This week @ Plukrijp

We did:

Thank you to everyone who came to help us this week: Maud, Arian, Bart, Emily, Lorenzo, Stijn, Jona, Loïc, Anouck, Annick, Mamitcho, Brenda, Jesus, Antonio, Hilde and Bart. I take this opportunity to warmly thank my small fixed team: Jojo, Bram en Tom. Without your help, the continuation of Plukrijp would not be possible.

Bart, Emily and their children Lily-Louise and Florian came to spend a few days with us. They enriched us with their knowledge at the Project Managing level.

We took advantage of the sunny days to undertake the heavy work of sorting the many tiles stored behind the family home and on the street side. For this, we had to build a solid structure to store them. We decided to keep only a few varieties. The others are available for those who could do something with them. If you are interested, let us know! While sorting the tiles, we discovered a whole stock of asbeth tiles that we took to the recycling park.

Tom has repaired the gutter at the back of the family house so that rainwater that falls on the North side of the roof can also be collected in one of the cisterns. Tom also repaired a leak in the watering line towards the closed tunnel. Thanks Tom!

Bram finished sorting the workshop and we have started sorting through all the wood we received during the winter, which was waiting patiently under tarpaulins.

On the left side of tunnel 2 we had sown beetroot & planted onions, but as the season progressed we noticed the very small amounts of beetroot standing. A cold & wet spring combined with potentially not the right timing of scratching, led us to decide to scrap the bed of beetroot & to seed lines of carrots instead. Where the onions had come up nicely, we seeded lettuce in between & seeded carrots for the rest.

We scratched (lightly) & weeded the right side of the open tunnel 5 where the first potatoes are already showing.

We weeded and scratched open tunnel 3.

We cleaned the exterior and interior of several caravans so that they are ready to welcome our many supporters.

We repaired the front wheel of Tom’s trailer by welding in a scrap part that we had in stock. It is in these cases that we appreciate the full value of our storage system from the many materials we receive. It is very rare that we have to go and buy something at the store.

Bram’s old yellow van continues to serve us well on the farm thanks to the technical experience of Bram, Antonio and Tom.

We mowed the grass all over the farm.

The leek we planted 15 days ago has taken root well and is already growing. We watered it to help it in its development.

We redid our “nursery-system” following Hugo’s visit and advices. This motivates us to create a sustainable system for years to come. As we fell behind in the production of young plants, we bought some plants.

At the Hei, we scratched between the carrots & parsnip. The beds were full of weeds, we think because of digging up the paths & waking up new, buried seeds. The second halves of the beds are also not germinating as well as we thought, we think because of the digging up – we noticed it was a bit less digested towards the back.

At Hei, we put more straw in the paths, harvested leek that was in seed, cut back the berries next to the potato bed (& weeded all the nettles & weeds taking over the berries).

We seeded more pumpkin & corn in pots.

We watered the closed tunnels in preparation for the planting.

We went into the closed tunnels and planted tomatoes & cucumbers in center tunnel 1, tomatoes in center tunnel 2 and paprikas on the right side, & melons in tunnel 3.

We also planted yellow & green courgettes in open tunnel 3.

We started to rebuild the small garden playhouse for the children.

Inspiring Video

Into the Soil | The Wisdom of Regenerative Farming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1YlA1TEkb0

”A refreshing perspective on what it means to be wealthy”
– Don Smith, Kiss the Ground

In the documentary ”Into the Soil” we follow Brigid LeFevre, who runs a community supported agriculture operation (CSO) in Järna, Sweden. In her biodynamic vegetable garden she focuses on fermenting the harvest in order to enrich it with nutritious lactic acid bacteria. Brigid grew up in an anthroposophically inspired Camphill community in Northern Ireland where volunteers lived and worked together with people with special needs. It was a self-sufficient community where the local store brought in bulk organic produce and each household would write down their purchases – without any actual exchange of money. Growing up in a place where food was separated from the economic market has had a big impact on Brigid’s philosophy as a farmer. And really, come to think about it, why is it that the global ups and downs of the economy should determine the operating practices of small scale local farms? In Brigid’s garden it doesn’t. She grows and ferments vegetables for the members, who subscribe to her sauerkraut, kimchi and lacto fermented pickles, all year round. The members support this regenerative agriculture operation with money or hands-on help in the garden. It’s a local, circular economy, which underpins an alive garden, buzzing and chirping, where the goal isn’t to turn a profit, but rather to make the soil more alive with the passing of each season.

Directed and produced by Mattias Olsson for Campfire Stories.

The Constant Gardener

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kn_OJKc1wU

Humans are great at running from truth, but in the garden you can’t hide. Life and death, vitality and decay – it’s all there happening before our eyes.

The garden is a space defined not by it’s physicality but by the emotions it evokes and the connections it provokes. And the act of gardening can change the way we relate to the world around us for the better, giving us perspective and teaching us lessons about life.

Do we choose to plant seeds of fear or love? Do we fertilize anger or harmony? Do we water the connections we have or let them die of thirst?

Our souls are gardens. Our hearts are flowers. They need to be watered, tended, fertilized and loved. Happy gardening!

Filmed in Riebeek West, South Africa.

Featuring Corné Pretorius.

Inspiring Book

In Luminous Night’s Journey, Almaas shares excerpts from his personal journal, which describe a certain thread in his own journey of realization and the processes involved in integrating that realization. This publication marks a fortunate development in our knowledge of how Being is realized in and through the human soul: The process of realization and integration of true nature described in the voice of one who articulates precisely and vividly the psychological and epistemological barriers which confront the individual consciousness as realization is integrated in the context of personal life.

Almaas describes how his participation in the unfolding manifestation of Being ushers him into realms that expose and transform increasingly deep ego structures and attachments. Luminous Night’s Journey clarifies how the unveiling of Being and the exposure of ego structures constitute one process, leading to the soul’s integrated realization of absolute nature and the manifestation of the human being as a personal embodiment of that nature.

Wisdom