Regenerative Skills

Drew Grim on designing for the homestead scale and managing your time.

Last week I started off this series on the regenerative design process, first focusing on small scale and residential properties, let’s take the next step up and look into homesteads. 
Homesteading is something of a unique concept to colonial American culture and the term was coined during the homesteading acts of the 1860s. That said, there are plenty of similar concepts in other parts of the world. The ones that I’m most familiar with are small-holdings and crofts, from England and Scotland respectively. 
In general though a homestead refers to a home and a plot of land where the residents work to provide a large portion of what they consume and it usually includes some small production or service enterprises such as growing and processing food for market, craft and artisan goods and services like repair and fabrication. 
The distinction that is often made these days is that of whether or not the enterprises in the home and on the land are primarily for sale or for use and consumption by the residents. 
In today’s session, I’ll be speaking with Drew Grim, a long time homesteader and educator, and the cofounder of The Schoolhouse Life with his wife Lacey. He has been formally trained in permaculture design, Regenerative Agriculture, and Holistic Management, and he uses those trainings along with years of experience to coach people in how to live a more connected life as a homesteader or farmer. A life where the everyday decisions look holistically at the land, livestock, and farmer, both physically and spiritually.
In this interview, Drew and I talk about some of the common motivators for people moving to more remote areas and working to become more self-sufficient. Much of this is connected to fears and uncertainty in the wake of the pandemic, but a lot come from environmental, better health, and even personal interest goals as well. 
We talk about the need for realistic expectations and easing into the lifestyle rather than jumping in the deep end without any experience. 
From there Drew tells me about how he has learned to manage his time with all of the unending projects and tasks that their home and land require, and how he has learned to manage it all holistically. 
We also spend a good bit of time talking about the community aspect of homesteading, which often seems antithetical to the idea of moving away from people and becoming self-sufficient, but from my own experience and Drew’s as well, we’ve found that building a strong community is as essential as a good food supply. 
Drew and I have been through many of the same training and design programs and I loved hearing how he’s used permaculture design and holistic management principles among others to create the life that he and his wife have always wanted for their families.
 
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
https://www.theschoolhouselife.com/
 
Permaculture Homesteading in Nepal: A Story of Community Connection, with Zac Barton of Almost Heaven Farms
 
https://regenerativeskills.com/essential-things-to-consider-when-making-the-shift-to-a-homesteading-lifestyle-with-natalie-bogwalker-of-wild-abundance/

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Rob Avis on the challenges and opportunities in designing for small spaces

Check out New Society Publisher's sustainability practices for digital reading
Welcome to the very first episode of Season 6 of this show. This podcast has undergone a lot of changes and evolutions since I began as the Abundant Edge podcast back in 2017 in Guatemala. Back then I was working mostly in natural building designing homes and managing construction sites for friends and clients around lake Atitlan, now it’s been two and a half years since I moved to Spain to be with my partner, and after years of searching and planning, we’re now preparing to move to a new property later this year in the Catalan mountains. Yet through all of these changes, my fascination for the knowledge and stories of folks around the world who are working to regenerate this planet and their communities has only grown. 
This year and over the 48 weeks of this podcast season, I want to take you through a learning journey through some of the most important concepts, skills, and experiences that I’ve come to value in my professional work, as well as the path that I’ll be taking to move into our new property and design the place to accomplish the personal, financial, and community goals that my partner and I have set out for ourselves. 
I’ve also been listening keenly to the valuable feedback and ideas that have been coming up from the Discord channel. Many of you there have voiced a clear interest in hearing more in-depth and long form interviews, and so that’s exactly what I’ll be working to provide. 
So to start off this season, I’ll be doing a deep dive into the design process from some of the most renowned permaculture and regenerative project planners that I know. 
Since all of you are coming from different contexts and resource bases, I’m approaching this topic from different angles. 
In this first session I spoke with Rob Avis from Verge Permaculture. For 12 years now he and his wife Michelle along with a growing team of designers have been elevating professional permaculture design in Canada and have written and produced professional resources and educational content in order to make permaculture and environmental design learning accessible to as many people as possible. 
Since launching Verge, he’s helped more than 5,000 students and a growing number of clients design and/or create integrated systems for shelter, energy, water, waste, and food, all while supporting local economies and regenerating the land. 
In 2019, Rob moved to a 65-hectare [160-acre] wooded property in central Alberta, Canada, and now spends most of his free time building his own permaculture property.
In this session we covered a lot of ground, but focused on the design process specifically for small and residential scale projects. We talk about the differences in the process at small scales and the advantages and disadvantages of the space limitation. 
Rob shares a lot of his personal learning from being a designer and educator for over a decade and the aspects of the learning and observation process that he’s expanded or now breezes past. We also spend some focused time talking about the opportunities outside of just growing food that he sees in making a living and building business through the application of  permaculture training.
Be sure to stick around all the way till the end where Rob gives a sneak peak at the new blockchain project he’s launching this year with the cofounders of the Ethereum cryptocurrency with the goal of regenerating the planet by 2049. 
Rob brilliantly mixes a deep and philosophical understanding of earth care and environmental patterns with a practical and focused approach of a career engineer. You’ll want to take the time to hear this one all the way through. 
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
Vergepermacuture.ca
https://www.youtube.com/c/VergePermaculture
https://www.instagram.

