Casalinho

Author: Andrea

  • SLU update – It’s all over

    It’s over. The focus of my life for the past six weeks, the Sustainable Land Use course, has finished. I’m not sure whether I should be whooping with delight or weeping that it’s all over. Certainly I’m happy to have my Permaculture Design Certificate in my hand and a head full of ideas. But I’m also more »

  • How Do You Make a Cat Food Pouch Bag?

    Ladies around our way often make bags out of discarded coffee wrappers. Here’s a tutorial showing how to make the same sort of bag using plastic cat food pouches. Whilst it’s obviously best to avoid using things like this in the first place, this is a spectacular and really useful way to reuse something that more »

  • Casalinho’s Permaculture Design Course Announced!

    Jeroen and I are really excited to confirm the dates of the first official Permaculture Design Course to be held at Casalinho e Escabelado. It will be held from the 10th to the 19th of June 2011 and be taught in English by Lesley Martin. We’ve had some interest already, particularly from volunteers in what more »

  • Introducing Harvest Moon

    Caroline Stubbs is an illustrator, writer and gardener living and working in South Dartmoor, South West England. She’s also the wonderful cook on the course I’m on. When we all rush up stairs for our tea and coffee fix in between sessions, Cari is often there in the kitchen serenely drawing. These are a couple of pieces more »

  • Seedy Sunday

     

  • SLU update – Woodmanship

    This week our module on the Sustainable Land Use course is Woodland, and joining Patrick in teaching is Mike Gardner. The teaching is a complete contrast from the last fortnight and Mike has introduced a totally new dynamic. His comments about killing squirrels and shooting deer (both a major pest in a managed woodland setting) more »

  • SLU update – Biodynamics? I’m not convinced!

    Yesterday Patrick’s SLU Course all piled into cars and headed off to Grange Village, a Camphill Community on the edge of the Forest of Dean. Grange Village is a community of around 80 people, around half of whom have special needs. But our interest was the biodynamic garden, which provides the majority of the community’s more »

  • SLU update – Ecology & Organic Horticulture modules

    Well who could have imagined that ecology could be so interesting? Patrick Whitefield is a stupendous teacher. Really. We’ve been looking at how plants, animals, climate, soil and humans interact, which is at the core of everything really. It’s highlighted to me how much we’ve doing wrong, and made me quite proud that we’re doing at more »

  • SLU update – Well I’ve arrived!

    After a lovely weekend spent with my parents I arrived at Ragmans Lane Farm on Sunday evening to join Patrick Whitefield and a bunch of fellow minded seekers of permaculture enlightenment on his Sustainable Land Use Course. We had a good look at Ragmans Lane Farm using Google Earth over the weekend, but it didn’t more »

  • Sustainable Land Use course with Patrick Whitefield

    Whoo Hoo!!! It’s booked up, it’s official! I’m going to be attending the Sustainable Land Use course with Patrick Whitefield early next year. Whoo hoo! Do I sound excited?! The course is actually something I looked at a while ago but at that stage it was held over 9 weeks, which was a bit too much to more »