This article documents the major patterning of the farm at Ridgedale PERMACULTURE as we laid the Keyline tree lanes and planted thousands of long term perennial crops within our pasture lanes.  For a better introduction to the farm's context you can read an article here.  Water systems and Keyline patterning is also addressed here.  The original plan for the tree layers of the farm design is outlined in another article available here.  So now we explain & assess the actual implementation.  For context, at the time of this work we ourselves had only been on site for 6 weeks and the planning, layout, machine work and major planting all took place in Week 1 and 2 of our 10 Week Internship.  (We have another 10 Week Internship program running July- Sept)

Elin, the Ridgedale Chef, has been lovingly restoring this old cream separator.   We met a lovely old lady who used to be a champion milker at Ag school and had equipment lying around she was willing to sell us.  Compared to modern equipment this gear is super robust, reliable and well engineered (at a fraction of the cost)  We like well engineered stuff, and from the context of only needing dairy for farm needs, there seems no better way to go.

Our lovely Fjällko cows, Viola & Clover are doing great after their arrival to Ridgedale.  They have adapted effortlessly to life in rotational grazing and seem to enjoy all the attention they get along with hand milking twice a day.  With over 30 people representing all the major climate zones here at the farm there is demand for fresh milk and yoghurt, and Clover (who is in the early stages of her 2nd pregnancy and still giving great milk) is supplying it.  Towards the end of the year we will have 3 cows and possibly Viola will be pregnant too, which should supply us with all our dairy needs.  These cattle are well suited to our needs; a small cow that is hardy, comes from a mountain habitat and likes to browse on a wide variety of fodder and produces milk, that whilst not being so plentiful, comparing the yield per kg live body weight, it is on par with the larger breeds SRB and Swedish Holstein. In addition, mountain cow milk is very well suited to cheese production as it contains high levels of "good" protein. Compared with milk from other breeds it is (per kg milk) almost twice as large, which means it only goes to 7-8 kg mountain cow's milk to get 1 kg of cheese, compared with 14-16 kg of milk from commercial breeds.

Want to be in to win a free copy of this AWESOME book?  As part of our fair share policy we have been giving away free awesome books to people all over the globe every fortnight (well, to be fair, we have been a little slack lately with all that's going on and our current internet connection).  The 2011 Garden Writers of America Gold Award for Best Writing/Book proves soil is anything but an inert substance. Healthy soil is teeming with life; and not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains healthy plants, and thus become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of artificial substances, many of them toxic to humans as well as other forms of life. But there is an alternative to this vicious circle: to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web; the complex world of soil-dwelling organisms whose interactions create a nurturing environment for plants.

The Core Team are gathering at Ridgedale shortly for our busy first season at the farm.  We're breaking ground on Scandinavia's first dedicated Permaculture & Regenerative Agriculture farm & edu site.  We're establishing a pasture and perennial crop based beyond-organic local food system at 59°N, one of the northern most projects of this ilk on the planet, and the first Keyline designed farm in the region.  We previously advertised this role, and had a bunch of great applications, but our vision was too broad and we did not really know which direction would be most beneficial to take this in....

We have been a little behind with our fortnightly awesome book giveaway and other admin duties.  Ridgedale Richard has been working abroad the last couple of months and in the meantime Ridgedale Yohanna has been organizing and managing the spring orders and deliveries for Ridgedale.  We just ordered 13 species of mushroom sawdust spawn we'll be putting into logs thinned from our dense riparian areas.  Lion's Mane (hericium erinaceus),  Shiitake (lentinus edodes), Cauliflower (sprassis crispa), King Oyster (pleurotus eryngii), Pioppino (agrocybe aegerita), Enoki (flammulina velutipes), Nameko (pholiota nameko), Pearl Oyster (pleurotus ostreatus), Elm Oyster (hypsizygus ulmarius), Blue Oyster (pleurotus columbinus) , Common Oyster (pleurotus pulmonarius), Tarragon Oyster (pleurotus euosmus) & Branched Oyster (pleurotus cornucopiae).  We have plenty of willow, alder & some oak to thin, so we can turn thinnings into high quality food.  To celebrate spring around the corner we thought we would give away a copy of Paul Stamets awesome book.  Read more for details...

