I was born and raised in San Bernardino. It was through a spiritual quest that I came to be fascinated by Permaculture. At first I was studying Natural medicine and outdoor survival, but after a time I had a revelation. I realized that what was more important than learning how to live in the wild, was learning how to recreate the human habitat so that it was no longer toxic to our souls and our environment. So I began learning more about growing my own food rather than foraging wild food and eventually the moment came that I found the "Greening the Desert" video by Geoff Lawton. I was very interested and I did more research into the concept of a food forest and it wasn't long before I decided that this would be a major part of my life. It's been five years since I saw that video. To learn permaculture I did research online, I purchased the "Permaculture Designer's Manual" and "Gaia's Garden" by Toby Hemmenway. I accumulated a great deal of understanding on my own, but it still didn't seem like enough. But when Geoff Lawton, The man who got me into permaculture in the first place, started an online PDC I was compelled to sign up for it.
Now I have just recently passed the PDC and am hoping to find local projects that I can be a part of so that I can expand my understanding even further.