Leaving Everything Behind for a Life Rooted in the Land - Balance- A Prologue

I think it's about trying to bring things back into balance. It's sort of what I feel like what's happening here with the ecosystem, it's sort of when there's enough diversity going on and enough collaboration and companions and there's no need really for like a hierarchy that's not like the tree that's going to save us all, you know, let's just plant this one tree or I don't know, it's these sort of reductionist solutions I think can be quite patriarchal in a way or have been quite patriarchal and I think we need more of a kind of multifaceted approach and I mean I just learned from what I see in the forest and I don't really see one particular species dominating another. I see a kind of succession of plants that work together in harmony, that they are fulfilling their function beautifully and showing themselves in a beautiful way and blossoming and flowering and giving fruits and they're always feeding each other, there's always this kind of reciprocity, this co-creation happening in nature that is very present when you're in a forest and I think when you're surrounded by that all the time you kind of, you see, wow, the way we live our lives is so out of tune, out of step with actually I think how we're meant to be kind of interacting with each other in a much more collaborative way. I'm really not about kind of fighting patriarchy or tearing it down necessarily, I think we just need to embrace new ways of, or old ways actually, of relating to each other which is where there is an abundance. I think when we're living in real abundance, which we're not at the moment, we are getting there, we're working towards it, then there's less of a fight for kind of power and resources and we don't need to be so competitive with each other to reach those goals and heights and because there's enough for everyone, there's plenty and there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to live like that, I really do believe that, I think, you know, we once had lands completely covered in forests and probably we were able to live quite happily in them and now through kind of thousands and thousands of years of deforestation we're just depleting our resources, so of course then there becomes a fight, who's going to win, who's the top dog, who's, you know, who'll get there first, the race for AI or whatever, I don't know. That language is so present in business, you know, this sort of race and beat your competition and all of this and I just don't resonate with it at all, I just would rather hang out with some plants. I mean we need to change the paradigm of how we are relating to each other big time, I think the relationships between men and women and matriarchy and patriarchy and I think we almost need to kind of like humble ourselves a little bit, like we're not so important, you know, it's not so important really, we're not in charge here, nature's in charge, we're part of nature, we are part of a beautiful living system and actually if we humble ourselves to that then we're not so concerned with all of these different concepts, which actually they are just concepts, they're not reality, I don't think. I'm not someone who had really any money to start with at all, I didn't really even have much of a plan, I didn't think, oh wow, I'm gonna, I never had the idea of buying land or anything, I mean it hasn't been possible for me, so I always thought, well I'll find a project and work for people or work with people and that's exactly what's happened. We don't own this land and we are very lucky to have met the owner who's really kind of passionate about regeneration and really liked what we were doing and gave us the space on her land to do it and to practice it, so yeah, I think there are many ways to get to do it, you know, it's not just about buying, but access to land for sure, I mean in the UK for instance I felt that was, I mean it's definitely possible as well, I wouldn't say it's not, but yeah, land is mainly very occupied there, so it isn't the easiest to get a bit of land for yourself, but I do think there are really fantastic farms and projects who are now, you know, looking for volunteers or even employing people who are experienced in this field, so there's always ways to get involved I think. I mean it would be lovely to return to the days where we had a bit more common land, you know, that there was access for more people to grow and I mean it was funny, I was doing family research, I did a family tree on my mother's side and she's from the Highlands originally and there, you know, there was a lot of common shared land, so it was really my ancestors practiced farming with no formal lease, which is exactly what I'm doing now, and so I thought oh that's interesting, kind of five generations ago, that's, or six generations ago, that's what my ancestors were doing, and there was much more common land, people could graze their animals on common land, they could grow, they could coppice trees for firewood, I mean there wasn't necessarily a big knowledge about agroforestry back then, I think the farming methods were different, but I think the concept of, yeah, having access to land is something, it's a big topic and I think we need more land to be freed up from private ownership, you know, or private owners to open their land for farming, for people to get involved in it. The job I was working in, I was furloughed and yeah, I mean, I was then really, I was already before that really rethinking what do I really want to do, you know, I think the career I'd been in was great for the my 20s and but I really didn't find much meaning in it anymore, it wasn't meaningful. Yeah, so I really wanted to change things up and I felt really called, I was going to go and work in aid, so I really