Getting ready for another year of Regeneration: Season 5 finale

If you have a restoration or reforestation project anywhere in Europe, click the link to fill out a short information form and see if you’re eligible to receive free trees and support in planting them. This can be a project of almost any size so don’t hesitate and check today to receive all the support you need to get your planting project off the ground and into the ground!If you're early in the process of starting an ecological restoraton project and you want to learn how to make your own your own ecosystem restoration design, consider the Gia Education online course which includes incredible teachers such as Alan Featherstone Watson, Neal Spackman, Precious Phiri, and a slew of accomplished and knowledgeable restoration professionals including myself to guide you through every step of the process and help ensure the success of your project. From grasslands to oceans, urban landscaped to old growth forests, nonprofits and business plans, this course has what you need regardless of where in the world you are. Click the link to sign up for the next round of classes. 
Climate Farmers is working to build the infrastructure to scale regenerative agriculture in Europe. We offer the highest value carbon credits on the market to help in the financial transition and our developing academy, community of professional regenerative agriculture consultants and support for you in the transition process will help you restore the health and future of your farm landscape. Learn more at ClimateFarmers.org
Learn more about the unique and pioneering work of New Society Publishers and check out their extensive catalog of books to build a better world. From natural building to, gardening, homesteading, and holistic parenting advice, you’ll find the best quality information on what you’re looking for at NewSociety.comLink to Documentary
If you’re inspired to follow me and my partner on our journey to develop our property in the mountains of Catalunya and build a resilient community around us in the process you can follow us on our Youtube channel by searching Regenerative Skills, our Instagram account by the same name which has all the pictures from the descriptions of the new site, and for the more personal parts that I keep off the public forums as well as the opportunity to share your own journey and interact with the whole Regenerative Skills community, you can sign up for free to our Discord channel Want to take the next step in your own learning journey from this podcast? You can gain access to all of the unedited interviews and Skill exchange calls as well as resource packets from the episodes starting at just $5 a month on our Patreon. If direct guidance is what you’re looking for I have a couple spots open for personalized coaching calls in the new year as well, so sign up before they fill up. 
Would you like to join me, Koen from the Investing in Regenerative Agriculture podcast, and Dimitri from The Regenerative Agroforestry Podcast for a community call to start 2022 off as the Year of Regeneration! You can join the three of us on an open Q&A where we’ll be talking about our own projects and what we’re most excited for and inspired by in the year to come. You can register for free here to join us together on January 10th at 7pm CET. sign up before spots fill up! Sign up through this link. Don’t hesitate, places are limited to 100.
And as always, if there’s anything else you want to reach out to me about, you can get in touch directly at info@regenerativeskills.comThat’s it for this fifth season of the podcast. Thanks sincerely to all of you who’ve made it an unforgettable one. Thanks to you and your loyal listenership, this show is now in the top two percent of podcasts worldwide based on weekly downloads, which is just so much more than I ever could’ve hoped for, so thank you dearly for your support and encouragement to get this far. The launch of season 6 will be back like clockwork every Friday starting February four...

