Hi everyone! Aloha from Kohala, Hawaii.
I have had a lot of different gardening and educator rolls over the last decade, but I currently find myself working with HIP Agriculture as their farm to school coordinator. While we primarily work on the Kohala High School campus, we host all kinds of educational groups of all ages on our farm as well.
I daresay I like to go my own way when it comes to gardening, that is because I have seen how very detrimental many conventional practices are compared to equally viable growing practices that are fully capable of being beneficial rather than harmful to the natural symbiotic relationships between the diverse communities growing in and on the soil and plants. While I have by no means cracked the code on how garden in the greatest healthy harmony with the rest of the natural world in every situation, I am steadily learning more and more, and hold a strong belief that it is possible to grow delicious and abundant food while being pro-soil life (as in cultivating soil life), pro-weeds (as in cultivating weeds), and supporting the overall life and health of the land, waters, air, and surround environments that I work within.
I have so much to learn when it comes to farm to school. I would love to offer my limited knowledge about regenerative agriculture, forest and tree care, composting, soil building, etc. However, I do feel that my greatest relative depth of knowledge is in relation to the interactions between the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Learning about the Seasons and the cycles of the Moon in a way that actually gives people a lasting and functional comprehension from their lived perspective here on Earth is rare in our modern education. For example, it is more common for someone to know that the Earth goes around the Sun in 1 year than for someone to know how the Sun actually moves in their local sky throughout the year, or even throughout the day. And while most of our ancestors likely timed their lives by the lunar cycle before the invention and subsequent domination of the solar civil calendar we use today, it is very common for people nowadays to be (almost) completely oblivious to the Moon's waxing and waning each moonth, and the misconceptions about the Moon among the general population, including highly educated people, are staggering. The garden is an incredible place to bridge these gaps between modern education and the natural world. It is well acknowledged that the Sun and the Seasons are essential for growing food, and so it follows that knowledge about the Sun and seasons is an important and essential part of a gardeners foundational education. And I honor too that the Moon and her phases are also very useful for growing food, and I consider knowledge about the Moon to also be an extremely valuable part of gardeners foundational education. So, if anyone is interested, that is something I can offer this group: frameworks and knowledge to understand the relationships between Earth, Moon, Sun, and Seasons. I believe these topics are highly relevant to garden education and primary education in general, and I am happy to help guide educators in their own learning journey, or provide ideas about how folks might integrate these topics into the curriculum.
I'm very happy to be here in community with all of you!
Sincerely,
-Kulan
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Kulan Tarnas
Waimea HI
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