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Neal Hegarty of Abundant Edge : Stories of Volunteers Past

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    Today we’re hearing from Neal. Many of you who have been to the farm in the past several years know Neal from his role as Volunteer Manager and Permaculture Course Facilitator, but you may not know that recently he and his partners have founded their own Permaculture-based homestead and regenerative design consultation firm, Abundant Edge. Below, Neal reflects on what Permaculture has meant to him and how it continues to influence him


    Atitlan Organics: Please tell us a little about yourself and your permaculture inspired project


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    Neal: Well, although I come from a family of dairy farmers in Ireland and minored in agricultural science in college, I actually started out working as a project manager for a water purification company. I came to Central America first in 2009 to work for an NGO on a project in highland Guatemala. It was an eye opening experience for me, and I became very upset at the state the world is in, and my own part in it. I decided that I didn’t want to work for big companies or NGOs anymore after that, and so I went back to Ireland and started my own enterprise doing gardens for people who wanted to grow food. During this time I took several courses in organic agriculture, and heard about Permaculture for the first time. In 2013, I got the chance to do a masters in the Kimmage Development Studies Centre. It was a great experience, and I started to really dive deep into reading and studying Permaculture and Agroecology. When it came time to pick a topic for my masters, I decided to come back to Guatemala, the country that had first really opened my eyes, to study the relationship between the indigenous food production systems of the Mayan peoples and Permaculture. I wrote the thesis over the course of a year, while I stayed and worked in IMAP (Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute). While I was there, I spent a lot of my time farming and gardening with local people and also traveling to meet indigenous communities, who still used ancestral farming techniques, or whom had been capacitated in permaculture. It was a very valuable experience, and one that left me in no doubt that I wanted to dedicate my life to working in Permaculture and continuing to learn. During my time in IMAP, I took the PDC run by Atitlan Organics and IMAP. Shad and I became friends and I eventually came to work for him at his amazing farm. After a while he invited me to start teaching with him, which was a huge honor. While working for Shad, I met Oliver Goshey and Jeremy Fellows, fellow Permaculture and natural building enthusiasts, we started collaborating together under the company of the Abundant Edge, and eventually bought land together where we are building a Permaculture home and small farm. As well as teaching Permaculture and natural building, we also work as a design and consultancy company: we use Permaculture design methodologies and  combine our skills to help our clients set up healthy abundant systems on their land or in their projects.  

    AO: What excites you most about the work you do?


    Neal Hegarty, Atitlan Organics, Abundant Edge, blog, Permaculture Course, regenerative agriculture, permaculture, Tzununa, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, Central America

    Neal: So much of what we do excites me, it would be difficult to pick one thing. Building our own home and farm is a dream come true for me; working as a designer and a consultant on other projects, so that my clients can switch to living more sustainably is also amazing; but I guess what excites me most is the educational aspect of what we do. Between Abundant Edge and Atitlan Organics, I feel we have a really diverse team of facilitators, all of whom feel passionate about what they do. Students, volunteers, interns and local kids can come here and learn in a few months what it took me years to figure out, and that’s because each member of our team has put so much effort into distilling down their experience and knowledge. We have a young kid from the local community working with us as an intern at the moment, it’s amazing to see his progress. He took our Intro to Permaculture Course as part of the scholarship program started by Atitlan Organics, and has been with us ever since. It’s great to see his progress and enthusiasm. This is really important to me, because I really believe in permaculture as a movement, and I also believe that the next generations will have major problems to solve, but having this foundation in Permaculture design and natural building to build on is a great start.  

    AO: How do the ideas of Permaculture live in your life and your enterprise?

    Neal: Well, that’s the thing about Permaculture: once you get into it, it changes the way you think about everything. I’m big into energy flows, not just capturing and storing energy, but also understanding symbiosis. That is to say, in both my personal life and my business, I look for symbiotic relationships. I try to put my energy into things that will continue to grow and return the energy in different forms, that goes for whether I’m planting a tree or nurturing a friendship. I like to think our business model is a good example of this; my specialization is in farming and food production, Oliver specializes in natural building, while Jeremy is an really into botany, horticulture and landscaping and my partner Adriana is a tropical ecologist and artist. We work together to come up with designs and solutions that are far more sophisticated than what any of us could achieve on our own. Our relationship with Atitlan Organics is similarity symbiotic and we are lucky to live in a place which is full of inspiring people and projects, and where symbiosis through collaboration is really possible. 

    AO: What is your connection to Atitlan Organics?


    Neal Hegarty, Atitlan Organics, Abundant Edge, Permaculture, Permaculture Course, blog

    Neal: My time at Atitlan Organics was amazing. Working for Shad on his farm as Volunteer Manager, and seeing the way he applied the permaculture principles to make his farm so abundant, was great for me. I also studied under Shad when I took my PDC and then worked as a translator on a number of subsequent courses. His passion for education is really infectious! He taught me a lot not just about permaculture, but also how to teach it, how to transmit the ideas and how to create a safe space which is conducive to learning. 

