Plukrijp Newsletter – 2023 week 19

spinach, leek, celery, chard, cress, coriander,
rucola, chive, dill, young garlic & onion,
different kinds of delicious salads, rhubarb, …

This week @ Plukrijp

We did:

We harvested spinach, leek, celery, chard, cress, coriander, rucola, chive, dill, young garlic, different kinds of salads and rhubarb to prepare delicious homegrown meals.

We planted butternut and pumpkins on the big field at Hei.

We planted courgettes in open tunnel 3 between the spinach.

We planted melons in the greenhouse.

We planted tomatoes and salad in open tunnel 4.

We transplanted young chard (self seeded) a bit all over the farm.

We watered (only once!) the closed tunnels where we planted melons, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers.

We keep watering the young plants in the multiple nurseries we have set up. We will plant them as soon as we can (cold wet spring is not great).

We scratched in between the carrots and leek at Hei.

We did general weeding.

We harvested winter purslane for seed and planted salad in the space liberated.

We weeded the low long beds at Hei and notice how the lowest part (second half of the beds where we turned over the ditches onto) has difficulty germinating seeds. We should have done this work before winter so that the fertility of the soil could have time to stabilize. So we will now first have to help the soil to restructure.

We welcomed 3 new members to the Plukrijp family. Three little adorable ducklings have come to the world. We had placed 3 duck eggs under a chicken that was brooding. The mother has accepted them as her little ones! We give them plenty of water and easy of access greens. We built a house for the mother chicken and her little ones so that the mother does not have to constantly protect them against possible attacks from other chickens.

We switched around the duck coop and the chicken coop in the food forest and we set up a mechanical barrier between the two also to help the different animals differentiate their territory.

We have sanded and nourished the wood of the tables and benches that we use in the veranda.

We cleaned up the farm by processing the wood piles lying around.

Bram and Maud organized a meeting day for Belgian practitioners of Wuo Taï.

Wuo Taï @ Plukrijp

On Saturday Bram and Maud organized their first open Wuo Taï practice day at Plukrijp.

Wuo Taï is an alternative bodywork treatment based on osteopathy created by Roland Combes. Ruffly said, Wuo Taï means in between two circles. This practice works with the fascia. The fascia is the tissue that connects the whole body structure and forms the bridge between mind and body. By creating a balance of tension in the fascia of the two bodies, the memory of the fascia is reprogrammed and deep relaxation can occur.

This technique does not require any medical background and can be learned by everyone. The acceptance of the unknown is more important than the will to do well.

Those who are interested are welcome for an individual session or can come to our Wuo Taï workshop on the 10^th of June at Plukrijp.

This workshop is for anyone who is interested in this approach of care taking. The basic needs for this practice will be explained by several exercises. The goal is that you will be able to apply it at home, or to wave it into your current bodywork.

More information: bramrausenberger1977@gmail.com

Inspiring Movie

The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s Extraordinary

Struggle for Freedom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRkuv-fOV7k&t=83s

When Hong Kong’s basic freedoms come under attack, newspaper publisher and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai finds himself in the crosshairs of the state and must choose between defending Hong Kong’s long-standing liberties, or his own freedom.

Inspiring Videos

Umbilical (7 min.)

https://psyche.co/films/past-trauma-bleeds-into-the-bond-between-one-mother-and-her-daughter?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=bd72c6ecf6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_05_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-e7995480d9-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Past trauma bleeds into the bond between one mother and her daughter

Dreamlike visuals and an intimate conversation between the filmmaker Danski Tang and her mother form a powerful meditation on womanhood in Umbilical. Audio captures the two as they reflect on the abuse Tang’s father inflicted on her mother, and how it shaped both of their lives – including the mother’s decision to send her daughter to a boarding school at a young age. As their stories play out in parallel, Tang’s uncanny animations draw out the hidden, unspoken nature of domestic violence in the China of her youth. Women’s bodies freefall through space, heads hang lifelessly from strings like puppets, and ladders hop towards a wall seemingly in search of a way out, but finding none. Red bleeds into several scenes, evoking the father’s rage and the mother’s blood, and images of disembodiment – an ear on the floor, a mouth plucked from a face – speak to the mother’s lack of power.

Yet, as disturbing as the anecdotes and images often are, as the piece unfolds, they stand in contrast to what plays out in the present – a rare open conversation between mother and daughter. As they reflect on their trauma and bond, their exchanges often highlight how attitudes towards domestic abuse and female sexuality have begun to shift between generations. Framing it all is the accomplished and empowered artistry of Tang, who is now based in Los Angeles. Breaking the silence around gendered violence via a vulnerable, challenging work of autobiography, this deeply personal film also hints at the broader ways in which speaking the oft-unspoken can help to foster healing and change.

Director: Danski Tang

From log to Go board – the world’s oldest game,

made the old-fashioned way (20 min.)

https://aeon.co/videos/from-log-to-go-board-the-worlds-oldest-game-made-the-old-fashioned-way?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0362ef0c88-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_02_15_11_56&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-0362ef0c88-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

This satisfying process video offers viewers a peek behind the scenes at Kumasu in Miyazaki, Japan, where craftsmen fashion boards that can be used for the centuries-old games Go and Shogi. Starting with a thick log of kaya wood, the workers cut, carve and polish with precision, combining traditional methods with modern time-saving machinery. In an age where a game of Go can be started online within seconds, the methodical making of the board feels as if it mirrors the careful, deliberate nature of the game itself.

Video by Process X

Inspiring Link

Bart Vanden Driessche’s Blog – Worth reading! (in Dutch only)

https://vruchtbareongehoorzaamheid.wordpress.com/

Ik ben Bart Vanden Driessche. Een deel van mijn verhaal is begonnen met de start van de beweging Transition Towns in Groot-Brittanië in 2007. Van daaruit leerde ik het concept permacultuur kennen. Een ontwerpsysteem voor zowat alles. Het is systeemdenken! De mensen kennen vooral permacultuur als een manier van tuinieren. Het is veel meer dan dat!

Ik heb altijd een connectie gehad met de natuur en interesse in complementaire geneeswijzen. In 2016 ben ik begonnen aan een 4-jarige opleiding tot gezondheidstherapeut bij de Europese Academie. Op hetzelfde moment ben ik ook gestart met thuisonderwijs aan onze kinderen.

Ik ben dus gebeten door vele onderwerpen gelinkt aan natuur. Van natuurbeheer, agro-ecologie, moestuinieren, kruidenwandelingen, kleinschalige landbouw, bushcraft, bijenhouden… Daarnaast heb ik ook een grote interesse in oude technieken en ambachten.

Wij als mens zijn een ecosysteem op zich, dat in relatie staat tot andere ecosystemen (onze leefomgeving).

Inspiring Book

The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World by Jamil Zaki

Empathy is in short supply. We struggle to understand people who aren’t like us, but find it easy to hate them. Studies show that we are less caring than we were even thirty years ago.

It doesn’t have to be this way. In this groundbreaking book, Jamil Zaki shares cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, showing that empathy is not a fixed trait—something we’re born with or not—but rather a skill that can be strengthened through effort. He also tells the stories of people who embody this new perspective, fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. We meet a former neo-Nazi who is now helping to extract people from hate groups, ex-prisoners discussing novels with the judge who sentenced them, Washington police officers changing their culture to decrease violence among their ranks, and NICU nurses fine-tuning their empathy so that they don’t succumb to burnout.

Written with clarity and passion, The War for Kindness is an inspiring call to action. The future may depend on whether we accept the challenge.

Wisdom