Microsoft Word - H.E.M.P Healthy Eating Made Possible - Paul Benhaim - Completed.docx

by  

  Paul  

  Benhaim

The
 Personal

 Effects

 of

 Permaculture

When we start practising permaculture, we begin to look at the
impact we have on the earth and try to lighten the load. An easy
way to do this is to start growing our own food. Replacing external
resources with home grown resources becomes important, and
there are many simple ways to do this. These include composting
all organic matter; using composted and recycled materials to
mulch and build soil fertility; using recycled materials for
construction; joining a LETS group to find skills and materials
within the local community; joining a local permaculture group to
share information, tools, practical tasks, seeds and plants; getting
involved in projects which benefit the local community and its
environment, and so on.

In the garden, we discover a whole new world of
interesting foods: perennial and self-seeding salad plants and the
delicious varieties of fruit that you will never find in the
supermarket. Our diets change and become seasonally based,
and the gardener inevitably becomes more aware of the rhythms
of nature.

Permaculture is a system which also actively encourages
wildlife into the garden to help with pest control and to create
ecological balance and diversity of species. The permaculture
gardener becomes an agent of positive change to the local
environment. As well as the satisfaction of feeding ourselves
fresh, organic food, there is great pleasure to be gained from
welcoming back frogs, toads, hedgehogs and all manner of
insects and native birds.

In modern times we can eat mangoes in winter or porridge
in summer. It is common sense to consume light foods during the
summer months and heavier warming foods in the winter. Let's eat