We sponsored and helped to organize the Northeast Permaculture Convergence this year to contribute to strengthening the Eastern MA permaculture community. It was an incredible experience pulling together a weekend event attended by over 300 people, designing a system of workshops, food, and shelter with little to no upfront financial infrastructure or support. It was also very exhausting, however, we believe the event met its goals of gathering permaculture energy in an area where it may be weak or disconnected. We held the event at Soule Homestead Education Center, a working farm that offers farm-based children's environmental programs, adult workshop, and family cultural events. Frank the director was an incredible host and partner to work with on this event, connecting us with local businesses for tents, food, and provided live local entertainment. After the convergence, we started a new Eastern MA Google Group to connect regularly over the interwebs, as well as an Eastern MA Guild group on the Northeast Permaculture Ning. We started this month meeting to connect and share ideas, and we're looking forward to seeing what forms moving forward. Contact us if you are interested in hosting or facilitating guild meetings. If you aren't from Eastern MA, many conversations that started at the convergence are continuing online at the Northeast Permaculture Ning and notes are stored in a shared google doc. This was our first permaculture gathering, and we are interested in what a yearly Eastern MA convergence would look like - a small one day gathering with discussion groups, workshops, food and entertainment. If anyone is interested in helping to plan or organize such an event, please let us know! We look forward to connecting with more folks in our area sharing thoughts and actions. In the meantime check out the photos we took at the event:
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We found a great how-to make a potato barrel article in Scott Meyer's The City Homesteader. We wanted to use a bit less space, experiment with the idea and hopefully prevent something from eating them. This is how we did it for about $20 from a local garden store (we already have a drill). Materials:
Step 1: Drill holes in the bottom of the barrel Step 2: Set up a brick or cinderblock platform for air flow and drainage outside in an area that gets at least 6hrs of sunlight daily. Step 3: Fill the barrel with 6" of a 1/3 potting soil/compost mix 2/3 peat moss mix Step 4: Plant the potatoes eyes up as deep as they are large. We cut ours into small 1" x 1" chunks right before planting. Step 5: Water well. Keep moist but not too damp. Step 6: As they grow, continue to fill the bucket with the same mixture up to the potato's top leaves, until the bucket is full. Step 7: Harvest. We've read that in general that you should wait until after the leaves die back to harvest. You can just tip over the barrel if you have a place to lay them or dig them out. We haven't done this so if this changes significantly we'll let you know.
We just wanted to give you the quick run-down - it only took less than an hour to put together once we had all the materials. For further reading, Mother Earth News provides the City Homesteader from the book here. |
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