NORWAY — To celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy and the Alan Day Community Garden will be hosting a three day gathering October 12-14th. The weekend will be full of workshops, presentations, skill shares, discussions and a screening of the film INHABIT, a Permaculture Perspective.
Presentations will begin at 10 a.m. each day, and end at 4 p.m. Participants are encouraged to show up at CEBE at 9:30 each morning to register, socialize and check out any weather related adjustments to the schedule. Lunch is not provided, but participants are encouraged to bring a potluck dish to share, and their own bowl and utensils.
According to David Holmgren, who founded the concept in Australia with Bill Mollison in the 1970’s, Permaculture is “Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs. People, their buildings, and the ways in which they organize themselves are central to permaculture. Thus the permaculture vision of permanent or sustainable agriculture has evolved to one of permanent or sustainable culture.” Since the seventies, Permaculture has evolved into a global movement, with classes and workshops being taught throughout the world and tens of thousands of projects from home scale to community based.
This series of permaculture focused workshops, presentations, skill-shares and discussions will draw on the collective wisdom of the western Maine permaculture community which continues to grow. Whether you are a seasoned permaculture designer or are hearing the term for the first time, this gathering should inspire and inform positive action toward building individual and community self-reliance.
The gathering will begin on Saturday morning with a discussion about what permaculture is and what it isn’t, and devote time to the associated principles, ethics and basic design concepts. The following two and a half days will be dedicated to skill building and knowledge sharing with workshops from nine different area practitioners.
Presentations and hands-on workshops will cover, unusual fruits and nut trees, using the European scythe, sheet mulching, foraging for wild edibles, creating a food forest, integrating livestock, land tenure and community land trusts, raising bison, and seed saving. The award winning film INHABIT will be screened on Saturday evening at 7 p.m.
The weekend is free to all, but donations will be greatly appreciated to support the work of CEBE and the Alan Day Community Garden. See you there!
Come for the whole weekend, a single day, or a specific session. Bring a lunch or something to share and ideas for lunchtime discussions. On Saturday we will have an informal discussion about how First Nation Peoples sustainably managed the land. For more information and a schedule please drop by or contact CEBE at 739-2101, visit ecologybasedeconomy.org or find the Alan Day Community Garden or Center for an Ecology-Based Economy on Facebook.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
