Some of each, it varies from family to family.

I think that confusion and argumentation will take place so, I can totally see the benefits of making up a new set of words.

Therefore, the question I am posing is actually something like...

I see value in the idea that a white belt/white badge being an intro level that anyone can attain. It is the first step initiatory phase. I referred to the martial arts system not to strictly adhere to their system, but rather because I thought it would be appropriate.

My three levels would basically mean something like...
1) approaching: learning and trying out
2) accomplished: succeeding in general
3) mastered: teach others, spread the word

So, my question remains is white belt/white badge/ level 1/or whatever we call it, is it an intro level? or do we actually expect some mastery of 'advanced' skills? Like growing pounds of veggies or maintaining a beehive.

Yea,
Seth Peterson
Permie chef

I wanna discuss and clarify white belt level.

As I read through some of the different PEPs, I notice the bar for white belt is high enough that I barely qualify in most, yet I have been doing these things for a while, these are topics in which I consiider myself intermediate, not beginner.

In martial arts, anyone can be a white belt, right? I mean absolutely anyone. It is a fully introductory level. With absolutely no mastery or ability necessary. Should we reflect that in the PEPs?

Seth Peterson
'Permaculture PEPetrator'

About that paddock system and Speaking of flexibility in different chicken systems and different situations. I will go to an extreme example.

I was in Haiti teaching permaculture last month. All the chickens were free range, and came home at night to roost in trees around the houses where their owners lived. And these chickens looked beautiful, shiny feathers, strong and hearty. Not hen pecked at all.

So, for them a paddock system would be a huge investment of time and money, yet give no return whatsoever.

So there must be away to whittle down to essential skills, elements and functions, without precluding other systems.

From the Heart of Berkeley,

Seth Peterson,
permaculture chef

It seems to me that the heater is only half the story, for full permaculture design we should also cook off of the RMH as well, to save resources and use it for multiple functions. This then would tie into the food prep pep1.


White belt: use a rocket stove/heater to cook something and to dry preserve something.

Green belt: learn to cook various ways (steaming, stewing, etc.) and preserve a new way (smoking, canning), cook for one season on an RMH (regularly not exclusively) for at least one person

Brown belt: cook regularly on a rocket mass stove/heater for one year, for at least our people.

Seth

Here is a start that I will edit as people post...

White belt:
Buy and cook edible mushrooms, use a field guide to key out some local mushrooms, go on guided forays, join a club, take a class or workshops, learn about various uses for fungi (edibles, medicinals, remedials, dyes, bioremediation), go to a local mushroom fairie available, learn to photograph fungi in situ, learns local mushroom seasons, can ID 20 local fungi and knows their season/habitat, has cultivated mushrooms at least once, uses fungi in gardening, has dried mushrooms. Has five favorite mushroom recipes. Spreads spores, makes a spore print, can explain mushroom picking etiquette and best practices. Joins a local group. Needs an expert to ID any mushrooms they collect. Collects, IDs, spore prints and dries and saves a couple of specimens. Starts a fungi photo collection.

Green belt: have a field guide and foray kit, can ID 50 local fungi and their season and habitat, can cultivate mushrooms in various ways, has practiced some of the different uses of fungi, gardens with fungi, produces enough edibles to share, barter or sell some, has a stock of dried mushrooms, has preserved mushrooms in 2 other ways (canned, pickled, fermented, powdered), can cook mushrooms five different ways, has used medicinal mushrooms, has made mushroom dyes, has participated in building a mushroom garden, uses mycorrhizal fungi with trees, has propagated by three methods (cardboard, straw, stumps, hydrogen peroxide, petri dish, wet paper bag, PF-tec, grain, sterile transfer, etc), knows about esoteric uses of fungi like mycotecture, mycoart, Fungi burial suits, shamanic uses like questing and acceptance of death.
Can identify something fungi taught them through observation and direct experience. Has started finding their own mushroom patches, needs an expert to confirm any mushroom they collect. Starts a specimen collection, practices one form of mycoremediation

Brown belt
Has visited a mushroom farm, cultivates several varieties of mushrooms regularly, can ID 75 local fungi, participates in ongoing mycoremediation, prepares and uses medicinals, has practicedpst forms of cultivation, has taught others to do the same, forays regularly, starts a local group of none exists. Has recipes for most all the Local edible fungi, has cooked most of them at least once, has collected most of them from the wild at least once, doesn't need an expert for most of the mushrooms they collect. Has led forays. Gives presentations or workshops and teaches the public, is known on their community as a fungi person,has a specimen collection, uses IMOs or EMs. Has done more than one sort of Myco based art project (dyes, make paper, spore art, etc.), lea rice three forms of mycoremediation, can identify 5 life lessons that mushrooms have taught them,

Black belt
Has done the brown belt topics for years (10 or more), has added to the body of knowledge through citizen science or thoughtful observation, has an extensive specimen collection, knows and can identify 100s of local mushrooms, is known as a local expert by other local experts

I like the idea that this pep has growing edible mushrooms. And that the there is another pep for mushroom cultivation that goes into all the other uses and cultivation techniques, etc.

Seth
Permaculture chef

Loolong good, some thoughts

I really like the hours of hive observation

I think maybe a white belt doesn't have bees yet, and just observes hives, reads books, takes classes, joins a beekeepers group and or gets to know local beekeepers, researches local laws, finds a been mentor/mentors and makes a plan for their bee yard including sourcing. Uses green materials for smoking bees, Assists in hive inspections and honey harvests. Plant pollinator habitats and learns about local native bees. Can find the queen, Assembles a hive from a kit or by scratch, has an epi-pen at hand, gets sting at least once to determine allergy, uses a bee suit, understands honey flows for their area, recognizes a few basic bee behaviors, Plus what was said by others...

