PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE , WORKSHOPS, CONSULTATION ,
ECUADOR INTERNSHIPS or WOOF opportunities .
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TRANSITION SKILLS FOR EARTH-BODY HEALING
Vilcabamba, Loja Province, Ecuador
WillowWayPermaculture.com/pc
WillowWayPermaculture.com/blog
Ecuador Programs

We are getting established in our new location in Southern Ecuador.
We will be offering the Permaculture Design Course in the coming months. If you would like to be notified, please join our mailing list.
Go to the blog for information on WOOFing or internships.
We have video posted there, a “bookmark” of our first 5 months in developing this new demonstration site.

We are loving Ecuador and Vilcabamba!

In the upcoming Permaculture Design Course at Wilco Way, there is opportunity to learn how to work with the wisdom of nature to create resilient systems in which both the yield and the fertility are upheld for future generations. The principles of Permaculture, when applied to growing food and herbs, show us that these principles can also be immensely helpful in growing community consensus and activism, growing a non-profit or business, and all manner of creative Earth-loving projects.

Permaculture is first and foremost a design method, and we stair-step our skills by applying them to design exercises on a myriad of local Permaculture site visits, as well as working on community projects. “Invisible structures” is a term Permaculture uses to describe these social structures beyond the physical.
Wilco Way’s mission is “healing our bodies, healing the Earth, and understanding the connection between them.” Our aim is to “come to our senses” to rebuild our bond with the land and each other.

CURRICULUM

• Permaculture Principles and Ethics
• Permaculture Design Method
• Observing Nature, Site Analysis, Designing for Diverse Climates, Creating Microclimates
• Nutrient Cycling in Water & Soil
• Gardening: maintaining soil fertility naturally, exploring the wisdom of plants
• Season Extension: four season gardening, cold frames, hoop houses and greenhouses
• Forest gardens, agroforestry, fruit trees
• Multiple Benefits of Fungi: agricultural, bioremediation, medicinal & culinary
• Renewable Energy
• Ecological Building including building with earth materials
• Wise Water use: bioremediation with constructed wetlands, rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, aquaponics, aquaculture
• Incorporating animals into your system: poultry, fish, bees, others
• Urban Permaculture
• Sustainable Community Design
• Group Design Projects
Certification & other benefits:
Our Core Curriculum is based on the Permaculture Academy’s internationally-recognized curriculum which provides the Permaculture Design Certificate upon completion. This generalist training has provided a first step for many professionals toward a career in sustainability. Conversely, many established sustainability professionals take it to further their system-oriented perception.

We will be offering a Permaculture Design Certification Course in the coming months, at the new site in Ecuador. Join our mailing list, if you would like to be updated.

Contact: Zia Parker

WORK TRADES: some work trades are available, please ask.
If a payment plan will help you take the course, please inquire.

WORKSHOPS


THE WILLOW WAY TEACHING TEAM in Boulder County

Director: Zia Parker spent the 70s homesteading in British Columbia. Her great grandparents homesteaded 40 miles West of Boulder, in Grand Lake, CO. In ’88-90 she directed the Finca Permanente Agroforestry Project in W. Africa, which was used as a model for a $2.5 million project by the EU.(articles) She has taught or designed PC systems in five different climate zones, including the Wind River Arapaho/Shoshoni Reservation and the Black Mountain Navaho Permaculture Design Course.For the last five years, she has been the owner and director of Willow Way Permaculture & Herbal CSA.

Adam Brock is a permaculture teacher, ecodesigner, and sustainability consultant based in Denver, Colorado. Born and raised in Denver, Adam is a graduate of NYU in Ecological Design. His Permaculture design course and Teacher Training was in Prescott Arizona. He works with numerous local sustainability groups, including Transition Denver, Denver Urban Homesteading, the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, and Green Spaces. Adam is Director of Operations at The GrowHaus.

Jeff Graff’s business, Earth Rebirth, provides educational services, consulting and design in Permaculture. Jeff ran a solar design and energy education business for seven years, is a Journeyman Carpenter and worked in the biofuels and biomass energy fields for 15 years. He is experienced in food preservation and storage, and gardening in a variety of climates. Jeff is a certified Permaculture Teacher, has a BA in Solar Design and Energy Education, and an MS in Higher Education.

