New Hybrid Permaculture Course This Fall!

After a year and a half of pandemic closure, we are happy to announce that the OAEC site will be reopening to welcome Permaculture Design students again this fall! Last … Read more

Take a virtual or in-person garden tour!

  After a long Covid hiatus, on-site tours of the gardens led by real live humans will resume this April! Join us 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month at 1pm, starting at the … Read more

Seed Swap – February 12th @ Sebastopol Grange

Join OAEC, Community Seed Exchange, Daily Acts and the California Rare Fruit Growers at the Mother Garden Biodiversity Program’s FAVORITE event of the year!  We love sharing seeds, scions and … Read more

Compost Toilet Project Update

Our composting toilet project is up and running! Two of our three new systems are fully installed and operational in the guest housing accommodations – the third will come on … Read more

Localizing California Waters Conference

Localizing California Waters Conference November 1 – 3, 2017 Yosemite CA For the 3rd year, OAEC will help to convene onsite water advocates, practitioners and regulators under one roof for … Read more

Hayward City Hall Water-wise Garden

On April 15, 2017, Keep Hayward Clean and Green Task Force (KHCG TF), Earth Team, City of Hayward’s Landscape Department, Occidental Arts & Ecology Center and the local and surrounding … Read more

Compost Toilet Install Begins!

Compost Toilet Research Project installation has officially begun! Pictured here: Glen from Phoenix Composting Toilets, and OAEC facilities intern, Amelia, in the basement of our guest housing building installing the … Read more

Resilient Community Design video

Click HERE to watch the video! Introducing the new Resilient Community Design video!  This video is a brief conceptual overview of the steps that we use here at OAEC to … Read more

OAEC Receives Groundbreaking Compost Toilet Permit

Legitimizing Ecological Sanitation via Scientific Research After 2 years of negotiations, OAEC is excited to partner with county and regional agencies with the acquisition of an “Alternate Methods and Materials” research … Read more

Highlights from EcoFarm

Last week’s 35th annual EcoFarm Conference gathered nearly 2000 sustainable agriculture experts and allies for education, rejuvenation and celebration with a new twist: the Permaculture Track! Thanks to EFA’s Executive … Read more

Brock Dolman & Eve Ensler at Bioneers 2014

At the 2014 Bioneers Conference, OAEC’s Brock Dolman joined forces with renowned author and V-Day founder Eve Ensler to present about the City of Joy, a recovery center and permaculture farm … Read more

The SOIL Permaculture Design Process

The SOIL Permaculture Design Process After touring the SOIL collection and processing sites around Cap-Haitien, we arrived at the SOIL office, farm, and associated KOMOP farm properties. (KOMOP is a … Read more

Cap-Haitien

We arrived by bus in Cap-Haitien, the second largest city in Haiti located on the north shore. The bus ride was a 6-hour journey in which the bus barreled on … Read more

Symphony of "Konpos" with SOIL

Today’s work was to visit the SOIL composting site at the city dump in Twitye to learn about the specifics of the humanure handling and thermophilic composting practices. The SOIL … Read more

From Metal to Magic – Spending Sunday with SOIL

  Our Collaboration in Haiti OAEC was invited to visit to Haiti by SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods –www.oursoil.org) as an organizational exchange to help each other further current projects. … Read more