Courses Offered

I will be teaching the following courses at Gateway Community College, North Haven, CT:

Soils and Land Care:
Practical Applications for Sustainable Development
What is soil and what is it composed of? Understand the soil food web ecosystem and its ability to sustain life on earth. This intensive session shows how soils influence non-toxic edible food and human nutrition. Learn about soil minerals, organic matter and chemical characteristics.

Learn how soil is classified using soil survey information and topographic maps to assess soil on a particular piece of land. Understand what soil composition and analysis mean on a practical level in relation to landscaping, gardening, and building construction. Learn what steps we can take to improve soil in home gardens to enhance nutrition plus measures we can take in our communities to reduce environmental pollution. Understand how “vermi-composting” – indoor small-scale worm composting – can be used to improve soil.


CRN: 2732 1 Session: 5/22
Day: Saturday
Time: 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Location: North Haven – TBD
Course Fee: $35
Instructor: Rabinowitz
Contact for More Information:Cynthia


Landscaping to Protect the Environment
Protect the environment when landscaping by employing time-honored practices. Learn to consider the communal environment, as well as your personal needs and wants, when landscaping your home grounds.Learn about aquifer protection, water quality protection, biodiversity and waste management by designing rain gardens, dense, multi-purpose plantings, reducing lawns, creating peaceful outdoor seating areas and front entry gardens. Increase habitat for birds and butterflies. Plan gardens to grow beautiful ornamental and edible plants for your own consumption.

This class will cover site assessment and site design and the use of maps and simple diagrams to develop landscape plans. Learn about absorbing the essence of a place by developing your intuition and observational skills. This three-hour class includes lecture and practicum. Participants are encouraged to bring a map or drawing of their home property.


CRN: 2734 1 Session: 6/5
Day: Saturday
Time: 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Location: North Haven – TBD
Course Fee: $35
Instructor: Rabinowitz
Contact for More Information:Cynthia Rabinowitz: cynthia@hgconnsoil.com, www.connsoil.com,

Educational Programs Coming Up

I will be speaking at the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition public educational event on Saturday, March 20, 2010. My talk is entitled "Landscape Design to Protect the Environment". Please check PRWC's website for location details. The program is free to the public.

Stuart and I will be speaking on May 1, 2010 at the EcoCreative Collaborative event at the Litchfield Community Center, Litchfield, CT. We will be talking about what we learnt in the Permaculture Design Certification Program we are just completing. We also will have a table display during the entire event. I will give more details here as I get them.

Also, I will be teaching a soils course at Gateway Community College on May 22, 2010. It is a half day class and the charge is $35. As I get more information about registration, I will post it here.

Thank you to all the people following my postings. I love to get the feedback! Thank you!

Peak Oil and Climate Change

When I think about PEAK OIL and CLIMATE CHANGE, there are obvious concerns that are worrying, but there are also opportunities too.

A lot of people are concerned about the ramifications of oil running out. Even economists working for oil companies recognize that this is going to happen, or is already happening.

To quote Asia Newspaper, 4 May 2005, "Fifty years ago, the world was consuming 4 billion barrels of oil per year and the average discovery was around 30 billion. Today we consume 30 billion barrels per year and the discovery rate is approaching 4 billion barrels of crude per year."

Fox News, of 28 April 2006 stated "Energy experts no longer debate about whether Hubbert's peak will occur, but when." M. King Hubbert, geologist, predicted in 1956 that the US would peak in production in 1970, was ridiculed but then proved correct. (The Transition Handbook, Hopkins, P22.)

In the Sunday Times of 9 September 2007, Zac Goldsmith says "Peak oil informs everything. People ought to know about that, but they don't. When it's going to peak or if it's happened already I don't know, but if oil ran out tomorrow we would be stuffed. We depend on it for everything."

