Relatorio

INTRODUCTION

THE FARM is a community created in 1971 by a group of people intending to exchange society’s norms for a new social order. After riding through the country in school buses, spreading their ideals, they decided to make their thoughts true. They purchased a land in Summertown, Tennessee, where they could live together, in a better and healthier place to raise their children. The school buses changed to houses at the first year. At the right time things began to be constructed: the houses, the school, the water tower, the radio station… Some things changed along the years, many people came, many people left, some people remain there; and today, three decades later, The Farm Community is a whole body with many arms: Kids to the Country, Plenty International, Ecovillage Training Center, and many others. The Farm is also well known in USA for its publishing of vegetarian cookbooks, soy technology, midwifery, alternative education, solar systems, hand-held radiation detectors, permaculture, innovative and informative conferences, tie-dyes, and concern for peace and right livelihood. The works and goals are developed in harmony with inner beliefs and values. Things were created with the feeling that people are stronger and more useful together than they could be separately.

The ECOVILLAGE TRAINING CENTER (ETC) was created in 1994 with the goal of offering sustainable and holistic experiences for people who want to know the ecovillage, and to provide information and training for those that may contribute to spread and enlarge the ecovillage movement over the world, in the context of local actions for global changing. The experience at the ETC provides skills in natural buildings, permaculture, organic gardening, and arouse the knowledge through observation of the natural environment. Walking around at the ETC, we can see many permaculture examples, as the buildings with natural material, such as cob and earth bags; the organic garden (it isn’t being worked now because of the cold winter); the solar showers (it’s not working either, for the same reason); the cob oven; some solar-powered cars that are part of the “Hippie Museum”; the heating system at the Inn; the Geodesic Dome, a biodynamic building that, in this case, is being used to stock materials.The interns are also responsible to help to maintain the Inn, having some “chores’ as: prepare the supper; take the compost; water the plants and feed the fire; cleaning, etc.

ACTIVITIES
Mushrooms
Mushrooms are used as food from a long time ago, and today that’s increasing even more, as people are becoming aware that mushrooms are really nutritious: shiitake is 13-18% protein by dry weight, high in leucine and lysine, and has a significant complement of minerals and vitamins. Many other mushrooms are equally nutritious. Besides that, some mushrooms have medicinal properties. Reishi and Maitake produce remarkable benefits in the immune system, in addition to cholesterol-lowering effects. There’s also the fact that mushrooms are ecologically important, as many plants co-evolved with mushrooms and other kinds of fungi. They break down inorganic materials into soluble forms to the plants, and plants give them ideal conditions to live. The fungi also make the connection among roots in the soil, making possible the exchange of nutrients among plants.

Shiitake Inoculation
We took some oak logs and placed them on two boards between sawhorses. The logs were about 15 cm in diameter and 80 cm long. It’s better not to use logs that were cut much time ago, because it’s important that the cells are recent and the wood is still humid. Using a drill, we made 2,5 cm depth holes into the log. The distance between the holes was 12 – 16 cm along the log, and about 5cm around the log. That’s because the mushrooms’ growth is bigger in the direction along the log than around it. After that, we used a special tool to place the spawn into the holes, and covered them with melted wax, using a sponge. (the spawn was being conserved in the refrigerator, not in the freezer) Then we write the date and the type of mushroom in an aluminum tag, and place it at the end of the log. It will take about 9 months until the mushrooms are grown and ready.

Maitake Inoculation
Maitake inoculation is very similar to shitaki, with the difference that instead of logs, we inoculated stumps. The reason for that is the condition that maitaki needs to grow: they need to be close to the ground. There’s some kind of interaction with microorganisms in the ground that is necessary to maitaki’s growth. So, we made holes only at the bottom of the stumps. The rest of the process is the same as in shiitake’s inoculation.

Oyster Inoculation
Oyster mushrooms are very easy to grow, they grow anywhere: sawdust, logs, straw, etc. At this time we used stumps again, but we made the holes all over them, not only at the bottom.