    AO: What advice would you give to someone who is dreaming of starting their own sustainable enterprise or project?

    Neal: Well first of all I would say congratulations, getting into a life in permaculture on a full time basis is one of the most rewarding and interesting things you can do with your life. I am also really excited about the new course Advanced Permaculture Course which we are giving in November and which is geared towards people looking to get into doing permaculture professionally . The course is intended for people who already have some knowledge and experience, but who are ready to commit to making a career in permaculture. We have teamed up with two of the best regenerative/permaculture farms on the continent to teach a course for aspiring farmers and design professionals.

    Aside from that I would say just go for it, learn the ropes from people you respect and are inspired by, learn a bit of everything, and eventually you will find your niche in what excites you most. Most importantly is to not be put off. There are so many opportunities out there, and so much information on how to solve the problems we are faced with!

    Thanks Neal! We’re happy for you and your partners at Abundant Edge (and happy for ourselves, that you’re still our neighbor!)



    Atitlan Organics blog, Permaculture, blog, Abundant Edge, Tzununa, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, Central America

    Studying Permaculture and Natural Building in Guatemala offers amazing opportunities to learn from indigenous cultures, rich natural patterns, and enormous diversity. Permaculture in Central America is representative of the edge effect or Edge Valuing Principle of Design. As one of the world’s centres of biodiversity, Central America attracts people from all over the world interested in learning through nature. Permaculture practices and sustainable building designs can be seen in action via the surviving indigenous traditions that are common in Guatemala. Studying permaculture and natural building in Central America offers designers great opportunities to learn from diverse groups of people in incredibly diverse natural settings. 

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    Nicolas Hernandez Chiyal

    Born and raised in the town of Tzununa, which lies right below Atitlan Organics, Nicholas and Shad have worked since Day 1, helping to craft the this amazing landscape. Nichloas is a supreme ninja farmer with skills beyond explanation. Visitors are endlessly impressed with his resourcefulness, ingenuity, and sheer motivation. Nicholas now owns and operates Las Ensaladas de Atitlan Organics, a business that sells organic produce to over 50 restaurants, hotels, and stores around lake Atitlan.

    Neal Hegarty

    Neal is originally from Ireland. He grew up on a dairy farm and has been around animals all his life. He studied agriculture in Ireland and has worked as a permaculturist for the past 10 years. Neal was the Volunteer Manager at Atitlan Organics for 2 years before co-founding his own Permaculture-based enterprise, Abundant Edge Farm, in Tzununa. He brings a wealth of experience, enthusiasm, and energy into each Intro to Permaculture Course and Permaculture Design Certification Course and we’re happy to continue to collaborate with him!

    Rony Lec

    Rony is one of the world’s leading experts in permaculture and Mayan ancestral knowledge. Rony has spent the last 20 years teaching and implementing permaculture throughout Central, South and North America focusing on promoting food sovereignty and preserving biodiversity for the survival of Indigenous communities.

    Through his extensive work with Indigenous communities on traditional ecological knowledge, seed saving, native plants, local/global food movements, livelihood security, and the interaction between communities and the environment, he has made a key contribution to the empowerment of Indigenous people around the world. Rony is a co-founder of IMAP.

    Zach Loeks

    Hailing from Ottawa, Canada where he and his partner run the 50-acre Kula Permaculture Farm, Zach brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the course. He works as an educator, designer, consultant and farmer, with an emphasis on integrating diversity, conserving soil and maximizing farm ecosystem services while maintaining high productivity.

    Last year Zach published The Permaculture Market Garden, which explores ways that permaculture can be scaled up be a profitable whole-systems enterprise. Zach is a leading figure in permaculture, who brings a new and exciting vision of how it can be integrated into the wider community and marketplace.

    Ashley McDonnell

    Ashley’s work focuses on resurrecting our relationship to the natural world through the development of earth based skills that deepen our connection to place while increasing our sense of sovereignty and resilience. Devoted to the arts of permaculture, natural building, herbalism and birth work as her mediums, Ashley explores with humility the diverse modalities that support us in living in right relationship with the world around us. She views permaculture as a practice that not only creates healthy ecological communities but one that helps to reweave the very fabric of who we are as people. Her work is an offering to the future.

    Holly Mech

    Holly fell in love with yoga because of the sense of connection she felt every time she came to her mat. She began teaching yoga in Chicago in 2011. Her desire to deepen her teaching and personal practice led her to continue her yoga education in California, Bali, Australia and Guatemala. Holly now travels around the world teaching yoga and facilitating yoga teacher trainings. She enjoys helping new teachers sequence yoga classes and incorporate philosophy into their teachings. Her classes are creative and dynamic with an emphasis on making yoga accessible to everyone.

    Holly studied English at the University of Illinois at Chicago and frequently draws inspiration for her classes from literature and poetry. When she’s not on the yoga mat she enjoys exploring nature, singing, dancing and working with textiles.