Green belts have hives of their own, treatment free, etc. and don't lose them all every winter, harvests a moderate amount of honey appropriately, can identify common bee diseases and knows natural 'treatments', uses only a bee veil and gloves. Doesn't always use smoke, Catches a swarm. Knows what forage is available throughout the year, Harvests wax, recognizes many basic bee behaviors,

Brown belt, no gloves, splits, queen raring, swarm capturing, has used three or more systems, has high winter survival rates, captures various yields beyond wax and honey, begins to create surpluses for sale or barter. Rarely smokes bees if ever. Os on a local swarm list, teaches neighbors and children about bees, Can identify most bee behavior on sight, supplies self maybe others, prepares value added products from honey and wax, has a black belt for a mentor, engages the public around bees,

Black belt has interns, teaches people about bees, multiple bee yards, years of experience, maximizes yields, collects swarms, grafts queens, regularly, supplies self and others, builds hives, helps run a local beekeeper group, spreads the love of bees far and wide, is known for beekeeping, is identified by other local black belts as a black belt.


See what you all think,

Seth Peterson
permaculture chef

great topic!

So, i went to the Rocket Mass Heater workshop at Paul's place and soaked up as much as possible. phenomenal!

when, i got home i bought some fire brick, to be exact, and started stacking my own cores (see erica and ernie's material above, or also google matt walker - another innovator for very simple solutions.)

then, i got a job offer to teach children and adults permaculture for two weeks in Haiti. after some research, i knew the rocket stove technology would be a fundamental teaching. so i practiced it up, with matt's guidance. made adobe bricks, made cinderblock models, made paint can and soup can models. all from of the workshop, the advice and youtube videos. then i went to haiti for two weeks, got back two days ago. phenomenal doesn't begin to describe it. father Glenn at the Kobonal Mission, where i stayed instantly recognized the significance; built from trash and mud, use less wood (haiti continues to be deforested to make charcoal), burns clean.

After arriving, i woke up early and visited there kitchen to see how they worked, there was a lot of smoke. and when i visited the farmers in their often mud/waddle huts they used three stone hearths that plummeted smoke, and then, before i left, we built a rocket stove. i should be going back in May for a larger installation.

seth peterson
permie chef

Fiber mmmmm....

Don't throw it out, put it in soups to thicken them or stocks to flavour them, and put it in rice to flavor and color it - sweet potato and carrot fiber in Spanish rice anyone. And rice means risottos and paella, as well as stir fry, every culture has a rice dish. If it's green, ferment it! If it's fruit fiber put into homemade ice cream, or pancake batter or cake batter, dehydrate it and powder it on yogurt, or mix it into your granola recipe. Use it as an ingredient for low gluten cooking in breads and other pastry.

And so I say, mmmm fiber.

Seth
Permie chef

Wow! I'm thoroughly impressed by the wealth of knowledge in the previous posts. Thank you all.

As a chef, I come from the other side of the coin, from the kitchen. i love bitter greens for the flavor and the nutrition they bring, I often pick them up at Chinese markets to experiment and grow several varieties at home. Not only to I like their bitter flavor untouched, I also like what I can turn those flavors into.

Fermenting with bitter greens is fabulous, it changes their flavor entirely, and you can put just a little into a cabbage based kraut or kimchi, I often put nettles. Or you can ferment just bitter greens. I have tasted how fermentation can turn very bitter green veg like tan ho into a complex array of flavors there are nothing like its raw or cooked taste. fermented salted bitter greens, a standard in many countries. A little bit on a bowl of rice alongside some protein, sauce, etc. It's the same process as sauerkraut. My wife to Bo taught me to mix the greens with brine and let them ferment on the counter till delicious, then the fridge. And talk about nutritious, it's more nutritious. So good for you we should all eat fermented foods daily then we have the beneficial bacteria in our guts, just like plants need in the soil to feed better. Just like plants don't eat directly from the soil without the help of microrganisms, neither should we. If we don't eat fermented foods, we are starving our bodies, leaving the nutrition in our food undigestible or inaccessible.

Salt, acid and bitter. I find it fascinating that both acid and salt temper bitter flavours. This you have to use them in concert to complement the food.

When I was at Paul and Jocelyn's place we mad a pickled daikon seed pods with water, sugar, rice wine, ginger and sesame seeds and blanched green seed pods that were immersed in ice water after to blanching to retain their vibrant color and crispy texture.

Seth Peterson,
Permaculture Chef

"Fermentation is that creative space between raw and spoiled where flavor and nutrition develop" sandor Katz

Russian brassicas gotta be in the top ten

These are great expansions on the KIM idea!

Most restaurants I've worked all had 3 ring binder recipe books.

When I worked with lots of volunteers at a place called three stone hearth, the KIM was indispensable, with large scale recipes and tons of cooking, cleaning and procedures all laid out for volunteers to follow.

For our purposes there is some material (canning charts) that are standardized and we could all use yet other parts that must be Taylored to specific situations (family recipe book) but still could be shared.

Additionally, let's include lots of links to online resources and youtube videos, etc. so this suggests the KIM be on a tablet or smartphone. Did anyone just realize a pkitchen app that was open sourced could be a revolutionary possibility? What about a pkitchen wiki?

The KIm also, reminds me a bit of the Victorian housewives' manual which covered both kitchen and house issues. Now we have added in farm or homestead topics. A bit of a how to hack your life meets reference book that would be personalized to each situation.

Seth

Can I get a book review template as well?
Seth

Great idea/execution, I'm about half way through permaculture kitchen and then will jump in on some more.

Nice,
Seth Peterson

Some more photos of what was done.

Rick Howd wrote:If I understand correctly; the 1000 year soup is always at a safe temp, 160f + and you refresh the liquid as well as the ingredients as time passes? Maybe 190f so additions don't bring the temp down too far for too long?

