What is permaculture?
Permaculture is primarily a philosophy of agricultural and social design intended to create regenerative living systems. Permaculture holds at its very core a philosophy of working with, rather than against, nature. Toby Hemenway, permaculture expert, describes the goal of permaculture as “meeting human needs while preserving and increasing ecosystem health”.
“Permaculture as a way knowledge is acquired by observation and copying nature’s work, so we can stop hurting the planet on which we live.”
Rosa A, Claremont Secondary Student
Permaculture Programs for Schools & Home Schools
Ravenhill Herb Farm is thrilled to bring the world of organic and regenerative farming to South Vancouver Island schools. With our knowledgeable and experienced instructors, we provide an exciting hands-on approach for your students. Students in older grades will receive classroom-based technique and theory along with practical learning. Younger students will enjoy practical-based farm and animal care, along with games to make learning fun, exciting and memorable. (Don’t worry, we have games for our older students too!)
"Ravenhill is definitely different from other farms from the cute little store to the big fluffy goats. Ravenhill has moved me with how interconnected things really are. This farm has opened my eyes to a new world, problems, and solutions, and I’m thankful to have had the chance to be a part of this. I’ve already taken permaculture principles and applied them to my everyday life."
- Melissa P., Claremont Secondary Student
Our Program
With input from a teacher, we design a custom program to meet your learning objectives. The more time you have for the course, the more we can teach! But even if you only have a small amount of time, we will work with you to choose the most important things for your students. We work with groups from age 4 to 18 and are also happy to accommodate home school groups.
Areas of learning often include the following:
Seeding and planting
Preparing beds for planting or for winter
Working with compost, manure and mulch
Collecting food from the gardens and cooking
Collecting food and practicing fermentation techniques
An introduction to medical herbalism
Creating herbal products
Hatching chicks and growth observation
Animal care for goats and chickens
Introduction to sustainable farming practices
Forest plant walk and identification
Flora and fauna observation
And more!
Click below for a sample program outline (this is the Claremont Secondary Grade 12 Program).
Enrolling Your Class
Let us know how many students you have and how many hours you can fit into your curriculum. We suggest setting aside 15-45 hours, but we can accommodate most schedules. We can teach full days or partial days but require a minimum of 2 hours for each class. Once we receive some basic information from you, we can meet with you to discuss the program and make sure we include any learning objectives that you might have. We will also invite you to come tour our farm to get a sense of how the learning will take place.
Please email us at info@ravenhillherbfarm.ca to request classes
"Every day we came and you had a new and exciting lesson for us, and you were so willing share your supplies and fresh fruit with us. I liked getting to learn about the permaculture principles and see how they are implemented on the farm. I also liked getting a chance to just slow down and watch the goats and chickens closely. I also really liked getting to make the different foods with fresh ingredients as well as making a herbal salve. Thank you so much for this wonderful experience!"
- Carmel, Claremont Secondary Student