Tompkins Weekly

Permaculture information and celebrations set



By Pete Angie
 
The Third Annual Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute Tour and Convergence will occur the weekend of Aug. 26-28 at regional farms, homes, parks, patios and at Cooperative Extension in Montour Falls. This is the first year the event has expanded to a full weekend and will include music, dance and the screening of a film. The event drew 200 and 400 participants in its first and second years, and the Institute hopes for an even larger turn out this year.
 
The Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute (FLPI) was established in 2005 by three individuals with the goal “to provide high quality permaculture education in the region,” according to Karryn Olson-Ramanujan, one of the co-founders. At its most basic, permaculture practitioners utilize a design practice that seeks to incorporate all of the factors than can affect a system, such as a farm. It is organized around key principals of care for the earth, care for people, and fair share (or, equitable distribution).
 
“The design process helps them to tease apart their landscape to come up with what is best,” said Michael Burns, one of the co-founders and an organizer of the tour. According to Burns, the permaculture process has five basic steps: making goals, assessment of the land and resources, design, implementation, and evaluation of how those goals are being met. Assessment can be 80 percent of the process, and looks not only at things like soil composition or availability of water, but also at human resources, finances and even family dynamics.
 
Design and implementation are carried out on many levels, like painting a canvas, Burns explained. There are broad brush strokes, such as using topography to determine where pastures and hedgerows should be located, and the small details, like choosing which plants to cultivate together in a way that might utilize every square foot of a garden patch. Ithaca College does the later, even growing crops vertically in a small space. Wellspring Forest Farm, in Trumansburg, raises both ducks and mushrooms in the forest. The ducks aid in mushroom production by eating slugs that would otherwise damage the crop. Other farms, like Cayuta Sun, in Catharine, and Hawk Meadow Farm, in Trumansburg, have utilized the forests on their land to raise shitake mushrooms, which grow well in the woods. Good Life Farm, in Interlaken, pastures turkeys in their orchards. The birds eat pests and fallen fruit, and provide fertilizer. Burns points out that these methods are not specific to permaculture. The permaculture process, however, aided these farmers in coming to decisions on what methods work best where they are farming.
 
“A key part of permaculture is to teach design as a discipline,” Olson-Ramanujan said, to see a site and a family as a system, not as many separate things.
 
Many permaculturists see themselves as part of a decentralized world-wide movement. FLPI is “focused on building a local movement of permaculture practitioners,” at all levels, home patio, farm, systems, according to Rebecca Cutter, a long time FLPI board member. FLPI has offered yearly two-week intensive courses for the past 13 years.
They have also provided 10- to 12-week evening courses, and workshops on specific topics. However, the founders of the institute “didn’t envision ourselves to be a catalyst of a movement” on their own, said Olson-Ramanujan. The tour and convergence are an effort for practitioners and newcomers to learn from each other and build a local community around permaculture. “Our big focus is to support individuals, organizations, businesses and institutes that are practicing permaculture,” Cutter said.
 
“Permaculture extends beyond farming,” added Cutter, citing examples such as alternative currencies like the Ithaca Hour or Ithacash, babysitting cooperatives, bartering, communal meal sharing, and preserving indigenous knowledge. Cutter views the practice as a means of promoting social justice and equity, though feels that FLPI’s goals in that area are not being met. “Right now we’re working to build a more inclusive movement,” she said, and is asking how permaculture concepts could be supportive of other movements like Black Lives Matter, or the struggles of refugees. Participants in FLPI workshops have primarily been white and middle class, notes Olson-Ramanujan. Olson-Ramanujan also sees that women make up a smaller number of those making a living in permaculture or becoming prominent figures in the movement than men, despite an equal or higher number of females seeking training in the field.
 
Olson-Ramanujan has created a series of on-line courses specifically designed to support women in permaculture in an effort to address this disparity. “We’re doing some deep soul searching in the movement nationally and locally about how to make it more accessible,” said Olson-Ramanujan. “Plants grow, but it’s the human systems that implode if we don’t tend them well.”
 
The weekend will open with a screening of “Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective” at 7 p.m. Aug. 26 in Press Bay Alley, followed by a performance from Circus Culture, and music from Astro Hawk, Travis Knapp, Remstar Steele and Jacksonic. Local food vendors will also be there. Saturday, Aug. 27 holds the tour of up to 13 permaculture locations from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., followed by a reception at The Finger Lakes Cider House, where folk-jazz fusionist Jen Cork will be performing. Carpooling is encouraged for the tour, and a link is located on the FLPI’s website to help with organization. Aug. 28 will close the weekend with a day of workshops and lectures at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Montour Falls.
 
Well-known names in permaculture that will be giving presentations include Steve Gabriel and Brett Chedzoy, who are known for their work in growing mushrooms and woodland grazing, respectively. Other presentations include ethical and profitable landscape management, on-site renewable energy, designing collective impact projects for social change, creating a more inclusive permaculture movement, permaculture in Japan, home composting, raising tree crops, and melding permaculture basics with entrepreneurial skills. A full schedule can be found at www.fingerlakespermaculture.org. All events are free, but donations are encouraged.
 
“Let’s get people together,” said Olson-Ramanujan of her vision for the weekend, and the networking, learning and relationships she hopes it fosters. “Get the energy together, something will happen.”

 

 

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