Hello dear ones,
For ten days, a fellow member of the Green School village, Ivo and I had the opportunity to be a part of a learning mobility placement, as a part of the “Capacity Building of Permaculture in Bulgaria 2.0” project. The mobility took place on one island in Denmark called Orø, where we stayed in a LAND center whose owner is a international LAND coordinator, former LAND coordinator in Denmark, PDC teacher and a diploma mentor, Cathrine Dolleris. She is a very important figure in the development and spreading of the LAND network in Europe and she will be coming to Bulgaria, in September, where she will be sharing her knowledge and experience with LAND. Just from the mentioned above, you can imagine all the knowledge that she shared with us. It is actually her home that she turned into a LAND center.
Around ten years ago she bought an old farm house on the island, and with her skills in permaculture she managed to transform it into a jewel. She renovated her house with natural materials, she made a kitchen garden and also a forest garden. Her forest garden was amazing. In it, she has many wild edibles and perennial plants that we used to prepare the food with. She said that her goal is to be 50% self-sufficient, but she is not sure if she is reaching it. A big part of the house has been turned into a workshop area, where she teaches and also dries herbs and works with wood. Catherine is making and selling herb salt and tea blends, as well as earrings. The other permaculture activities and community outreach she does is taking care and being in charge of the forest garden in one museum on the island that is actually right next to her center. In our time spend together she taught us a lot about wild edibles both in her garden and all around the island.
She also shared her knowledge on the subject of LAND centers, The Nordic Permaculture academy, the process of making a permaculture design, and her permaculture inspired lifestyle. At the moment they are making some changes on the criteria for LAND centers accreditation so we couldn’t get that information and also the Danish LAND network doesn’t have a coordinator at the moment, but we had an interview with the chairman of the Danish permaculture association which was very informative about the present state of the network in Denmark. Our main goal was to make a short movie about LAND in Denmark, so we spent a big part of our time filming and interviewing. We also helped in Cathrine’s garden and in the community forest garden next door. The people on the island were super friendly. We met interesting people, including two out of the three beekeepers on the island, one of which was also a thatcher whose house we went to visit. What I noticed that permaculture was present in the gardens and the buildings, which was a lovely thing to see.
On our last day, we visited two LAND centers. One is a community that is supported by the municipality and to be honest, as we mentioned a few times to each other, our minds were blown… They have around 2.5 hectares of land where they have a market garden, community garden and forest garden. This spring, the municipality approved and gave them building permission for a plot where they will be building sixteen tiny houses, three of which will be off grid. It is a community that has a diversity in the age groups and everyone contributes as much as they can. As the women leading this project said“ It is about two things: protecting and working with nature and connecting people”.
After that, we visited a plant nursery that is a LAND center. Unfortunately it was closed on Mondays, so we didn’t have a guide or the people that created it to give us an interview, but they were kind enough, thanks to the connection that Catherine has with them, to leave it open so we can look around and make a few shots. It was an abundant organic plant nursery where most of the plants and seedlings that are sold there are produced there, or were brought from Holland, with an organic certificate. They are also making a community forest garden in the end of their property which will be part of their community out reach
We visited two more permaculture gardens. One is a market garden from which around 35 families are supplied weekly with fresh vegetables, mainly annuals, but they are working and experimenting with food forest as well. There we met with one woman who is in her permaculture diploma process and Catherine is her mentor. After that, she invited us to her home so we can take a look at her design both on paper and in real life. She had a great design that is still developing and evolving.
We came back enriched with knowledge on permaculture and LAND centers network, friends and inspiration. We already have some ideas of what can we use in our Bulgarian community, what do we want to do differently and the directions in which we need to have more discussions.
Now it’s time to get back on my volunteering project, and I am starting this weekend with a workshop in one village called Mezek. I am uploading the poster for the event below.
Until next week.
Love,
Marija & Ivo
