How to Run A Permaculture Internship

How to Run A Permaculture Internship

By 2021 Apprentice Abbey Cmiel

Every year, Rancho Mastatal offers a year long apprenticeship and a 2 month long internship for people interested in taking a deep dive into agroforestry, natural building, and farm to table food preparation while living in community. In the Rancho Mastatal model, all apprentices arrive in January and have 7 months of varied and ongoing learning in all the Ranch has to offer. Then, the apprentices fully organize and run the two month internship in August and September. As an apprentice, this means I had the opportunity to first study and absorb an immense amount of knowledge, and then share it with 4-5 other individuals interested in learning as interns.

When I first learned about this aspect of the apprenticeship I felt quite intimidated. Who was I to run an internship at a center that was not my own on subjects I had not yet learned? But now having completed running the internship, I am extremely proud of our collective ability to offer an educational and entertaining program, as well as grateful for the chance to deepen my knowledge through the leadership role.

My intention in writing this blog is to support others who are interested in starting or developing an internship program at their farm or educational center. Though my experience is somewhat limited, I hope to offer some of the challenges we faced, the successes we found, and my own experience as both a participant and teacher in permaculture immersion programs. Also, I would love to learn about other similar programs and your experiences, so please feel free to reach out!

First, a bit about myself and my experiences of permaculture-based internships. My name is Abbey and I am a 24 year from North Carolina and California. Following college, I signed up for a 10 week permaculture immersion at the Eco Institute in Chapel Hill, NC and fell in love with the integrated lifestyle of a farm and justice based community. Following this path, I then moved to The Occidental Arts & Ecology Center in Northern California where as a year long intern, I helped run the nursery, host activist groups, work in the garden, and organize a permaculture design course. These experiences each brought me to Rancho Mastatal, where I recently finished organizing and running the two month internship alongside my six fellow apprentices.

These combined experiences of living in community, participating in, and running permaculture-based internships have allowed me to see common challenges and successes between them. So, without further ado, here are some of the tips and tricks I’ve gathered over the years.

1. Create a schedule or structure

Most people enjoy having routine or some basic structure to return to, especially when in an unfamiliar location and social setting. Even if what you’re doing changes every day, it’s helpful to have a standing schedule so interns can create expectations. At the Ranch we have two “work parties” a day from 7:30-10 am and 11:30 am-2 pm. We eat our meals at 10 am and 6 pm, and also have set times for sports, meetings, and rest. This makes it easier for everyone to take care of other needs, such as self care, laundry, tool maintenance, phone communication etc. because they know when they’ll have time.

2. Have Established Meeting Times

At the Ranch, we have four types of meetings: square, circle, app/intern/core team meetings, and 1-on-1s. Square meetings happen every morning after brunch around 10:30 am. During this time, one person volunteers to facilitate “reading the board” and we review what we did in the morning, briefly discuss the upcoming day, delegate projects, and go over any simple announcements. This meeting takes no longer than 15 minutes. Any longer form questions or decisions are reserved for “circle” meetings.

Our earthen structure that we hold our meetings in

Circle meetings happen every Friday afternoon and last 1-2 hours. We begin by going around the circle and sharing a 3 minute-ish update on how we’re doing mentally, physically, emotionally, etc. After completing the circle, the space is opened for agenda items that require more in-depth discussion. We use consent-based decision making in which, after discussion, a person will make a proposal. That proposal is then voted on by everyone who chooses to participate with a thumbs up or thumbs down. Thumbs up agreeing to the proposal or willing to live with it, thumbs down having “paramount objection”, something they absolutely cannot agree to otherwise they will leave. This is an abbreviated account of the decision making protocol, read here for a more in depth explanation. Finally, we end by going around the circle and stating an intention or hope for the upcoming week.

Every week on Thursdays, we meet amongst our intern, apprentice, and core team cohorts to discuss any agenda items that pertain directly to that group. This meeting typically lasts an hour.

Lastly, about once a month, we have 1-on-1s in which a “core team” (long term staff or residents) member pairs off with an apprentice to discuss their experiences and how each party can be better supported. While running the internship, each apprentice would pair off with an intern. This is a good time to talk over any challenges, feedback or affirmations each party has. It’s important that time is set aside for a longer conversation so both people feel they are being heard and the person with less authority is comfortable expressing discomforts.

3. Make sure people have enough food

A typical dinner plate

Ah, the near-impossible task of feeding many people with different food needs! Especially if you are hosting a permaculture or sustainability related internship, expect people who are very intentional about their eating habits. Always ask for food restrictions. Be sure to outline what a typical meal schedule looks like so people who are vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, and those with other allergies can decide if the program aligns with their needs.

As someone with an allergy to gluten, I am quite used to preparing additional food or being flexible with what I eat. You will find most people with alternative diets are quite good at meeting their needs with little additional input. It is important, however, that they have access to kitchen time or a grocery store. If neither of these are accessible, be sure to outline these limitations.

At the Ranch, we eat two meals a day at 10 am and 6:30 pm. Additionally, hard boiled eggs, leftovers, and bananas always available. We find this two meal a day schedule means much less cooking and cleaning and more time to do what we love!

Create clear guidelines about what food can be eaten for snacks and what is reserved for communal meals. Check in to see people are feeling fed and energized.

4. Distribute cooking and dishes equitably

Cooking up some bamboo shoots for condiments

I’ve heard it said before that communities are made or broken by their dish washing systems. At the Eco Institute we had 3 “cook teams” and “dish teams”. The group on cooking would cook all meals for a week. The team on washing washed all serving and eating dishes (dishes other than those used to prepare food) that week. The third group has a rest week. At OAEC, the person on dinner cooking duty also washes the dishes after dinner. Otherwise people wash their own dishes throughout the day. Finally, at the Ranch we rotate cooking and cleaning duties so people have an equal number of cooking and cleaning shifts throughout the week.

If hosting an internship, decide how much of their experience you want to be dedicated to cooking and cleaning. These are formative times for group bonding, but can also be quite time consuming and draining. At both OAEC and the Ranch, we were lucky to have cooking support from local chefs to take on some of the cooking shifts. Especially if interns are paying to be there, it may be worth hiring a cook to help with at least a few meals a week.

