"welcome to Basalt Mountain located on the northern rim of the Roaring Fork valley in Colorado." "The climate here is hot and dry in the summer and frigid in the winter." "To the point were only a small number of plant and animal species can survive here." "until now no one would have considered farming in this dry rocky nutrient poor soil." "But thanks to our current understanding of nature's natural processes one man has built up a nutrient rich soil upon this dry undesirable clay forming the foundation for a thriving ecosystem" "Jerome Osentowski is the man behind the ecosystem and the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute." "nestled on the side of Basalt Mountain lye one acre of edible forest garden guilds and four passive and active solar greenhouses which have become a large part of Jerome's most recent Permaculture endeavors" "I came to Colorado in 1969 and" "I spent about the first seven or eight, ten years" "As a ski instructor." "and gradually got interested in healthy foods" "Through having somewhat of a health crisis with hyperglycemia so I decided to look into wild foods and that lead me into growing my own gardens and using wild foods when it was available" "Jerome began gardening in the lowlands of the Basalt area with the understand that it would be too difficult to grow near his home on Basalt Mountain due to the arid soils and difficulty in harnessing water but once I learned about permaculture" "I found that it was totally possible to create these beautiful gardens using recycled materials, and building compost, sheet mulching, using perennial and annual vegetables" "In combinations of designs" "So, we started annual gardening here for ten years or so and then we gradually segued into perennial polycultures outside and now inside and we've taught hundreds of people here through internship programs and through the different design courses and workshops here." "what's nice about it is that they can come and eat the fruits see the combination of plants in our forest gardens and see how we build our greenhouse" "But Jerome's success in Permaculture hasn't come without some major road blocks" "In 2008 a devastating fire burned down one of his first tropical greenhouse's" "Ironically named Pele [after the Hawaiian fire goddess] to the ground." "the fire in Pele was actually a blessing in disguise." "because we were able to take new technology and design a much bigger, better greenhouse." "So I worked with Michael Thomson my partner in Ecosystems Design to redesign the new greenhouse." "At the time that Pele burned down Jerome had been working with well know local architect Michael Thompson on advancing greenhouse design by introducing what Jerome called "Climate Battery Technology"" "The destruction of Pele gave the two the chance to put their latest research to the test and in the spirit on new beginnings the new greenhouse would be named Phoenix after the mythological bird that burns itself and rises from the ashes to live through another cycle." "Hi I'm Michael Thompson," "I'm chief architect with ecosystems design in Basalt Colorado and partner with Jerome Osentowski." "The climate battery as we now call it, is a series of tubing in which air is taken in at the high point of the greenhouse, pumped through tubing, and exhausted at the south end of the greenhouse." "and then that air circulates over and over again picking up heat and then delivering it underground and storing it." "So at ecosystems design, we create designs for greenhouses and passive solar buildings and homes as well as outdoor landscaping perennials and annuals for organic agriculture in the rocky mountain region." "in addition to designing indoor and outdoor Permaculture and edible landscapes" "We create the buildings that allow that indoor growing, such as this one in Steamboat Springs." "This is a large thirty six by eighty foot greenhouse that will support sub-tropical and anything below that." "and here we have inside the greenhouse, all of these planting beds that we have created above ground and under ground we have these forced air heat storage systems" "So all of these fans are delivering air through these vertical risers which then underground distribute the warm air through these horizontal manifolds through these perforated tubes that deliver the heat and the moisture from that air into the soil for use later in the cold nights." "So as a result we get these indoor environments that are very well insulated and heated against winter conditions such as this last year." "and when we have a condition like this where we have very cold weather and snow around the building inside what were experiencing is uhh..." "This is when we began the planting of this greenhouse last autumn, and this spring we had this much growth in there." "So we have flowers, we have other plants that support the insect populations for beneficial controls and for pollination, and we have all of the soil conditions and the climate conditions to grow tropical Banana plants, and Guavas and Figs and Papaya etcetera." "and these greenhouses also function very well as early propagation centers" "Where we can start the plants in February that will grow outdoors as annuals." "We also have climate control equipment like these curtains that draw across underneath the glazing at night when its very cold so we have an extra insulating layer for accomplishing that." "So we also do solar homes solar energy productive buildings." "in addition to designing greenhouses for private investors CRMPI and growing spaces are building growing domes for local schools in colorado in order to raise awareness about the importance of a local food economy." "the institute has currently built a growing dome at Yampa Mountain High School in Glenwood" "Springs and the Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale both facilities will be utilized as classrooms for sustainable agriculture curriculums and the food produced will be integrated into the school lunches. there you can find out more about our services and browse our design galleries." "for more information about the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute and how you can contribute please visit CRMPI.ORG there you'll find detailed information about our growing dome projects via the community food initiative as well as workshop dates and internship availability." "and built the Geodesic Growing Domes used at the local high schools and special thanks to John Cruickshank for his role in the technological advancements of what is now called the Climate Battery" "Thanks For Watching"