” The use of our bodies for work or love or pleasure, or even for combat, sets us free again in the wilderness, and we exult” -Wendell Berry
The time has arrived, dear readers, to venture again into our own version of the wilderness to explore things more intimately, more vividly, more extremely. As we might have mentioned before, 2/3 rds of the Amyitis crew have decided to temporarily leave our beloved city of San Francisco to re-vision our path in agriculture. While the adventure of Amyitis has been an education in itself, we see the value in revisiting some more classical types of experiential education. For better or for worse, we hope to bring back a new insight to our practices here in the city by taking an intensive peek at green thumbs the world over.
After my recent journey into permaculture with Kevin Bayuk and David Cody (who begin their winter PDC next week) my inspiration drove me to dive more deeply into the world of holistic thinking and design. Permaculture had its origins in Australia out of necessity in the 1970′s. Brackish soils and paralyzing drought were some of the issues dooming Australian farmers and landowners everywhere. A, then, slow-moving idea (or more accurately a group of ideas) called permaculture housed a group of time-tested, environmentally conscious, and highly productive strategies and techniques under one set of clear principles. Nearly 40 years later, permaculture has now become a fast growing and ever-more widely accepted design strategy having communities, courses and certifications available globally. One of these communities is the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia run by Geoff and Nadia Lawton. Designers using permaculture’s design lense strive to create and encourage systems that are beyond sustainable; regenerative. People like Geoff have spent a lifetime training them. I have decided to spend 10 weeks on Geoff’s farm to learn to see through this lense a bit more and gain a mastery of some of the more popular techniques made famous by permies. I hope to return empowered and inspired to see Amyitis through to its next phase.
Katie Conry has taken advantage of her work situation to explore S. E. Asia and beyond willingly working on organic farms in places like India, Malaysia, and Nepal. I feel encouraged and inspired that Katie’s interest in food has driven her forward both in the world of the blogosphere and into the garden. I trust Katie will also come back inspired and ready to apply her energy with a new lense. We wish her well and await her safe return.
Eben Bell will be here to take care of your Amyitis queries, comments, and collaborations. Look for him at the Free Farm Stand on Sundays in the Mission, or perhaps you local Mission street corner. Keep posted as Katie and I will be sending posts from the Southern Hemisphere.
Until then, Happy Gardening!
-David
I don’t know who it was that said “show yourself to the world, and the world will show itself to you”. In fact, maybe it was me that said that after all….err maybe not. At any rate, this week we at Amyitis found some truth and humor to that sentiment. In this case, it wasn’t so much me who was putting myself out there as our new Amyitis team member Katie Conry. As you may remember, Katie recently joined Amyitis to spread the digital-word by helping us develop our web presence. Well, as it turns out, she’s on fire! Within a week or two we’ve seen a huge spike in blog traffic due to Katie’s management and enterprise. Last week, Katie thought it would be fun to submit a photo of me to
Amyitis Gardens and its apparently not-so-humble founder, yours truly, quickly found himself at #1 on the 
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The backyard season is a fickle one. Season length can vary by a number of weeks depending on the yard’s orientation to not only the sun but to the surrounding built environment and city location. Such variances are fun exciting and challenges to play with when planning a seasonal harvest strategy. But, death and taxes being inevitable as they are, it seems all good things come to an end. And no matter how much longer one backyard season is compared to another, Autumn happens.
Alongside the tomato harvest I found one of our main connoisseurs, the tomato horn worm. While I am grateful that he likes our tomatoes, he’s not our ideal paying customer. I have some research to do about how he got in there in the first place. I’d seen his relatives on farms back in Vermont, but never before in a back yard. It’s too bad they are not good eating. I might have had me a snack.
To prepare for the rain (that is falling in buckets as I write this) that comes here every winter we’ve started sowing some cover crops in our newly emptied spaces. Fava beans, vetch and rye will coat some of our bare ground. Cover crop provides much needed nitrogen fixation and erosion prevention over the winter months. Intensive veggies might not do well during the winter but the cover crops will give us something back while we wait. We’ve also begun experimenting with 
Lastly but never least-ly we’re happy to announce the addition of a new member to the Amyitis Team. Katie Conry has joined up with Eben and I to help manage our web presence. Keep popping back to our blog and see the exciting changes she’s bringing to the blog. We’re delighted to have her as part of the team. I think, dear readers, you will be too.
