La akea' Permaculture Community ~Hawaii: La akea Permaculture internship

PERMACULTURE IN HAWAII

12/17/2009
This blog is about my travels to La Akea'. A self-sustainable permaculture community on the big island of Hawaii. Due to the community being off grid ( limited access to computers) I will be updating this blog on availability. This blog is a compilation of info, images and personal thoughts. Taken from the web and my own personal notes.
Lots of love,

FRED

Site:

La'akea is a 23+ acre property at 1300 foot elevation, on the lush east side of the Big Island of Hawaii. La' Akea is located 4 miles from the town of Pahoa and about 6 miles from the ocean, where there is a beautiful black sand beach. Other attractions in the area include: Volcano National Park with active lava flows to the ocean, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa mountains (over 13,000 feet), natural steam vents, warm ponds, tide pools for snorkeling, Pohoiki beach for surfing, other permaculture sites and intentional communities. Temperatures range between 80's during the day and 60's at night. Pahoa receives over 100 inches of rain per year.

La' akea is located in the sub-tropical rain forest. It is both a magical and wild place. La' akea is situated at 1200 ft. elevation, which means it is cooler in the morning and evenings (65 degrees or so in winter months) than at sea level. La' akea shares the land with ants, mice, rats, mongeese, feral pigs, night-chirping coqui frogs and mosquitoes. (there are also butterflies, free range chickens, ducks, and 2 cats.

(La'akea website)

Permaculture communities can be found through the World Wide Organization of Organic Farming site. Also know as Wwoof.

WWOOF organisations publish lists of organic farms, smallholdings and gardeners that welcome volunteer help at certain times. The diversity of hosts available offers a large variety of tasks and experiences.

Volunteer helpers ("WWOOFers") choose the hosts that most interest them and make direct contact to arrange a stay. Volunteers usually live as part of the family.

I chose La Akea' for there year round tropical weather and the educational focus.

Heres the website: http://www.wwoof.org/

Woofing Hawaii: http://www.woofhawaii.org

They have over 60 in Hawaii alone and all across the world.

12/19/2009

About Permaculture:

Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is a term created by Australian Bill Mollison to describe a land use system that is modeled after natural eco-systems.Mollison defines Permaculture as the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems that have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, shelter, energy and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.The permaculture philosophy is one of working with rather than against nature, of looking at systems in all their functions rather than asking only one yield of them, and allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions. Permaculture is applicable in urban, suburban, and rural environments and offers a proactive approach to addressing the escalating environmental crisis.Permaculture design is a "whole systems" approach to land use planning based on the patterns of symbiotic relationships between land, water, wind, soil, animals, and people inherent in natural eco-systems.

A permaculture links page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

La 'akea Plants of interest:

Gliricidia