The last few weeks, I’ve been on the road, attending first the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, and now the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Conference in Rockwall, Texas.

For each conference, I chose a farm trip that was to a permaculture farm.

The first, to Salamander Creek Farm outside of Berea, KY, was a hillside full of swales and berms, under lots of snow.  We had to hike in, up a hill, to view the farm.

Totally off-grid, Susana has a sustainable operation that throws off some surplus for sale at the farmers market.

She feeds her chickens, ducks and geese as well as herself from what she grows onsite.  Quite impressive.

The second farm is Barking Cat Farm in West Tawakoni, Texas.  Lauren and Kim are converting the farm to permaculture; away from their market garden annuals to perennials.  Their property sports a high tunnel greenhouse, that can be moved on rails from one spot to the other.  They plan to move it once a year. This allows them to fallow the ground and build up soil for the portion not under greenhouse.

They are also dealing with deer.  Consequently, the greenhouse is surrounded with electric fencing. Also surrounded is their “esplanade,” a long narrow strip of ground in which they still have onions growing.

I’ll talk more about their fencing and plans in another post.  Rather tired right now, and there are still two days of conference to go!