Kitchen Permaculture – An Online Workshop

January 24, 2010

By Anais Starr

At the Financial Permaculture workshop in Hohenwald in 2008, I had the great pleasure to meet and work with Bob Woldrop. You will find Bob’s finger in almost every pie in sustainability, food, future thinking, in Oklahoma and environs.

Bob is also a permaculturist and through his business, Prairie Rose Permaculture (PRP), he is offering a new online Permaculture Design Course called Kitchen Permaculture, starting February 28th. If you are on Facebook, find PRP here. PRP’s byline is: Lifestyle design for the 21st century that meets the challenges of peak oil, peak food, climate instability, and economic irrationality.

Bob describes permaculture as:

“. . .the art and science of designing human habitations and systems that care for the earth, care for people, and incorporate voluntary limits and boundaries so that there is justice in the distribution of the surplus.”

I took my first Permaculture Design Course at Panya Project Farm in northern Thailand last January. I am a farm girl, quite literally, so permaculture is very exciting to me. I grew up watching my family members produce wonderful things, living as farmers and working in harmony with their soil, air, water, and with others doing the same and supporting each other. This is the essence of permaculture, with a twist of understanding that enhances not only the fruits of the growing efforts, but everything in the circle surrounding those, with wide ripples and positive implications far-reaching.

These are the elements of design of Bob’s Kitchen Permaculture course. Each one will be covered in a week. Within each subject, Foods, Preparation, Techniques and Sources will be covered.

  • Week 1: Orientation
    Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
  • Week 2: Introduction to Design
    If you always do what you always do, you will always get what you always get.
  • Week 3: Frugality
    A small leak will sink a large ship.
  • Week 4: Health and Nutrition
    An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
  • Week 5: Resilience
    The time to build a cellar is before the tornado hits.
  • Week 6: Social and Distributive Justice
    If you want peace, work for justice.
  • Week 7: Community
    The future depends on what you do in the present.
  • Week 8: Education and Design Review
    It takes a village to raise a child.

This is exciting and innovative and timely, working with us on things that will enhance our lives whether we live on a farm, the suburbs, in town with garden space, or just a balcony.

KITCHEN PERMACULTURE ONLINE WORKSHOP
How to use permaculture design to create ecological, economical, resilient, and socially just household food systems. The workshop uses a private listserv and resource CD. Starts February 28, 2010 and runs for ten weeks,with a 2 weekbreak at Easter. Details,including workshop outline, levels of participation, and tuition are at http://tinyurl.com/yayfk29 . Workshop leader is Bob Waldrop.

It might be a good way to start. . .providing the impetus to get going with growing, or whatever your passion might be along these lines. Looking forward to seeing you there!

More about permaculture at Catherine’s blog