Trace's Minneapolis Area Food Oasis' (building towards sustainable human settlement)

Hello! My name is Trace. I learned what permaculture is while picking olives a year and a half ago from a Norwegian named Jan who wrote the book Permaculture; A Student's Guide to the theory and Practice of Eco-village Design. I read his book, and then I read 5 more books. It's the solution to all the worlds problems, and to my meaning crisis.

I arrived to my hometown from Wheaton Labs Bootcamp a week ago. (I learned a lot, and also started a BRK which you can find here https://permies.com/t/250709/Trace-Bootcamp-Experience-BRK#2375363).

I am mad. I am very very concerned about the state of the planet, and one day I will die, (and one day the sun will too). And I know that the solutions lie in love, and some manner of self transcendence/spiritual awakening. Heaven is here, but only some can see it. Even as our sun burns through its energy store, we still have 5 billion years to get our shit together, and when we do, it will be exponentially fucking beautiful. It is beautiful, and as it dies, other suns are born. I look like a shrimp rn. So I'm posting updates on my endeavors to change the planet, one home at a time for you to follow me through, pass guidance, and promote discussion. I'm fearless.

As I got home, I hit the ground running with amazon seed orders (perennials and 1200 radish seeds). and reviving the gardens with mulch and water. I'm currently focused on three sites right now, my mother's, father's, and friend's parent's houses, as well as connecting up with people and organizations in the area such as Urban Roots.

I'll be doing my best to showcase and follow the permaculture principles; involving nature shapes, connectivity in design, energy capture, diversity, edge, hugelkultur, beautiful free pallet building projects (recycled materials), rainwater harvesting, compost toilets, rocket mass heaters, much more i missed to mention, and most importantly outdoor wood heated pizza ovens.

And we'll see where it takes me. Feel free to help me, comment, teach, advise, criticize, empower, share, and buy me trees and seeds (and I'll throw on my high vis and tell you which park they got planted in oops).

While doing repetitive labor like ripping up my mom's lawn while she's on vacation, I can get double done by listening to audio books at the same time!!

These are photos from the last year. Now everything on will be present updates.

So glad that bootcamp taught you a lot to build on what you'd already learnt and that you're moving forward for not only your garden/yard/household, but also for family and friends too.

Trace Chiodo wrote:.....And I know that the solutions lie in love, and some manner of self transcendence/spiritual awakening.......

Yes.  Lots of bytes and ink get burned up not realizing this important aspect.  Cuz no amount of techno-fix is going to solve the major problems of our planet until we learn to actually LOVE who we are, where we are, and what the planet and universe has given to us.

John Weiland wrote:

Trace Chiodo wrote:.....And I know that the solutions lie in love, and some manner of self transcendence/spiritual awakening.......

Yes.  Lots of bytes and ink get burned up not realizing this important aspect.  Cuz no amount of techno-fix is going to solve the major problems of our planet until we learn to actually LOVE who we are, where we are, and what the planet and universe has given to us.

Yes!!! Absolutely it feels sooo right that way too. Love (and fear) is the energy you make more of when you use it!

Does anyone know if first flush diverters are necessary and why I should have them? It would save a lot of money and time to just divert the roof water through a screen to my rainwater tanks.

https://www.bluebarrelsystems.com/blog/first-flush-diverter/

Maybe it depends how dirty your roof gets.

Christopher Weeks wrote:https://www.bluebarrelsystems.com/blog/first-flush-diverter/

Maybe it depends how dirty your roof gets.

That is really helpful! Thank you! I actually already put some in:( but I am convinced after seeing them work and reading this article that they are unnecessary. So now when I put them in for my dad and other people I won't use first flush diverters.

OOfDA! it has been a while-- such a busy summer! But here I am to present what has happened in the last three months, both what I've done, who I've met, and what I have learned about changing the food system in Minneapolis, and boy theres a lot to say. I hope that you become inspired and up to date on what is happening here, as I think no one else has mentioned all of the cool projects, and for starters, we are not going to get through this environmental emergency if we don't get along with our neighbors, connect, create partnerships, and do the work we want to see done in our bioregions.

There is a lot happening here.