5. Don’t underestimate the time and energy needed to have interns

A common fallacy is that internships will be an easy way to make money and have extra labor. Be sure to make a thorough budget to make sure this is actually the case. If interns pay to attend your program, they will likely expect an educational experience as much as a work experience. This requires significant time and energy from staff or a program manager. If they do not pay, they are likely unskilled labor who will require significant training to do the work you might be able to pay someone to do or do yourself much faster. If you decide to take on interns, be sure there are enough tasks that are educational, fitting for their skill level, and meaningful.

6. To charge or not to charge?

That is the question. It’s time for some deep soul searching. Why do you want to have interns? What are the added benefits to your community?

At the Ranch, the core team decided to run the internship program to provide a shorter educational program to the year long apprenticeship, as well as a learning opportunity for the apprentices. Their model is learn, practice, teach, manage. The internships falls in the “teach” section, providing a great opportuniy to hone in their new skills.

Now that you’re clear on the why, what input do you need to make it happen? Is your program designed to be educational or does it require significant labor from the interns? How much will it cost to feed, house, and take care of the miscellaneous expenses for each intern? How much of your labor will go into planning for, instructing, feeding, and managing the group? What is your target market?

Once you factor in the time necessary to teach interns, you may realize it is quite “expensive” to have them there. How might you be able to offset some of the costs? Can you apply for grants or host a fundraising dinner and silent auction for a scholarship fund, particularly to support marginalized groups in attending your program? Can you create a set up where longer term apprentices run the internship?

7. Get out there!

Going on field trips to our local farmers

One of my favorite parts of our internship was planning field trips to connect with nearby farms and neighbors. During the two months, we organized a trip to the “trapiche” where our sugar cane is milled, to our neighbor who keeps cows and supplies us with milk and cheese, and went on day hikes to the waterfalls and mountains nearby. All of these trips, combined with playing sports in town and cooking with locals, help paint a larger picture of the community we’re a part of and mix up group dynamics.

8. Give Interns a sense of autonomy

More and more, highly educated and motivated people are seeking out farming and permaculture immersions. As a result, you may attract very intelligent and independent individuals to your program. Make sure there are ways for people to take on individual responsibility and challenge. At the Ranch, we each have morning community contribution skills such as chopping wood, preparing salads, tending the garden, etc. Additionally, we have the opportunity to submit project proposals to take on larger independent projects on our own. This allows people to express themselves individually and find pride in their work.

Personally, I have taught weekly yoga classes for the community, led vermicompost workshops, and led many gardening and permaculture sessions for our interns. These individual tasks allowed me to deepen my knowledge and share it with others.

9. Practice nonviolent communication or otherwise encourage open communication between participants

At the beginning of the apprenticeship and internship at Rancho Mastatal, we create a collective community cultural agreement for how we will interact with one another and then sign it. Additionally, we taught nonviolent communication modules (based on Marshall B. Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication) to encourage open communication around the conflicts that naturally arise when living in community.

10. Create a comprehensive document with expectations and packing list before arrival

The more you can set expectations coming in the better! Send pictures or thorough descriptions of the housing, food, work expectations, visitor policy, phone policy, the larger community, etc. Supply a thorough packing list with any items that will be helpful during the internship. If you are able, set up a text, email or WhatsApp group with the interns in advance so they meet one another and ask questions.

11. Make sure everyone has enough rest and alone time

At the Ranch, we have free time every day from 2 pm - 6:30 pm. This is a great time to work on independent projects in the orchards, woodshop, food smithery, and kitchen. Additionally, we have a large library with fiction, nonfiction, and educational books to deepen our learning experience. Most days, a group meets at 4 pm to play sports or do yoga. The key is that people have a choice whether to interact with others or take time for themselves.

12. Organize special events & find time to celebrate!!

Woohoo! You have done the hard work of bringing together a group of amazing people and creating a super special intern program. Now find the time to celebrate! We have made a practice of gathering for new and full moons, the equinoxes and solstices, birthdays, and other special days. Something as simple as playing music, having a small party, making a fire, watching a movie with popcorn, or baking a cake with local ingredients can allow people to feel socially and emotionally fulfilled. Isn’t that why we all want to live in community anyways? Support any ideas your interns have for fun and creative gatherings. A field day, trivia night, or tea party are all great ways to bond and be silly together.

The yearly talent show

I am infinitely grateful to the centers and people who have opened their doors and arms to me as an intern or apprentice. I hope this article empowers you to do the same so we can continue to build purposeful, skilled, and joyful communities together!

Check out these past blogs on Community Living

Enriching Community Soil: 5 Simple Strategies That Support Sustainable Relationships

#Pura Vida: The Art of Living and Letting Go in Community

Endeavors to End Propane: Local Fuel Sources and Efficient Cooking Technologies

Self-made rocket stove at the Ranch

By Tim O’Hara
Ranch Core Team Member

Endeavors to End Propane:  Local Fuel Sources and Efficient Cooking Technologies

Cooking food can make it tastier, easier to digest and absorb nutrients, and safer and healthier to eat.  Cooking at the Ranch happens multiple times a day, and on some days, pretty continuously throughout the day.  We generally have a lot of hungry bellies to fill!  Over the decades we have been steadily reducing our use of propane to meet our cooking needs.  Propane is a refined product that comes from crude oil or natural gas.  The negative environmental impact from its extraction and refinement on communities and the earth are well documented.  We have lessened our dependency on this imported product (Costa Rica has few crude oil resources and a moratorium on oil drilling) through the production and use of our own biogas, the utilization of solar cookers, dehydrators, and hay boxes and perhaps most importantly by incorporating efficient wood burning stove technology into our culinary domain.  

Our woodshed

Wood is renewable and abundant in and around Mastatal.  That’s not to say that wood can’t and isn’t managed poorly in many parts of the world where it is used for cooking.  For us, fortunately, we have a plentitude of this resource in a country that does a commendable job of taking care of its timber resources.  We have almost limitless supplies of firewood coming from our woodshed, local small-scale bandsaw mills that operate in the region, and our own agroforestry systems.

