'Designing a Perennial Farm' Permaculture
Short Course Feb. 7 in Winona

CONTACT: Parker Forsell, LSP, 507-523-3366, parker@landstewardshipproject.org

1/26/09
WINONA, Minn. — Interested in creating a farm based on trees and other perennial, permaculture plant systems? The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) is holding a special "Designing a Perennial Farm" permaculture short course Saturday, Feb. 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Winona Arts Center, 228 E. 5th Street. It will be led by noted permaculture consultant and farmer Mark Shepard. The fee is $20 for LSP members and $65 for non-members, and includes a lunch by Blue Heron Coffeehouse. Participants who join LSP upon registration will receive a $10 discount. Please pre-register in order to reserve a lunch. For more information or to register, contact LSP's Parker Forsell at 507-523-3366 or parker@landstewardshipproject.org. To download a pdf version of the workshop flier, click here.

This workshop will include both a classroom introduction and an on-site assessment of a Winona area farm. The first part of the day will include an introduction to agroforestry and permaculture principles and techniques that can make your farm more sustainable. Shepard will discuss land shaping, water collection and ways of integrating various perennial plant families and animals.

The second part of the day will include an on-site visit to a 200-acre farm to discuss the possibilities for implementing many of the strategies discussed in the morning introduction. Please dress for outside hiking in February.

Shepard's New Forest Farm in southwestern Wisconsin is one of the first examples of permaculture farming at the farmscape level in the United States.  For 13 years, he and his wife Jen have been working to convert a typical 140-acre row crop dairy farm into a permaculture-based perennial-agricultural ecosystem, using oak-savannah, successional-brushland and eastern-woodlands as the ecological models. 

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