permaculture

[Chris Carnevale <c.s.carnevale@gmail.com>]

Hi Andrew,

Yes, that is an important question for permaculturists to address.
Traditionally, at many of the longest-running and most prominent
permaculture sites, teaching is what brings in the primary paycheck and
design consulting and nursery sales round out a nice diversity of income
sources.  I personally really like the idea of doing nursery sales because
you are going to be doing propagation for your own site anyway.  Might as
well do a little bit extra propagation and then get paid for it... if there
is a market.  There are also a few examples of production-oriented
permaculture-designed parcels producing an excellent income for its tenants
that I have heard about.

There was a great article in the winter 2011/12 Permaculture Activist (the
"Growing Staple Crops" issue) about Mark L. Shepard at New Forest Farm (
http://www.forestag.com/), who has run his permaculture-designed farm since
1993.  The goal of the farm, in the author's words:

*New Forest Farm, a 106-acre permaculture-designed farm in southwest
Wisconsin, began in 1993 following a Permaculture Design course at the
Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute in Colorado.  The three
original founders formed a legal limited partnership on a sweaty napkin in
the sauna after a long day of drinking from the permaculture fire-hose.
The intention was to figure *out how to grow staple food crops in
permaculture systems instead of massive monocrops of grain, and to make
money at it.

*Instead of following the market garden or CSA models, the founders
designed the farm to prosper selling staple foods.  From the beginning, we
have sold farm products at wholesale prices rather than
direct-to-the-customer retail.  Although this has resulted in lower
farm-gate revenue, it has tapped into the mass market instead of nice
markets.  The farm's founders did not want our distinctive efforts to be
dismissed as only applicable to market niches.  *

The story continues with the specifics, which, put broadly, go like this...
they designed and implemented an alleycrop system (more info on
alleycropping here:
http://forest.mtu.edu/pcforestry/resources/studentprojects/Alley%20Cropping.htm),
with chestnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, walnuts, apples, elderberries,
currants, raspberries, and more as their perennial woody crops and annuals
such as winter squash, wheat, barley, rye, and sunflowers.  The gist is
that the perennials are planted in polycultural rows anywhere from 12 to
100 feet apart and then the annual plants get planted in the alley between
the perennial rows.  The farm income is initially almost 100% from the
annuals since the perennials are not yet bearing, but as the perennials
mature and their canopy closes, the income progressively shifts toward the
perennials.  In the case of New Forest Farm, they went from a peak of 12
acres of winter squash down to 3 acres now because the tree crops have
matured.  They follow a reduced-tillage system and a four-year crop
rotation plan.

Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms (http://www.polyfacefarms.com/) in Virginia
has become internationally famous for his ecological livestock rotation
system and I am guessing he makes plenty of income just from agricultural
production.  I think the key for his profitability is reducing the input
costs and maximally leveraging the inputs that nature provides for free.
It is definitely a good exercise to think about what input costs could be
substituted for free natural alternatives.

Another model I have read about as being extremely successful is David
Blume's former farm in Woodside, California.  Does anyone have any good
documentation of this farm?  I remember reading that he had an immensely
successful CSA on 12 acres or something all the while building soil and
sequestering carbon from (I think) onsite inputs.  That may be a good model
to look into.

Hope this helps,

Chris Carnevale
Charleston, South Carolina



On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 12:01 PM, 
<permaculture-request@lists.ibiblio.org>wrote:

> Send permaculture mailing list submissions to
>        permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>        http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>        permaculture-request@lists.ibiblio.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
>        permaculture-owner@lists.ibiblio.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of permaculture digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: cash crops (Crystal Powers)
>   2. Re: cash crops (Lawrence F. London, Jr.)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 14:59:51 -0600
> From: Crystal Powers <crystalannpowers@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] cash crops
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID:
>        <CAKfu2roPTyL8UPzx6p__ysMM5QmqtWysqSYUpDh5eGXNiZkpiQ@mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I resonate with your situation.  We are still working it out ourselves. I
> feel that permacultue does factor in the living piece, at least in my
> readings.  I think the important thing is to look at your farm and see what
> it will it support in the permaculture sense. What is the best mix for your
> environment and customer base?
> On Jan 30, 2012 3:52 PM, "Andrew French" <alienbuddha@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > As a farmer I am trying to make a living off the land. As a
> > permaculturalist I am trying to create an ecological diverse and
> > useful regenerative landscape. How do you balance these two very
> > important concepts on your farms? Last year we raised and sold a
> > variety of food offerings, such as our farm CSA share, pastured pork,
> > turkeys, and chickens, as well as our duck eggs and workshops. What we
> > do know now is that about two of these things made up the majority of
> > our income.
> >
> > So how do you make a living and create  a permaculture landscape?
> > Isn't this a conundrum for many? I would like to hear from those who
> > are actually making a living off the land, as that is what I am
> > attempting. I am sure an idealist would say that making a living is
> > secondary to making a permaculture paradise, but I say hogwash to
> > that. Obviously we need to make a living to be able to do the good
> > things we need to do.
> >
> > Right now I have a factory job before our farming season starts.
> > Looking around me at the amazing excesses of waste and energy
> > consumption there makes me realize that working there is not helping
> > the planet or my soul. So what do you sell to make your life
> > sustainable?
> >
> > Andrew French
> > LTD Farm
> > _______________________________________________
> > permaculture mailing list
> > permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> > subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info:
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> > message archives:  https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture/
> > Google message archive search:
> > site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> > Avant Geared https://plus.google.com/116100117925365792988/about
> > permaculture forums http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums
> > Books Do Furnish A Room
> > http://www.booksdofurnisharoom.com
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:47:43 -0500
> From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] cash crops
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <4F2B128F.7040106@bellsouth.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 2/2/2012 3:59 PM, Crystal Powers wrote:
> > I resonate with your situation.  We are still working it out ourselves. I
> > feel that permacultue does factor in the living piece, at least in my
> > readings.  I think the important thing is to look at your farm and see
> what
> > it will support in the permaculture sense. What is the best mix for your
> > environment and customer base?
>
> Its more like look at your SITE (farm, land, forest, water, etc.)
> through the immense lens of permaculture and see what possibilities
> there are for any ventures. There will always be some from minimal
> intrusion on existing natural systems to constructed systems, earthworks
> being another matter entirely and can enhance or make possible many
> different forms of agriculture (I have done this on my mini market farm).
>
> LL
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> message archives  https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture/
> Google message archive search:
> site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> Avant Geared  http://www.avantgeared.com
> permaculture forums http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums
> Books Do Furnish A Room http://www.booksdofurnisharoom.com
> Natural Import Company - Traditional Japanese Foods
> http://http://www.naturalimport.com
>
> End of permaculture Digest, Vol 109, Issue 3
> ********************************************
>