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Annual Report 2023

An end of year reflection and summary of all we did at Boodaville during 2023 - this is long and detailed, not an SEO optimised post!!!

15 December 2023

I always thought the apocalypse would be some dark windy wild storm, but actually it’s the calm warmth of a 20º December day, and we’re all like frogs dying slowly as the water heats up to boiling point without us noticing.

David Attenborough is giving it his all, with every last breath spent encouraging us to fall in love with nature before it is all gone, and Stewart Lee and Arwa Mahdawi are writing regular comment pieces to remind us that politics and equality are moving backwards.

Another incredibly useful source of information this year has been our BiorNE Telegram group which includes voices from an amazing range of academics, farmers, soil experts, psychologists, activists and more. I miss twitter a lot. My mind and body just couldn’t click on the X icon. Not once have I been back since the change.

In general my reading and learning this year has been limited by the full on family life with a two-year old and a ten year old, and the sheer AMOUNT of work I have had to do for the association. My intellectual challenges have included re-learning how to read music to teach Kira how to play the violin, and designing daily schedules where I avoid needing to be in two places at once as much as possible .

Relating to Boodaville: I am incredibly happy about a few big steps forward. We now have two employees on permanent contracts (Lou and Carlos), we planted 1300 trees in carefully selected micro-climates where they can grow unassisted, we ran the smoothest and most enjoyable Youth Exchange ever at Sanilles, some wonderful new collaborations have been started, and the financial situation of the organisation is ok.

On the other hand we are disappointed by being given an extra hurdle in the infinitely annoying path towards getting permissions for running economic activities in environmental education at the “Aula de Naturaleza” at Boodaville Finca. I have recently visited the mayor to let him know that we have all the teachers, farmers, regenerative designers, organisers, accountants, public funding, potential participants, consultants that we could possibly need and that the ONLY thing stopping us from running a successful non-profit business is them.

Here’s to 2024 with adventure, agroforestry and abundance!

Below is a detailed summary of the projects this year, and plans for next year

Here is a link to comments on how well we achieved the 2023 goals set at Boodaville Caseres at the beginning of the year.

A – ESC VOLUNTEERING 2023/2024

B – SOLIDARITY PROJECTS

C – ERASMUS+ PROJECTS

D – ROVIRA REGENERATIVA

E – OTHER EDUCATION PROJECTS

F – ADMINISTRATION, ACCOUNTING, WEBSITE AND COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

A – Esc volunteering 2023/2024

This year we had 6 funded volunteers, 2 of them left before the end of their contract and were replaced. So in Barcelona we thank Baloo for starting the year with us and have a huge thank you for Emma who has been with us all year, and thriving in the Poble Sec neighbourhood. She is staying on in 2024 as a (non-funded) volunteer mentor and is participating in a Solidarity project with us.

In Caseres we have a huge thank you to Sara and Klif, our dedicated volunteers who spent over 9 months at Boodaville, and we have also hosted Pauline, Gaius, Jakub and Oumy for shorter periods of time.

We were missing a site manager after Alex left us, and are extremely happy to have started a collaboration with Roser who has helped out with that role.

In 2024 we are excited to change the plan a little!!! We are slimming down and Lou is removing some projects to better concentrate on a manageable amount of work, (and to go exploring Europe with the children..).

In 2024 we are hosting 3 funded volunteers from Jan to July. Pauline in Boodaville Caseres will not be at Boodaville Finca, but will work with Roser at her family permaculture project.. beautifully named “Boodaville Kindergarten”. We also have Antonia and Frida joining us in Barcelona. They are being mentored by Emma, and hosted at the amazing social project “Can MasDeu”. This means Lou has a minimal role in managing volunteers, and means that we don’t need to find a site manager in Caseres (which has always proved complicated).

B – solidarity projects

The Red Tent project was approved in Spring and runs through until next year. Vianna is the coordinator and mentor for this project and you can see the beautiful activities they offer around menstruation, sexual health, pregnancy on their instagram.

We are also very happy to receive news this week that the Río Algars project has been funded. We have finally achieved our goal of finding a group of young people near Boodaville Caseres who want funding for an activity. Samai is leading the project to make a movie about a young person, disillusioned with the city, who finds a more beautiful path in the rural setting near the Río Algars. Samai is passionate about the ecological message he wants to transmit with the film and the project includes organising screenings in Barcelona as well as in the countryside – Proposed date for the screening : October 2024!

C – ERASMUS+ PROJECTS

The first half of 2023 we were very busy with several projects. First Active Permaculture Youth Exchange – cordinated by Lou, run by Mas Les Vinyes. Lilo and Marta were incredible in their roles to organise and support the young people, Sergi was an inspiring permaculture teacher and the youth leaders were brilliant. You can see the video published here.

Lou coordinated, organised and facilitated the Healthy People, Healthy Planet youth exchange at Sanillés in June. We had an amazing team with Aline and Sam as co-facilitators, and great meals from Frank and Laia in the kitchen. Here is a little clip (and the final video is on my job list for the rest of this week!)