Nigel Palmer’s guide to DIY garden amendments

Let's start 2022 off as the YEAR OF REGENERATION! Join the community call with me, Koen from "Investing in Regenerative Agriculture," and Dimitri from "The Regenerative Agroforestry podcast" at 7pm CET on January 10th. Sign up through this link. Don't hesitate, places are limited to 100.
The topic of fertilizers and inputs for farming is a contentious one. Most chemical options either use mined minerals or petroleum products through destructive industrial processes that may improve yields, but commonly pollute waterways, destroy soil life, and are extremely expensive.
But what’s the alternative? If you have degraded or poor soil where little will grow, you have to improve it somehow right? Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could make your own fertilizers and soil amendments that didn’t contaminate the ground but rather enhanced biological activity?
Luckily Nigel Palmer, lifelong gardener and the author of The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments has been researching and developing just these types of solutions for decades. Not only has he been able to dramatically improve the health and composition of his soil over time, he’s been able to make his amendments easily and cheaply at home by harnessing the power of weeds and household products to create extracts, ferments, and inoculants.
The result has been delicious and nutrient dense food that you simply can’t buy. 
In this interview from an earlier skill exchange call with the farmers in the Climate Farmer network here in Europe, Nigel and I spoke about some of the most important steps and knowledge in creating your own amendments. Nigel first talks about how to assess the health of your plants to know which amendments to consider.
From there we look at a few different homemade products, how they work, and when to use them. We explore how plants take up nutrients in different forms and how to intervene when they need it the most, as well as a lot of other useful advice and tactics that any gardener can use to care for their plants regardless of the context they’re in or the challenges they face.
If you want to hear the full unedited interview from the skill exchange call with the Q&A session at the end as well as access the resource packet which includes amendment recipes from the book, just check out the subscription options on our Patreon page.
This is really empowering information because the recipes are very approachable and have the power to help break any addiction to chemical fertilizers as you build towards healthy resilient soil. 
Get the resource packet for this episode!
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/the-regenerative-growers-guide-to-garden-amendments/
https://www.nigel-palmer.com/
Nigel Palmer's YouTube channel

Akiva Silver on propagating plants and starting a nursery business Part 2

Welcome back everyone. This is part two of the conversation started last week with Akiva Silver. Co-owner of Twisted Tree nursery and homestead. If you haven’t yet heard the first part, you can find the link in the show notes for this episode on the website at regenerativeskills.com
You’ll remember from last week that one of the first projects I encourage people to do is to start a plant nursery. Not only will you start the long process of coaxing plants into maturity which is worth beginning as soon as possible, but you’ll also learn valuable plant care and propagation in the process. Planting your own nursery can also save you money when you eventually begin planting out your design, and if you enjoy it enough and can find a market for saplings and seedlings, you can make good money selling nursery stock as well. There are also real advantages to growing your plants in the soil and environment where they’ll live so they get the chance to acclimate rather than suffer a harsh adjustment from the heated greenhouse and chemical fertilisers so common in most plant nurseries. 
In order to get a better understanding of just how easy and enjoyable it can be to start a nursery, I spoke with Akiva Silver who owns and operates Twisted Tree Farm, a homestead, nut orchard, and nursery located in Spencer, New York, where he grows around 20,000 trees per year using practices that go beyond organic. His background is in foraging, wilderness survival, and primitive skills. He has been observing nature intensively for the last 20 years, and cultivating a deep appreciation for life in that time. 
In the first portion of this episode we dove into how Akiva first began to propagate trees and his transition into making a business out of it and supporting his family by growing plants. We also got into all kinds of propagation methods and where and how to find the best materials for growing nursery stock. This week I’ll conclude this interview by exploring how to build a business around growing the plants you love, improving your soil enough that you can eliminate fertilisers and other inputs, the maintenance and care of your nursery through the different seasons, and the sales and marketing side of the business. 
In the lead up to the Holiday season, my good friends at Chelsea Green publishing have offered to give away two copies of Akiva’s book “Trees of Power” to our listeners in Europe. If you live anywhere in the Euro zone or the UK you can win your own copy by joining the Regenerative Skills Discord server and messaging me that you want to win a copy of the book. I’ll be selecting two people by the end of the week when the second half of this episode is released, so you’ve still got plenty of time. This is a great way to shortcut a little portion of your Holiday shopping to sign up and send me a message right away.
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
http://www.twisted-tree.net/
https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/trees-of-power/

