The Vegan Book

Graham Burnett
of Permaculture
This book is about practical, ethical, and compassionate approaches to life, a handful of
beautifully crafted common sense. It is an inspirational gift to humanity that can liberate
you. It can shake you up, wake you up, and raise your consciousness. Some of us try hard to
do the best for ourselves, our families, our animals, and our planet. Sometimes we need help.
Here is help. After reading this book I didn’t just think, yes I can, I said, yes I will.
Benjamin Zephaniah
Poet, writer, lyricist, musician and trouble maker

Long time permaculture practitioner and activist Graham Burnett has written a very
practical guide to living lightly using permaculture design within the ethical constraints
and opportunities of a vegan diet. Based on lived experience rather than ideology, the
strong focus on food, complete with recipes, helps vegans and omnivores alike make better
use of the diversity of plant based ingredients in cool temperate climates. For vegans
wanting to reduce their ecological footprint, maintain nutritional balance and increase their
autonomy and resilience in a rapidly changing world, this book is the ideal introduction to
permaculture living and land use.
David Holmgren
Co-originator of the Permaculture concept

Hugely inspiring and fantastically useful. I love the mix of Graham’s cheerful tone, quirky
pictures and hard-won experience. This book will interest anyone seeking to live more
enjoyably and with greater autonomy whether vegan or not.
Tom Hodgkinson
Author of How To Be Free and founder of The Idler Academy

In his inimitable maverick fashion, Graham Burnett has jumbled together the pragmatism
of Permaculture with the DIY ethos of punk, and come up with an essential and practical
guidebook for anyone even remotely interested in the true nature of cultural (r)evolution.
Penny Rimbaud
Performer, philosopher, writer, and founder of the band/collective, Crass

This wonderful book is full of fascinating new things to learn and old things to remember.
Wherever you live, even in cities, nature is there breaking through, and with a little nurture
will thrive and provide beauty, food, a sense of joy and some hard manual work!
Eve Libertine
Crass vocalist and co-founder of Butterfields Green Community Orchard

Wanting to create ways of living that respect, protect and enrich the awe-inspiring diversity
of life and culture on Earth is one thing; actually setting about doing it is quite another.
In The Vegan Book of Permaculture, Graham Burnett gives you many of the practical tools
you need to live in a healthy, connected relationship with both the human and non-human
world around you.
Mark Boyle
Author of The Moneyless Manifesto

Graham has put together a wise, concise and accessible guide useful for both experienced
and those fresh to permaculture and veganism. The recipes are so vibrant you can almost
taste them on the pages!
Looby Macnamara
Permaculture teacher and author of People and Permaculture and 7 Ways to Think Differently
Graham Burnett is indubitably the Godfather of London Permaculture.
Stefan Geyer
Chair of Permaculture Association and host of 21st Century Permaculture Radio Show

This book brings permaculture and veganism together into one volume designed to
motivate and inspire the compassionate, creative activist inside all of us. Chock full of useful
information, it is more than design concepts and practical techniques, it also gives a view of
a just, abundant and joyful world, waiting to be.
William Faith
Permaculture designer/teacher, musician and co-founder Black Rose Arts Collective

Graham’s much awaited book is far more than just being about permaculture for vegans.
Within you’ll find in-depth information about creating an ecological and abundant lifestyle
that applies to us all. Woven in between the diverse topics are a multitude of tasty vegan
recipes that Graham has fine-tuned over the years. As a 30-year vegan myself, I’m looking
forward to trying them out and delighted to finally see this long-vacant niche being filled
so well. Great job, Graham!
Aranya
Permaculture teacher and author of Permaculture Design: A Step-by-Step Guide

Whether you’re a vegan, or someone just seeking to eat a lot less meat, this book will be
just right for you. He shows how ecological thinking and action is good for us, good for the
planet, and tastes great too!
Andy Goldring
CEO Permaculture Association (Britain)

The Vegan Book of Permaculture offers a clear and accessible pathway through the garden of
ethical food, from design and cultivation to nutrition and cooking, all aspects of why and
how to take up growing and feed ourselves are there for the picking!
Claire White
Permaculture teacher and forest gardener

A refreshing, radical approach to sustainable living, it is absolutely bursting with interesting,

inspiring and engaging snippets.
Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina
Authors of Becoming Vegan: Express Edition and Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition

Graham has pioneered vegan permaculture and this book is testament to his knowledge
and passion. Graham integrates a desire for social justice for non-humans with the ethics,
principles and practices of permaculture in a beautiful and accessible way. Its applications
worldwide for social change are clear and I hope this book inspires a movement to change
our landscapes and society to radically change how we interact with animals and each other.
Nicole Vosper
Permaculture designer, gardener and community organiser
The Vegan Book
of Permaculture

G r a h a m b u r n ett

Permanent Publications
Published by
Permanent Publications
Hyden House Ltd
The Sustainability Centre
East Meon
Hampshire GU32 1HR
United Kingdom
Tel: 0844 846 846 4824 (local rate UK only)
or +44 (0)1730 823 311
Fax: 01730 823 322
Email: enquiries@permaculture.co.uk
Web: www.permanentpublications.co.uk

Distributed in the USA by

Chelsea Green Publishing Company, PO Box 428, White River Junction, VT 05001
www.chelseagreen.com

© 2014 Graham Burnett

The right of Graham Burnett to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Designed and typeset by Emma Postill

Cover image by Graham Burnett

Cover design concept Tibor Miklos

eBook conversion - eBookPartnership: www.ebookpartnership.com

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

PRINT ISBN 9781856232012

PDF ISBN 9781856232029

EPUB ISBN 9781856232036

MOBI ISBN 9781856232043

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, rebound or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Hyden House
Limited.
 Contents

Introduction xi

Chapter 1 Permaculture and Veganism – The Basics 1

So What Is Permaculture Anyway? 2
The Vegan Way 9
Vegan for the Land 10
Vegan for Health 11
Permaculture Without Animals? 13
Understanding ‘Zones’ 14
How This Book Is Organised 17

