The Verge Permaculture Grad Series – 9/11 – Jordan Saunders from light & soul on Vimeo.

Jordan Saunders is a young farmer whose projects have already made a significant impact on the yards and hearts of many people across Western Canada; he shows by example that farming and permaculture homesteading are an attractive and viable path for youth looking for a career or entrepreneurial venture that is good for both people and the planet.
Jordan’s farming path began after an epiphany moment at a Vipassana meditation course where he decided he wanted to “be the change he wanted to see in the world”, and within months he had already applied for and received a grant to take his first permaculture design course and begin a garden share education program with 13 homeowners in his home town of Black Diamond. The program was very successful and most of the gardens have been continued by the homeowners ever since. On top of all this, Jordan and some friends also founded and operated an 18 share CSA farm in the same season.
Jordan now works and lives as the lead hand on a developing permaculture homestead in the Slocan Valley where this year he will be training two other full time interns and seasonal “Wwoofers” who will also be living and working on site. Watch and see how this inspired and motivated young person has created a valuable skill set through permaculture and farming, and see how he blazes a trail which is likely to be followed by many more like him in the future.

Verge Permaculture

The Verge Permaculture Grad Series – 7/11 – Sara Haney & Chrissy Begus from light & soul on Vimeo.

Sara Haney and Chrissy Begus are piecing together the puzzles of sustainability through their permaculture education company Puzzle Permaculture. These two met in their PDC course with Verge, and later on at a sauerkraut making party decided to combine both of their professional histories as educators to form this new venture. They currently offer permaculture workshops in schools, corporate lunch-n-learns, some adult teaching programs, and also co-hosted a very successful permaculture garden tour in 2012. Once you meet these two and see them teach you will be amazed by their upbeat and engaging energy, abundance of very interesting scale models to describe permaculture principles and techniques, and their evident professionalism and experience as public speakers and educators. Since the shooting of this video, demand for their services has sky rocketed and the young venture they speak of in the video has already grown to be much more.
Sara’s yard is also a shining example of urban permaculture design. Starting off with just a concrete slab, her and her husband began cutting up the concrete to expose the soil and from there they have birthed an incredible example of what permaculture design can do. At their home they have 3 bee hives, a young food forest and veggie garden which together contain an amazing variety of plants, greenhouse (where they grew sub tropical plants such as okra and have an outdoor shower!), passive rainwater collection system, swales, wicking beds, cold frames, and more. When we came by to visit the yard for our first time in early April of 2012, we were amazed to see that Sara was already harvesting spinach and other greens from some of her cold frame gardens! She has done a great job of connecting with her neighbors through their garden project, and some of them even popped by to say hello while we were visiting. Sara also has a project called Apple Tree Sustainables which includes a blog, the documentation of her and her husbands’ yard transformation, and also natural body products which she makes and sells herself.
These two inspiring women show how permaculture design can foster hope for a better future, offer practical solutions and action steps, as well as help people take their skills or professional background and turn it into a small side business or full time entrepreneurial venture.

puzzlepermaculture.com
vergepermaculture.ca

The Verge Permaculture Grad Series – 6/11 – Kym Chi from light & soul on Vimeo.

Kym Chi shows us how permaculture is a form of art, as well as a tool for increasing personal empowerment and community resiliency. Her sense of humor, enjoyment, and positivity leaves everyone who meets her feeling happier and more inspired; and it shows that her energy and efforts in both the local and global community have made an incredible positive difference.
Kym’s involvement as the permaculture designer, garden curator, and farmers market coordinator at The AREA (Arts, Recreation, Education, Environment, Agriculture) have been one stunning example of this. In one years time Kym has led the charge in facilitating thousands of volunteer hours on the transformation of the old brown field site at The Area into a thriving permaculture garden and community space that is now a major hub for the Calgary community. She has been the driving force behind creating the local-focused Inglewood and Ramsay Farmers Market hosted at The Area which has created a platform for many new local producers to start their businesses.
Through her creative permaculture education and design practice Giggling Chi Tree, Kym has taught many permaculture workshops, including teaching at several music festivals across Canada, and now in various public schools across Alberta. She is also a contributor to the global initiative Gaia Craft, and has helped design many of their open source teaching tools.
Her passion as an educator is matched by her commitment to increasing her own education, which she is currently doing through taking her Advanced Permaculture Diploma through the USA Permaculture Research Institute, as well as a Visionary Permaculture course over six weekends at COSM, just outside of New York.

gigglingchitree.com
gaiacraft.com
vergepermaculture.com

The Verge Permaculture Grad Series – 5/11 – Josh Baker from light & soul on Vimeo.

Josh Baker demonstrates a beautiful and functional approach to urban permaculture design at his home in Calgary, AB, incorporating many unique landscaping elements including a young food forest, flowers, and largely up-cycled passive solar greenhouse. It is clear that he and his family have carefully designed their yard to create and foster the profound emotional experiences of relaxation, contemplation, and a rich sense of place which a well designed garden can provide.
Josh has taken the skills from his day job as a project manager, estimator, and nationally certified safety officer specializing in shallow utilities contracting, as well as his extensive permaculture study, to create his company Radicle Routes Permaculture. In his first year of operation, Josh has taught several permaculture courses as well as taken part as a designer in one of the largest scale permaculture projects in all of Canada.
Josh’s solid and well-thought-out approach to creating Radicle Routes permaculture is sure to make him one of the most sought after consultants, designers, and teachers focusing specifically on key-line plowing, earthworks, holistic management, and overall farm design.

The Verge Permaculture Grad Series – 4/11 – Jeff and Juli Gillies from light & soul on Vimeo.

Jeff and Juli Gilles are demonstrating a wide array of permaculture homesteading techniques on their 5 acre parcel near Rocky Mountain House, AB. In just a couple years they have managed to transform thousands of square feet of land into productive gardens ranging from food forests to up-cycled raised beds, and have used their technological know-how and a “get-er-done” approach to test everything from solar electric, heating, and cooking to rainwater harvesting, energy efficient retrofits, food storage, and large scale soil production through their business Taimi Soil Solutions. Their acreage is quickly becoming a leading edge example of homesteading solutions and off grid technologies relevant to cold climates, and they will be showcasing it all as the hosts of the 2013 Western Canada Permaculture Convergence this August.

Verge Permaculture

The Verge Permaculture Grad Series – 3/11 – Crystel Vultier from light & soul on Vimeo.

Crystel Vultier is a true local food purveyor for her home town of Canmore, AB. Over the past several years she has been instrumental in creating the Canmore Community Garden which now provides plots for over 100 gardeners in the city and area. She has also created a project called Farm Box which sources local and organic food directly from farmers in Alberta and BC, and then distributes it to 130 families in a weekly CSA program, as well as making the abundance of healthy produce available to the whole city through a booth at the local farmers market. Watch how one persons potential to create positive change is realized and see how quickly the ripples have spread to effect her entire community.

farmbox.ca
canmorecommunitygardening.org
vergepermaculture.ca