Akiva Silver on propagating plants and starting a nursery business Part 1

After the last few weeks of focus on the intricacies of Holistic management and building community in agriculture, I wanted to go back to some technical information on specific farming enterprises. 
One of the most common questions I get asked from listeners and clients who are starting new projects is about where to begin. Those of you familiar with permaculture will know of the common advice to live and wait a full year on your site before beginning to design and implement your vision. This time of observation and information gathering can be essential to avoiding common mistakes and preparing your place and design adequately to begin, but it can be frustrating for many people who just want to get started. For that reason, one of the first projects I encourage people to do is to start a plant nursery. Not only will you start the long process of coaxing plants into maturity which is worth beginning as soon as possible, but you’ll also learn valuable plant care and propagation in the process. Planting your own nursery can also save you money when you eventually begin planting out your design, and if you enjoy it enough and can find a market for saplings and seedlings, you can make good money selling nursery stock as well. There are also real advantages to growing your plants in the soil and environment where they’ll live so they get the chance to acclimate rather than suffer a harsh adjustment from the heated greenhouse and chemical fertilisers so common in most plant nurseries. 
In order to get a better understanding of just how easy and enjoyable it can be to start a nursery, I spoke with Akiva Silver who owns and operates Twisted Tree Farm, a homestead, nut orchard, and nursery located in Spencer, New York, where he grows around 20,000 trees per year using practices that go beyond organic. His background is in foraging, wilderness survival, and primitive skills. He has been observing nature intensively for the last 20 years, and cultivating a deep appreciation for life in that time. 
This is a longer episode for this show and it’s packed with useful and practical information so I’ve split it into two episodes. This first one dives into how Akiva first began to propagate trees and his transition into making a business out of it and supporting his family by growing plants. We also get into all kinds of propagation methods and where and how to find the best materials for growing nursery stock. Next week I’ll conclude this interview by exploring how to build a business around growing the plants you love, improving your soil enough that you can eliminate fertilisers and other inputs, the maintenance and care of your nursery through the different seasons, and the sales and marketing side of the business. 
In the lead up to the Holiday season, my good friends at Chelsea Green publishing have offered to give away two copies of Akiva’s book “Trees of Power” to our listeners in Europe. If you live anywhere in the Euro zone or the UK you can win your own copy by joining the Regenerative Skills Discord server and messaging me that you want to win a copy of the book. I’ll be selecting two people by the end of the week when the second half of this episode is released, so you’ve still got plenty of time. This is a great way to shortcut a little portion of your Holiday shopping to sign up and send me a message right away. 
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
http://www.twisted-tree.net/
https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/trees-of-power/

