Here is the text of an email I received today, from former student Jared Bogdanov-Hanna in Michigan, who has taken the Permaculture bull by the horns and run with it!
“Everything is going well in Michigan. I have a few projects that I have worked on over the past 7 years coming into fruition, bearing all sorts of yields. My 1/4 acre EFG and market garden grows exponentially every year, nourishing my family, friends, community and me. It’s also a sacred place of great physical, mental, emotional and spiritual satisfaction for me.
Recently, I’ve been working at Oakland University with Fay Hansen. I’m the Farm Manager and Organic Farm Coordinator there, tasked with designing, building and managing an organic farm and organic farm program there. This year I’m on salary, and officially teaching as a Lecturer in the Biology Department. Fay and I have accredited university courses in Fundamentals of Organic Farming and Permaculture Theory and Practice. We are working with the university to develop a PDC certificate program for students, officially issued through the university.
The farm is very successful, and the courses and field experience labs fill quickly. We are also working with community partners in Pontiac, specifically the Baldwin Center, which is a full service shelter in the inner city serving over 4000 meals a month. There is a 30′ x 60′ hoop and other gardens there, and we work with youth programs growing all summer, and selling together at the Farmers’ Markets, teaching the high school students science and entrepreneurial and business skills (and of course permaculture). The Student Organic Farmers at Oakland University have a facebook page with lots of pictures. Check it out and like us! www.facebook.com/StudentOrganicFarmersAtOU.
Permaculture projects and permaculturalists are popping up everywhere in Michigan now. It’s far too much to keep up with. We have had Sepp Holzer here, there is a permaculture convergence up north this summer, and so much more. I’m still doing some other teaching and consulting on the side, but OU is taking up most of my time now a days.
Thank you again for being a teacher and mentor. The PDC course helped open up a new world to me and helped take me on this permaculture adventure. After several years working in the trenches, learning, teaching, networking and (happily) sleeping in a tent in my garden, I find myself building my own program at a public university, with another one of your former students, Fay. And now I’m helping change the lives of dozens of students and community members every year.”
Jared