Chapter 2 Zone 00
Personal Health and Effectiveness 19
Healthy Body 20
Healthy Mind 22
Positive Thinking – Positive Action! 23
Pass Me Another Issue  24
Stella’s Window Box 25
Where Do YOU Want to Go? 26
Keep Yourself Healthy: UK Home Grown,
Plant Based Sources of Nutrients 27
Eating with the Seasons 31
Eat More Raw 32

Chapter 3 Zone 0
The Permaculture Home and Kitchen 33
Reducing Your Ecological Footprint 34
A Garden in Your Kitchen 37
Wheatgrass and Other Windowsill Herbs and Greens 39
Fermentation 46
Preserving Your Abundance 51

Chapter 4 Zone 1
Designing the Permaculture Garden 53
‘SADIM’ – Survey, Assess, Design, Implement, Maintain 55

Contents v
 A Top 10 of Perennial Vegetables Suitable for the
Small Garden 63
Salad Days 64
Edible Flowers 72
Dressings 73

Chapter 5 Zone 2
The Vegan Organic Vegetable Garden – The Basics 77
Top of the Crops 78
Start with the Soil 78
To Dig or Not to Dig 81
Adding Fertility 82
Green Manures 85
Comfrey the Wonder Plant 87
Crop Rotation, Polycultures and Beneficial Guilds 88
Companion Planting Guide 90
Mycorrhiza – Nature’s Internet! 92
Who’s Who in Your Garden? 92
A Weeder’s Digest 94
Growing from Seed 96
Seed Saving 98
Crop by Crop 99
Herbs 106
Fruit in the Garden 107
Ways with Vegetables 108

Chapter 6 Zone 3
Main Crops and Staples 145
All Lost in the Supermarket? 146
Grow Your Own! 147
Going Beyond Sustainability – Towards a
Regenerative Agriculture 149
Buy Local! 151
Farmers’ Markets and Box Schemes 151
Subscription Farming and Community Supported
Agriculture 153
Ethical Shopping and Fairtrade 154
A Staple Diet 156

vi The Vegan Book of Permaculture

Chapter 7 Zone 4
Towards a Tree Based Culture 187
Fields or Forests? 188
The Coming Age of the Tree 190
The Renaissance of Wood 192
Community Woodlands 192
Orchards 193
Forest Gardening 195
Creating a Forest Garden 198
Fruits of the Forest Garden 203
Some Less Usual Species 221
Nuts and Tree Seeds – The Staples of Tomorrow 224

Chapter 8 Zone 5
Walking on the Wild Side 239
Well, You Don’t Know Where They’ve Been, Do You? 240
Food for Free 242
A Few Foraging Dos and Don’ts 243
Mushrooms and Fungi 255

Chapter 9 Coming Full Circle – The Power of Community 259

Everyone’s a Winner! 260
Communities in Transition 261
Nurturing Health 263
Breaking Bread and Sharing Soup 264
Feeding the People! 266
Cooking by the Fire 267
Catering for Larger Numbers 270
Tips on Cooking for the Masses! 271

Acknowledgements282
Further Reading 285
References289

Contents vii
 Recipe Index
Bread & Pastry Drinks & Juices
Basic Pastry Recipe 163 Dandelion Coffee 245
Bread 158 Elderberry Wine 252
Breadstick Twists 269 Elderflower Champagne 253
Carrot Pastry 163 Grape Wine 217
Pumpernickel 167 Green Goddess Smoothie 110
Sprout Bread 42 Kombucha 50
Nettle Beer 248
Peace’s Alkalising Morning Green Juice 109
Dips, Dressings, Sauces & Spreads Rejuvelac 45
Amanda’s Easy Windfall Apple
and Ginger Jam 208
Annie’s Minty Mix Dressing 74 Light Bites & Sides
Annie’s Sweet Dressing 75 Bean Sprouts with Scallions 42
Basic Pasta Sauce 160 Bircher Potatoes 114
Bean Spread 142 Black-eyed Peas and Kale 184
Graham’s Gravy 141 Buckwheat Croquettes 176
Hot Salsa 140 Carrot and Nut Savoury 229
Hummus 143 Curried Potatoes 136
Instant Apple Sauce 207 Fried Greens with Nuts 112
Janet’s Caesar-Style Dressing 75 Green Bean Medley 124
Marinade 139 Home-baked Beans 185
Nettle and Spinach Pesto 248 Jacket Potatoes 268
Pulse Chutney 137 Kimchi 47
Quince Jelly 211 Leek Hash 116
Quinoa Sauce 178 Mushroom ‘Korma’ 135
Raw Nut Butter 230 Oyster Mushrooms 44
Raw Nut Cream 230 Polenta 171
Rowanberry Jelly 254 Potato Patties 115
Ru’s Oriental Dressing 74 Pumpkin Savoury 122
Sara’s Sunflower Seed Dressing 76 Raw Carrot Savoury 122
Sour Cherry Compote 214 Raw Nut Balls 230
Sweet and Sour Sauce 141 Runner Bean Provencale 124
Tahini Salad Dressing 275 Sauerkraut 46
Tomato Sauce 140 Sautéed Marrow and Tomato 116
Vegan ‘Cheese’ 142 Savoury Apple Mould 205

