Winds of Change

#MesoamericanDanza presentation at Treehugger Organic Farms

Today we said our farewell to a piece of land that has sustained us and our community here in South Broward County for the past 4 years... a permaculture oasis in the midst of the concrete jungle we know as South Florida, east of the Everglades... a local food sanctuary known as Treehugger Organic Farms, now listed as permanently closed on your google GPS mapping system.

It was a bittersweet walk through the daikon radishes, lesser known banana species, greens, fruit trees, birds and butterflies. This farm felt like home, that safe place you can go to for peace, quiet, and tenderly cared for oceans of green.

@bawshkeengwabigun @treehuggercommunity #togetherwegrow

A post shared by Scott Evan Schlossman (@iloveushutup) on Apr 30, 2017 at 2:34pm PDT

There was a food forest on a mulch hill, a coconut grove interspersed with comfrey plants, florida nopalitos, tumeric and ginger, a spring fed pond that supplies water to the farm, and rotating fields of boniato, tomato, kale, collards, mustard, fennel, spinach, beans, millet, sugar cane, and just about everything in between.

Winds of change... @TreehuggerFarms -> #TogetherWeGrow https://t.co/uRJ5XiRj2L

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— Tara Chadwick (@wabigun) May 1, 2017

One day after the mega #PeoplesClimateMarch in several cities, and on the eve of #InternationalWorkersDay, it seemed like a huge mountain to move.  The reality of agricultural land tenure here in Florida is that access to farmable land is unstable, market based, and temporary.   In reflecting, I realize that personally, I subscribe more to the Haudenosaunee approach to land management whereby we humans are responsible to protect, nurture and strengthen the land/ soil/ earth, on behalf of it's only true owners, that generation of unborn children who has not yet arrived here via the miracle we know as birth.

Miami Herald photo by Al Diaz

What a timely consideration given the fact that I am, for the first time in my life, the biological auntie to one of these not-yet-born owners of the earth.  But in the volatile market economy that most of us are engaged within by choice or necessity, land is but a commodity, like humans once were, to be bought, sold and traded at the will of those who believe themselves to be in positions of power over others.

But this momentary twinge of grief in losing a space in which to enjoy the company of others, and ourselves in the company of Mother Earth and her pretties, is just a reminder that in fact we are owners of nothing, but rather bearers of ideas, thoughts, insights, and the potential to seed a new generation of humans with the capacity to return to a life steeped in nature, health and harmony with the cycles of all living beings including the soil, rock, sand and oil that make up the material we know as earth.

A Return to Turtle Road

Yesterday morning, I pulled up happily up to the entrance gate of John U Lloyd State Park a full half hour earlier than anticipated. Early morning weekday traffic to the South Florida Beach was a lot more user friendly that I thought it would be.  A friend from the South Florida Day of the Dead celebration invited us out to do a presentation on #FTLhistory at the summer camp she coordinates.

Mornings at the beach are a rare beauty for me. A beach visit, however fleeting, without my own children is something I hadn't experienced in over a decade! It is truly amazing the gift that just a few moments can be in one's life. I'd been thinking of a young friend this week, hearing news of the #Moonshot meetings, and missing the amazing person she was... but the intense light of the rising sun on the water and the graceful pose of the maturing sea oat pods distracted my thoughts.  I looked toward the horizon, wondering what beauty might still be ahead on my own journey through life.

As I traversed the few paces along the shoreline back toward the pavilion where my work day would soon begin, a peculiar pattern caught my attention.  I knew this u shaped track from seeing it once before, cradled in midnight darkness.  This was the evidence of a nesting sea turtle.  I was impressed by the realization that several hours earlier, a massive, 200 pound mature female turtle had emerged from the open sea at this precise location of her hatching 5 to 50 years prior.  Soon enough the park ranger arrived to investigate and document the nest. Fifty two days from now, the eggs should hatch, barring any hazards like racoons, coyotes, or overly rough seas.

That 20 minutes may be the most gratifying observation that I've ever made. It provided me with a much needed reminder that in life you may need to return to the slow road of a turtle, but the road of a turtle is strategic, definite, purposeful and carries a message that is intergenerational in its impact. May we all experience the beauty of a return to turtle road...

