Namasté!
My name is Kelley Price & I'm currently taking Elizabeth Anna's Sustainable Life Skills Course. I'm so excited to be taking this class & about being a part of the 2 Hands projects. It's my pleasure & priviledge to blog about what we're learning.
We're halfway through the course & it's surpassed my expectations by far. A lot of what we are learning are features of Permaculture© - a term for a sustainable lifestyle & philosophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture). In fact, Elizabeth & one of the young ladies taking the SLS course became Certified Permaculturists last week. Permaculture teaches us to observe our environment & mimic nature's model. It steers away from monoculture (our current basic agricultural model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoculture) & focuses on the symbiosis that exists within diversity. Even our scientists are starting to awaken to the fact that diversity is health.
Also, any physicist will tell you that the core essence of everything is energy & yet we are desensitized to it in our society. In the SLS class Elizabeth repeatedly emphasizes the energetic exchange that is taking place at all times between all things. I know from personal experience that feeling things at a deeper & more profound level is part of the overall synergy that will sustain us & help us survive as a species. I really appreciate the fact that this is encouraged. She constantly urges us to truly connect with our environment, to study it & get to know it intimately.
I'm very grateful to Elizabeth for all that she's doing. So are her plants & animals, by the way - you should see what they do for her! Biggest, sweetest blackberries you've ever seen or tasted, tiny 2-foot-tall baby fig trees producing multiple fruits already, huge clusters of grapes that taste unlike anything you'll buy from the grocery store (yes, even our beloved Central Market). It is so harmonious in this fallow ground-turned-urban oasis that pit bulls, chickens, cats & bunnies interact peacefully! Seriously, folks.
Today, after harvesting tomato seeds from, I believe, 4 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_seed), we had the most awesome salsa from the fruit. The flavours were distinctly different & the medley was heavenly! Another student brought some salsa she'd made with tomatoes & piquin peppers from her garden here in the Ryan's Place/Fairmount area. I love the hot peppers & piquins are one of the best. I wish I could've snuck the whole container home with me!
My point is that homegrown vs. store-bought is like comparing apples to oranges (couldn't resist).
One of the first things we covered in the SLS course is Plant Guilding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture#Guilds, which is grouping your plants together in a symbiotic way that is beneficial to all, from a canopy (trees &/or tall shrubs) down to mid-sized plants to what grows directly on the ground & how much sun or shade each requires & provides, as well as any other relevant biological interaction.
I can't describe how happy I am to be a part of this.
This weekend we also gathered seed from some other things in the garden & learned how to trim chickens' wings so that they can't fly out of the coop. Not all chickens fly, but Elizabeth has 2 different types of what are called phoenix chickens. Their bodies are light enough to go airborn & her 4-month-olds were flying the coop. It's funny to see something in action that most city dwellers think is just a saying! We each took turns alternately holding birds & clipping wings. It was really interesting. And seed harvesting is going to become a very good thing to know in the coming years.
Yesterday we also worked on the Sheet Compost bed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheet_composting) we started our first day that's going to be the Chicken Garden in the developing Children's Corner. And the student who's now a Certified Permaculturist, Elisa Elizondo, has plans for the half-moon island in front of the main building, which are just awesome. Elisa, I hope you don't mind me using your name, but I figure that when The Island Café & Garden is completed we'll have to give you credit for your amazing design! I am so privileged to be working with such talented & dedicated people.
This morning we worked in the new 2 Hands Community Garden plot just south of Elizabeth Anna's with some Permaculturist friends. We picked up trash while Elizabeth's son started contouring the ground with a backhoe (I think it was a backhoe) to begin what's called a Keyline Design, which is a water resource system. That's probably also a copyrighted term & concept. Keyline was developed by P. A. Yeomans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyline_design
After a productive day at Elizabeth Anna's I always feel SO GOOD. Talk about an amazingly balanced, joyful & healing place. I gotta make Yoga in the Garden some Wednesday. I'll bet that's out of this world (literally!)
I'm going to close for now. Take care, be well, be grateful! Ashé!
kel
i am elizabeth isaiah is my beloved son odd
i am a spaze with these things
Posted by: Isaiah Samudio | December 15, 2009 at 07:36 PM
elizabeth did it
wow all in good time
the earth is resting
god show us how
the leaves cover her barrenness
oh
such a lovely quilt she has
purple, red , yellow and my favorite color brown is knit loosely oh her curves
she breathes deeply
so deep you can not hear her
silence is her winter voice
let her snore in the cold mud
for in the dawn she will arise and toss off her slumber
ahhhh for now walk is her peace
ea
Posted by: elizabeth samudio | December 15, 2009 at 07:53 PM