permaculture bootcamp - gardening gardeners; grow the food you eat and build your own home

Fun-zies items

-build a raised bed

-plant a fruit tree

-prune a fruit tree or vine

-press fruit

-growbag potatoes

To extend the idea of "Gardening gardeners" - an expression that's been around on permies since at least 2016 - I think we also need to pay attention to cooking up a big batch of cooks.

Am I right to suspect that a lot of home-grown food gets wasted composted because it all comes ripe at once? Or like on my farm where I really can't store summer apples, so they get fed to the geese, chickens and ducks - better than compost as they preprocess the apples and spread the goodness all over our field.

The weather is changing rapidly now that it's early October, but I've got a lot of green tomatoes and not sure I've got the time or energy to make green tomato mincemeat. Having a team to process food together would make it much easier and much more social!

I'm curious if the bootcamp is active in winter? My partner and I are super interested and would love to participate, especially in natural building projects.

Also curious if there's a combination set up for more private housing besides the bunk house, but we'd still fully participate in all things boot.

michael feltheim wrote:I'm curious if the bootcamp is active in winter? My partner and I are super interested and would love to participate, especially in natural building projects.

Also curious if there's a combination set up for more private housing besides the bunk house, but we'd still fully participate in all things boot.

Yup, we run all winter.  Although this year if you wanna be here in the winter, you gotta start november 2 or december 7.  Or maybe rent a cabin.

Stephen is pretty good at getting people set up with a cabin if they want one.  Most folks head for the red cabin.  https://permies.com/wiki/55002/Red-Cabin

It has our newest rocket mass heater



Lots to do in winter  https://permies.com/t/149839/bootcamp-winter#1171986











we finished the berm shed in winter

I think the permaculture bootcamp is way better than university!

Really like Paul's point of view:

I'm wrapping up a year of travel; several volunteer projects along the way and one farm school in Indiana...

I'd like to know, when I should aim to make my way out there from the east coast?

I think I'm free after mid January 2026

My goal, will be to put in two years of work and learning into this program and evaluate my direction then.

I'd pay the application fee, but my banking needs attention. Do you take crypto?

We used to take crypto in an automated way, but that broke.  Which crypto do you have in mind?

The next start dates are:

   december 7
   march 1

And then we are switching to the first sunday of the month after that.  

some stuff i just now added to the first post

paul wheaton wrote:
Solutions for people

Some people buy land and do this, only to hate it and take a big loss. The bootcamp eliminates the financial burdens while giving people a chance to try it out.  And we hope that this way has less chance of hating it.

Some people ache to get into homesteading, but cannot afford the land to even try.  Not only does this give you a taste, but there are paths to land.

Some people make the leap into this stuff and discover they thought they would be a superstar at this, but end up just not putting in the hours.  The 40 hours per week of the bootcamp, side-by-side with like minded folks helps to develop good, industrious habits.

Some people are plenty industrious and have good, industrious habits, but they are sick of doing this alone.  

Some people desperately crave wholesome substance and a bit of time outdoors.

Some people feel they are currently living a gray life, with a gray job, eating gray food.  They live in the brown cloud of the city, eating from foods they know are loaded with toxins, and they know the water from the tap contains chlorine, floride and a buffet of other things.  Their world seems to have a new flavor of sleaze every day.  The bootcamp gets you out of all of that.

Some people are about to graduate high school and do NOT want to take on the massive debt of college.  Nor do they want to enter the bottom rung of the work force.  The bootcamp will be an excellent fit after high school.

Some people ache for community and we have that.


Some people have tried community living and were frustrated:

... by a community that accomplishes very little.  A group of people chipping away at things 40 hours a week adds up to getting a lot done.  

... that too many other people consumed but didn't contribute.  The bootcamp has a solid 40 hours per week from everybody.

... by 12 hours a week of decision making meetings that were mostly drama.  Our replacement for that takes about ten minutes per week.



A new recipe for building community

We changed our policies a while ago.  The only people allowed to do our ant village program or our deep roots program must spend a minimum of six months on the bootcamp first.  

seem okay?

Hi there, myself and a friend are looking for a community who could teach us variety of skills. We are looking for long period stay. My friend is a USA citizen and i am a UK citizen. My question is how much notice would you need in advanced for booking? After payment would you write a letter stating my intentions to come to your boot camp and that I'm coming to learn and not earn, so i can show the USA Embassy in the UK for Visa purposes. I look forwards to your reply.

The next start dates are:

  december 7
  march 1

Would one of these work for you?

After payment would you write a letter stating my intentions to come to your boot camp and that I'm coming to learn and not earn, so i can show the USA Embassy in the UK for Visa purposes.

We've had several people come here from the UK and this is the first time I have ever had such a request.  is it new?  I have heard of people directing "authories" to the bootcamp page to show "I am going there!"

Its an optional thing but if people just direct to the boot camp then awesome i can just do that. I will get back to you to confirm dates since i won't know until after the new year.

I’m 6 months in. I bought more books than I have read. I’ve purchased more equipment than I can afford. I haven’t yet grown 1 thing. I moved my family across the country, I was fortunate enough to keep a remote job. I am impatient by nature, and I work fast (I mean type, speak, think and maybe AutoCADing). I am in the midst of a cold and snow, in a house heated by radiators, yes, those metal things you see in the movies, and that shake the place when the steam goes through.

I will not give up, I cannot give up, but I probably should have gone through the bootcamp first….