Coco Gordon, an Eco-Artist/ Poet/ Papermaker/ Publisher/ Healer/ Bioregionalist with a naturally indigenous heart. Coco has shown her eco-art installations internationally for over four decades. She was PC certified in 1997 by Bill Mollison. She has been a pioneer in the Bioregional movement, a predecessor to Permaculture, for several decades. She is the tour de force of the Transition Town Initiative of Lyons, the progressive leader of the Transition Town movement statewide, and nationally. Now in her 70s, she is working on her Master’s degree with Gaia University.

Robert-David McEldowney began organic farming in 1974 and for many years has managed an organic landscaping and gardening business. He is a Waldorf teacher & movement educator and graduate of the Spatial Dynamics Institute and Biodynamics internship at Rudolf Steiner College in Sacramento.

Jim Gibson teaches mushroom cultivation and mycolandscaping, Permaculture design topics and soil building workshops. He is a friend of Paul Stamets’ and a graduate of the Stamets schools for Mushroom Cultivation and for Mycorestoration. He is currently working with Woodbine Ecology Center, Willow Way Permaculture, Feed Denver, the Denver Botanic Gardens and other organizations. Jim’s goal is to further the appreciation and utilization of fungi in ecological restoration as well as for the production of food and medicine for the planet, for people, and for all life.

PROJECT GROW: CHILDREN’S PERMACULTURE

In this summer program for children ages 5 to 12 we will teach the fundamentals of sustainability, traditional wisdom ways and bioregional awareness.
Project Grow activities include:
• Place, Body, Nature: observation, identification, local plant knowledge
• Sustainability: building a cold-frame, solar oven or solar dehydrator
• Permaculture gardening and pragmatic earth-skills
• Expressive arts: theater, imaginative nature quests, storytelling and crafts
• Animal wisdom: What can we learn from chickens, fish, bees, worms?

• Animal wisdom: What can we learn from chickens, fish, bees, worms?

June 13-17, 9 am-2 pm, $250.
Maximum enrollment: 12, not more than 4 students per instructor.
Directed by Robert-David McEldowney, Waldorf Teacher and Biodynamic Gardening specialist. Facilitated by Robert-David and Zia. For Bios, please see the Teaching Team descriptions (scroll up)To register, call Zia Parker at 303.530.1415 or email ZiaParker@yahoo.com.

CONSULTATION: Permaculture Design and/or Biodynamic Soil Building

Biodynamic soil-building consultation and Permaculture design work from Willow Way can help you boost your production and see your home, commercial property or farm in an entirely new light.
By showing you other possibilities and a higher level of integration, you will discover how Permaculture design principles can enable the various elements of your landscape to serve multiple functions. Call us to start upgrading your property’s sustainability, make it more beautiful and benefit the Earth today.
Biodynamic preparations applied to your soil can increase your growing power exponentially. Upgrade your collaboration with nature. Biodynamic methods can be applied to both large and small properties, and with landscaping and/or vegetable, fruit or grain crops.
Zia Parker, Permaculture consultant, has taught and designed projects in five distinct climate zones over a 20 year period. Her practiced eye in perceiving the most efficient use of available resources can save you untold time and money.
Robert-David McEldowney, Biodynamic consultant, has been an organic gardener since 1974 and for many years has managed an organic landscaping and gardening business. In 1990 RD began to study Biodynamics with a year and a half internship at Rudolf Steiner College. He has applied Biodynamic preparations and principles for clients and his personal farming endeavors ever since.

