Matthew Moodie, RHC for the South Scotland region, writes:
The Permaculture Scotland Gathering 2017 was held from the 30th June to the 2nd July at WWOOF host The Hidden Mill in Galloway, Southwest Scotland. In my role as RHC for the south of Scotland I ran a WWOOF and Permaculture session to highlight the close association of WWOOF with permaculture (helpfully illustrated by the venue for the gathering as well as the venue for this year’s WWOOF AGM).
The session was attended by past and present WWOOFers and some potential WWOOFers and potential WWOOF hosts, as well as other interested people keen to learn about WWOOF. I focussed the session on the benefits of WWOOFing from a permaculture perspective. WWOOFing is a great way to visit permaculture sites and experience permaculture at every level of development.
WWOOF host Steffi Schaffler demonstrates horse logging at the gathering
38 hosts in Scotland indicate that they are a permaculture site or have an interest in permaculture. Some of these are official Permaculture Scotland demonstration sites, so-called ScotLAND (Learning And Network Demonstration) centres. All this means is that WWOOFers have unrivalled access to working permaculture projects. Finding them is facilitated by the search facility on the WWOOF website, which allows WWOOFers to search for permaculture hosts.
Along the way we also discussed many WWOOF-related topics and swapped lots of practical gardening tips. It was a pleasure to meet a lovely group of WWOOF friends and get to hear their thoughts and opinions on WWOOF and permaculture.
Photo kindly provided by: Permaculture Scotland