Common open cook stove

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 3 billion people worldwide still cook using solid fuels such as wood and dung in open fires and on inefficient stoves.  Poorly designed stoves and age-old cooking practices can produce high levels of small soot particles and other pollutants that penetrate deep into our lungs.  Exposure is particularly high among women who cook indoors and their children resulting in 3.8 million premature deaths a year from pulmonary illnesses.  The extensive use of wood for cooking can also contribute severely to deforestation and its associated devastating social and environmental impacts.  It can also consume precious and considerable time to gather and haul.  

ACE One in action!

These worrisome facts have led us to build and invest in efficient wood burning technologies and food production methods that allow us to sustainably and safely use this local resource to cook with.  Our alternative cooking workhorses are our 5 rocket stoves; 3 purchased ACE Ones, and two adobe/cob stoves designed and built in-house.  These stoves produce little to no smoke based on a design that features an air intake or fan that produces extreme heat in the combustion chamber that ignites and “burns away” any smoke that is produced.  This can be referred to as “complete combustion” and reduces or eliminates soot from the cooking process.  The ACE One stoves use small pieces of wood whereas the home-built versions use slightly larger pieces of wood.  These efficient stoves burn smaller quantities of wood and produce less or no smoke while retaining the many benefits of cooking with this local and accessible resource.   

One of Ranch’s agroforestry systems

When possible, efficient rocket stoves can be coupled with a well-managed agroforestry system that through the extensive planting and pruning of nitrogen-fixing and food producing trees can yield a steady supply of accessible firewood and the food that will be cooked on the rocket stoves.  This is yet another example of the closed-loop systems that we oftentimes strive for on our farm.   

Adobe rocket stove being built at Ranch

Rocket stoves can be small or large, take many shapes, and can be made from a wide variety of materials.  What’s common to all of them is the their ability to efficiently produce extremely hot combustion chambers.  To improve performance, your rocket stove chamber can be insulated and your burning surface sized and designed to effectively support your favorite cooking pot.  You can even buy rocket stoves for camping these days though if you’re a do-it-yourselfer or on a tight budget, we’d encourage you to design and build your own.  There are plans all over the internet.    

Our cob oven

In addition to our repertoire of rocket stoves, we have a self-built cob oven that we use for pizza parties and other baking endeavors, 3 Wonderbags, a solar and electric dehydrator and of course our magical biogas stove.  We’ll tell you more about these in a future article but in the meantime I’d encourage those that love simple solutions to check out the wonders of the Wonderbag and see how you can help transform a family’s life in Africa while saving a considerable amount of cooking fuel.

Let us know if you have any questions and come and check out are array of alternative cooking technologies if you find yourself in our neighborhood.  We love to share our experiences and hope that this has found you well well.

Simple rocket stove being built in community of Mastatal

Applied Permaculture Principles

Applied Permaculture Principles

By Nic, Core team member

There are a lot of misconceptions about what Permaculture is. Most people think of it as an agricultural system, typically some sort of food forest and whilst maybe it does make sense for you to have a food forest, maybe it doesn’t!  The specifics of applying the principles will vary based on your environment, project , goals etc… but the principles will always remain the same.  In permaculture there are 12 underlying principles that help guide us through the design and thinking process. We have highlighted below how we apply each of these principles, many times in more than just one way, at our site. We hope this helps inform you how these principles can be applied in practice. If this article intrigues you, check out our annual Permaculture Design Course!

Permaculture Principle: #1 - Creatively Use and Respond to Change

This is an almost everyday occurrence here, with such a huge diversity of projects and systems at the Ranch.  One of the big changes that many people experience here is the change in diet, coming to a tropical region we focus on locally available food sources.  In this photo we showcase a typical meal of rice, beans, picadillo, salad and plantains and green papaya kimchi,  all sourced from within 20 miles of the Ranch.  Each year apprentices learn about how to creatively use these new food types, and learn from our experience of eating and preparing these food items for the last 19 years.

Yucca bammies, green papaya kimchi, fresh garden salad and a mango salsa…yummy!

Patacones, lacto fermented Jalapanos, pickled turmeric, green papaya kraut, dairy kefir sauce

Permaculture Principle: #2 - Observe & Interact

We love fermentation here at the Ranch we use it for so many things but as every ferment in every climate is slightly different it involves observation and interaction to fine tune your recipes.  You have to pay close attention to each batch to make sure you get the perfect balance of flavors from the fermentation process, this timing varies throughout the year and depends a lot on the ambient temperature!  Here we have some different pickles and ferments that we make from Green Papaya, Chayote and wing beans….Yummy!!!

Wing bean pickles

Chayote pickles

Permaculture Principle #3 - Catch & Store Energy

For the last 12 years we have been using two types of bio-digestors at the ranch to catch and store energy from human (and cow) poop.  For those unfamiliar with the system, a large underground vessel is used to create an anaerobic environment where the feces is broken down, killing any pathogens and releasing Methane gas which we pipe up to our kitchen and use to cook on. The now safe effluent is used to passively feed, bananas, bamboo and cacao trees.

On the left a mosaic describes the closed loop system we employ at the Ranch and on the right the mosaic describes the open loop, linear system that is often found around the world when dealing with human feces.

Permaculture Principle #4 - Obtain a Yield

Jackfruit is one of the largest fruits in the world, it grows and begins to produce very quickly and is ideally suited to our tropical climate.  In our agroforestry systems we have many jackfruit trees of different varities.  Here is a typical harvest of Jackfruit when it is really pumping!!  We love to eat Jackfruit green (when it is more like a starch) and have been lacto-fermenting it, a great way to store and add nutrition to this abundant fruit. We then use the jackfruit to make a hash, or as a replacement for the pasta in a lasagna or even a pizza topping… its just so versatile!!

Permaculture Principle #5- Self Regulate & Accept Feedback

Rancho Mastatal is an education center, community and lodge.  We host a year long apprenticeship, 100’s of high school students and 100’s of guests throughout the year.  We eat together, live together, play together and work together.  Conflicts are inevitable and we have designed many systems to productively work through these.  We encourage feedback sessions with our one year apprentices through group meetings and one on ones to accept feedback and make the necessary changes to make all of our experiences living together more enjoyable.  Here we are all meeting in our wonderful meeting room, a round earthen structure.

