Sunday, September 25, 2011

Session Two: A visit to Nate's Permaculture R&E Lab




Main Concepts and Demonstrations:
The Permaculture Ethics
Organic Gardening
Wild Edibles
Cold Frames
Solar PV panel
Solar thermal panel
Rain water harvesting
Earth Oven & Natural Building
Stacking functions
48v Solar electric vehicle
Compost systems
Research with the Pokeweed plant, berries and juice
Permaculture Site Design

We began the day's session at Summer's knoll, with a review of our last meeting. We discussed the main topics of biomimcry, annuals, perennials, monocultures, polycultures and biodiversity. The students were engaged, and remembered most of the topics that we had covered on our Nature awareness walk. Apparently, the class drove by a corn field on another recent trip, and one student said "look at that mono crop! the soil is terrible!". We all thought that was hilarious and great. Nate then shifted the conversation to the day's new lesson, starting with the ethics of Permaculture. Permaculture is a way to design sustainable human communities. Some say Permaculture is different from all other design systems because it emphasizes function, natural pattern, principles and ethics in its decision making. We used the analogy of another very popular ethic, the "golden rule". Nate learned that this was the Summer's knoll school motto!

The Permaculture ethics are:

1. Care of Earth
2. Care of People
3. Fair Share


We then talked about the 6 main areas that Nate does his permaculture research in:
Food, Energy, Water, Building, Transportation and Waste. In keeping with the educational approach of Problem Based Learning, Nate explained that the problem he is researching solutions for, are how we can get these 6 areas of our life off of fossil fuel dependence. (OFF=Off Fossil Fuels)


The students were getting anxious to go to Nate's, so we loaded up the bus and headed over to "the lab". When we arrived, we walked to the backyard to begin some initial observations. Nate told the students to take 5 minutes to walk around, explore and most importantly, observe what was going on in his yard. The students walked along the various garden paths and research plots, inquisitively exploring and pointing out discoveries to each other.


exploring the backyard garden
The Organic Garden
Nate brought the group together on the brick patio, and began to ask what students had observed. We started to put things into categories of food, energy, water, building, transportation and waste (FEWBTW). The most common observations were the natural raised bed garden and food forest. The students observed that Nate had a mixture of annuals and perennials. Many students recognized tomatoes, kale, zucchini, cauliflower, squash, beans, peppers and herbs, all annuals.























Students exploring the many vegetable beds, paths and growing areas in Nate's garden


Wild Edibles - Lamb's quarters
There was a huge stalk of lamb's quarters that we all plucked and ate leaves from. Lamb's quarters are a delicious wild edible, compared to spinach, kale and chard. They have a robust dark, green, earthy taste, with almost a buttery aftertaste. Several students kept going back for more! Even Chris had to get seconds!

mmmm, delicious lamb's quarters!
Cold Frames
The second major observation the students made were of Nate's interesting panels, windows and mobile gardening beds. Still on the topic of food solutions without fossil fuels, Nate told the class that we can in fact grow food all year long in Michigan, even in the winter. Using inexpensive, greenhouses, hoop houses and "cold frames" allows us to grown wonderful vegetables and other edibles during the snowiest months of January. This is important because we use a massive amount of fossil fuels to transport food to us from all over the world. Nate had several cold frames, which are like mini greenhouses, but typically made with recycled and repurposed windows and panels. Nate grows spinach, chard and kale in his.

The cold frames are the two clear window boxes on the left

Solar Photovoltaics (PV)
Noticing the other equipment nearby, the conversation quickly turned to energy, as the students began asking about Nate's Solar Panels. There are 2 basic types of Solar panels: Photovoltaic, or PV, and Thermal/hot water heating. PV panels produce electricity, the same kind we use in our house to power our lights and appliances, while thermal panels use the sun to heat the air or water. Nate had all the students feel the solar panel plating, in order to "demystify" this technology. Its important for kids to get comfortable and used to seeing how this equipment works. Nate's panels are rated to produce 100 watts of energy per hour when in direct sun.

Nate demonstrating how solar panels produce electricity

Solar Thermal hot water heating
The second type of solar panel Nate demonstrated was a Solar thermal hot water heating panel. This is a "passive"solar panel (meaning no electricity is used), which is colored black, so when installed on a rooftop it becomes very hot in the sun. Once hot enough, we can run water through the dozens of small tubes coiling and passing throughout the panel, which in turn gets very hot. Nate told the class that with the right technology, we can heat most of our water with the sun in Ann Arbor. This could replace a lot of fossil fuels that we use, as about 20% of a modern family's energy bill goes toward hot water heating.

the solar hot water heating panel
Rain water harvesting
Since we were talking about a water solution, Nate asked the class if they had observed any other water solutions. Several students noticed the gutter system on the earth oven structure. They noticed the piping that led down to a big wooden crate. Nate told the class that this was how he caught and stored rain water. In the wooden crate was 110 gallons of stored rain water. Rather than using and paying for city utility water, which is chemically treated, Nate uses natural rain water on all of his garden vegetable plants. There is an old farmer's saying, that "rainwater sweetens the soil". Catching and storing different types of energy (like solar, water, and wind) is a very important principle of Permaculture design.

