Link to one of our course takers web sites: http://www.cornhelyg-permaculture.co.uk/?page_id=132
Corn Helyg: Wild plant alchemy
Hedgewitchery and permaculture on the magical island of Ynys Môn or Anglesey, North Wales
Corn Helyg Permaculture to become a ‘Zero Waste Project’.
Posted on May 30, 2014 by ffion
We are delighted at successfully obtaining a “Sustainable Development Fund “to become a Zero Waste Project. Some of projects we will be experimenting and developing in 2014 are Thermophilic Hotbox composting HH-2, Bio-char and building a straw bale walled garden!
The Zero Waste (ZW) project at Corn Helyg Permaculture (CPH) centres on the importance of creating healthy soil. Without this, balance of the land cannot be achieved.
“Soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, and death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.” Wendell Berry.
The ZW project will be achieved by developing, healthy sustainable systems such as eco-sanitation by utilising all waste products to produce nutrient rich compost. This will be used as an optimum fertilizer/soil conditioner to grow nutritious and healthy food. The system uses a thermophilic process to produce super fast compost, designed to give disease free crops thus resisting the need to use chemical fertilizer, pesticides or fungicides. For more information on super fast composting, have a look at Richard Higgins (Well End Permaculture) pioneering work at www.suaglon.co.uk
Experimental Biochar will also be made from brash waste, a bi-product from sustainable woodland management and hedgerow maintenance that will be added to the compost process as integral part of the compost ingredient. We will be working with Dave Chapman from www.ancient-arts.org using recycled materials to building a prototype “rocket kiln” to make bio-char all which is very experimental!
The ZW project responds to the core ethics of CPH, which include the following:
- ‘Reconnection to nature’: Wild food: uniting people with the origins of their food/reconnecting with nature, consequently promoting a greater respect for the environment. Moreover, when we live in partnership with nature and eat seasonal wild food (including organically grown fruits and vegetables) this is by far, the best way to achieve optimal health and re physical and emotional wellbeing.
- ‘Sustainability of rare species’: Preservation of the hedgerows and endangered species: valuing the hedgerows as an important habitat for wildlife within areas of intensive farming and their role in enriching cultural heritage and traditional rural crafts. At present, we have planted a native woodland and fruit trees that are indigenous to the area, such as the Trwyn Mochyn apple tree.
- ‘Future food Security’: Encouraging the use of no-dig/zero till growing methods to increase soil fertility thus resulting in higher yields, producing healthy and nutritious food for the overall wellbeing of the community. The method is also good for growing food in small spaces and which can be designed to meet the needs of older people and people with disabilities and additional needs.