Hedvig’s permaculture diploma

Aren’t they beautiful!  When I went for a rummage in my seed box, I came across these beauties.  A head of garlic that I picked up at the Slow Food Meeting in Torino.  These are a variety that come from Aburzzo and are distinctive because of their pink colour.  The flavour is amazing.  And I we have pickled garlic flowers in olive oil that just tasted amazing. I hope they take…Luckily they aren’t the only variety that I plantd this year, and I also have some shallots in.  Looking forward to it.

Oh yes, the garden is taking shape: the water butt is almost filled up; the log pile was amassed as the chimney has now been swept; the compost bin has been turned; the raised beds built and lined; found some pallets and building and raised bed and shelving; the shelving has been painted.  We are still waiting on the soil and compost, and boy was I cross last Thursday when I called up and the organisation had made another mistake.  If it doesn’t arrive this week, I am not sure what will happen.  The broad beans are growing away in the kitchen and the bathroom.  The Nepalese tomatoes that I saved from last year have come up nicely.  So things are looking good.  Just waiting on that bloody soil and compost.

I have finally managed to print the photos for the cosmetics cards, and have compiled the info.  I have now sent them out to Sarah and Irene so they can look over them, and see if we agree with it.  They look quite pretty scattered about on my floor.

I went along to the Permaculture Design Course that the Brighton Permaculture Trust run.  I went for the second day of their weekend about food, focusing on soil.  It was really great to hear new trainers discuss soil.  And always great to see a bunch of people soil testing and getting their hands dirty.  Like it.It was also lovely to walk into a new course and recognise about half the students.  It reminds me that I have helped out on a number of courses both in Brighton and in London and this is one of the outcomes: meeting a great number of people that are getting more and more into permaculture.  I do feel like I have met some amazing and inspiring people through it all and hope to be bumping into a lot more of you soon.

I have been helping to run a series of workshops at Stepping Stones City Farm, in Stepney.  The farm is undergoing all sorts of changes, and one of the things that they wanted to set up was a growing club.  I was asked to come in to help run them.  We had a great action day moving the polytunnel and getting lots of volunteers on broad, and planting some broad beans.

The first session we taught people how to make a sowing mix, plant broad beans.  Everyone really got into it.  Great to have scrummages for coir and naming of beans.  Loved the enthusiasm.  The next session was about propagating and crop rotation.  So the last session, which was on Saturday, we planted up a rotation demonstration raised bed and did some sheet mulching.

I might be doing more workshops down there working with different community groups, which would be really exciting.  Who knows what else will happen….

Oh yes, we have been planting trees.  Lots of them.  31 in all.  Mainly apples, but also pear, plum and mulberry.  None of them are the same variety.  So we aimed for a huge range of flavours and to extend the season as much as possible.  They are all on Somerford Grove, a council estate in Hackney that I have been working on.  It has been wonderful to work with everyone.  So many people felt really inspired and empowered by planting the trees.  It will be amazing to see the leaves and then the blossom come out this year.  And may there be many an apple bobbing session.

Last month, I was to participate in a fundraiser for ‘Million Women Rise‘, a campaign to end male violence against women.  I have been interested and involved with gender stuff for years, and it was great to be able to participate in the event.

The subject matter is quite heavy, so I decided I wanted to go with a positive, empowering little demo that people could do.  What better than making pots to sow seeds in, made out of old newspapers.  The fundraiser took place in a pub up in Newington Green, and it was great to look around and see lots of people making little pots, and after a quick session feeling like they had mastered this and could do it themselves.  One of the barriers to growing removed.  Also enjoyed hanging out with some kids beforehand and making masks, alien antenna and those sorts of fun and games.

Wow, instead of having permaculture days, it feels like I am having permaculture months.  I have finally managed to get into some action learning guilds. An Action Learning Guild, is a group of people that come together to talk about their permaculture projects, in particular using the four action learning questions: what is going well, what is challenging, what is the vision and the next steps.  It is set up so an individual will talk without interruption and another member will take notes, with typically a third doing the time keeping.It has taken months and months and months.  Now, I have come to realise the extent to which everyone with their diploma so far is seriously motivated to get this thing done.  No one is out there guide you, not really.  It all has to come from you.  So I tried to get it happening with diploma peeps in London and just wasn’t really feeling it last year, especially as I was planning on moving to Brighton.Since the move, I have got in touch with lots of people and met lots more from helping out with intros, and finally in February did I manage to have not one but two ALGs outside of the induction days.  I had another one in March, and two more scheduled in April.In the end, I’ve gone for a scatter-gun approach, where I’m now hooked up with two different ALGs, with the aim that I will have quite frequent meetings with people, and even if one falls through I still have the other.   The first group of people who live outside of Brighton has been really successful so far.  The other two have been doing their diploma for a long time, but had sort of got lost, and having the ALGs provided some structure and support that they needed.  The other group is with people living in Brighton, and who are cracking on with their different projects.It is great to meet up and have the opportunity to talk about the diploma and where we are all at with it.  With the first group, we’ve decided to add a bit to the four questions format, so at the end of the questions we can then give feedback to one person, and have more of an in-depth conversation about the project.  This was really useful as we could support each other and that adds to the sense of community that is developing.I have used each ALG to present one of my projects to keep me on track.  And have had really good feedback about the projects.  So that is really encouraging.  My next ALGs are in early April, so will update then.

Today, being Tuesday, is permaculture diploma day.  I am trying to wrap up my first project (my action learning pathway for the diploma) before my action learning guild meeting on Thursday.  So here is the final version of the pathway.  As we no longer have to send it to the office to disseminate it, I figured this might be as good as any.

Action Learning Pathway

Somedays, breakfast looks like this:

Pain perdu with homemade quince and almond cheese