Epic Travel #2...Kenya Adventures

Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.  -Roald Dahl

 

 
Epic travel adventure numero dos....Africa!  Miraculously I was invited to participate in a biodiversity conference in Thika Kenya, an hour outside of Nairobi.  My travel companions were four women, all affiliated with MESA (Multi National Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture).  The conference was attended by about thirty participants from around the globe; policy makers, researchers, educators, farmers, and NGO representatives.  The goal was to brainstorm solutions for increasing biodiversity in food systems and to discuss problems and challenges that small land holders face around the world especially in third world countries.  We spent much of the time broken into small groups talking about issues like drought, seed saving, fund raising and how to market products, as well as listening to presentations by members of the Agricultural Biodiversity Community. 

 

 

Hosted by PELUM KENYA, the conference center was beautiful, located on what felt like a mini farm with lush gardens, ponds and even hutches of rabbits.  It was such a privilege to participate in conversation with this rich, knowledgeable and diverse group of people.  Some of the organizations represented at the conference were PELUM, ILEIA, MESA, Muliru Farmer's Group, African Biodiversity Network, South Indian Federation of Fishermen Society, Earth Net Foundation, Dhan Foundation India, WESA and  South Alliance for Indigenous Resources. 

 



 

As part of the conference we went on two field trips to local farming projects.  The first was to the Thoma Wa Mukamba Community Cultural Learning Center.  This group focuses on traditional seed saving specifically ten native food crops.  They are reviving indigenous seeds and cultural foods made with these traditional crops. 

 

 



The highlight was visiting H.I.M. Negus Shiriki Community, a Rastafarian community of artists and youth from Nairobi.  This is hands down the most magical farm I have ever seen.
(click the link to learn more about this inspiring group and our visit)

 

 

These brothers and sisters are incredible artists who create mosaic murals and make clothing and sandals with an ancient style of Kemetic weaving.  They are stewarding land in the Maragua district of Kenya.  I have never seen a farm so amazing.  The diversity of vegetation grown there for food and medicine is astounding as well as the abundance and health of the plants.  I can't describe how much I felt at home there, I didn't want to leave!

 

We received a tour of the gardens from Brother herbalist and medicine man Ras Abasa and little four year old Sista Menen (who knows all the plants and can tell you their medicinal uses!)   We also helped plant fruit trees. 

 

 

  

We had the opportunity to see some of the craftsmanship handmade by Sista Njoki, beautiful sandals and many types of jewelry.   We also got to meet her two month old twins sons, Jahwise and Jahsent.

 

 

 

The biggest blessing of the visit was the nourishing, homegrown ital meal and tea made

with lemongrass, ginger root and coconut milk.  Heaven!  A piece of my soul will forever reside with the Shiriki Community.  Peace and Blessings be upon them and may their natural way of life be preserved!

 

 

 

 

 

After the conference we spent another week in Kenya and stayed with some MESA friends at the GBIAK farm.  GBIAK stands for Grow Bio intensive Agriculture Kenya.   

 

 

 

GBIAK is run by two incredible farmers who have a mission to teach bio intensive and sustainable agriculture to all those who come to learn.  The first day we arrived they were holding a workshop for indigenous farmers from the northern region who had been using synthetic fertilizers and had depleted their soils. 

 

 

Corn, sorghum, papaya, mangoes, jute, amaranth, sun hemp, nightshade, squash, okra, melons, greens, sweet potatoes, and bamboo are just a few of the crops grown here.  GBIAK uses the farming methods of John Jeavons. They are a perfect model of bio intensive agriculture, a prolific amount of food grown on a few acres.  

 

 

 

 

The most inspiring part of visiting GBIAK was their seed bank.  I fell in love with this idea and immediately wanted to build one back home.  Farmers come from all around to purchase organic seeds from this bank at one dollar per spoonful. 
 

 

I bought many varieties I am excited to try; drought resistant corn, sun hemp, jute, moringa, black amaranth, and others.  I managed to successfully smuggle them all home in my dirty pairs of socks!

 

 

During the rest of our trip we stayed in Nairobi and explored the city.  Of course we had to spend a full day at the Masai market.  So many amazing handmade goods and colors!  It was a bit of an overwhelming experience until I learned I had to bargain!

 

 

 

More adventures included visits to the elephant orphanage, lots of babies ages ranging from a few months to three years old. 

  

 

 

 

 

My friend got lots of muddy elephant love. 

 

 

This is Ed who I met at the Giraffe sanctuary.  He was surprisingly affectionate with his long neck hugs.  Toward the end of our trip we went on safari and saw all the incredible animals living in the park.  The day ended with a pride of seven lions about twenty yards from us.  So majestic!   

 

 
We ended up spending a day and a half in Ethiopia on our way home, also beautiful to tour Addis Ababa on foot.  Traveling to Africa was an opportunity of a lifetime.  There is so much more I could say about my adventures.  I left out a lot of the magical experiences.  The inspiration and expansion I experienced cannot be put into words.  In a nutshell this trip was a healing gift...life changing.  Thank you and gratitude to my supportive family and to PELUM Kenya for making it possible for me to have this experience!  I am so grateful for the new friendships I have made and we are already implementing many of the ideas I learned about here on our farm.  Give thanks for continuous growth and learning!

AMANI NA UPENDO
Peace and Love!

