“Pollution is just an unused resource.” Bill Mollison (1928 – 2016)

Different aspects of permaculture design systems and practices appeal to different people. Fortunately, there’s a lot of room under the permaculture umbrella. For example:

Composting. Composting toilets. Food forest gardening. Green building. Green burial. Greywater capture. Holistic management. Homesteading. Hugelkultur. Intensive rotational grazing. Keyline design. Lacto-fermentation. Living fences. Mulching. No-till. Organic gardening. Perennial vegetables. Polycultures. Renewable energy. Resiliency. Reuse of salvaged materials. Rocket mass heaters. Root cellars. Scything. Seed saving. Soil biology. Solar capture. Stacked functions. Straw bale and cob buildings. Swales. Tree planting. Water conservation. Zero-input.

A few great books on the subject:

• Gaia’s Garden, by Toby Hemenway
• The One-Straw Revolution, by Masunobo Fukuoka
• Restoration Agriculture, by Mark Shepard
• The Permaculture Handbook, by Peter Bane

And some favourites on closely related subjects (because everything is connected):

• Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon
• A Mind of Your Own, by Kelly Brogan
• Full Moon Feast, by Jessica Prentice
• I Contain Multitudes, by Ed Yong
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defence of Food, both by Michael Pollan
• Everything by Derrick Jensen, such as What We Leave Behind (co-author Aric McBay), Endgame, and A Language Older Than Words
• The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible, Sacred Economics and everything else by Charles Eisenstein

There are many innovators and leaders under that big permaculture umbrella. A partial list for web-browsing . . .

Elaine Ingham (soil food web). Paul Stamets (fungi). Geoff Lawton (permaculture design). David Goodman (compost everything). Marjory Wildcraft (the grow network). Jacqueline Freeman (beekeeping). Joe Jenkins (humanure). Justin Rhodes (permaculture chickens). Eliot Coleman (organic gardening). Joel Salatin (Polyface Farms). Sepp Holzer (hugelkultur). Ruth Stout (deep mulching). Mike Oehler (earth-integrated houses). Art Ludwig (greywater). Paula and Robert Laporte (biological building systems). Jill Winger (prairie homestead). Michael Bush (beekeeping). Stefan Sobkowiak (permaculture orchard). John Kempf (Advancing Eco Agriculture).

Finally, a plug for some of the amazing ecological farms we’ve visited in southern Ontario:

• Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds, Mount Forest – vegetable & flower seeds by mail
• Simple Riches, Markdale – CSA
• Luna Mia Farm, Desboro – seed saving, permaculture
• Glencolton Farms, Durham – biodynamic mixed farming, farmstore Fridays 3-6pm
• Saugeen River CSA, Durham – biodynamic market garden, CSA
• Saugeen Country Dairy, Durham – organic yogurt and kefir
• Wild Meadows Farm, Conn – ethically raised meats
• Black Sheep Farm, Chatsworth – CSA
• Burdock Grove, Williamsford – vegetables and pastured meats
• Better Together Farms, Williamsford – vegetable and pastured meats
• Fiddlehead Nursery, Kimberley – edible perennial plants, demonstration garden
• Poechman Family Farms, Hanover, ON – certified organic animal feed
• Green Being Farm, Neustadt – CSA, meat sales
• Blackshire Gardens, Neustadt – beans, mushrooms, asparagus
• Crickhollow, Neustadt – biodynamic, CSA
• Cedar Down Farm, Neustadt – CSA
• Fair Fields, Neustadt – wholesale, u-pick strawberries, CSA
• Reroot Organic Farm, Harriston – CSA, on-farm store
• Farm Queen Foods, Chatsworth – meat sales, on-farm store
• Persephone Market Garden, Keppel/Hepworth – CSA
• Sideroad Farm, Walters Falls – on-farm store, CSA
• Terra Verde Homestead, Conn – CSA
• Green Bounty, Walters Falls – CSA
• Heartwood Farm and Cidery, Erin – hard cider, grass-fed meats, agrotourism
• Drumlin Farm, Cambridge – CSA
• Plan B Organic Farms, West Flamborough – CSA
• Wheelbarrow Farm, Newmarket – CSA, meat sales