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Starhawk at Lost Valley

By Tammy Davis

Out at Lost Valley we had a wonderful time during the event Permaculture and the Sacred with Starhawk May 20-21st. It went really well with about 45 people participating in ritual and working on hands-on projects on the land. We worked with cob in the sauna, facilitated by Sukita Crimmel and Joseph Becker, kitchen garden design with Jude Hobbs, mushroom cultivation with Neil Logan and Kevin Stutler, and pond design with Marc Tobin.

Thanks to all of you. Here is a photo of cobbers in action. Our next Permaculture Apprenticeship Program begins Sept.1 - Oct. 10 2003 and includes all the basics plus a seasonal focus on food preservation: canning, drying, and freezing, seed saving, and wild mushroom hunting. See our website for more info at www.lostvalley.org

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Intentional Neighborhoods

By Marc Tobin

The recent postings on buying homes to make intentional neighborhoods are inspiring. They make me hope that people are walking around their block to monitor for houses for sale that face the next street over but whose backyards touch up to Permie houses. I would submit that the permaculture, habitat restoration, and community building potential of buying up houses with adjacent backyards is far greater than houses "facing" each other that are separated by a road. This is not to dismiss the importance of all types of intentional neighborhood building but to encourage people to really keep their eyes out for these backyard opportunities that are harder to spot- because the for sale" signs face a different street than ours. There is a huge amount of land currently locked up in cities, not just by roads, but by private fragmented backyards, with no ecologicial relationship to each other.

For an incredible example of freeing the isolated postage stamps, N street co-housing in Davis, California (http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/go/nstreet/) has taken down the fences between 14 houses and created a shared backyard landscape. That's alot of land- the amount that many people think they have to move to country to find to enjoy.

Society has given us an "auto" centric definition of "front"- the side that is facing the almighty street, of course. But in Village Homes, many co-housing communities, and even at Eugene's Maitreya Ecovillage, "front" is re-defined by the side that opens on to the communal green space. We can decide what is important and deserving of being the "front" - and create more interesting settings for community than the street.

In the great book Rebuilding Community in America, Ken Norwood shows many existing and theoretical possibilities for blocks in which houses with adjacent backyards are owned by eco-community types. Jan Spencer of Eugene has some images on his block planning web-page as well.

Having neighbors on both sides of the street with Permie front lawns is ideal for educating passer-bys about Permaculture and should certainly expand. However, the sheer amount of contiguous open space unlocked by sharing the backyards of a whole block opens up entirely new potential for an integrated permaculture design of habitat restoration, large gardens, microclimates, large shared greenhouses, shared solar panel and fuel cell systems for the block, etc.

Ownership of individual lots can still be private or could be shared- at N Street it's a mixture of both. I'd be interested in hearing form others in Eugene who are interested or have experience with this type of pattern. Thanks for listening.

Marc Tobin, mtobin@darkwing.uoregon.edu. Ecological Design Center, University of Oregon.

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Dandelion Coffee

By Rick Valley

Have you ever been paid to harvest your veggies and make good medicine? Ah, dandelions! I can't do better than Pat's article in the last newsletter, but I'd like to share how I process the noble dandelion for "coffee". Once upon a time I was immortal, and I'd think nothing of drinking a whole bottle of wine, or working with acetone, toluene and paint thinner without gloves or a respirator for hours at a time. While I was living in Ecuador 24 years ago, I contracted hepatitis. Among other things, I learned about mortality and the importance of my liver! Dandelion, like many bitters, is good for your liver. The strongest part is the root, and my favorite way to indulge in my medicine is as a hot beverage. Years ago I priced stale European dandelion root, bulk, at $14 a pound and I decided to make my own. Hey! It's better fresh and home made! (Duh!) So here's what I've worked out...

1) Harvest: I use a pick, one handed or a light pick mattock, and dig a basket-full at least. If you're gonna use the greens too, have a rinse bucket at hand and rinse the dirt from each plant before you put it in the basket.

2) Trimming: Cut the greens off each, and then break the roots apart so each is a single, unforked piece, with no muddy crevices.