As a professional chef I really appreciate this question.

The short answer is: in a modern professional kitchen, yes. But, 1000 yrs ago, no.

So in a restaurant kitchen following food safety guidelines a product can be out at room temp for two to four hours, depending on ingredient and county/state codes. Otherwise it has to be hot enough or cold enough to stop pathogens and bacterial growth. That's like less than 41 f or more than 135 F. (Thus 160 is higher than necessary and will dry out ingredients. It is the correct temperature for factory farmed meats and big ag veggies, because they are so dirty, degraded and sorry to use such strong words but, frankly,they are disgusting)

But good quality (not mono-cropped, not CAFO) food will last much longer. In italy, restaurants have meat sitting out for hours, large racks of top cuts, and it is an appropriate sign of freshness and quality. In Austria my host put the leftover roast chicken in the oven and left it in there, off of course, over night to eat the next day. When I tried to put if in the fridge she admonished me for doing so, it would ruin the meat she said. And examples go on.

My Mexican grandmother would leave a cooling pot on the stove all day. If I touched it to take a taste, she would be angry, because I would puncture to top of the stew where it had congealed and made a protective layer against spoilage.

So, no the 1000 yr soup is not kept at 160' it is allowed to cool and ferment and gather flavor and then gets replenished with new ingredients and cooked before it has the chance to spoil. It dances on a line between raw and rotten. Sandor Katz says fermentation is the space between raw and spoiled where flavor and nutrition develop, after reading that the first time, I knew that my life would never be the same.

Sanitary ain't healthy,
In fact the cleanest, healthiest water is that which is full of healthy beneficial organisms,
Seth

Rick Howd wrote:

Ghislaine de Lessines wrote:I think KIM must mean Kitchen Instruction Manual.

Great suggestion, it might even be what he was thinking. I haven't heard the term before, I've been playing with timber/lumber the last 10 years and restaurants were tech savvy if they had a FAX machine and a computer for email.

Let's crowd source a Permaculture kitchen and I'll draw it, What do you want? Describe the equipment and your spacing/arrangement suggestions, I'll only make changes if they violate US or state codes that I'm aware of.

yes KIM Is a kitchen instruction manual: recipes, lists of sources, past menus, best practices, kitchen rules, etc all contained in a manual that grows and refines as people add to it over the years. It gives continuity to the developing kitchen culture and serves to help I doctrine newbies. It should be simple to use yet comprehensive. It should be laid out in parts, so people can access the info appropriate to their level no purpose.

And yes let's crowd source a permaculture kitchen. We discussed this extensively at the rocket mass heater workshop. Jessie drew up a frame for a portable permaculture kitchen and the innovators made some incredible cooking equipment, I don't know how to connect those threads to here, but maybe someone can help me. Or I'll find a way. So the idea is every situation is unique and thus we can't design one pkitchen to fit all. But, the skiddable kitchen is a unique pkitchen we could crowd source design and that would be a great leaping of point for more designs. So, let's design that.

It will contain a Rocket stove cooker along the lines of what Matt and Tim produced at the recent workshops, so check out the rocket mass heater innovators event thread, where I have posted photos and explanations. Very awesome stuff they built.

----
those last two posts should bring me up to date on questions people posed.

So, now, let me share some news. I just got invited to co-teach a PDC course in Haiti. Considering the poor conditions and lack of resources, I think rocket stoves could be a great use of appropriate technologies. I mean how do you make a pkitchen with minimal resources and that uses minimal resources. This next month is going to really stretch the concept of a pkitchen. Wish I could take one of the innovators with me!

I welcome anyone's thoughts and ideas, since I will need all the help I can get.

Seth
A permaculture chef

Tina Paxton asked about these elements:

Here are the ones I'd particularly like to hear more about:

Brine barrel
Distillery, still, hydrosols
Master health tonic (please explain!!!)
Preservation parties / days and equipment, preservation calendar (preservation calendar? please expound on this!!)
Sauerkraut crocks
Seasonal recipe calendar
Traditional cooking / Weston A. Price (I do some of their stuff but also Paleo AIP....glad to see you interested in the WAPF!)
Value added commissary kitchen for farms to make cabbage into kraut
Mother cultures: kombucha, vinegar, cheese, butter, salami, miso, saki, etc.
Whey jar and raw milk jars
Worm bin
Zones of accumulation
1000 yr soup pot / continues stock pot
-------

I'm not sure how to do this, Tina asked about these elements from the large elements list. She wanted to talk more, so here are some intro to each if the topics she listed. I invite all comments, everyone has such excellent info to add to this discussion.


Brine barrel - in the olden days they had a saltwater pork brine barrel, among others in the basement. The just get throwing pork pieces in till cured and then roast or smoke them. Eventually they would change the salt brine water (think sea water). in professional kitchens, always have a couple of 5 gallon buckets of brining meets in the walk in fridge. This makes pork last weeks to months, and makes it tastier and healthier (by Weston A. price standards). So, for home this also makes sense, and let's you preserve your meats and have them ready to cook at the same time. And delicious. At Wheaton labs I had two whole pigs on brine and ice in cooler for a good two weeks as I processed it all and cooked some. The first day everyone thought I was crazy. Two weeks later, when we had finally pressed all the pork and frozen the extras, the coolers were cleaned and stored. But it was two weeks of cooler juggling, a root cellar with brine barrels would have been simpler and more effective.

A still can make essential oils and hydrosols, which are essential water vapors, if you will.

Master health tonic - every culture has one, at Wheaton labs someone made one with reduced broth, vinegar, garlic, ginger, etc. Very strong, powerhouse of tonic to ward of sickness etc. Think granny clampet's tonics.

