Ask the ETC 2: What to expect here at the ETC.

This week Paul, a current apprentice, talks about what to expect when coming in as either an apprentice or an EcoSoaker for our Permaculture Immersion Apprenticeship at the ETC. He lists off some items he has found useful, then riffs on the learning opportunities available here.

Click here to listen to Episode 2 of Ask The ETC.

Cooking Cooperatively

Currently, there are five residents at the Ecovillage Training Center, and one kitchen. To save time, money and food we've banded together to create a cooking cooperative. There are many different types of co-ops, from strictly buying cooperatives to ones that share the buying, cooking, and cleaning duties every day. The kind that we have here is the latter. This model is most frequently seen in cohousing or intentional communities where people are interested in both cooking and dining together on a regular basis.

During a couple of short stays at Dancing Rabbit, an ecovillage in Missouri, I ate my meals through their open co-op, Sunflower. As an apprentice here at the ETC last year, I participated in the kitchen set-up run by the Hodge Podge Cooperative, the group of about seven people that collectively ran the educational opportunities. I loved the sense of community that manifested itself around the kitchens of both places, so I knew that I wanted to take what I had learned from both of them and apply it here.

As a co-op, we pool our money to buy groceries. Dry goods are purchased from either the local Amish bulk food store or a bulk foods catalog. Our fresh produce and dairy comes from either The Farm Store, a nearby locally owned market called Duncan & Son's, or straight out of the garden. We also share all cooking and cleaning duties. The simplest solution here was just to post a sign-up sheet on the refrigerator, so that people can choose what shifts they would like to cover during the week.

Not only are we saving resources by cooking together, we're learning so much from each other and having fun in the process. Five different people with five different sets of skills in the kitchen makes for a wonderful variety of dishes. Take last night for example. We hosted out first Second Saturday Potluck here and our contribution was made by an apprentice, Rich. He made a big ol' batch of vegetarian bean chilli with sweet potatoes in it! The smokey spice of the chilli really brought out the caramel sweetness of the potatoes. Yum!

We're also enjoying inviting other people to participate in the cooperative on a more temporary basis. The ETC plays host to a continual stream of travelers interested in sustainability and green living. I never know what I'm going to hear when I ask the question, "So, what brings you to The Farm?" People open up and feel free to share their stories over the welcoming, family-like atmosphere of a table filled with good food and good company. And that, as a well known pop-culture food guru would say, is a good thing.

-Merry

We Welcome Our First Group of Apprentices

Our Permaculture Immersion Apprenticeship program is now in full swing. These two month apprenticeships combine organic gardening, natural building and community living in order to give the apprentices a taste of what it is like to live and work in an ecovillage setting.

Our goal in creating this program is to promote systemic social changes towards sustainable human habitats and to encourage loving personal growth, free artistic expression, caring relationships, deep environmental awareness, and celebration of cultural and individual differences. We hope to inspire people to work for something bigger than themselves.

Here's Cliff, our apprenticeship coordinator.

Our first group of apprentices will be staying with us through the end of May.

Nilsa: I'm from Cape Coral, FL and volunteer at ECHO in North Fort Myers,FL. http://www.echonet.org/ It's an awesome organization. I'm here to learn all I can regarding permaculture and natural building to utilize these skills in a third wold application, sustainability. I also am involved with local area community gardening. In a nutshell, I would love to learn these skills well enough to teach them to others in the near future, God willing.

Rich: Thirty year old explorer of life, Rich, is looking forward to getting some chickens laying eggs at the Ecovillage Training Center. This, of course, will require a chicken tractor (or two) being built, but Cliff and the ETC apprentices seem gung ho about the idea. The project will be a great learning experience for Rich to take back to Twin Oaks, when he returns there for membership in June.
Rich was also excited to find a potential solar cooker today in the dome near the ETC, but more investigation is necessary. A little over 24 hours into his apprenticeship, the northern Virginia native is excited about the swimming hole, the abundance of items at the The Farm Store, the potential for a soccer game on the big field and whatever else The Farm may bring.
Although this is the 7th community Rich visited in the past two months, traveling Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, there lay many possibilities in what should be the longest visit this year, at The Farm.


Garrison: Garrison F. Creamer originates from Panama City, FL and serves as the director and founder of the Gulf Coastal Free Currency Coalition and BeachForest Harmony, an investment bank which seeks to redistribute capital to sustainable communal development through private and voluntary currencies. Co* has experienced firsthand the effects of the housing boom caused by artificially injected capital into circulation and witnessed the destruction of co's natural environment at a time when the Florida panhandle was the most viable and desired real estate investment. After completing this internship co plans to devote the rest of co's life to the practices of permaculture and Austrian economics. Co is also an avid surfer who loves to travel and find new waves!

-Merry

*Co, which stands for community member, is a non gender specific pronoun commonly used in intentional communities which support gender identification freedom of choice.