Video log #1 - Reforestation progress report
For those of you that don't know, my wife @ecoinstant and I dedicated our life for the last four years to living in rural Colombia. As a sociologist tree farmer interested in sustainable development, with a journalist, artisan and general re-user wife, we decided that the only way to truly develop localized solutions to sustainable development was to actually life on site, and suffer if need be.
Part of our 'job' was to take our basic and theoretically knowledge of homesteading, farming and permaculture and transform it into something real - real techniques, strategies and plans that could be repeatable and replicable.
For example - we had purchased a small farm with traditional monoculture coffee crops where chemicals and poisons and store bought fertilizers were used. We did our own experimentation and made some moves that have caused many people locally to laugh heartily at us. For example, (and there are many examples) in this particular lot of coffee production, we immediately stopped applying anything. No fertilizers, no sprays, we just started planting other things. As coffee plants died, we replaced them. But others lived!
We learned a lot, and have developed all of the above - techniques, strategies and plans! We have tons of great ideas and we continue moving forward; we plan on continuing to share our findings and journey with you here.
Finally, after several weeks of studying Papa-pepper, I decided that video and editing quality would no longer be something that would get in our way. Instead of taking 4 years to produce 2 minutes of video - @ecoinstante and I produced 2 minutes of video in, well...2 minutes.
Here it is - let us know what you think!
So I almost fell over, but we think it went really well! Each of these species mentioned here will be featured more in depth later in a my plant diary style post.
In this video you can see that not all of the coffee plants recovered, they were not naturally able to sustain themselves without fertilizers in such tight densities. But as we will continue to show, coffee plants are very resilient, and as long as they have some friends, preferably providing light shade and good leaf litter, and a nice pruning every once and a while, they will happily produce coffee and firewood for 25+ years!
The dried up coffee trunks turn into beautiful walking sticks or chair legs - nothing goes to waste!
Love and Light!
click on this train ;p
It's a magazine of the best of @ecotrain!
Nice to read a bit more about the global plan/setup. We also have quite some coffee here, the only thing we actually sell, i like the steem coffee market idea :-)
How is Columbia visa wise? Easy to stay +1 year?
Visas! They are not pleasant, but I learned the hard way! Over the past 10 or so years the government of Colombia has switched from a bulky and clumsy paper system to a {mostly} new and digital system! Its easier than ever before! (not quite as easy as I'd like though)
You can get up to six months on a tourist visa, then I would recommend a 1 year student visa which is very flexible and easy to get - perhaps some sustainable agriculture practicuum or something ;p
A lot of people cross to Ecuador and come back when they feel like, the border is like a 'visa-reset' zone.
Yes! And I think steem has a lot of potential - the key element is converting the SBD to local goods and services - I'd love to have a peek at what you've got growing over there in Goa ;p
I am not in Goa, that was holliday. I live in Kodaikanal, in the Nilgiris mountain range of South India, 1875m, cloud forest climate, one of the top 50 most biodiverse places on this planet. Xxx
I love that you are out there doing this permaculture style. Especially with coffee plants! I have been buying Equal Exchange brand coffee beans, because they say they are from farmer/worker owned co-ops, and that seemed to be the most ethical one. Do you sell your coffee to something like that?
I liked your video, btw! And hi to your doggo in the background! :)
I have lots to say about coffee - for now I can say that you are doing the right thing thinking about where your money is going. We are currently working on a steem-based solution to help the entire local community of coffee growers, especially those that are trying to transition to greener methods ;p
That's awesome, I look forward to updates. :)
Nice! May I link this article and feature your username in the next issue of the Weekly Homesteading Newsletter? Let me know as soon as you can :) Thanks @ecoinstant!
Yes you may!
Hey there! I just wanted to inform you that this article has been featured in the most recent Weekly Homesteading Newsletter! Please check it out if you are interested! Thank you and have a great Sunday!
Thank you so much Kiara for your great work in the homesteading community!
Keep up the great work and stay busy and happy this winter ;p
nice video and super work you are doing there. do you also roast your coffee?
I have a really nice coffee machine that likes colombian beans and so do some of my colleagues
We don't roast it ourselves but currently seek professional help ;p We should have more content over the coming months about coffee roasting and growing!
Right now we are working on a project that would help other local coffee growers, those also seeking sustainability and best practices, to sell their coffee - for sbd! We hope to open up a wide offering and continue to document our coffee journey.
We do have some options right now, contact me on steem.chat if you are very eager ;p
ok, very eager sound very expensive, lol but I might just do that, would be cool to be able to buy my cup of coffee with SBD, If and when you get this set up I guess it will show up on my feed and I will be one of your first customers if you ship to switzerland, lol
and I just started a new homesteading forum on chainBB if you are interested... you could let everyone know there what you are up to
https://beta.chainbb.com/homesteading/@felander/homesteading-forum-on-chainbb
Fantastic! I will check that out when I have a moment.
Not expensive so much as less convenient - We really just dont have all the logistics settled yet, currently I can send 4 lbs of coffee anywhere in the world and it takes 3+ weeks.
Thanks for motivating us with your interest!
I think this video was pretty good. I don´t know much about videos, but I think this one was done in one take, so no editing.
Some of this travelbloggers do a lot of video editing (cutting) but you can still see the video jump from one cut to the next, so this is something I don´t like at all. I like the simplicity of your video while still getting the message across, and best of all, no annoying background music 😎
All these tips are very helpful! We are thinking of continuing in this style, at least for now, short single takes. Also any mistakes add a human element!
It seems like upgrades like music or editing are things that you don't like! Amazing that we've been worried about that for all these years ;p