Consensus and Conflict Resolution: A weekend with Laird Schaub, October

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Laird Schaub is one of the leading experts in group facilitation.

Storing Onions

It is one thing to grow a year's supply of onions, and another thing to store them! Actually onions can be difficult to keep and if I am lucky they will last until next spring, a few months short of the next onion harvest.

I have found the best way to store onions is to place them side by side in seedling trays with an open framework that lets a lot of air flow through.

I use wood spacers placed on the top edge of the trays to add extra air space, and then add a second layer of onion filled trays, giving me two rows of 4 trays each.

About every 2 weeks I rotate the trays looking for any onions that might have gone bad. It is important to remove these as soon as possible.

Onions stored in trays 2 layers deep.
Note the open framework of the tray for air flow.

Excerpt from The Farm Then and Now: The Permaculture Template

Permaculture takes in design and planning that includes architectural engineering, food production, and structural organization modeled after natural ecosystems. Just as nature is able to continue in a revolving cycle of renewal, by emulating these patterns, new models of sustainability can be developed which emphasize the undeniable relationship between a healthy planet and healthy human existence.

Because The Farm was established decades before the term "permaculture" was created, its alignment with the outlook of permaculture was not the result of conscious planning, but came from an intuitive understanding of natural order. At the same time, members of the community were among the first to adopt the Permaculture school of thought, holding courses and offering internationally recognized certification in permaculture design.

Strawbale greenhouse adjacent to a home garden on The Farm.
http://www.permacultured.us/

It is not that The Farm exemplifies every aspect of Permaculture, but that its pragmatic approach falls in step with the philosophy’s core fundamentals, especially when looking at its broader application.

Individual homesteads, neighborhoods and entire communities can benefit from the permaculture template.

In this way The Farm makes an ideal subject that can be studied to examine ways in which it represents the design elements of permaculture, and areas where more could be done.

Keyline plowing a field or pasture helps to capture water and reduces runoff during a heavy rain. http://keylinecowboy.com

At the heart of permaculture planning and implementation is the recognition and organization of established zones.

Zone 0 represents the home, its design and construction (ideally from natural materials), its energy needs, and a seamless integration into the structure’s surrounding environment, examining issues such as water flow and drainage.

Farm homes tend to be integrated into their forest surroundings. Berms divert water flow for proper drainage.

Zone 1 takes in the area immediately around the home and includes the kitchen garden, growing crops that need daily attention.

In Zones 2 and 3 you find places for food that is grown on different timeline (plant, mulch, harvest), such as melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash, as well as orchards and hay fields.

Zones 4 take in the semi-wild found in the neighborhoods separated by forested valleys and Zone 5, wilderness with no human intervention, such as the 1000 acres in The Farm Community set aside as a nature preserve.

Zones 2 and 3 are used for long range crops that need a lot of room, such as winter squash, which are planted and mulched in the spring and then harvested in the fall.

Every aspect of the zone system corresponds in some way to The Farm’s land use plan. Rain barrels at homes, keyline plowing and ponds in pastures function as water catchment systems.

The community’s forests are a reliable and renewable source of fuel for heat.

The integration of homes along the periphery of woodlands, its mix of fields and forests, is in direct alignment with Permaculture’s concept of the Edge Effect, where contrasting ecosystems meet.

There are home gardens, community gardens, apple, pear and blueberry orchards, a community blended with nature and surrounded by land free from any development.

The Farm's extensive forests and woodlands fall into Zone 5 of the Permaculture template.