Preservation calendar: this calendar follows the harvest calendar, apples in the fall,peaches in the summer,mushrooms in the rainy season. So, we develop a calendar of what to preserve when and fill it in with family recipes, expanding upon it each year. I have been working on mine for three years and I will post it here as a starting point to develop one for all of us to use. There are like 12 types of preservation to learn, so we will combine those techniques in with the recipes and the calendar.

Sauerkraut crocks go in the root cellar and take 4-6 weeks to make krauts, pickles, fermented veggies. I could see making one every month for a homestead, so twelve crocks total and a years worth of kraut recipes by the season. Mmmm makes my mouth water.

Weston A. price is based on traditional methods of cooking that we have used for eons, it's solid stuff. That should be a whole thread topic.

Value added commissary kitchen - most homesteads and farms should produce a surplus and have access to surpluses to be processed, preserved and sold. A professional kitchen to do so efficiently and legally is a boon to many operations who turn surpluses and scrapes into refined value added products from.

Mother cultures: a permaculture kitchen should have so many live cultures going, in fact fermented food is tastier and healthier, but we lost the traditions. Fermented foods are alive, last longer, sometimes much longer, have nutrition that is more available and taste delicious. Thus they are worth the invested time to recover the skills and practice them. It is only one of the many forms of food preservation, but a huge one, and one that is a tenet of Weston A. price cooking.

Whey is what first showed me the kitchen garden connection as a complete circle and not a one way assembly line. We throw whey on our compost piles to innoculate them. This we return from the kitchen with inputs to our garden, and they run on many of the same principles because they are one, it is only us who have separated the kitchen from the garden in our minds as two distinct systems. Whey showed me the way. And milk jars with raw milk are a must. I have 1/2 gallon of goats milk in my fridge right now from goat share, raw milk is another tenet of Weston A. price. Raw milk never spoils. If you haven't already listen to Paul Wheaton's podcast with Sally Fallon, it's mind blowing.

A worm bin can go inside, under the sink for easy access

Zones of accumulation: like leaves flowing down rivers and scooting up to the river bank, junk accumulates in places. In kitchens it's the table, the back corners of counters, the back of any deep shelf, the sink, the dish drainer, these are places where things accumulate, sometimes junk, so we can design are way to cleaner flow spaces with less objects, as stated earlier in a post. My kitchen elements list is huge, and not meant to be used from A-Z, nor all in the same room or structure. But those elements we do incorporate should be thought out to remain clear and usable.

1000 yr. soup. The idea here is that soup pot by the fire that never got totally emptied and each day a new stew was built from the rest of the old stew, or the continuous crock pot on the stove that gets all the tasty waste, makes broth and then the contents become dog food, but the broth pot goes on, forever.

Those are some of my ideas, thoughts?

Seth Peterson
A permaculture chef among many

Hey preemies so I just posted this elsewhere but think it fits in even better here.

Hey permies,
Great topic, great ideas! I think you all hit on some important solutions.

Hay box cookers:
I used one at wheaton lab for three weeks,
I'm September, and it was amazing. It was a wooden box filled with wool insulation. I could boil a pot of water and pork back fat and put it in the box overnight to render slowly and safely using no energy inputs. And, in the morning the pot was still too hot to touch and I would heat it to boiling, again, in five minutes. And put it back in the box to render. I did the same with bone broth, as mentioned, perfect even temperature for fish (20 mins), veggies 2-4hrs, chicken about 8 hrs, pork and beef 12 hours plus and reheat once.

I was thoroughly impressed at its crock pot like abilities, in fact I can control temp better than crock pots which may vary up and down with a thermostat, and may not let you use the whole range low temp cooking (some models don't have lower settings cause they aren't 'food safe'). And all of this with no energy inputs for the hatbox. Just the beautiful box sam barber made.

Solar cookers:
Are great, I saw Beka cook a meatloaf at 275 f. Plenty hot. Takes some practice but this is another great method. And as mentioned, combines perfectly with the haybox, cook in the solar cooker, keep warm in the haybox.

Wood stoves vs rocket stoves :
here is where I take note, you see the third element I used at Paul and Jocelyn's place last month were the rocket stove cookers. One designed and built by matt and another designed and built by Tim. And they were awesome. They both have me complete control over heat and the ability to cook on a flat top or oven (Tim's cock it and lock it rocket) and the ability to use a wok, a smoker, a big pot or a pressure canner, all with RMH technology that is much more efficient than wood stoves and the rest. This lets me bake, steam, boil, reduce, roast, fry, etc. at any time I want and any temperature I want. And the side effect is that it heats my house.

So for me, this trifecta is virtually unbeatable: a rocket stove cooker, a hay box and a solar oven allows me to take advantage of low input even temperature cooking with out any sacrifices due to a rocket mass heater that warms my dwelling as I cook each night. The more I think about it the better it becomes.

Seth
A permaculture chef

Hey permies,
Great topic, great ideas! I think you all hit on some important solutions.

Hay box cookers:
I used one at wheaton lab for three weeks,
I'm September, and it was amazing. It was a wooden box filled with wool insulation. I could boil a pot of water and pork back fat and put it in the box overnight to render slowly and safely using no energy inputs. And, in the morning the pot was still too hot to touch and I would heat it to boiling, again, in five minutes. And put it back in the box to render. I did the same with bone broth, as mentioned, perfect even temperature for fish (20 mins), veggies 2-4hrs, chicken about 8 hrs, pork and beef 12 hours plus and reheat once.

I was thoroughly impressed at its crock pot like abilities, in fact I can control temp better than crock pots which may vary up and down with a thermostat, and may not let you use the whole range low temp cooking (some models don't have lower settings cause they aren't 'food safe'). And all of this with no energy inputs for the hatbox. Just the beautiful box sam barber made.

