This was the fourth time we’ve offered Session One of our three-part Fast Track Your Food Forest series, and I’m glad to see how it has evolved since we first delivered it in April at the Nature School in Mangawhai.
A forest is a great analogy for human society or community. We started by looking at how much collaboration there is in a forest, but how easily collaboration can fail in our disconnected-from-nature, industrial society. I shared some of the work Janet and I have been developing, and the four foundations for collaboration that lasts:
(1) well defined and shared intention (purpose)
(2) agreements
(3) communication processes
(4) skills for building communication bridges (inside and out)
I shared about the fear I’d had of stepping into James Andrew’s shoes, who had led the Holistic Decision Making piece of the previous training days, but who wasn’t able to be there. My fear had informed me that I was not stepping into his shoes, but standing in my own, and bringing what I care about.
With the focus on the first step of healthy collaboration (a well defined and shared purpose) I touched lightly on the concepts underpinning Holistic Decision Making then invited people to pair up as a speaker and a listener, to explore why they were here? What was their reason for paying $150 to attend a one day training on the principles of Syntropic Agroforestry.
The listeners shared what they’d heard from their speaker-partners, and the key reasons for coming were captured on the whiteboard. After swapping roles, hearing about the other half of the participants, we developed a good-enough-for-now collective purpose statement for the day, and had built a sense of community that led into a lively and engaged day.
We are here to grow in knowledge and social connection, by listening and sharing […] so we can support and sustain each other through time.
Arthur then led us through the core principles of Syntropic Agroforestry. He was describing the principles so succinctly, and his delivery was confident – it was a joy to see how much Arthur has grown over the course of the previous sessions!
People had lots of questions all the way through the day, in part I think because people felt connected with each other, and because they had understood the principles, and wanted to go deeper into the implications of them. I sensed they wanted to learn, so they could apply what they were understanding.
We went out on the land after a delicious lunch of hearty soups and home made bread, thanks Lydia! We saw three main areas that James and Lydia have been developing with syntropic principles. It was impressive how much work they had done and how these installations were thriving.
Three rows will form a windbreak for the orchard trees. Each row (left to right) has Native trees with rabbit protection, Tithonia, and Bana grass.
Abundant Tithonia, with well established Banana, Tamarillo. and Pawpaw that is now taking off after a recent cutback of some Tithonia which had temporarily hidden them and held them back.
James Bellamy explained the drainage system, which has options for allowing water to flow off the terraces in winter, or be captured in the drier months.
The power of Tithonia to make Kikuyu obsolete!
Contemplating what to do with this area below the future house site.
Ending the day with a session on propagation. Arthur weathered the storm while we stayed comfy inside.
Thank you everyone for being such a willing and engaging group! It made our day! You can find information and register for future events here: growingradicles.org/events
Keep growing, and building your team!