Seeking community for immersive permaculture training

Howdy Permies,

I'm looking for a community where I can immerse myself in permaculture training for a while. It seems like there are so many options out there, and I'm hoping that by writing more about what I'm looking for, my fellow permies can offer me recommendations, point me in a direction, or give me things to consider.

Ever since I started looking into permaculture a few years ago, I've been so excited to explore it. At the time, I was fully immersed in grad school and just doing a little bit with permaculture on the side. Now that I'm done with school, I'm ready to take the deep dive into permaculture! What I'm envisioning is a large, well-established, healthy community where I can learn permaculture by doing. I'm ready to devote months to years to this. I've accumulated tidbits of permaculture-related experiences and skills over the years, such as gardening, farming, trail work, greenhouse, earth building, and botany. Now I'm looking for something more substantial.

My ideal is that the time commitment be part-time to start, giving me enough time left over for remote income generation; so an internet connection would be good. I'm also yearning to live in a community with well-established, consistent, healthy rhythms of life. After the isolation and inconsistency of my grad school lifestyle, I want to be shaped by community into a stronger, happier, healthier person. I've also moved around quite a bit in my life, which has made it difficult to maintain relationships, especially romantic. I'm a 36 y/o single man and yearning for a long-term relationship. Reading through the singles forum, it seems like doing a permaculture training could also be a great way to meet women who are looking for the same thing.

So to summarize, my goals are:
(1) Learn permaculture (primarily for lifestyle and sustenance rather than as a career)
(2) Live in and be shaped by consistent rhythms of a well-established, healthy community (not looking for newly forming communities at this point in my life)
(3) Meet people (maybe even future partner/wife) and make friends

Places that have been on my radar include Hawai'i, western USA and Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Australia, and New Zealand. I generally love warm weather, and my ideal climates are Mediterranean or tropical. That said, I'm open to other places as well if they're a good fit.

I feel a bit overwhelmed with all the options I've found out there, including WWOOF, ecovillages, intentional communities, PDC courses, etc., especially since my geographic scope is so big. A lot to sort through! That's why I'm asking for recommendations from you all

Actually, what got me excited and inspired to write this post in the first place was finding out about the Wheaton Labs bootcamp just yesterday! Here are some things that excite me about it and also some things that seem less than ideal. I'm sharing these to give a better idea of what I'm looking for.


What excites me about Wheaton Labs bootcamp program:
-Flexibility in duration of training
-Opportunities to meet other permies
-Consistent daily and weekly schedule
-No drugs or tobacco, and heavy alcohol use discouraged (works well with my lifestyle)
-Low monetary cost...$100 (and that's it for the entire program?)
-The community seems to be seeking and encouraging people to stay there long term (even for life)
-Opportunities to work towards PDC and lifetime of rent on the property
-Close to Missoula (potential opportunities for income generation at university)
-It's a lab! Spirit of learning and experimentation, which I love!
-People seem happy there
-Nearby hot springs!

Things that seem less than ideal for me about the bootcamp:
-40 hr/wk time commitment, leaving less time for outside income generation (but the fact that the program is essentially free could offset this for me...)
-Location: colder than my ideal, far from ocean
-Still seems like a fairly new community with mostly young people (is there a place for elders in the community?)


So anyways, thanks for reading all the way through this. I'm grateful for advice, recommendations, questions, and any other feedback that the community has to offer. Happy Old Year greetings to everyone!

Taylan

Have you checked out some of the woofer-type websites?

This post might offer some suggestions:

https://permies.com/t/40/116508/wrong-Missouri#1268978

Thanks Anne. I've been meaning to check out the WWOOFer websites, just haven't gotten around to it yet. It seems like there's so many options out there, and since I'm open to a wide geographic area, I often feel overwhelmed by all the options.

The thing that stuck out to me the most in the post that you linked was the thing about most communities failing, and the ones that succeed don't compromise too much.

I also came across this guide: https://permacultureapprentice.com/permaculture-community/
I like how it gives lots of guidelines and resources for locating areas with good community.

Taylan Morcol wrote:
What excites me about Wheaton Labs bootcamp program:
-Flexibility in duration of training
-Opportunities to meet other permies
-Consistent daily and weekly schedule
-No drugs or tobacco, and heavy alcohol use discouraged (works well with my lifestyle)
-Low monetary cost...$100 (and that's it for the entire program?)
-The community seems to be seeking and encouraging people to stay there long term (even for life)
-Opportunities to work towards PDC and lifetime of rent on the property
-Close to Missoula (potential opportunities for income generation at university)
-It's a lab! Spirit of learning and experimentation, which I love!
-People seem happy there
-Nearby hot springs!

Things that seem less than ideal for me about the bootcamp:
-40 hr/wk time commitment, leaving less time for outside income generation (but the fact that the program is essentially free could offset this for me...)
-Location: colder than my ideal, far from ocean
-Still seems like a fairly new community with mostly young people (is there a place for elders in the community?)


So anyways, thanks for reading all the way through this. I'm grateful for advice, recommendations, questions, and any other feedback that the community has to offer. Happy Old Year greetings to everyone!

Taylan

I am one of the boots and the oldest (over 40). Out of the 5 current long-term only two are below 30.

If you are concern about the 40/hr commitment you could look at the SEPPer program (https://permies.com/wiki/sepper). You can work and help on projects as much or little as you like but you need pay rent and buy your own food.

Location: Yes, it is not by the ocean, but every day I am amazed by the beauty of Montana's mountains.

Thanks Jeff. Good to know that there are boots in their 30s and 40s.

I was actually thinking about doing the SEPPer program the way you described. And if WL seemed like a good fit, I was even thinking I could rent a plot at Ant Village for a year, do the remote work on the side, and do some days or half days in the boots program to learn the skills. As my skills develop, then build a shelter/etc on the plot. Have other people done something like this?

I have only been here in the winter, I don't know if they had people doing that during the summer months.

Hey Folks,

OP here. I just wanted to write with an update. After much searching, I landed in the internship program at Lost Valley Educational Center in Oregon. In exchange for 20 hrs/week of land and garden work, I get food and a private room in a dorm. I found the program through WWOOF USA. It checks off a lot of the boxes that I had listed as criteria in my original message. Here's a link to the program: https://www.lostvalley.org/internship-opportunity

I'm less than a month in. Perhaps further down the line, I'll post another follow-up message with reflections from my time here.

Taylan