Darren Hey in The Channon, New South Wales | Educational consultant

Darren Hey

Locality: The Channon, New South Wales

Phone: +61 416 119 965

Address: Permaculture Research Institute of Australia 1158 Pinchin Rd 2480 The Channon, NSW, Australia

Website: https://darrenhey.org

Likes: 1911

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• Medical and health
• Alternative & holistic health service
• Educational consultant

25.01.2022 In light of current planetary events, how secure do you feel? Are you growing your own food? Have you integrated animal systems to ensure you are building soil fertility? Are you enhancing your nutrition for better immune system function? Are you water independent...enough to drink and raise crops? All this you can do...or even just some of them. ... More than ever it is important to cultivate your connection with the land. It is after all, Mother Earth that sustains you, and...by causal laws, protects you as well. Come along this Sunday if you can to Zaytuna Farm, home of Geoff and Nadia Lawton and the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. We are running a formal tour where you can see a well established Permaculture farm in action and ask all the questions you may need to help you on your path to sustainability, security and food growing abundance. Go to zaytunafarm.com for details and to make your booking, or follow this link below: https://www.zaytunafarm.com//zaytuna-farm-spring-tour-6th/ See you there Zaytuna Farm Regenearth Project Earth Care ~ People Care ~ Self Care

19.01.2022 Beautiful watermelon going in for a tasty alkalising summer crop. We just dug a hole in a pre-prepped bed, pre-soaked the hole, filled with awesome compost, planted the watermelon, watered in with worm wee , added compost around the plant, and then tucked it all under the mulch. Watermelon is great for hydrating, cleansing, and building a vital blood stream. Choose heirloom varieties with seeds if possible. But choose seeded watermelon in the shops if you can too. #watermelon #Cucurbitaceae #harvestwater #buildsoil #regrowforest #foodforest #growyourownfood #poisonfree #zaytunafarm #permacultureresearchinstitute #permaculturewillfeedtheworld #peaceandfreedomonearth #regenearthproject #gardenersofinstagram #permaculture #veggie #kitchengarden #farmtotable

15.01.2022 Geoff Lawton: Discover Permaculture with the surfing legend Dave Rastovich. A great conversation at around 48 minutes.

15.01.2022 Audrey...our beautiful mamma Nigerian dwarf goat is very close to giving birth. We are all staying close...exciting to be a part of it. #nigeriandwarfgoats #harvestwater #buildsoil #regrowforest #foodforest #growyourownfood #poisonfree #zaytunafarm #permacultureresearchinstitute #permaculturewillfeedtheworld #peaceandfreedomonearth #regenearthproject #gardenersofinstagram #permaculture #veggie #kitchengarden #farmtotable

13.01.2022 Main crop in the morning...work about to begin for the day. And it is some of the most important work too...all hands on deck to ensure that the farm community ...is producing enough food to not go hungry. There are other food producing systems on the farm however, managed by small teams of people, usually two sometimes three, but main crop gets everyone, every morning...except weekends of course. Growing food is an affair that should involve everyone. Every member of the family, every member of the community. Growing your own food keeps you healthy, for the work involved as well as the benefit of its poison free freshness filled will photons of light from the sun. However there are realizations one has when growing one's own food that people living disconnected from this process usually don't have or experience. Exceptions to this rule are people who make the connection between an abundance of fresh organic fruits and vegetables in their diet, often completely or high raw, and the feeling of well-being and vitality within their body-mind. The realizations involve understanding the sacredness of Life...it's sacrifices as well as it's gifts, it's grace as you follow the cycle of Life, from soil, to seed, to plate, and back to soil...from birth, to death, and then life again...your life...one amongst many. You can't help but acquire such a deep respect and reverence for Life, for its sacrifice so that you may be sustained. It awakens in you a desire to care for Life, for the Earth, to give back more than you take. What relationship do you have with Life and with the Earth...are you a giver or a taker? Do you fear Life, Nature and the Earth and live in denial of its sustenance for you...or do you love it, and serve the evolution of Life's expression. One way leads to insecurity and insanity...the other to fulfillment and freedom. Which would you prefer? Do you believe that Life can sustain you? Come back to the land...the Earth, our Great Mother, wants your friendship. #maincropping #sustainability #sustainableliving #permaculture #organic #GrowYourOwnFood #PoisonFree #ZaytunaFarm #PermacultureResearchInstitute #PermacultureWillFeedTheWorld See more

