Permaculture Farmstead 3 Day Training - In Person
September 6-8 - Experience A Regenerative Living
Invitation:
Join us for this unique 3 day in-person course that will help you start designing, planning and managing your resilient farmstead. We define a farmstead as a homestead with income generating farm micro enterprises that make their operators a good living, and are usually earth and people conscious and regenerative in nature. In this 3 day intensive course we will explore a basic, yet holistic, blueprint and guide, with practical and experience based processes to help you build or develop further your dream farmstead. You will be on our working farmstead, able to learn from our resilient and income producing systems. We will cover all the permaculture farmstead design systems but will focus on our plant/food production systems (our market gardens, nursery, medicinal herbs, flowers, fruit and nut trees) and micro-stock animal systems(honey bees, egg and meat chickens, turkeys, goats, pigs and sheep) - showing what processes we used to design, plan, scale up and continuously manage these systems. And we will feed you really well! The course is participant driven, the content applies to different contexts, and it can lead to creating a workable 1st draft farmstead plan - this includes a combination of life planning and farmstead development design and management plan.
As your guides, we, Lucian and Anna Maria, have over a decade of experience each as instructors in the realm of sustainability, permaculture and regenerative agriculture in academic, government, non-profit and business environments with 5 years of experience making our living from farmsteading together. At this point, we run a six figure generating farmstead that combines vegetables, herbs, flowers, eggs, milk, meat, apothecary, hands-on education and agritourism production. We started with $0, 6 years ago.
We created this course for people who truly want to make a good living out of living the earth and people conscious life - a life worth living, and a course worth taking. This course focuses on building income production systems on the homestead and dives deeper into business aspects: it does not discuss homestead systems for self-sufficiency production in detail as our Permaculture Homestead 3 Day course does.
Further Definitions:
Homestead - a living space that includes a healthy and usually off-grid beautiful home, surrounded by productive and resilient ecological systems, such as vegetables and fruit gardens, orchards, domesticated animals, and abundant access to water, energy, and materials needed for living.
Homesteaders - multi-skilled, always learning, self-sufficient, community, and usually family oriented individuals that are able to design, manage and troubleshoot their life sustaining homestead systems, living a good, great, healthy and fulfilling life.
Homesteading - a lifestyle in tune and in harmony with nature, land based, using appropriate technology, including advanced technology, focused on self-sufficiency and resilience to systemic uncertainty.
Farmsteading - producing farm related income while homesteading.
BONUS (and additional $577 value): Participants in this course also get the recorded version and all the resources and perks of the online Permaculture Farmstead Design Primer course (please note that this will not be available till end of November)
Schedule and Topics:
Day 1 - Friday, September 6, 2024
Farmstead Vision, Holistic Context and Actionable Plans
- We will start with a farm tour and brief encounters and explanations of all of our homestead systems (Soil, Water, Food, Medicine, Shelter, Waste, Energy) and farmstead main micro-enterprises (Market Garden Vegetables, Medicinal Herbs and Flowers Production, Plant Nurseries, Eggs and Meat Birds, Goat Milk & Meat, Pigs, Community Education and Farm To Table Dinners)
- Once acquainted with what is possible, we will explore how we got here and help you learn how to create and write down your grand farmstead vision and how to analyze your present context, looking at your different forms of capital, in order to create an actionable course of action, with creative solutions and task prioritization, to reach your envisioned farmstead goals. We’ll get into some details on how to create flexibility and resilience into the plan via holistic decision making and plan management feedback loops. We will also explore how to keep track of progress and decide on changes.
Day 2 - Saturday, September 7, 2024
Plant and Food Enterprises
- We will start by looking at some plant enterprise business and operational planning approaches for the year and then get hands on to see and experience compost making and management, row building and management in the market garden, planting and caring for seedlings, compost tea making and fertilizing, irrigation types, trellising and more. We will also look at the infrastructure and processes involved in harvesting, prepping, storing and selling produce via farm pick-ups, at the farmers’ markets and via a CSA. We will share about our successful herbal CSA programs with the infrastructure and processes used.
Day 3 - Sunday, September 8, 2024
Animal Micro-Stock Enterprises
- We will first work with the bees (you will suit up if you want!) and explore the basic notions of fair exchange for the medicine these beings allow us to share at the market. We will dive into beyond basic approaches for meat and eggs production and will have a lot of tips and tricks to share on raising the best product and getting the highest price for it. We’ll also make sure to explain the legal requirements for raising, butchering and selling that meat off the farm. You will learn about our failed and successful infrastructures. We will talk briefly about our goats and dairy sales, sheep and pigs enterprises and will engage in harvesting and processing chickens for the market. We will briefly cover meat curing and smoking for the market.
