LAND-BASED
LIVING COURSE

This online land-based living course invites you to cultivate a deeper connection with what nourishes you for greater sustainable living.

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Farm and garden work and community tasks will roughly total 25 hours per week over 5 work days. Each work trade volunteer will have two days off per week. Working early mornings will be regularly required.

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In this 8-month self-directed course, Quail Springs offers practical information and activities that will catalyze a deepening relationship with what sustains you. A land-based life isn't something that is done solely in rural areas; urban dwellers can take simple steps towards sustainable living. In this course you’ll be introduced to permaculture principles and explore how to work with climate characteristics, water, soil, gardening, animal husbandry, cheesemaking & fermentation, herbalism and much more!

There are so many different roads you can take while exploring a land-based life, and the path you take is totally up to you. This course offers practical and achievable steps to incorporate land-based living into your life and community! Leading a more sustainable lifestyle is never completed in one course, but rather a lifelong process. This course is your guide to starting the journey.

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What is this course?

Lessons

Swipe or drag to learn more about each lesson in the course.

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is a fully integrated and holistic design methodology that is used to establish mutually beneficial and regenerative social and ecological human settlements.

25m

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Why Permaculture?

Permaculture is a multi-disciplinary approach that can be anywhere. It is a movement based in practical resilience that integrates to create a dynamic and living concept that can affect foundational change.

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Introduction to Climate

In this lesson we will go over many of the common types of earthen building methods, including cob, light straw clay, wattle and daub, adobe, and more.

40m

Text Lesson

Water in the Landscape

In land stewardship, one of our core goals in relation to water is to slow it, sink it, and spread it. We believe in the land's miraculous ability to act as a sponge and know that the soil is one of the best places to store water.

30m

Text Lesson

Water Ethics

Because water is the fundamental element within the public trust, then it may be one of the best tools for tackling the uncharted terrain of atmospheric regulation. Water Ethics explores how we can equitably regulate our water sources.

1h 30m

Play Sample

Rainwater Harvesting

In a time of unstable climate with prolonged drought and less and less rainfall, rainwater harvesting is a critical focus for anyone living in arid or semi-arid climates. It should also be a core focus in any climate where there are long breaks in between rainfall.

Presentation

Greywater Site Tour

Follow along while we visit renowned drylands designer and long-time friend of Quail Springs, Brad Lancaster's site in Tucson, AZ. In this video, Brad shows us his rainwater and greywater systems.

1h 30m

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Small Scale Earthworks

Well-designed water harvesting earthworks are the most effective way to channel water into productive use. This demonstration is an example of how you can create small scale experiments before committing to larger earthworks designs.

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Planting the Rain

In this lesson Warren approaches earthworks from an ethical framework and gives examples of how good assessment of the land and its people are critical components of designing for planting the rain for more resilient landscapes.

2h 10m

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Living Soils

Soil is a major resource - it supports plants, which sustain life. It is a fragile resource that takes hundreds and thousands to millions of years to form and cannot be replaced.

25m

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Long Row Compost

Compost is not only a soil building process; it is also an important waste management tactic. We can also interpret composting as an opportunity to create more life out of the resources we consume.

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Vermicompost

When food waste is composted, microbes convert the organic material into nutrient rich soil, keeping the carbon and methane out of the atmosphere and producing valuable soil.

48m

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Gardening 101

Growing plants and being in relationship with the process of cultivating ecologies is a core part of our ability to create sustainable human settlements with regenerative culture. In this lesson, we share the techniques that move us towards being in relationship with what sustains us, no matter where we are.

1h 20m

Presentation

In the Quail Springs Garden

Quail Springs is located in the high desert at about 3800'. This means we have extreme temperature fluctuations, very little rainfall, and periods of flood and drought. Our growing systems have been completely impacted by these realities and have been designed and redesigned over the years to become more resilient and productive.

40m

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The Basics of Seed Saving

In beginning or developing your seed saving practice, it’s important to understand what makes seeds viable and “true to type.” In other words, to ensure that the seed you are saving has the same genetic traits of the original plant from which you collected the seed.

1h 26m

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Growing Your Own Mushrooms

Fungi have played a critical part in the evolution of our planet and in the functioning of almost all of our biological systems on earth. Of particular note is the incredible potential fungi have to reverse degradation on the landscape.

54m

Presentation

Integrated Animal Systems

When introducing animal systems, it is recommended that you use the below loose guidelines to follow per zone. “Zone” is a term used in permaculture; for example, Zone I is typically closest to the home and is interacted with daily, while Zone IV would be visited only occasionally.

1h 19m

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Beekeeping

The queen is more of a reproductive organ than a reigning royalty. She is the only one-of-a-kind bee in the colony and a crucial member of the community, but she is as responsive to, and interdependent with the whole body as any other member of the hive.

53m

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Chicken Systems

Chickens can help close the nutrient cycle and encourage an understanding of integrated waste management. The objective here is to sequester as much Carbon and Nitrogen in stable Organic Matter as possible, the outcome is effective waste management.

