Restoring Connection Between People & Planet
Articles, photography, video, and writings sourced from our work in and beyond the field.
The shadblow serviceberry are in bloom at fields without fences in the cliffside above the river. Down in the valley below, their namesake, large river fish called shad, are beginning to make their run up the Delaware river to spawn. Just a bit downstream, in the river town of Lambertville, street vendors and local musicians are preparing for this weekend’s annual Shad Fest…
Read MoreNew interview with Dina Costa of Nurture Your Nature Podcast! Lots of terrain covered in this one - and the waters wade deep! Dina is a charming and thoughtful host, and I highly recommend checking out this relatively new offering of hers… Nurture Your Nature Podcast available on iTunes
Read MoreFrom a permaculture perspective, late season snow presents a wonderful opportunity to read patterns in the landscape. By observing snow melt, we can easily identify where water naturally moves across the landscape, and this gives us insight into ways we might harness water flow, interrupt or redirect it, or choose select species that thrive in seasonal inundation…
Read MorePermaculture is full of colorful tropes, but perhaps none so intriguing as the oft repeated paradox, “the problem is the solution.”
Each year at our Introduction to Permaculture course a prodding of this question comes up in earnest; what exactly does that mean, and how do we translate it into action?
Friends, if you have been thinking about joining our community as a CSA member, now is the time to sign up for savings on 100% organic, locally grown herbals. This is our fifth season offering this CSA program, and this year’s membership has a ton of value for members.
Still looking for a reason to join? Here are our top 5…
Read MoreAfter a two year hiatus, we are please to announce the reinstatement of our Seasonal Apprenticeship Program for 2019!
Join us for a unique work-study program on our 10 acre forest garden farm. Our Seasonal Apprenticeship Program offers hands on learning opportunities for beginning farmers, gardeners, permaculture practitioners, and plant lovers.
Read MoreWe’re not much for resolutions (after all, what’s resolute in a universe propelled by perpetual change?), but we’re big on goal articulation. Goal articulation involves a synthesis of the what and the why informing your vision for the future. As we teach in permaculture, it’s not a singular process. Good design of landscapes and our lives involves beginning with, and returning to often, goal articulation to help understand what motivations guide us in the light of day, or shift in the shadows of our unconscious…
Read MoreCelebrating milestones at Fields Without Fences! This season marks Johann’s 15th year of farming. For those of you who don’t know Johann, he is one half of Fields Without Fences, an organic farmer, educator, permaculture designer, ecological consultant, plant lover, and herb enthusiast. For those of you that do know Johann, you’ve probably seen him standing in a field with a laser level, planting trees, or showing up at your potluck with seasonal microbrews…
Read MoreFor the first few years when anyone would ask what we grow on our farm, I would crack a smile and quip, “we mostly cultivate patience.” It’s like that with perennials. A tiny herb, a bare root whip, a scattering of seeds cast out into the landscape like a wish that might one day blossom and fruit into the vision so easily teleported to within the mind’s eye. But time travel otherwise trudges on at a reliable pace; minutes becoming hours, becoming seasons, becoming years. In the meantime you will curse the nursery woman who sold you the poorly grafted pawpaws, then you’ll curse yourself for buying more…
Read MoreSharing this rather sweeping interview with our friend Alex Marcoulides for his Youtube channel called Green Revolution. Alex stopped by Fields Without Fences for a broad conversation with us about forest gardening, permaculture, successionally managed farm ecosystems, and elderberries, and we go pretty damn deep. This interview is from last season (2017), and listening back to it, I am completely impressed with Alex's ability to listen, synthesize, and offer careful reflection at a nearly rapid fire pace! Alex's energy is purely electric and plugged in.
Read MoreSomeone chopped down a tree and began the task of making firewood. That task was abandoned in favor of a more pressing task, and a forgotten round of tree trunk began to dry, then wet in the rain, then dry again. One day someone pulled it into the shade of the old crabapple to sit on for a sunny afternoon, until it was forgotten and left to decay once again…
Read MoreEach still image I capture in the garden represents a particular passing expression of the plant world in seasonal succession. And the static nature of the photo belies the true nature of the emergent forest garden which is in a state of perennial movement, forever shifting as plants come into blossom, maturity, death, and rebirth. I’m beginning an ongoing series where I’ll explore dynamic evolving interactions within the polyculture understory of our forest garden farm. If you enjoy it, please let me know and pass it on!
Read MoreBack in early April I had the pleasure of speaking to Diego Footer during an interview for his Farm Small Farm Smart Podcast. Diego initially reached out to talk to about medicinal herbs and our herbal CSA, but the conversation organically expanded into more nuanced topics including plant medicine for the earth; site specific design; breaking free from traditional modalities of cultivation; plant autonomy and sovereignty; and understanding the driving force that is propelling and defining your interaction with the land…
Read MoreIn a world of mediated experiences and mediated environments, it can be easy to forget that we are people of the earth, derived and fashioned from the same carbon and and hydrogen as the soil, the plants, and the astral bodies of far flung planets. Incomplete organisms that have evolved in inextricable relationship with the plant world, and cease to exist in isolation. In the scope of our planetary history, there was a time not long ago when human beings moved across the landscape according to the seasons. The sun, wind, rains, plants, and animal migrations in cyclical connection forged a compass to locate ourselves in our world. Their sacred language so essential and heavy with meaning, it formed the foundation for all human culture to be built upon. From the forty-fifth floor looking down it can be difficult to recall the root of humanity; hum, connected to the latin humus, meaning, of the earth.
Read MoreWe hope you’ll take the leap and join us for a season of farm grown herbal teas, tonics, elixirs, tinctures, balms, and infused sprays handcrafted with organic ingredients and herbs, flowers, roots, and fruits grown on our small farm. Our members receive four seasonal share packages at 20% below retail value, and are entitled to 15% off any additional herbals purchased through our online store or at the farm year round! Read More...
Read MoreNOFA-NJ 2018 Winter Conference
Framing Regenerative Agriculture: What Do We Mean & What Is To Be Done?
Panel Participants: Andrew Faust, Michael Judd, Lindsay Napolitano, & Mark Shepard
Moderator: Johann Rinkens
What is regenerative agriculture and how can it address many of the environmental and economic problems we currently face? Join esteemed permaculture practitioners Andrew Faust, Michael Judd, Lindsay Napolitano, and Mark Shepard in conversation with moderator Johann Rinkens as we engage in a discussion surrounding the in and outs of regenerative agriculture; what does it mean to be “regenerative,” what practices can we employ at both a home and farm scale, and how does our relationship to our environment impact our way of seeing and acting in the world. Read more...
Read MorePlant Medicine for People & Planet
On our farm, located within Delaware River Watershed, we cultivate fruits, nuts, medicinal herbs, and wild edibles within naturalized plantings that mimic the wild ecology. Through site specific design, we integrate approaches found in environmental restoration, permaculture design, and regenerative agriculture to create low input, self-renewing, agroecological systems that naturally restore health and integrity to our shared landscape.
Beyond our fields we bring these practices to our consulting and design work with farmers, landowners, and organizations. Inspired by a philosophy that recognizes all elements are integral to an interconnected planet, we approach landscapes as interdependent ecosystems, out of which the well being of all is reflected in the health and functionality of the whole. We bring this mindful holistic approach to everything we do, from the products we craft, to the programs and services we offer.