3) Washing: Use a veggie brush and scrub the pieces as clean as possible.

4) Cutting: Sharpen up your best chef's knife, and a small handful at a time, slice the roots into little discs, as thin as 1/8- 1/16 inch, anyway, as uniformly thin as you are able. As you make a pile on the cutting board, sweep them into a bowl so you don't get crowded. When they've all been cut, take as much as the board will hold for chopping at a time, and do a two-handed rapid mince-chop on the pile. The object is to have a heap of relatively small, uniform chunks.

5) Roasting: Put the chopped roots on a baking pan and put them in a pre-heated oven (350°-375°). Stir them every few minutes. When they've darkened nicely and smell heavenly, they are done. This caramelizes the sugars and I don't know what else, but it works medicinal magic as well as being savory. If you've done a good chop of mincing them, the roast will go quicker and more uniformly. Cool, and place whatever you don't brew up right away into a tight dark jar.

6) Brewing: Bring water to a boil, put in a 5 finger pinch to a scant handful of roasted roots per cup, turn the heat down so it simmers for a few minutes, strain into your cup, and Salud!

7) Get fancy: Add dark roasted malt barley. (Found at a home brewer's supply if you don't make it yourself) Add roasted chicory root. (You can find this at a health food store or specialty coffee place, if you don't make it just like the dandelion root.) Or, do it the busy 'Mercan way and add a spoonful of Inka or Pero or other erzatz coffee. If you don't use all the greens for a veggie salad, red worms in your bin LOVE 'em!

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Poison Oak Control

By David Hoffman

Although poison oak can grow anywhere via birds dropping seeds, because of human activity it will mostly grow near and up trees. Most of what grows in the open will track back to a tree. Most of it will be runners/roots on or near the surface and in the duff of forest litter. Contrary to gardening sound-bites, plants are not limited to one type of root: runners or shallow roots will often send down a tap root every several feet.

Poison oak roots have a peculiarity. Most roots grow until they hit something, then divert; poison oak, on its own, will sometimes make a 90-degree right-angle turn or even a "180" U-turn.

Step one is to prioritize and contain: isolate patches and work from the perimeter in. If it's a mess, at least it is in one place and getting smaller. For "unimproved" land, do paths first, several feet to each side, then expand as the human use area increases.

Remove the bulk. Grab and pull the bulk of the runners/roots (easier in forest duff) tracking to the tree. As the tree is approached, more runners/roots will be seen going away from the tree.

Redo weeded area before going to new space; when the left-behind roots re-sprout, repeat digging. Tap roots will re-sprout and need to be re-dug; they are at the base of the tree and several feet apart for the runners/roots. Dig taproots as deep as possible, cut, loosely refill hole (for re-digging), and mulch. The farther the root grows to reach sunlight, the more energy is expended. One inch diameter tap root is common. The wood is soft. A pruning saw is as useful as a soil saw (it may need an access hole). See: "Soil Knives, Soil Saws, In-Line Rakes, Thistle Flickers and More".

Flagging it or near it with strips of cloth or plastic flagging will alert, remind, mark tap roots for re-digging, and will save a hired person's time looking for it.

Cutting the tree vines will kill top growth. With acreage, one or more places can be the long-term decay pile.

Disposable suits of Tyvek (same material used to cover buildings) are useful. Tyvek suits seem to be labeled for small people so purchase them big to fit. Suits with booties are spendy, so try feed sacks or heavy plastic with cloth over it (to protect plastic) all lashed with masking-tape, which is easy to remove. Rubber/plastic gloves should be armored with cloth gloves, old socks, or just loose cloth, masking-taped on.

Tools can be (at least partially) cleaned by rubbing in soil. Wash tools in medium-hot, soapy water. Some references suggest washing the body with a stream of cold water to congeal and knock off the oil, then hot soapy water draining away from the body. Launder clothes twice, then run the washer empty to clean it.

Goats that eat poison oak produce antibodies in their milk. Drinking the milk gives immunity to some, not all, people. Some people eat leaves to renew immunity; obviously this cannot be suggested for others.

