Permaculture Food Forests
Planning, Growing and Enjoying Year Round Abundance
An Applied Permaculture Practicum in Santa Cruz & Surrounding Region

Starts August 2020

*Super Early Bird Savings end Tomorrow, June 12th*

*Early Bird Savings end July 10th*

About the Workshop 

Do you want to gain hands-on skills and build community around growing food? Interested in learning best practices for orchard establishment and management, food forestry, designing year round productive vegetable farms and gardens, and preserving the harvest? We are pleased to offer this advanced practicum grounded in sound horticultural practices, and spiced with the delicious seasonal fruits and vegetables our region has to offer.

Before the area around San Jose was called the Silicon Valley it was known as “the Valley of the Heart’s Delight” because of its apricot, peach and plum orchards, and the delightful abundance it produced. Join us in creating and celebrating these habitats on both home and broadacre scales.

John Valenzuela is a horticulturist, consultant, and permaculture educator. Living in Hawai’i for 15 years, he studied and practiced tropical permaculture while teaching throughout the Islands to a wide range of people — children, students, professionals, farmers, displaced sugar workers, owners and renters. He has been a lead permaculture design course teacher at the Bullock Family Homestead in Orcas Island, Washington, for 10 years, also having taught in Costa Rica and throughout urban and rural California. His special interests are home gardens, plant propagation, rare fruit, food forests, agroforestry, ethnobotany, and native ecosystems. He is now based in his original home state of California, where he maintains ornamental and edible landscapes and a small nursery, while sharing his passion for plants. John has served as the chairperson for the Golden Gate Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers Association.

David Shaw is a permaculture designer, educator, facilitator, farmer, and musician living in Santa Cruz, California. His focus is building connections – with ourselves, with each other, and with nature. David has been teaching sustainable living at UC Santa Cruz since 2004, and in 2012 founded the Common Ground Center, offering a suite of programs for social justice, economic resilience, and ecological sustainability. He directs the UCSC Right Livelihood College, a partnership with the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” David is also an active member of the global World Cafe Stewardship Council, a group dedicated to hosting inter-generational dialogue on questions that matter. David completed the Farm Apprenticeship at the UCSC Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems and holds a MS in Integrative Eco Social Design from Gaia University. In order to meet the challenges of today, he is creating an urban farm and inter-generational learning center that fosters hands-on farm and wilderness skills, cultural competence, social entrepreneurship, and collective action.

Session 1 – Summer Abundance – August 8-9, 2020
Session 2 – Celebrating the Fall Harvest – October 3-4, 2020
Session 3 – Winter Pruning & Propagation – January 9-10, 2021
Session 4 – Subtropicals & the Abundance of Spring – May 15-16, 2021

$850 – Full Registration
$775 – Early Bird Discount – Register Before July 10th, 2020 and Save $75
$700 – Super Early Bird Discount – Register Before June 12th, 2020 and Save $150
$250 – One Session Only
$700 – Partner / Spouse Discount – When one partner registers for the full course, the second gets a discount
$700 – Teacher Discount – For K-12, College and University Teachers
$600 – Child Discount – When an adult registers for the full course, their child gets a discount

Please click here to apply to our scholarship application for people with limited access to financial wealth.

Questions? Please contact [email protected]