Turtle Track Pic

More turtle track pics

Last year's #WorldOceansDay #SeaTurtle nesting adventure

Conscious design - present, past, future!

History - Rage - Creativity - Design - Future

Knowledge - Awareness - Understanding

Working to educate not incarcerate

Consolidate not incinerate

Learning how to listen

for OURstories in hisSTORY

Through the recycled

building materials

of life

Carbon

Hydrogen

Oxygen

Iron

We renew our commitment

to being human

every time we raise our

question

who are we

what have we come through

and where are we headed...

Each time we ask

why, how or what...

on every occasion when we feel the desire

to act, heal or change...

there is a spark

of creativity

of potential

that we all have

to return

to our true

sane

original

selves

and to go together

through

endless work

of being

of becoming

human

together

through smoke - fire - water and drought

We have that spark

of hope

that will burn

into a fire of

accountability

of truth

resting on a foundation

of justice

that is not the

weapon of war

but the bedrock

of our mother

earth

Ecology IS our Economy!

Like all of LIFE, I am in a transition... in a state of invisible change, measured only by the wisdom of reflection and analysis which will happen AFTER the time of the present has passed.

Our gift is this moment - exactly where we are right now.  From here, we can observe, understand, learn, choose, acquire, release, assess and project our future past.

From right here, we can see our parents, and theirs.  We can watch our children and theirs emerge. This space and time that we occupy together is our place of power and joy.


Here is where I am learning that my life is connected to everything everywhere. Right here we can see the cycle of life on Earth - birth, death, human impact, restoration... a closed system with open minds, not withstanding the bottomless pockets and excess waste that only we humans can produce.

Here we begin again every day - living, reliving our life and the lives of all those who have lived, breathed before us. Here we begin again every day - the human search for knowledge, understanding, meaning, love, life...

We begin to ask questions, find answers. We begin to assess what is needed in our system - individual, family, community.

We begin again to understand that I am because you are.

"We are one and yet not the same"

That in diversity exists

the ingredients for life

And that with

each life lost

our system

dims and

must be

ignited

with the

hope

that

our

bio

diver

sity

will

flourish

once more!

Ecology IS our Economy!
Entrepreneurship is building our COMMUNITY!

Like a fetus in harmony with our Mother's body

We ARE the environment
our environment is US

We are the children of our Mother the Earth
We are connected to all of life

Yes, it's a simple concept - let's apply it!

Exploring Roots of Entrepreneurship... (part 1)

Chatting with a group of friends about land, time & economy

In my mother's town every November 19, there is a sunrise ceremony on the banks of the Stann Creek River.  It is a ceremony that commemorates the arrival of the Garifuna People to the safe shores of what is now Belize.  Central to the commemoration are:  song, oratory, canoes and the plants.  Specifically, the food plants that are brought from the distant homelands, to be re-planted, making this new shore "home".

Working our borrowed Minnesota Milpa

Meso-American People have a tradition of economic development that is highly integrated into the concept of community.  Among many Maya communities in Southern Belize, for example, when a new couple formalizes their commitment to move through life as a nuclear family unit, the entire community mobilizes to gather the materials necessary to build their new home together.  A home that is comprised of the natural elements obtainable from their surrounding environment.  A home that is measured using units that are comprised of the male partner's own unique hand and height measurements.  A model that truly demonstrates the harmony that can be achieved between humans, nature and our environment.

Milpa in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, Belize

These types of highly integrated practices - which have sustained thriving, vibrant communities through the rise and fall of more than one empire - are of great importance and relevance to our current human task of regaining balance and equilibrium between each other and our first, natural environment - Mother Nature.

----

Clip from a soon to be released documentary on the Indigenous Youth Freedom Project

Back to the Basics

As a mom of two young boys, I invest a lot in their future.  Today, at the dawn of this 21^st century, I often wonder: what will they truly need in order to live a healthy, happy, fulfilled life to its fullest? (As visions of ad logos dance in my head.) More space, money, cars…? Does more lead to fulfillment? Happiness?

