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quaker permaculture

Posted: June 1 2010

well I'll be darned.  sounds pretty awesome.
What I've also heard about is the revival of shaker seed saving, w/ ken greene our favorite green gremlin of local varieties. more on that soon
The Woolman Summer Intensive

A six day residential program for adults integrating the practices of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and Permaculture in a Quaker context. NVC is a powerful and deceptively simple communication tool that allows us to experience, create and transmit compassion to self and others. Created by Marshall Rosenberg, NVC is taught and practiced around the world. Permaculture is a design system for creating human environments that are ecologically sound and that acknowledge the human capacity for destruction of the earth and the human potential to live in harmony with the earth and its non-human inhabitants. Permaculture has become a worldwide movement for creating sustainable relationships with the planet.
In the Intensive we will spend the week learning and practicing permaculture through the lens of NVC: "How can we transform our enemy images of invasive species." "What would it mean to practice empathy for the earth and its non-human inhabitants?" We will learn to use NVC as we engage in the practices of permaculture: "What needs are being met as we transplant our tomato starts into the soil...as we tend the grasses in the pasture...as we prepare our meal for the community...as we manage the fuel load in the forest?" We will explore queries such as these in a site-based, seasonally grounded blend of experiential and seminar groups in the classroom, the garden, the orchard, the forest, the pasture and the kitchen. Our days will culminate in varied evening activities to put it all together. These may include seminar style discussions, worship sharing in the manner of Friends, music making, star gazing and evening hikes.
The Woolman Summer Intensive will be led by six facilitators, each of whom brings an area of expertise to the program, and all of whom are eager to both share their experiences and to learn from the collaboration of each other and the participants. The facilitators are: Malaika Bishop, garden; Hilary Ellis-Lavigne, food; Doug Hamm, forest-garden/permaculture; Dorothy Henderson, NVC; Mark Spencer, forest; and Jerome Verhasselt; pasture.
Sierra Friends Center, home of the Woolman Semester, is located in the historic Sierra foothills on 230 acres of woods and meadows. Sierra Friends Center is also home to an intergenerational community of thirty people, 19 milk cows, 5 calves and 12 sheep, a one acre orchard, and a 1/3 acre organic vegetable garden. Accommodations include shared rooms in our spacious guest house or in rustic A-frame cabins with a common bathhouse. Meals are vegetarian and will be mostly created from our organic garden produce. Harvesting and preparing the food will be an integral part of the program and all participants and facilitators will take part.
Highly recommended readings in preparation for the week are 2 small books:
Permaculture in a Nutshell, 4th Edition, by Patrick Whitefield. Permanent Publications, 2000. Speak Peace in a World of Conflict: What you say next may change your world, by Marshall Rosenberg, Puddle Dancer Press, 2005.
The cost for the week's intensive is $600.00. This includes room and board and program fees. To register, contact us by email, or call 530 273-3183

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Classes + Workshops