June 14... I'm sure that you are now realizing that a great change is beginning...

Life After the Oil Crash - "Deal With Reality or Reality Will Deal With You"

We took our Permaculture course at The Farm in TN in 2006. And everything we learned is now hitting us on a local level. People are left and right trying to figure out how not to drive their big SUVs, about sharing rides as gas prices rise more and more every day, looking for more locally grown food - it is in the news every day. I have been quite busy in the garden and work, and as we build the new studio and I try to get Anafae finished, I don't really have any time to answer much mail these days or really be online at all. Instead, I have my ear to the ground as it were - as these changes are moving very rapidly now.

One of our teachers was Albert Bates, a quiet guru of a man with a lifetime of wisdom. He has written a book, "The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times" and I recommend it!

Here's some promo copy:

This book takes a positive, upbeat, and optimistic view of "the Great Change," promoting the idea that it can be an opportunity to redeem our essential interconnectedness with nature and with each other. The many rifts that have grown up since oil became the world's prime commodity can be mended: between cities and their food sources; the design of the suburban built environment and its car-oriented sprawl; runaway greenhouse warming, clearing of forests and toxification of rivers, oceans, and land. Topics covered include:

-Rebuilding civilization
-Changing your needs
-Water and waste disposal
-Energy and transportation
-Equipment and Tools
-Food storage and First Aid

Also including light-hearted, playful recipes -- and all emphasizing organic, flavorful and locally grown produce that readily substitute one for another -- this book is about having your catastrophe and eating it too.