viii The Vegan Book of Permaculture

Savoury Quinoa 178 Parsnip and Split Pea Bake 184
Sweet and Sour Cabbage 113 Pot Barley and Leek Bake 174
Vegetable Kebabs 268 Potato and Walnut Tart 232
Vegetable Pakoras 138 Quinoa Burgers 178
Walnuts and Haricot Beans 231 Ratatouille 125
Wild Mushroom Bhaji  Raw Energy Nut Loaf 231
with Alfalfa Sprouts 257 Roasted Winter Vegetables 113
Spaghetti Bolognese 161
Spicy Roast Vegetables 120
Mains Spinach and Chickpea Curry 134
Acorn and Carrot Tart 234 Stir-fried Sprouts and Vegetables 43
Acorn Roast 234 Stuffed Peppers 228
Agedashi Tofu with Black Kale 112 Summer Vegetables in Olive Oil 121
Apple and Potato Pie 205 Tomato Sauce with Vegetables 279
Apple Casserole 204 Vegan Haggis 170
Autumn Veggie Box Bake 119 Vegetable Pasties 165
Barbecue Burgers 269 Vegetable Wellington 166
Barley Risotto 174 Walnut and Potato Sausages 232
Basic Lentil Burger 183 Wild Mushroom and Courgette Flan 258
Basic Nut Roast 227
Basic Potato and Tomato Curry 133
Bean and Vegetable Casserole 182 Salads
Bean Layer Pie 181 Autumn Apple, Beetroot and Sprouts 70
Broad Bean Patties 185 Broad Bean, Basil and Tomato Salad 69
Buckwheat Casserole 176 Chickweed Salad 244
Cabbage Leaf Dolmades 228 Classic Green Salad (1) 67
Colcannon 115 Dandelion Salad 245
Courgette and Tomato Bake 123 Easter Sunday Salad 66
Dhal with Sprouts 137 Everything Salad 65
DIY Curry Powder 131 Eve’s Good Healthy Sprout Salad 40
‘English Curry’ 132 Green Salad (2) 67
Eve’s Delicious ’Ealthy and Simple Veg 111 Moroccan Style Butternut Squash Salad 71
Fried Roots and Greens 118 Panzanella 70
Lasagne 162 Sprout and Spring Leaves Detox Salad 68
Leek and Broccoli Croustade 117 Sprout Salad (2) 41
Leek and Cauliflower Crumble 169 Summer Pasta Salad 69
Lentil Pie 164 Summer Solstice Salad 66
Marrow and Butternut Squash Tagine 114 Tossed Salad 275
Nut Stuffed Aubergines 229 Winter Sprout Salad 41

Recipe Index ix
Soups Raspberry Buns 219
Apple and Parsnip Soup 204 Raw Blackberry and Hazel Cakes 251
Borscht 126 Raw Cherry and Nut Energy Bars 215
Cream of Celeriac Soup 128 Savoury Acorn Cookies 235
Gazpacho 130 Savoury Rye Biscuits 167
Hot and Spicy Raw Broccoli Spiced Pears 210
and Leek Soup 130 Spicy Apple and Fig Crumble 207
Leek and Potato Soup 128 Sunflower Seed Yoghurt 49
Miso Soup 276 Yoghurt 48
Nettle Soup 247
Parsnip, Kale and Lentil Soup 129
Potato Soup 278
Sea Beet and Tomato Soup 249
Spinach Soup 129
Tomato Soup 127
Yellow Pea Soup 277

Snacks & Sweets

Apple and Fruit Oat Biscuits 208
Apple, Pear and Quince Tart 206
Baked Apples 269
Blackberry and Apple Cobbler 251
Buckwheat Pancakes 176
Chocolate Bananas 269
Cider Fruit Salad 220
Crumble Mixture 168
Cut and Come Again Fruit Cake 220
Dried Plums 212
Fruit Pudding 218
Fruit Salad 280
Hedgerow Salad 218
Muesli 168
Oatmeal Yoghurt 49
Pear Cake 210
Plum Pudding 213
Quinoa and Raisin Pudding 179
Quinoa Shortbread 179
Raspberry and Apple Pie 219

x The Vegan Book of Permaculture

 Introduction
Permaculture can be summed up as using ethical design to create abundant yet
sustainable ways of living for all Earth Citizens. It stresses patterns of co-operation
rather than competition in order to achieve goals that are both ecologically sound
and economically viable. The principles of permaculture can be applied to gardening,
agriculture, building, ‘green’ economics, transport, waste treatment, health care,
creating a livelihood and community development. Or to as basic, yet important,
an activity as preparing a meal.
How we eat is such a fundamental part of what we are; yet in our industrialised
culture it has so often become just another symptom of alienation and
disempowerment. Pre-packaged, processed ‘fast’ foods relegate the acts of cooking
and eating to a mere inconvenience, to be dispensed with as quickly as possible
in our stressful busy lives. Our leisure time too is at a premium, so who wants to
waste it in the kitchen when we could be consuming the cheeky wit or glamorous
sophistication of the latest celebrity TV chef ? Forget the food miles, factory
farms, exploited labourers, eroded soils, polluted water ground water, GMOs and
pesticides: just keep spectating...
But it doesn’t have to be this way. If nothing else, permaculture gives us the tools
and confidence to take responsibility for our lives and actions. Creating a good
meal, either for us or to share with friends or family, taking time to prepare fresh,
wholesome ingredients with care and respect, can be a deeply liberating experience.
It’s also a way of taking back some control from the advertising agencies and
multinational corporations and making a very real difference in both personal and
planetary terms.
The recipes featured in this book are not
only delicious, healthy and wholesome; they
have also been chosen to be relatively ‘low
impact’. They use a minimum of packaged or
processed ingredients, and the preparation
required is uncomplicated. Furthermore, they
all emphasise the usage of animal-free, plant
based ingredients that, in theory at least, can
be grown at home or within a cool temperate
climate zone such as the UK, thus reducing
both ‘food mile’ impacts and the ‘ecological
footprints’ caused by large-scale animal-centred
agriculture.

