Key Enterprise Lessons Learnt at Abundant Earth by Wilf Richards, October 2016 Introducing Abundant Earth We are a workers’ co-operative based on 15 acres of land just outside Durham city. We are passionate about growing and making things from the land, it's what we do. From producing a weekly vegetable box scheme, to working with wool, wood and willow through to permaculture and woodland management. Everything that we do is focused on helping both people and countryside. The land is managed without pesticides or fertilizers and most work is carried out by hand.

Hedges are laid, woods coppiced and pastures managed all with an eye to the wildlife. People are catered for by providing healthy food for the locality, and by offering opportunities to learn many of the skills we employ by offering courses and through volunteering. In October 2016 I ran a Permaculture Enterprise course at Abundant Earth. As part of the course, I drew up a list of the key lessons we have learnt about successful permaculture enterprise over the last two decades running our business. Design Tools and Ethics Applied Design Tools ● Permaculture activists are designers, we use design tools to solve problems and we have a

vast toolbox to draw from that is still evolving. ● We create plans for each aspect of our business, which also includes feedback systems

with evaluation and reflection. We are aiming to learn from what we do. ● Permaculture ethics and principles are an extremely useful way to guide our activities and

put them in line with natural processes. ● We are not afraid to communicate and market what we do. We don't see business or

enterprise as a negative thing, it is simply a way to connect and exchange skills, energy and resources with our neighbours.

Earth Care Ethic ● Quite simply put, looking after the earth, the land, sea and air

● We minimise fossil fuel based machinery on site ● We car share between the members of the co-op ● We source from and support other local businesses where possible ● There are no pesticides or other artificial chemicals used on site at all

People Care Ethic ● Quite simply put, looking after people’s needs ● We are a co-op, we share our resources equally, we receive an equal income no matter

how much work or financial activity each member gains for the co-op ● We ask for feedback from customers to learn and develop our business, to help fulfill

their needs Fair Shares Ethic ● Ensuring equal access to resources across the globe which for us in the west means

minimising consumption ● We reuse and recycle as much as possible ● We are not an exploitative, capitalist business extracting from our community and

landscape. We consider the long term view with our smallholding and enterprise and consider nature as the most important basis for everything that we do.

Permaculture Principles Applied We use many permaculture principles at Abundant Earth, here are a selection.

Observe and interact -as with all businesses it is important to find your niche. This is a combination of what you are good at, what you enjoy, what resources are available locally and what the local community needs.

Catch and Store Energy -when it is in abundance and thus creating a resilience for when there is a drought of that resource -catching enough rainwater in the winter so that we can still water seedlings in summer -all enquiries we receive via email helps to build our general events mailing list

Apply Self Regulation and Accept Feedback -listening to our veg customers reasons for leaving when they do and creating a micro bag option to increase customer retention as the number two reason for leaving was “too much veg”

Use and Value Renewable Resources -using natural renewable resources wherever possible as they

are often cheaper and available from nature directly -using coppiced hazel from our woods to support broad beans -utilising solar and wind energy

Produce No Waste -we use free resources where possible -reuse and repurposing comes before recycling -we minimise what goes to landfill -cardboard waste has multiple uses such as mulching, creating a habitat for woodlice which in turn feed hens and using it to soak up muddy puddles in the hen area -kitchen waste, hen poo, compost toilets, cardboard, veg waste, weeds, wood chips are all put through composting systems to build soil fertility for the crops that we grow, thus minimal external inputs are required which saves us money -as in nature we try to create cyclic systems where outputs from one system become inputs to another system

Integrate rather than Segregate -link everything where it is possible -because we have multiple income streams which can have separate markets but often overlapping ethics so we try to ensure that when someone uses one part of our business that they become aware of all the other parts of the business -when we started we were individually self employed with our own boom and bust cycles. In 2005 we merged our activities together to become Abundant Earth. This flattened out our boom and bust cycles to create a stable collective business.

Use Small and Slow Solutions -develop a business slowly, test the market then scale it up but keep it small and manageable -we limit our veg bags currently to 40 households per week which keeps it under control, maintains a quality service, avoids overstretching ourselves and limits the

time input thus allowing us to spend time on other aspects of the business -to enable slow organic build of our business we have removed as many of our overheads as possible. We collectively bought the land using private loans on agreements that we could afford. We have minimised our bills so our income required is low. This slowness enables us to make good decisions and keep us stable in growth, which has been consistently £2000 to £4000 increase in turnover every year for ten years. Use and Value Diversity -we do not rely on only one source of income, we have at any one time over ten different income streams and have in total over twenty. This is commonly referred to as a poly-income in permaculture circles. These include: veg bag scheme, wholesale salad, eggs, meat, wood craft, willow craft, wool craft, permaculture courses, permaculture consultancy, permaculture diploma tutoring, blacksmithing, at least five types of craft courses, ceremonies, festival craft workshops, green woodworking, natural building projects, air BnB… -marketing and communicating works through multiple channels and we don't put all of our eggs in one basket, this involves multiple mailing lists, facebook, business cards, leaflets, stalls and word of mouth -ensure the resilience of a key need by having multiple resources that support that need; we have no mains water but we do have a well, rainwater harvesting in four locations, the river and water in the soil

Use Edges and Value the Marginal -the importance of integrating and blurring the edges to create positive relationships -we really value volunteers as they want to learn about growing veg and keep fit so we have a volunteer strategy and mailing list. We have three types of volunteers (wwoofers, time exchangers, day trippers) and are currently planning a fourth type (interns) -linking with neighbouring networks and directly supporting them is a key aspect of our marketing strategy, this includes groups such as the North East Permaculture Network, Permaculture Association and Transition Durham -collaboration is really useful