For starters, as I won't be able to post more updates for a few more weeks when the growing season slows down, I want to promote a Hugelkultur workshop I will be hosting in North Minneapolis this Thursday, October 3 as part of the 12 Days Free From Violence. It's from 4-8 pm at Willard Hay Seeders Community Garden. 2126 Golden Valley Road, Minneapolis, MN. It will be a great opportunity to connect with people, learn about hugelkultur and planting garlic. Skip the gym, and join us! THERE WILL BE SMORES. And snacks

I have attached the flyer.

I am open and looking for:
People coming! I'd love to meet you and learn your permaculture skillset and projects.
Helpers to help me if you have expertise in hugelkultur or garlic or whatever and want to join me, come!
If you are apart of a company or organization and want to table
A pizza chef to cook pizzas (I have already) in the woodfire oven during the event- there are 18 small pizzas so it should take you like 2 hours from firing it up to finish. Text me 952 836 6124.
promote this event.

Touch base later:) . Peace.

Updates from mid summer at home.

How did your mom react to having her lawn ripped up ? The garden looks great! I bet that the fresh harvest you look like achieving smoothed any issues.

Nancy Reading wrote:How did your mom react to having her lawn ripped up ? The garden looks great! I bet that the fresh harvest you look like achieving smoothed any issues.

At first it didn't look so alive, but towards July she was very happy with it yes! She took more initiative on it as I spent less time there! I think one thing that was preventing her being on board for replacing more lawn while she was home was that I didn't have time to care for the gardens at hand. Also as she started to do more things herself in the garden, she liked it more!

It makes me think we all have a yearning to care for our own piece of land. Her not knowing what to do at first made it not feel like hers, hence not as enjoyable and not enjoying the full benefits of owning property. Now as she takes over more, it's better for her.

How are things going in your cold season over there?  We appreciate the updates on the great projects you're doing and classes you're teaching.

The eggplant and tomatillos are still surviving, probably some microclimates at work, but we are low on sunlight. I just plucked the tomatoes off the vines last night, as the plants are starting to die and we got a frost this morning. It has been a very long growing season as I seeded the tomatoes outdoors on April 13th. The collards, broccoli, cabbages, mustard, radishes, sage, parsley, spinach, and Brussels sprouts are still going strong. There is a thick blanket of leaves on the ground, as all of the big trees lost their leaves. Apple trees by the house still have most leaves, but some are turning yellow!

I can update more later on the city projects at work!
Right now we are planning a community compost program with 30k a year to work with. Any one have ideas and/or models so I don't have to reinvent the wheel?

I feel overwhelmed by the city and all the complexities and strength of the empire. Stuck inside the belly of the beast laying waste to this land. How do I create more impact?

Trace Chiodo wrote:I can update more later on the city projects at work!
Right now we are planning a community compost program with 30k a year to work with. Any one have ideas and/or models so I don't have to reinvent the wheel?

Paul will often talk in his presentations about avoiding municipally generated compost as it invariably contains some levels of residual pesticides and persistent herbicides. This is why he stresses using material from your own property. I'm not aware of any existing or suggested models to make such a thing work, though my knowledge of geography is more historical in nature.

I think it could be an excellent tool to foster community for those committed to densely populated living. If all inputs were coordinated with Garden Masters or somesuch to consult with participants on their property to prevent additions of, or at least separate material by, toxic contaminants, people with an interest in healthy environments could solidify neighbourhood connections. In the process, awareness of the detrimental effects of products promoted recklessly by the big ag corporations could be spread to counter the propaganda present in places like the official master gardener program.

Of course such a human intensive operation would be heavily dependant on volunteers and/or eat up a significant chunk of the budget with compensation. Perhaps it would require starting small with a growth model to allow it to spread, much like the original concept of the 'weed-like' PDC program...

Thank you for this inspiring thread, Trace!
For a wonderful community compost adventure, I loved watching:
Happen Films production, Ben and bEartha
I learned so much!

Thanks for the reply! Ill check it out.

Now, there is this aquaponics course I was thinking of signing up for in person soon. Does anyone have strong opinions for or against aquaponics? Consider the city environment too. I am skeptical, as it is energy-intensive, but think it might still be useful to know how to do, and have on a small scale.

