30th April 2024

Full PDC @ Treflach farm, April 26th-May 8th

pdc banner 2021

This course is for you!

The PDC is a 12 day course with about 6 hours of study, presentation and discussion each day, totaling 72 hours.

(this page updated 26/3)

It has been hard to plan with the constantly changing Covid restrictions and I have tried to cover every eventuality. We hear strongly that the preference is to be on-farm and camping throughout if possible. We have 12 camping places available for people who agree to follow our safety policy and take the provided ‘laminar flow test’.

We will also provide an online PDC for those who are still shielding, unable to attend physically and there will also be some attendees from Africa

If the weather is nice we hope to roll over onto the Sunday May 9th, and have a farm supplied roast Sunday lunch to round things off, but the official business will be competed by 5.00 pm on the Saturday 8th May.

Accommodation options are on the Treflach farm website, and PDC attendees get a 20% on published prices.

Lead tutor Steve Jones with Rogers Wasibi, who will also be contributing to the course
Ian Steele on a recent tour of Treflach farm
lunch
Al fresco lunch at Treflach farm
s39 team member
Ali Tebandeke will be Zooming in to talk about his permaculture work in Uganda and South Africa
PDC Kumi practical
Permaculture is global, through this PDC you can network and be involved with pioneers around the world, even from home

26th April – 8th May
You don’t have to be a farmer or even a grower, permaculture is for everyone. It is an inclusive and nature friendly way of seeing; one that embraces the perspective that all life is connected, that we are all part of a single Eco-system.  James Lovelock made clear in the Gaia hypothesis that all life is interwoven as a larger single, living, breathing organism, something of which we are only a part.

Permaculture teaches us that we can influence and shape this through conscious design but that we can never control it. Consequently we are all invested in building a culture and society that recognizes that our imperative is to learn how we can collectively steer this ship without crashing, and soon. The natural state for nature is abundance, somehow we have allowed our collective actions to strip the natural world to its barest bones and see that as economic growth.

Permaculture teaches how to apply the observable logic of nature to all forms of design. Permaculture is a shift in perspective designed to allow for such a behavior change, a common language we can share.

Our next key lesson is that the better we work together through co-operation and collaboration the more we align ourselves with the forces of nature. Applying this logic allows us to begin the process of rising to the many and interconnected challenges we currently face.

There is an urgency for us to meet more of our core and essential needs from an energized and interdependent local community. Food needs to take front and centre and be a the start of a process which can a forge a new resilience helping us face the coming shocks and uncertainties. Permaculture teaches you to start with the self, start small, from the back door, if we can harmonize locally then we can find ways to harmonize globally.

Also and critically the evidence mounts that the quality of our food depends directly on the quality of the soil in which it is grown; if the nutrients are not in the soil then they are not in the food. Permaculture teaches us the degree to which everything is linked, everything is connected and that by re-energizing soils, we re-energize local economies and their communities.

Permaculture design brings those elements together in a practical design framework and a PDC shows you how to begin to apply this.

A PDC is a 72 hour curriculum designed to equip you with a vocabulary of ideas, examples, patterns, to see design through the eyes of nature. Permaculture also gives you the tools you need to begin to apply that to your world around you. 

You will see living practical examples, whether in field on online, the course brings a whole new et of possibilities alive for you. It involves you in a live community of people actively applying these ideas.

Permaculture 72-hour curriculum 

Coming back from pandemic, facing the climate and ecological and economic shocks which we know are coming requires us to think again, how can we work together  much more effectively to face these challenges? We also need to be enjoying full and wholesome lives at the same time, it has to be fun also!

Permaculture can be seen as a framework, a common language of ideas, which help address complex and interconnected things, a system language.

Permaculture is not a magic bullet, rather it is a way of seeing and planning which requires conscious and thoughtful application as well as consistency over time, but with that and some humility we really can change the world.

Treflach is a perfect venue for permaculture

Treflach farm sits on the edge of rising Welsh hills, overlooking the Shropshire plain. A family farm for 4 generations, of about 100 acres. Treflach is a farm that began a deliberate journey, some years ago, one of transitioning away from those post-war farming systems — so reliant on external inputs, to something that might sit better with the future, a nature led approach.

Permaculture became the methodology, a way of seeing which allowed a deeper and more holistic understanding  of how to work with nature. By embracing agro-ecology with a permaculture design approach, Treflach is learning how to farm in a regenerative way. It has been a huge and tangled journey already but we all feel this journey is only really just beginning. 

The farm itself is very much part of the course. Mainly grassland but also woodland, with wild edges everywhere; nature is quickly regenerating. The food the animals eat is largely grown on farm or saved from the waste-stream, and increasingly the community around the farm is gaining access to that produce. “We are not experts but we are certainly learning on so many fronts. “

The Sector39 team started teaching at Treflach over Autumn 2010 and the relationship has evolved as the farm evolves. It is increasingly fascinating to study permaculture in this context, and we invite you to join us.

Farmer Ian Steele’s over-riding objective is for the farm to pass to whosoever might be its future custodian in a better shape than how it came to him. In this aspiration Treflach has started working with Steve Jones and the Sector39 team for over 10 years now. Bringing students, volunteers and participants to help re-people the farm, and importantly to help facilitate a huge conversation, learning and insight into how to apply permaculture in an open ended, on going application of those ideas to the farm.

S39 are excited to be collaborating with  Dr Elizabeth Westaway with her perspective on nutrition, nutrient density in food and how this relates the quality of the soil of origin. As a theme within the PDC we will focus on soil, nutrition and community and how these things inter-relate.

"Learning about mycorrhizal fungi for the first time on a permaculture course was a defining moment for me, by realising the enormity of their significance for soil health, nutritional quality of food, citizen and planetary health." "It's so important for us all to become aware of how our food is grown and for agroecological farming practices, that regenerate mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, to become the norm."
ew
Dr Elizabeth Westaway
Nutritionalist

A covid-resilient course

These have been hard times to make plans, with restrictions constantly changing, regardless  we are really keen to get our PDC plans into the diary .

We are planning a Covid-resilient course,  which can function on line and include non-local participants, but will also allows us to invite participants to join us on-farm for all are part of the course.

There is on-farm camping, with glamping, caravans and live-ins options will be available as well as food from the farm so is scope to be a safely physically distanced apart as required.

If you are not in the UK, Wales border region or not able to travel and would like to participate we can make arrangements so you take full part in the design activity which will come in the final third of the course.

Price

The price for the full PDC, with an e-certificate of completion is £250.00, payable to Sector39. On farm camping and food is extra the farm is offering a 20% discount on their normal prices for PDC participants.

The price includes making a donation of £75.00 to help fund permaculture education globally, specifically East Africa. (This is entirely up to you and your budget, but is greatly appreciated and a effective way to support other pioneers.)

Majority world  citizens, especially African please apply for an academy apprenticeship and we would hope to be able to help you with the cost of data fees to access the course, as long as you  can get a good enough connection.

For UK participants, if you are on a tight budget and want to come to farm, (and conditions are right) then you may bring a tent and do your own camp cooking (20% of normal camping fees).

Alternatively we would hope you will take advantage of the wonderful on-farm facilities including produce, cooking and accommodation. If you have a caravan or camper you may bring it for a small fee or even use the farm’s glamping facilities of yurts, bell tents and more. Please make these arrangements directly with the farm.

Visit Treflach Farm to find out more.

S39 training team in 2018, Bidibid refugee settlement