INTERNSHIPS

These hands-on learning experiences will be conducted through Willow Way Permaculture under the stewardship of Zia Parker, and in the company of the many experienced gardeners and Permaculturalists working to bring Willow Way to true sustainability.
Willow Way currently has openings for Internships available.
1) Organic gardening, Permaculture-style
2) Permaculture Internship
3) Herbal CSA Internship
4) Permaculture Administrative Internship
This is an excellent way to extend your learning regarding Permaculture, to embody principles of sustainability,
and to deepen your relationship with the forces of Nature. The Willow Way letter of recomendation following these internships
can further job opportunities in many arenas.
Permaculture Growing Internship
Interns will fine tune gardening and permaculture systems and skills. Working side by side with others, they will work a variety of land care projects such as:
• Orcharding fruit tree production
• Forest gardening
• Composting
• Greenhouse contruction
• Nursery starts
• Plant propagation
• Soil building
• Long term land management
The goal of this learning experience to provide an in depth understanding of long term land management strategies, ecoforestry and organic gardening. Interns will be exposed to a wide range of permaculture practices and uses of appropriate technology. This is expected to be a life changing, transformative experience that will teach you to think, live and breath Permaculture.
Works in coordination with our land steward Zia Parker, designing and implementing land management activities including: orchard maintenance, eco-forestry, water conservation, and food production. Works to support the emerging CSA project and Permaculture Certificate Programs through site preparations and guiding students in hands-on projects.
Requirements: commitment to two months, spending a minimum of 6-8 hours per week on priority projects. We recommend three month period in this position to really get the lay of the land.
Organic Gardening Internship
Interns will refine the following skills: learn about and participate in growing a year-round garden in Boulder Valley within an educational community. Garden activities (dependent on time of year) include sheet mulching, soil preparation, sowing and saving seed, transplanting, composting, weeding, plant propagation, harvesting, food preservation, greenhouse management, and other skills. We grow food for the resident intentional community and for the emerging CSA. We seek to cultivate large quantities of a variety of vegetables with organic methods, placing a high value on sustainability. We emphasize hand labor and techniques including biointensive, “wild” gardening, and permaculture.
Qualifications: Qualified interns will have previous gardening experience and be excited about teaching others, coordinating projects, and working cooperatively. In summer we like to start early every day to “beat the heat.” We pace ourselves, try to vary activities frequently, and attempt to use wits rather than brawn (of which we are often in short supply) whenever possible, but work can be strenuous and/or repetitive at times, and does require endurance in an outdoor environment. Important traits include interest, enthusiasm, responsibility, a cooperative orientation, and the ability for self-care, as we aim to practice sustainability with ourselves as well as with the garden.
Requirements: Commitment to a minimum of one month, spending a minimum of 6 hours per week.
The Herbal CSA Internship
This internship would involve working with Zia Parker, Willow Way director, to determine priorities and implementation of plans in terms of: planning planting schedules to meet CSA needs, marketing strategies for subscriptions, designing delivery systems. This position would entail research of other successful local and non-local herbal CSAs to help shape the Willow Way CSA into a story of success.
As well as planning, this position would also dovetail with the production work in the gardens, growing as well as processing herbs to bring the products to market. This would mean working closely with others that are involved with herb production.
Requirements: Commitment for a minimum of 3 months, spending a minimum of 6 hours per week.
Administrative Internship
This position would involve working closely with the director of Willow Way, Zia Parker to oversee all operations at Willow Way, including decisions and process regarding: crop planning and production, issues which help further the energy efficiency and appropriate technology applications for all structures, CSA design and implementation, the Permaculture Design course management, and issues that arise within the residential community.
Requirements: Commitment to a minimum of 3 months, spending a minimum of 6 hours per week.


If you should need accomodations, Denver apartments provides listings that are in the area of our farm.

HERBAL CSA

We are pleased to announce Willow Way’s Herbal CSA.
The concept of Community Suppported Agriculture (CSA) has spread across the country quickly. It is an idea that is a good fit for the times. When you pay for a farm-share up-front before the growing season, you are provided with a weekly share of fresh organic produce throughout the growing season, while lessening the farmer’s risk. People are recognizing the importance of knowing where their food came from, and feeling urgent about cutting the petro-calories in each calorie of food. For the same reasons, Herbal CSAs are emerging out of the yearning for respect for the land, and relationship with it.
In our quest to provide a Permaculture model, we aim at growing what we need on our site to maintain a healthy nutrient balance in our soil. We are not certified as organic. However, we do not use any chemical fertilizer or toxic pest controls on our land.
Go to the Willow Way blog to find out how to join and what you will receive from the Willow Way’s Herbal CSA.