Introduction xi
 Note that this isn’t intended to be used as a ‘rulebook’. Instead think of the
recipes and information in here as broad guidelines and ideas. Some elements
and ingredients that work well together as ‘patterns’ can be adapted to your own
preferences, tastes and circumstances. For this reason most of them aren’t written
down in terms of accurate measurements, but instead encourage you to experiment
and get a ‘feel’ for what is right: what vegetables and grains complement each other?
What proportions of herbs and spices will add flavour without dominating? What
textures, tastes and colours are aesthetically pleasing to the eye as well as the palate?
Personally I seldom follow the recipes or gardening tips that I find written
down in books. Instead I use them as springboards for my own creativity, and I’d
encourage you to do the same. My garden is not the same size or shape as yours,
neither are my taste buds or ideas about what ‘serves 4’ means. Don’t like carrots?
Substitute an apple! Your design proposal to the local council for a forest garden
in the grounds of a day centre for people with special needs has been rejected?
Rename it an ‘edible sensory fruit maze’ and resubmit it – it worked for me once!
As with the best permaculture designs so with cooking – observation, adaptation
and experimentation are the keys!
Recipes are credited throughout to those who have submitted them, even if
I have ended up adapting them a bit. Unaccredited recipes are my responsibility
(although how they are used is yours!), either my own creations or adapted from
sources long forgotten.

xii The Vegan Book of Permaculture

 Chapter 1

Permaculture and Veganism

– The Basics

“Permaculture offers a radical approach to food

production and urban renewal, water, energy and
pollution. It integrates ecology, landscape, organic
gardening, architecture and agro-forestry in creating a
rich and sustainable way of living. It uses appropriate
technology giving high yields for low energy inputs,
achieving a resource of great diversity and stability.
The design principles are equally applicable to both
urban and rural dwellers.”

Bill Mollison
So What Is Permaculture Anyway?
‘Permaculture’ is a combination of the words PERMAnent and agriCULTURE
(or latterly PERMAnent CULTURE, for no culture can survive for long without
a sustainable agricultural base or land use ethic at its heart). The original ideas were
developed in the late 1970s by two Australians, David Holmgren and Bill Mollison,
as a response to what they recognised as serious ecological threats to the survival of
all of us. It’s a holistic design system – a way of making links and connections and
seeing how elements are placed in relation to each other. In this way we can create
regenerative, self maintaining, low input/high output, non-exploiting systems that
will help us to thrive and live abundantly in ways that will meet the needs of future
generations as well as our own. Permaculture now probably has as many definitions
as there are practitioners, but one that is particularly useful might be: “creating
sustainable human habitats by following nature’s patterns”.
Permaculture isn’t about having to get your head around untold facts, figures,
Latin names and complicated techniques, rather it is about recognising universal
patterns and principles, and learning to apply these ‘ecological truisms’ to our
own gardens and life situations. We can identify the underlying forms that recur
throughout the natural world and learn to understand and utilise them in designed
ecologies.

At the heart of the permaculture concept is a set of ethics, or ‘core values’, that are
embedded into and inform all of our actions or design decisions:

‘Earthcare’ (we recognise that our Earth, Gaia, is the source

of all life and respect her accordingly).

‘Peoplecare’ (we support and help each other to

change to ways of living that are not harming
ourselves or the planet – we realise that we are a
part of the Earth, not apart from it).

‘Fair Shares’ (we ensure that the Earth’s limited

resources are utilised in ways that are equitable
and wise, and that we share our surpluses rather
than accumulate them – there’s enough for all our
needs but not for all our greed).

2 The Vegan Book of Permaculture

Influenced by ‘Systems Thinkers’ such as Howard T. Odum and Donella Meadows,
permaculture design principles are a set of guidelines derived from the study of both
the natural world and what has worked for non-industrialised sustainable societies,
often for many millennia. As peak oil, climate change and the precarious nature of
our current financial systems become increasingly difficult to ignore, we can apply
these to a variety of circumstances and situations in order to help us transition
towards what is likely to be a low energy, low carbon future. Such principles are
often about our attitude to situations, and can be clearly demonstrated when
applied to our kitchens, gardens, allotments, fields, forests, orchards and cities.

Work with Nature, Not Against Her

Francis Bacon’s assertion in the early 1600s that we must ‘bend nature to our
will’ has informed our species’ relationship with this fragile planet for much of
the modern era. Now in these days of desertification, flooding, global warming
and mass extinction, we are seeing just how futile and plain wrong-headed such a
philosophy truly is. Putting massive efforts into attempting to ‘tame nature’, such
as by creating and maintaining bare soil by plough, is not only energy consuming,
unsustainable and destructive, it is also unnecessary when we can meet the needs of
people and the environment by working in harmony with natural systems.

Observation Is the Key

In contrast to our prevailing ‘fast food and quick fix’ culture, permaculture is about
practising protracted and thoughtful observation instead of looking for instant
solutions that in the long run often cause even more damage to a situation. Rather
than rushing to address what are often superficial symptoms, the first question a
permaculture designer will ask is, “What is really going on here?” Are persistent
aphid attacks on your runner beans due to a lack of the correct pesticides being
applied, or is this a manifestation of more fundamental imbalances within the wider
ecology of your garden? Are high levels of crime in your locality best tackled by
installing more CCTV cameras in the street, or by addressing deeper social malaises
such as inequality, poverty and social alienation? Good observation is about seeing
holistically, looking at all the functions and characteristics
of the plants, animals and humans in an environment and
how they interact with each other, often over extended
periods of time. Learn to develop and practise the skills
of observation by taking time to sit back, ground yourself
and watch, listen, smell, taste, feel and contemplate.

Permaculture and Veganism – The Basics 3

Design from Pattern to Detail
Both in nature and in human communities, patterns in
time and space recur on an almost infinite number of
levels. Branching patterns can be observed in the form
and structure of a tree’s growth, as well as in river deltas and
the central nervous and circulatory systems of vertebrates.
The spiral is a mathematically derived pattern that can be seen on
scales ranging from sub-atomic particles to galaxies, or from continental storm
fronts to the arrangement of seeds in a sunflower head. The movement of the sun
through the sky in summer and winter governs day length and the patterns of plant
growth and seasonal activity. We can also determine social and human patterns
that are basically unchanged since prehistoric times. These include our need for
rituals and festivals that mark special occasions or the cycles of the year, or the
importance we almost subconsciously place on the stories and myths that transmit
intergenerational knowledge and cultural values.

