Permaculture Roots 1 – Intro and Food

Hillsborough, NC

For information on the whole Permaculture Roots workshop series, please see this page.

We are grateful to be putting on this workshop in collaboration with Living Arts Collective and in the lovingly tended space of Jubilee Healing Farm.

Each workshop in this series will include opportunities to connect with nature and our senses, learn Permaculture design, answer your questions, and meet other amazing humans interested in Permaculture.

Our workshops will also have an optional evening portion around a fire to connect and share in each other’s stories, songs, and plant and animal knowledge. 

This Workshop:

Our first workshop has a focus on Introducing Permaculture and Growing Food – with a Permaculture perspective on gardening and building soil, a quick intro to local foraging, and sharing some of the most underappreciated food plants for our region.

Main Topics:

• Permaculture 101
• Reading the Landscape
• Building Good Soil and Creating Your Own Soil Fertility
• Growing Low-Input, Low-Maintenance Food in a Permaculture Way
• Gardening in Times of Climate Change
• May Plant Walk + Foraging Talk
• 15+ plants for the Permaculture Garden
• … Plus Answering Your Permaculture Questions

Venue and Workshop Details:

This 5-part series is held at Jubilee Healing Farm – a beautifully tended small farm located on 10 acres in Hillsborough, NC that supports volunteer and community-building activities and workshops for people seeking healing.

We’ll have the workshop part inside and part outside unless the weather disagrees!  Please wear comfortable clothing for the day. If it’s going to rain a little, bring rain gear. A little rain is very helpful for Permaculture design!

We’ll likely do a little forest walking.  Good to wear compatible footwear.  If you’re concerned about ticks or other itchy expressions of the local ecology, please bring non-toxic insect deterrent.

What to Bring:

• Journal and pen – while digital is OK, we strongly suggest using paper!
• Your own lunch and any snacks you need (kitchen available to heat up food)
• Water bottle
• Seeds to swap if you’ve got ’em!  Also fine just to receive.
• If you want to stay for the evening portion:
  • Your own dinner  (kitchen available to heat up food)
  • Optional Musical instrument, story, or poem if you’d like to share something around the fire
  • If we have a guest artist, small donation (~$20) suggested, but not required

Also:

• Openness to different ways of seeing and living
• Kindness towards the plants, animals, soil, water, and other people here
• Inclusivity and welcoming spirit towards the people in the workshop
• Willingness to put your phones away and tune into your senses
• Curiosity about life and what each other and the land has to say

Sign-Up

We offer our tickets at a rate that allows us to continue doing this work. Thank you for supporting it.

We offer discounted rates if you sign up for 3 or more workshops. If you have any questions, please reach out to workshops@silverbranchpermaculture.org.

About the Facilitator

Matthew “Watersong” Tracy started practicing Permaculture in 2011 and received his design certificate from Wild Abundance in 2015. He has been consulting and teaching as a Permaculture Designer since 2018.

Along the way, he learned from numerous Permaculture teachers, tended land with minimal inputs, worked with around 50 clients on their land, lived off-grid for nearly a decade, and made (… and still makes!) a whole lot of humbling and valuable mistakes on his way back to life in harmony with the earth. 

With all that experience, Matt is ever a beginner and student of the land. Nature is infinite. What can we do but listen and try?

Matt is honored to be a Permaculture guide to anyone interested in coming a little closer to the earth. Becoming a father in 2023 has made passing down these teachings that always consider future generations more important than ever.

Read the rest of Matt’s bio here.