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Permaculture Design

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Hello, my name is Charlie Bruder and I am an aspiring mycologist! I have devoted countless hours of my life towards gaining an appreciation for the earth and its fungi. These organisms are truly fascinating... They decompose the worlds waste, synthesizing it into the foundations for new life, while simultaneously creating medicine, food, art, and amazing story tellers. 

In the United States, mushrooms have begun to gain popularity for their medicinal benefits. So often overlooked though, is their potential to heal us and our societies through studying their existences and ways of being. I have spent many hours in the woods, foraging for myself, teaching others, or just simply soaking in the pleasures of nature. Never do fungi fail to excite. You can go on a walk and return with food for the table, or a tea to cure a loved one's ailments, or with new knowledge of ecology, or just simply having seen something beautiful and healing.  Mushrooms provide us with so much, all while cleaning up what others have left behind.

There exists a great aversion to fungi within many countries of the West. This has to due in part to their mysterious origins and lives. Our colonial attitudes have enforced within us that we must conquer and exploit the natural world. Since we can't understand them, many feel threatened by them. Fungi are constantly defamed with stories of poisonings and deaths regardless of how unrealistic and irresponsible these tales truly are. Thankfully, we are beginning to see a paradigm shift with how our scientific systems view these creatures. 

Indigenous peoples and many modern cultures of the world have used fungi for millennia. As indigenous knowledge has been hidden or lost, so too has our connection with fungi. I have made it my mission to reconnect with both the spiritual and functional aspects of mycology that native peoples cared for so deeply. Through my devotion to mycology I hope to not only chase new scientific discoveries and methods of growing fungi, but also foster personal connections between people of all origins and fungi.

Currently, I am actively focused on developing systems of native fungal integration and myco-remediation. I believe that fungal remediation and regenerative cultivation of fungi are two fields within mycology that desperately need attention at this time. Myco-remediation is still in its infancy, and there are very few people expanding fungi's place in permaculture beyond very rudimentary styles of cultivation. We can learn more about our native fungi and how to better integrate them by spending time deeply observing them.

 

Many say they practice sustainable agriculture, I say regenerative. It is time we recognize that there is not escaping the damage that has already been done to the earth by humans. By shifting our minds from simply sustaining ourselves, to actively healing our surroundings, we open up new possibilities in our approaches to climate change. With such adept decomposers on our side, we can push the boundaries of what we previously thought was possible in responding to climate change. Learn to respect mushrooms and you will gain the best friends and allies you've ever known.

I am certified in permaculture design by Ben Falk of Whole Systems Design.
I am based in Rochester, New York.

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