The smoke of burning poison oak can swell human air passages and so can be lethal. In other words, poison oak smoke can kill.

If you want to remove growth for a garden space or clearing, that is where to put the chicken yard. Clear top growth so they can deal with delicate sprouts. Chicken tractors are useful.
Contact David G. Hoffman, Lane County Master Gardener, with questions at fixit@efn.org.

Permission is given to nonprofits to reprint.

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Less is Best

Q: Is junk mail irritating, time-consuming and wasteful?
A: YES!

Q: Is it possible to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive?
A: YES!

According to a study performed by the DEQ, 44% of all junk mail is discarded, unopened and unread - this constitutes a huge junk mail problem! This summer, Lane County's waste reduction campaign Less is Best offers simple tips on how to reduce and prevent junk mail.

Remember, when it comes to resources used for the delivery of junk mail, Less certainly is Best.

For more Less is Best waste reduction tips, visit our Web site at www.lanecounty.org/PW_WMD_Recycle/lessisbest.htm. Contact: Pete Chism, Lane County waste specialist (541) 682-4339

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Garden Intelligence

By Nick Routledge

I'm finding very often that the first thing I can do to improve the health of a garden is to pull back mulch where it is touching the bark of trees. I'm noticing that young permies with young gardens have a tendency to let leaf mulch sit up against the trunks of fruit trees. Rooting around, I've been seeing much in the way of "hidden" but substantial, creeping damage. What with the warm weather of late, I've been rushing to prune fruit trees. Today, I was surprised when an experienced pruner told me that in warm winters he tends to hold off on spring pruning until later than usual. He tells me that with warm winters there's an increased danger of encouraging strong new growth into a late frost. But, as I'm sure you're aware, opinions vary. Then again, the pros do seem to agree that spring pruning encourages growth, whereas summer pruning reduces it.

There are a number of reasons for summer pruning - increasing the light reaching fruit and reducing the number of fruit (hence improving the quality of those remaining), for example. I'm anticipating a busy summer pruning because it seems an essential tactic in bringing fruit trees which haven't been pruned in a while, and which are sucker-heavy, back into manageable shape. Summer pruning - pruning a tree before it has time to regenerate before the winter shuts things down - allows one to usher in substantial structural changes without creating a sucker frenzy. But be gentle. The wise ones say never make a cut without good cause. Bringing a tree back can take some years, I'm told. The woo-woo crowd say never prune anything in flower; others, that it matters not a whit. Pruning trees twice a year is not unusual orcharding.

The Raintree Nursery has a thin newpaper booklet called the Raintree Plant Owners Manual that I've found to be a concise and concentrated source of experiential knowhow. It's also online at: http://www.raintreenursery.com/guide/index.html I recommend the quickest of glances. I'm consistently finding that strong sources of knowhow around specific plants (growing and propagation techniques for example) are the websites of nurseries specializing in 'em.

The web is also very useful when it comes to checking out varying propagation styles. Some fig enthusiasts insist that propagating with cuttings no more than 4 inches long is the way to go: the Turks go with 3 to 4 feet. I'm finding a quick web search usually gifts enough to mix and match an educated guess at what best suits the resources, soils and weather I have at hand.

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Tikkum Olam #1

By Jenya Lemeshow

I care for this soil
          As if it was a broken world
I add worms by the handfuls
Scattering them in wide pink arches
Over the stilllness of this wasteland
That somebody, once, cared little about
          They poisoned it until it almost died,
                    Gagging
I dig hole after hole in the sandy loam
That came from who-knows-where when
They filled in this wetland 50-some years back
I break my elbows and knees on boulders
Transported from some other place and time
And I dig holes deep enough for
The sweat dripping from my furrowed brow
          To fill up
I can't dig fast enough
          And after my sweat runs out my tears
Turn the holes to rivulets, then soak into
          Underground streams
And more plants keep coming to fill up
This broken earth, to heal this barren land
To make one human happy as her gaze falls upon
          A strawberry in bloom
               A young lettuce
And an explosion of the brightest red nasturtiums rounding
out and stretching tendrils towards the burning sun
          My body creaks with lifetimes
As I pound with a six foot pry-bar at
Displaced relics from another age
When humans didn't have the right or power to transport
River bottoms to mountain tops, or mountain tops to river bottoms
And I sometimes can't quite fathom how I live in this world,
But I do
And I struggle through
Finding solace in a handful of the
Sweetest smelling soil or the
radiant green
Of a new leaf.