Solar cookers:
Are great, I saw Beka cook a meatloaf at 275 f. Plenty hot. Takes some practice but this is another great method. And as mentioned, combines perfectly with the haybox, cook in the solar cooker, keep warm in the haybox.

Wood stoves:
But here is where I disagree, you see the third element I used at Paul and Jocelyn's place last month were the rocket stove cookers. One designed and built by matt and another designed and built by Tim. And they were awesome. They both have me complete control over heat and the ability to cook on a flat top or oven (Tim's cock it and lock it rocket) and the ability to use a wok, a smoker, a big pot or a pressure canner, all with RMH technology that is much more efficient than wood stoves and the rest. This lets me bake, steam, boil, reduce, roast, fry, etc. at any time I want and any temperature I want. And the side effect is that it heats my house.

So for me, this trifecta is virtually unbeatable: a rocket stove cooker, a hay box and a solar oven allows me to take advantage of low input even temperature cooking with out any sacrifices due to a rocket mass heater that warms my dwelling as I cook each night. The more I think about it the better it becomes.

Seth
A permaculture chef

Hey all,
Great ideas and comments.
So, I was at Wheaton labs for three weeks in Sept. (Awesome) and am trying to help out in the kitchen department and after talking with everyone and getting your feedback, came up with this document to clarify what is needed and expected and offered in the package. I think it is a really awesome job!! Help us find the right person and any feedback is welcome. And to the powers that be, how can I get some attention on this very important thread Jocelyn started? Lets get the word out.

Kitchen commander / Seneschal / Level Nine Mom position profile and job description

"Permaculture based homestead looking for A 'Kitchen Commander' who enjoys nurturing a house full of dedicated inspired passionate people trying to make a better world."

Do you enjoy making wholesome food to nourish those around you? Do locally sourced better than organic ingredients matter to you? Are you a self starter and a go getter? Do you want to work with like minded individuals who are building a better life and a better future? Do you enjoy cooking for groups and making sure community spaces are cleaned and organized? Do you have a passion for permaculture?

Seeking a Kitchen Commander for a burgeoning permaculture homestead in its second year of fast tracked growth. The Kitchen Commander is a critical position to the functioning of an intentional community. We are looking for someone with the skills, experience and talent to get in on the bottom floor and take full ownership of all kitchen processes from cooking to ordering, overseeing cleanup, sourcing local better than organic food and fermenting both food and change as the position grows into a dream job. The kitchen commander has the opportunity to build and expand on a living permaculture kitchen system; including designing and implementing better food/cooking/harvesting/sourcing/storing systems, protocols, recipes, and people systems (kitchen assistants).

We want a person who will come in and enjoy taking charge and creating the position from scratch, a self-starter, a doer, a 'get-things-doner.' This is an awesome opportunity for the right person to come and build something, a person who is wanting to expand their knowledge.

Candidate Profile
Good knowledge of cooking techniques, food, professional kitchen practices
Loves from scratch traditional cookery and has a good palate
Has interest or experience in alternative cooking methods and/or desire to learn more (hay box cookers, solar cooker, rocket stove smoker, solar ovens)
Obsessed with sanitation, food quality, timeliness, flavor and continual improvement.
Someone with enough experience to know what to do and how to improve, someone who can build out the permaculture kitchen concept
Passionate about learning more and expanding beyond their comfort zone
Able to orchestrate and surf chaos and able to recover from mistakes well
Highly developed pro-active inter-personal skills. Says "hey can you help me wash these dishes in a way that uses less water and makes us epically awesome" rather than saying "you totally suck at washing dishes!
Is goofy about permaculture
Has listened to some or many of Paul Wheatons podcasts. Permies.com
Does not smoke cigarettes or marijuana
Is a bit of a lion tamer who can put out 'fires' and serve dinner at the same time

Job Responsabilities
Prepare and serve, on time, 3 meals a day, 5 days a week for between 15-30 people
Daily, weekly, and monthly menu planning and execution of meals
Basic, healthy, cost conscious foods that are generally Weston A. Price and Paleo-friendly.
Calculate and cost out dishes served
Teach community members to cook and clean
Follow up on cleaning schedules and make sure kitchen assistants perform their kitchen duties and complete cleaning tasks in a timely manner
Supervise and train kitchen help and cleanup crews. Also, be able to say "floor is dirty, hey you, can you clean that?" and feel comfortable in a leadership role
Can 'Call people out' when they make mistakes, and do so in a way that empowers them to get themselves 'together', rather than create animosity
Practice all forms of preservation throughout the year to have food during the winter
Do monthly inventory

'Kitchen Commander' is considered to be an on site position - living here at base camp and invited to dine with Paul - and will be offered a stipend based on experience. Additionally, the Kitchen commander has the chance to be involved in all aspects of sustainable living practiced onsite, from earthworks to rocket mass heaters, compost heaters, wofati construction, etc.
.

Phenomenal Newby! It IS fantastic to see this system work over time, thank you!

Shooting for the moon: Does anyone have any experience with other animals, goats maybe? I have better acces to goats than pigs in my urban environment. But then I could use a good excuse to get me some pigs. And another urban homesteadder friend of mine says his ducks seemed to have sealed off their brick patio rather well.

Seth P

The wofati on the lab that Tim and family moved into needed and RMH. Here are 3 shots. Sure wish I could post more at a time, how do people do that?

Seth Peterson

Though English was not his first language his words spoke eloquent volumes of variables he captured through testing.

Seth

It is my understanding that Peter is a self-taught rocket scientist. Turn this inventor mind to RMH and you get an attempt at developing RMHs that are 100% efficient, and since, technically speaking, that is not feasible in the real world he is shooting for 99.9% efficiency or more. Someone check me on all of this, because I maybe be confusing details, I mean, am I even close? This large RMH is the largest attempt yet as we approach a size that will give us 99.9%.