wanted to go and work abroad and help and get, yeah, be really at the centre of where I felt I could be helpful, but actually the more and more I sort of looked into how the aid system works and I think it's, Kissinger said that, you know, food is used as the ultimate weapon and I kind of recognised that quite soon on, I did some courses in how to get into the aid industry and I had even a job actually lined up for when I was meant to come back from Portugal at an NGO, which would have for sure been really, really interesting and I think the work they do is absolutely incredible, but I just felt I would be more working with the symptoms rather than finding something that has a little bit more potential to create change, so that kind of, that then led me on a bit of a different path. Well, I was reading also a lot of about ecology and permaculture and these kind of things, these topics were coming up for me and I mean, I never thought it could be something I could actually do full time with my life, I figured it, you know, nice concepts and lovely idea and I'll have an allotment and that was probably as far as it would go and then I came out to Portugal and I was working on a farm and interning there and learning all about permaculture and it was really amazing, it was a really good practical step into what I do now and I just couldn't go back, it was like I'd opened the door to something and I thought, I can't go back now and work in an office and work for an NGO, which even though it would have been a really nice job, I just thought that's, this is, I've opened too much up here, I want to explore a bit more, so I then did my permaculture design course at PDC and then I thought, okay, this is it now, I need to try and find a way to make this work, how can I, how can I do this kind of work and live this way and I think meeting people on those courses and especially the teachers, it showed a bit of a path ahead of how I could do that, although it's not well trodden, I will say, you know, it's still, it's still figuring that out and that was it, then I, yeah, then I didn't go back and then I found a project in the area I was working with and I met Lars by coincidence in a cafe and we started talking and he said, well, I'm just starting up this project in St. Tropic Agroforestry and I was really interested to learn a bit more about that, I'd heard about it in my permaculture course and I'd heard that it was a really fast way to regenerate soil, which from all of the learning I did in my permaculture, I, you know, realised that is, I think, one of the most crucial things we need to do at the moment, it's kind of the the work of our time, I feel, and I thought, okay, well, let's learn a bit more about that and, yeah, and that led me, led me then to what I'm doing now. Yeah, and it's interesting because, I mean, it's like when you look back on it, I mean, it's not like you could go online and google I want to live off-grid and, you know, process dried rosemary on a peninsula that I'm the only one who lives there. Yeah, exactly, you can't google jobs really in this, in this world, in a way, I mean, I, maybe you can now, I don't know, but maybe five years ago there wasn't anything, so it's really about, kind of, finding ways to get involved with farms or connecting with people who've got projects already, if you're not, you know, looking to start your own. Then when I, sort of, heard that that's what Lars was doing, I thought, well, that's interesting, I'll go and learn from him a bit and learn with him and, and then, you know, slowly, slowly things, sort of, open up for you, I think, in this field. There are a lot of people who, where we are in Portugal, who have land, who would like to regenerate it, but are either, you know, working full-time or doing something else or don't have the skill set and, and look for people to help them with that and, and that's what's happened to us here. We, we, Lars was consulting here in the beginning and then slowly we've, we've started to get more involved and, and now the project's been up and running here for nearly two years now we've been here or just, just, yeah, about two years. We have a lot of autonomy, we have a good relationship with the owner, we have built a nice volunteer program here where, you know, we are also giving people the chance to learn about this and kind of join us on, on this mad quest to regenerate this nine hectares where we are. And yeah, I just think it's, for me, it's just so, it's such a, you're never bored, there's always, I'm always learning. You know, when you start diving into nature and it's magic, it's, it just feeds you constantly with inspiration. Yeah, I definitely couldn't imagine doing another job now. If you could call it a job. If you could call it, yeah, exactly, a job's not really the right word, it's not, it's a, it's, it's my work and it's my passion and it's kind of becoming more and more a way of life. I wouldn't say, you know, I'm still only three, three or four years in this, in this field, but it, it, you know, for me, it just feels very natural. I love being practical. I love working with my hands. I love working with nature and I love seeing how things grow and seeing how soil comes back and soil life. And you can feel, I mean, you literally can feel the life underneath your feet starting to come back. You know, it's, you go from this very depleted, overgrazed farmland. Essentially, this was a montado. They were grazing cows here before for hundreds of years and there's no soil life. You, you feel it. There's just sort of nothing under your feet. And then now where we've started to grow the forest and the micro life is coming back under the soil that you feel it's pulsating. There's so much happening under your feet and, and life comes back in an amazing way, beautiful way.