1h 36m

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Goat Systems

Never make big changes in the way you feed a goat all at once, or feed large quantities of a new food that the goat has never had before. If you do this, you can throw off the bacteria in the goat's rumen, which can cause the goat to bloat, or the rumen to shut down.

1h 30m

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Cheesemaking and Dairy Fermentation

Milk is inoculated with a diverse variety of microbes as it comes out of the teat of a healthy animal where the bacterial community thrives indigenously. An important group within this community are Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) which convert lactose, the main milk sugar, into lactic acid.

1h 10m

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Preparing Maiz

The nixtamalization process not only transforms corn structurally, but also nutritionally. Nixtamalizing maiz makes the nutrients more readily available, increasing protein and diverse minerals.

30m

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Vegetable Fermentation

Lactobacillus is a type of bacteria that converts sugar into lactic acid. The lactic acid that is produced creates an environment that is inhospitable to harmful bacteria and other organisms we don’t want.

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Bone Broth Basics

I recommend starting off making bone broth during the day and always while someone is home. You really need to get the hang of it and understand the evaporation rate for your size pot before you even consider simmering overnight.

55m

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Creating a Home Herbal Apothecary

Eighty percent of today’s human population relies on traditional plant-based medicine. Many herbal traditions have developed worldwide. Each herbal tradition is informed by that particular culture’s traditions, history, ecology, and cosmology.

1h 55m

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Waste and Bioremediation

A goal in permaculture is to create closed loop systems. This goal is applied to every system, including waste. There are some easy ones to start with - compost is a great example. But what about unavoidable, seemingly non-biodegradable trash?

1h 20m

Presentation

Greywater Systems

When we implement greywater systems in our homes, we are taking responsibility for a precious resource (freshwater) in our own systems. Greywater systems are one tactic that we can employ while knowing water justice is much bigger than just employing greywater.

2h 43m

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Bonus Lesson:
Making Sourdough Bread

The natural fermentation process of water, wheat flour, airborne wild yeast, and beneficial bacteria creates sourdough. Fermentation unlocks the nutritional value in grains as well as makes it easier for our bodies to digest.

34m

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Meet The Instructors

Alexandra Valleu

Teaching: The Basics of Seed Saving

Meet Alex (she/they), former QS Plant Systems Director. Alex delights in living out dreams of alternative realities. She moved to Quail Springs in 2020 in search of kindred spirits challenging the dominant culture and is grateful to live in a community of tender hearts and mischief makers.

Aris Romero

Teaching: Creating a Home Herbal Apothecary

Meet Aris, former QS Program Director. Aris grew up in Santa Barbara County on the traditional homelands of the Chumash people where she spent the majority of her career in the wellness space. A Mexico City native, immigrant, and DREAMER her upbringing continues to be a source of inspiration and passion for healing justice that centers marginalized and immigrant communities in Southern California.

Becoming deeply aware of the mind-body connection, intergenerational trauma and, moreover, the holistic imbalances created by the disconnection from land, Aris decided to leave her 8-year tenure in wellness to pursue a Biodynamic Agriculture apprenticeship in Mendocino County. Working mostly outside and caregiving to land, people, and animals gave Aris a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of human health and the environment.

In 2018, Aris graduated from the Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine in Fort Jones, CA, where she gained skills as a Clinical Energetic Herbalist. Aris' private herbalism practice is rooted in an anti-oppression framework and a source of great joy and understanding.

Brad Lancaster

Site Tour: Greywater and Rainwater Systems

Brad is the author of the award-winning book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond and co-founder of DesertHarvesters.org. Since 1993 Brad has run a successful permaculture education, design, and consultation business focused on integrated regenerative approaches to landscape design, planning, and living.

Brenton Kelly

Teaching: Water in the Landscape, Water Ethics, Small Scale Earthworks Demonstration, Living Soils, Compost, Vermicompost, Beekeeping, Chickens

In 2008 Brenton and his wife, Jan Smith, moved to Quail Springs to help advance the food production systems and program offerings by farming and teaching. Brenton brings to his teachings over 30 years of experience in soil building gardening, non-toxic land management and animal husbandry.

Chanel Loren

Teaching: Preparing Maiz

Meet Chanel Loren, QS Animal Systems Director. Inspired by questions of how to feed nourishing futures, Chanel turns to the memory that the land speaks and the ancestral peoples and tenders of place she finds herself.

Devoted to cultivating resilient and caring relations, Chanel spends her time witnessing the histories of our time with bravery and imagination and finds herself in conversation through poetry, crafting beauty with her hands, tending plants and animals, and singing in the streets. Chanel’s life work has led her to become a youth mentor, educator, community organizer, seed saver, land tender, farmer, goat herder and is currently a clown in training. Chanel is dedicated to supporting land access, repairing colonial legacies of harm, and supporting the revitalizing of land based life ways.

Through a desire to continue to deepen her skills of living in reciprocity with the land, Chanel was drawn to Quail Springs to commune with those like minded, committed to reducing harm and seeding beautiful and healthy futures for the next generations.

