Flores Permaculture

We have had quite a productive summer in the gardens this year, despite the cloudy, fungus-loving weather conditions. Many cucumbers and different varieties of tomatoes, with Red Brandy Wine being our favourite. The boys grew their own tomatoes quite successfully this year (Golden Sunrise), learning to pinch off the suckers, trellis their plants, harvest regularly, weed, and spot for fungus. We've been eating watermelons weekly for a month now, and they are still coming. The boys have a huge pumpkin to carve for halloween, sadly they will have to share as a rat got to the other one before we harvested it. We have lots of crown prince pumpkins to make into soup, and butternut squash to see us through to Christmas. Many potatoes are being stored in our fire place (we think we might grow a little less next year). We've also had the luxury of homegrown salad, pesto, and other veggies - dwarf French green beans have become a sure favourite.  The Guinea Fowl coop became a thing, fina

This year, we are trying to establish a Guinea Fowl flock in Zone 2. The area is ideal for them because it is further into our farm (less chance of a dog attack), and there are less cliff edges - so they are much less likely to accidentally fly down the ravine, only to get stuck and spend a very noisy few days trying to return to their flock. There will also be an abundance of food for them (earwigs, caterpillars, slugs, weed seeds), although we may never be able to grow corn in the area as that is warned to be a favourite of Guinea Fowl.  Our current set of 16 keets are over 3 weeks old. We have roughly half lavender and half brown/grey, with one that is a mix with lavender wing tips. The brown/grey genetics seem to be slightly weaker in the first week of hatching. One had splayed legs that had to be fixed, and two others had crooked feet that also needed to be isolated and corrected. All have survived and are doing well, even the weakest one which is still half the size of its siblin

The last of the Eucalyptus in Zone 2 is felled, and we now have a clear skyline and full sun. That's around 10 dropped, so we can have this beautiful space to spruce up 😄 Without being able to cut all the huge trees, this land would be useless. Now to tackle the aftermath of tree felling...  The Greenhouse is almost finished, we just need to tighten the cover on a hot summers day and add better snap clamps, before the September windstorms. We have reinforced it as much as we possibly can. Much of what we used is recycled materials, which means the greenhouse may not look idyllic but it functions. We built a wind break out of pallets on the side that will get most hit by strong winds. This acts as the hub in these gardens, where I can hide from the rain and have all my seedlings for that area. It also means we will have a very long tomato season, staggered through to December, and it will make seed saving of specific crops every year much easier too.  Only a year ago, much of Zone

This week has been a weird one. The boys need to be home schooled. How they expect a single parent with full time work to make sure the boys stay on task is beyond me; the school work comes first. So, in permaculture fashion - everything is going very, very slow. However... The first Estufa is on the move! We acquired this second hand greenhouse from a friend after I had already ordered a 6 x 3m greenhouse. I knew we needed one to host all the plants that are needed to build a food forest, so we can have a safe home for seedlings to grow. So, I guess two greenhouses is better than one. We will also get a pretty amazing tomato harvest in the summer season, and broccoli in the winter. It seems we haven't seen the sun in a while. Our seedlings are getting leggy, the radishes have suffered, and the cucumbers and courgettes are just hanging out. The pests are defeating me a little. The broad beans seem to be under an ongoing ant attack, although I spray them with a soapy solutio

We are lucky to be living on an island that has no cases of COVID-19, and has restrictions on who can arrive on the island. We don't know what will happen, how long the lock-down will last, and whether or not restrictions will be relaxed here. We do know that if we were to get sick for a month, in Spring, then our homestead would be seriously set back. The idea of having to stay in a hospital, on another island, without being able to see family or friends, is something I never want to have to experience. However, I might, if volunteers keep assuming self-isolating doesn't apply to them and people keep thinking this is a great time to travel. Please don't send us volunteer requests right now! I can't simply ignore them because my response rate will decrease.  A lot of people don't research our location, or where the island is in general, before their stay on our homestead. It astonishes me how many people think they can hop on a day ferry to Pico, walk to Faj