Permaculture Principle #6 - Use & Value Renewables

Over our 20 years of existence we have always valued and used renewable energy sources, from our biodigestor, to our super-efficient wood burning cook stoves to our dry composting toilets, these are all ways to use and capture renewable energies.  We have also installed 10+ small solar systems at the ranch to power cabins far from the grid and to help community members in Mastatal and nearby villages have power.  We are lucky to live in a country that also values renewable energy sources. Costa Rica is powered by 95% renewable energy sources a magnificent achievement by world standards.

Bamboo, a fantastic renewable building material

Join us April 2021 for our Bamboo Management Class or our Bamboo Construction Course

Fuel efficient stoves

In these photos we are setting up scaffold to harvest bamboo to build with, installing a small PV system for a local community member to help them have lights in the evening, and cooking on our fuel efficient wood cook stove.

Installing some PV panels in the community

Permaculture Principle #7 - Produce No Waste

This principle is gaining a lot more traction in the modern convenient driven society, where single use plastics have become commonplace.  With the slow realization that we cannot keep throwing stuff away, the principle of produce no waste seems more relevant than ever.  Here at the Ranch we are a large consumer of food and goods, often feeding up to 50 people a day we go through a lot of food!!  Over the years we have used our purchasing power to convince/encourage local farmers to reduce their packaging.  Our vegetables are delivered in baskets, our tapa dulce is wrapped in cane leaves, our rice comes in rice sacks which we can re-use for storage of other goods such as sawdust for our composting toilets and we get our milk in gallon containers we wash and send back and forth with the dairy farmer.  We are not perfect, and we definitely still produce waste but considering the average American produces 4.5lbs of garbage a day we are well below that!!  As we have become more aware of this issue around the world, this is one of the simplest and most accessible ways to become a more responsible world citizen.

Our local sugar, tapa dulce

Sacks and baskets used to store food

Permaculture Principle #8 - Design from Pattern to Detail

Students in our annual PDC learning to use the A-frame

Nice lines of trees on contour

One of the biggest challenges in tropical climates is the huge amount of rainfall we receive, seeing the pattern of deforestation and eroded landscapes on our property we countered this by reforesting land using diverse perennial tree crops, which mimic the forest stratas, protecting the soil and producing food for us to eat.  We dig swales & retention ponds, plant on contour and use deep rooted species, mulch heavily all to help slow down the flow of water and build healthier more productive soils.

Lydia, an apprentice, planting and properly mulching this new fruit tree

Permaculture Principle #9 - Integrate rather than segregate

One of the ways we do this is by integrating different species known as guilds.  These plant guilds help support one another and diversify your site making them less prone to diseases and providing shade, fertility and structure.  We grow our black pepper vines on a living post.  This post produces some shade and the living post is also a nitrogen fixing tree. Nearby we have more nitrogen fixing trees and bananas to provide more shade, food and mulch to the black pepper. Stay tuned for our next blog on the Life of Spice: Black Pepper.

Permaculture Principle #10 - Use Small Slow Solutions

Apprentices building an adobe brick walled shower that’s under a timber framed structure

Everything that we build at the Ranch is by hand. People always ask us how long it takes to build things and it takes a long time to be honest.  Our goals are to give people educational opportunities in the building process not just to make something as quickly as possible.  We see the value in taking it slow and not using a lot of machinery to streamline our building process.  We use our buildings to create beautiful healthy homes that are not only using local resources but help us make connections with people and build community. Check out this article on how we built this Tadelakt shower

Permaculture Principle #11 - Use & Value Diversity

Don Chepo winnowing his harvest of beans

For many people the idea of becoming self-sufficient is an appealing one.  We look at things in a different way by using and valuing diversity we aim to create regional food security and value the food we grow equally to the food we can obtain from local farmers.  By supporting our neighbors and friends we build community, financially support local farmers and get to eat fresh local produce everyday! Beans from Don Chepo, Tapa Dulce from Don Gerardo, Eggs from Doña Flor and Coffee from Jose Luis are just some examples.

Don Gerardo using his ox to press the sugar cane

Dona Flor feeding her chickens

Permaculture Principle #12 - Use Edges & Value the Marginal

Homemade banana vinegar

As we said before we love vinegar and fermentation at the Ranch.  One of the simplest vinegar recipes we use is valuing the marginal, fruit scraps and peels make an excellent vinegar.  We pack them into a bucket add water and let the natural yeasts convert the sugars into alcohol and then into vinegar.  What is commonly treated as a waste product has now been converted into a sugar source for a vinegar which we can use to spice up some of our fresh garden salads! Read our latest blog on farm to table, homemade banana vinegar.

A variety of aging homemade vinegars

These are just some of the many examples of the way we implement the 12 permaculture principles here at the Ranch.

If you are interested in permaculture design and it’s principles join us for our annual 2 week, life changing Permaculture Design Course.

Awakening the student and teacher in us all

Awakening the student and teacher in us all

By Mary Little, School for Field Studies

I like to think I’m open-minded and my ideas flow freely, but as a professor I can become stuck in the rigid model of preparing lectures, grading and academic writing. The opportunity to have my sense of wonder reawakened and be reminded that there are so many springs of knowledge available in the world in invaluable.  Rancho Mastatal reminds me of this truth and has inspired every student I have brought to think bigger, make connections and consider what their role in addressing the climatic challenges we face. 

Nic Explaining the kitchen compost system

I am always looking for places that exemplify the principles of ecological justice we cover in my Environmental Ethics courses.  Upon my first scouting trip to Rancho Mastatal I was introduced to a holistic education experience that I was eager to share with my students. It has inspired us to carry out research on the impacts of ecotourism on the local population and environment that can be used to ensure sustainable development.  This community is a clear example of the possibilities and challenges of harnessing the abundance of local materials to feed, house and entertain themselves by collaborating with surrounding ecosystems.

