(PSC)
Permaculture Soil Course
With Helder Valente
Be part of a course with the New School Permaculture and make your life more sustainable.
River regeneration with Helder Valente at Atlantis Food Forest. from
New School Permaculture on
Vimeo.
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newschoolpermies(at)gmail(dot)com
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Check out testimonials from our students
Testimonial
Diana Arhire
My review of New School Permaculture
PSC Permaculture Soil Course
One thing was clear for me from the beginning- if among all this world pandemic chaos, all these people are still coming for the internship, across the middle of the Atlantic- it’s going to be a special one! I felt inspired, supported, understood, challenged, encouraged. As they say, every conflict is an opportunity, and if we see this pandemic as a global conflict, then it could indeed be a great opportunity- for change, for slowing down, for going deeper not further, for (inner) gardening, for Permaculture!
I’m grateful for all the amazing people I met during the courses, so many laughs, hugs, spontaneous dancing, building and burning our first fireplace. Our Perma-tribe was led by our eco-shaman Helder, the most unusual, non-conformist teacher I ever had, with his great sense of humor & observation skills, he knows how to bring out the best in people. Lots of cool (horror) stories from his many experiences around the world. Bring popcorn.
And so, brave people from 10 different countries, so different from each other, yet we got together for the same reason or cause- we want to shift from an outdated broken society model to a conscious, harmonious co-existing with Nature, where we can all be involved, from growing a pepper on your urban balcony (and maybe some guerrilla planting shhh) to regenerating soils, forest, and rivers. It’s a change of mindset where you realize (or more like you are being reminded) that ANYONE can make a change. Anyone can grow food, in any conditions. Each of us plays an important role, wherever we are, and whoever we are- a farmer with many lands, or the weirdo of the family, backpacking around the world- we are all connected in this web of transformation and we are the influence in our community or family, and nowadays, influence is power. So this Permaculture internship was for me, among other things, about Empowerment.
Empowerment and understanding the Essence- whatever the question is, the answer can be found in Nature, by observing, interacting and experimenting. We humans, as Observers, can change the world around us, thus we are creators of our own worlds (inspiration from quantum physics). When we slow down and observe Nature, we see problems as solutions, we understand the natural succession of things, where each part plays a role in the cycle of life, where there are no invasive species, just pioneer soldiers doing their job to balance something our or to regenerate damaged soils or ecosystems. By understanding the Patterns in Nature, we understand ourselves, and by understanding ourselves we move upward in the spiral of Life.
I’ve learned that Permaculture is about compassion, for all life forms- it’s empathizing with the Earth, with Nature, with the plants, with the animals, the insects, the rivers, the soils, but also with ourselves and the other humans beings across the globe. It’s a holistic approach on Life.
I’ve learned that techniques and recipes are useful but once you understand The Essence of a process, you don’t need the recipe anymore. You can make your own fertilizer, you can make your own vinegar!
I’ve learned that when working with Nature, as with people, being gentle is more important than having a lot of knowledge and experience. Mindset and attitude are more important than any material resources.
With every course of the internship it felt like I’m putting a puzzle together to finally see “the bigger picture”:
Soil and Mushrooms course: my fascination with the mushroom world started in my childhood, but during this internship I was astonished to learn just how interconnected everything actually is, and how “myco-permaculture” integrates fungi into the eco-system to maintain healthy soils and improve plant growth, or what we now call “wood wide web”. We considered different methods of growing delicious mushrooms in our food forest, garden beds, around trees as companions, innoculating tree logs with different species of gourmet but also medicinal fungi.
Especially interesting (extra nerdy) to me was to learn about mycorrhizal symbiotic relationships between fungi and plants, trees- it’s a whole underground world there beneath our feet and most of us are not even aware of it!! Soil and fungi go hand in hand like good old friends, and we’re only beginning to understand the complexity of this relationship, how fungi could stimulate plant growth and better reach of resources and nutrients, an invisible landscape under the surface, what a trip! Dip your baby trees in a mycorrhizal solution before planting and in a few years you have Boletus growing in your orchard- garden of Eden vibes, or more like Alice in Wonderland vibes. Speaking of which- that’s how it felt to me when we went for a hike in the island’s old forest around Lagoa do Congro, a magical place filled with myth, mossy blankets, fallen old trees slowly decomposing into the soil, devoured by beautiful clumps of mushrooms, popping up here and there along our path, Armillarias (edible btw), Ganodermas, Russulas, Amanitas (that first Amanita Muscaria made my day) and even a rare white Coral mushroom. The fungi working slow but steady in the darkness and silence of the forest, balancing out human impact, contamination, deforestation, monoculture, it all gets processed into the Natural Succession of the forest, by these quiet sentinels of Nature, spreading their mycelium fractals deep into the soil, connecting Life and Death, decomposition and rebirth. I can only come back to learn more on this!
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