Foothills residents have the opportunity to learn how to become more self-sufficient during a permaculture workshop this weekend.
Herbal medicine, water harvesting, ferments, wildflowers, creative facilitation and composting are among the topics that will be discussed at the Southern Alberta Permaculture Convergence in Turner Valley July 8 to 10. Most sessions take place in the Flare ‘n’ Derrick Community Hall and the Sheep River Library.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to spread the word about permaculture and get people interested,” said Barb Hazenveld, an organizer of the event.
Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human habitats that often include gardens, animals, eco homes and water catchments.
Organizers rounded up 13 presenters to speak on a variety of subjects including food production, sustainability and community building.
The event will include information sessions, urban and rural property tours, shared meals and activities for the whole family including yoga and swimming.
The Southern Alberta Permaculture Convergence was previously held in Olds, Rocky Mountain House and Woodland West near Millarville, but the event hasn’t been held since 2012.
Hazenveld, a permaculture designer and teacher, participated in the Foothills event in 2012 where she spoke about gardens. She gathered people together to host the Turner Valley workshop.
Hazenveld holds a horticulture diploma and learned about permaculture while living in Australia for 14 years.
She has a permaculture set-up at her Turner Valley home including a greenhouse, chickens, bees, rabbits and fruit trees.
Environmental consultant Larry Kapustka, who lives on an acreage west of Turner Valley and raises sheep and chickens, hunts and fishes and processes his own food, will lead a workshop on sustainability.
“The main thing I’m going to want to accomplish is to get people to think about what that means to them personally in their individual lives and in a broader sense in a community level and perhaps even a global level,” he said.
“It’s a journey, not a destination per se. It evolves around the values a particular culture has, what’s right for the locality and it really requires a sustained dialogue among the different participants so that they can reach a consensus.”
Kapustka said he will ask those in attendance what they want to sustain, for how long, who benefits and who pays.
“If you put those four questions onto the table and have a serious and genuine conversation around them it opens up the possibility for people to understand what other people care about, what you can tolerate in our own sphere of desires and it leads to legitimate discussions of what kind of trade-offs are reasonable for the group,” he said.
Kapustka said he likes that permaculture connects people back to the land.
“It’s so much nicer to know where one’s food comes from than to always expect there is a cellophane package of it in a grocery store,” he said. “It’s reconnecting a lot of people to the land in a way that a lot of us have lost over the past half century if not a little bit longer. It’s learning a good deal about ourselves and taking responsibility for where we get our food and what we will leave for the next generation.”
Alla Guelber will offer a workshop on creative facilitation, with discussions about ways to bring people together in different settings.
“Having facilitation skills are useful for anyone interested in community development, permaculture, really any kind of organization where you bring groups of people together,” she said.
The Calgary resident said she will introduce basic structures for successful facilitation, such as the circle setting.
“I will explain why seating people in a circle, where everyone is on the same level and can see each other, changes the quality of the interaction,” she said.
“In permaculture, because we are concerned about creating better lives for all of us and looking at how we as people can be a beneficial and regenerative source for our economy and society, it’s important to learn how to work together effectively.”
Guelber had attended the last convergence at Woodland West and was eager to attend again, being active in the permaculture community in Calgary.
Tickets to attend the Southern Alberta Permaculture Convergence cost $125 for adults, $50 for children ages 16 to 18 and $25 for those ages 5 to 15, which includes workshops and some meals.
For more information email [email protected] or search Southern Alberta Permaculture Convergence 2016 on Facebook.