12.01.2022 It’s a good sight...the early morning steam cloud from a freshly turned pile of compost (photo unfiltered). Making compost is one of the techniques we use for ...building soil. It is like a coat hanger (to paraphrase Bill M.) that you can hang in your wardrobe of Permaculture Design elements. There are any number of techniques that can be used to master a specific space or niche, and that you can hang in your design cupboard. But the techniques themselves are not the design. What else is in the cupboard? Strategy belongs in there. Strategies are the timings with which you apply techniques. Just as there are many techniques you may need, choose and use, so you can have many strategies too. The strategies enable the mastering of time within your design when applied to the techniques that you choose. But the strategies themselves are not the design. The overarching pattern with which you apply the strategies and techniques, enables your mastery over the time and space which is your design. But just as any Life system continuously evolves, so too will your design. And it must evolve, for it will never be complete. You must continually work with the evolution of life expression, shaped by your intention, as Life seeks to overcome limitations by capitalizing upon any freedom that it may have. And so we make compost to build our crop soils, and we time the collection of manure and plant matter, so that each week we make a new pile, and from a continual cycling of compost piles, we have a 5-6 week matured pile ready to go on a crop bed as well. In fact we have two from our chicken tractor composting systems, which is the pile you see being turned in this photo. Nice grapevine growing on the fence too. So you will nest different elements together in your design, and by stacking functions, you can optimize outputs for your inputs used, recycling everything not consumed back through a system. Techniques make use of the elements within a space and strategies determine the timings of implementation and then fruition. It can be a little mystifying when you first try to get your head around it...but as it all comes together you wonder how we could have ever done it differently? Zaytuna Farm Permaculture Research Institute Regenearth Project

11.01.2022 Fresh water...a precious resource. This is something that definitely hits home when you start to grow your own food. You realize you need to ask some fundament...al questions about your water security: 1) How much water do I need in order to grow the food I need to grow and support the systems I’m going to manage, including my own dwelling? 2) Where is that water coming from? How much it is it going to cost me...in direct import...or water harvesting infrastructure? 3) What will the quality of that water be? Will it be contaminated with soft kill poisons, or environmental pollutants from upstream industry and what do I need to do to mitigate that? In the end, for water security and independence you want to be able to capture it yourself. Rainwater, depending on where you live, and especially once you filter it, is shaping up to be the safest water to drink if your storages are done right. It’s also the cheapest option once you have the infrastructure in place, but it’s the peace of mind in having all the water you need at your fingertips which is priceless. Decentralize from your water dependence...if you value freedom. On 66 acres of property, Zaytuna Farm, Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, never runs out, and we are completely independent for all our water needs. (In this photo, Geoff Lawton and Clemens Theil, one of our long term volunteer/interns) #harvestwater #buildsoil #regrowforest #foodforest #growyourownfood #poisonfree #zaytunafarm #permacultureresearchinstitute #permaculturewillfeedtheworld #peaceandfreedomonearth

