Permaculture is more than just good gardening. It is a lifelong approach to analysis, actions and social structures that results in better relationships, more functional systems and a clearer understanding of everything necessary for human communities to thrive.
– Claudia Joseph, Founder and Director NYPE
Permaculture is a design template for improving the function of systems large and small. What started as a grass roots social movement has become a professional field, supporting regenerative agriculture & forestry, controlled burns for fire management, community design, watershed management, international aid and much more. The flexible nature of the principles provide a useful toolbox at all scales and in many fields. It is also a social/ethical template, respecting the knowledge and experience of each person.
The New York Permaculture Exchange re-located to Tillson, NY in 2019.
permaculturexchange@gmail.com Subject line: Exchange List for the free exchange of information, materials and skills relating to permaculture projects. This experimental network supports permaculture frolics, materials give-aways and peer to peer learning.
Food for winter storage, flowers, berries, medicinal & craft plants, water management and soil building are demonstrated on the .44 acre site. Birds, bees, butterflies and people all benefit. The dilapidated 100 year-old house is being gradually restored and retrofitted. The site continues to develop with improved efficiency, yields and potentials.
Claudia Joseph, founder and Director of the New York Permaculture Exchange, is a permaculture teacher, consultant and practitioner, certified by Permaculture Institute of North America and the Permaculture Institute. The site is easily accessible from Rt 32, between Kingston and New Paltz in the beautiful Mid-Hudson Valley
Rondout Valley Permaculture meetup. Come to meetings to learn skills and techniques, see models and talk with others who are interested in permaculture. Organized by Claudia Joseph and led by community members. Meetups are held the second Tuesday of each month at 7pm and on other days, as well. Visit the meetup site for details.
Join the Rondout Valley Permaculture facebook group.
On Facebook:
New York Permaculture Exchange (environmental news)
Permaculture Festival: NYC (social and political actions).
The Permaculture Exchange began in 1998 in Oakland, CA as the East Bay Permaculture Exchange. The Permaculture Garden in the Oakland Botanical Demonstration Gardens led to Ms Joseph teaching the first permaculture course offered in the Horticulture Department at Merritt College. The first East Bay Permaculture Convergence, organized by the Exchange in 2001, was met with great enthusiasm with over 100 attendees. After moving to NYC, New York Permaculture Exchange hosted many courses, Permaculture Festivals and Seed Swaps at the Old Stone House of Brooklyn, our training ground and long-term demonstration project.
Certificate courses, classes and workshops were taught throughout NYC over the course of 18 years while student training sessions and teams of volunteers developed and maintained an acre of gardens in Washington Park. Ms Joseph has taught on both coasts: at the Berkeley Ecology Center, Oakland Botanical Demonstration Gardens, New York Open Center, Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, the New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, for master composter programs in all five NYC boroughs and more.
2026 Ms Joseph is a member of the Rosendale Recreation Commission and sits on the Recycling Oversight Committee and the Zero Waste Planning Committee for Ulster County.
Contributing Author
2022 The City Is An Ecosystem: Sustainable Education, Policy, and Practice
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
Media & links
2020 article on the OSH gardens from Park Slope Food Coop’s Gazette
2015 Permaculture feature article in Edible Brooklyn
2012 Highlights of our Permaculture Festival by Costa Boutsikaris:
http://vimeo.com/61679230
2011 Recognized by The New York Times, The Old Stone House – MS 51 Partnership Gardens are the first Food Forest model in NYC, based on permaculture design principles. The project began in 2004 and becomes more complex, beautiful, abundant and community centered each year.
A short piece on OSH programs by Costa Boutsikaris
https://vimeo.com/69708589
Interview on OSH project & permaculture by Ladema Zinsmeister:
https://vimeo.com/111785582