Michael Judd shares what a life spent living with the land, and returning to it, teaches us about caring for our home, the Earth, and even efficiency. In his early twenties, Michael Judd walked four days through a dry riverbed into the jungle of southern Mexico, to a community of Lacandon Maya. What looked like wild jungle was something else. "Everything was coming from this perennial food forest."I'm Madelyn Blair, and on this Unlocked, Michael and I talk about living with the Earth rather than simply taking from it: twelve years building food forests in Nicaragua, a round straw-bale home heated by one armful of wood a day, and why he's helping plant a million nut trees.Then we go somewhere you may not expect: natural burial. Michael's father called the last year of his life one of the best of his life. Michael calls it "a door for love."In all of this, he learned about permaculture and how nature understands and performs efficiently!What if the most efficient system is one that runs itself? Permaculture designer Michael Judd joins Madelyn Blair on Unlocked to share what nature teaches about design: get it right, put a little energy in, and it keeps producing.Michael's journey began in his early twenties, living with Lacandon Maya in the jungle of southern Mexico, where a community drew its food, medicine, and materials from a perennial food forest it had sustained for generations. He went on to spend 12 years creating food forests in Nicaragua, co-founded SilvoCulture to help plant one million nut trees in the Mid-Atlantic, and wrote Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist and For the Love of PawPaws.In this conversation:• Designing systems that sustain themselves, and why hard work can be a sign of poor design• Observing first: reading the landscape, and listening to a community before acting• A round straw-bale home with earthen floors, heated by one armful of wood a day• Doing what you can do when the problems feel too big, and why nut trees are a great place to start• Learning to let go of control and team up with others• His father's home funeral and burial, and founding Morris Orchard Natural Burial in a 65-year-old chestnut orchardLearn more about Michael: Ecologia Design: ecologiadesign.com Morris Orchard Natural Burial: morrisorchardnaturalburial.comUnlocked is a show about unlocking the resilient leader in you. Subscribe for something new every week, including Grounds for Thought reflections between monthly episodes. Newsletter: madelynblair.comKeywords and tags: Michael Judd, Madelyn Blair, Unlocked, permaculture, food forest, edible landscaping, natural burial, green burial, home funeral, home burial, death doula, Morris Orchard Natural Burial, nut trees, Chinese chestnut, pawpaws, SilvoCulture, straw bale house, earthen floors, Lacandon Maya, Nicaragua, regenerative agriculture, biomimicry, sustainable living, resilience, resilient leadership
