International Permaculture Day celebrated

WINSTED — On Saturday May 2, and Sunday, May 3, Rosemari Roast, owner of Walk in the Woods, used her store space in Whiting Mills for a plant and seed swap to mark International Permaculture Day. People were trickling in and out all weekend, said Roast, who said the idea behind the swap was to bring a plant, take a plant, bring some seeds or take some seeds while learning about the value of permaculture.Permaculture refers to methods of agricultural cultivation that seek to be efficient and self-sustaining by becoming part of the natural ecosystem.This International Permaculture Day was focused on healthy soil, which “provides the foundation for all life on land. Soil gives us food, clean water, clean air, medicine, fibre and fuel, it’s also a climate regulator and buffer,” according to the event’s Facebook page.Roast, a certified holistic health practitioner, offers classes in herbal medicine and holistic health.“Permaculture is a set of principles for working with nature in a way that mimics nature, working with the natural resources around you including everything that grows wild,” Roast said. “This includes herbs and the natural water systems.”For Roast, this means growing a lot of her own food and making use of herbs.“This plant and seed swap is a way to leverage what we have and share with our community,” she said. Roast brought garlic chives, regular chives, betony, motherwort to the plant swap.“They all have to be thinned and separated anyway, so rather than composting them or throwing them away I am passing them on to others,” she said. “None of these came from a nursery or anything commercial. People who have vegetable gardens and started them from seeds. People bring more than they take, so these are free plants now.”There were perennials and annuals, including heirloom tomatoes and pepper plants, which “won’t be able to go in the ground for another couple of weeks around here.”Plants like these heirlooms fit right in with the concepts of permaculture, because they maintain local hardiness and diversity in the face of giant seed companies who push patented seeds on farmers all across the world. Roast said there was “a renaissance in heirlooms.”“Don’t get me started on Monsanto,” she said.Roast wanted people to realize they can do a lot with the foods they procure, “without high-tech stuff.” You don’t have to can, she said, you can ferment, which is much easier. She was giving samples of kombucha to people who’d never tasted it.According to International Permaculture Day’s page, topsoil could vanish within 60 years, worn down by “simple ploughing and overgrazing, to chemically based monocultures; to logging, mining and other consequences of urban and industrial growth.” However, “regenerative soil repair, if scaled up, can address global warming, desertification and large-scale ecosystem damage, whilst providing solutions to hunger, poor diet, poverty, energy, pollution, drought and flooding.”The next plant and seed swap at Whiting Mills is June 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.