This weekend was great for harvesting Wineberries near me. Wineberries got their name because they have a high sugar content, making them great for making wine. They are an asian cousin of the rasberry. I harvested a bunch down in Rancocas Creek Park in NJ. I made some jam, and maybe next time I'll make some wine! By the time I got around to making jam, I had already eaten about half the berries. I had about 2.5 cups of berries left, so I used this recipe, but I cut all the ingredients in half. It seemed to be a bit liquidy after cannning, but we'll see how it looks when it's cooled.
A huge patch of Wineberries
This beautiful berry was everywhere
I harvested about 5 cups
JAM!
I can honestly say this was the best PB&J I've ever had. 12-Grain bread, Organic Almond Butter, and Homemade Wineberry Jam. :D
I also filmed a video tour at my buddy Joe's house, where he's got a beautiful permaculture garden in his suburban backyard. I'll be posting that video as soon as it's edited.
Coming soon, a tour of a suburban permaculture backyard
I also made some Jewelweed salve from Jewelweeed harvest on my lunch break from work. I used organic coconut oil, beeswax, jewelweed, plantain, violet, sage, essential oils (lavendar, tea tree, and sweet orange), and vitamin E oil to help with preservation of the salve. I have some available for sale or trade if anyone's interested. It helps soothe skin irritations like poison ivy, bug bites or stings, scrapes, or burns.
It's a gloomy day, but these green onions on the windowsil are happy!
After seeing photos of the herb spiral that I built for my parents, my girlfriend's parents wanted one as well. While they were in Europe on vacation, we built one in their backyard. Here's some photos of how it turned out.
My parents, and my girlfriend's parents both expressed concern about how to harvest and use the herbs. I'm putting together an information packet that will describe harvest time, how to harvest, and how to use all the plants in an herb spiral. I'll be posting that on the blog when it's finished.
I first learned about Permaculture in late Fall of 2013. I had been interested in aquaponics before then, but didn't know what permaculture was. I had seen the term permaculture mentioned on posts in reddit.com/r/aquaponics but didn't know what it was all about. I read a little, and watched some youtube videos, and more and more, it just felt right.
In my garden
During college, I didn't have much of an opinion on politics or activism, and I had no interest in gardening or ecology. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved nature, and camping, and wildlife. But in my youthful ignorance, I felt that the world's problems could wait until after I finished engineering school (and in all fairness, they did wait). I didn't have the sense of urgency to action that I feel these days.
Toward the end of school, my friends started composting, and eating healthier, and I noticed, but didn't change my own habits for a good while. But eventually, I started feeling bad when I didn't recycle in front of them, or if I used excess paper towels. And eventually I learned more about the world, and I wanted to use my skills and education to make it better, because frankly, the future seems pretty bleak at times. I started recycling, and turning off the lights more often. I had grown edible mushrooms in my college years using waste coffee grounds from a coffeehouse near my apartment, and was already very fascinated with fungi. Then I learned about aquaponics, and that fascinated my engineer mind.
My first aquaponics project
Earthship in North Philly
I'd read about earthships online, and even got the opportunity to help build one on an abandonded lot in North Philly. It was that day working on the earthship that I met a guy who told me was into Permaculture. I went home and looked up this Permaculture thing, and it was all downhill from there (in the best-possible way, like riding your bike downhill).
At Burning Man in 2013
I had been building art (a friend's projects at first, then my own) at the Burning Man Art festival since 2010, and adopted the idea of radical self-reliance (encouraging the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources) and leaving-no-trace. So, I had already entertained the idea of a possible homestead in my future. Over the 2013/2014 Winter, I listened to countless podcasts, watched video after video on youtube, and read books and articles all about permaculture. I had a 3 hour commute every day to listen to podcasts and an hour lunch to read books and articles. That's around 4 hours a day studying Permaculture for about 3 months. I was amassing a good knowledge base, but had little experience outside of my aquaponics projects and my mushroom cultivation years prior.
My apartment's windowfarm herb garden made from recycled materials
Rosemary in the Windowfarm
Oyster mushrooms in my kitchen
Lion's Mane mushrooms in a homemade fruiting chamber
In Spring 2014, I started a garden in my landlord's yard, and convinced him to pay for 2/3rds the initial cost for half the produce in return. The garden is now supplementing our diets, and giving me fresh ingredients to learn about canning and preserving. I signed up for a 7-month, one-day-per-month Intensive Organic Gardening class with Ben Weiss, a local Permaculture instructor. I've learned a ton, and this has really made me look forward to being able to take a Permaculture Design Certification Course (PDC) in the future. I've used much of what I've learned in the class in my own garden. I tried composting in a bucket. Then I heard about my friend composting with worms, and had to try that out. Now I've got tons of worm castings for the straw bale gardens I just set up. The straw came from a local farm. I got a load of mulch from a local tree service.
Learning to use a broadfork for a no-till garden in Ben Weiss's 2014 Intensive Organic Gardening Class
Serviceberries (Juneberries) foraged from outside my work's office building. They made a delicious dessert for my family reunion thanks to my girlfriend!