    Laura Palmieri

    Laura ‘Lala’ Palmieri is a clinical herbalist, a biologist, plant and fungi lover and grower. She offers health consultations to balance body, mind and soul working with medicinal herbs and mushrooms. Her approach to health integrates the knowledge of many ancient traditions and teachers, fusing spirituality with nature, and science with alchemy through the transformation of the elements.

    Lala has spent her years in dialogue with Nature, which has fueled her passion to integrate scientific knowledge and the connection with all beings to help humanity. She integrates her practice with cooking, gardening, and exploring ecosystems. She teaches and facilitates herbal clinics and programs in permaculture, herbalism, botany, fermentation, and medicinal mushroom cultivation, with a regenerative earth care approach and techniques that are accessible to most. She and Sarah co-created the Envision and Cosmic Converge Herbal First Aid Clinics, other relief Clinics in Guatemala for the volcano eruption. You will find Lala crafting remedies for her diverse communities in Guatemala and Costa Rica, where she is actively creating a world with integrated healthcare.

    Sarah Wu

    Sarah is a clinical herbalist of 20 years, studying and practicing planetary eclectic, regenerative herbalism with a foundation in Wise Woman Reclaiming philosophies. Influenced by global traditions, Sarah focuses on local food-based healing and ethnobotanical traditions. She leads trainings and workshops in herbal medicine, Permaculture Design Courses, Therapeutic Deep Ecology, Social Permaculture, field-to-the-plate holistic nutrition, herbal first aid and Tarot. She is a passionate mentor and educator, who believes in the teacher’s role in unlocking the innate wisdom of the student. Sarah is the co-founder of the Village Witches project, and is a Co-Founder and Co-producer of Envision Festival.

    Don Fransisco Simon

    Don Fransisco knows the lands and waters of Tzununa deeper than most anyone alive. His intuitive handling of plants makes the whole system glow, and he is an avid duck enthusiast, maintaining the breeding flocks at Duck Willow, along with his own homestead flock. Aside from that, he oversees the establishment of the perennial agroforestry and aquaculture systems on Duck Willow Farms.

    David 'Brock' Barker

    Brock Barker was raised as an outdoorsman in the marshes and forests of south Louisiana, where he developed a passion for all things plants. After studying horticulture at university, Brock has worked in nurseries, landscaping outfits, and in the facilitation of a horticultural therapy program, and more. His primary ‘work’ for the last 12 years has been developing a 10 acre homestead which serves as personal garden of Eden and educational space for volunteers and workshops. Brock’s proficiency in areas such as mushroom cultivation/ foraging, fermentation, and botany, combined with his infectious enthusiasm make him an integral part of our team.

    Jeremy Dexter Fellows

    Jeremy has focused ten years of study, mentorship and implementation of permaculture design systems back home in Massachusetts. With many years of experience in botany and horticulture, he is fascinated by the world of plants. After working many years in Guatemala, Jeremy has dedicated his focus to land and water management systems that lend to ecological acceleration and social integration through food production. Jeremy now runs granja tzikin, works as a designer and consultant with Regenera and teaches in the Atitlan Organics teachers guild.

    Julia Forest

    Julia is an international yoga teacher, birth doula, women’s health advocate, and closet artist who is passionate about health, environmentalism and empowered birth. She is co-creator of the Sacred Birth Yoga & Doula Training, is founding director of Awakened Spirit Yoga and co-founder of the Wellkind Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on community empowerment and wellbeing through the lens of permaculture. She also created the Sacred Earth Yoga Training, the first yoga teacher training program that combines yoga, mindfulness, permaculture and leadership to transform lives and communities.

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    Your Curriculum

    Your curriculum for the Permaculture Design Certificate includes 20 short courses consumed over a period of 7 weeks, with a final design project to be finalised in the 8th week.

    Week 1: The Spirit of Permaculture

    Week 2: Design Methodologies

    Week 3: Water and Earthworks

    Week 4: Soil and Compost

    Week 5: Plant Power

    Week 6: Animals

    Week 7: Permaculture Niches

    Week 8: Final Design Project

    The Final Design Project Course Module becomes available after completing all of the Content for Week 1 and Week 2. The module serves as a guide for your final design project. We suggest that you work on this throughout the course. The 8th call is reserved for students to present their final design projects. Upon completion of the Final Design Project and all of the Course Content, a Permaculture Design Certificate is awarded.

    Shad Qudsi

    Shad Qudsi has over 13 years experience in organic and commercial gardening and farming. He is certified in Permaculture Design and has over 3 years experience in permaculture design consulting. After graduating from Johns Hopkins University with a double major in Applied Math and Psychology, Shad and his wife, Colleen, moved to Central America with only vague goals of farming at some point in the near future. In January of 2010, Shad and his wife bought and moved onto a very small farm located in the traditional Mayan village of Tzununa, which on the north shore of Lake Atitlan, in Guatemala. The farm developed into Atitlan Organics and now mainly focuses on greens and chickens, a large edible and useful plant nursery, a food forest, and training and education.  Shad is an enthusiastic teacher who truly believes in the work he is doing. Human resiliency cannot be erased from the landscape and now, it is coming back with a loving grace.