Hi everyone, Santa Cruz Permaculture is offering a new course launching this August. We'd love to have you join us. Please share this email and attached flyer with your network! - David

Permaculture Food Forests
Planning, Growing and Enjoying Year Round Abundance

An Applied Permaculture Practicum
With John Valenzuela & David Shaw

Starts August 2019 


Do you want to gain hands-on skills and build community around growing food? Interested in learning best practices for orchard establishment and management, food forestry, designing year round productive vegetable farms and gardens, and preserving the harvest? We are pleased to offer this advanced practicum grounded in sound horticultural practices, and spiced with the delicious seasonal fruits and vegetables our region has to offer.

Before the area around San Jose was called the Silicon Valley it was known as “the Valley of the Heart’s Delight” because of its apricot, peach and plum orchards, and the delightful abundance it produced. Join us in creating and celebrating these habitats on both home and broadacre scales.

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

  • Design and plant productive, resilient, and site/climate appropriate orchards.
  • Engage in seasonal care of fruit trees and perennial vegetables, including summer and winter pruning, fertility management, and irrigation.
  • Propagate fruit trees via grafting and budding.
  • Identify dozens of unique varieties of new and heirloom fruits and vegetables, and assess which ones perform well in your climate.
  • Preserve the harvest through a wide variety of canning, drying, pickling, and fermentation techniques.
  • Create a customized vegetable crop plan for your home or farm so that you meet your production goals, whether they are to realistically produce your own food or have a economically viable farm.
  • Identify organizations and events in your area so that you may plug into active learning communities, exchange free plants, and participate in annual fruit tastings.

Dates & Topics 2019-2020

Summer Abundance
Session 1: August 10-11, 2019
  • Designing Food Forests Part 1
  • Stone fruits – tasting plums, peaches, nectarines;
  • Propagating plants via budding and semi-hardwood cuttings;
  • Summer pruning;
  • Planting the fall/winter garden.

Celebrating the Fall Harvest
Session 2: September 28-29, 2019
  • Preserving the abundance through drying, canning, fermenting, and pickling;
  • Pomme fruits – tasting apples and pears (and late plums);
  • Growing, harvesting and processing nuts and olives;
  • Integrating animals into the agroecosystem;
  • Cover cropping, fall plantings, and preparing for winter.

Winter Pruning & Propagation
Session 3: January 11-12, 2020
  • Designing Food Forests Part 2;
  • Pomology & tree physiology;
  • Winter pruning pomme and stone fruits;
  • Planting bare root fruit trees and berries;
  • Propagating plants by seed;
  • Selecting bare root fruit trees, varietal selection, rootstock, disease resistance, pollination;
  • Exchanging dormant cuttings, scion wood, and perennial plants;
  • Grafting.

Subtropicals & the Abundance of Spring
Session 4: May 16-17, 2020
  • Avocados & Citrus – planting, growing, tasting, varietal selection, propagation;
  • Berries – tasting, varietal selection;
  • Spring orchard maintenance;
  • Thinning, delayed dormant pruning, and corrections to winter pruning;
  • Public food forests & community harvests.

For more information and to register, please visit