the rainwater harvesting system and enclosed storage cisterns

The Earth Oven - Natural Building
By now, the students were getting very excited, as many of them had been anxiously awaiting the time when Nate would start demonstrating the earth oven. The sign saying "Pizza Garden" is all it takes to make just about anybody excited! Earth ovens are big, hollow domes made of a material called "cob". Cob is a mixture of clay, sand, and soil. Cob has been used for thousands of years to build ovens, walls, and even multi story houses and buildings. It is one type of "natural building" technique that is returning to popularity, as people are trying to build structures out of more local and sustainable materials. Nate builds a fire in his cob oven, and the cob captures and stores the fire's heat, so that Nate can bake loaf after loaf of bread, and pizza after pizza. It is a very sustainable way to cook food, which doesn't use fossil fuels.

Nate's cob earth oven
Stacking Functions
Another main principle in Permaculture is to "stack functions". This means we try and get as many uses and connections from our systems and designs. Nate's earth oven structure is a good example of stacking functions, because there are many systems working together. The earth oven cooks food and provides heat. The roof on top of the structure protects the cob in rain and snow, but is also used to catch and store rain water. There are raised beds all around the structure that Nate uses to grow tomatoes, peppers and herbs for his pizza sauce and toppings. The captured rainwater is needed to help grow these plants. This structure has many different systems, but they are all working harmoniously so that Nate can grow, water and cook delicious food without using fossil fuels. All these parts working together is similar to a forest system found in nature, with different plants, trees and animals providing multiple functions for one another, but all for the benefit of the ecosystem's balance, diversity and health.

A full view of the "pizza garden" with earth oven, water storage, and pizza crops

The 48v solar electric vehicle
After the earth oven demo, we "shifted gears" and went onto Nate's driveway. Arguably the most obvious way that we use fossil fuels are the cars that we drive. It's very normal for some families to have 2 or 3 cars in America, and most run on petroleum. If we are going to get off fossil fuels for good, we have to design new solutions in transportation, not just for families, but communities, cities and even entire nations. Nate is interested in electric vehicles, and is designing a solar powered, electric golf cart. This was also a great chance to introduce energy storage to the class, as the solar car has six 48v batteries.

the solar car with a 100 watt panel

The solar car's 48v batteries

Composting Systems
Many students immediately recognized the wood pallet bins in the corner of Nate's yard, and several said they compost the same way at home. We talked about how most organic matter can be broken down into compost and used for improving soils. Nate's back yard has two types of composting bins, one for leaves and brush, and one for leftover food and scraps. The bin for food uses worms to break down the food scraps into organic matter, in a method called "vermicomposting".
Nate told the students that his backyard is an example of a "closed loop system". He explained that he grows edible plants in soil, then eats the plants, then composts the leftovers and scraps into new soil, then grows new plants in that soil. It is the ultimate in recycling, because there is no waste, and the system can function without fossil fuels. The students remembered that "there's no such thing as garbage in nature", and saw how everything had a purpose in Nate's back yard. Excellent!!


students taking notes on Nate's different compost bins

The poke weed plant - A research Plant
Nate's research has taken him into many exciting fields. One of them is in the realm of using plants to help us produce energy. Scientists at Wake Forest University discovered that ink from the poke weed plant berries, when applied to solar PV cells, actually increased the efficiency and production of electricity by as much as 50%. This is very exciting research, and shows that nature can help us out in many different ways. If we are going to harness and use all of the benefits that plants can give us, we need help studying and researching their different uses and properties. We need to experiment. This is the foundation of problem based learning: the student's education is combined with teacher's research. We have obtained 25 individual solar cells for our research, and the students will be helping Nate find out the best ways for the poke weed plant to help increase solar panel production.

A student in between the pizza garden and research garden (the poke weed is on the right)

Harvesting the poke berries
The students all took turns clipping bunches of berries of the poke weed plants, to be juiced into ink and then applied to our solar cells.


a happy harvester with an excellent crop of berries

Juicing the poke berries
The class left the backyard R&E lab to come inside for the day's final project: Juicing the poke weed berries into ink. They all took turns smashing the berries through a strainer, and into a storage bucket. The juice had to be strained several times, to make sure no seeds or organic matter were in the batch, just ink. The students had a blast with this!


The berry ink has a deep, rich purple color

the class's canned batch of poke berry ink, ready for our experiments

Permaculture site design: our "dream" backyards
While individual students were taking turns juicing the poke berries, Nate set up the rest of the class with some guidelines for designing their "dream" backyards. Permaculture designers create environments that are self sufficient and integrated with nature, and there is no reason why younger designers and scientists can't do the same. Nate told the class that their designs must include map labels, like north, east, south and west, and have solutions in food, energy, water, building, transportation and waste. The students had a great time using their imaginations to design, draw, and color solar panels, earth ovens and forest gardens. It was great to see them so engaged, and got the teachers thinking that we need to do class permaculture design for the entire summer's knoll school!


This was a very exciting and information packed day. The students were energized by all of the demonstrations and activities, and can't wait to come back to Nate's house, hopefully for some pizza from the earth oven! To be continued.....





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