What is Permaculture?
While most often used in relation to growing food, in actuality, permaculture is a holistic design philosophy, a practical method of creating harmonious, efficient and productive systems that can be applied to all aspects of life. It is a way of recognizing and increasing connection, and a technical framework to do so.
Through observation and careful thinking about needs, outputs and resource use, both material and non-material, it is possible to see harmonious connections and create abundant, regenerative systems.
"Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted & thoughtless labour; of looking at plants & animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system." - Bill Mollison
Permaculture Design Course (PDC)
Join us for our 9.5-day PDC Immersion Course in the hills of Mulmur!
POSSIBLE RETURN SUMMER 2023!
We prefer to offer the course in-person. Due to the complexities in managing unpredictable & changing guidelines, we will wait until 2023.
2023 Course Tuition Schedule
Early Bird (ends Apr 30) TBD
Regular (after Apr 30) TBD
Tuition includes course fee, catered meals
Mark Krawczyk is an applied ecologist, educator, and grower practicing permaculture design, agroforestry, natural building, traditional woodworking, and small- scale forestry. He owns and operates Keyline Vermont LLC, providing farmers, homeown- ers, and homesteaders with education, design, and consulting services. He and his wife also manage Valley Clayplain Forest Farm, a 52-acre agroforestry farm in New Haven, Vermont. He’s also the author of Coppice Agroforestry: Tending Trees for Product Profit and Woodland Ecology - due in June of 2022!
He has taught more than two dozen Permaculture Design Courses throughout the northeastern United States, including several at Ben Falk's Whole Systems Design. Mark has also provided design and consulting services to scores of clients throughout North America and beyond. He holds Diplomas in Applied Permaculture, Education, and Site Design from both the Permaculture Association UK and the Permaculture Institute of North America.
Scott has been the farm manager at Althaea Herb Farm since its inception in 2007. Scott has completed programs at the Dominion Herbal College, the North East School of Botanical Medicine and the North American Institute of Medical Herbalism. He has been studying herbalism and the human body since 2003. He teaches workshops and leads field walks on the virtues of local plants, herbal preparations and basic botany.
Passionate about the outdoors since his first memory, Skeet grew up immersed in nature - fishing and playing among the river valleys and lakes of Ontario - which fostered a deep connection to the diverse habitats and abundance of wildlife in this province from an early age.
Fueled by that connection, Skeet dedicated himself to Preserving the Ways of the Wild and becoming instrumental in helping others also connect deeply to the natural world and the communities that support them. He holds a diploma in Ecosystem Management from Sir Sandford Fleming College, has trained with Tom Brown Jr and the Tracker School and accredits much of his success to the solid foundations established through the Kamana Naturalist Training Program and the deep Nature Connection mentoring services, tools and resources offered through the 8 Shields Institute.
Skeet has worked as both mentor and consultant and has personally educated and assisted over 150 landowners & conservation organizations restore native habitat on over 5000 acres of land throughout southern Ontario. He has collaborated with First Nations communities in both Canada and the USA, helping to co-create nature connection programming that is culturally relevant to the people and places from those communities.
In 2008, he founded Sticks and Stones Wilderness School to provide various programs, skills workshops, apprenticeship opportunities, inter-generational gatherings and mentoring services. Skeet is one of the co-founders of the Headwaters Earth Skills Gathering (HG) enabling hundreds of people each spring to connect around skills, stewardship and community. In collaboration with other organizations throughout the world, Skeet has helped to bring the Bird Language Leaders project (BLL) to Ontario and was part of the original stakeholder team that enabled the Art of Mentoring (AOM) to arrive in Ontario.
Residing in Muskoka, with his wife and two children, the Sutherlands enjoy tending the wild places where they live, the permaculture farm at the center of camp and sharing the atmosphere and stories from this work with others, as a way to grow connection and empower ecological and cultural stewardship as a way of life.
Matt Code - Sustainable Building
Matt Code is the man behind the Collingwood Earthship and is founder of Free Spirit Gardens, a not-for-profit, registered charity specializing in home, community & school gardens and sustainable food workshops. After 10 years of Gardening for himself, Matt decided to share his love for gardening and veggies with others, “I want to make southern Georgian Bay a healthier place to live!” Matt is very passionate about the concept of growing your own food, building out of recycled material and sharing that with the world.
Graham Corbett & Amy Ouchterlony - Biodynamic Farming
Like many young farmers, neither Graham Corbett nor Amy Ouchterlony grew up farming. They both studied Environmental Science and had some exposure to organic agriculture in university and while travelling overseas. They see their farm operation as a practical expression of their environmental ethic. They both enjoy using the farm as a teaching tool, addressing concerns they have for the sustainability of shared natural resources (land, water, air) and the growing disconnect between human beings and the natural world that supports us.
Established in 2011, Fiddle Foot Farm is a biodynamic farm that is committed to caring for the earth and maintaining the integrity of our land for future generations. We grow a wide variety of vegetables from garlic to greens, carrots to cabbage, tomatoes to turnips, potatoes, peas and many more! We do not use any synthetic chemicals, artificial fertilizers or genetically modified organisms. We grow over 50 types of vegetable and fruit crops, and sell our produce through our 100 member summer CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), at the Toronto Evergreen Brickworks and the Orangeville Farmers Markets. We sell our produce year-round, with a focus on storage crops and season-extension for winter and early spring greens.
Ecological and organic farming is a human endeavour to create and maintain a sustainable ecosystem. Biodynamic farming focuses on regenerative management practices, so that farming practices can also have a healing effect on the soil. Growing crops in healthy, enlivened soil will yield food with more vitality which in turn will help stimulate our own thinking, feeling and willing. Its aim is to produce food that nourishes body, soul and spirit. The goal of our farm is to produce our own fertility, through the production of our own biodynamic compost from our small herd of cattle that are intensively grazed around the farm.