Recently I found myself sitting in a Melbourne basement talking to interesting people for a whole day. It was an unusual Sunday for me. Once upon a time, this sort of thing was quite normal in my life, but these days my Sundays seem to be spent either hosting Permaculture courses, or digging holes, or considering lichen, or re-thinking the planting design for the second food forest below the main swale. So a day spent chatting in a basement was quite a treat, in its way.
This long chat was a forum as part of the Seven Thousand Oaks festival. I think i was there in the capacity of an artist/farmer who also delves in sustainability education, but I’m not certain… what i do know is that I met a bunch of amazing and inspiring folks and came back home full of new ideas and different directions relating to Permaculture, mapping, social sustainability and covenants. Including the following:
Self seeded fruit trees in culverts, old orchards on abandoned sites, food trees hanging over the fence into the back laneway. It’s all what is known as ‘feral fruit’ and it’s one of the best, if unheralded, community resources an area has, whether you be in an inner-city suburb or out in the middle of nowhere.
