Getting Started
We moved here in March 2016, and by June we had our first animals: 2 kittens, a rabbit, and 2 goats. One day, a friend asked me if I’d heard of permaculture. I hadn’t. She explained a few things that sounded good. I remember hearing things like “replicating ecosystems,” and “elements of the farm working together.” She told me about this guy on YouTube named Justin Rhodes, so I went home and checked him out. Rhodes was entertaining and encouraging. He made farming sound easy, even with 4 kids. We decided to build an A-frame chicken tractor based on one of his designs (the one that inspired our logo!) and get some laying hens. Within a couple of weeks, another friend brought up permaculture. I listened some more. Nic and I began watching videos together. We realized the contractor-turned-farmer with whom Nic had done his carpentry apprenticeship also practiced principles of permaculture. We watched more videos. We discovered Joel Salatin, a man who calls himself “a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer.” In August, we got 200 Cornish-hen chicks, which we raised successfully by pasturing them the way Salatin teaches (100 in an 10 x 12 enclosure, moved to fresh grass every day). Although we had no prior experience with farming, every time we tried something we learned from another permaculture farmer, it worked. Permaculture felt natural. In December, Nic signed up for Geoff Lawton’s online Permaculture Design Course. He spent the next 9 months watching hours of online class videos on a daily basis.
Replicating Nature’s Blueprints
Bill Mollison, the grandfather of permaculture, defined this approach to agriculture as “The conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive systems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.”
As we’ve come to understand it, permaculture is basically observing what goes on in nature and replicating it. It’s simple. It’s intuitive. It’s energy efficient. Start up costs are low. But most notably, our adventures in permaculture have shown us the truth, goodness, and beauty of this method.
Caring and Sharing
Three principles form the foundation of permaculture: earth care, people care, and fair share. These are considered the ethics of permaculture. These ethics resonated with us. From the moment we first felt called to this life, our vision for Fiat Farm was that it would be “a place of rest and refuge; a place of physical and spiritual nourishment.” Our dream is to care for the earth and for people, and we’ve long felt that everything entrusted to us is to share with others.
When we care for the earth, the earth gives back a hundredfold. Not only is it spectacularly beautiful, it nourishes and heals. It restores the weary soul. Since beginning this endeavor, we see ever more clearly how all the little parts (and the big parts) are connected. There is no separating or isolating any part from the whole — at least, not without consequences. When we care for the earth, we care for people. True care of people also entails caring for the earth. Caring for the earth allows us to continue caring for people.
When the earth and people are taken care of, something magical happens: abundance! Maybe it’s because when people’s needs are truly met (ALL of the needs: food and shelter, safety, belonging, respect, self-actualization), there’s no more fear of scarcity. When depleted people are nourished, they can begin to rest. When they rest, they heal. When they heal, new life takes root within them. Their cups are filled to overflowing. Abundance! Too much for one person! There’s no way to keep the abundance to ourselves without wasting it. It must be shared. Thus, the third principle of permaculture — fair share, or redistribution of surplus.
We are so excited to be exploring the possibilities of permaculture!
0 comments