In a sense patterns are a set of rules and constants that broadly define form, function
and behaviour, yet at the same time allow for an infinite variation of detail when
made manifest. For example, most of us know an oak tree when we see one; we
instantly recognise its distinctive lobed leaves, grey-fissured bark and the typical
shape of its trunk and canopy at various life stages from seedling to maturity. Yet
no two oak trees are exactly alike. Each individual’s specific location, environment
and genetic peculiarities cause a myriad of variations in how the basic patterns
encoded in the oak’s DNA are implemented. So too the permaculture design tool
of ‘zone and sector planning’ (see page 14) is a pattern for predicting and working
with human and natural energy flows that has an unlimited number of applications
in the real world.

Being able to recognise, understand and utilise the properties of pattern – in

other words working with ‘pattern language’ – is a fundamental prerequisite to
developing good design skills in a multitude of contexts that might range from
creating location-suitable productive gardens to successfully managing a complex
community development project.

Everything Gardens, or Modifies, Its Environment

When we mindfully observe nature, we can see that animals and plants are often
carrying out many of the tasks that we consider gardening chores as they go
about their daily business of finding sustenance or adapting their habitats to meet

4 The Vegan Book of Permaculture

their own needs. Worms dig and aerate the land; leaf fall mulches bare soil, adds
nutrients and improves its structure; fast spreading wild annual plants (‘weeds’)
such as chickweed provide overwintering ground cover; slugs devour dead plant
matter and begin the composting process that is continued by bacteria, fungi and
other micro organisms; bees pollinate our fruit bushes and the droppings of birds
sew and spread seeds and add fertiliser.

So instead of whipping out the Bug Gun at the first sign of pest damage, why
not encourage predators such as ladybirds and hoverflies to do our work for us by
planting attractant flowers such as limnanthes (poached egg plant), nigella (love in
a mist) or buckwheat? Instead of damaging the soil’s structure and straining our
backs with constant digging, why not add compost directly to the soil as a surface
mulch and utilise the worms’ free labour inputs, whilst at the same time suppressing
weeds and providing protection from the elements?

The Problem Is the Solution

Or, as Bill Mollison didn’t quite say, “You haven’t got an excess of slugs, you’ve got
a frog deficiency...” In other words, it is how we look at things that makes them
advantageous or not. Sometimes a simple change of perspective can help us to see
that what at first appears to be a difficulty or a challenge can in fact be a gift...
As another example, the arrival of wild plants on our plots is inevitable; what we
do have a choice about is our approach to them. Are they ‘weeds’, against which
a constant yet futile war of attrition is waged, or are they a resource, valuable in at
least parts of the garden even if we don’t allow them to dominate in our productive
areas? Such plants increase biodiversity, act as ‘dynamic accumulators’ (that is, they
mine the subsoil with their roots to bring up minerals that may be deficient on
the surface), attract beneficial wildlife and can be harvested for compost or mulch
material. Many are even edible or medicinal, or have a host of other uses and
properties that are now largely forgotten.

There are also many situations in life that can be transformed from adversity to
opportunity when viewed from a fresh angle. For example, being made redundant
from a highly paid but under stimulating or ethically compromised job could
actually provide a chance for a person to think about ‘downsizing’ their lifestyle in
ways they might not otherwise have considered. Maybe they could free up time for
reskilling or become more self-reliant in the quantities of fresh food they are able
to grow rather than commuting to the office, or could find other ways of making a
living that are more in accord with their interests and passions.

Permaculture and Veganism – The Basics 5

 We all have a multitude of skills and abilities – why not think about ways of creating
polycultural livelihoods for ourselves so that we can live by our enjoyment?

Maximise Diversity
In the 21st century the world largely relies on some 20 or so staple crops. Yet the
Cornwall based permaculture growing and research project Plants For A Future1
lists over 7,000 species of plants that are edible or otherwise useful to peoplekind
that we can grow in the UK alone.

In a permaculture growing system each function should be supported by many

elements. In other words, nothing should be indispensable as its loss or failure can
be disastrous. A person who has had only one well paid but highly specialised job
throughout their working life would be less able to cope with redundancy than
somebody who has several small incomes earned from a variety of sources. In the
same way, the farmer who grows as wide and diverse a range of edible and useful
plants as possible, for example fruit and nut trees, vegetables, salads, grains and
cereals, and fungi (a polyculture), still gets to eat if some of them don’t make it to
harvest. On the other hand, their neighbour who gives all of the same area of land
over to a single crop of wheat (a monoculture) starves if it fails.

The other side of the coin is that every element in the system
should have many uses. Permaculture people tend to spend a
lot of time emphasising the importance of planting trees. This
is because of the multiplicity of their yields and functions.
Not only do they provide food crops in
the form of fruit, nuts, berries, beans and

6 The Vegan Book of Permaculture

leaf protein, they also supply bio-fuels, timber, coppice, medicines and fibre as well
as a myriad of beneficial effects for wildlife and for planet-wide systems. These
include soil building, maintaining fertility, checking erosion, driving global water
and air cycles, regulating temperature to name but a few.

Everything Is Part of a Cycle

In the natural world, there is no such thing as ‘pollution’. Within an ecosystem,
every ‘waste product’ is useful elsewhere within that system. Examples include the
nitrogen, carbon and hydrological cycles. Powered and regulated by the life processes
of living trees and forests, for millions of years these have pumped massive amounts
of energy around the globe in constantly changing forms. Modern living, however,
seems to be all about breaking nature’s perpetual cycles, perhaps best symbolised
by our practice of flushing our bodily ‘wastes’ out to sea rather than returning this
fertility to the soil. We then need to build high maintenance sewage treatment
plants in order to manage and make safe these massive toxic outputs, whilst at the
same time adding artificial fertilisers to nutrient deficient agricultural land. Using
composting toilets to harvest our faeces that, when thoroughly broken down over
a year or so, can then be applied to fruit trees and other edible crops as ‘humanure’,
is an elegant, low effort way of restoring the ‘food to fertility to food’ loop.

