The Merit of Questions

In Episode 009 of the Seeds of Tao Podcast, Josh interviews Sebastian, a permie living an amazing life in a Tanzania Jungle.  He and his wife have a beautiful food forest and desire to create positive change in the environment around them. He sent Josh a YouTube video where he gives us a tour of a small part of their land at it's something many permies would be jealous of, including me. In the episode, Sebastian talks about questioning systems we take for granted, and finding a better solution, especially in the case of sewage and humanure. 

Here, we’re going to explore the need for more questions to be asked so that we can make better progress towards a sustainable, and even regenerative lifestyle. 

Questions for Progress

Throughout time, the famous historical figures we see oftentimes created positive change by starting with a question.

Can we grow food better?

How can we come together to make change?

...

Achieving Your Permaculture Goals 

Today on the Seeds of Tao Podcast we’re interviewing Joel Karsten, the head of the worldwide straw bale gardening movement. Joel is a great example of someone who took the permaculture principles (even though he didn’t know them at the time) and developed a business that would change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. He is a master at this, and we really think this is a viable strategy for permies to add to their arsenal. Here are some resources to dive deeper into straw bale gardening and you can also message him on our Slack community

Oftentimes we look at people like Joel, turning their passion into a business and creating a huge impact, and we think - why can’t I do that? So in this blog post instead of rehashing all the amazing details and methodology of straw bale gardening, we will focus more on the self-development side of achieving your goals like what...

Taking Permaculture Urban

One of the most beautiful things about permaculture is that it can be applied ANYWHERE! We are so excited to talk to Adam Brock and learn about his endeavors in Episode 007 of the Seeds of Tao Podcast. In the interview we see that while designing and creating food forests for yourself and those around you is awesome and valuable on its own, it definitely not the only form permaculture can take. 

Many permies think they are limited to practice permaculture because they reside in an urban environment. Living the urban or suburban life and applying permaculture may be more tricky or complicated, but the results of effective implementation are absolutely astounding.

Personal Scale

How might one go about applying permaculture principles in their urban home? Well, to be honest, that’s a blog post series in itself! But no matter what tactics you may employ, it always starts at the beginning with the 12 Principles, and at the root of those- to...

<<< Hey everyone, so in this post, I’m going to include some AWESOME resources we swear by, just so you know these are affiliate links, but we wouldn’t link anything we didn’t love ourselves :) Ok… let’s dive in!>>>

What is Permaculture… REALLY?

Permaculture is...

"...an agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems"

-Merriam-Webster

"...a creative design response to a world of declining energy and resource availability, with many similarities and overlaps with Lovins' emphasis on design processes drawn from nature.”

-David Holmgren

“...is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people, providing their food, energy, shelter, and other...

 Lessons in Meditation and Agnihotra with Dee Doanes

Have you ever heard of Agnihotra? We sure hadn’t before this interview!  Josh interviewed the amazing and extremely knowledgeable Dee Doanes about Agnihotra and the application in our lives, our growing spaces and our communities, even extending it out to our world. Definitely listen to this episode to learn all about Agnihotra and what Dee is doing and teaching with this practice, and here in the post we will go over exactly what Agnihotra is, its benefits, and why it’s an amazing solution for permies.

 Agnihotra

First off, Agnihotra is a healing fire from the ancient science of Ayurveda. Agnihotra.org reads, “ It is a process of purifying the atmosphere through a specially prepared fire performed at sunrise and sunset daily. Anyone in any walk of life can do Agnihotra and heal the atmosphere in his/her own home. Thousands of people all over the world have experienced that Agnihotra reduces...

Hey there! We have been working super hard for the past few months in preparation for this episode because it’s all about conducting systematic market research to uncover what permies around the world are truly struggling with. And the results are in!!! But before we start deep diving, you should know that we have a total background in marketing and LOVE our market research! We follow the ASK method, for all your marketer permies out there, and basically that means that we ask a set of systematic questions to uncover what your struggle really is, and how broad that struggle is faced by other permies out there. This will help us to know better how to help you!

The Survey

Alright, now I’m not going to go into super crazy details about all the numbers and percentages because… well… who wants to read that? We can discuss the results in civilized language. First off, as of right now, our survey encompassed about 130 people, and surprising to us - it was...

Applying the Twelve Permaculture Principles

On today’s podcast, we invite our very first guest to be interviewed! Shelly Immel is a fantastic example of a permie applying the twelve permaculture principles to every aspect of her life, whether that is involving only herself, or in her business. As we touched on in the previous podcast, the first area to begin applying permaculture to is your personal life, before expanding out to your home and community. Definitely listen to the episode - Shelly is a wealth of knowledge and experience. In this post, we will discuss some examples of applying the twelve permaculture principles to your life, especially in regards to mindset. This is by no means an exhaustive list, it’s merely an exercise so that you can start broadening your thoughts and start seeing opportunities for further application of permaculture into your life, and therefore the harmony and order that comes with it.

Observe and Interact

The first permaculture...

As permies, we LOVE projects.

Am I right? There’s always some way to improve our home, land, community, or environment around us. There are always problems we are turning into solutions and balances we are trying to implement. But sometimes it can get overwhelming. The constant pushing forward or putting out fires will eventually wear us down and potentially burn us out. That’s what happened to Josh and me in Montana. We were so full of dreams and aspirations, that it seemed worth it at the time to deal with no water heater, sketchy solar power, and hauling all of our own water to a desolate piece of property 30 minutes from town. The fact was that we dove headfirst into our dream but didn’t know how to actually accomplish it from the inside out - we had neglected the natural order of growth. After Montana nearly broke us and our marriage, we came back to Utah and gained a fresh perspective of what we did and didn’t do correctly. We have spent years...

Welcome!

Emily and I are excited to have you join us on our journey towards sustainability and regenerative living, but it’s not just our journey, it’s yours too. We’ve met so many individuals all over the world who share a passion and love for our Mother Earth and the responsibility we have to be good stewards of the earth, its life, and each other. We are all at different stages in our journey and we come from different backgrounds and carry varying beliefs, but there seems to be a commonality between many of us that we all want greater harmony in our lives and within our environments. Our purpose for you as we launch this podcast is for you to achieve that personal and environmental harmony and we’re excited to show you more on how we plan to do that. 

Our “Why” for the Seeds of Tao Podcast:

With so many crazy things going on in the world it’s hard to really tune into a vibration that’s positive, uplifting, and even productive...