If you haven't read about this issue for yourself, by now you are probably thinking I've lost my marbles or that I'm one of those people who believe in doomsday - that the end of the world is coming and all that kind of stuff. But that would be wrong. I am an optimistic person and I believe we have a chance to sort ourselves out before it is too late.

Nevertheless, I do have worries. How will my family travel to see each other when getting to other countries or parts of this country will become like getting to the moon?

How will people feed, clothe, and house themselves when we are dependent on oil to bring EVERYTHING to our locales? If you don't believe this, check the products around your house to see where they are made. How many are made in your town? Your state? Even your country? Think about the products you depend on every day and how they are made. Most need oil as part of their material and all need it for transportation. How about the medication you rely on? How about the latex gloves you protect your hands with? Your household cleaners? Cosmetics? Clothing fabric? Insulation? Fertilizer? Pesticide? Food? Grocery bags? CD's, DVD's? No point in going on, you get the picture.

At our house, we have taken steps over the past 30 years to become more self-sufficient and could, with adaptations live here with little or no electricity or petroleum. We know how to do it even though it will feel like deprivation after our easy life of oil dependency.

But what about the community or world at large? People are not preparing. I worry about war and chaos resulting from the coming lack of oil. Our government is arguing over distractions that keep them busy from addressing the real problems we are facing. They are certainly not telling the public what even the big oil companies know and have acknowledged in industry-wide publications or forums.

My POSITIVE vision for the future is everyone pulling together. We do not need to wait for the government to tell us what to do. We need to draw together as bioregional communities to grow and distribute food, building materials, clothing fiber, fuel, and, of course, water.

I believe we CAN do this if enough people start waking up and working together to plan for the transition into cooperative communities instead of the consumptive "every household for itself" mode of living we are seeing now.

I highly recommend the book "The Transition Handbook:From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience" by Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Movement, published by Chelsea Green.

It is normal to dismiss this kind of thing as alarmist nonsense and continue on in denial. That would be a mistake.

Our Permaculture Design Certification course kicked off over February 12, 13 and 14. Eleven students jumped in at the deep end for a rollicking, packed three-days that left our head spinning with new information and ideas for making change.

Over the three days, Andrew Faust, our teacher, presented a marathon class that started with the history of the world from the beginning of time! Yes, he covered several million years in a few hours to bring us up to the present time. A rush through prehistoric eras and the ascent of man combined with geological, climatological and anthropological sciences gave us a background to where we are as a human species and a planet today. That sets the stage for the rest of the course - now we move into applying scientific principles from all disciplines as we learn how to design sustainable human living environments and, most importantly, provide ourselves with food, fiber and shelter.

Permaculture presents a new way of seeing the world - using passive and biological work to provide human needs on a local scale. A bioregional scale. A culture of bioregionalism is what we need to overcome the problems that the global corporate culture has inflicted on the planet. Permaculture is not opposed to business or entrepreneurial activity, but not the out-of-control type we have witnessed.

We spent a lot of time discussing ways that a Permaculture approach can turn problems into solutions - designing new business models to use wastes from one industry as resources for other businesses.

After the general background information we switched gears and got into the specifics of designing with Permaculture practices in mind. First off, we covered site analysis, which in itself is a huge topic that includes water, trees, topography, geology and soil, and climates - both macro and micro.

We watched slides of agricultural practices around the world throughout history and discussed ancient civilizations that knew how to conserve their soil and water for sustainable agriculture and societies, and those civilizations that didn't. The latter resulting in complete loss of soil followed by climate change and societal failure. We then compared this to modern day events such as the Dust Bowl in the US which contributed to the suffering of the depression years in the early 20th century.

We went outside and looked at the site here at the Center for Sustainable Living and compared the different microenvironments, the trees, analyzed past uses of the land and the succession of forest and plant growth and what the impacts have been.

Exhausted and exhilerated, we parted company on Sunday afternoon with our heads buzzing and a reading list as long as our arms. We're ready for this weekend coming up for more training and learning with Andrew Faust and guest speakers, including yours truly for a session on soils.