More About Your Instructors:
Lucian Toma
Lucian is an ecological farmer, designer, educator and consultant with a decade of professional experience in the design, development and implementation of regenerative programs in academic, government, business and nonprofit environments. He has led over 350 workshops, lectures and courses on topics from the realm of permaculture farmsteading, touching the lives of over 7500 individuals. Lucian taught college for a while and currently serves underserved farmers with the Lincoln University of Missouri Horticulture Program. He holds a BA in International Relations, a MA in Global Leadership and Sustainable Development from Hawaii Pacific University and multiple Permaculture Design certifications. His favorite work on his farmstead is in the market garden, the plant nursery and the growing food forests.
Anna Maria Desipris
Anna Maria is a regenerative beekeeper, herbalist, farmer, consultant and educator with over a decade of professional experience in the realm of beekeeping, urban farming and community building around the farm to table movement. As an educator she has led over 100 workshops, lectures and courses on topics from the realms of beekeeping, urban farming and regenerative food systems. As a farmer she has been a key designer, planner and manager of multiple neighborhood farms and farming based educational spaces in Reno, Nevada and Orange County, California. Anna Maria has proudly taught college also. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Reno and an array of certifications in Permaculture, Master Beekeeping and Herbalism. Her favorite work on her farmstead is in the medicinal herb gardens, caring for the goats, the dogs and pollinator babies, and cooking magical meals with the food we grow.
Arrival, Timing and Departure:
- All course days run 9 am to 6 pm.
- Breakfast is at 8 am, Lunch at 1 pm, Dinner at 6 pm.
- Optional reflection and community connection time after dinner from 7:30 pm to 9 pm on Friday and Saturday.
- Optional animal chores from 7 am to 8 am.
We invite participants to arrive as early as 5 pm on Thursday September 5th. The training ends with dinner at 6 pm on Sunday, September 8th. Plan to leave after 7pm if you would like dinner or stay the night and leave by 9am on Monday, September 9th. Please note, we cannot accommodate you outside these times.
Our address is 18125 Jaybird Ln, Lebanon MO 65536. The closest major airport for domestic and some international flights is 1 hour away in Springfield, Missouri. At this point we cannot help anyone with car rides.
Please take note:
We cannot accommodate children or spouses on our intensive training and no dogs are allowed.
The Food we feed you:
The course is fully catered, with dinner the evening of arrival and breakfast before you leave. We eat and provide a balanced diet of meat, dairy, eggs, vegetables and whole foods. Everything is either from our farm or we buy local and is 100% organic. We operate a one meal policy at the farm. Bear in mind we are a meat producing farm that also slaughters animals here on the farm. We regularly use stock, dairy, eggs and meat in meals as well as eating sourdough breads we bake and other ingredients with gluten. Unfortunately we cannot cater for alternative diets. If you are not comfortable eating or being around the rounded diet described above, it is best not to attend our training.
Sleeping and Amenities:
This course is camping only. Plan on bringing a good tent and sleeping bag and plenty of layers to ensure your comfort. We have a few spots for camping vehicles. Please bring all your toiletries and biodegradable soaps only. Bug spray is a must. We have a few simple compost toilets and outdoor showers, as well as a full house with 2 bathrooms and showers that can be used. You are 100% responsible for your own health and hygiene! High Speed Internet connections will be available also.
Price stays the same for those that drive in and out daily and are not camping with us.
How to register:
- Make your payment and then complete the registration at: https://bit.ly/permaeducation2024
- Last day to register is September 2nd!
Cost:
- Full Cost $977
- 20% off till July 19th - $781.60
- 10% off July 19th to August 1st - $879.30
- 5% off August 1st to August 15th - $928.15
Refunds Policy:
We are aware that life circumstances can change and you may not be able to attend a course that you booked in advance. We have a clear returns policy.
- For on-farm trainings up to 4 days duration or online courses; as long as you notify us at least 30 days prior to the commencement of the course, we will refund the fee amount received, less an administration fee of $100. Alternatively we can credit the full amount towards a future course. If you notify us of your need to cancel within 30 days of course commencement, your payment is not refundable. However, you can transfer your ticket to another name for that same course or join a later course.
- In the unlikely event that we are forced to cancel a course you will promptly receive a full refund. Sun And Bloom Farms is not liable for travel arrangements/ expenses under any circumstance.
JOIN THE LEARNING!