7/27/2019 Brook End Column
1/111'')s.Os3UMMER
By Nicole Vosper
Nicole writes from her vegan-organic
permaculture project
This spring, like most growers in thecountry, I watched snow
fall on the
kitchen garden beds where the yearbefore I had been basking in
the sun
transplanting seedlings. Somehow my intuition was right notto
start things off too early and so I have fortunately not losttoo
many little bursts of life from a freezing March.
ResilienceHowever, this diversity in weather does bring to life
the con-cept of resilience. The ability to withstand shocks, the
unex-pected, to fare as best you can in a variety of situations.
Nowmore than ever with climate change, extreme weather and the
unpredictable nature of crisis capitalism, will food
producershave to be increasingly resilient. This is where vegan
organic,small scale, intensive systems start to shine a light
amongstglobal, monoculture crop failures and corporate food
chains.
At Brook End, the 4-acre smallholding I manage with myfamily, we
are trying to integrate resilience into all our thinkingas we
slowly design and develop the land for increasing abun-dance and
biodiversity. With my Mum retiring from MentalHealth Nursing, the
land will start to receive more and moreattention as our thoughts
turn to small-scale livelihoods and
how we can feed and support our community.
Generating ideasAll manner of ideas have surfaced - a plant
nursery propa-gating perennials for permaculture systems locally;
organicsalads in our polytunnel; fruit and their produce from
theirprocessing; a medicinal plant nursery ensuring our
favourite
healing allies are kept alive; a community-supported medi-cine
project linking up with local herbalists to grow medicinefor local
people that is local, vibrant, veganically grown andaffordable; as
well as making Brook End a centre for eco-logical education with
permaculture, ecology, earth-centredspirituality, vegan gardening
courses and more. We are inthis dream-like state where all options
are options. Thequestion is, where do you start? Can we grow on a
scale tosupport some modest livelihoods? Is there a market
locallyfor our produce? What are the limits of the land? What
areour hearts singing for and how do we choose?
Fortunately, permaculture design creates a frameworkfor these
kinds of decision-making processes. A little left-brain analysis
can counter a right brain rave of ideas andfeelings. The place to
begin is nearly always with the survey- observation, observation,
observation! Therefore our nextsteps are to answer the above
questions with some solid ob-servations, market research and self
exploration. This meansfor every hour doing the practical design
implementationon the land, whether thats laying paths or sowing
seeds,more hours are spent inside, on the computer,
undertakingresearch, talking to people and accessing resources to
aidthese huge decisions.
Patient progressThis is perhaps the difference between
industrial agricultureand permaculture - thoughtful interaction.
Every decision wemake we test with our ethics, with our
'permaculture compass'as to whether its an ecologically sound
choice to make or viablewith the capacity of our land, and right
now we are certainlyin the ocean of options. I'm looking forward to
writing thiscolumn when we've reached that light bulb moment
afterprocessing all of these options and finally taking a firm
stepin the path that lies ahead.
www.wildheartpermaculture.co.uk
Brook End
Nestled amongst the lush growthPhoto by Nicole Vosper/Wildheart
Permaculture
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