As anyone following this blog will probably know; Magnus began this project with a worldwide crisis in mind. He had a feeling that one day, quite literally, shit would hit the fan. I think that in the grander scale of things, this could be a minor blip. We just wish we could teleport all our family and friends to our little homestead when the time comes - so we can have a little army of workers, and lots of compost! Anyway, here are a few things we do to avoid being affected by a crisis: Most Important: A Frugal Mindset and an Introverted Personality Cheese tastes better when you've been without for a few weeks, socialising seems less exhausting when you haven't done it for a while. This applies to most things (bulk ordering unnecessary stuff on the internet is not included). 3 Months+ of Belly Essentials and Cooking Supplies The truck could die, the supermarket could be out of flour (again), etc... so we stockpile all the essentials - even though we don't have

Unintentionally, our projects are going at a slow pace. Magnus is dealing with a lot of paperwork, in terms of finalising his divorce process, which is going annoyingly slow (not our doing). So, neither of us are really able to fully put our minds to our projects. However, we harvested two roosters recently, that made for a very comforting meal. Red-X was an escapee from last years rooster cull, and also escaped this year, before we finally caught him. His spurs were very huge; Red-X got his last revenge by stabbing Magnus when he was already dead, create a huge hole in his thumb. Magnus is going to make a necklace out of the spurs for the boys.  We were supposed to harvest three roosters, but unfortunately one of them got ran over. I had to deal with the issue, because Magnus had to dash to town, but the meat was already spoiled. We are no longer going to tie them on the road, because making a mistake like that is too much of a loss for us.  Three roosters rem

Last weeks rainy Sunday was spent organising all the seed varieties I have taking up half the space in our fridge, so I could see if anything might be missing. Some of the seeds are from the local agricultural co-op, but most I have bought from Vital Seeds, Chiltern Seeds, Sementes Vivas, and also some from Fothergill that my Mum gifted us. I have had amazing results already from the seeds I have sourced from Vital Seeds, a company that produce their own, but Brexit might get in the way of being able to source from them again😞. Many of the seeds saved over the years on this farm coincidentally 'disappeared' in 2017, so we only currently have seeds saved from Peppers, Kale, Mustard, and Tamarillo. I intend to save seed from our favourites grown this year, from Tomatoes, Melons, Squash, Peppers, Kale, Lettuce, and Peas and Beans, and Cucumber, so that the next year I won't need to make such an investment in seeds.  We haven't got around to putting the greenhouse

It is only the middle of February, and we already have most of our volunteer spaces filled from the middle of March until the end of July. Whilst we have a lull in help on the farm, Magnus and I have developed a working system. He goes through with a chainsaw, cutting down all the big stuff, frequently falling down the mountain and hurting himself in the process. After a few hours have past, he will come down to the house with a great big smile on his face, exclaiming that 'I almost died so many times'. I'm glad I know he generally knows what he's doing, and is just expressing how much of a mess he made. That's where I come in: I go around doing all the little, detailed work, to make areas he has cleared serve a purpose. Below shows one of the areas we are particularly excited about in Zone 2. A greenhouse will be placed where the black plastic is showing, and the logs will be stacked around the greenhouse as a makeshift wind-block. The soil in this area g

We have started to go to the local farmers market in Santa Cruz.  Although we have little to sell right now, mostly limes, oranges, mustard greens, chives, chu chu, and sweet potatoes, it is important that we attend now to see what customers are looking for this Spring and onwards. It is also good for Magnus to practice his Portuguese, plus he gets a laugh out of me when he wanders off and sees me looking all embarrassed when we get a customer who realises I don't speak Portuguese. When this happens, I have to get Magnus to explain that there is too much to do if we are to make money selling vegetables this year to cover our living expenses, so I am finding it difficult to find the time to learn Portuguese.  It has become clear to us that potatoes will not be our main crop to sell, because we don't have a tractor or flat land, so it really is difficult to make selling potatoes for us worthwhile. So, instead we will need to increase our own compost supplies a

When I arrived over a year ago to the Johnson Quinta, I found it very easy to get lost. It took me a while to learn the lands, and find my feet, but eventually I stopped falling down the mountain everyday and even started to be able to walk up the hill without feeling out of breath.  There are so many exciting aspects to this farm I have discovered along the way, with many areas showing huge potential that get added to the long list of areas Magnus needs to go through with a chainsaw. However, there is one plant that really begins to make me think my mothers habit of spraying with Roundup in only a t-shirt and denim shorts isn't really as crazy as it may seem. That plant isn't cana roca or the false tobacco plant. It is this:  Mexican Pepperleaf  Now, I have a 'to do' list that goes on forever, so if someone recommended to me that I should grow an aromatic herb that gives you superpowers, but I hadn't even heard of it, alarm bells would be ringing