Planning for our Descendants

Planning for the health and prosperity of our descendants is not something Western Civilization has been very good at. To say the least! We haven't listened to our native American fellow citizens who say actions should benefit at least the next seven generations. We won't be leaving much of benefit for even the next generation unless we make serious changes.

The Brundtland Commission of Norway puts it succinctly:

"Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

I've given a lot of thought to this subject for many years. I have tried, in my life, to make changes in how I live so as "to be the change I want to see". I am far from perfect yet. It is hard to watch friends, family and neighbors carrying on as if there were no tomorrow. Perhaps this is where that aphorism comes from - it looks as if there might not be a tomorrow that looks like anything what we've known in our privileged lives.

As if it isn't bad enough that the environment is changing so quickly and that every day brings news of scientific findings of looming disaster,such as the chemistry of the oceans changing, our government has become so ineffectual that they cannot mobilize on any action that could help. See Paul Krugman's column in the February 7, 2010, edition of the NY Times entitled "America is not yet lost" for what is happening in Washington, DC, and why the government is in a sort of logjam caused by procedural stalemate.

But, I'm an optimist. Along with all the doom and gloom we get bombarded with every day, there's a shift happening. Malcolm Gladwell calls it "The Tipping Point", the title of his fascinating book. I really do see a lot going on that seems the groundswell of a sea change. I'm hopeful that Paul Hawken is right that our country's (and world's) salvation will not come from our government but from ourselves. From people just like you and me taking matters into our own hands and making the change that is needed without directives from the top. The top is becoming irrelevant.

Exciting efforts that don't make it into the network news include community garden efforts and farmers' markets all around Connecticut, that connect people with fresh, organic, local food; groups like the Inter-Religious Eco-Justice network that work here in Connecticut and nationwide to connect religious communities of all faiths and creeds in efforts to reduce institutional carbon footprints, provide food for homeless people and the working poor; school gardens that teach children about nutrition and gardening and get them outside and working their bodies; business efforts like Pedal Pushers, in Massachusetts, that use local resources such as household food waste to create commercial compost that can be sold back to gardeners in the community; communities buying and saving farmland to protect it from development, like the Swendsen Farm here in Bethlehem where a group of volunteers steward the farm and also lease it to a local mixed produce and fruit farmer giving the farmer access to critical land vital for the successful operation of his farm; organizations like NOFA - the Northeast Organic Farming Association - that is teaching people how to care for land in a sustainable - forever - kind of way.

This weekend will see the start of the Permaculture Design Certification course that I have brought to Connecticut. Andrew Faust and guest lecturers, (including myself) will present this course to nine students coming from all over Connecticut and New Jersey over four three-day weekends during February and March. Permaculture addresses how we develop our homes, communities, and businesses in ways that are sustainable and cyclical rather than linear. By linear, I mean systems that take resources that are finite and create waste that has to be dealt with. By cyclical, I mean systems that use waste as resources within closed circuits so that the systems are sustainable and never-ending, like natural systems.

Permaculture was designed by an Australian, Bill Mollison who was a scientist with CSIRO Wildlife Survey Section and with the Tasmanian Inland Fisheries Department. He saw how man's actions were killing nature and withdrew from society. He developed a system of sustainable agriculture that did not pollute the waters or waste the soil. By combining all scientific and creative disciplines he, with his colleague David Holmgren, developed Permaculture as a system of looking at ecology, wherever you are in the world, and using ecological principles to develop human systems. This is what we will be studying over the 76 hour course.

This small group of students will become trained to consult and practice Permaculture. It is my hope that we will form a nucleus of trained consultants which will go on to teach others, consult with every level of government from towns to state level and work in collaboration with professionals from all disciplines to increase the speed at which positive, helpful changes in our human organizations occur.