This balance extends beyond ecological principles to Rancho Mastatal’s place in the community.  Over nearly 20 years they have learned to listen and become a positive player that works with the needs of the committee to provide work, classes and support projects that are deemed meaningful by residents.  Robin Nunes (co-owner and teacher) shared that the objective of Rancho Mastatal isn’t to be self-sustaining, it is to be community sustained. 

Tim showing the SFS students around on a tour.

This attitude has created a foundation for the community to take up ecotourism as a way of transitioning from conventional agriculture to permaculture and sustainable economic development.  Once tourists began visiting the Rancho, one family revived their cacao farm, started making incredible chocolate bars and giving tours at La Iguana Chocolate farm.  Another family created Siempre Verde Ecolodge and offers nature tours in the adjacent La Cangreja National Park and Spanish classes at their lodge.  A local leader at the nearby Zapaton indigenous community offers presentations on medicinal plants and practices like basket weaving. All are local teachers with unique experiences and insights. 

There is a powerful sense at Rancho Mastatal that community members are there to learn from one another.  Tim and Robin begin each visit with a tour to demonstrate what they’ve learned and implemented at the Rancho, inviting the individual to think about what they expect to learn on their visit with possibilities as broad as composting and food preservation to natural building.  From the first meal, apprentices begin to share their passion for the things they’ve learned and are willing to pass it on, either through conversation or a brief workshop.  My students have taken fermentation and food preparation classes, gaining skills they can implement once they return home.  There are also the other guests of all ages and walks of life that contribute their experiences and skills to the mix.  I’ve shared insights with dancers, photographers and arborists, to name a few, at the massive communal dining table that seems to be built for just this purpose.

an SFS student taking advantage of the huge library

I appreciate that Rancho Mastatal organically fosters knowledge sharing. It reinforces that we are all simultaneously teachers and students and how to embrace both roles. Each time I visit, I’m reminded how much more there is to grasp and apply to make positive change.  I return because it is a pleasure to learn from such diversity in nature and humanity in this dynamic setting. 

(I’ll be writing about some of my research on waste issue the impacts of tourism in coming blogs.)

Mary Little is a Professor of Environmental Ethics at the School for Field Studies located in Atenas, Costa Rica.  Her primary areas of interest are eco/agritourism, sustainable food systems and environmental justice.  She can be contacted at mlittle@fieldstudies.org.

Dairy Dairies: How to Make Cream Cheese with Dairy Kefir

Dairy Dairies:

How to Make Cream Cheese

with Dairy Kefir

By Ryan Roberts

2019 Apprentice

That's right folks, we're making cheese with the champagne of yogurts.

Dairy Kefir is so interesting to me because it embodies stacking functions - like alchemy, it's possible for 1+1 to equal 4. Milk, grains (scoby) and a days time and voila, you have a delicious base product better than the milk you started with. It's now lightly carbonated, stable in the fridge, resistant to microbial incursion, lower in lactose, tangy, creamy, probiotic and great for your gut.

Furthermore, that stable base product, can be used to create a wide variety of different specialty products that carry with it those unique value-added characteristics that we impart with our time, energy and expertise. During our last diary entry, we discovered Dairy Kefir Creme Fraiche, which you can read about here . This time we'll be making luscious, spreadable and customizable cream cheese out of dairy kefir.

In our first diary entry we discussed dairy kefir's characteristics and how it's made. You may recall that the dairy kefir scoby acidifies the milk as a defensive (or offensive) measure against other microbial life, which have difficulty surviving with such a low pH.

I've discovered for myself, though I don't claim to be first, that we can utilize that acidity to accomplish what is usually done with rennet, vinegar or citric acid: separating the curds (fats) from the whey (protein). Though the exact function of this process is unknown to me, the result appears to be the same. Left for a few days at room temperature, reveals to me that the dairy kefir will separate on its own. But there's a trick!

While leaving the scoby in the milk will speed the process of acidification, we want to be able to easily separate the scoby from the curds and from the whey. We do this with a sieve that catches only the grains, allowing the kefir to flow thru to your ready container. When the kefir is left to ferment longer and it separates, it makes it difficult to capture the curds and grains separately.

Instead, I remove the grains from the dairy kefir prior to separation. The dairy kefir will continue to acidify, though slower, but you'll be left without the headache of hunting thru the curds for your grains.

So starting with the previous step, here are the steps. Now that you have your dairy kefir and scoby separate we can begin:

1. Make your dairy kefir. Follow the instructions laid out in my first blog entry here (link 1st blog).

2. Remove scoby and place in a container with fresh milk.

3. Secure cheese cloth around the rim of a tall container. Make sure there is room for whey to drip to the bottom and accumulate.

4. Pour dairy kefir into fine cheese cloth hanging over the container.

5. Wait 24 hours, allowing time for the remaining whey to drain from the curds. I repeat this process a few times till it quits draining from gravity. The remaining cream is our cream cheese. The live-culture whey can be used in a variety of ways, including starting new ferments by inoculation, using as a probiotic protein supplement, and for cooking with in soups.

Dairy Kefir Cream Cheese

Whey - delicious for soup stock

6. Spread the cream cheese out on a pan with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle in salt and your choice of herbs or dried vegetables. Imagine sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, onions… yes please!

7. Now fold the cheese onto itself, repeatedly, which helps to mix the ingredients in evenly.

8. Place in a container and serve. Buen Provecho!

How to Make Dairy Kefir Banana Creme Fraiche

Dairy Dairies: How to Make Dairy Kefir Banana Creme Fraiche

by Ryan Roberts, 2019 Apprentice

Welcome back, it's Ryan again!

In our last conversation I shared a little about dairy kefir; the history, chemistry and process for making it. This time we'll talk about an exceptional use of dairy kefir - making banana kefir creme fraiche!

Velvety smooth and udderly delicious, this topping is ideal applied atop crepes, pancakes, granola. Next time you're making a pancake breakfast-in-bed for your bae, you can blow their minds with this yummy topping.

Here's the kicker: the bi-product of this process will yield a delightfully flavorful and intensely proteus “banana-infused” whey. I recommend drinking it straight or adding it to your morning shake to spike it with great flavor and a boatload of protein.