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Announcements

The EUGENE PERMACULTURE GUILD Presents:
The 7th Annual Northwest Regional Permaculture Gathering
"Urban Permaculture, Local Culture"

SEPTEMBER 12, 13, 14 ---2003

At River Road Neighborhood / Eugene, Oregon

After six successful years at Lost Valley Educational Center, we are excited to host this year's Gathering in a [sub]urban setting, the River Road Neighborhood of Eugene, Oregon. This year's Gathering will be bike/train/bus accessible and close-by accommodations will be arranged for out-of-town guests. This will enable you to leave the car at home if you choose to.

This year's Gathering will focus on a variety of themes from beginning to advanced levels. There will be panels, hands-on workshops, tours, and discussions relating to [sub]urban Permaculture and local culture. Topics will include gardening, local economics, smart land use, renewable energy, natural building, group skills, property conversion, and much more!
More details to come! Inquiries by phone and e-mail welcome.

For info call Heiko (541) 485-7245, e-mail Jan at spencerj@efn.org

H.O.P.E. FARM needs volunteers! We host volunteer work parties every Friday and Saturday from 9am until early afternoon. Projects include: Planting seeds and starts, building compost, helping with the kinship garden project, weeding, watering and micro-scale building projects. It's also possible to receive LCC co-op education credits at the HOPE Farm! Call 343-HOPE or e-mail info@hopefarm.net. for details and directions.

WALNUT STREET CO-OP will have 2 rooms open in September, one very large. Friendly community household in east Eugene, near campus, bus lines, river path, and more. Shared dinners, garden space in front yard and fruit trees in back, would love more permaculture energy. Rent is $325 plus utilities. Call us for more info: 484-1156, or email walnut@ic.org.

EMERALD ECOS COMMUNITY CURRENCY is currenctly looking for more people to offer their goods and services through our directory in trade for community currency. Please visit our website at www.emeraldecos.org and click on offers & requests.

GENESIS JUICE CO-OP has tons of pulp from processing apples, carrots, beets, almonds, etc. If you are at all interested in supplementing your compost or vermaculture with fruit and vege pulp, please give us a call at 344-0967 or drop by our factory 325 W. 3rd Suite B. Tues, Thurs, or Friday 11-4 PM. It's all free!!!!

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Calendar of Events

August 13, Wednesday
EPG POTLUCK SOCIAL IN LYNN'S FOREST (near Spencer's Butte)
6:00 PM native plant identification walk with Heiko Koester. (pants and shoes recommended - may be poison oak off the trail) 7:00 vegetarian potluck, please byo dishes
Call Jenya after Aug. 10 for carpool arrangements (please call if you can offer a ride or need a ride) 684-0066
Directions: Go South on Willamette until dead-ends. R on Fox Hollow, immediate L on Murdock. Go to last drive at end, #84095, go thru gate. Look for signs. Plant walk to the left - if u come late u will find them along the road. Potluck at house to the right. Please all park on same side of the road.

July 23-28
PERMACULTURE TEACHER TRAINING COURSE
With Jude Hobbs and Tom Ward, Eugene, Oregon. Beginning Wednesday morning and ending Monday evening.
Prerequisite: Permaculture Design Course Certificate. We are continuing to prepare a new generation of permaculture instructors for these new times. Develop teaching skills, discuss strategies and techniques, and review the rewards and challenges of teaching a Permaculture Design Course. Whole systems approach . Tuition: $300. Registration deadline: July 18,2003. Class is held from 9:00 to 5:30. For more information or to register: Jude 541-342-1160 hobbsj@efn.org

August 16-22
ADVANCED PERMACULTURE TEACHER TRAINING
With Jude Hobbs and Tom Ward at Heartwood, outside Garberville, CA
Have a glorious time in the coastal range of Northern California. For info: shemaia@shemaia.com

