Hidden Lotus Herbs is getting ready to move to our new #farm site and really ramp up our operations!
For some backstory,
I was the recipient of a fund from @coop to start a worker-owned #cooperative and decided to make it an herbal apothecary!
We've been operational for around six months and are now starting our regenerative agroecological farm and increasing the capacity of our free clinic.
However, the #renewableenergy systems we're building are more expensive than we budgeted for, and we could use some help getting the farm and clinic going financially.
We're really needing help from our community to make all this cool stuff happen!
If you can spare some $, please consider supporting our transition and future. If you can't, please share far and wide!
I've been quiet here, but I can explain...
Last year we were lucky to buy a piece of land and old manor house near our farm. The place you see in my pictures is not our land, we have a lease.
So we were planning to expand to the second location, which is about 20 minutes away, while retaining the original place. Over the past few years we invested a lot of of time and money there, but in the end things worked out differently.
One of the partners in the farm, whose land we were on, wanted to focus on other things so we decided it would be best to move the whole farm to the new location. On the one hand that means rebuilding all the basic infrastructure and a new market garden from scratch which means a lot of work and investment.
But on the other hand it'll be on our land and we can integrate all the lessons learned over the past 4 years, so that's exciting!
Overall I'm very excited but also tired as you might imagine. Moving a farm is a lot of work... And we're not even halfway done. Luckily we have the lease on the original location for at least another year so we can maintain production while resetting.
I'll try and document as much of the process here!
From my email archives: ReWilding Magazine on regenerative agriculture using trees to mitigate drought and environmental damage in Karnataka, India:
"With the 1000 Trees Project, Solanki has seen even the staunchest skeptics come around. Farmers who were earlier not in favour of digging trenches now admit that water harvesting has transformed their land. They are cognizant that trees regulate the temperature of their farms and the moisture in their soils, and saplings don’t need to be watered as much or as often because there is less evaporative loss. They have also started mulching to conserve water."
I’m so pleased to see this clip. A main criticism I have with the market garden type no dig set ups has been the volume & cost of the compost they bring in. That’s fine if you can trust in & afford it but not easy on a non commercial plot.
Lovely to have some sunshine and spend a little time at the plot. It’s all growing well, needs weeding but harvesting is the biggest job to do at the moment. Loads of veg to pick.
No pesticides, herbicides, insecticides or artificial fertilisers in use here and no bare soil to be seen. Every patch of ground is covered in mulch, home made compost and plant growth, the more diversity the better.
@compost The worm castings have been harvested and the worms are now back in their spring home in the shed with some new feed and bedding. The worms were looking healthy with plenty of youngsters and cocoons.