2012 – are you ready?
What are you going to do when society as we know it self-destructs?
Well the hypermarket shelves may not be about to empty just yet, maybe not even in 2012, but having even a little knowledge about how to survive outside an unsustainable system isn’t a bad idea.
The problem is that little or nothing that our society teaches or instills in us or our children is designed to help us face the fundamental necessity of all life, human or otherwise, namely how to feed ourselves. We are told an awful lot about politics, the necessity of economic growth, how to manage debt or afford a new car or keep safe in a paranoid world, but little about basic practical survival skills or the ways of nature.
Maybe living in a fairly remote area brings these considerations to immediate attention, but there is also for sure a strong groundswell of feeling in the western world in general, that we are going up the creek without a paddle, and badly need to ground ourselves in what is real. So what is real? Well, nature is real.
Having come to Varzea da Goncala, in the Cerca Valley, near Aljezur, in 2006 without a particular vision of our future here, our relationship with the land and the valley has moved steadily and continuously towards self-sufficiency, Permaculture, and reviving not-so-old ways of cooperation among neighbours and friends – regardless of country of origin.
We now see working with the ways of nature to bring our 8 hectares of land - whether fertile valley floor or rough hillside - to productive life, as the only way to live. This thinking has been going hand-in-hand with steadily lessening our dependency on external inputs – of food, energy and building materials.
For example, I now look upon a green BP butane gas bottle as an expensive impostor – we don’t have to need them, and intend to make them obsolete here within the next year, along with their gas-water heaters and other paraphernalia. There are simple, self-reliant alternatives and you don’t have to look further than the sun shining down on us, some recycled or bought metal containers, some tubes, and the means to join them together.
A little ingenuity and new and age-old practices can, without sacrificing creature comforts, provide the needs of daily life, from using a wood-fired bread oven, solar cooking, preserving foods to eliminate the need for refrigeration, and providing free and efficient winter heating. With the crucial difference that you have the knowledge that if anything goes wrong it is in your control to sort it out.
The principles gathered together under the title of Permaculture provide a wisdom-filled approach to growing our own food, enriching our land, through working in co-operation with the ways of nature. Building materials can usually be found in our own earth, trees and plants, and by working to improve the productivity and quality of our land we can realistically hope to be largely self-sufficient in food within the next year or two – if not wholly independently then by co-operation and exchange with friends and neighbours.
These thoughts and practicalities have been the basis of our decision last year to present ourselves as a centre for sharing the practicalities of what we have so far learned with others who are or who intend setting out on this road.
As well as hosting a wide variety of hands-on workshops and courses, we are welcoming guests who would like to come and stay with us for a flexible duration, participating in the day-to-day activities of a working Permaculture smallholding. We hope that this way people or families may get the feel of sustainable living and see it as an enjoyable and endlessly creative experience, whilst removing the daunting sense of entering unknown territory.
What are you going to do when society as we know it self-destructs?
Well the hypermarket shelves may not be about to empty just yet, maybe not even in 2012, but having even a little knowledge about how to survive outside an unsustainable system isn’t a bad idea.
The problem is that little or nothing that our society teaches or instills in us or our children is designed to help us face the fundamental necessity of all life, human or otherwise, namely how to feed ourselves. We are told an awful lot about politics, the necessity of economic growth, how to manage debt or afford a new car or keep safe in a paranoid world, but little about basic practical survival skills or the ways of nature.
Maybe living in a fairly remote area brings these considerations to immediate attention, but there is also for sure a strong groundswell of feeling in the western world in general, that we are going up the creek without a paddle, and badly need to ground ourselves in what is real. So what is real? Well, nature is real.
Having come to Varzea da Goncala, in the Cerca Valley, near Aljezur, in 2006 without a particular vision of our future here, our relationship with the land and the valley has moved steadily and continuously towards self-sufficiency, Permaculture, and reviving not-so-old ways of cooperation among neighbours and friends – regardless of country of origin.
We now see working with the ways of nature to bring our 8 hectares of land - whether fertile valley floor or rough hillside - to productive life, as the only way to live. This thinking has been going hand-in-hand with steadily lessening our dependency on external inputs – of food, energy and building materials.
For example, I now look upon a green BP butane gas bottle as an expensive impostor – we don’t have to need them, and intend to make them obsolete here within the next year, along with their gas-water heaters and other paraphernalia. There are simple, self-reliant alternatives and you don’t have to look further than the sun shining down on us, some recycled or bought metal containers, some tubes, and the means to join them together.
A little ingenuity and new and age-old practices can, without sacrificing creature comforts, provide the needs of daily life, from using a wood-fired bread oven, solar cooking, preserving foods to eliminate the need for refrigeration, and providing free and efficient winter heating. With the crucial difference that you have the knowledge that if anything goes wrong it is in your control to sort it out.
The principles gathered together under the title of Permaculture provide a wisdom-filled approach to growing our own food, enriching our land, through working in co-operation with the ways of nature. Building materials can usually be found in our own earth, trees and plants, and by working to improve the productivity and quality of our land we can realistically hope to be largely self-sufficient in food within the next year or two – if not wholly independently then by co-operation and exchange with friends and neighbours.
These thoughts and practicalities have been the basis of our decision last year to present ourselves as a centre for sharing the practicalities of what we have so far learned with others who are or who intend setting out on this road.
As well as hosting a wide variety of hands-on workshops and courses, we are welcoming guests who would like to come and stay with us for a flexible duration, participating in the day-to-day activities of a working Permaculture smallholding. We hope that this way people or families may get the feel of sustainable living and see it as an enjoyable and endlessly creative experience, whilst removing the daunting sense of entering unknown territory.
RSS Feed