Mushroompeople Mushroompeople is North America’s oldest mail-order supply firm for specialty mushroom growers, since 1976. At Mushroompeople Office, I worked at the computer, adding customers’ information to a database program; and helped to organize the catalogs to be sent.

Compost Pile
Making a compost pile is the better way of giving back nutrients to the soil, already decomposed and ready to be incorporated by the plants; besides it’s part of the solution to the garbage problem, as it gives a end (and a new beginning) to the organic garbage. The process of decomposition depends on some factors, such as:

ratio of carbon/nitrogen: it is important to provide enough nitrogen to the microorganisms to enable them to decompose the carbonaceous material. The ideal carbon/nitrogen ration at the beginning of the process is 30:1. Dry materials such as old leaves, branches, paper and straw have high levels of carbon, while the nitrogen comes from wet materials including food waste, green plants and animal manure.
adequate supply of microorganisms: microorganisms are increased at the compost by adding soil, animal manure, or old compost. It’s also a good idea to have the pile in direct contact with the ground.
aeration: microorganisms need oxygen to break down the organic debris. In some cases, regular turning of the compost pile is necessary to provide oxygen to all parts of the pile; but there are ways of avoiding that, by having a pile with big contact surface with the air, and/ or making small and deep holes (with a shovel handle, for example) into the pile to provide oxygen to the inner part of it.
moisture: Proper moisture is important to keep microorganisms active. In some cases it is necessary to water the pile, in other cases the wet materials themselves provide the right moisture. It’s important to avoid over-watering the pile, as this excludes oxygen., so it’s a good idea to cover the pile with cardboard or canvas, to protect it when the rain comes.

The ETC has 4 compost piles, one of them is at the beginning of the process, and receives the organic garbage produced currently, sawdust and horse manure, and water plants sometimes (they come from the water treatment lagoons). We worked at the two piles that are in a more advanced decomposition process, they began to “rest” 3 months ago, and a big part of the material is already decomposed, and the worms are coming too. What we did was turning these piles to speed up the decomposition process, and putting them together making one big pile. They were never turned before, because these piles have a big contact surface with the air, and don’t need to be turned very often. At the end, we put a small part of this 3-month compost at the new compost pile, and some water plants too, because this pile was a little dry. The small pile was covered with plastic canvas, and the old one with cardboard.

Cob works
Making Cob
Cob is an ancient method of building with sand and clay. The interactive process of making cob is combined with the ratio of 4 parts sand : 2 parts clay : 1 part gravel, plus water, straw and much dance to mix everything together with our feet. The straw holds the cob horizontally, while the clay grains (smaller) surround the sand grains (bigger), providing the vertical stability to the cob. When the mix is ready, we make “bread size” pieces, and they are ready to be put together to make the building. We built the sauna window, around wine glasses; and the top of one of the walls of the cob building.
Cob Oven
This radiation cob oven was created by previous interns on their own initiative and we were asked to test it. It has a face design with the only hole in the “mouth”, right in front of it, and there’s no draft. It’s a radiation oven, and that means that the heat stocked inside the oven by the fire will cook the food that we put in later. That’s what we were testing: if it would be hot enough to cook a cake. First, we burned the wood in the “mouth”, and then we tried to push the fire more deep into the oven, but the wood didn’t burn inside, because, as there was no draft, there was little oxygen inside. But we continued burning the wood in the beginning of the “mouth”. We did that for 2 hours, and then we took out all the wood (there were many logs unburned inside), and we checked the temperature. It was not so hot as we expected, but we put the dough inside, anyway, and we closed the “mouth” door. We waited about one and a half hour to check the dough. It was not totally cooked, and the temperature had decreased, so we had to continue the cook in a regular oven. This kind of oven has been used for many peoples, and has been constructed in the past at The Farm. This one didn’t totally succeed, because it took a long time, a lot of wood, and wasn’t hot enough. And then came the idea of making a draft at the door and a chimney at the back of it, so the air will circulate inside the oven. This is a successful design more commonly instructed by the ETC when it teaches course. A good feature of the cob oven is that it can be easily modified by moistening the clay.

