Roger Fenton. Sebastopol from Cathcart's Hill. Crimea. 1855

On an ordinary suburban lot in Sebastopol, California, Erik Ohlsen and his family grow nearly everything they eat—fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, even their own medicine.

Their home is surrounded by edible forest, a rain-fed pond for swimming, and habitats that attract foxes, frogs, and dragonflies. There’s food here every day of the year, and almost nothing goes to waste.

A self-taught designer who began experimenting with permaculture at 19, Erik has spent two decades replacing lawns and ornamental landscapes with living systems that feed both people and wildlife. His property has become a testing ground for the regenerative methods he’s refined through years of hands-on learning and observation.

Lauren, his wife, tends the gardens alongside him and transforms the harvest into preserved food and herbal remedies—drying herbs, fermenting vegetables, filling the pantry with jars of pickles and tinctures. Together, they’ve created a home that functions more like an ecosystem than a house lot, where every element supports the next.

From terraces that capture every drop of rain to the “bronze-age roundhouse” he’s shaping from stone and earth to serve as a guest space and root cellar, the Ohlsens’ acre shows what it looks like when a family decides to let the land lead.

Erik Ohlsen: https://permaculturesk...

Instagram:   / ohlsen.erik  

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/erik...

Featuring Tsar Nicholas, Alexandra Feodorovna, Olga Nikolaevna, Anastasia Nikolaevna, and Tatiana Nikolaevna in Sevastopol, May 1916. You may be familiar with the quite well known photos that were taken on the same trip, such as the one below.