Plukrijp Newsletter – 2023 week 24

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Plukrijp.be vzw – Zetel: Trommelstraat 24 – B 2223 Schriek
RPR Mechelen – O.N. 0553.553.660 – www.plukrijp.be

Upside-down the good newsletter

2023 – week 24

Upside down = instead of announcing what we plan to do
(& most often find out we do not need to do), we relate what we really did

The updated list of vegetables & fruit that can be harvested this week is available on our website under the heading “Current Harvest” :

https://plukrijp.be/op-dit-moment-te-oogsten

This week @ Plukrijp

We did:

We weeded the low long beds at the Hei.

We weeded the pumpkins & corn at the Hei.

We keep watering the plants in our fifth week with no rain.

We continue working on the kitchen & bathroom house renovations.

We fix & clean up the wood storage area in preparation for winter.

We clean up the workshop in preparation for working on pallets.

We sorted & stored the winter postelein & veld sla seed & beans that we dried for the next sowing

We seeded & scratched in a flower mix in the food forest – a mix of clover, legumes & fast growing flowers to cover the soil between the berries. To do so we placed the ducks & chickens in smaller coops on the sides of the food forest & seeded as much as possible.

We made a few trips to the container park to get rid of some more excessive material around the farm.

We pruned & clipped the tomatoes, cucumbers & melons in the closed tunnels.

We weeded the sides of all of the closed tunnels.

We notice the carrots that we reseeded in low long bed 1 (which we turned over in spring) germinated nicely, but quickly died shortly after. We take note of the missing parts the seedlings are missing in the soil & try to prepare for a better environment next time around. We seeded a cover crop mix to let the soil rest & restructure till next spring.

We continue the hunt on colorado beetles.

We witnessed the beautiful concert from Martine, a viole player & singer. She took us on a musical journey starting some body work to help us get into a more recpetive state, in which we absorbed a few beautiful pre-recorded songs played over with her instruments tuned to 432 Hz, the natural frequency of music before its standardization. She guided us through a meditation followed with a group sharing of what we experienced. Beautiful & relaxing, in a few words. Thank you Martine! (See inspiring music section for her music channel if you’re curious.)

A few words from our friend Bram

Gifts of Life : An introductory word on a new Plukrijp

Whether they are good looking and well tasty or sour and head turning, we should accept them all.
For us, the people at plukrijp it is just the same, being in a place that asks to be done we found ourselves being irritated and frustrated,
wanting to turn our backs towards the problems we encounter and of course, it was always the other ones fault…
Today the taste is changing into more sweetness because there is acceptance of the challenge that is in front of us.
Step by step harmony is recreated by playing out the qualities of each of us
and embracing their shadow parts with a detached attitude.

Practical:

the garden stays open to harvest and the farm continues to welcome people who wants to say hello or wants to participate with the activities.
The new wind that is blowing through plukrijp for the moment is discovering it self day by day and expressing it by the actions we do, or don’t do.
We focus on the renovation of the little house, preparing several wood stoves for winter and preparing the garden for basic crops.
The idea of concept could be that we love to live in simplicity by creating a lifestyle that is using the natural local sources.
The gifts that life is offering us is always in the right moment and the right place.
Gifts from the past that i have ignored are popping up again and again in ways that are more and more confronting with the image that i have of myself.
This new chapter of living at Plukrijp is guiding me from child to adult and I would love to share this journey with you.

Bram

Inspiring Video
Regenerative Agriculture on a Small Scale | What it Looks Like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct3CL22RpTg

Inspiring Book

A few words from our friend Niels

June is a Mirror

Gardening has patterns. The weather might be different every year, but the number of daylight hours is the same.

On the surface, June is pleasant. The weather is warm and the days are long. We spend our days tending to the annual fruit crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and melons. The corn and pumpkin have finally started to grow in volume and the weeds are probably under control by now.

Or are they really? In May it was still too early to tell and there was still potential to fill mistakes. But in June you find out if you are gonna have a big harvest of your main crops this year or not. You can still fill the empty spaces with short crops like salad greens and spring onions, and carrots and beans you can still do some more. But you suddenly the longest day is upon you and you find yourself sowing the last fennel batch, planting autumn cabbages and start trying to remember what the different green manure species are for the winter. You are looking at weeding that has either getting easier from here on out, or is generously replenishing the seed bank.

More importantly June is brutal for people. The enthousiasm from the spring chicks and goonies, is fading. They now plan out their holiday and become less reliable. The gardener faces the grind of summer and fall harvests, essentially alone. For now you probably have abundance to share with any passers by. But we probably wont forget who’s who when the chicken come home to roost in the winter.

When we live with the seasons, make do with what we have and make hay when the sun shines, we see that its not just crops that come and go, its our emotions too. Social dynamics shift around us when we choose to anchor ourselves and adopt responsibility for the sake of the community. When you take on that burden you begin to see the patterns in nature and the patterns in people more clearly, for you have skin in the game now.

Permaculture is not just permanence of one culture in one place. It is remembering that on plots of land all over the northern hemisphere, there are other philosopher gardeners feeling what you feel, going for it. In June that would be looking at a good year or a shit-show that’s baked in now.

June is the perfect time to reach out to those brothers and sisters and encourage them to stay the course. In the winter, when all our knowledge compounds, it is their lessons of success and failure that you will integrate. Some will plan out their quitting or retirement in June also, as if the sun won’t shine the same this time next year.

June is a mirror, revealing where your competencies meet your intentions. Sometimes that is joy, sometimes that is pain, often its both in June. Bright, sunny, brutal June.

This newsletter goes out to all collegues going through it every now and then. We salute you!