Of course, as a mom, I want my children to always have what they need to live a full and productive life.  And now, more than ever, I think and worry about how our basic building blocks of life – air, water, earth – seem increasingly in peril.  And so, part of the investment I make in my children’s future is feeding them with food that is as safe and nutritious as possible.  But I also think about how far that food has traveled and how much water and energy was used to produce it.

We are hearing much about drought and water shortage these days, I know that we are going to feel that too, before the arrival of rainy season here in South Florida.  Did you know that throughout the US, a good 50% of our national water supply goes into the food we eat? It can take 200 gallons of water to produce a pound of beans.  A pound of beef can take over 2,000 gallons of water to produce.

Another thing that we feel here in South Florida is the real need for clean air that is cooled down to a liveable temperature. In the US almost 50% of our energy use is in heating and cooling homes and buildings.

But we have structures available to us to build our homes, businesses and public buildings in ways that use less than ¼ of that heating/ cooling energy.  And there are farming systems that grow food with minimal inputs of energy, water and chemicals. We just need to utilize them!

Climate change is happening, no matter how many $$$ you put into denying it.  Our temperatures overall are rising, ice sheets are retreating, and we have only one choice: ADAPT.

So that is what I teach my children – creativity, adaptation, and the importance of observing and considering the cycles and patterns of nature in all our actions and decisions.  It is what our ancestors have done, and it is the only way we will successfully navigate the changing times ahead.

We – our whole planet – are an ecosystem.  And yes, we are diverse, competitive, and at times, ruthless.  But we are all interconnected, bound together by our commonality and our dependence on the air, soil and life blood of our first mother – Earth.

Tara Chadwick works as a community outreach consultant for Earth Learning and would like to invite you to the 2014 Local Food Enterprise Summit in Miami May 31-June 2. Registration information is available at www.financialpermaculture.com, spaces are filling quickly.

   

It is time for us ALL to rise!

Climate, drought, floods, storms, damage, rebuilding, resilience, adaptation. It is time for us to rise!

A very
urban
bald
eagle
came
over to
look
for fish
in the
lake
as I
began
to
write
today.

Throughout the years of my teenage-hood, I carried within me a vision of “what I want to be when I grow up.” And despite the fact that I am a born and raised city girl, I knew from a very young age that my life desire was to learn about who I am as a part-Maya woman, and to work toward a time when I would have the skills, capacity and connectedness to sustain my own life using materials and resources that occur naturally on the Earth.

It seems a very practical and noble vision today, but in the progressive days of the 1980’s, a life goal of self-sustainability, self-sovereignty (though I could not describe it that way in those days) was seen as overly humble, too modest, and even today is often regarded as unrealistic.  And yet, one cannot undo one’s vision.  It can be designed, planned and implemented, even tweaked or reformatted, but that underpinning image, the reality with which it is emblazoned in one’s soul, and the memories of recalling it over many years of reflections just simply cannot be undone…

And so, I continue to move along on my life path, carrying memories of learning, experiences of doing, relationships (at least some of them anyways), and I realize, to my surprise, that I am on a journey toward the completion of a great circle!  Watching carefully how the weather patterns are changing, how our food and access to it is being modified, I wonder where the other 99% were when I was sitting in 9^th grade geography class listening to Mr. Thompson teach us about the two possible scenarios that would occur due to the increasing greenhouse effect… I am so confused by climate change skepticism.

But I am also more certain than ever now that my choices to live a humble life in pursuit of happiness, freedom and harmony with Mother Nature are more than responsibilities, these footsteps are my legacy…

April 28, 2014

Pinelands Park

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Spring 2014 - The season of regeneration has arrived!

I spent the day of the equinox sorting corn soup corn seeds thanks to George & Syd Martin's kind sharing of their precious seeds, instructions and memories at winter ceremonies 2012

It’s a beautifully cool and grey morning here in South Florida, the spring season has arrived and with it the excited sounds of the birds whose beautiful songs seem to reach new heights of pitch and melody…

I can’t say that I miss the raw wind, snow and cold that so easily penetrate one’s final layers of resistance to the winters of the northern latitudes, especially this year where the average daily temperatures reached far below any recent human memory.

