In this episode of Sense-Making in a Changing World, I sit down with Abel Pearson – permaculture educator, community food grower and co founder of Glasbren , an award winning community-supported agriculture project in rural Wales. Glasbren began as a three acre permaculture designed market garden and has now moved to Lord’s Park Farm, a 134 acre National Trust property on the cliffs where the Taf and Tywi rivers meet the sea in Carmarthenshire. Abel and his family are the first permaculture based tenants on a National Trust farm, creating a flagship project for nature friendly, community facing farming. In our conversation we explore: Abel’s journey from woofing and natural building to discovering permaculture as “the origin” of everything he now does How Glasbren grew from a three acre CSA into a whole farm vision at Lord’s Park Designing a landscape and an organisation with permaculture ethics: earth care, people care, fair share Indigenous and historic food systems as deeply “permacultural” ways of living in reciprocity with land Being of a place when you may not be from there – and how growing food together becomes daily practice in belonging Welsh language, culture and land Community supported agriculture, food security and the fragility of our current food system Wales’ shift toward agroecology, social value payments for farms, and support for small scale growers The practicalities of funding and holding a diversified social enterprise farm Volunteering at Glasbren as a pathway into community, wellbeing and climate action Family life in the middle of a farm that is also a community hub Abel’s reflections weave beautifully with the core of permaculture education – that we are learning a way of seeing and relating, not just a collection of techniques. This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen to place, and see farms and gardens as sites of cultural and ecological repair. Glasbren website: https://www.glasbren.org.uk ______________________________ I'd love to hear from you. Text me here. Support the show _____________________________ Subscribe to this podcast, share widely, leave a comment and a 5 star review to help these stories myceliate far. Check out the Sense-Making in a Changing World podcast website & Youtube channel This podcast is hosted by Morag Gamble , founder of the Permaculture Education Institute - the leading-edge international online school for integrated permaculture design, education, leadership and [pr]activism. Explore Morag Gamble's Permaculture Educators Program Talk with Morag here about this program. Find more of Morag's conversations on the Our Permaculture Life YouTube and the Festival of Wild Ideas . This podcast is broadcast from a solar powered studio in the midst of a permaculture ecovillage on Jinibara & Gubbi Gubbi country.
