Filed under: agriculture, apprentice, apprenticeship, interns, internship, internships, sustainability, sustainable agriculuture
Fred Robyns, our local blacksmith talking about his trade.
Interning and apprenticing are critical to the success of La Boca’s mission and vision. I would like to recognize the long history of apprenticeships as a form of gaining knowledge and at the same time allowing craftsmen and tradesmen the ability to maintain a way of life – a way of life that results in very little cash flow but large amounts of satisfaction that comes with produci
ng tangible products that have both beauty and function. Apprentichips are not based on a monetary exchange but rather on an exchange of information and labor based on shared values and interests. Tradesmen and craftsmen age and with a younger set of muscles and enthusiasm in the form of an apprentice, the trade and the craft and the associated creative aspects can also flourish indefinitely. I wish to see this exchange flourish at La Boca, for both the staff that are putting so much into the place and for those that would like to come and learn about sustainable agriculture.
Filed under: agriculture, sustainability, sustainable agriculuture | Tags: compost, environmental protection agency, fertilizer, nutrients, rivers, streams, sustainable agriculture, waste water treatment
I define sustainable agriculture as minimizing exports of pollution and minimizing imports of energy, be it in the form of fertilizers or fuel. A farm needs to produce and export a product. If that product comes back to the farm in the form of fertilizer then the loop is complete. In our food system the product ends up in waste-water treatment plants and septic systems. The solids from wastewater treatment plants are fairly toxic and are spread onto fields under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency. The liquids from waste-water treatment plants are discharged into rivers and streams where they create whole set of other problems and are also regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
La Boca Center for Sustainability (LBCS) obtains its fertilizer from compost, compost tea, and a large fish pond where nutrients are produced and cycled efficiently. A significant amount of our energy still comes in the form of fossil fuels. I would like to see La Boca transition this input to local labor and the horses that we use to farm the land and that get their energy from the sun and the grass.
Minimizing exports of pollution comes in the form of reducing uses of fossil fuels but also reducing runoff of irrigation water and impacts to streamside vegetation. Agriculture has by far the largest impact on streams and rivers of any of the other uses in the west. Diversion of water for irrigation, changes in hydrologic regimes due to dams, grazing of streamside riparian communities, clearing riparian communities for use as agriculture land and runoff of irrigation water all contribute significantly to the destruction of rivers and streams.
LBCS has implemented a number of ideas to reduce these impacts. LBCS has partnered with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s Water Quality Program to install gated pipe, partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Partner’s for Wildlife Program to create wetland for wildlife and filter irrigation water before it flows into the Pine River as well as fence off riparian areas to keep animals from grazing down the vegetation that is so critical to a healthy river system.
Filed under: interns, internship, internships, sustainability, Uncategorized | Tags: cobb oven, interns
We have several interns helping out at La Boca Center for Sustainablity each summer. Here the interns are building a cobb oven for baking pizza, bread and about anything else that goes into an oven.
La Boca Center of Sustainability is blessed to have so many experts that are taking an interest and putting so much energy and time into the place. One of those experts is Bevan Williams who came to La Boca more than a year and half ago. His ability to grow premium vegetables in substantial quantities is already legendary in the region.
Bevan’s family moved to Seattle after the 2nd World War. His interest in gardening came early, primarily from parents and grandparents that gardened extensively. By age 12 he had his own garden, experimenting with a number of ideas that only a 12 year old could imagine. His experimenting continues to this day as he tries a myriad number of crops, most often with success.
The only time Bevan did not grow was while in college studying architecture. He married at 24, had 10 children and now has 37 grandchildren. He worked for 30 years in the construction field as a general contractor, construction manager and construction administrator. Bevan is proud of the number of agricultural based communities that he helped begin along with farming several acres by hand and at the same time teaching his kids and the neighbor’s kids about farming and gardening. He retired from the construction field in 1996, relinquished his possessions and has since worked pursuing the creation of agricultural based communities for little or essentially no money, relying on his faith to provide him with what he needs.
Bevan now resides at Heartwood Cohousing where he is utilizing a greenhouse for his starts and teaching and enlightening those that will listen. He believes that La Boca has an enormous potential to assist with the revival of a regional food system. He is politically motivated by his concerns for peoples’ political autonomy and thus the need for everyone to have access to food without anyone else standing between a person and his food source.
Bevan’s favorite author – Rumi
Bevan’s suggested reading – Bonds That Make Us Free by C. Terry Warner
La Boca Center for Sustainablity is a non-profit dedicated to sustainable living systems. We define sustainability as the ability of people to meet their needs without compromising the needs of future generations and planetary ecosystems. Please see what’s new at La Boca Center for Sustainability in Southwest Colorado or visit our website @ www.labocacenter.org or tour our Web Portal, http://permaculture.labocacenter.org