Hey Trace, our own Ashley Cottonwood ran a community composting business with the help of chickens for several years. You can read about it at the thread Composting 30,000 pounds of food waste

There was also a video of a place in Vermont that had a massive composting setup. They dumped windrows of compost, let their chickens free range on it, and moved it with excavators. I haven't found that one again, yet.

Hello! I wached Bertha and loved it. We plan to largely follow their collection and original set up with pitchfork turned compost and biking 5 gallon buckets around, with the plan to possibly expand to bertha in later years. So inspiring!! I like your concern for municipal compost and that is possible, although I do want to make known that hot compost binds roundup to carbon and makes it inert (about 1 cup per meter3). That is just another reason to make our own compost for Oak Park and the neighborhood. We will start small at one location and eventually expand like you said to our greater 5 gardens. I like what you said about creating community development and bonding opportunities through the compost.

Coydon Wallham wrote:

Trace Chiodo wrote:I can update more later on the city projects at work!
Right now we are planning a community compost program with 30k a year to work with. Any one have ideas and/or models so I don't have to reinvent the wheel?

Paul will often talk in his presentations about avoiding municipally generated compost as it invariably contains some levels of residual pesticides and persistent herbicides. This is why he stresses using material from your own property. I'm not aware of any existing or suggested models to make such a thing work, though my knowledge of geography is more historical in nature.

I think it could be an excellent tool to foster community for those committed to densely populated living. If all inputs were coordinated with Garden Masters or somesuch to consult with participants on their property to prevent additions of, or at least separate material by, toxic contaminants, people with an interest in healthy environments could solidify neighbourhood connections. In the process, awareness of the detrimental effects of products promoted recklessly by the big ag corporations could be spread to counter the propaganda present in places like the official master gardener program.

Of course such a human intensive operation would be heavily dependant on volunteers and/or eat up a significant chunk of the budget with compensation. Perhaps it would require starting small with a growth model to allow it to spread, much like the original concept of the 'weed-like' PDC program...

Can you extrapolate on what you said with big ag and master gardener program, I don't understand for sure what you meant to say and I think it is valuable!

Trace Chiodo wrote:Can you extrapolate on what you said with big ag and master gardener program, I don't understand for sure what you meant to say and I think it is valuable!

I have not taken the Master Gardener course, just heard from others like Pual and Helen Attow. It seems what I describe below is hidden from the general public and only revealed once you are involved in the program. I could not find reference to it on any official website.

Although it is a program of volunteers organized through land grant colleges and universities, apparently funding for materials and facilities comes from 'sponsors'. At least at some point in time these sponsors have been able to then 'pull some strings' on the program's content, to have Integrated Pest Management included and mandate that instructors teach students about how to apply chemical pesticides. Savvy and responsible instructors would dedicate a fair amount of this part of the class to making students review or memorize the Safety Data Sheets for these products to ensure they understood these are probably bad things to put on something you eventually will be putting in your mouth, but sharing such knowledge is definitely not encouraged and the few who do are likely endangering their status in the program.

To avoid the issue entirely, Helen (and Paul?) has started the Garden Master program. Essentially the same idea, but with an emphasis on permaculture methods and the absence of toxic chemicals.

Coydon Wallham wrote:

Trace Chiodo wrote:Can you extrapolate on what you said with big ag and master gardener program, I don't understand for sure what you meant to say and I think it is valuable!

I have not taken the Master Gardener course, just heard from others like Pual and Helen Attow. It seems what I describe below is hidden from the general public and only revealed once you are involved in the program. I could not find reference to it on any official website.

Although it is a program of volunteers organized through land grant colleges and universities, apparently funding for materials and facilities comes from 'sponsors'. At least at some point in time these sponsors have been able to then 'pull some strings' on the program's content, to have Integrated Pest Management included and mandate that instructors teach students about how to apply chemical pesticides. Savvy and responsible instructors would dedicate a fair amount of this part of the class to making students review or memorize the Safety Data Sheets for these products to ensure they understood these are probably bad things to put on something you eventually will be putting in your mouth, but sharing such knowledge is definitely not encouraged and the few who do are likely endangering their status in the program.

