My permaculture journey

Welcome, this is a short story about my permaculture journey.

How did I hear about permaculture? I’ve always been into nature and gardening and sustainability but didn’t know what „permaculture“ was, it wasn’t as known as today couple years ago… In 2018 I did a workaway in Namibia where I spent a lot of time in the garden, a book about „Companion Planting“ fell in my hands and caught my interest. Back home I looked up courses about it and the only courses that came up were about permaculture.. I had no idea… I picked the cheapest one, 16 Days Permaculture Design Course in Spain with Roman Eisenkölbl. I didn’t know what to expect but this course, this intensive learning experience in a totally different environment, people with different backgrounds and ages, healthy shared meals, no distractions… it changed my life.

Shortly after this intense experience I moved to the Caribbean to work with boats. Before I even arrived I asked my friend there if there are any farms I can volunteer or work with… and it didn’t took long until I met Sammy from Tidal Roots Farm BVI. She was looking for a helping hand with her CSA harvest once a week… It was very inspiring for me to see a young woman following her dreams. I ended up working on two different farms and I felt for the first time like something makes sense: seeding, preparing the land, feeding the soil ,harvesting, sharing with the community… I was a farmer and I loved it, a young female farmer. In the end things didn’t work out in the Caribbean for me. I left after a year off to new adventures.

I wanted to learn more about permaculture so I went to the Azores to join a permaculture forest course and teachers training, followed by another teachers training in the Algarve at Vale da Lama. Honestly I’ve never seen myself in any kind of teachers position but these courses changed my mind. That’s what I want to do! That’s how I want to make change. Planting seeds in peoples mind. Giving this special experience of learning and connecting, sharing and understanding. The teaching approach in permaculture is very different from what my school experience was. We had many talks and discussions about formal schools and their teaching approach. Well.. in permaculture we teach informal, we play, we tell stories, we interact, we learn from each others questions and ideas, knowledge and wisdom

After a couple more volunteeerings on farms and travels I ended up buying a piece of land in Central Portugal in 2020. Fullfilling my dreamy idea about living in the forest and growing food. It’s a looong story with many ups and downs but I’m still here, growing, building, designing, … and now I’m ready to fulfill another dream : teaching permaculture