09.01.2022 So...we could say that both of these things are real, as they both exist right? On the left is aloe (var.), a healing herb that everyone should grow, and which... perhaps is in my top two of herbs. We will talk more about this magical plant in another post, but it’s healing efficacy is usually well known. On the right is a product that uses aloe vera leaf juice, ingredient number 9 on a 13 ingredient list, and ingredients are listed in order of quantities present, with manufacturing excipients not required to be mentioned. So both are real but only one is authentic, and therefore could only perform as the authentic material would. It would save us so much time, energy and destruction if we could understand this. The modified product cannot hope to have the healing benefits of the authentic herb. It doesn’t have all of the encoded information delivered by the photons of the sun, and the elements of the soil. They have been stripped out to make a homogenous product of predictable shelf life and artificial attractiveness...and then much more which is unnatural to you has been added back in. What are those chemical compounds coding for in your body I wonder? Let’s have a look at the modified product’s ingredients list: water, alcohol denat., glycerin, polysorbate 20, carbomer, triethanolamine, fragrance, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, imidazolidinyl urea, iodopropynylbutylcarbamate, benzophenone-4, Cl 19140, Cl 42090. Wow! What do all of those compounds do when put on your skin and absorbed into your body? How do they affect the original activity of the aloe leaf juice? The original leaf gel cools and heals, but it is the alcohol in the processed product that would cool by evaporation, and irritate your skin as would the rest of the ingredients. We can’t improve on the complexity of Nature’s energy/information/nutrient delivery and communication system found in our plant foods. We can only detract from them. Don’t be fooled by colours and clever marketing. Tertiary products are where the profits lie, so attempts will always be made to entice you from the original and natural product of Nature. Only the authentic could ever heal you, thus only authenticity could ever free you. Namaste D [This is not an indictment of any company, merely an illustration between what is authentic and what isn’t.] Authenticity Regenearth Project

06.01.2022 Many hands make light work. Can you imagine what our world would be like if everyone...and I mean every able bodied man, woman and child started their day on t...he sunrise , tending to their own or neighborhood food producing garden? Just two hours everyday...like a national or cultural pastime. Then you get to take some harvest home for the day to eat from. You could decree it almost like a religion would...though an Earth Care religion. Promoting awareness of soil biology, plant health, food abundance, food to health relationships, environmental care, cooperative and peaceful community. To see divinity in Nature and not threat. To see and understand Nature’s wisdom rather than arrogantly assume its blind primitiveness. What a different world it would be. Everyone would soon see the futility of a lifestyle spent pursuing substance-less wealth, to purchase expensive things of no value...only to have strangers take more than half of the fruits of your labour, so that some can sit in ivory towers while the rest toil in the fields. Coming back to the land is a simpler life, and more inwardly fulfilling. It’s easy to do...it’s what I have done. Perhaps you’d like to try it sometime? #zaytunafarm #permacultureresearchinstitute #regenearthproject

06.01.2022 Here’s Audrey and her new bub Ginger (a boy), at only a few days old. Both are well and strong. This is Audrey’s second kid. Becoming an old hat at this now #Nigeriandwarfgoats #integratedanimalsystems #harvestwater #buildsoil #regrowforest #foodforest #growyourownfood #poisonfree #zaytunafarm #permacultureresearchinstitute #permaculturewillfeedtheworld #peaceandfreedomonearth #regenearthproject #gardenersofinstagram #permaculture #veggie #kitchengarden #farmtotable

05.01.2022 It’s a beautiful thing.... To be up early in the morning, when the air is fresh and new, sun just rising over the nearby hilltop. To be out in Nature, hands in ...the soil, tending to the ground that is bringing, and the plants that are going to be our food. It makes things pretty simple really...shines a light on the things we take for granted, or the things we perhaps put too much importance in. What’s really important? Safe and stable community, high quality food, a place to rest your head at night, people whom you can trust. They are what’s important. Of course that’s just my opinion. Being outside like this in the early morning, you get to witness the awakening of Nature from her nocturnal activities. The bird song is most amazing. You can get lost in your head, or you can tune into the beautiful sounds that backdrop your important work. And growing your own high quality food you can depend upon is important work. But if you listen intently you will hear quite deeply into that sound. How many layers of song there are? How many different stories are happening in the birdsong both near and far? There will be close range chirping, midrange warbling, and far off calling. From all directions, crisscrossing and overlaying one another in a most beautiful and contiguous symphony. The natural world really is such a gift for us. Let’s respect and protect it from the ignorance of our excesses. #zaytunafarm #permacultureresearchinstitute #regenearthproject