Peter Bane wrote a nice review for Permaculture Activist which gets deeper into different aspects of the book if you are interested.  If you are considering taking a Permaculture Design Course this year check out the listings at the farm, where we are proud to have some of the leading global practitioners & researchers join us via digital link up, as well as local expertise joining us for different trainings.  Details are getting posted on relevant course listings as they come in.

We are also excited to offer what we think is a unique learning opportunity in Europe- our 10 Week Professional Permaculture Accelerator Internship.  We might be biased, but we think it's the most exciting Permaculture event happening in Europe this year, including over 530hrs of curriculum based learning & 5 Certificate Courses with some awesome folks joining us on the ground & via teleconference as we initiate this flagship project;

• 90hr+ PDC certified by PRI (Aus) & PC Assoc (UK)
• 5 day Forest Gardens & Perennial Cropping
• 5 day Regenerating Soils
• 5 day Keyline® Design & Holistic Management®
• 5 day Teaching Permaculture Creatively

We devised this training to put you in the driving seat.  We want to support more professionals getting out there in the field.  Having observed the PC world over the past years we see that there are few defined pathways into professional design and the most efficient tools, techniques & decision making processes are often quite different from the "standard" Permaculture approach.  Ever looking to integrate what actually works from our experience we will be examining the "nuts and bolts" of how to take design out into the field; looking at effective design and how to plan, budget and implement projects in an effective and methodical way.  It is through the actual realization of designs that the true learning takes place, and so this program is formulated to offer a professional accelerator for those wishing to work in this broad and exciting field.  The insights we have gained from our work with Keyline design and Holistic Management  deeply inform how we organize Permaculture Design and how we manage effective decision making in a holistic and inclusive manner.  We are excited to be able to support anyone dedicated to regenerating their soils, communities and economy for the benefit of all through our work at ridgedale PERMACULTURE, do not hesitate to be in touch with the farm if you like.  Trainings listed in the drop down box above.

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

As well as Well Engineered Stuff we also like innovative use of tools & machines that make farming less debt reliant; a core aspect of Regenerative Agriculture.  Inspired by Darren J. Doherty's innovative adaptations of the Yeoman's Plow (and subsequent other mod's from others) we are tricking out our own Yeomans 6SB to accommodate forhigh quality tree planting as well as seeding, biofert/ compost tea applications and hopefully in the future pasture cropping to close the loop on our pastured broiler & pig enterprises.  There's a couple of awesome sites everyone should know about if they don't already....

Ben Falk's book is a must for cold climate Permaculture designers, homesteader's and anyone keen to learn from insightful and experienced holistic decision making.  We thoroughly enjoyed the read, and most importantly from our perspective; it's a work based on raw experience, dedication and enthusiasm.  Permaculture design is learnt by doing; we need more practitioners out on the ground working professionally & implementing resilient and effective solutions restoring ecosystems, connecting people to bring about robust local economies & exchange systems and meeting our human needs holistically.  This book supports those objectives, written in a refreshing tone that sets aside theory from observed practice. Ben has a diverse and deep design experience, and we are very excited to have him join us this spring for the first PDC at the farm as a guest lecturer via conference call.

My 3 yr old daughter Grace liked this video and said, "Dad, why don't we have one of them chain things when we chop our wood?"  So for todays craft time we found all the pieces we needed and now we do.  Super easy & quick to make with things lying around, 2m of chain, a rubber "spring", 3 keyring loops and some kind of hook;

There's something about cutting and chopping firewood by hand that is sublimely pleasurable, and after all, whomever cuts firewood warms themselves twice.  Good tools are always worth investing in, and time and time again experience shows it's often cheaper to spend more initially!  We're loving the awesome quality of Gränsfors Bruk axes, made here in Sweden and sold internationally. Hand made, individual craftsman marked and guaranteed for 20 years, these are tools we can highly recommend. 

Here's a short film I made with Joseph Holzer up at the Krameterhof last summer.  Located 1100 - 1500m above sea level in the Lungau Region in the heart of Austria, this is still one of the best farms in Europe in my mind.  With 1.7 days over 30°C (86F), 25 days above 25°C (77F) there is over 160 days of frost including 50 days with no water flow.  The systems are very well established, diverse & complex- even to a trained eye it is a lot to take in.  Apologies the subtitles are not as clear as they deserve to be, having lost the original files I have done all I can with this colour change.