It was the double barrel of RMH.

Great article and great new voice on the scene.

I love when people show me the mushrooms they found, I ask them "who found who?"

Seth

I feel like the question I ask myself is not which but when I will build each.

When I saw Matt's work, I thought "I can go home and build that" and he's got videos online to help.

When I saw peter's work, "wow that's big, but I could learn to do build."

When I saw Tim's, "ok, I just want to understand that."

That is to say Tim's work was high tech meets mad max boggery. Matt's work was low tech do at home,
Make from half garbage and some bricks and a tube and it works. The most high tech thing Matt did was pour an RMH core. The most low tech thing in Tim's design was probably Matt's core. So, I'm saying I would get my toes wet by jumping into copying Matt's work with his online videos and Erica and Ernie's work, read their book and upcoming book and then move up to peter's work and Tim's creations.

Or not.

You see, I haven't worked with high pressure plumbing, welding nor built a rocket core yet, so... "personal user experience and performance may vary"

Three great ideas/photos/thanx

1) Tom's list looks very nice! And yes he is a warrior, and so I dedicate the photo below to his honor.

Planning for next time, let's also have more billboard tarps for mixing cob and materials collection. And attendees bring more tools, and more materials and more expertise.

2) I also want to thank the hosts immensely, the space and time they created was powerful and unique, and the second photo is one I will present in a final project this semester (those are Paul's hands, for the uninitiated)
.
The permaculture kitchen: Paul's suggestions nailed it, a workshop like this needs a dedicated, pre-planned food service.

I went to a convergence before Paul's place and the kitchen was run smoothly, they fed 350 people a day, at $3 a plate and did it well. Because that is their area of excellence, it is what they do. All pre-planned, pre-budgeted, and executed in real time.

I would be happy to provide this service next time or work with / or train those who are, because it is a critical function that I do well. It is just a question of planning ahead.

Same as Tom's excellent list of ideas around early materials acquisitions or next time.

That said the kitchen performed very well in terms of healthy delicious food and on time, where the kitchen failed was in planning and costing out menus, clean up and general logistics as well as innefficiencies. The costs in time, money, energy and personal attention are avoidable under a solid Kitchen Commander with a system in place.

I look forward to any help I can give in this regard. The kitchen must be a source of delicious nourishment and happy revitalization through out the workday. To this end, large details like type of diet (we were mostly paleo and Weston a. Price) or even small details like serving homemade 'gatorade' and providing midmorning snacks that keep mind and body at their optimum are great elements to the permaculture kitchen.

3) a photo to honor Ernie and Erica who were the intellectual and physical backbone that put the workshop together, chose the team of innovators and were excellent teachers, crafty cat herders, formidable lion tamers, and sweet & savory cooks.

Cheers,
From the heart of Berkeley
Seth Peterson
Local Larder and
Permaculture Chef

I also want to show more of Matt's work. He was quick out of the gate and built the rocket mass cooker with smoker attachment and bench before the gun had even fired. I smoked some of the best, fresh butchered, brined, locally grown pig I have eaten in my life on his contraption, which has smoker on it, but could easily changed to a wok, pot of water, flat top, oven, etc.

This is the first thing that I will build in my backyard. Building it with Matt showed us how easy it is to put together. And he was real keen on getting people to realize, yea this is awesome, this is better and I can do this. And, I can make it with a glass front to see the fire, or I can make it at the beach for a day with friends and family. Simply, phenomenal.

I will build one in time for this winter (Cali winter) and invite my friends and neighbors to a fire feast every full moon. We will cook on it and gather around the fire and they will understand why.

Seth Peterson
Permaculture Chef,
Post workshop thoughts and aspirations,

Howdy!

Incredible set of events! Congratulations to all of you, the innovators, the hosts, the long termers, the participants, the kitchen, and the gappers. So, much was seen and done. And I took a lot of photos so, I will be posting many.

Here is Tim's cock it, lock it and rocket!

I posted some more photos and discussion in the thread on permaculture kitchen in community/Paul wheaton laboratories.

Is there a way I can link this to this thread? Help?

Hey Kpermies!

I present for your consideration, Tim Barker's rocket mass stove all in one cooking gizmo. It bakes, it boils, it sears, it simmers, it makes it's own hot water for washing up. All in one nifty compact unit made from 1/2 scrap materials and 1/2 store bought valves and tubes, and it is, as the French say 'formidavel'.

This innovator made the whole thing from leftover barrels and other stuff, welded and assembled it in four days and by the end we were baking brownies in it.

The heat rises from the core and hits a diverted that goes to the hot plate/griddle or the oven, or some combination of both. Thus,heat is regulatable by the size of the fire and the diverter built in.

There is also an ingenious two stage hot water heater built into the base. It is designed akin to a wort chiller at baine Maria concept. I am told a direct rocket mass stove water heater could easily blow up, and one this size could take out the house on the lab, if not a little more. So, yeah, important innovation. I'm also told there is one running, that Tim designed and installed, at PRI. And that it is run by interns without problem, so that says a lot about this design.

I wanna take this same design ideas, and re-imagine it for the skiddabe kitchen, essential meaning larger and fixed into the frame Jessie designed, and is earlier in this thread, I believe. Essentially make it larger and built into a table top with counter space for cooking as well as prep and a grey water sink / chicken food grinder for waiste. I'll get up some sketches and invite anyone else to jump/chime in.

I think you could also have burners that are hotter and colder, as well as adjustable. For pots, pans, woks, brewing, a still for essential oils, a smoker and various other functions.