I've taken wild plant foraging classes with local teachers, and have realized a more symbiotic relationship with nature. I've found that my landlord's property is filled with edible and medicinal plants like Woodsorrel, Bitter Dock, Lamb's Quarter, Feverfew, Violets, Lady's Thumb, Dandelions, Clover, Purslane, and Plantain. I've even gotten my landlord to start eating the weeds! It turns out, the property used to be a chicken farm, and when my landlord moved in, it was covered in grape vines, and berry bushes, and different fruiting trees. It sounded like a permie's wet dream! He cut everything down except one apple tree, and paved over a large portion of the yard. Since I've moved in and started gardening, we've had many conversations about organic gardening and permaculture, and I think he regrets having "cleaned up" the yard all those years ago. Now, we're working to re-create a productive landscape on his property.
Scott Kellogg and Stacey Pettigrew's amazing urban farm in Albany, NY
I took a Regenerative Urban Sustainability class at Scott Kellogg and Stacey Pettigrew's urban farm in Albany, NY, which was amazing to see all the interconnected, regenerative farm systems. They were growing mushrooms, keeping chickens, ducks, and rabbits, gardening organically, maintaining large aquaponic systems, composting, and utilizing many other permaculture systems. From that workshop, I brought home some Stropharia (Garden Giant) mushroom spawn to introduce to my woodchips in the garden. I'm nearly finished the second herb spiral I've built, and I have two more planned for community gardens that I volunteer at.
My first herb spiral, at my parent's house in Delaware
My second herb spiral, it just needs plants!
The point of this post isn't to brag about how much fun I'm having learning and practicing permaculture. The point is that, you don't need to be in an ideal situation to make your situation work for you while reducing your footprint, and increasing your handprint. Large changes require small steps. I try one or two new things out at a time. This allows me to focus on getting it right, without taking up excess energy and time and becoming a chore. I've done my best to cut out distractions like mindless TV and video games. I try to keep track of my projects and keep notes as a citizen scientist. I don't have any formal schooling in permaculture or ecology, but experience is the best teacher, and I believe that with dedication, anyone can teach themself to become an expert at almost anything.
My most recent garden update
I've got a number of things working against me right now. I don't own land, I rent. I have a 3 hour commute every day. I don't know that much about gardening. I don't have all the skills that I want. But, I'm using permaculture design and ideas in my every day life, regardless of my situation. I have friends who do container gardens on their balconies, and they compost, and that's all that they can do at the moment, but that's better than nothing. My first aquaponic system wouldn't even fit in my apartment, so I asked a friend if I could put it in his bedroom. My next aquaponic system was in my second floor apartment with a WindowFarm and a 5 gallon water cooler tank as the fish resevoir. When I moved to Trenton, NJ, I volunteered at a community garden and met some new artist friends with a studio and space for my next aquaponic system (currently under construction). Through working with these new friends, I've potentially got a space and all the supplies needed for a large-scale, multiple IBC tank system that we've just begun to work on. I've also helped out with their community improvement efforts through guerilla gardening on Saturday mornings.
Guerilla Gardening in Trenton, NJ
My largest, system to date is a single IBC-tank system in Delaware at my parent's house. Space is a huge limitation for me, but I've used my network of friends and family to find space to practice my passion.
My IBC Aquaponics in Delaware
One of the most important lessons I've learned in life is to never limit yourself. There are enough circumstances in life to hold you back, don't let your own fears and insecurities prevent you from following your dreams. The more you explore and learn about how to live a more harmoneous and regenerative life, the more you can create the world you want. Prioritize the things that make you happy and fulfilled. Focus on what's important to you, and cut out the excess. If I can do it, so can you. One step at a time.
In June 2014, I attended a Regenerative Urban Sustainability Training class with Scott Kellogg and Stacey Pettigrew in Albany, NY. They are the authors of Toolbox for Sustainable City Living. The class focused on giving an overview of the many systems that they've implemented on their urban farm. Aquaponics, microlivestock, mushroom cultivation, soil testing, growing microgreens, composting, sheet mulching, and rainwater collection were just some of the topics covered. This was a great experience to see functioning systems that feed into each other. Efficiency is maximized as one system's waste becomes another system's input. As for the class, time management and organization seemed to be an issue. Classes started late, and ran late each day. Although, Scott and Stacey were very helpful for any questions from the class, and provided tons of additional reference books to skim through during lunch, the class was more of an overview of these ideas rather than an in-depth study. Tons of useful knowledge was packed into a great weekend.
A compost sifter made from bicycle wheels.
Inside the immense greenhouse.
A floating bioremediation water filter prototype made from plastic bottles and netting. Water-filtering plants grow in this net and the whole thing can be tethered near a polluted site.
Biogas Demonstration
More info about Scott and Stacey and their work here: Radixcenter.org
A little while back, I was contacted by Alejandro from Back to the Roots. He had seen my first Aquafarm review, and appreciated the review. We chatted about our similar ideals and regenerative food production goals, and he offered to send me some updated parts for the Aquafarm. The updated Aquafarm is in stores already, and included several improvements. First, there is a new pump. This is a water pump rather than an air pump. It’ more efficient, and quieter than the air pump was. There was also a new upper grow tray to accommodate the different pump and tubing. Also included was an updated grow medium. The new rocks are white in color, rather than brown, and they are more porous than the original grow media, allowing for more beneficial bacteria to turn the fish waste into plant food.
Overall, the update greatly improved the Aquafarm design. I would hesitate to recommend the original design because of the loud pump, and the fact that the air pump died after a few months. This updated version is definitely one that I’m now comfortable to recommend. I’ve had great success growing basil and purslane under a daylight color lamp in a bedroom. Here’s a quick video review of the updated Aquafarm 2.0 from Back to the Roots. You can buy the updated Aquafarm at Petco stores, on Amazon, or directly from Back to the Roots.
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