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2008, Living Mandala
creative services by: 360 Degrees
The Seed Academy
With Don Tipping, Bill McDorman & Special Guests
Sept 10 -14, 2014
Seven Seeds Farm
Williams, Oregon
Registration & Tuition
Registration includes instruction, camping on site, 3 organic meals per day, bathing access, and all materials and hand outs. Beautifully prepared meals will be suited towards omnivores featuring vegetables, eggs and lamb raised on the farm.
Regular Tuition: $775 (Includes all meals & onsite camping)
Local Discount (Jefferson & Josephine County Residents): $650 (includes lunch & dinner - does not include camping or breakfast)
We are only accepting 25 participants so we encourage you to sign up soon.
When?
The 5 day Event begins Wednesday, September 10 and runs through September 14 at 4pm. The event is 9:30am through 6pm with dinner to follow and a more open, salon type format after dinner in the evenings
What?
We invite you to join us for a 5 day intensive training in seed saving, basic botany, reproductive biology in plants, understanding selection, planting seeds, soil mixes, seed germination, isolation, crossing, seed libraries, seed storage, germination tests and much more. Don Tipping is the lead instructor who brings 20 years experience in organic farming, seeds, permaculture and enthusiastic on-farm education. In this training you will learn everything than you thought possible and more about the art, science, and revolutionary practice of saving seeds and leave empowered to start your own seed saving business.
Who’s Coming?
Gardeners, farmers, permaculturalists , those interested in starting a neighborhood seed library or seed bank, those interested in stewarding and preserving heirloom varieties, and all who see growing and saving seed as a wonderful way to grow a positive future. No prior experience is necessary, however, some gardening familiarity will be helpful.
Course Vision - From Seed to Seed Cooperatives
The journey with connecting more deeply with seeds as a source point of life begins with seed saving, then progresses to seed growing on a farm or garden preservation scale. The master level is seed stewardship, cultivating a deep relationship with the species and all of its potential for bioregional adaptation to climate, pests, disease and agronomic & culinary preferences.
We visualize interconnected seed production hubs that are capable of doing breeding, selection, and improvement that work with bioregional centers that can do finish cleaning, climate controlled storage, marketing and distribution of high quality, open-pollinated organic seeds. In this way we can co-create a sustainable seed system that will support organic food production for local markets and resilient local food systems. Seven Seeds Farm is home to the Family Farmers Seed Cooperative which is a farmer owned and operated organic seed production, breeding and distribution enterprise.
Click HERE to register and reserve your space in this watershed event. We expect this training fill to capacity, so reserve your space soon!
About the Seed Academy
The name Academy traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. We invite you to join us for a 5 day intensive training in seed saving. We will focus on the hands on tools and techniques of wet and dry seed harvesting and cleaning. We will also cover basic botany, reproductive plant biology, selection, isolation, crossing, seed libraries, seed storage, germination tests and much more. Our evenings will focus on the the big picture, context and potential of seed saving at this time in history, networking amongst peers, and supporting you to discover and engage your personal vision and contribution to the seed world. This is part of a two part, annual series of intensives at our diverse Permaculture Farm in SW Oregon. The Spring section focuses on planting seeds, while the fall session focuses on harvesting.
Hosting Site Details - About Seven Seeds Farm & Sisikyou Seeds
Siskiyou Seeds operates at our family farm, Seven Seeds Farm. We have been growing certified organic seed for many national scale mail order seed companies for the past 17 years. We are fairly unique within the world of seed companies in that we actually produce much of the seed ourselves, as opposed to most companies that buy most (or all) of their seed from multinational corporate seed houses, many of whom also produce genetically engineered vegetable seeds.
In addition to commercial seed production, Seven Seeds Farm produces biodynamic fruits and vegetables that we distribute through a cooperative Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program called the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative (www.siskiyoucoop.com) in the Rogue Valley. We also raise ducks, chickens, turkeys, and sheep. Seven Seeds hosts numerous on-farm classes and workshops in a variety of sustainable agriculture related topics. To see a current listing of workshops at Seven Seeds and classes that Don Tipping will be teaching in southern Oregon please see our classes page.
