We work hard on the farm. Getting up early to cut grass for the animals, digging, planting, weeding, making compost, running the nurseries, meetings, community outreach and everything else we do can be tiring. It’s always good to take some time to relax, enjoy life and recharge our batteries. We’re so lucky to have beautiful, clean ecologies around us. We took time to head to this little know swimming spot about a two hour walk from our farm.
The permaculture design course (PDC) is the first step in your formal permaculture education. It is offered by numerous centres around the world and attended by tens of thousands of people yearly. Usually an intensive two week course offering an introduction to the ethics and principles of permaculture, design science and some practical work. We step it up a level with even more hands-on activities and extra design work. You will leave the course with an even deeper understanding of permaculture and a self-designed plan of how to implement in your life.
The monsoon came a couple weeks late and started off with a bang. One month of rain fell in 3 days… but we eventually got down to business and got our rice planted. Almost Heaven Farms grows enough rice to feed 25 people living at our projects sites and all guests and visitors coming and going throughout the year. Food security is super improtant to us and having a stock of rice stored helps us achieve that goal.
It’s the time of year when the skies cloud over and inundate us with rain over the span of a few months. The rain pours down from the sky and once the ground is completely saturated, floods sweep across the flatlands. This water is captured on slightly sloped terraced for growing the most successful mono-cropped species of plant throughout the history of agriculture, rice. Although we also grow rice, nature provides an abundance of other wild foods to compliment our diet and flavour our lives. Our two favourite plants to gather from the forest on our land is of course wild mushrooms and a lesser known neighbour, the fiddlehead fern. Of course both are extremely tasty when cooked up in a curry and a great example of the natural caring capacity of our land.
Some goodbyes are harder than others. We wish the best to Mateo and Lulu and feel good knowing that the future of landscape design is the the hands of people that also understand the principles and ethics of permaculture. These two interned at Almost Heaven Farms for two months and quickly became part of the family. Partaking in everyday life on the farm taught them about how people interact with and are part of the landscape. As well as fine tuning their observation, drawing and mapping skills, they also learned the day-to-day skills needed to run a farm. They easily learned how to cut grass for the animals, dig raised beds, turn compost and plant out vegetable seeds. Upon leaving they presented us with three sets of maps that they made of our land and a plant database of everything growing here, cultivated and wild. Hope we get to see you again and look forward to hearing more about your work in the future.
As one of our permaculture teachers, Chris Evans says, the key to success is taking what you learn and implementing it right away. For us it was a no-brainer. As soon as we learned about biofertilizers and their benefits for regenerative agriculture, we got on it. This is a mini biofertilizer factory producing 13 different brews, ferments, minerals and even biochar for use at Almost Heaven Farms and the surrounding community.
A mind-blowing, game-changing training hosted at Almost Heaven Farms and facilitated by Juanfran Lopez teaching the latest in microbiology and plant and soil health. For too long agriculture has been in the hands of the chemical industry and now we are bringing biological science back to the farmers. Empowering those who work the land with the theory, skills and resources need to improve production and build soil using local resources. Four trainings across Nepal including at our partners Himalayan Permaculture Centre and Sunrise Farms.