#eric toensmeier

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Reading

Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier EDIBLE FOREST GARDENS VOL 2 - DESIGN & PRACTICE Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate Climate Permaculture

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Reading

Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier EDIBLE FOREST GARDENS VOL 1 - VISION & THEORY Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate Climate Permaculture

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Reading

Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier EDIBLE FOREST GARDENS VOL 2 - DESIGN & PRACTICE Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate Climate Permaculture

[ncdweller]

Permaculture for the eastern US

Pretty cool books.

The USDA hardiness zone map is most interesting.

This is the 1990 version. The authors note that this is based on data from 1974-1984. Ten years.

They also note that the American Horticultural Society drafted an updated map in 2003, based on data from 1986-2002. This map showed that the warmer zones were creeping north. 16 years of data.

The Department of Agriculture pulled this new map from circulation, so it wasn't available for this book.

Instead they were going to release a new map, including data from 1974-2002, (28 years), thus diluting the more recent numbers.

The printed 1990 map shows Slaughterhouse House in zone 6b. The most recent 2012 map shows us in zone 7a, and covers the years of 1974-2005. 30 years. That's a half-zone increase, which is 5F/2.8C

There is a nice explainer of the changes in the maps at

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/apme/51/2/2010jamc2536.1.xml

It has a weak argument for going from the most recent 10 years in 1990 to the most recent 30 years in this round ("more stable statistically", "yields a clearer picture"), so you might want to adjust your hardiness zone accordingly. I'm thinking we may be in zone 7b.

Near us, in Rabun County, GA, there is a resort town called Sky Valley. When D was in high school, it was a ski resort, and she spent a lot of time there, her parents even bought a time share.

I went to the time share once, during the beginning of Operation Desert Storm, January 17, 1991 - we watched it on TV. There was snow on the ground outside, and the 1990 USDA hardiness map was being developed.

I don't remember it being a ski resort then. Things were already changing.

Sky Valley is no longer a ski resort with charming chalets, it's now a golf resort with charming chalets. The ski slopes are gone.

[umasspermaculture]

Look what just came in the mail! We're so excited to dive into this! 😍

[explodinggirl]

Eric Toensmeier

Does anyone have any experience with this guy? There is a free program by him on Forest Gardening while I am in VT, and I wanted to know if it was worth my time.

Some of the permaculture people can be not so great, so I just want to know if this is one of the good eggs.

[willszal]

Carbon Farming Course '12

For the past three weeks, more or less, I've been in the Carbon Farming Course at the Threefold Center in Chestnut Ridge, NY.

First I'll start with the name.  I like it as it puts an emphasis on soil carbon, which is at the core of fertility and climate-change mitigation.  Also, such a breadth of progressive agricultural practices were covered that there wasn't yet a term broad enough for all of them.

Check out my photos from the event here.

The course was organized more or less with three day workshops.  We had a whole slew of world-class folks, both as presenters and as participants.  Please check out the links above to read more about specifics.  Topics included:

Perennial staple crops

Polyculture enterprise model development

Soil biology

Keyline

Holistic Management

I'd prefer to talk about big-picture take aways.

I could be frustrated that this knowledge isn't more widespread [we went over some truly phenomenal stuff] and that there isn't more cohesion between the presenters [everyone put an emphasis on a different facet of regenerative agriculture, and there was even a fair amount of disagreement on the "facts"].  I guess I can just be happy that I'm riding right out front on a tsunami of integration and my surfboard's so gnarly I won't run into any issues.  It's going to be really interesting to watch how this new wave of culture/agriculture washes over the parched landscape of the worldview of separation.

[ptpermaculture-blog]

Edible Forest Gardening: Just the Pith

It is the eve of my visit to Devon, UK to attend a course in forest gardening with Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust. I'm really excited and I want to briefly share why. I will curb my enthusiasm now in preference for pith and I will share more details after the course.

So What is an Edible Forest Garden?

Martin Crawford says that a forest garden is:

"… a three dimensional garden of useful plants … all designed to maximise beneficial interactions and minimise competition — designed to be sustainable in the long term …" —Martin Crawford´s Forest Garden video.

Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier say that:

"… a forest garden is an edible ecosystem, a consciously designed community of mutually beneficial plants and animals intended for human food production." — — Edible Forest Gardens, vol 1., p. 1

… And Why Are Edible Forest Gardens Good?

Edible Forest gardens (along with homegardens and other agroeological systems and perennial polycultures) are the future for the provision of food and many other human needs. Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier describe the Seven F's:

food

fuel

fibre

fodder

fertiliser

"farmaceuticals" and

fun

These seven F's are the categories of yields which can be derived from forest gardens et. al. Because forest gardens are designed to mimic natural ecosystems, these things can be produced sustainably with a minimum of human input.

In March this year, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food said that:

“To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the most efficient farming techniques available, … Today’s scientific evidence demonstrates that agroecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production where the hungry live -- especially in unfavorable environments.” — Mr. Olivier De Schutter, Eco-Farming can double food production in 10 Years

From the scale of the many hungry in the world to the urban courtyard, the ideas of forest gardening and like systems have the potential to provide human needs sustainably.

Convinced? Let me know. I'll be writing more soon (including a bibliography) and I'd love to hear your first impressions before I do.

For more than just the pith, check out:

The Agroforestry Reseach Trust's page on Forest Gardening (including a great video - also quite pithy)

Edible Forest Gardens - the webpage of the two volumes of the same name

Transiton Initiatives' Rob Hopkins' recent interview with Martin Crawford

Permaculture Magazine UK's Maddy Harland's posts at Mother Earth - an introduction and designing and planting

 read more