We are located at 2,000 elevation, 43 degrees North latitude. Our average frost free season is from June 1st until October 15th. We are technically a Zone 7 site, however this can fluctuate. Summers are hot and dry with high temperatures in the upper 90′s or low 100′s not uncommon. Our evenings are cool in summer due to our arid, mountain environment. Winters are cool and rainy with periodic cold snaps down into the teens or below. Our average rainfall is 42″ per year, coming mostly between October and May.
Although we are blessed with abundant summer sun here in the banana belt of southern Oregon, the Siskiyous can be a challenging place to garden with our winter rainforest, summer desert climate of harsh extremes. The varieties that we offer in our catalog have proven themselves through years of homesteading filling countless harvest baskets and serving as the foundation for many nourishing meals.
Contact
For questions and more information regarding the course
e-mail: education(at)livingmandala.com or
call: (530) 918-8675
Instructors & Facilitators
Don Tipping
Don Tipping has been offering hands on, practical workshops at Seven Seeds Farm since 1997. We are a small, organic family farm in the Siskiyou Mountains of SW Oregon, situated at 2,000 feet elevation on a 7,000 tall forested mountain with rushing spring fed creeks flowing through the land and nestled among old growth forests.
Here we produce fruits, vegetables, seeds, wool, eggs, and lamb. The farm has been designed to function as a self-contained, life regenerating organism with waste products being recycled and feeding other elements of the system. Lauded as one of the best examples of a small productive Biodynamic and Permaculture farms in the northwest, Seven Seeds helps to mentor new farmers through internships and workshops. We have produced certified organic vegetable, flower and herb seeds for over a dozennational scale seed companies. Seven Seeds has also been active in USDA Western SARE, Organic Seed Alliance and other seed initiatives to advance the development of open pollinated organic seeds. In 2009 we began Siskiyou Seeds, a bioregional organic seed company operated from the home farm. Don helped to found the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative which manages a 150 share CSA, commercial seed growing, an equipment co-op and internship curriculum among 12 cooperating farms. He also co-founded the Family Farmers Seed Cooperative, a seed grower, marketing and distribution cooperative comprised of 10 western organic farms.
Don helps people focus upon building their skill sets in sustainable life skills such as permaculture, biodynamics, organic gardening, eco-forestry, seed saving and other traditional arts that help to build regenerative culture.
Lead Instructor
Bill McDorman
Bill is a member of the Arizona Native Plant Society and the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides. He currently serves on the Arizona Humanities Council. He served on the boards of directors of the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, the Idaho Sustainable Agriculture Committee and was Vice-chairman of the Idaho Humanities Council. He helped found the Sawtooth Botanical Gardens in Sun Valley, Idaho, and published his first book in 1994 titled, “Basic Seed Saving”, which contains seed saving information for 29 wildflowers and 18 vegetables. Bill also founded the International Seed Saving Institute (ISSI) which ships seeds and seed saving information to projects in 15 countries.
Recently he and his wife Belle launched Project Self Reliance (PSR). Project Self Reliance is an educational, non-profit organization providing sustainably oriented social services and programs for youth-at-risk and the community-at-large. Its initial campaign is to establish a transitional living and housing program for runaway, homeless and foster kids “aging out” of the system.
In 1995, Bill and Seeds Trust moved to the Verde Valley in Northern Arizona. The company produces more than 60 varieties of seed in what Bill says is the most perfect climate in North America with a 200+ day growing season.
Lead Instructor
Samantha Sweetwater
Samantha invokes the integral wisdom of body, mind, heart and spirit. She ignites the passion of the soul’s true purpose, and reflects the Beauty Way of Evolutionary Enlightenment - the marriage of Source connection with grounded actions, whole relationships and living communities. In her travels, she has inspired thousands to embrace living tools for radiant health, authentic expression, joyous wholeness, planetary regenesis and awakened heart. Through the Dancing Freedom Embodied Mystery School, Samantha is training a community of facilitators to spread Peace-embodied around the world. She is constantly exploring angles through which the soul level epiphanies of the dancing experience can galvanize the WE in sustaining communities, relationships and actions. She is currently part of the organizing team for State of the World Forum and the Global Transitions Initiative.
Facilitator
Affiliate Organizations & Sponsors
Become a sponsor of this course!
