Orange Environment celebrates first permaculture graduating class
WARWICK — Orange Environment held a graduation ceremony for the first graduating class of its Permaculture Design Training Course 2013 in November at the Warwick Community Center.
As part of the requirements, graduates made presentations on projects including how to apply permaculture principles to local soil, climate, and topographic conditions, terraced gardens as a means to solving drainage issues on a college campus and sustainable organic farming techniques for herb gardens.
Instructor Wanda Knapick, co-founder of the Permaculture Network of New Jersey, and Peter Lai, Orange Environment Trustee and Permaculture Course Director, presented students with their certificates. Michael Edelstein, co-president of Orange Environment, congratulated all participants.
Teachers, farmers, engineers
Graduates of the Permaculture Design Course graduates of the class of 2013 are: Joe Gregoire, Melissa Peterson, Joe Seller, Barbara Taylor Laino, Rodrigo Pena-Lang, Shane Hardy, Elise Ferencevych, Jamie Kipp and Sylvia Kovacs.
The graduates came from around the tri-state area and included local high school biology teachers, civic engineers, farmers and landscapers. They have been immersed in sustainable agricultural practices and regenerative processes.
In class they studied composting, growing mushrooms in logs, sheet mulching, greenhouse operations, beer brewing, installing rain catchment system, seasonal food production, companion planting and natural building techniques.
Lai, agronomist and co-designer of the course, brought his passion for sustainability into the design and implementation of this course.
'The earth is tired'
When teaching permaculture in Haiti he asked local farmers what major agricultural problems they faced.
“The earth is tired” they responded.
Here in the U.S., Lai believes that permaculture is one of the solutions for a tired earth worn out from monoculture, pesticide use and large factory farms.
“Permaculture is a design system for sustainable living and land use,” he said, “that helps regenerate the earth and gives people the tools and hands-on experiences needed to live in harmony with their surroundings.”
New course begins in March
Lai will be hosting a number of introductory seminars around the county for those who want to know more about Permaculture or who are interested in signing up for the Permaculture Course that will start classes in March.
Info sessions will be held on:
Saturday, Jan. 25, from 10 a.m. to noon, and on Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Albert Wisner Public Library, 1 McFarland Drive, Warwick.
Saturday, Feb. 8, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at the Chester Public Library.
Sunday, Feb. 9, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Florida Public Library.
Call the libraries directly to register for these sessions.
Essential information
Orange Environment’s Permaculture Design Training Course 2014 will meet two Saturdays per month from March through the end of July at organic and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms around Orange and Sullivan counties.
Cost is $690.
For more information, contact Peter Lai at 845- 313-4246 or write to PeterL@frontiernet.net.
Visit www.orangeenvironment.org for registration forms and fees.