First Time's a Charm!

I can't imagine more than one or two people (including myself?) ever reading this blog, but here goes... I wanted a place I could devote some thoughts to my new field of interest: permaculture and other earth-based vocations. What is that, you say? "Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and meintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resiliance of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way" (Mollison). What you talkin' 'bout Willis?

Many lifetimes ago, when I was about to start college, I thought I was going to be an ecologist or environmentalist or farmer (the pesticide/gov't subsidy-free kind). I even did an apprenticeship in my senior year of high school with a couple of plant and seed nuts from the UofA. To sum up, I was first enrolled at the UofA through the College of Agriculture. So what happened? How did I end up with a Masters degree in poetry? The enchanting sirens of the liberal arts education drew me into the Modern Languages building. Plus, I really didn't care for serious math or science.

And how is it, you may ask, that I am (teetering on the edge of 30) coming full circle to this field? Honestly, I don't know. Maybe I've realized how little working in a bookstore means to the rest of my life. Maybe I don't plan on being one of the few Americans making a living with their poetry. Maybe I'm thinking about children and feel a renewed responsibility to do something good while I'm here (earth). Maybe it's the way Kristy and I got lost up near Taos while looking for some hot springs and ended up at the Earthsip Biotecture. And how I ended up reading all of Michael Reynolds' books (he's the inventor of the Earthship, which is a completely sustainable home) and attending a three-day workshop. Mostly, I think it's Santa Fe serendipity that has brought my attention to some old ideas and a ton of new ones through a school here called Ecoveristy. They have an Earth-Based Vocations program that I am considering enrolling in. The intensive, ten-week course covers: Permaculture Design System, Natural Building, Land Arts & Community Activism, Renewable Energy, and Sustainable Land and Garden. It may surprise my poet friends, but all of these excite me.

The next course begins in late February, so I started doing some reading in the meantime. First I read the book Against the Grain: How Agriculture Hijacked Civilization by Richard Manning. A very good read, even if you're not "excited" by this stuff. It's all about the history of agriculture and how we got into the mess we're in re: food production, diet, pesticide use, droughts, bioengineering of food, etc. When I say history, by the way, I mean this guy goes waaay back. It's a good education on human evolution and development if nothing else. I've been picking my way through various books on permaculture, including Earth User's Guide To Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow (great drawings), Permaculture In A Nutshell by Patrick Whitefield (mostly good if you're British), and last but not least Permaculture: A Practical Guide For A Sustainable Future by Bill Mollison (Mr. Inventor of the term). These books are all fascinating. I get to a point though where I can't get my head around some things without being there and doing it, which is what I hope to do at Ecoversity. A really cool book by an author I've read and loved before is Second Nature: A Gardener's Education by Michael Pollan. Pollan also wrote The Botany Of Desire, which is one of my favorite books. Second Nature chronicles his personal history and relationship with the garden through the four seasons. Pollan discusses a lot of the history of gardening (all over the Western world) as well as postulating about the future (what's our role as gardeners; what about national land reserves and the like). He's got such a great voice that, again, you wouldn't have to be crazy for this stuff to enjoy the book.

I'm hoping to add blog entries the more I read and find out about all of this. I may use the blog for something later--something for the school, or to write more, who knows. I also want to put things up here that other people may benefit from (i.e., articles on growing food on urban small plots). We shall see. So, thanks for reading so far (if you're out there)!