For details email: Sponsors@livingmandala.com
Including
SEED HARVESTING
PLANT BREEDING & PROPAGATION
REPRODUCTIVE PLANT BIOLOGY
SOIL & SOIL MIXES
PERMACULTURE IN PRACTICE
GERMINATION, ISOLATION, & STORAGE
SEED LIBRARIES & COOPERATIVES
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
NUTRITIOUS LOCALLY GROWN MEALS
AND MUCH MORE!
Hosted By
Seven Seeds Farm
In Association With
Siskiyou Seeds
Oregon State University Extension
Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance
Seed Trust
Instructors & Facilitators
Don Tipping
Bill McDorman
Samantha Sweetwater
“Seed is the biggest issue of democracy in food. Seed is a common resource, and we have to protect it for future generations. I would call GM [Genetic Modification] a cruelty to seeds. I will live to see the end of Monsanto.”
Vandana Shiva
“I have great faith in a seed.”
- Thomas Jefferson
Course Summary
Join the Seed Academy with master teachers Don Tipping (Siskiyou Seeds) , Bill McDorman (Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance) & Special Guests at the Permaculture Oaisis Seed Saving Haven - Seven Seeds Farm in Williams, Oregon to learn the most highly valuable and little known secrets of Saving Seed. This one -of-a-lind course is an in-depth, hands-on training for farmers, gardeners, educators, entrepreneurs, permaculturalists & anyone interested in learning how to start their own Seed Saving Business.
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•Learn with the experts.
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•Gain the essential skills you need to harvest & process seed.
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•Learn the fundamentals of plant breeding & propagation.
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•Receive the step-by step tools, strategies & inspired vision required to start or upgrade a seed business.
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•Meet & network with your bioregional neighbors to optimize results.
Seed Academy's mission is to increase network capacity, collaboration & synergy in the Seed Freedom Movement in the Rogue Bioregion & beyond.
THIS REVOLUTIONARY SEED SAVING TRAINING
IS OFFERED NO WHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD!!!
Seed Saving - The Key to Local Resiliency
Careful attention to plant selection for seed saving can contribute to the improvement of important traits such as disease resistance, pest tolerance, climate adaptation, flavor and nutrition. Domestication is not an endpoint. Rather it is a relationship that is ongoing and can go in different directions. We are much more concerned with breeding plants that will foster healthy food for people, rather than traits such as ship-ability and shelf life. When we consider the concept of food security I find it logical that seed security should receive equal attention especially considering the threats of genetic engineering and the corporate consolidation of the seed industry. Much of the seed currently available from the traditional seed houses is increasingly coming from overseas and every year hundreds of valuable varieties are dropped from production. Consider that in the last 13 years over 200 regional seed companies have disappeared in our country and that Monsanto is now the largest vegetable seed company in the world, having bought up other large seed companies such as Seminis and Peto. Bioregional seed banks and distribution networks will emerge as one of the more important stores of wealth in the future. Anyone want to buy futures in seeds? Let’s get planting!
Banning GMO Crops in SW Oregon!
More than 60 countries either ban or require labeling on GMO foods; the US is not one of them. As GMO regulation moves to a local level, frustrated consumers and farmers are pushing for state or county regulations, but the seed and pesticide companies are fighting back.
Recently a campaign to evict big Agri-Biz GMO/Chemical companies like Syngenta happenned in the Rouge Valley of SW Oregon.
Below is a link to some great radio interviews that happened as part of this campaign. This is 30 minute radio compilation.
Featuring:
Rebekah Wilce - Progressive and ALEC Exposed reporter
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman - Pesticide Action Network senior scientist
Don Tipping - Seven Seeds Farm owner
Chris Hardy - Rogue valley farmer
Elise Higley - Our Family Farms Coalition leader
Magdeleno Rose-Avila - Yes on 15-119 volunteer
Barry Bushue - American Farm Bureau vice president
Klayton Kubo - Kauai citizen
Gary Hooser - Kauai County Council member
Dr. Judy Shabert - Harvard Physician
Dean Okimoro - Farm Bureau Association president
David Louie - Hawaii Attorney General
Harry Stalford & Willow Coberly -Stalford Seed Farms farmers
Chris Broussard, Whinney Hee, James Masey, concerned Kauai residents
Listen to the complete 5 segment Making Contact episode, Click Link Here: http://wtfcorporations.com/2014/06/g-m-no-genetically-modified-democracy/
What is Permaculture?
