Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 15, 2010
Edible landscaping, permaculture, sustainable living coexist
Erica Tuggle
Nothing tastes as good as food fresh from the vine, and those who work and live at the Sequatchie Valley Institute know this to be true. Located on the Cumberland Plateau, this 400-acre former homestead is now a learning center and model for sustainable living with rows upon rows of edible landscaping ready for the picking.
Carol Kimmons, the director of art and education programs at SVI, says that edible landscaping means that you can walk through the rows of growing vegetables, fruits and herbs and eat as you go. Everything in these rows is clean and nothing is sprayed, so you can graze across the landscape to compile your own buffet.
There are over four acres of edible landscapes on the SVI property that include hundreds of fruit and nut trees, vegetables, herb and flower gardens and vines that produce organically grown food, teas and medicines.
Kimmons says, “Most of our landscaping is not just for decoration but for purpose like herbs and fruits. For example,
we have roses here, but all are grown specifically to produce rose hips so that you can eat very high vitamin C or make tea out of these.”
The SVI began as Carol Kimmons and her husband’s homestead in 1971, and in 1997 they began to let visitors come to the area that is now a non-profit. Here there is a variety of things to see and engage in to become closer to nature and knowledge.
In addition to the edible landscaping, there are examples of permaculture, natural building and demonstrations of alternative energy sources. Residents and staff here use these resources to help the community learn about living alongside nature through education efforts, art and research opportunities; land conservation and restoration; and maintaining a vision for attaining a sustainable future.
The employees also conduct off-site presentations as well as tours at the main facility, Moonshadow, and the trails surrounding it every third Saturday of the month. Kimmons says the winter tours of Moonshadow depend on the staff members available, but usually the tours run about three hours long and include a hike through the woods. She says these tours are great for getting kids out and showing them what nature has to offer. During these tours, they can also visit the solar-powered homes that are built using all natural materials like rock, logs and clay.
The tour guides talk to the group about whatever interests the visitors, from forest ecology, to solar technology, to the forest in general. This approach to teaching visitors what they want to know also translates into the opportunities SVI provides for school groups to come out and tour the property. Kimmons says they break the kids into small groups and let them get the feel of being in the woods, hiking and learning how to live sustainably and with solar power.
The SVI property includes a gravity-fed water supply, solar electricity and handcrafted build-
ings that doesn’t affect the surrounding forest and are still technologically sustainable.
The trails all along the property showcase bloodroot and trillium in the spring, creek swimming on summer days, leaf colors in the fall and bluff vistas of the valley in the winter. This environment surrounding the SVI makes it a living laboratory of Appalachian ecology and improves awareness of the relationships between all living things.
The solar design structures and greenhouses are all part of
the effort to inspire visitors and
serve the needs of all who come
to SVI to learn. The Moonshadow
property provides meeting spaces, a kitchen, a library and staff residence. Other structures include Tipple, a timber-framed wood-working shop; Mud Dauber, a cob (clay, sand, and straw) residence; Como Se Llama, the llama barn and crafts gallery; Anole, a craft workshop, meeting space and guest space; Alpenglow, a pottery kiln shed; FourOaks and Crow’s Nest, bungalows for staff; a tool shed; a hoop-house for winter gardening; two cob bread ovens; kiwi and grape arbors and composting toilets.
The SVI says that through their influence, people have learned to grow their own food, produce their own energy, build their own homes and reconnect with nature. The intern program at SVI has allowed many students to further their study, and those in the media rights internship have produced their own video projects.
Adding to the appeal of this getaway is the quiet of the location, ideal for study, reflection and watching the natural world around you. If education is what you seek, the outdoor laboratories offer this and the knowledge of just how rewarding the edible landscaping and permaculture designs are to the SVI’s endeavors.
The staff, interns, students and scientists also use their time at the SVI to take part in research projects like past studies investigating the effects of UVB radiation on pines, the Tennessee amphibian monitoring program and inventories of plant and animal species in the area.
SVI also holds a host of conferences on site such as the Food for Life conference every spring. Kimmons says this workshop will teach you everything you want to know about food, from growing it, to preserving it, to using fermentation processes for pickling and for making beer, mead and other fermented drinks. Kimmons says during this workshop they also talk about the political issues of food including community-supported agriculture, vegetarianism versus meat eating and nutrition. In past years, when there has been enough interest, she says they have had a natural building workshop, that teaches people how to build with clay, straw and other natural techniques.
Kimmons encourages those thinking of visiting to check the Web site for updates on events, and to attend their open house during the third Sunday in November. The property will be on display and the crafts that the staff makes like pottery, paintings, lamp worked-glass, stained glass, wood work and other items, will be for sale.
Examples of these items, more information about SVI and upcoming events can be found at www.svionline.org.
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