Regenerative Skills

Reviving rammed earth and hybrid natural buildings with April Magill of Root Down Designs: 085

Rammed earth is one of the earthen building techniques that I personally have the least experience with, but since it has been steadily growing in popularity around the world for its beauty and durability I reached out to April Magill of Root Down Designs to find out more about how this ancient vernacular building technique is being revived in the southeastern US and what challenges there are to getting rammed earth buildings permitted and accepted.
In this interview April talk about how rammed earth structures help to combat some of the biggest challenges of building in her region such as humidity and mold. We discuss some of the hurdles for architects and owner-builders in getting natural buildings approved by local building authorities, and we also explore hybrid homes, permaculture design for structures, and much more. April also teaches courses with the American College of Building Arts in Charleston, SC so stay tuned till the end to learn how you can get hands on training in a variety of natural building methods in the South Carolina area.
Resources:
Roots Down Design
The American College of Building Arts

Designing for the 4th dimension and regenerating damaged ecosystems with Nelson Lebo of the Eco School: 083

The international presence of the permaculture movement has always been an inspiration to me and in today’s interview I had the pleasure of talking with Nelson Lebo of the Eco School in Whanganui in the north island of New Zealand. Nelson first reached out to me after hearing about some of our similar experiences on this podcast and I became fascinated with the development of his own farm with the unique factors in his area of New Zealand.
In this interview Neslon speaks in depth about why he prefers to work with severely degraded land rather than pristine ecosystems, and the challenges of “permaculture triage” on a limited budget. From there we explore how he approaches the building and development of systems and models that are replicable and scalable and that also are economically viable. We also talk about adapting to severe weather, the “time” dimension within design, and the urgency of farming as if our children’s lives depend on it
This is a remarkably broad reaching interview, bear with me for the couple minutes of rough audio as Nelson was recording his side from his local public library
Resources:
theecoschool.net
ecothriftylife.com

Resettling in a new environment and building a new off-grid lifestyle with “Dirt Witch” Atulya Bingham: 082

It’s time once again to check in with Atulya Bingham, one of my favorite voices and innovators in the natural building world. Atulya is the author “Mud Mountain, Mud Ball” and the newest release “Dirt  Witch,” each of which tell the story of her journey of building her own home and alternative lifestyle, first in Turkey and most recently her move to the north of Spain. In the last interview I did with Atulya back in season one, she was still on the road searching for her new home. This time we catch up with her now that she´s found her site and is in the planning stages of a new off-grid lifestyle.
In this interview Atulya speaks about common earthbag building mistakes and how to avoid them, earthen plaster recipes and techniques, how living close to nature can transform you, and much more. I would especially encourage those of you listening at home to check out her blog which you can find at themudhome.com or by clicking on the direct link in the show notes for this episode at abundantedge.com.
Resources:
The mud home blog
Themudhome.com

The incredible potential of aquaponics with Dr Wayne Dorband: 081

I have many heroes in the regenerative economy and my guest today certainly ranks up at the top. Wayne Dorband and his online educational platform, the Ecolonomics Action Team (or EAT for short) has been putting an amazing webinar series with some of the best educators and practitioners out there for years now and Wayne himself is a great example of a successful serial entrepreneur of regenerative enterprises. Above all though, I reached out to Wayne to get his expert opinion on aquaponics and aquaculture systems.
In this interview Wayne uses examples from his own commercial aquaponics system centered around a two acre pond on his land in Colorado to explain the major components and concepts behind the success of his systems. We start by defining the differences between hydroponics and aquaponics and work through the essential components of the cycles within the system. We talk nutrient cycling, trouble-shooting and how to observe a tough-to-diagnose underwater system before killing all your fish by accident. This is a really in-depth look at aquaponic systems so grab your notebook and I’ll turn things over to Wayne
Resources:
EAT community

Mitigating natural disasters and forming a permaculture landscaping collaboration: RRT 8

Welcome back to the regenerative round table. Today Neal and Oliver are joined by "Bamboo" Charlie Rendall, natural builder and founder of Return to the Forest as we talk in depth about new developments and progress on the Abundant Edge farm (aka Finca Tz'ikin). We recently had a new drainage channel open up right next to the farm so as we scramble to shore up the northern border of our land and divert any potential water away from the house we discuss the many ways that you can mitigate the risks and damage from a severe weather event when it comes to building and landscape management. We also talk about a new joint venture that Charlie and the Abundant Edge team are planning around permaculture gardening services and we talk about all the ways we are planning to use the business venture to benefit our communities in the process. The audio quality is not as good as I would like on this episode due to a problem I had with the microphone so sorry in advance but there shouldn't be any trouble hearing what is being said
Resources:
Abundant Edge course
returntotheforest.org