04.01.2022 How to make sure you get lots of pumpkins... * First, see the top row of photos. This is what a male flower looks like. It has a phallus in the centre called a ...stamen that holds pollen. * Second, the bottom row of photos shows a female flower bearing a receptacle. The receptacle is comprised of the stigma and style, leading to the ovary, which once fertilized by the pollen, will mature into a fruit. You can see the ovary in the first photo bottom row, something the male flower doesn’t have. Pumpkins, like other cucurbits, have separate male and female flowers on the same plant. That means that it takes two to tango...I mean, make fruit. Pollen must be moved from the male flower to the female flower. Bees and other insects do this well, but it isn’t failsafe. * So, after introducing yourself to the plant , you can take a male flower and strip it of it’s petals (top row last photo), and place it in the receptacle of a female flower (bottom row last photo). Umm...no need to get hot and steamy on me now ok. The female flower will close around the male flower in a warm embrace and grow you a nice yummy pumpkin. So thank the plant for its generosity and wait for the pumpkins to arrive. Female flowers not otherwise pollinated will shrivel up and fall off. After successful pollination, the time it takes for the pumpkin to grow to maturity is between 45 and 55 days. When ready to harvest, the stem for the ripe pumpkins will die, indicating that harvest time has arrived. #pumpkin #pumpkinflower #curcubita #BuildSoil #GrowYourOwnFood #PoisonFree #ZaytunaFarm #PermacultureResearchInstitute #PermacultureWillFeedTheWorld #peaceandfreedomonearth #RegenearthProject

04.01.2022 We don’t need GMO foods. It is a myth the biotech industry and people who cannot think for themselves are trying to perpetuate. We need better distribution of food and less wastage and we can easily feed all the people of the world. The fact that the will to do this is lacking in our political structure tells us that the politicians are either ignorant, incompetent or compliant to outside interests. Those ‘interests’ are interested in profit and control over both the food and...Continue reading

02.01.2022 Earth Care is a fundamental prerequisite in Permaculture. You can't have healthy food long term without acknowledgement and strict adherence to this principle. ...If you can't have healthy food, you can't have a healthy body, and by default also a healthy mind through healthy brain function. By far the best way to have healthy food is to learn how to grow it yourself with proper Earth Care principles, for anything which cares for the Earth must, by default, also care for you. That is the symbiotic relationship that all Life has with itself in all its forms on this planet and beyond. There is a causal relationship that connects everything, nothing is random or happens by chance. The iron law of Cause and Effect connects all phenomena in a never ending sequence infinitely forwards and infinitely backwards in time in all directions. If you can't find the cause, and there may be many correlative ones it's simply because you haven't looked in the right direction or found the right factors, but they are there nonetheless. It's important not to kid ourselves that anything could be random, especially Life phenomena, which statistical probability shows that the chance of a DNA molecule assembling itself randomly in nature is less likely than a tornado assembling a fully operational Boeing 747 after sweeping through a junk yard. Ponder that... Healthy food and a healthy life just don't happen randomly. Proper principles must be in place for such abundance to be realized. Growing healthy food requires care and attention to the soil life, which requires care and attention to plants, trees and guilds that work symbiotically in that soil. It requires care and attention to insect and animal species that feed on the plant life and return their own fertility to the land. It requires our recognition of those connections and a willingness to engage with them so that we can actively co-create the abundance, peace and happiness we want for life here on Earth. What are you prepared to do to live this reality? What are you prepared to sacrifice? This Life will not happen for you without your actual involvement. ‘Permanent Agriculture’; necessary to sustain a civilization in perpetuity can only occur if we adhere to principles based in Natural Law...that is, from the sound observation of phenomena in which Life thrives. ‘Permaculture’ therefore CAN feed the world and save humanity in the process. #EarthCare #Permaculture #PermanentAgriculture #NaturalLaw #CauseAndEffect #RegenearthProject #EarthCarePeopleCareSelfCare https://www.facebook.com/regenearthorg/