Cohousing-L Mailing List: re: Permaculture & coho site programming

[Linda Felch (lfelch]

Heathcote Community in Freeland, Maryland is working toward becoming
a permaculture demonstration site. We do permaculture education thru
our Conference Center, including a 2 week Permaculture Design Course,
weekend workshops, and many free "Introduction to Permaculture"
evening or afternoon sessions.

We are an older "intentional community" rather than a cohousing site, 
persay. Many of our structures are quite old (up to 150 years), so
renovation and retrofitting are currently our top priorities. Water
management, heating, and energy conservation are key issues for us.
We plan to eventually build a new, straw bale common house.

We have an orchard, a vineyard, and a large (and ever-expanding!)
vegetable garden. We are currently designing an agroforestry area
(nut trees, berry bushes, fruit trees, etc.) next to our garden.

Our education efforts have been a great boon to the community. We
have been able to attract new members to the community and other 
"friends of the community" who share our interests in sustainability 
and permaculture. Workshops often involve hands-on experience, which
helps us to move forward with projects around the community. Several
Design Course graduates regularly meet to work on our garden and
learn Spanish together.

Michael Mariner asked about permaculture resources. Try

Yankee Permaculture Publications, P.O. Box 2052, Ocala FL 34478 USA
YankeePerm [at] aol.com

They have lots of literature on permaculture, including a pamphlet
entitled "The Permaculture Community" for only $2. (get their catalog --
their minimum order is $5 + $3 S&H).

Linda Felch
lfelch [at] welchlink.welch.jhu.edu
Baltimore, MD