 

Grounding Back In...The Spiral

We are a circle within a circle with no beginning and never ending...



rooftop photo of the spiral garden at Grow Bio-intensive Agriculture Kenya

Greetings of Peace and Love!  It has been many months since I've written, so much has happened.  I have had the profound opportunity and gift to go on several life changing adventures, travel around the world, visit some AMAZING farming projects, meet many inspiring people, make life long friends, start a new business and learn a whole lot about myself and the creation.  I am excited to share so much information I have picked up along the way, much more than can be shared in a single blog post.  So the next few posts will be full of pictures, ideas, and inspiration from my journey.  I pray that you enjoy.  And that there is something new and inspiring for everyone who reads.  As always, we are sending and channeling love and healing light to you all, above and below like mycelium running through the veins of Mother Earth!  Many Blessings..

Forging Farmers: Celebrating Women Transforming the Food System

Last week I had the pleasure of participating in this wonderful event hosted by MESA, the Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture. What a privilege to be part of a panel of such amazing women working diligently to build more resilient food systems around the world. 

The panelists were all so different and accomplished including the fiery Joelci Dannacene, a militant organizer with The Landless Rural Workers Movement of Brazil and Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak, owner of Devil's Gulch Ranch in Marin, founder and director of HaitiCoffee.com, Inc and a USAID Farmer to Farmer volunteer in Haiti and El Salvador with Partners of the Americas, Winrock International and HaitiCoffee.  The panel also included Clara Nicholls, a lecturer in the Latin American Studies Program at UC Berkeley, teaching "Perspectives for Sustainable Rural Development in Latin America" and president of the Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology, as well as, Shu-Chen Cheng, a beginning small-scale farmer from Taiwan who hopes to educate farmers in sustainable methods, and share with her community the importance of supporting local farmers.

Not only was the conversation inspiring and stimulating, the homemade Puerto Rican tapas were off the hook!  Thank you MESA for including me in this uplifting evening, I am honored and excited to collaborate further in the future!

Aquaponics: Take One!

Our plans for fish farming have been in the works for a very long time now.  We've been dreaming, studying and gathering information for a couple of years.  We are really excited to be finally taking steps to bring our visions of this project into action. 

In the four years we have been working this land we have dabbled in all sorts of endeavors; natural beekeeping, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, varieties of perennials, drought tolerant edibles, the standard fruit and vegis, and our family cow.  With a little bit of experience behind us, we are refining our efforts to grow specifically what WE love to eat, which happens to include a good amount of fish!

In this set-up we used standard food grade IBC containers which had been functioning on the farm as containers for rainwater catchment. We are also using a large sump tank on the bottom as a water reservoir. There is a ton to be said about researching aquaponics set-ups. In a nutshell, our main source for a "how to" guide was Murray Hallam's Aquaponics Made Easy.   

As of this week the system we've been working on is ready. We just added about fifty fish, some babies and some breeders.  The fish are being fed a combination of what we have on hand; spent grain, garden vegis, insects and mosquito larvae.  

Tilapia are our fish of choice. They are warm water fish which grow to a large size quickly and they are adaptable and tasty.  The babies, called fry, take anywhere from six months to a year to mature.  The breeders are sexually mature and if all goes as planned, should  mate and produce more fry keeping the system functioning in a closed loop.

Adding our own fresh fish to equation feels like it might just make our homegrown diet complete. Exciting and lots of potential!  We will be reporting back to you all with the results including successes and failures, so stay tuned for more about this project.

Ramping Up

We've been busy bees lately.  On top of the explosion of spring planting, milking 2x a day, catching several swarms, classes and chores, we have expanded our hen operation.  Two rounds of chicks we recently raised are mature and beginning to lay.  We also adopted a large group of Brown Isos from an animal rescue.  These ladies are between 7-11 months old, prime production brown egg layers.  Their dwellings are three mobile chicken tractors built from scrap materials we had here on the farm.  As we are moving them across the hillside, they will eat all the bugs and grass while preparing and fertilizing new beds for us to plant.

Using the chicken tractor is nothing new to us.  About half of our beds were initially prepared by our original lightweight tractor made from PVC pipe. What's different about this set up is that these structures are sturdier and  predator proof.  The other big difference is that we are feeding the hens compost, or at least mostly.  Each day we dump into the tractors a load of manure, greens, straw and spent brewer's grain.  The hens eat, scratch, peck and break down the goods into a most lovely and fertile end product for us to plant right into. 

We were totally inspired by Geoff Lawton's Chicken Tractor on Steroids video and decided to try out the concept but wanted to tweak it to make it easier for us. (We are leaving the hens on the beds for 2-3 weeks. Instead of turning compost, we let them do the work for us).  

So far, a month into the experiment, we reached down under the straw bedding to test out the soil and it is loose, moist and full of worms!  Just what we are aiming for.  The true test will be seeing how our tomatoes do in the first bed.  

The hens have taken well to their new environment.  They have had a big adjustment to make as we have changed their diet drastically from layer pellet to compost.  We are trying to boost their immune systems with a splash of apple cider vinegar in their drinking H2O and giving them fermented milk with all the beneficial probiotic bacteria. Plus the spent grain they are getting contains hops which has bitter acids know to be potent anti-microbials. These anti-microbials control the pathogenic bacteria Clostridium in the hens' intestines.  

So all in all, these ladies are having to work a bit harder but they are looking healthy.  This coming week we will set up the electric fencing to give them a little wiggle room and allow them to forage through the tall grass a bit too.  They will be some pretty happy pastured chickens!

Check out this clip on the ramped up chicken tractor, well worth watching his whole video...Many spring blessings!