We have also broken the cycle of time by changing to a linear perception of its
passage. For our ancestors, events were not singular but recurrent, governed by the
movements of sun and moon, the passing of the seasons, of sowing and harvest,
summer abundance and winter scarcity. Nowadays we see no reason why we
shouldn’t have spring lamb and fresh strawberries in December, but even though
our calendars might run in straight lines, our bodies are still attuned to respond
to nature’s patterns. Winter Solstice (Christmas)
feasting was originally about stocking up
our bodies with the last of the previous
season’s harvest in preparation for the lean
months ahead. Is it then coincidence that
goosegrass, one of the first plants to appear Everything cycles.
the following spring, acts as a natural tonic
when drunk as a tea, flushing out the
body toxins that build up over the winter?
Returning to eating what is locally and
seasonally available repairs another cycle and
puts us in touch with the earth again.

Permaculture and Veganism – The Basics 7

 Keyhole beds maximise edge and
increase the amount of available
growing space as well as adding visual
interest to the garden.

Yields Are Limited Only by Imagination

‘Yield’ is usually thought of as the quantity of material output obtained (e.g. amounts
of potatoes, grain etc.) calculated against resources or effort put in. But there’s no
reason why we can’t widen our definition. Yields from a system might also include
information, lessons learned, experience, the health benefits of exercise and being
outdoors, or even just plain fun...
Permaculture designers are like the best cooks and gardeners, constantly trying
out fresh ideas, learning new techniques, finding new niches to utilise, seeking
new beneficial relationships between elements and gathering knowledge. By
comprehending and copying natural systems, we can develop techniques in order
to multiply such opportunities, including strategies such as maximising edge. In
ecology, it is recognised that the ‘edge’ or ecotone is basically where the action
happens – where a high exchange of materials and energy takes place. The edge
is the place where two ecosystems meet, for example, the interface between the
sea and the land, or where woodland meets grassland. Such an environment tends
to be more synergistic, supporting biological activity from either side of these
boundaries, as well as species particular to those conditions, thus making it a highly
productive region. Permaculture design seeks to increase edge and its beneficial
effects as much as possible, including between people and ideas.

8 The Vegan Book of Permaculture

The Vegan Way
Permaculture is an approach rather than a belief system, a useful framework for
positive action whatever our lifestyle choices. So whilst adopting an animal-free
diet and permaculture may not necessarily be the same thing, for me the ethical
underpinning of all permaculture design – Earthcare, Peoplecare and Fair Shares
– doesn’t seem so very different from the compassionate concern for ‘Animals,
People and Environment’ spelled out on the Vegan Society sticker in my front
room window. I became vegetarian when I left school in 1977, and stopped eating
animal products altogether in 1984 for a mixture of ethical and spiritual reasons.
These can basically be summed up as a desire to strive to survive causing the least
suffering possible.

In the UK alone each year, approximately 2.8 million cattle, 8.5 million pigs,
15 million sheep and lambs, 80 million fish and 950 million birds are slaughtered
for human consumption.2 The majority of industrially farmed animals spend
their lives trapped in cramped, squalid cages, never once seeing the light of day,
and unable to satisfy the natural desires of all creatures for movement or contact
with their own kind. For those bred purely for their flesh (‘meat’) the suffering is
relatively limited, for they are slaughtered as soon as they are of an optimum age.
Not so for dairy animals however, those creatures imprisoned for the products that
they yield. Cows which are subjected artificially to yearly pregnancies, and whose
calves are snatched away for veal or to intensive beef units so that we can enjoy
their milk. The hens that are crammed into flocks of
up to 30,000 birds at a rate of 19 to the square metre,3
often de-beaked and force-fed on steroids and protein
concentrates in order to produce ‘fresh farm eggs’. For
these pathetic creatures the luxury of death is found
only when they cease to be productive, slaughtered
for ‘low grade’ meat products such as soup or pie
ingredients or pet foods.

Personally I don’t see a need for my sustenance to be

dependent on the suffering and death of other sentient
beings. For me, what and how I eat is a celebration of
life, so shouldn’t have to involve its negation. But there
are also strong environmental arguments why those
who seek more earth right ways of living might also
consider eating less meat and dairy products.

Permaculture and Veganism – The Basics 9

Vegan for the Land
A vegan diet using locally grown organic produce is amongst the most sustainable.
A plant based diet requires far less land than that needed to maintain a typical
western diet. Farmed animals consume much greater amounts of protein and
calories than they are able to convert into produce, so far larger quantities of
crops are needed to feed humans with animal products than are needed to feed
people directly. Globally the world’s forests are being destroyed to make ever
more room for cattle ranching or for the production of crops like soya for animal
feed. These forests play a vital role in maintaining the ecological balances of the
planet, regulating oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, providing
habitat for innumerable species of plants and animals, controlling water cycles and
preventing soil erosion and the spread of deserts.

In the UK animal farming accounts for some 85% of agricultural land use, either
directly for grazing or for the production of fodder crops, with two-thirds of
the British cereal crop being fed to livestock annually. Yet it has been estimated
that a future vegan Britain, using permaculture design and methods to increase
integration of lifestyle with natural and renewable cycles, could be self-reliant
in food, fertility, fibre and fuel on around one third to a half of the agricultural
land currently available, especially if home gardens and public urban spaces were
used for food growing, and land currently considered ‘marginal’ or suitable only
for rough grazing was made directly productive by planting high protein edible
or otherwise useful tree crops.4 This abundance could greatly reduce the need for
food imports, often from so-called ‘Third World’ countries that would then be free
to utilise land to feed their own populations. Millions of acres could also be given
over to uses such as recreation, wildlife habitat and, most importantly, reforestation
projects, making a significant contribution to the reversal of the ‘greenhouse effect’.