Building community in agriculture: Expert panel 11

Welcome to the 11th of the monthly expert panel discussions, and our final panel of this year.
Each month I've been hosting discussions and debates between some of the most prominent voices in regenerative agriculture, soil science, restoration land management and more.
In this session I hosted a discussion on building community in agriculture with my friends and colleagues at Climate Farmers, a non-profit organization working to build the infrastructure to scale regenerative agriculture in Europe.
In my work as the Community Coordinator with Climate Farmers I’ve heard from so many of the people in our network that they feel lonely or isolated in their work and in their own communities.
Despite the work of many organisations to bring together growers in various regions, many farmers still don’t know where to turn to for support and connection.
For this panel I was fortunate enough to be joined by three world renowned teachers and farm community builders from Zimbabwe, Spain, and Germany to focus on the nuances and challenges of building agricultural communities from their own unique experiences.
We’ll hear from Allan Savory of the Savory Institute and international Holistic Management network, Ana Digón from the Agricultura Regenerativa network on the Iberian Peninsula, and Rudolf Bühler, leader of the farmers movement BESH and initiator of the UN’s peasant rights in Germany.
We’ll go into some key starting points in bringing farming communities together, and what it takes to sustain them in the long term. We go from the importance of managing communities to alternative structures, important aspects of rural priorities, and a lot more.
Don’t forget that if you want to hear the full, unedited version of this interview with the entire Q&A session at the end, be sure to check out the different subscription options on the Regenerative Skills Patreon page.
Since these discussions are longer than the regular weekly episodes, and I give the more detailed descriptions of the participants in the beginning of the interview, I’ll keep the intro short and jump right into the introductions for our panelists.
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
savory.global
What is Holistic Management?
https://www.agriculturaregenerativa.es/
https://www.schloss-kirchberg-jagst.de/
https://besh.de/

Allan Savory on managing complexity holistically: Part 2

Welcome back to the second part of my interview with Allan Savory. If you haven’t yet heard the first part of the session you can find the link in the show notes on the website. Make sure you check that out first if you haven’t already.
Last week we covered some of Allan’s insights into where he’s putting his efforts at his stage of his career and the aspects of Holistic Management that are tough for many to grasp despite the simplicity of the practice. He also made the important distinction that management is something you practice rather than apply, and how this shift in language can precipitate a change in mindset as well.
We left off last week with Allan describing some examples of people who he’s worked with who have made quick and remarkable breakthroughs working with their holistic contexts, and we’ll pick up today with a continuation of that question.
Since I’ve come to understand just how broadly holistic management can be practiced despite its primary association with grazing animals, I’ve been keen to understand some examples of the different contexts in which people have used the framework outside of farming, so let’s jump back in.
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
savory.global
What is Holistic Management?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1287318.Holistic_Management
https://www.3lm.network/

Allan Savory on managing complexity holistically: Part 1

this interview has been on my podcasting bucket list for a long time. Like so many others, I’d been intrigued by Allan’s work since I saw his iconic TED talk a few years back. The promise of the ability to restore grassland ecologies through carefully managed grazing made so much sense to me. Allan adeptly explained how he learned to mimic the migration patterns of herd animals on the plains in the African savannah by bunching them together to imitate predator pressure, and then move them through paddocks to allow the land to rest and recover in between impact cycles.
Through careful observation he learned to time these grazing and rest cycles in such a way that the perennial grasses could grow larger than ever thought possible and so many other healthy functions of the land were restored in turn. It seems so simple and yet has marked a revolution in ranching and livestock management around the world, giving rise to the prominence of Holistic Management through the Savory Institute and an ever expanding network of Savory hubs around the world. 
I myself dabbled in the core teachings which are based around working with whole systems rather than reductionist scientific methods, and defining one's own holistic context within the whole under management. From there you learn to make decisions based on the quality of life you desire for yourself and those you love and assess the resources you need to produce or acquire to maintain that quality of life indefinitely. I began to see these principles pop up in other books I was reading and Allan’s teachings were quoted in nearly all of the courses on regenerative agriculture I came across. Many of my mentors have cited this framework as the foundation on which they design farms and manage ecologies. The pieces just get coming together
Recently I finally committed and enrolled in the Holistic Management accredited professional course offered by 3LM, the Savory hub in the UK, which is responsible for training many of the other managers and trainers I’ve connected with around Europe. All of this led me to play hooky on my weekly online training to finally get to speak with the man himself. 
To be honest, this whole preamble was to try and explain why I sound so nervous in this interview. And just as Murphy’s law would have it, when I finally got Allan on the call, my connection began to fail me. So with the combination of me sounding much like I did back on the early seasons of this show and some annoying glitchy sound issues (which I promise I mostly cleaned up in the post production) I invite you to have a listen to the first of a two part call with Allan Savory in which we explore some of the insights that he’s gained from decades teaching and developing his framework all around the world. 
In this first half, we start by talking about what Allan is working on these days and what he still sees as the unfinished business of a very long career. We dissect some of the more challenging concepts in Holistic Management to grasp and also to teach, and Allan uses some of my inept use of language to illustrate some common misunderstandings that arise with newcomers like myself. 
If you’re interested in getting a chance to hear Allan Savory speak live and ask him some questions of your own, there are still spots open to register for the expert panel call that I’m hosting with him and Rudolf Buehler of the BESH farmers association this upcoming Wednesday at 8pm Central European time. It’s free to register and I’ll be posting the link on the discord channel which you can access through our website or instagram page. 
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
savory.global
What is Holistic Management?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1287318.Holistic_Management
https://www.3lm.network/

