Nadine McKenzie

I've heard black locust is great for coppicing and has a very high BTU.  It sounds like you're in the South and as you said your heating needs are far less aggressive.  You might consider a passive solar heater/collector.  Plenty of videos on how to construct them and good designs at builditsolar.com.  You could build one over the course or 2 afternoons.  I'm planning on building one of these and having an exterior door to the unit that I can close at night and insulating the unit.  Beats cutting wood I would say.  Another idea is to build a passive solar house and possibly build with hempcrete?  I understand hempcrete has R ratings off the scales.   I'm not sure what the building codes are for your area but I do know that NC has 2 hempcrete built homes.   My last idea is a mass rocket heater.  It has a very efficient burn and uses fewer cords of wood.  I would personally build an outdoor one that heats a greenhouse which is attached to the house.  

Lately,  I've been hooked on Chef's Table Netflix series.  What I love about this series is there are 3 narratives going on.  The chef's narrative, the director's narrative of the chef, and the common struggles and visions that are shared by the chefs which interleaves their stories together.  These 3 narratives creates a rich story and so much depth.  So what does it have to do with Natural Farming, Permaculture, or even Biodynamic farming?

The vision the chefs have is of a magnitude has inspired me and got me to thinking...What is the next quantum leap beyond permaculture, natural farming, or biodynamics? Is permaculture actually creative... Surely, yes with the initial design but once that's implemented, aren't we merely "observers" and "facilitators" and nature is the actual creator?  How do/can we truly create?  

My personal favorite is the Black Locust.  The flowers are edible and are a favorite of bees.  Other parts are toxic.

Method of reproduction - cut a thin branch and stick in the ground.

Wood - very high BTU so a branch will burn very well - great coppice tree and will grow back what has been cut.  So while it doesn't produce fruit that's edible, it has other value.

Honeybees get a remarkable immunity boost from the mycellum of Wine Cap Mushrooms.  This fungi is very easy to grow and can happily dine on cardboard.  I would imaging that anything that is good for honeybees would be equally good for bumblebees.  Paul Stammets has some interesting video on the research behind the Wine Cap mushroom and its immunity boosting properties.  The mushroom is also edible and tastes like potato sauteed in wine.  

Thank you everyone for sharing!  I wonder how nature fabricates the colloidal compost.  Either way, it's very interesting.

Tradd Kotter also talks about myco-remediation using Oyster Mushrooms and King Stopharia.  

Oyster Mushrooms are not picky and can grow on cardboard and coffee grains.  They will digest petrol.

As long as your site doesn't have heavy metals, you can eat the Oyster mushrooms.  Be careful though, mushrooms are heavy metal accumulators so you'd want to be sure there are no heavy metals.

I have to say, I'm impressed with the claims that biodynamic farming uses no pesticides or herbicides in a monoculture setting.  As permaculturist, pests have been my main concern in the food forest.

My question is, anybody out there using biodynamic with success?  How long does it take to start seeing the effects?  Is the food noticeably different tasting?

We think we might have spotted Lion's Mane growing on a standing tree about 3-4 feet above the ground growing on the bark. It was cream colored with maybe a hint of orange hues around the edges. The tentacles were very thin (like the size of needles) and close together. Does anybody know how this mushroom feels to the touch? It felt like fabric when I touched it (which was very surprising).

Dave,
Thanks for sharing your wealth of information! Much appreciated!