Cattle, sheep and other ruminants are a significant source of methane, a powerful
greenhouse gas. Reducing livestock farming, whilst at the same time launching
massive reforestation projects, could potentially not only help to lock up the carbon
released by centuries of fossil fuel burning and land clearances, but also be a step
towards cutting methane emissions. Thus climate change could be tackled on two
fronts simultaneously.

There is also the question of water as a global resource. Agriculture accounts for
some 70% of fresh water usage worldwide, including the production of grain, 40% of
which is fed to livestock to produce the meat-rich diet of the north. The extraction

10 The Vegan Book of Permaculture

of water from aquifers in India (where nearly all water is used in agriculture) exceeds
recharge by a factor of two or more. Furthermore, dry-lands and desertification are
spreading as forests are cut down, at least partly as a consequence of increasing
pressures placed upon the land by mass-scale animal farming and feed production.

Vegan for Health

Moving towards a more plant based diet is not only better for
planetary health; it also makes sense for our own well-being. Excessive
animal products tend to clog and acidify the body system, and have
been linked to many diseases including cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure,
heart problems, constipation, obesity and allergies. By contrast, studies have shown
that a well-planned vegan wholefood based diet can not only reduce the incidence
of these illnesses, but also greatly improve general health.

Poor husbandry practices engendered by mass-scale animal farming have been

linked to potentially devastating diseases of humankind such as BSE, E. coli,
salmonella poisoning and bird flu. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics in animal
feed poses yet another risk to human health. Half of all antibiotics produced are
fed to farm animals, both to combat disease and promote faster growth. The result
is that many diseases, including meningitis, enteric fever and septicaemia, can
develop antibiotic resistance and become ‘superbugs’. Furthermore, such antibiotics
can also find their way onto our plates via the animal products based food chain
and in turn weaken our own immune systems.

In short, western expectations for meat and dairy to be available on the table three
times a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year are globally unsustainable by any
standards. The vegan way might not be the solution for everybody, but I believe
we will all need to at least think about lifestyles and diets that are less dependent
on animal products and the inputs these entail if all Earth Citizens are to live and
eat well in a sustainable future.

Of course, only the individual can decide where they should draw the line between
their own ideals, and how far they can acceptably compromise with global systems
that are unjust, environmentally destructive and exploitive of people, animals and
planet. Permaculture is about personal accountability and paying attention to energy
flows and cycles, and it’s as easy to lead an unsustainable, unaccountable vegan

Permaculture and Veganism – The Basics 11

lifestyle based on imported, fossil fuel hungry, monoculturally grown and over-
processed soya based convenience foods as it is to live as an unsustainable and
unaccountable omnivore. What is important is that we all develop an awareness
of our own ‘energy budgets’ and the ‘ecological footprints’ of how we live, and begin
to work to steadily reduce these. In the longer term we need to meet a far greater
percentage of our needs from home, market and forest gardens, as well as from the
yields of trees.

The Food Wheel developed by Alan and Elaine Garrett of

the Movement for Compassionate Living. 5 For a more compassionate diet,
choose foods that are as close to the centre of the wheel as possible.

12 The Vegan Book of Permaculture

Permaculture Without Animals?
Not all permaculturists or permaculture projects are vegan, and I’ve often been
asked whether a completely animal-free permaculture is even actually possible.
My response is, of course not, and neither would it be desirable. For example, how
would we fence out the earthworms that build our soil and maintain its fertility, or
the bees that pollinate our fruit trees and vegetables, and why ever would we wish to?
In fact, we actively design in features that are intended to attract wildlife: ponds
for frogs, toads and dragonflies, and flowering plants to bring in the ladybirds
and hoverflies that keep populations of potential pests like slugs and aphids in
check, and are essential to maintaining healthy productive ecosystems. What we
don’t include are those ‘system components’ that we believe perpetuate exploitative
relationships with our non-human Earth co-citizens, such as pigs, goats and
chickens, whose primary function is the production of meat, milk and eggs.

Many kingdoms of life interact in the forest garden.

Permaculture and Veganism – The Basics 13

The Naturewise forest garden in north London6 is one example of an edible
landscape that is ostensibly ‘stock free’, although in actuality members of several
of the Kingdoms of Nature work together here for mutual benefit. Deep rooted
comfrey plants mine nutrients like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous from the
subsoil, making them available to fruit trees and bushes. Birds and bees buzz around
the canopy layer, whilst insects and arthropods patrol the undergrowth and leaf
litter, checking and balancing pest populations and playing their role in the cycles
of growth and decay. Fungi and bacteria continue the process. These break down
dead matter into rich humus and minerals that are exchanged with plant roots via
associations with mycorrhizal soil networks in return for sugars and carbohydrates
manufactured by photosynthesis. Based on the structure of natural woodland, the
forest garden is a complex web of which humans too are an integral part. Aside
from a bounty of apples, pears, figs, grapes, strawberries, currants and edible leaves,
one of the most important yields of this mini-woodland is the sense of community
that the space offers to the volunteers that spend time here. And being situated in
a school playground it also acts as an open air classroom where children of many
ethnic and cultural backgrounds are able to interact with nature, an opportunity
that is often all too rare in the inner city.

Understanding ‘Zones’
Good design is about maximising the beneficial connections between elements, in
other words, putting things in the right place. This is about efficiently utilising our
energy inputs and the space we have available to us in relation to where we tend to
spend most of our time. For example, there’s not a lot of point in planting a bed of
‘Cut and Come Again’ mixed salad leaves on your allotment a mile away from your
house if you only visit it once every couple of weeks. When you are knocking up a
salad for tea, human nature and the law of minimum effort dictates that you will
pop round to the corner shop and buy a salad bag whilst your crop sits running to
seed. In other words, your wonderfully succulent and deliciously flavoured lettuces,
rocket, mizuna and mustard are simply planted in the wrong place.

