Employ Nature. It Works for Free.

That’s what permaculture does. It eliminates the unnecessary jobs we create for ourselves and gives it back to nature.

Take for example the nuisance of the squirrel. It’s a menace to many nut farmers since they have a habit to collect hard shelled seeds to store for the winter. In many cases the lil guys just hoard more than what they’ll need. At Triple Brook Farm, Steve Bryer developed an ingenious solution.

Squirrels would place his hazelnuts to store in a hollow tree trunk. Instead of harvesting himself, he would go to the hollow trunk and exchange the nuts with sweet corn. As time developed and the squirrels adapted to a better salary, a mutual exchange was developed. Steve gets the best nuts harvested by the squirrels and the squirrels get a better food crop in exchange.

We can employ the same strategies for everything and anything as long as it is mutually beneficial to all parties involved.