Sepember 12 - 14
7th ANNUAL PERMACULTURE GATHERING
Come one, come all!!!! See announcement section for details

December 1 - 13
13TH ANNUAL PERMACULUTRE DESIGN CERTIFICATION COURSE
At Lost Valley Education Center. Contact: Larry 541-937-3351

H.O.P.E. FARM EVENTS:
All workshops are $25-$75, sliding scale, unless otherwise indicated. Please pay as high on the scale as you can, to enable us to offer those who are more financially challenged an opportunity to participate. No one will be turned away for a lack of funds. Please contact us well in advance to arrange a work trade. 541-343-HOPE or email info@hopefarm.net.

July 27 MAKE YOUR OWN HERBAL REMEDIES w/ Karen Keaton. Learn to identify and process some local medicinal plants.

August 10 ECO-ARTS. w/ Local superhero Ethan Hughes. Get creative without destroying the planet!

August 12- Sept. 18 BENEFICIAL AGRICULTURE hands-on course included 12 classes on organic gardening, compost, beneficial insects, biodynamics and more. $225-325 sliding.

August 24 SEED SAVING for Backyard Gardeners w/ Tobias Policha. Selection, processing & storage techniques.

September 7 PLANT BREEDING w/ Carol Deppe. Learn the tricks of the trade from the woman who wrote the book!

September 27 & 28 KEY LINE WATER MANAGEMENT w/ Tom Ward. Work with land contours to maximize water efficiency. 2-day class. $100-$200 includes meals and camping.

October 5 HARVEST FESTIVAL AND CIDER PRESSING PARTY. Join us for a fun day of farm tours, games & feasting. Noon-Sundown. Seed Swap at 3pm, Potluck dinner at 6. FREE

October 12 HEDGEROW DESIGN w/Jude Hobbs. Combine beauty, function and biodiversity on a small or large scale.

The H.O.P.E. Farm Holistic Organic Permaculture Education POB Box 42174 Eugene, OR 97404

(541) 343-HOPE www.hopefarm.net info@hopefarm.net

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KRVM Spot

The following script was written by Jan Spencer and touched up with Jude Hobb's help. Jewel Langenderfer made a connection with KRVM, passed it on to Jan and this is the result. This spot ran several times daily for one week!

Permaculture. What is that?

Permaculture embraces the idea of living more lightly on the Earth. Local, cooperative and modest lifestyles are highly valued social and economic elements of permaculture.

Permaculture is also a system of concepts, strategies and designs to work WITH Nature in producing food by creating a diverse garden. A diverse garden is more stable, beautiful and provides habitat yet requires less effort to maintain.

Permaculture's goal is to help transform human culture, in a direction more peaceful for both the Natural environment and its human residents.

To learn more about Permaculture, call the Eugene Permaculture Guild at 683-8270. The Guild welcomes new members and organizes educational events for its members and the community.

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The Eugene Permaculture Guild seeks to educate both our members and the community about the principles of sustainable living, and to create examples of permaculture in the Eugene area. To support EPG with a one year membership, send $10.00 to EPG c/o Jenya POB 99, Eugene, OR 97440. (You will receive newsletters, discounts for some events, and a good feeling!)

If you would like to be on our mailing list, call Julie 683-8270 or e-mail buddy@copper.net. (The e-mail list includes a scavenger alert, announcements of meeting and events, an optional discussion group, and more. It also saves paper!)

The Permaculture News is the newsletter of the Eugene Permaculture Guild. It is mailed to members of the Eugene Permaculture Guild, and is available at general meetings of the Guild to anyone else for $1.00. The Permaculture News is made possible by its readers - you! We welcome any articles, calendar items, announcements, resource exchange items, artwork, poetry, reviews of speaker/events, etc We are now including business card ads for a $5.00 fee.

Send all correspondence to: Jenya Lemeshow, POB 99, OR 97440 or jlemeshow@yahoo.com. (541) 684-0066.

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Eugene Permaculture Guild
The Permaculture News
POB 99
Eugene, OR  97440