Zoning is therefore an important permaculture analysis and design tool that

helps us to think about our energy inputs and decide where things best belong.
Traditionally, zones are numbered from 0 to 5, and can be thought of as a series of
concentric rings moving out from a centre point, where human activity and need
for attention is most concentrated, to where there is no need for intervention at all.

14 The Vegan Book of Permaculture

• Zone 0 is the house or home centre. In terms of food production this might
be about using energy efficient cooking and storage methods, or designing an
ergonomic kitchen layout.
• Zone 1 is immediately next to your back door, the place nearest the house where
the gardener’s shadow, ‘the best fertiliser of all’, according to an ancient Chinese
proverb), most often falls. This is where to put crops that require frequent
attention and harvesting, those ‘Cut and Come Again’ salads mentioned above
that need to be plucked regularly, fresh herbs that are added to daily meals,
strawberry plants, those seedlings in trays that need watering a couple of times
a day until they are established, the worm compost bin that needs to be added
to little and often and cold frames for tender plants that need to be opened in
the morning and closed at night.
• Zone 2 extends out from Zone 1, and in the larger garden might be where we
grow more crops for household use that do not require quite as much attention
– maybe a variety of vegetables in beds that require watering and weeding every
couple of days, or possibly a small forest garden area with a few dwarfing fruit
trees, currant bushes and perennial herbs and vegetables.
• Zone 3 is main crop production – perhaps that once a week cycling distance
allotment where we might plant larger amounts of staples; these can be onions,
beans or potatoes that take up quite a bit of space but don’t require that much
attention beyond occasional weeding and watering – maybe once a week or
even less once established, especially if utilising techniques such as mulching
that conserve soil moisture and suppress weed growth. It is also where we might
think about sourcing the bulk of the cereal grains and other staples that are
grown on a more extensive farm scale.
• Zone 4 is semi-wild, for example coppice managed woodland used for timber,
woodland products like charcoal, poles, fencing, etc. Attention here might be
necessary only once a year or less, especially if managed on a rotational basis.
• Zone 5 is wild nature, where we don’t design. Instead we observe. Apart from
some foraged wild foods, the main ‘yield’ here is the opportunity to look at and
learn from natural ecosystems and cycles.

If zones are about understanding our own patterns of energy use, then ‘Sector
Analysis’ helps us to consider natural energy flows such as sun, wind or wildlife and
how these might affect our microclimate. For example knowing where and when
the sun rises and sets at different times of the year in relation to our garden can help
us decide where to position our sun loving or shade tolerant plants, and knowing the
prevailing wind direction can determine the best potential location for a protective
shelter-belt hedge or wind turbine. It’s also useful to think about slope and the

Permaculture and Veganism – The Basics 15

implications this might have on your land in terms of its limitations, potential and
management strategies such as water flow, preventing erosion and so on.

The tool of zoning can be utilised in many ways other than thinking about how land
is used. Try, for example, applying it to determine scales of community organisation
and how relevant these are to you. Where might your energies best be employed
in effecting change, and when do different strategies become appropriate? Zone 0
could be the people you share a home with, i.e. your partner, family or room-mates;
Zone 1 your friends, immediate neighbours or work colleagues; Zone 2 the streets
around you, or within your district or parish boundaries, and so on outwards, with
Zone 5 perhaps representing national government and its intractable jungle of
bureaucracies. What are your ‘circles of influence’ or strategic leverage points if you
truly want to make a difference? Do you approach your partner about their habit of
always leaving the towel on the bathroom floor in the same way that you address
a community meeting about road safety outside your kid’s school, or the way that
you engage in a national scale Anti-War protest event? Probably your strategies are
different in each case, just as you wouldn’t use a hand fork and trowel as your main
tools to landscape a 1,000 hectare farm or hire a JCB to tend your window box...

Zones and Sectors

16 The Vegan Book of Permaculture

How This Book Is Organised
For the remainder of this book I’ve loosely used the concept of Zoning as a theme
to explore our own relationships to land, food and community. Each chapter
focuses on an aspect of creating greater self reliance in our day-to-day lives, as well
as looking at a wider picture of building more resilient and regenerative futures for
ourselves, our children and our world.

• Zone 0 looks at the energy flows within the house, along with the food producing
potential of the average kitchen, such as sprouting, growing windowsill greens,
fermentation and small-scale mushroom production.
• Zone 1 focuses on the application of a permaculture design process to the small
back garden of a typical urban household, as well as some ideas for using the
salad crops that even those of us with very limited space could grow.
• Zone 2 provides an overview of vegan organic methods of growing fruit and
vegetable crops in a larger back garden, as well as plenty of recipe ideas for how
these might be used.
• Zone 3 looks at sourcing the main crops and staples of our dietary requirements
on a scale beyond what most of us would be able to grow ourselves, including
some ways in which we might develop more regenerative local food links.
It also includes plenty of recipe ideas for cooking with staples such as grains
and pulses.
• Zone 4 focuses on the potential of tree crops to feed people kind and meet other
needs in a more compassionate and sustainable future, as well as exploring the
concept of forest gardening and using the amazing diversity of crops these can
yield. This section also includes ideas for using fruits, nuts and leaf protein as
alternative staples.
• Zone 5 looks at our relationship with the wilderness and the harvests it can
offer us both in terms of wisdom and the useful wild plants that we can forage.
• So far I haven’t mentioned a seventh important zone in permaculture design,
that which is sometimes referred to as Zone 00. This means the person or
persons at the very heart of any human-based system. Perhaps this is the most
important part of the design of all. Thus it is where the journey through this
book both begins and ends, respectively focusing on how we as individuals can
become more effective in changing ourselves and the world around us, and
finally looking at the amazing power of community when World Changers
come together.

Permaculture and Veganism – The Basics 17