anyone in NE PA?

Hey Peter,
I am also a Honesdale (borough--1/4 acre) resident with 3.5 acres in Pleasant Mount. I also have a lot of ideas thanks to Geoff Lawton's online PDC. It would be great to share ideas and resources.

Good to hear from you Jon. For you and anyone in PA, I recommend joining PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) at least the Wayne County chapter is very good. If you are interested, I can get you more information.

Thank you, Peter. I have heard great things about PASA and have been to a few of the locally sponsored events which have been really informative. I would definitely appreciate the membership info. particularly on the local chapter.

Local Wayne County PASA meets second Sunday of the month in Beach Lake at the Methodist Church. There are dues to be a"member", but no need of that to come to meetings. Usually start at 3:00 then potluck afterwards. I will try to post right before next meeting.

Hello. Im from Pittston PA located between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. Just finished an aquaponics greenhouse with a rocket mass heater. The greenhouse is made of mostly free and found materials. Would like to connect with others in the areas who are interested in starting a project.

Looks like we need to do a "Permacrawl" around NE PA. I would love to see your greenhouse and rmh.

Peter: That would be great to set something like that up. I know there are others in the areas doing similar things. I am the Audubon Coordinator at a golf club located in the back mountain area. We started a vermi/composting program last year and also built a hugelkultur type garden that supplies the restaurant with fresh food. We plan on making more gardens inspired by permaculture this year and beyond. There are square miles of land to work with including old growth forests, pastures, old farming fields, barns, etc etc. This is a new and exciting thing for the golf course and a great opportunity for permaculture in NEPA. We are going to start to make opportunites for the public to come and learn/help.

If you are interested in coming to see any of these projects just PM me and we can set something up. I am at my greenhouse every night feeding the beast.

Peter: Thank you for the information. I will definitely try to make the next one. Are the meetings/potlucks family events (bring kids)? What are you planning for your property come the thaw? In the fall, I dug a 40-50 foot hugulbed on contour (Pleasant Mount) and am in the process of planning what to put in it. This summer, I would like to put in another larger hugulbed on contour in addition to coming up with an elaborate plan for my borough lot. I am really anxious to get start planting right away, but think I am going to make soil rehabilitation through cover cropping a major priority.

Amos: Keep us posted as to when you are planning events and projects. The greenhouse sounds awesome.

Jon: kids are welcome, we bring ours. As for spring, I am not going into main frame design implementation yet as I am short on cash, and have not been able to observe through a summer yet, we got here in fall. I do have chickens and ducks now, I have a glass house falf built, and have a large semi market garden planned. Earthworks and trees will be fallish or next spring.

I'm just east of scranton, near Honesdale at The Anthill Farm.

I have met several people from ant hill, I don't think I met you yet, I look forward to it.

Peter, it's me Sky, Eusebius is actually my first name though. Let's get a group together to hang out, that would be fun.

Sky: Great to hear from you. We were members and Big Fans of the Anthill CSA. I was curious as to if the Beech Grove Organic Supply was still in operation. Look forward to talking to you.

Hi there folks! I've been lurking on here for a while but had to finaly create an account when I realized how many local permie people there are here. I have two acres in the Sugarloaf area about 20 miles south of WB and I am planning some projects for the coming spring. I just ordered some fruit trees to get started and I am planning on a hugel bed as soon as the snow melts. This is also my first year for chickens too, 6 Gold laced Wyandottes! I definately hope to meet some local folks and check out their projects.

-Calen

Welcome to permies Calen permies are everywhere!!! Snow is melting a lot these days, so farm visits should be possible soon. Can't wait!

We're moving to Towanda PA glad to see so much Permaculture activity in NEPA. I did not expect it. Hope to share photos of the progress for our 3/4 acre project. We are looking to start raising chickens. Anyone have local suggestions for buying local birds?

JM Hatchery in New Holland PA. Somewhat limited selection, but the Freedom Rangers are excellent meat birds. Not much for layers if that is what you are looking for. Welcome to NEPA!

For anyone interested, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) is meeting today Sunday March 16 @3:00 in the Beech Lake United Methodist Church. Bring a potluck dish and a plate and utensils. All are welcome!!!

I live in Madisonville, near the elmhurst reservoir and I have a holy shit ton of comfrey growing around my property if anybody wants some. Useful plant for starting any kind of forest garden and breaking up our rocky clay. Some kind of trade would be nice but if you've got nothing no worries. Email me if interested... tub48078@temple.edu

Nick, Thank you for the generous offer. I may need some in the coming weeks... I will let you know.

Hey! NEPA permies, Spring is finally here! My garlic has broken ground! Time to get outside and have some permie fun!

Nick, do you know what cultivar of comfrey you have? I would be interested in bocking 4 or 14. Thanks

Rick, your garlic is up? I better check mine, i figured it would be a few weeks yet. I was working on a bed for my strawberries yesterday, and there is still frost in the ground in places here. THe nursery already sent my plants, so they have to be planted now.

A busy Sunday here on the farm, this is a bit of the to do list;
Plant and fence 200 strawberries
plant 10 asparagus crowns
plant 150 asparagus seeds
plant 5 horseradish roots
start tomatoes and peppers inside

well, I better get to work. Enjoy the sunshine all!!

Hi Peter thanks for the invite. A NEPA meet up sounds great! I'm in. Could you PM me with the details... I'm currently not getting email notifications from permies. Rick

Hi Peter. Yes, the garlic is up. I planted the first patch during the third week of October. They sprouted about 5 days ago. Garlic planted the first week of November are just starting to emerge. I also noticed young leaves of bloody dock and after pulling back the winter mulch, I found the oregano plants green and tasty.

I guess spring may come after all. Were you thinking of coming over today?

Hey Peter, I have no idea what cultivar it is. It's a funny story actually, about 3 years ago when I was just getting interested in planting a food forest I ordered some comfrey root from horizon herbs, the roots came in and they looked familiar but I didn't think much of it and planted them. A few weeks go by and they start to pop out and I realize I had comfrey growing ALL OVER on my land and never realized it. My dad had been fighting it every year he planted his garden and little did he know the more you pull it the more that grows. So it was a nice accident to realize I had a plentiful amount of such a useful plant. The strain that grows here I noticed tends to be a little less vigorous then the one I got from horizon but I have enough roots around that it doesn't really matter, I can chop and drop to my hearts content. I would love to get an opinion on the cultivar though if you wanted to swing by or I could drop some off one day.

Best,
Nick

You probably have the original comfrey, not a bocking cultivar. I believe the bocking cultivars only reproduce by root cuttings, the original spreads by seed as well, and is much harder to control. Sadly I don't know how to tell by sight.

PASA meeting today, same time and place. See above post for details.

*bump*  Just wanted to chime in and see if any Pocono / Northeast PA folks are still around.  I'm near Mount Pocono... looking to build a local network.  

Hi everyone! This Saturday (10/15/16) we will be building the first dome on our double chamber cob oven. The oven is located on the beautiful Susquehanna river at Perennial Point in Plains, PA. Work is starting around 8am; weather permitting of course. Anyone is welcome to attend and join in the fun. PM or reply to the thread for details!

Wow! I've been on this site for years and haven't found this thread til now!

I'm in the Wilkes-Barre area, anybody still watching this space?