Permaculture Beginnings

Yesterday we visited two places which are utilizing some of the plants and ideas that we have been developing over the past three years. It was very exciting to see.

Daniel (Fredy's son) showing off their beds

 The first stop was at Fredy's house. He visited the school just under two weeks ago with Kaleb and was looking at the booklet on Permanent Bed agriculture. He went home and started building raised beds that day. We stopped at his house yesterday to take pictures of the already sprouting seedlings. It was so amazing to see.

The second stop was Kaleb and Stacey's house. We have talked about Permaculture Ideas and they have done a lot of study on their own as well as reading my materials. Two months ago (or so ... likely three already) they visited my project in Santa Rita. They went home with Lemon Grass, Vetiver Grass, Chaya, Moringa Cuttings and Arachis Pintoi as well as seeds for Leuceana, Calliandra and Moringa. They worked like troopers to turn their little yard into a demonstration plot.

Permanent Beds (Kaleb used the double dig system to prepare them)

We visited 7-8 weeks after they planted their first vegetables. They have been selling radishes and cucumbers already and neighbours are waiting for the beets and cabbages to develop.

The neighbour's plot - top lines dug and planted with Vetiver

Late last week, their neighbour came and asked what he could do about erosion on his plot. Stacey told him that he would need to dig contour line ditches like they had. They marked the lines and, yesterday, we saw where some of ditches had been dug and some Vetiver Grass from Santa Rita planted in the mounds. Truly exciting to see the third level ripple of some ideas. The plot owner is the local Primary School teacher so, as he implements the ideas he uses free labour. But, consequently, he is also teaching all of his students about erosion control and Permaculture.

Stacey picking peas for supper

A further exciting, to me, part of the conversation were Kaleb's calculations. From his small plot he felt that a family could earn nearly $200.00 a month ... local sales and prices. The $200.00 a month number comes up very often and is, in my opinion (and others) a very significant threshold number. That income allows a family to have choice. Choices to buy medicine, to send children to school, to build a house ... the list is long but something we often take for granted. 65% of Hondurans live on less than $1.00 a day. Often, at the village level, there is hunger.

Kaleb (r.) explains the potential to Canadian visitor, Vic

What a lot of this illustrates as well is the huge need to create evergreen food sources. Edible leaf trees, shrubs and perennial plants are critical parts of every family's yard. With these plants, malnutrition and hunger do not need to be an ever present danger. Yeni and I talked about that as we travelled to restock a Botiquine today. The idea of a green famine. People hungry even though the whole country is green.

A view of the contour lines - small ditches with Vetiver grass and other plants planted above them. I was totally blown away with the amount of soil movement taking place on such a gentle slope. What must happen on steeper slopes is truly staggering.

Enough. TTYL

BB

Weeding in the Park

This morning the power was out for a couple of hours (a long night of heavy thunderstorms). Manuel took the opportunity to take the students to the town square to do some weeding. I have stopped occassionally to do some so knew of the need. The students were, actually, excited about going and had a good time. Fortunately, the local TV channel was around and they took some shots and interviewed Manuel. Evidently the concept of students coming and doing work like this is a new one. Hurrah for our school.

Priority One - Group Picture Priority Two - Weeding

I spent the morning pursuing some paperwork in conjunction with some land. The frustration of trying to get a clear, step-by-step set of instructions is sometimes overwhelming. I think we made progress. How in the world poor people without the ability to read, the resources to go to different centres and so forth are supposed to accomplish anything is beyond me.

See ... there were some weeds pulled. The yellow flower is edible and the plant is good for animals (and I suspect people) and fixes nitrogen.

Once again, the pictures will do the rest.

Paz,

BB