Sepp Holzer | 5 Day Intensive | Malibu, California

I'm very happy to say that Sepp Holzer will be returning to North America for a final trip this May. The workshop in California will be May 4th-9th in Malibu California. This workshop will focus on how to read the landscape, how to find water in the landscape, and what to do with it once found. During the workshop we will case a Spring and show all of the preparations for a Holzer style spring casing. We will also evaluate the landscape for water retention. The two workshops will be very complementary, the California one focusing on how to read the landscape, and the Montana workshop focusing on the actual earthworks involved.

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Learn how to farm time from the world's leading natural farmer. Make use of the resources that nature provides, rather than abusing and exploiting our planet.
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I welcome any and all questions about this workshop.

Oooh, you've scared me, Zach. What do you mean by "final trip?"

Hi Zach,
I'm interested to know what is size of the landscape that is going to be assessed during this workshop.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Derick Greenly wrote:What do you mean by "final trip?"

I fully expect this to be Sepp's last trip to North America. In 2012 he spent 200 days traveling, consulting, and teaching all around the globe. In 2013 he cut that number back dramatically, and now he is no longer traveling for consultations and workshops. He has a new farm in Austria, the Holzerhof, and is focusing on developing this farm and teaching workshops there (around 12 a year). The only way we were able to convince him to come to North America again was by assuring him that we will only go places where he will be allowed to do earthworks.

So for people that are on the fence, thinking maybe they will wait for next year, I wouldn't suggest waiting. There will of course continue to be workshops in Austria, but as for workshops in North America, it's now or never.

Jp Learn wrote:what is size of the landscape that is going to be assessed during this workshop.

I don't remember the exact size of the property, but it is around 16 acres.

I was actually WAY off on the size of the property in California, it is actually around 25 hectares, over 60 acres.

Any chance this or one of the other Sepp intensive classes will be filmed?

I really hope so. I'd buy it!

I wish all of Sepp's classes would be filmed. It sounds like an incredible amount of information at each workshop/seminar/intensive

Sheri

Most likely we will find a way to film these workshops. We have filmed workshops in the past, often the most difficult is turning the footage into video, and all of the production costs associated with this. We may try a Paul Wheaton style kickstarter in the future, but right now all of our efforts are focused on this spring.

Zach Weiss wrote:I was actually WAY off on the size of the property in California, it is actually around 25 hectares, over 60 acres.

Much appreciated.

Hi Zach,

Thank you for expressing the urgency to which Mr. Holzer's visit yields. It'd be an honor to learn in person from the man who ignited my interest in permaculture and gave me the confidence to pursue this "alternative agriculture". I'm currently studying in Western Washington and am trying to equate which location makes the most sense.

I'm glad to see Sepp is going to California. If these methods could be adopted at anytime universally, it'd be now, during a drought in CA.

Hi Lukas, it certainly is a dire time in California and a great time for Sepp's visit. Situations like this are not a result of nature, but rather our treatment of the landscape. We have been abusing our water and the watershed for far too long. When the consequences start to cause problems then the media terms this a "natural" disaster. Nature has no disasters, it is always moving forward balancing the current conditions of the landscape. If we don't change our management strategies then catastrophes like this will continue to become more and more common.

Wow this looks like an awesome workshop!!

The early bird discount ends this Friday, March 7th. Only two days left to register and get the 10% discount. This should be a great time in the California sun, on the coast of Malibu.

I've paid for a space and cannot make it. I paid the early price if $1125. Anyone want to take this off my hands? Thank you, Ted
tedwardma at hotmail.

For those of you unfamiliar with Malibu (except for the Hollywood hype), it is indeed a lovely area.

Typical Mediterranean climate. You may get some rain that time of year, but otherwise, each night, the weatherman on TV will probably be saying "Late night and early morning low clouds along the coast, some clearing in the afternoon."

"Malibu" is a Chumash Indian word. The Malibu Lagoon was the southern edge of the Chumash's coastal range, which extended north to around the Santa Barbara area, and the Channel Islands (where the Chumash had a rock quarry). The Chumash used tar balls (which floated ashore from the offshore oilfields) to seal the joints on their boats, to make them water-tight. These tar balls were also used as a fuel additive for their fires. There were also regions inland from Santa Barbara where this tar/oil still seeps from the earth.

The Spanish missionaries did their best to 'assimilate' the tribe into forced labor at their mission chain. The Chumash still have a large population, mostly in Ventura County.

Here are a few pictures from the first day of the workshop.

Some spent a few minutes to appreaciate the ocean view from the upper portion of the site at the end of the workshop for day one.

Q&A this morning to start. While on a quick break I saw Sepp over looking at a huge pile of brush and trees that were taken down prior to our arrival and piled at the end of the area that our tent is sent up in. This was deemed as trash by the owner. I walked over to Sepp and, even though I don't speak German, I nodded at brush and tree pile and simply stated hugelculture. Sepp nodded back to me at my comment. We confirmed with one another that I couldn't speak German and he couldn't speak English (no translator around, of course) and we looked at it for a quick minute then he said something to me with a mischevious little twinkle and smile and walked on. Oh, to know what he said!

Late morning we headed further up onto the worksite. We stopped by an area where vegetation and sediment is being removed to create two ponds. The sediment being harvested from the future pond areas is VERY rich in nutrients, so it was decided by Sepp and the class to petition the owner of the property to see if we could build a hugelculture bed using the brush and top with the sediment being removed from the pond area. We were told that he wanted to focus primarily on the other projects first (pond, spring and terraces) but if we had time at the end we could build it (and because 6 of the students volunteered to stay on an extra day or two to finish it).

After inspection of the pond site, we were to move up to the spring area to go through the process of casing the spring. It was discovered, however, that the company that the material was ordered from delivered the wrong things and we would not be able to work on it today. Obviously, people were not happy. For whatever reason, they decided to go back down to the classroom tent area instead of working on terraces. Sepp quickly decided that we would start to build the hugelculture since we could not work on the spring. It would not only serve as a huge growing bed, but it would also be a windbreak.

Sepp down in the area that will become a pond and giving instructions to Johnny.

One excavator was brought down and it, along with the backhoe, started pulling the material off of the brush pile and forming it into a semi-circle. Then some small piles of loose soil that were close by were added over top of the woody material. We needed more soil so they dug into the base of the hill. Currently bed is about 7-8 foot high and tomorrow the material from the pond will be brought down, added on top and then we will plant things out.

We ordered and have seeds being sent in next day (need a large amount). We also have mushroom inoculant coming and, if we can get the proper wood, will inoculate then partially bury the logs (standing up) in the bottom edge of the bed to add mushroom production to the yield of the bed.

DAY 3 - We continued to discuss reading the landscape, including how to evaluate it for finding springs.

The spring that is being cased is mad up of three smaller veins of water being brought together in one. Much of the work ended up having to be done by hand because the side of the mountain above it was loosening a bit and there was a high risk of losing the veins of water and rock slides.

Work continues on the hugelculture bed. Picture shows a sizeable excavator (I think this might have been the 9 ton) beside it working. A little more material to go on top before seeding. Seeds did arrive yesterday. We are still working on getting fresh logs for the mushroom innoculation.

Jen, thank you for posting these photos and notes. I love in SoCal and am very interested in seeing permaculture in this climate.