If at this point your finding yourself lost on the fundamentals of dairy kefir, check out my first installment of Dairy Diaries here, before proceeding to the next section.

So diving back into the science for a moment; Dairy kefir is a specialized symbiotic colony of organisms, favoring lactose sugars, and adapted to consume them, but this doesn't preclude it from utilizing what sugars are available. Bananas are intensely sweet, potassium rich and full of minerals, making it a fine fuel for your SCOBY friends. The process will break down and alter the banana, unlocking new flavors and heightening nutritional qualities.

This process will take you through the steps of making dairy kefir first, then walk you through separating your two products and processing them to completion.

Ingredients

- Whole organic milk

- Spoonful of dairy kefir SCOBY (or “grains”)

- Glass container for your next batch

- Two medium-sized bowls: one for your creme fraiche, the other for your whey

- Spoon

- Funnel (optional)

- Fine mesh strainer

- Hand blender or food processor (optional)

Process

1. Sterilize your container, using boiling water for your first clean.

2. Chop bananas to your desired quantity and thickness. I chose to use three small bananas. Note that increasing the surface area of your banana by chopping it will make it easier for the SCOBY to access the sugars in the banana. In this step, I quartered the bananas then chopped them horizonally into thin pizza slices. Put the bananas into your container.

3. Put a spoon-full of dairy kefir SCOBY into your container.

4. Pour your organic whole milk into your container, taking care to minimize splashing.

5. Place a lid lightly over the container, creating only a light seal to allow CO2 to escape. Let sit for 12 - 24 hours depending on temperature. Warmer temperatures will yield a faster process. The goal here is to stimulate the mixture to self-separate into the whey on the bottom and the cream on top. It looks funky, but don't sweat it. The cream along with the bananas will become our creme fraiche and the whey, whatever you want to do with it.

6. Pour the whole mixture into a fine mesh strainer. Let the whey drip through the mesh, which will happen mostly on it's own because the cream is now chemically separated from the whey. Light stirring is ok, but seek to minimize the amount of cream that falls through the strainer!

7. Now hunt for your SCOBYs amongst the cream! The goal of this step is different from that of making plain dairy kefir. We want to recover our SCOBY, but we don't want our banana kefir cream to fall through into the whey, so we place our bowl under the strainer now. You may use a gentle scooping motion along the bottom of the strainer to find your grains. Whatever cream falls through should be added back once you've recovered your SCOBY babies. This step can be challenging and awkward.

8. Place your SCOBYs back into their home container, refill it with milk and lightly stir the milk with a clean spoon.

9. Now we have whey in one bowl, cream and bananas in the other and our SCOBYs happily in their new batch of milk.

10. The final step is optional and that is blending the mix. You can certainly enjoy the cream and banana bits mixture at this point, or you can thoroughly blend the bananas and the cream until you produce a uniform appearance. This final step is what yields your creme fraiche.

11. Keep refrigerated till consumption.

That concludes this little adventure into this novel dairy kefir product. Next installment, we'll be exploring a savory herbal cream cheese, YUM!

Have you always wanted to learn about SCOBYs, fermentation or brewing? Check out our upcoming workshops for anything that might be of interest!

Contemplating an Uncertain Future: The Ranch and Climate Change

Contemplating an Uncertain Future:  The Ranch and Climate Change

by Tim O'Hara

Climate change, after decades of lulling at the bottom of the news cycle, has belatedly made it into the headlines as increasing numbers of people become aware, convinced and concerned about the environmental and social impacts of the Earth’s evolving atmospheric conditions.  I frequently think about disrupted weather patterns and what my role in this unfolding story should be.  

Many climate experts argue that we have surpassed the carrying capacity of our planet and that our natural resource base cannot support our modern lifestyles at our current population numbers.  I find this argument believable given the observable degradation of our natural systems everywhere I go.  Modern technology might for a time delay the worst impacts of our behavior, but soon we will stare more squarely in the face the consequences of the environmental alterations that we’ve set in motion.  Indications of a more brittle world are clear to me. 

Humans are descending to systematically destruct our limited natural resource base and in turn one another.  I am discouraged thinking about the future that my daughter is inheriting and struggle to decide how to divide my time between work, personal care and engagement in efforts that help mitigate some of our biggest societal challenges, especially climate change.  I’m not optimistic, but I cherish life, my family and my friends and strive to do my part in figuring out how we can usher in a more just world.        

I was recently asked how Rancho Mastatal is responding to climate change and whether we feel as if we are helping to create an alternative future for those becoming heir to the approaching changes.  In large part Robin and I started the Ranch to address and answer this question.  Widespread social and environmental injustice partly inspired us to leave the United States and a more common life path to set up an “alternative” project that we hoped would contribute to a brighter future.  We are dedicated to learning and teaching more environmentally appropriate ways to grow food in poor soils, build structures that are kinder on Mother Earth, and implement practices that allow us to meet our basic needs without destroying the elements that make it possible for the soil and atmosphere to sustain us.  We are helping to teach future generations that there is indeed a better way to live; a way that is not dominated by an addiction to consumer purchases and modern conveniences or reliant on oppressive economic systems.  We are experimenting with community structures that rely on cooperation and regeneration and have made efforts to conserve a relatively large and intact tract of rainforest.  

A loss of corporate and governmental confidence in dealing with our warming climate has prompted us to start to execute strategies that make us less reliant on traditional businesses and executive bodies.  We’re working towards attaining personal and communal well-being with our everyday activities and are compelled to look for ways to avoid our compromised medical care systems by looking at food as medicine.  We’re looking for ways to engage in the process of designing and building our own homes with the help of friends and learning techniques to grow food for our family and community as global food supplies become more susceptible to unsteady financial systems and weather patterns.  Communities are being torn apart by pollution, sickness, flagging economies and racism.  To address this we want to learn and practice other forms of governance and community structure that we believe can serve us and the world more equitably.  

Our modest efforts won’t be enough to stem the suffering for everyone.  In fact the sad truth is that it might not even prevent future hardships for myself and family.  Nevertheless, we’ve chosen to focus on this work with the hope that profound change might come from the accumulation of millions of small acts, projects and movements that when influential enough will begin to shift the human perspective to a more caring one.  It’s also a way for us to prepare for changes ahead.  

