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The inspiration came to me to pay a small tribute to some people who have played an important part in the lives of many a builder and gardener. A common thread runs through the fabric of this group. Each person on my list has helped to revive or is currently reviving certain aspects of the richest traditions and accumulated wisdom of pre-industrial craftsmen and agrarian peoples. Because of this peculiar claim to fame, many of these names are not as widely known as, say, Steve Jobs or Henry Ford. Yet, in the hearts and minds of many like myself, the role that ‘revivalists’ such as these play for the sake of humankind supplies them a high brand of venerability.
Imagine what a life it would be if no one ever thought to try out orange juice again after the space-age beverage, Tang, came on the scene. Well, let me just tell you, for several decades after the discovery and widespread success of the ‘balloon framing’ techniques using lightweight studs (2X4’s) and sheathing (drywall) to erect a building in a matter of days, it must have seemed as though no one would ever entertain the idea of revisiting the laborious and heavy traditional methods of mortice and tenon timber framing. Now, I don’t know about you guys, but freshly squeezed orange juice just tastes better than quickly stirred-up tang, and it’s more wholesome too. The same can be said for timber framed houses. When done well, they almost always taste better! Without intrepid characters like Jack Sobon and Steve Chapman revisiting the traditions of their ancestors and assiduously investigating the qualities of timber framed buildings that made them so enduring both structurally and aesthetically, modern timber framing would not be nearly so widely popularized and may indeed have withered away completely as the last little enclaves of old-timers senesced into obscurity. So it goes with many of the would-be ‘timeless’ traditions as the military-industrial juggernaut continues to forge its ever-accelerating manifest destiny. For instance, think about how readily it may be forgotten that ladybugs eat the aphids on the beanstalks if chemical pesticides destroy them both for a few generations. It takes the brave souls like Masanobu Fukuoku to remind us that there is a very natural way of farming the earth and that we can choose from farming techniques bestowed to us by forty centuries, not just the last forty years. Some revivals come after a long absense. Some happen just in the nick of time, as the last remaining purveyors of the craft are still seeking an apprentice. Still other revivals can be known to occur every planting season, or every harvest time, or every community barn raising, in countless culturally-intact communities all around the world.
My purpose for this blog is simply to shine a little light on some folks who have helped make life all the richer through preserving some incredibly important aspects of the greater cultural heritage. These ‘revivalists’ took the initiative to share wholesome traditions with a broader audience through their books, public works and appearances, and, in some cases, their institutions. This list is by no means comprehensive, it merely scratches the surface of this huge topic, and hopefully encourages a more profound and extensive understanding of the people stewarding these fields. I welcome anyone who wishes to add a name to the list to comment. I’d love for this list to go on for several pages as we trace back the roots of our nourishing traditions.
*In no particular order:
First the Building Traditions:
1) Steve Chapman and Jack Sobon – timber framing and the associated technologies
Steve teaches here: http://www.foxmaple.com/primer.html
& Jack teaches here: http://www.heartwoodschool.com/whonew.html
2) Robert Laporte – light clay straw and other earthen timber frame infill techniques
3) Ianto Evans – cob construction, now known as ‘oregon cob’
4) Adam Weismann & Katy Bryce – natural building in the UK
http://www.clay-works.com/blog/
5) William Copperwaithe – the yurt and handmade goods galore
http://www.yurtinfo.org/theyurtfoundation.php
6) Ben Law – Woods crafts and round pole timber framing
7) Matts Myhrman and Judy Knox – Straw Bale building (recognizing that it is a stretch to classify straw bale building as a revival, but even relatively recent inovations can be lost if their value is not recognized and carried on)
http://www.thelaststraw.org/history/roots.html
8) Bill and Athena Steen – Straw Bale building
9) Joseph Jenkins – Slate Roofing and Composting Toilets
10) Carole Crews – earthen plasters of the SW US
Now Over To Agriculture:
1) Bill Mollison and David Holmgren – co-creators of the permaculture core curriculum and methodology which draws from very deep traditions, as well as modern science
2) Joel Salatin – pasture raised and finished livestock – grass farming – thriving small farms
3) David Blume – intelligent ethanol fuel production (formerly a major domestic fuel source here in the U.S.)
4) Robert Hart – forest gardening in a temperate climate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hart_(horticulturist)
5) Masanobu Fukuoku – natural ways of farming
http://www.onestrawrevolution.net/One_Straw_Revolution/One-Straw_Revolution.html
6) J.I. Rodale – the U.S. contemporary of Lady Eve Balfour and Sir Albert Howard who promoted the revival of organic gardening and founded the authoritative Rodale Institute
7) Geoff Lawton – application of permaculture systems worldwide
8) Rudolf Steiner – cosmic and other subtle influences over agriculture – Biodynamics
https://www.biodynamics.com/steiner.html
10) Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier – Edible Forest Gardens for the temperate deciduous climate
Eric T. – http://www.perennialsolutions.org/
Dave Jacke – http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/
My hope is that people of all colors and creeds will give more attention to finding the information and inspiration to apply some basic wisdoms of our elders in their daily lives. We mustn’t undervalue the things that many of us take for granted, such as the roofs over our heads and the water that we drink. If we can come to understand even a small fraction of the minor adjustments and constant revisions that have gone into developing the building systems and the food growing processes that have proven enduring and robust, then we might start to see many things that we once considered mundane as fascinating and well-adapted. Such an understanding could make us an entirely different lot altogether.
“There is some of the fitness in man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and their families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when so engaged.”
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854
Heartwood Homesteads 