I have taught small classes and workshops on permaculture, foraging, and herbalism for years now. This year we decided to go bigger and teach a whole Permaculture Design Course. By all accounts, the experience was rich, meaningful, and connecting for everyone involved! There were some things that went as I would expect, and others which were unexpected. I wanted to document them here for my own reflections and to share with anyone curious to know more.
The internationally recognized Permaculture Design Course consists of core content intended to span about 80 hours. To get a gist of the overview of the content, you can check out our listing for next summer’s course at our website, treesandteas.ecwid.com. When I first started planning the curriculum I felt overwhelmed by the idea of teaching a group of people for that long – how would I use all of that time and also consistently keep it engaging, impactful, fun, and meaningful? I decided to condense that core content in order to set aside time for a number of guest speakers and additional original content that I have created. Tweaking the curriculum worked out wonderfully for a number of reasons.
Optimizing the Curriculum
First, it gave some flexibility in what we covered each day. If the group was not as interested in aquaculture, but wanted more time on designing passive houses, we could do that! If we wanted to ask lots of questions, go on plenty of interesting tangents, and have lots of group discussion, we could do that! Condensing the core content opened up many opportunities to meet the unique goals and desires of this particular group of people. This setup also gave room for more up to date content and original material from me that make it a unique experience tailored to our time and place. This is a very permaculture-esque approach: begin by observing and rooting where and when you are, then proceed to spiral outwards from there organically.
I chose to begin the course with a custom made macro description of our current national and global systems and their fundamental flaws that make them inherently unsustainable (side note: by unsustainable, I don’t just mean bad for the birds and the bees and health, I mean literally impossible to continue). This accomplished a few goals at once: it got all the bad news out of the way in one day, it set the scene for the absolute necessity of permaculture design, and it created a sense of urgency about transforming the way we live. I then provided an overview of my experiences growing and consulting in southwest Michigan on a wide variety of sites and settings. Moreover, I dedicated a half a day to share easy to grow and forage herbal remedies based on years of experience, hands on courses, and an online certificate in medicinal herbs from Cornell University. This custom material offered particularly relevant and timely high impact content for the participants of the course.
Rock Star Cast of Guest Teachers
Perhaps most importantly, condensing the core Permaculture Design Course content allowed room for plenty of time with guest teachers. These experiences gave us meaningful, rich connections, across the community and across generations. We learned about botany and plant ID from experienced and passionate ecological teacher Kristin Tindall. We immersed ourselves in PJ Chmiel’s decade long commitment to transforming a barren, frost pocket, sandbox into a lush forest garden. We were inspired by the storytelling, knowledge, and humor of Ken Asmus from Oikos Tree Crops as he shared his 30 years of experience breeding edible tree crops adapted to southwest Michigan. We delighted in some delicious infused vinegars and oxymels and learned how to made our own with Lea from Joyful Wildcrafting. We were humbled and motivated by observing Richard Winkel’s 30 year dedication to exploring the wonders of a single plant – the chestnut. Seeing, feeling, smelling, touching, being in the works and presence of these people offers such an abundance of knowledge, wisdom, and experience that is truly invaluable.
Surprises!
Alan Watts has a lecture where he imagines he had magic powers and could experience any possible pleasure in the universe for any amount of time. After living out your wildest dreams for months or years, you’d inevitably grow bored, and you’d just want an element of surprise! You’d dream up an infinite number random circumstances, any one of which could represent your current life situation – here and now. One of the layers of lessons in this little parable is that people don’t usually think they want to be surprised, but that we need some element of chance or randomness to keep life interesting. I tried to make as many preparation as possible while planning to teach this extensive of a course to make sure everything was thought out and prepared. Yet alas, as always, life happened. And, as can happen when the stars serendipitously align, most of the surprises turned out to be beautiful.
My first surprise was just how long I can talk about things. I was nervous about the length of the class before we got started. After day one, I knew it would be on a nice pace. We covered a wide range of global issues centered around the economy, energy, and the environment, while rooting it all into permaculture principles, ethics, and mindsets. It was engaging, it covered the perfect amount of time, and I had plenty of bonus content to spare in case we had extra time for it. I knew after day one that there would be more than enough meaningful content than we could cover, even in 80 hours.
The Underrated Importance of Community
Another thing that I didn’t expect was the importance of community. There is an entire section in the course on strategies for building community and creating a “global nation” built around common ethics and values. David Holmgren, a co-founder of permaculture, writes repeatedly about moving from a DIY mindset to a DIO (Do It Ourselves) approach. I knew community was critical. I hadn’t realized how central it was, though. Nearly every discussion we had where the group would organically brainstorm, inquire, and problem solve, came back to community. There’s a quote from a popular internet meme that sums it up pretty well: “The modern condition is mostly trying to do things on your own that people have historically achieved with a large support network and wondering why you’re tired all the time.” A “tribe” doesn’t just make life easier and more fun, though it certainly does those things. It is downright essential.
The fellowship of the group further demonstrated this point. I had hoped that the class would have good chemistry and get along well. That just makes everything more pleasant and enjoyable. I didn’t expect that the group bond to the extent that we did. When I took my Permaculture Design Course, there were 15 people in the class. That made group discussions a bit more difficult. There wasn’t space for everyone to have as much of a voice. With a group of 5-7 of us, there is always space for questions, comments, debate, and collaboration. There isn’t enough people to break up into clicks during lunch like it’s middle school again. We’re all in it together. That is a good place to be. This is how we get a point where we’re all laughing and crying together on the last day as we do our passion share, tell stories, show talents, and say our goodbyes.
Transformational
I knew this course would be impactful for people. I knew I could offer hundreds of tips and strategies on foraging, herbalism, forest gardens, the Wim Hof method, economics, holistic health, and more. I knew the guest teachers I was working with were brilliant. I thought the people signing up would be interesting and fun and get along well. What I didn’t realize was how the whole could come together and synergize to be more than the sum of the parts. I thought I would get good feedback from people, but I honestly didn’t expect to hear things like “transformational”, or “life changing”. That is the kind of impact that can create an inflection point for people. That can shift your life compass towards a whole new trajectory. That can create a global nation centered around caring for the earth, caring for people, and creating a fair share for all of life.
Giving Thanks!
I would like to thank all of the wonderful and amazing guest teachers. Thank you for dedicating your lives to the permaculture values in various ways. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, wisdom, time, and experiences with us. I need to thank my wife, whose support, encouragement, and trust in opening up our home to people were essential to everything we did. I’m grateful to our son Gaven for giving up some time with us during summer break and for taking some of the photos you see here. Most importantly, I also want to express gratitude for those who took a leap of faith and signed up for the class. You dedicated effort, cost, long drives, and your precious time to this course. Thank you for trusting us and making that leap so we could all come together and share this special time! Thank you to everyone involved in the 2023 Permaculture Design Course!
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