Future challenges will in part be most successfully met by strong networks of compassionate people dedicating their lives to the local problems that most impact them.  As our daughter gets older we’ll encourage her to explore avenues that will simultaneously challenge her intellectually while leading to improvements in our world.  Some of the areas that I encourage Ranch students to explore include energy conservation and renewable energy, education, responsible food production, social and environmental activism, politics, medicine, and counseling.  A warming climate will require bold and courageous engineers, teachers, farmers, activists, health care professionals, mentors, and politicians.  I encourage each of you today to take one small step to become a more engaged steward of our planet.  If not now, then when?

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Check out our updated workshop schedule to see how you can start building relevant skills to make a difference.  

Read this interesting article about how agroforestry can help to sequester carbon, Can Dirt Save the Earth? 

Salak Palm: A Guide for Tropical Permaculture

Salak Palm: A Guide for Tropical Permaculture

by Scott Gallant

This article was originally published at the Porvenir Design blog.

Salak palm or snake fruit (Salacca edulis or Salacca zalacca) is a high value understory species for tropical agroforestry plantings. Salak palm is native to southeast Asia, where it is commercially cultivated in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Java, in their wet tropical lowland climates. At higher elevations the "Bali" variety can be grown. It produces a delicious fruit, eaten out of hand, with a taste similar to strawberry with an apple-like texture. The fruit transports well and can be stored at room temperature for a week with little degradation in quality. 

This guide has been created based on the experience of growing a small number of plants, 30 palms, at Rancho Mastatal Sustainability Education Center in Costa Rica. It was created with the support of Peter Kring of Finca La Isla, a fruit farm in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, that has been growing and selling Salak fruit for over 20 years.

This short guide provides advice on propagation, planting and establishment, pruning and pollination management, and more.

Agroforestry Establishment

Propagation

• Salak palms are individually male or female and you need to have both for fruit production. There is no way to know if a seedling salak will be male or female until it flowers, some 3-4 years after planting.

• Salak palm is easily started from seed. Seeds should be placed sideways and half buried in a well drained potting mix.

• Asexual propagation, usually to increase female plants, is done through sucker removal. Soil should be mounded up around the base of the sucker. This allows the sucker to form its own root system. Then use a saw to partially sever the connection to the mother plant.  This process should be repeated every few weeks over a two month period, until the plants are separated and the sucker has it's own root system. The sucker can be removed and placed in the nursery for further establishment.

Establishment

• Once plants in the nursery have reached at least 40 cm in height they are ready to go in the ground. They should be planted at the beginning of the rainy season. The soil around the palm should be heavily top-dressed with biochar, manure, compost, etc and then mulched. Salak feeder roots will come up into this mulch.

• Salak can be supported by additional species such as Musa sp, Gliricida sepium (and other legumes), and Tithonia diversifolia. All of these fast growing plants provide shade for the young palms and can all be pruned/chopped aggressively for mulch.

Guilding

• These palms are traditional understory species in their native forest habitat of SE Asia. The leaves reach 5 meters into the air, but they are not a dense plant if pruned properly. 

• They are best planted under a canopy of fruit, nut, or timber species which are low maintenance and let through about 50% of the sun's light. This is a similar setting to shade grown coffee and cacao.

• The spikey nature of Salak discourages overstory species whose fruit falls to the ground upon harvest or must be maneuvered around easily for harvest.

Layout and Spacing

• Salak are dioecious, meaning each individual plant either produces female flowers or male flowers, although there are some varieties of Salak which are known to be self fertile. In order to balance pollination and production it is recommended to have 3 female plants for every 1 male plant in an orchard.

• Individual palms should be planted 2.5 meters apart. 

• This 3:1 ratio and 2.5 meter spacing can be achieved in a number of ways. One can plant at 5 meters apart, divide suckers from sexed females and plant these in-between at 2.5 meters. Or one can plant out at the final spacing and thin out males, replacing them with divided female suckers.

• Salak are best planted in the same vicinity because of there pollination needs. 

Management

Pruning

• During years 1 to 3 the palm should be minimally pruned. Only remove outer leaves that are dying. You want to encourage as much photosynthesis as possible while the plant is approaching sexual maturity.

• Once the plants reach full size, 3 plus meters tall, and begin flowering you should remove all outer leaves. Leave 4 to 5 leaves, as part of the original mother plant. Remove any leaves that interfere with walking paths.

• Don't let suckers develop unless you need them for propagation.

• If flowers emerge between an outer leaf and the palm trunk, remove the leaf in order to expose the flower for pollination.

• Cut leaves should be chopped into smaller pieces and placed in a pile that doesn't interfere with access or management.

• The best tools for this job include loppers, a sharp machete and a pruning saw with a long blade or handle.

Pollination

• Salak plants are either female or male and are pollinated by a number of native pollinators, including stingless bees. But these pollinators are inefficient, with only 10 to 15 % of flowers producing fruit. By hand pollinating Salak, you can easily achieve close to 100% pollination.

• Female flowers are coned shaped and covered with a dense fiber sheath. As they develop over many months slowly remove their outer sheath. This will allow you to completely see the flower as it approaches maturity. Once removed from these sheaths the cone takes one to four weeks to open. Once open the flower reveals a deep pink color which is ready to receive the male flower.

• The male flower needs little management. When pollen is available the flower also opens up and reveals a pink interior, although in a much subtler way. Usually the pollen granules are easily visible though and stingless bees are often indicators of a ready flower.

• The male should be removed with clipperss and brought to the female plant, where it is used to "dust" the open female flower. This is best done in dry weather, which allows the pollen to fall out of the male flower with ease. It is wise to check your salak grove for receptive female flowers ever other day.

• Within a few days the flower will harden up if it was successfully pollinated. If not it will become soft and should be removed. All dead flowers, male and female, should be regularly removed to encourage more flowering.

Harvest

• Plants will begin to flower at three to four years of age.

