🌿🏞️ Eco village community plan - Cumelen 🏞️🌿
I am going to dedicate all the posts published in this group to permaculture and ecologic agriculture. Each post will be about another plant cultivation or different problem (how to fertilize properly, how to cut the benches of the fruit trees...). I wish to create kind of vademecum for people interested in creating the eco farm and for people who have just some small garden next to their house.
chicken from Gosol, Spain. Our first volunteer project
In the begging I would like to say something about myself, by saying about my life aim, which I'm dreaming about since 2018 - creating in the future eco village, called Cumelen.
WHAT IS CUMELEN?
Cumelen is the word from Mapuzungun (language of Mapuche - people who were living before in the lands we are going to settle in). It means "thing which is good/to feel good".
Cumelen is some multi-faceted project of self sufficient permaculture farm with zero carbon emissions
By using modern technology, experience we gained on the farms in multiple countries and, above all, traditional rules of permaculture, we wish to create the shelter for ten adults and another ten kids/teenagers.
Preparing the compost - Chile, Curanipe
This place will not be focused on maximizing the income, so won't be similar to typical, productive monoculture farms. I want to focus on biodiversity, re-cultivation of the soil, avoiding pesticides and artificial fertilizers, even if it will mean that the harvest will be lower. Protecting the nature is the priority.
To achieve that aim, I prepared some guide with the clues how to grow plants and protect them from the parasites and fungus. I focused on 50 kinds of vegetables, 25 kinds of fruits and nuts, multiple kinds of herbs, edible flowers, wheats, mushrooms but also I figured out how to breed poultry, fish, sheep and bees in the most eco-friendly way.
unexpected guests - Osorno, Chile
My plan includes building experimental glass house with tropical edible plants, as some variety in a diet and insurance for the future (long term prognosis says that place where we are going to buy some land will change the climate from CFB oceanic to CFA humid subtropical until 2070 - Koppen climate classification )
how to make sauerkraut - Rosario, Argentina
I am going to collect own seeds, focusing mostly on old kinds of plants, which are getting forgotten because of the new, genetically modified plants with patents (most of the fruits and vegetables you buy in the shop are patented. Farmer can buy the seeds to grow the plants, but receiving own seeds from them is prohibited by law. That way each year farmers are forced to pay to the big companies for the right to grow the food).
Learning from the others - Curanipe, Chile
Plants will be located in the way which includes allelopathy (positive and negative interactions between different kind of plants. For example: garlic and onion detents rodents, so it's worth to plant them on the outside of your garden), strategic localization (plants which requires more work closer to the households), but also esthetic and aroma values (plants which smells in a nice way near to the relaxing zones).
not every farm look esthetic
Creating the village is a project for many years.
Even if we will save enough money to buy the land, next zones will be build one after another, year by year.
We predict that in the end of this path we will be able to produce 90% of the food for our own needs: not only fruits or vegetables, but also butter, creams, ketchups or tomato concentrates. Additionally, we are planning to collect the wool and linen. That will allow us to make simple clothes.
horse, as the main transport on the farm, Argentina
Even if total self sufficiency is impossible to achieve with such a small community, we will be always trying to become as close to that idea as it's possible.
There will be two ways to earn the money by the community:
a) by selling fruits and vegetables, mostly in the capital city, Buenos Aires. The idea is to create website which offers premium quality food for extra price. It would be targeted by fine dining restaurants and customers who cares about health. Service will include some of the products which are not available (or barely available) on the local market (like gooseberry or Jerusalem artichoke).
It will be possible to order the food with the delivery. Delivery will be made once per week and availability of the products will depend on the season (Inspiration: Huertas a Deo, Curanipe, Chile, where we volunteered).
b) ecotourism. We plan to make 3-4 rooms for the tourists. Rooms won't be available all the time though. Sometimes it will be occupied by volunteers (WWOOF, workaway, local volunteers, people in need)
some basic works, Filadelfia, Paraguay
Even though the first few years might be difficult and require a lot of work, later keeping the garden will be much easier and will require only 3-4 hours of work daily. Thanks to that, everyone who lives in the village will be able to work online or in the near town.