To avoid the issue entirely, Helen (and Paul?) has started the Garden Master program. Essentially the same idea, but with an emphasis on permaculture methods and the absence of toxic chemicals.

Thank you for explaining! I though that you meant something like that. I've never heard of the Garden Master program. Ill look for that.

Hello all,

Now that the garden season is over, (and it really did just end last week when I finished mulching the gardens), winter is in full send (it is now 0 F). I hope to provide a little photo journal about the summer of 2024 in urban farming with Project Sweetie Pie to ponder some topics and share some learnings.

May, June, July, August.

This summer was a whirlwind of business, full of learning, educating, working, and networking, all around gardening. I think I got 200 new contacts on my phone for public/private partnerships. I learned so much about gardening (my second year dabbling in it), organizing, communicating, networking, photography, teaching, and the agriculture in Minnesota as a whole. I am very encouraged by all the people working so hard to make something good happen, to promote gardening and community. I also am well aware that this is not enough and everyone is still so deeply tied to the oppressive destructive system. It seems like some deeper more radical shadow work is needed to learn how to dream not militant, radical dreams of power and control, of blowing everyone away with our correctness, but dreams of natural dreams, doing what is natural for us to do as a revolution (Nikki Giovanni).

The stars aligned after coming home from Wheaton Labs last May, and it took but a month for me to secure a garden educator job I had to make myself qualified for. I had the privilege of volunteering full time for a month before seeing a dollar. But they saw my value and found grant money to fund my position. Over the summer I helped organize speakers, workshops, events, and garden work/education. After some time I gained the ability to lead the work done at the gardens and eventually pull it away from rows of tilled, un-mulched beds. A group of 5 interns and me ran 5 different gardens. They left to school in the middle of August. It was the first year that something like this was made possible (by hennepin county) and hopefully not the last. The hardest part were diverting attention from the smart phones, as all you teachers are well aware of:). My favorite part was doing garden work, although I think the most important part was that the kids were engaged in gardening, and that I was writing email updates for all to see.

Many people I met, including the interns concerned me with talk of people not liking gardening or being outside. They spoke of tecno-distopian inside farms with hydroponics. One person even had the audacity to tell me that the sun's ultraviolet rays are killing us. I am learning that it is quite the opposite (the sun is related to nutrition, happiness, and immune health). I am much more crazy than most people I meet. I refuse to drive to work even when it is 0 degrees, I love gardening, I am very excited to talk with people from all different cultures and backgrounds, and I love hard work. Probably not very different from anyone reading this tho. But I think that if people tried what I like doing, they would find that it makes them feel way better (more sun, exercise, reciprocity, impact), and stop calling me crazy. It is just really easy to be bamboozled by society and forget the truth (like in 1984 but less intense and less intentional by the higherups in my opinion). After speaking to so many government people I am becoming aware that quote "The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless." -Alan Moore- has truth to it and rather a big problem is that everyone who wants to make a difference is so unorganized. At least when covid happened the world got some resemblance of a rudder; be nice if they could devote that same amount of money and energy to permaculturing the world up. We have and know all the solutions, just how to implement. What do ya think?

More soon on August, September, October, and November!

Trace

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More photos!

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The People’s Almanac Garden Update: Sep 30🪱🪱

Why buy lasagna from a store when you can get it for free from the government? Why get free lasagna when you can enjoy the satisfaction of designing the perfect concoction, an experiment, a hands on learning opportunity for turning city waste into black gold, paramount for growing FOOD. My first time putting together a compost heap was a long time in the making. After a summer of waste going to the landfill or worse, Deedees kitchen now pumps out 10 gallons of food scraps each day to our heap, making it possible to produce our own fertility at Oak Park.


HUGELKULTUR BUILD!!! As a part of the 12 days free from violence, we (Project Sweetie Pie) put on an event on October 3rd.

6 y^3 of compost delivered from the City of Minneapolis just in time for the Hugelkultur build. The man driving, Kenny, invited us out to his farm to pick sweet corn to give away at the event!

Preparation for the event began in early September when Jean Ross of the Twin Cities Nonviolent reached out to Project Sweetie Pie to see if we wanted to collaborate on an event. We made up on the spot what we wanted to do and when; Michael suggested we build a Hugelkultur since Trace had been talking about it ALL summer.