Additionally for future consideration...
I think it could act as an in the field rocket mass heater. I mean if the skiddable has a decent water mass that gets heated, then tents or an encampment of sorts could be placed around it. And it would stay warm for the night and have warm maybe hot water in the morning. Just a crazy thought.

Did I mention Beka made brownies in it?
Thanks Beka!!

Now that's cooking,
Seth
Your local larder
Reporting back from the innovators workshop, at the lab

Hey all,
Lots of questions to answer, lots of info to convey, lots of photos to upload, so expect a lot over the next few weeks.

Let me start by showing you all the rocket mass smoker. It was the first thing Matt built and did it faster than I could say, that sounds like I good idea. I used it All week; smoked bacon, smoked garam masala pork belly, smoked jerk pork belly, smoked pork Howells, smocked hocks and ears for soup, brined and smoked hams with shatteringly crispy skin served with homemade kraut and pickles was the final supper at wheaton laboratories.

The unit he built had a core in the ground with a barrel and a chimney, smoker on top of the barrel and warmed bench to sit on. See photos.

Matt is beyond awesome and threw this together with one hand, just to share it with all of us. I cooked some of the best meals of my life on it. Praise the lard, praise Matt be.


Seth
Your local larder,
In the permaculture pantry,
Direct from wheaton labs.

Hey all,
I have been working in several different organizations over the last few years and came across holacracy as an antidote to hierarchical structures of management that often lead to lack of taking ownership, stifling of innovative ideas and organizational evolution, and disenfranchisement of participants. It is neither top down, nor bottoms up, but rather much flatter and transparent. It is a distributed process management system that includes mechanisms for continuous improvements.

Here's a link for people to check out the basics. Very worth a look. http://holacracy.org/how-it-works

I just spent the last three weeks at Wheaton Labs and saw that much progress could potentially be gained by adopting a holocratic methodology. It would, however, be a shift away from the benign dictator model being employed under Paulus Maximus' wise leadership. But it would answer a lot of the tensions they expressed (a tension being the difference between the current state of something and the desired state of that same thing) as well as take some decision making off of Paul's broad shoulders. Paul would still retain veto authority, but everyone else would be given the tools to accomplish many goals without the bottleneck in decision processing and empower them to do so, as well as, causing people to care about taking ownership of their own areas of operation. The process still retains checks and balances, without getting bogged down into consensus decision making.

So,
Have you heard of holacracy? What do you think of it? How does it compare with other systems? What are your favorite methods?

It has been darned busy round these parts with barely a chance to breathe. So here's a photo of a pleasant piece of pork from the two weeks ago pig butchery. Said swine was smoked after being brined. And said smoking was done with a rocket stove smoker. Said rocket heater was made by Matt, otherwise known as the Matt Hatter.

So, if you like this sort of thing. More to come....
Seth

Here at the RMH innovators event things are really getting out of hand, one example is Matt, a man who has shown himself to be a die hard doer and utterly incapable of not-getting-things-done.

I'm a fanboy!
Seth
Your local larder.


P.S. If you wish you were here with us, there is an offer on the table for an excellent dishwasher, house cleaner to help us these last few days.

Hey permies, and permutations,

I'm loving the ideas and imagining what your kitchens look like. I am also thinking it would be great if people started posting photos of their kitchens.

I've started a list of the elements in a permaculture kitchen and will add in people's ideas, so keep 'em coming!

We have been putting out some good food this week videotaping how to make different preserved goods. Today we did kimchi, ginger bugs, and vinegar pickled daikon radish from the hugel bed on the property. We will cover the ten+ forms of preserving the harvest.

Anyway, here, below, is the list so far, so enjoy.
Seth Peterson,
Your Local Larder

ELEMENTS IN A PERMACULTURE KITCHEN (partial list)

Brewery, continuous brewing, medicinal beers
Brine barrel
Butchery station
Cast iron pans
Chalk board / message board
Cheese cave or cheese wofati, salumi,
Chefs and cooks
Cider press / apple corer
Coffee grinder and brew system
Cookbooks
Community connection
Compost pile
Counter tops
Cupboards
Dining table
Distillery, still, hydrosols
Disinfectants: GSE (grapefruit seed extract), vinegar,
Dishwasher station and dish rack
Drying yard, drying yard, solar, dryer, solar dehydrator
Electricity
Extracts, tinctures
Fresh herbs and drying rack
Food sources
Flatware and plate ware
Flour mill, blender, food processor, grinder,
Fly swatter
Gappers doing soul and labor
Grey water
Hay box oven
Healthy fats
Herbs: shelf
Honey bees
Incubator for yogurt, cheese, salumi, etc.
Ingredients: seasonal, stock,
Jars of all sizes and purposes
Kitchen tools: grater, peeler, spoons spatulas
Kitchen garden connection: fruits, veggies, herbs, mushrooms
Kitchen tablet with KIM
Knives and sharpening stone
Leftovers and intentional leftovers
Legal basis
Lights
Master health tonic
Mead ('the meady bits')
Mortar & pestle
Music
No plastics, toxic gick
Labels and FIFO
Pantry & larder
Prepping
Culinary philosophy and theoretical basis
Pots & pans: cast iron, stainless steel, crock pots, soup/stock pots sauté pans
Preservation parties / days and equipment, preservation calendar
Professional refrigerator and freezer combo
Recycle
Rolling can shelf like in stores
Routine cleaning service (monthly house cleaner to set the floor of how dirty thing get)
Root cellar
Spray bottles
Solar oven
Solar dryer/dehydrator
Storage areas: pantry, larder, shelves, root cellar,
Stove: gas, RMH, new electric, induction, sous vide
Sauces, vinaigrettes, condiments
Sauerkraut crocks
Sourdough starter
Seasonal recipe calendar
Summer/outside kitchen
Spice mixes: 'Italian, Mexican, Asian'
Tea and brewer
Traditional cooking / Weston A. Price
Value added commissary kitchen for farms to make cabbage into kraut
Ventilation system
Mother cultures: kombucha, vinegar, cheese, butter, salami, miso, saki, etc.
Waiste bins
Walk in / fridge. One door is fridge in kitchen with shelves.
Water, running, pump, foot or solar powered
Wine rack, barrels, equipment
Whey jar and raw milk jars
Worm bin
Zones of accumulation
1000 yr soup pot / continues stock pot

