is possible to restore large-scale damaged ecosystems. It is possible to sequester carbon and re-regulate the hydrological system. It is possible to restore natural fertility and to remove toxicity from contaminated soils and wate...

In this episode, the second part of a multi-part series, we at some of the critiques of permaculture. And the focus is on an article written by permie Peter Harper in 2003. This series takes a critical look at permaculture itself. The good, the bad, and the ugly. As I sit here today I wonder if the same permaculture that got us here, is the same permaculture that we need to ultimately effect chang...

In this episode, the first part of a multi-part series, we look at what permaculture is. Is it a design science or is it a movement? This series takes a critical look at permaculture itself. The good, the bad, and the ugly. As I sit here today I wonder if the same permaculture that got us here, is the same permaculture that we need to ultimately effect change into the future. The times are differe...

Toby Hemenway joins me to talk about his upcoming talk at PV2 titled Liberation Permaculture. Permaculture offers more than a path to a sustainable and just food system. It can move entire segments of our society off the radar screens of state oppressors and help return equality, abundance, and justice to people while restoring healthy ecosystems. This talk, being premiered at Permaculture Voices,...

John talks about the workshop that he will be giving on Sketchup at PV2. This workshop will give the student a crash course in using Trimble SketchUp, followed by a tutorial on landscape modeling and analysis, earthworks and plantings design using freely available tools and templates. 3D modeling is a powerful tool to aid the Permaculture Designer in analyzing and designing water catchment, zones,...

Grant Schultz presents on trees from VersaLand in Iowa City, Iowa. This presentation focuses on the propagation of trees to be used in tree crop style systems. There is a lot of information on tree buying, grafting, nurseries, and rootstocks. Grant touches on things like the cost versus time trade off of grafting trees versus buying pre-grafted trees and how trees prefer fungal environments and ho...

This interview with Michael centers around his upcoming workshop at PV2, There's Not Just Honey In That Hive. Michael describes the talk as, "I want to tell you my first hand experiences with bees, from the loss of not knowing how to be a good keeper of the bees, to making an inner city home stead centered around the little girls super profitable. How to grow a small hobby Apiary, or back yard hiv...

This episode is a short PV2 episode with PV2 speaker and multiple time guest on this show Javan Bernakevitch. This is an episode about person journeys. How many people, including myself, are in this place, Island A, and we want to go to that place that we dream about Island B. In this episode we take an in depth look at the journey that many people are on. Like many people out there I am on this j...

Texas farmer and design consultant Ben Tyler comes on the show to talk about restoring native tall grass prairie. He is using the natural destructiveness of hogs to remove invasive species and clear the way for tall grass prairie. He is integrating the prairie restoration into a tree crop system that provides yields in the form of nuts and woody forage. Ben is someone who is out there managing the...

Mark Shepard and Kevin Muno come on to talk about an upcoming Restoration Agriculture workshop in San Diego. In this episode they touch on how Mark uses keyline design, how most properties could benefit from keyline practices, designing for high value niche crops, and designing for Mediterranean tree crop systems. Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/pv2mark

What do you do if you have a passion and there is no one out there offering you a job to fulfill that passion? One option is to just work any job, foregtting what you are actually passionate about.  And that is what many people do, and I think that those people can attest to the fact that that option sucks. Another option is to find the intersection between your passions and your strengths and pro...

Troy Martz of Off Grid Pro talks about what is gasification and what is the difference between wood gasification and charcoal gasification? And he touches on his talk topic at PV2 - choosing the right alternative energy technologies for your climate, biome, and context. Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/pv2shorts

On this show Adam and I talk about an early trip that he made to the Acres USA Conference and how he benefitted from that experience, stating "I was just at a point where I realized that for me to make the next step forward with the farm, I had to make a big step." We also touch on one of his worst experiences on the farm and how he recovered and moved past it. Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/p...

Talking to PV2 speaker Luke Callahan of Seedwise. We touch on the value of learning with others who have more experience than you and creating connections and relationships with high quality people. Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/pv2shorts For more information on PV2 you can visit: permaculturevoices.com/pv2

In this presentation Curtis will walk you through the process in which a 2100 square foot lawn can be converted to a productive mini farm. He’ll discuss the technical process of conversion, and the economics of production. This talk will be useful for anyone who is curious about how much food can be harvested from an average lawn space or anyone who is interested in commercial urban farming. Curti...

Talking to Stefan Sobkowiak of The Permaculture Orchard.  We touch on why he decided to speak at PV2, what he would do differently if he had to start over, and the value of networking and sharing ideas with others. For more information on PV2 you can visit: permaculturevoices.com/pv2

Zach Weiss of Holzer AgroEcology discusses his experiences working on projects designed by Sepp Holzer. He also gets into Sepp's ideas and design philosophy. This is the recording of a presentation that Zach gave at a workshop at VersaLand in October 2014. Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/b014

Zach Weiss of Holzer AgroEcology discusses his experiences working on projects designed by Sepp Holzer. He also gets into Sepp's ideas and design philosophy. This is the recording of a presentation that Zach gave at a workshop at VersaLand in October 2014. Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/b013

Taylor Walker from Green Dreams Florida joins me. In this episode we talk being a designer, propagating and selling plants, and we get into specific plant species. Some of these are zone specific; some are more universal, like Mulberry. Towards the end of the episode Taylor goes in depth about 5 not so common plant species that make up a nice permaculture plant guild. He’s growing these plants in...

Neil Bertrando joins me to talk about the broadacre and farmscale permaculture design workshop we both attended at Grant Schultz's Versaland, Darren Doherty of Regrarians, our thoughts on both of those guys and broadacre design, and Neil's design experiences in the high desert of Nevada.   Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/98

Kevin Hauser of Kuffel Creek Nursery in Riverside, CA joins me to talk about growing apples in warm, dry climates. Despite popular myths many varieties actually do really well and thrive in these types of climates. Show Notes: permaculturevoices.com/97