But I do miss the beauty of the snow, the intricate interplay of geometry and light we see reflected on a single snowflake, I miss the warm coffee stops on cold days, and I especially miss feeling the comraderie of people working together to keep their families and communities intact even in the face of such bone chilling environmental realities… the fridgidity of the weather I think helps to cultivate the warmth of people’s hearts…

In many ways, I have found Minnesota and Florida polar opposites, in terms of much more than the obvious weather patterns. There are so many people here, four times as many at least.  And the social disparities while they are obvious in Minnesota, are as amplified in South Florida as the temperature difference on an average early spring day.

The bio diversity of plant, insects and humans is incredibly rich and beautiful, but the relationships that exist between us all seem as fragile as the scanty layer of subtropical topsoil which, fertile though it is, takes 1000 years to produce just one inch of fine, silty soil over the porous limestone that is our area’s bedrock (hence the litany of sinkholes that seem to be opening at an increasingly rapid rate).

Getting to know and understand a new geography is a daunting, seemingly lifelong task.  But the exercise in trying leads to the realization that our parents and grandparents, wherever they are from, were grounded in the knowledge of how to best utilize the gifts of the land and its processes, in a way that also preserved and ensured their continuity in perpetuity.  This regenerative use philosophy, I am now coming to see, is encoded in our cultural, family and community values, traditions and the teachings we pass on to our children and loved ones.  Many of the things we don’t do anymore because we don’t have to, are the very things that contribute to our success in sustaining the ecosystem that we depend on. (Think of the things our grandparents make fun of us for not knowing or doing anymore… walk to school, haul water, chop wood, empty the chamber pot, keep a compost…)

For the few who remember and find ways to replicate and share these treasures of knowledge that others have cast off as “old,” with the connotation of no longer useful or valuable, our future generations of human beings will be eternally grateful to you.  For those who can, LISTEN, LEARN & PRACTICE!  Our grandparents do not stay with us forever, so spend time with them when you can, ask questions, and above all, remember what stories of nature they tell you… OUR grandchildren will have many questions about the world and our place in it and they will need to hear us tell them the stories from the land of our grandparents.

Happy Spring!  Wherever we are right now, let's plant seeds that will feed our minds and bodies with nutrient dense soul food… and milkweed… please plant extra milkweed for our friendly neighborhood pollinators.

Corn boy exploring the permaculture plantings

Links:

Free milkweed plants, seeds and monarch larvae

Microbiology of subtropical karst soils 

Amazing how many of our grandparents used these foods! 

A Plug for Earth Learning and the Financial Permaculture Institute

EL 3.0.2

A blog by T.A.Chadwick

2.25.13

We are now at the midpoint of the winter season, and regardless of one’s relative geographic location, nature is relentlessly reminding us: you know what to do… you know you can do better… you must take another step… the wind whispers our instructions, blue jays never let us forget, butterflies, bees and hummingbirds gently enforce Earth’s patterns and cycles.

Our growing collective human realization that we must do our part to regenerate Earth’s biosystems is an awareness that’s fostering a renewed focus on sustainability and a closer examination of the intersection of economy, finance, business development and an ancient concept with a pointedly contemporary potential for innovation:  permaculture.

Permaculture, in a nutshell, is designing human systems that replicate and regenerate Earth’s natural processes.  Financial permaculture is “working with local communities to create holistic and regenerative economic solutions for local and international sustainability.”

On May 31 – June 4, Earth Learning and the Financial Permaculture Institute are hosting the 2014 Local Food Enterprise (LiFE) Summit in Miami to continue building local food infrastructure here in the Greater Everglades bioregion. This is an open call to participate as a trainee, investor or food lover!  Our objective is to engage entrepreneurs and consumers in growing the local ecology of “a life sustaining culture” to expand access to delicious food grown safely and sustainably right here in the Greater Everglades.

Four local food enterprises will serve as this year’s design clients.  Everyone who registers as a LiFE Summit participant will have the opportunity to join one of four design teams who will work together to develop real-time, case-specific permaculture business/ farm/ enterprise models for each design client to implement.

Registration is open now for the week-long Summit or the keynote lectures only, including the final evening’s unveiling and launch of the newly designed Local Food Enterprises!

Sign up today and refer a friend to get rooted in “growing a life-sustaining culture here in the Greater Everglades bioregion.”

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