Earthbags
Building with earth bags emerged from the idea of how to build on places like Moon or Mars, without having to bring big amounts of heavy materials from Earth to space: just carrying flour bags, and filling them with moon/mars soil. That’s a great idea especially in remote places like deserts and as emergency shelter, when only the lightest material has to be transported (the bags), and the rest of it is locally available. At the ETC, the work we did with earth bags was at the decoration of the fireplace, which has a face pattern. We mixed the ingredients (gravel, clay, cement, sand) in a electric mixer machine, and we began the work: there were 3 people; one at the ground, filling buckets with the mix and giving them to the other two people that were above, filling the bag and placing it at the right place. When filled, the bag has to be pressed, with a log, brick, or anything heavy enough. And then, a barbed wire is put on the bag, so it will be well attached with the next bag that will come above it. When the work with the earth bags finish, everything will be covered with cob.

Education Programs with Children
Workshop
- Characteristics and challenges of the informal education
- Examples of participative works and games with children.
- Simulation of a “Water Conservation Program” to be worked with children in a school.

Presentation at the School
This presentation was made at The Farm School with 5 elementary school children, about the ecosystems of Brazil- its characteristics, animals, plants, and human action.

Sustainable Ecovillage Design Course
During 5 days, 12 students and one teacher from Berea College were here to have this course. They are part of the project of building an Ecovillage at the campus, as a place to students with kids live. This will reduce the energy and water costs, waste (by recycling), besides providing a pleasant place to the people. The contents of the course were:
- Villages in Historic Time
- Design Principles
- Models of Development
- Walking the site
- Site Assessment and Design Process
- Team Design Exercise
- Presentation: Ecovillages
- Presentation: Natural Buildings – straw bale, cob and other earth forms
- Presentation: The Farm
- Concepts in community: communication, conflict, consensus
-Stages of Community
-Anticipating crisis & chaos
- Managing Change
- Creating Safety
- I-statements
- Mediation in the Community

Transplanting Maples
About 50 Maple Trees were planted together 2-3 years ago, and now need to be transplanted more sparsely, in a new place. We took out 18 trees from the soil in one morning, and held the roots + dust with a cloth, then we watered it and put mulch on. They were supposed to be transplanted in the next day, but it wasn’t possible because it snowed.

Bamboo
The bamboos (Yellow Groove Bamboo – Phyllostachys aureosulcata) along the road to the ETC needed to have the old and too small plants cut off, to allow the healthier and stronger plants to grow with more light and space for the roots. The bigger plants cut were saved for future use. The leaves and the smaller plants were put underneath the bamboos as mulch.

Greenhouse
Germination test
We made germination tests with some of the old seeds: Red Velvet Okra, Farm Okra, Lemon Cucumber Heir loin, Mideast Prolific Cucumber, Small Sugar Pumpkin, Butter nut Squash, Crimson Sweet Watermelon. We used a soaked cotton cloth ( an old t-shirt) to place the rows of seeds and then rolled it in so far as the rows were placed. They were being watered every day. After 10 days, none of them germinated.

Planting
This is a good time to start germination at the greenhouse, because it’s half-way through winter and then weather will just get warmer from now, so the seeds can be first planted in trays and kept warm inside the greenhouse, and after 3-4 months they will be ready to be transplanted outside. The seeds were planted in plastic trays, with 4cmx4mx8cm holes, at a half soil /half compost mix. Most of the seeds were old, dated 1999, so we didn’t plant a big amount of them (12 holes each), because we weren’t expecting to be very successful at their germination. They were: Roprelo Paste Tomato, Broadstem Green Chard, Nardello Sweet Peppers, Jalapeno, Chocolate Miniature Peppers, Purira Chile, Dill Mammoth, Sweet Basil, Parsley Curled, Oregon Spring Bush Tomato, Red House Free Standink, Red Calabash Tomato. It’s a little early to have a conclusion about the germination, but until this report was finished none of them had germinated.
We planted a bigger amount of new seeds (40 holes each), and they are beginning to grow successfully, although it’s too early to express that in numbers. They are: Spinach, six varieties of Hot Pepper, Cherry Tomatoes, Purple Top, Collard and Kale. All of them are being watered every day.