Trace, Glenda, and Mia schlepped multiple minivan loads full of logs left to waste on roadsides to Hay Seeders Community Garden over the course of September. A firepit was built, and serendipitously, Pastor Victor Martinez purchased and cleaned out the building full of junk next door–one person’s junk is another’s treasure–providing most of the tables and chairs for the event. On the event day, we spent the morning preparing food. When it started, people started to trickle into the garden. When there were enough to start the build, we commenced. First we dug a trench to the gravelly hardpan (thanks to the tiller maybe) and then we put layers of logs then compost, logs then compost until we were out of logs, then I put the top soil/turf on it, and topped with compost. The reasoning behind using compost was that it was #1 free from the city to get it delivered and I don't know where else to get all that soil from to go over the logs, and #2 it may offset the nitrogen grab of the logs. Maybe someone knows a better way to do that... The night ended with a fire. Presence breeds safety. Community gatherings to build gardens are the most nonviolent we can get. Jean Ross commemorated our event for this.
It was a huge success even though I had to go and finish the build on my own. No one in the city was building big hugelkulturs, so I am glad there is one to finally show what they can do. Many people have shown interest in it, and very few knew what it was! Already some educators will run experiments on it, and people have notified me that they want one in their yard! I learned how to organize an event successfully for free by developing partnerships and letting people table. I learned the impact it has. I learned to invite way more people than I want to come because very few people will actually show up and people need to see a flyer 3 times before it registers in their brain.

That is a massive hugel! Good job Trace, and all the other volunteers!

Jeremy VanGelder wrote:That is a massive hugel! Good job Trace, and all the other volunteers!

Thank you!

and FYI I'm continuing to update on a different thread since this is community stuff here: https://permies.com/t/270803/Urban-farming-Minneapolis

Trace Chiodo wrote:After speaking to so many government people I am becoming aware that quote "The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless." -Alan Moore- has truth to it and rather a big problem is that everyone who wants to make a difference is so unorganized. At least when covid happened the world got some resemblance of a rudder; be nice if they could devote that same amount of money and energy to permaculturing the world up. We have and know all the solutions, just how to implement. What do ya think?

Was that a quote from Watchmen? Or maybe the documentary where Moore was predicting the apocalyptic events of 2016? I'd be real curious to know the context around it.

I'd think lacking central control is the nature of, well, nature. The world does what the world does, and the purpose of our existence is to navigate this ongoing sea of time, each individual struggling to find shores and islands of appropriate groups with whom they can grow in health with, swimming across waters to interact with other groups, and occasionally building ships to help us navigate through the roughest of passages. To see the entire world as a solitary ship is to negate nature in it's environmental form, to reduce human existence to containment on a stagnant construct spinning around a fusion reactor in the middle of an immense vacuum with no purpose left but to ration out dwindling resources while we race to find a way to reach other pockets of isolation to suck dry.

We don't need money and technocratic energy to transform the world. We need a population that prefers to engage with nature rather than to sit back and wait for privilege to ensure safety and fulfill desires. One that will work through hunger so that they can enjoy a feast. That will reject apathy and endure hatred so that they can arrive at love. Another quote: "It is only in uncertainty that we are naked and alive" -Peter Gabriel-

The efforts of self appointed elites to transform the whole of the planet into a vessel for them to control and guide us to some manifest destiny has long been an excuse for widespread violence and exploitation. They fight for control of the rudder, throwing the population into situations where they must die for someone else's cause. Somehow the ships they do build always end up running aground and they sail off in the lifeboats, watching the commoners fight each other over the few remaining flotation devices or swimming for the barren shores of some remote island. I think that describes the last few years well, with the fingerprints of globalized corporations all over the rudder that steered us into the escalated mortality rates, new groups in the population now so much chum for the sharks of turbo cancers and myocarditis, as well as the age old proxy wars.

Permaculture is an invasive species that will hang around degraded landscapes providing a needed reminder of the benefits of the natural world until such time that the general population recognizes that fighting, containing or negating nature is a path to doom, we must embrace the weeds and learn to work with nature once again.