Innovative marketing and sales strategies for farms: Expert panel 10

Welcome to the 10th of the monthly expert panel discussions. As I mentioned before, each month I’ll be hosting discussions and debates between some of the most prominent voices in regenerative agriculture, soil science, restoration land management and more.
In this session I hosted a discussion on innovative marketing and sales models for farms with my friends and colleagues at Climate Farmers, a non-profit organization working to build the infrastructure to scale regenerative agriculture in Europe.
In this panel I invited Alfonzo Guzman, the former head of the Alvelal cooperative in the Altiplano region of Spain and Stefan Sobkowiak of Miracle Farm and the Permaculture Orchard film. Each of them come from a background in regenerative agroforestry systems, but that’s where most of the similarities end.
Alfonzo has helped to organise a growing network of farmers in one of the fastest desertifying regions of Europe to transition to regenerative farming practices by planting profitable tree species that do well in dry regions like almonds and focusing on restoring soil health and integrating animals. Through the creation of the Almendrehesa brand of regeneratively produced almonds, they’ve helped to significantly increase farmer earnings so they can reinvest in their natural capital and local communities.
Stefan on the other hand is working at a much smaller scale and for decades has demonstrated innovative ways, not only to bring holistic health and biodiversity back to the conventional orchard that he has revived using permaculture methods, but has also pioneered a U-pick business models that focuses on the experiences and relationships that customers have with his farm.
In this discussion, both Alfonzo and Stefan go into great detail, not only about how their farm operations and businesses work, but also the challenges that they’ve overcome along the ways and the unique aspects of their management that have helped them stand out from the competition and increase their sales and profits as well.
I will give one disclaimer that the audio quality in this chat isn’t the best. I’ve done my best to clean things up, but bear with me through some rough connection issues. Think of it as a bit of turbulence on the flight, but don’t worry I’ll get us to our destination safely.
Don’t forget that if you want to hear the full, unedited version of this interview with the entire Q&A session at the end, be sure to check out the different subscription options on the Regenerative Skills Patreon page.
Get the resource packet for this episode!
Join the discord discussion channel to answer the weekly questions and learn new skills with the whole community
Links:
https://miracle.farm/
https://miracle.farm/pruning-demo/
https://www.alvelal.net/
Check out previous expert panels
https://regenerativeskills.com/how-to-make-and-analyse-high-quality-compost-expert-panel-8/
https://regenerativeskills.com/how-to-repair-the-hydrological-cycle-of-a-landscape-expert-panel-7/
https://regenerativeskills.com/the-broad-applications-of-the-holistic-management-framework-expert-panel-6/