Money earned by Cumelen community (but obviously not the money earned individually) will be spent on the products which cannot be produced on the farm, payments (water, electricity, gas) and
further investments. Priorities in spending money will be voted by all the members, but people who lived longer in Cumelen will have stronger vote than new citizens.
In Paraguay we learned more about the poultry, as the climate of Chaco doesn't allow to grow too many plants
The main idea is to create the community of people with similar values, high social sensitivity, people who cares about the nature, and value it more than some other things which might be hardly available on the farm.
Each time someone leaves the community, another person may take the vacant space. We plan to organize a party once a year, to which all present and former volunteers as well as residents and their families will be invited.
We want Cumelen to become a safe space for those whom fate has treated unfairly. Refugees and new immigrants are given priority in volunteering, as they often need support until they find a suitable job.
Priority groups, in addition to refugees and immigrants, include people in a homeless crisis, people living below the poverty line, people experiencing domestic violence and discrimination (mainly transgender, non-heteronormative people, indigenous people, people of color and all those who were not mentioned).
constructing chicken house - Curanipe, Chile
As the ecovillage, we want to stay in contact with local organizations to reach people in need. We wish also to create the network between local farmers (cooperative), share knowledge with everyone who is interested to learn something new and prepare some projects to promote permaculture as the alternative to mono-cultivation. Education and participating in self-help initiatives will be non-profit.
To share the knowledge, I am going to create a website with all the articles I wrote. In fact, I made it before, but I didn't pay for the server this year. Covid savings :(
taking care of the seeds, Curanipe, Chile
When the website will be online again, I will publish articles in three languages: Spanish, English and Polish. I believe that information about permaculture should be available for everyone. Anyone who chooses to produce their own food is actually doing us a favor by taking care for our planet.
preparing own bread, Rosario, Argentina
The village will be zero-emission or as close as possible to zero-emission. It is difficult to find a person from the X, Y or Z generation who would disagree with the statement that global warming is the greatest challenge for our and future generations. Producing your own food and relying on seasonal access to specific ingredients drastically reduce the carbon footprint. Nothing in the village will come from the other continents or even from another countries. In the further stadium of investments, electricity will come from wind and solar energy. Transport of the products for sale will produce some low pollution, so we are thinking to neutralize it with planting new trees and rehabilitating the surrounding areas (the area selected by us has been largely degraded by agriculture).
saving old types of the plants. We were growing veggies from the seeds and after few weeks giving it for free to anyone who wanted to use them in their garden, Chile
For many people, the fact that we are going to raise animals in Cumelen may contradict the ecological character of the village. They may expect us to be vegetarian or even vegan. Such diets would, however, exclude nutritional self-sufficiency and force us to buy imported food, vitamin supplementation, etc. As far as I can imagine producing additional soybean and lentils and balanced vegetarian diet in summer, in winter, it would be highly risky. The animals on the farm also have other functions - they produce the necessary fertilizer, help pollinate plants, plow, provide wool and feathers, reducing the purchase of other things (pillows, socks, quilts, etc.).
We have only given up cows and pigs, which are the most responsible for global warming.
community Huertas a Deo which was helping to sell eco products from the small farms
The main charge against animal husbandry is the fact that most meat products and animal products (milk, eggs) come from large industrial farms where animals are operated in inhumane conditions. In our project, we try to change the attitude towards the animal from the objective to the subjective, minimizing the suffering of animals, reducing the intensification of exploitation (less honey taken from bees, etc.) and giving them better living conditions.
making own pasta, Argentina
We believe that we will manage to create an open, solidarity-sensitive community, able to help each other and others in difficult times, especially those who have been hurt by cultural, religious, social or any other norms in which they did not want to or could not find each other. We are convinced that we can offer a real alternative to the consumption capitalist economy, which determines the level of fulfillment based on the level of annual wages, stored wealth and achieved social position.
All the photos used in the article belongs to me.
@papi.mati