• To determine if the fruit is ready to harvest, try one from a bunch and see if the seed color has turned from white to brown or light brown. See color is the best way to determine if a fruit is ready to pick. It is best to try fruit from the base of the bunch. If the individual fruits fall off of the bunch, they are likely ready.

• Pests, such as aguti, can compete for ripe fruit.

• The fruit does not ripen off of the plant.

Time Commitment

• We budget one minute per plant, 2 to 3 days per week, in order to meet all of our pollination, flower management, and pruning requirements.

• In addition to this, time should be set aside a few times per year to provide mulch, prune support species, and add amendments (limestone, foliar sprays, manure, compost, etc).

Overall salak is a crop that gives back when you give it the attention it needs. If you are consistent about pollination, regularly prune the spare leaves, and give a little fertility, then they will reward you with one of the best tropical fruits you will ever taste.

Need Help Siting Your Salak?

The team at Porvenir Design is ready to come to your site and put stakes in the ground. Write us at info@porvenirdesign.com for more information.

Around the Permaculture World

Core Team member Scott is teaching two workshops in Monteverde at the Valle Escondido Reserve and Monteverde Inn during the month of November. Consider joining him for a 2 day Introduction to Permaculture or a 2 day Introduction to Agroforestry course!

Ranch friends at ViVerde in Grenada, Nicaragua are launching their internship program! They are looking for a Wood Working and Food and Fermentation Intern. Help them spread the word and find some talented folks to join their project!

Abrazos

The Ranch Crew

Non-Traditional Education: Reconnecting to our Roots

Non-Traditional Education: Reconnecting to our Roots

By Tim O'Hara

Modern, conventional education systems do not work for everyone. They cater well enough to many of today’s students but not to a significant portion of the population that might be better served by alternative pedagogical approaches. In most countries, at the age of 4 or 5, or even younger, kids are shuffled into busy classrooms to learn subjects that will reportedly prepare them for a successful future. As our economies become less predictable, politics less appealing, and the environment ever more damaged, current educational models are losing traction with increasing numbers of people who recognize that the one-size-fits all approach to education is not working for our society.

Terms referring to non-standardized teaching methods and ideas such as homeschooling, unschooling, gap years, Waldorf and BOCES are all becoming more familiar in today’s educational vernacular. Instead of paying an inordinate amount of money to learn how to navigate broken social and economic structures to barely make ends meet as an educated, employed adult, more and more people believe that it’s important that humans begin to train and prepare for meaningful, place-based work that provides a fair wage while better connecting to the elements that we most need to thrive; clean water, clean air, clean soil and clean food.

In our specie’s experiment to educate our populations to be good, productive denizens of the planet, we have lost sight of how to responsibly meet our basic needs and in the process have contaminated the resources that are inherent to a healthy life. We’re becoming a society more apt to care for our latest electronic purchase than one another.

Most visitors to the Ranch come to learn in a different setting. Many of these people are attracted to our experiential methods of teaching. As an education center since 2001, we have discovered a great deal about our students and how they develop best. We have also witnessed a trend over the last decade and a half that has students arriving to the Ranch with ever decreasing hands-on skills. It’s not uncommon to host students that have never picked up a shovel, dug their hands into the dirt, or cooked a meal from scratch.

Our education systems today praise computer work more than physical labor. While I think both skill sets are important in today’s economy, I would argue that we’ve let the pendulum swing much too far towards the idea that the solutions to today’s challenges lie only in high-tech devices and multi-billion dollar mega-projects that ignore our historical connection with and dependence on nature.

As parents, Robin and I have chosen a hybrid approach that has our daughter enrolled in Mastatal’s local, Spanish-speaking public elementary school and learning from Robin through a Waldorf-style homeschool curriculum during our trips outside of Costa Rica. We hope that this will provide her with a dynamic and solid educational foundation that will prepare her for the global problems that she and others in her generation will inherit and face as adults. We look forward to explore the growing number of non-conventional educational options as she gets older.

Gap year programs like those offered through Winterline provide an alternative to graduating high-school students. They allow students to better refine their interests before investing tens of thousands of dollars in an education that may not provide them with the schooling that they desire or need. Organizations such as Winterline recognize the existing gap in public education and focus on providing students with opportunities to learn hands-on skills. The growing popularity in these programs is a sign that parents are more willing to let go of the rigid ideas and standards that they experienced as students.

We’re proud to be a part of a more common sensible approach to schooling and we believe that well-thought out, inspirational and practical, applied programs can oftentimes provide students with a superior and more relevant learning experience. Some of today’s problems may require large, expensive and highly-engineered approaches, but others demand simplified but intelligent thinking and a genuine connection to the earth. The latter can and should be cultivated in our society’s educational programs.

Paul Stamets, the renowned mycologist, provides inspiration and an example via his mycoremediation work that partners with our fungal brethren to clean up toxic sites using simple, inexpensive and accessible technology as do Vandana Shiva’s efforts promoting food and seed sovereignty in India. Winona LaDuke’s achievement to build and restore community by means of wild rice harvesting and her work with the White Earth Land Recovery Project and Wes Jackson’s advances in perennial grain production in the Midwest of the US with The Land Institute provide us with precedents to learn from. Our hope is that the Ranch too can provide an example and a place for compassionate people in search of a better way to learn, teach, heal and live.

Check out our calendar and consider organizing a group to join our team as we promote a more rational, sensible and connected educational movement.   

News from around the Permaculture Community

One of our favorite alternative education programs is Sustainable Summer. Their groups are always one of the highlights of our year and the students who go through the program leave us feeling hopeful for the future. If you are looking for something different to inspire your high- schooler, we can't recommend them enough.

We have two new stellar workshops on the calendar for May 2017:

• Agroforestry Skills Inspired by the Forest: Orchard Planning, Propagation, Planting, & Production - May 17 - 18 with Peter Kring

• Plant as Medicine: Reclaiming the Art of the Home Apothecary - May 17 - 18 with Ancel Mitchell

Our cob oven will be seven years old this season! We are looking at re-building the oven so that it better fits our kitchens needs. Ovens are great starter projects and these plans for a double chamber cob oven just might give you the confidence to tackle the project in your own backyard!

Abrazos

The Ranch Crew