THE ROLE OF THE KITCHEN IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

The kitchen is a big part of zone zero, we visit it regularly throughout the day, engaging in the ancient but timeless rituals we have around eating, around gaining sustenance. Historically, it is a corner stone of civilization; currently, it is a major driver of how we are shaping our culture now and into the future. It is at the crossroads of modern culture, modern agriculture and sustainability. For city folks, our closest contacts with nature and agriculture amount to either eating it at the table or visiting it at the zoo or park in and taking photos of it. And even country folks, it seems, all to often have much more contact with chemical farming methods and imposing our will on nature than actual natural areas where Mother Nature is in charge.

Yet, everyday, we eat, multiple times a day. Meanwhile we, as a society, we rarely farm. What better place to start to help heal what ails us and our society than in the kitchen?

I heard Larry Santoyo discussing the importance of getting your zone 0 in order first to make sure your project is sustainable. Make it comfortable, and functional and pleasant so that you have a nice homey, practical place to live in and return to after a hard days work - to many of us live in a permaculture construction zone of unfinished projects. I think Larry was speaking in reference to a conversation on how to stay married and keep your partner around long term, which had been a difficulty for several people at that table. The linchpin to sustainability is a couple or group who stays together. I didn't understand

Sepp holzer has emphasized to us on in-numerous occasions that the goal is to live in a pleasant place where you feel good, to create a personal paradise where the flora and fauna thrive. When going onto project sites that are atrocious atrocities, ugly and dysfunctional, he asks, who wants to live like this? Why design like this to create erosion and runoff, blazing hot areas and others that get too cold? Build a place you want to live in.

I spent some time in Italy last year, with an emphasis on food, and ate wonderfully like four times a day. They way Italians talk about food, prepare it and eat it is legendary. People discussed recent meals like we would discuss politics or football. It is as if time stops where eating begins. A family at a restaurant can take 20 minutes discussing what they will eat and how to course it and then another fifteen minutes discussing it with the waiter as he or she makes suggestions and improvements to their plan. It was a beautifully executed ritual. One day, I asked a shopowner where I could get a good panzanella salad. He replied only in people's homes, and that each home made it differently. He then gave me his family's recipe, using a dictionary for words like cucumber. He described every detail, so that I could correctly replicate it back home. About fifteen minutes into the conversation, a couple in the shop had a question and wanted to make a purchase. He gave them a look that was at the same time admonishing and mischievously friendly, stating that we were right in the middle of a very, very important discussion, one that, you could tell, he wanted to get right. By twenty minutes in, they were listening intently and comparing family recipes. Then there's the cheese caves, the truffle dogs, the table wine and water, for thousands years they have literally built a culture around food. What have we built? Microwaveable popcorn, apple bee's and fake food.

I ask people a lot "what does your permaculture look like?", it's my favored question at permie get togethers. Mine often tends to look like me and a bunch of friends, neighbors or strangers cooking up and eating a delicious meal of stellar food, in community. It's the ultimate permaculture sales pitch, you don't have to explain anything. It embodies the three principles. It looks like the videos from Farmstead Meatsmith. (If you don't know, and haven't seen them. (LITERALLY, stop everything your doing and go see them right now, if I were on a deserted island with one video... I mean I think Brandon actually made me tear up once, just by the way he talks about food produced in community.)

So, yea, the roles of the kitchen in society is worth reading up on. An extensive area for background research, one that I could dedicate several lifetimes to. As you can see, when approaching a new topic, I like to go back to square one as much as possible. Now, I may be going a little too far into the theoretical aspects of this topic for some people, but, well that is where our basic assumptions come from, from the history and mythology and practice of cookery, agriculture and Culture itself. Thus a re-examination of our food culture requires us to get back to these basics, and learn from history. Did Persians really keep honeybees in the kitchen wall? Historical research on traditional kitchen practices is needed.

The kitchen and dining room table have become the nexus for holding our culture together, the point where many of our concerns meet and materialize.

Seth

Hey all,
I have been here at the land for almost 48 hours. Mostly observing, and beginning to apply the permaculture design process to kitchens. So, we are doing...
A Base map with on site resources.
List of elements with their inputs, outputs and inherent characteristics.
Sector analysis and zones analysis.
Initial interview with owners
Etc.

All of which, I will be posting here this week for everyone to add onto and then we can all use it as a resource.

Love the podcast idea, already making a list of topics to discuss.

I'd also love to do a week of answers on this forum with a book giveaway. I have some ideas what that book will be, but I want to hear your thoughts, so, post some books you all consider essential to the Perma-kitchen library. I'll then compile this list for everyone's use.

What cookbooks do you love??

I bless our wise elders, like Paul Stametz who were the first wave. They brought the dream of a better world, and set the stage for the next generation to perform on. And that next generation is now emerging to do 'the work' of reinventing the world. So now we have groups like radical mycology (see their upcoming convergence info elsewhere on this site). And in this vein, Tradd Cotter's new book out called: Organic mushroom farming and mycoremediation, is a very solid review of cultivation techniques and remedial applications that speaks to our younger generations interests and concerns. Stametz's has been the man for so long and his books are great, so it is great to see that now more and more people are stepping up to share the burden/joy of regenerative agricultural practices.

I just picked up Cotter's book and love it.

Seth