Permaculture Class
Well, my permaculture class at Mark Shepard’s farm in Viola, Wisconsin was excellent. We covered everything from the philosophy of permaculture to the challenges that real people were facing as they started farms/businesses with permaculture approaches.
Our first tour was of Mark’s own farm. He has approximately 100 acres of ground that he has swaled (small water retaining terraces) and planted in hazelnuts, chestnuts, cider apples, berries, annuals and more. He is testing various intercropping approaches and trialing numerous varieties. He has created a non-profit foundation and developed a hazelnut cracking machine. He will soon have hard cider available for sale.
Another of our tour stops was at The Trout Palace Fish Farm. We saw how Jim Pierce is making the best use of his site conditions with trout aquaculture and how he used a discarded whey tank as the basis of his root cellar inserted into his hillside. While many aquaculturists attempt to maximize their profits by adding electrically powered aerators, Jim is limiting his production levels to what his natural spring water flow can support.
Dave and Erin Varney started One-Sun Farm and Bakery five years ago. They are intercropping garlic, raspberries, annuals, and hazelnuts. We heard first hand the struggles that a small farmer can go through… the Varneys had their income slashed this February when the State Department of Inspections notified them that they can’t wholesale the meat pizzas that they have been producing in their licensed food processing kitchen without a meat processing license. They are struggling to make up that income with their veggie pizzas, bakery items, berries and other crops.
I have many more photos to share, I’ll soon be putting them on my Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bburnett71