I used to dream about being one of those people who change the world but I've realized that "thinking globally and working locally" is really the only way. I'm excited for the course to begin and will keep you posted - watch this space.

last minute winter pot-luck meal

So, asked 2 days before a big community gardening event to bring a large pot of something to share, I quickly did an inventory of my pantry and freezer to see what I could rustle up that would meet the criteria - seasonal, locally grown, vegan and gluten-free! Hmm...

Because I have several large heads of cabbage frozen whole from my fall garden, I decided to build the dish around that ingredient. Freezing the cabbage this way is simple, I just clean off any unsavory-looking outer leaves and check for insects, then wrap in wax paper and put each head into a plastic grocery bag and twist tightly. That's all you have to do. When it's time to use the cabbage, just unwrap and leave the cabbage in a bowl on the counter. A lot of water comes out of the cabbage and you can use that in cooking various things such as rice, beans or soup stock. The defrosted cabbage leaves are limp and can easily be used for stuffed cabbage without the fuss of blanching the whole head in boiling water and trying to peel off the leaves without tearing.

I decided not to make stuffed cabbage this time because it is a bit fiddly and would take longer to prepare in the quantity I needed. So I simply chopped the cabbage up and made a Cabbage and Chick Pea Stew. Here is the recipe:


1 1/2 lbs dried chick peas (you can substitute canned cooked chickpeas)
1 1/2 large heads of cabbage, chopped (use fresh or frozen)
2 large onions, chopped
Olive oil or Canola oil.
32 oz tomato juice
8 garlic cloves, minced
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Put the chick peas into a large pot and cover with boiling water. Let soak for at least 6 hours. Drain the chick peas and put back in the pot and cover generously with cold water. There should be at least one inch of water above the chick peas. Bring the pot to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the chick peas are tender but not too soft. This will take about 15 minutes. Drain the cooking water and retain it for cooking something else.

Chop the onions roughly and mince the garlic. Using a large skillet, pour in a circle of oil about 3 inches in diameter and heat until the oil spreads over the bottom of the pan thinly. When hot, add the chopped onions and garlic and saute until golden.

Then add the chopped cabbage in batches and toss each batch with two large spoons until coated with the onion, garlic and oil mixture. Saute the whole mixture for 5 - 10 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a crock pot, add the chick peas and the tomato juice and mix together well. Cook on high for one hour. Turn the control to low and continue cooking for a few more hours. The longer you cook this dish the better it is.

I used two separate crock pots for this size recipe.

If you don't have time to cook it in a crock pot slowly, then cook it in a 350 degree oven, uncovered, for at least one hour. The ingredients should all be well-cooked, the cabbage tender, and the juice bubbling around the edges and just starting to stick to the pot.

Taste for doneness and add sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

I hope you like this dish. It is not 100% locally grown since the chick peas and tomato juice are not. But it is seasonally appropriate and partially local. Not bad with no advance warning. I did not have to go out and buy any of the ingredients for this meal, they were all on hand. Another plus, it is a very economical meal for serving a crowd.

Please let me know if you try this and how it works out for you.

Happy Cooking this winter.

Permaculture courses kicked-off on Tuesday

This has been an exciting week with the launch of the series of Permaculture classes held here at the Center for Sustainable Living. On Tuesday, 21 people gathered in the new learning space to hear Andrew Faust talk passionately and deeply about the problems facing communities and individuals and how the system of Permaculture can help address these issues. An in-depth and provocative presentation ensued as Andrew challenged all of us to think beyond our normal specialties, beyond linear approaches to problems. Permaculture draws from all disciplines to design sustainable living systems and economies that work for people and communities and not only for anonymous corporations.

My head was spinning after the three-hour presentation and frankly, I've found it hard to sleep with all the ideas going through my mind and the excitement of new possibilities and working in networks with other people.

Andrew will be back in February to start the Permaculture Design Certification course. This is an in-depth 76 hour course spread over 4 three-day weekends - two in February and two in March. For more details - dates, cost, syllabus - go to www.connsoil.com and click on Educational Events in the header on the home page.