Ahimsa means to cause no harm, and at Ahimsa farm Blue Mountain and his son Eli practice this principle. The fish are vegetarian, the worms they use for vermiculture are vegetarian, and there is no eating of meat allowed on the property. It was a tough weak for I and I’s diet, that is for sure! We have had a lack of meat during the entire program, but this weak saw nearly an entire vegan menu.
It was great getting down to work and reclaiming some of the Zone 1 areas at the farm. The property is expansive, and the work had gotten piled up. We learned more about water rights here on the island, and were blessed to attend both a welcome ceremony and a water ceremony in the crystal capped Earth Temple that has been built on the property.
The group visited Pacific Biodiesel on Friday, where they make fuel with sunflowers! We also were divided into groups to start working on our final presentations for our design course. My group chose to work with a local physicist that wants to build a retreat center for other nature loving scientists.
On Sunday, the project group and I went to visit the site and to meet with the owner. We will be designing a system that will provide food for the visitors, as well as providing a profit through value-added systems. There is a strong desire from the client that we turn his old pineapple farm into a solar and water catchment site, and I feel pretty confident that we can make that happen. We learned this week that for ever 1,000 sqft of roof space, 600 gallons of water can be collected per inch of rainfall. We figured a 500sqft pond at 10 ft deep should provide just under 2 million gallons of water, and also provide for an aquaponics design. Stacking functions within design elements is at the heart of permaculture practice.
Mahalo nui for reading!