Danielle Stevenson

Teaching: Growing Your Own Mushrooms, Waste & Bioremediation

Danielle is an environmental scientist and applied mycologist with 10+ years of experience in research, design, implementation and management of projects that solve complex problems- and develop sustainable solutions within food systems, ecological systems and community-level health.

She works with innovative, applied scientific approaches that bridge ecological remediation, restoration, waste management and biotechnology to develop interdisciplinary teams of industry, governmental, academic and community organization partners for greatest impact. Two representative projects of her own founding are Healing City Soils program, which offers free soil metal testing for farmers and maps soil quality data, and DIY Fungi, which offers education and resources about mushroom cultivation for food, medicine, remediation and waste management.

Jan Smith

Teaching: Goats, Cheesemaking & Dairy Fermentation

Jan is a mother, wife, mentor, cook, writer, musician, and farmer. Her interest in growing food and building sustainable shelter as a means of regenerating culture, led her to join the Quail Springs board in 2005 and then, along with her husband, Brenton Kelly, to join the Quail Springs staff as farm manager in 2008.

Marta Gaunt

Teaching: In the Quail Springs Garden, Vegetable Fermentation, Bone Broth Basics

Marta, Quail Springs’ former Farm Director, doesn’t just have a green thumb, but also knows her way around the kitchen. Her love of growing, cooking and preserving food started as a child in northern Europe where her first culinary creations were wild raspberry preserves and elderberry flower pancakes made with her father.

During college, while pursuing her B.A. and M.A. in Spanish literature, she spent a lot of time in Mexico, Central America and Spain and was as fascinated by the food culture and history, as well as by the magical realism it was infused with. Her fascination with the magic, power and beauty of cooking lead her to a career as a chef and caterer in Seattle. After nearly a decade of city life and the high-end food industry (and even delving into molecular gastronomy and teaching cooking classes at Google’s Seattle office) she longed to be closer to the source, to the soil. She started going wild foraging for nettles, mushrooms and clams and took classes on ethnobotany, mycology, ancestral skills and permaculture.

Natalie Buckley-Medrano

Teaching: Integrated Animal Systems

Natalie has been driven by the profound awareness of our society’s growing lack of connection to the natural world and food production. These passions led her to complete her Permaculture Design and Green Gardener Certifications and to work professionally in agriculture, horticulture, and arboriculture.

Nicholas Holmes

Teaching: Rainwater Harvesting & Greywater Systems

Nicholas Holmes is an ecological designer-builder with a passion for all things nourishing. He is co-founder of The Nourishing Tree, a mixed-use center for healthy & sustainable living located in Joshua Tree, CA, and runs his own design-build company, Holmes Ecological Design & Construction as well as Solstice Eco Building Supply.

For the last 15 years Nicholas has been based in the Mojave Desert community of Joshua Tree, CA, working professionally as a consultant, designer and builder on a wide range of sustainable building projects in the Western U.S. and Denmark. The majority of his work involves structures, including buildings that shelter and nourish, and the visible and invisible structures that support regenerative life in buildings and the landscape that surrounds. Areas of focus in Nicholas’ work include passive solar/ climate-adaptive/ energy-efficient building design & construction, non-toxic & healthy building materials & systems, adaptive re-use of salvaged materials, rainwater harvesting buildings & earthworks, and greywater irrigation systems.

Oscar Carmona

Teaching: Gardening 101

Oscar is a consultant and educator with over 35 years in small-scale, regenerative food production and sustainable landscaping. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at Santa Barbara City College where he co- created and has taught the Green Gardener Sustainable Landscaping Certification Program for the last 20 years.

Warren Brush

Teaching: What is Permaculture?, Why Permaculture, Planting the Rain

Warren is a mentor, storyteller, and an internationally respected Permaculture designer and teacher, as well as a husband, a father and a grandfather. He has worked for over 25 years inspiring people of all ages to discover, nurture and express their inherent gifts while living in a sustainable manner.

LAND-BASED LIVING COURSE

Headline Here

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Row 3

What is this course?

Lessons

What is Permaculture?

Why Permaculture?

Introduction to Climate

Water in the Landscape

Water Ethics

Rainwater Harvesting

Greywater Site Tour

Small Scale Earthworks

Planting the Rain

Living Soils

Long Row Compost

Vermicompost

Gardening 101

In the Quail Springs Garden

The Basics of Seed Saving

Growing Your Own Mushrooms

Integrated Animal Systems

Beekeeping

Chicken Systems

Goat Systems

Cheesemaking and Dairy Fermentation

Preparing Maiz

Vegetable Fermentation

Bone Broth Basics

Creating a Home Herbal Apothecary

Waste and Bioremediation

Greywater Systems

Bonus Lesson: Making Sourdough Bread

Meet The Instructors

Alexandra Valleu

Aris Romero

Brad Lancaster

Brenton Kelly

Chanel Loren

LAND-BASED
LIVING COURSE

Bonus Lesson:
Making Sourdough Bread