The ever curious gardener with author and soil scientist Lee Reich: 079

In my focus and passion for designing beautiful, functional and holistic buildings and landscapes, it’s easy to get caught up in the macro and forget the micro, or to put it another way, for as important as the big picture is, the interactions at the ground level and the beauty of the relationships that you can develop with the plants that enrich the earth are certainly not to be forgotten. For insight on these relationships I turn today to Lee Reich, a master gardener who holds a graduate degree in soil science and a doctorate in horticulture and who has written many books on gardening over the years to talk about his new book “The Ever Curious Gardener” in which he explores the observations he’s made from his own experiences with his plants, and some of the science behind why they behave the way they do.
Resources:
Get the book "The Ever Curious Gardener"
leereich.com

Exploring the world of natural regenerative health with naturopathic dr. and herbalist, Crystal Honeycutt, part 2: 078

Welcome back to part two in our series speaking with Crystal Honeycutt about the idea of regenerative health. Crystal is a naturopathic doctor and registered clinical herbalist who has been sharing incredible insights on the topics of nutrition, self-assessment and diagnosis and how to find out just what your body needs to maintain itself in top form. For more on Crystal’s background and superhero origin story you can listen to the beginning of last week’s episode. In this session we’ll pick up where we left off and start to explore the topics of supplementation for faster recovery, the nuanced definition of regenerative health and how you can rise above our low standards of health today to reach your superhuman potential, so let’s get started
Resources:
Crystal on Facebook
balancedliving4u.com

Exploring the world of natural regenerative health with naturopathic doctor and herbalist, Crystal Honeycutt, part 1: 077

Regenerative living can be a very wide and nuanced topic. Today we’ll start on a two-part journey into a tricky and sometimes controversial world of holistic health and what it means to experience regenerative well-being. My guest today, Crystal Honeycutt, is an accomplished naturopathic doctor and registered clinical herbalist who has been in private practice for more than 10 years specializing in chronic illness, stress, and trauma. I’ve been a client of hers in the past and she’s helped me immensely in my recovery from chronic digestive problems and through working with her I’ve gotten a completely new perspective on just about every aspect of personal health and how closely it relates to emotional and environmental health as well. In this first installment of the two-part series, Crystal talks about how her interest in health comes from her own experiences with chronic disease and trauma. We start by exploring the fundamentals of nutrition and how to navigate the mine-field of fad diets, nutritional advice and more. Crystal helps to guide us through basic self-reflection and self-diagnosis to make the best dietary decisions for our bodies too. In the second episode in this series we’ll explore why you may want to look to your herb garden before heading to the pharmacy, the role that supplementation can play in helping us to recover from disease, what regenerative health means, and so much more. I hope that you get as much out of this conversation as I did and don’t miss next week’s session for the conclusion too. Now I’ll hand things over to Crystal
Resources:
Email Crystal Honeycutt
Crystal on Facebook
balancedliving4u.com

The paradox of diversity and efficiency in permaculture enterprises and much more: RRT 7

Our baby goats, just a few days old
One of the biggest challenges that we and many other peramculturalists face is how to balance the need for diversity and resilience in our ecosystems and enterprises and the need for efficiency and simplicity in their maintenance and operation. On this regenerative round table Neal and Oliver talk about their own experiences and mistakes along the way in finding this balance on the Abundant Edge farm as well as balancing the development needs of their site with the work they do for clients. Everything from moisture issues in hobbit houses to delivery systems for goats cheese and running the business sides of each. Join the discussion and share your own stories in the comments below.

Advancing permaculture knowledge at the whole community level with Geoff Lawton and Sam Parker-Davies from Zaytuna farm: 075

This is an interview I’ve been looking forward to for a while now. I was fortunate enough to speak with two guests from opposite ends of the spectrum of permaculture learning. The first, Geoff Lawton, one of the original students of Bill Mollison and a permaculture designer and teacher for more than 30 years, and the second, Sam Parker-Davies, an intern with Geoff at Zaytuna farm in Australia who has jumped in deep with permaculture learning, especially at the community level. In this interview we talked in depth about the challenges and points of inspiration from each perspective and experience. Geoff talks about inspiring regenerative projects at the community level and what it takes to get the ideas to really stick. Sam discusses his experience getting involved in local politics and even running for a seat on the city council. Geoff and I also talk about his experience and memories from working in our region of Guatemala many years ago with our friends at IMAP (the Mesoamerican institute of permaculture) and gives great advice on gathering information and observing a site in depth before making assumptions. This is a great and nuanced discussion from both ends of the spectrum that I’m sure anyone out there can relate to on some level