In Portugal we partnered on two projects with PND, a youth worker training and then the exchange RegenerAction. Oumy – who participated in the exchange – is now a volunteer with us! Julia from Mas Baget, who took the role of youth leader, is now more closely connected with Boodaville which we love!

Boodaville also ran the Sprout and Spread Art in Nature Youth Worker Training. This project was coordinated by Carlos and organised by Elena.

D – rovira regenerativa

We are very pleased with many things that moved forward with this agroforestry, education and ecosocial transition project during 2023. We completed tasks from the strategic plan such as digging ponds, extending the Thyme Terrace, doing a huge tree-planting at Manuel’s land, and we’ve been sharing the wine we made with friends. We connected with the neighbours in the Vall Rovira and other local projects. We are under pressure now to clean and prune the 2 hectares of vineyards, and then to find a way to purchase this land in late 2024. We feel very supported in this project by Angela, Jack and Jacqueline, Sam and Nick. You can read more detail in the Boodaville Caseres document and can see pictures and videos on the Rovira Regenerativa Instagram

Oferta de trabajo Buscamos a alguien para realizar tareas agriculturales del 22 de enero hasta 14 de marzo 2024. Información detallada aquí

E – other education projects

In July Boodaville collaborated with a project in Caseres and offered two permaculture sessions to teenagers from Catalunya participating in a summer camp.

Lou was active in promoting Doughnut Economics. As part of the Spark funded project several workshops were run at community centres, festivals and in secondary schools. In February a funding bid was presented by Anna and Silvia to “Bring the Douhgnut to Poble Sec” but there was tough competition, so although we did an AMAZING job for an application created in 4 days!!!! We didn’t score enough points to get funding. In October we presented Doughnut Economics and participated in the Fira Enredem Poble Sec

Boodaville offered a practical Biochar workshop in February with Nick, and the two tree-planting events included practical and theoretical education in agroforestry.

Boodaville organised the BiorNE permaculture conference in Fuenstespalda in collaboration with Juan Pedro Terramans. It was a great success, with over 50 people attending workshops.

Lou gave a Permaculture workshop at the Hort Font Trobada before summer.

F – administration, accounting, website and community management

We are working with accountants Toni and Bea at Gracer Cooperative and are pleased with the way the bookkeeping, tax obligations and employee issues are being run. Lou manages all the project budgets, the bank account, the cash flow and the overall net balance of the Association and is working to optimise the methods for this in 2024.

Boodaville is comfortable now employing people temporarily, emitting invoices, charging for educational activities. (We just need permission to DO the activities at Boodaville from the local council!)

By the end of this week Lou will finish the budget for 2024 and organise how to receive all the money the association “owes” from previous years. We will then start functioning from a “clean slate”. With no agreements hanging over from previous years, and everyone getting paid what they are due year on year.

The website may or may not still have big issues. Did you get to this link ok? Or did you get a weird message saying you’ve been infected with a virus? The truth is we still have a job list from 2020 that we haven’t finished about how we want the website to function better. We are going to investigate a grant for digital support to hopefully get a professional employee who is our web manager.

Community Management has moved forward well this year with Emma writing beautiful content and regularly posting on Instagram / Facebook. Emma also sent out several newsletters and wrote and published blog posts – including all the “history of Boodaville” posts brought across from the old website.

Lou

Lou - I started on the Boodaville path when I bought the land in Matarranya in 2008 and have dedicated an incredible amount of time, and not very many euros, to building up the project over the years.

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WE’VE PLANTED 1,000 TREES! 🌳💪🏼

Post author By Antonia
Post date November 28, 2023
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WE’VE PLANTED 1,000 TREES! 🌳💪🏼

Boodaville organised a tree planting activity with Life Terra !

Back in February, we initiated a collaboration with the Life Terra association, which gave us 100 trees to plant on the Boodaville site. The operation was a success, with almost all the saplings surviving the summer heat! This is why, 8 months later, we decided to accept many many more trees from LifeTerra.

Thanks to the commitment of the Boodaville volunteers, as well as volunteers who had come to lend their strength in the Matarranya, we were able to take on the mission and WE PLANTED 1000 TREES! Jacqueline, Sam, Angela, Jack and Anna Louise gave their time and expertise to organise and lead the event. During this 4 days tree planting event we were working to plant just over a 1,000 trees in the neighbouring farm, where we try to develop the project Rovira Regenerativa. We were following an agroforestry design that we created in 2021.

On the Saturday and the Sunday we worked on a bigger group of young permaculture volunteers from Catalunya. We planted along the bottom of the valley, at the edge of the vineyard. We planted with a pattern developed with Jacque and Jacqueline which was to dig a bowl for every 3 trees. In each bowl we put a fruit tree : apples, European Plum, Pomegranate, fig, White Mulberry and some other very dry resistant varieties of fruit trees. The support species that we were putting there were Spanish Broom, Terebinth. In total we dug and planted 220 bowls, which makes 660 trees.

We also took part of the vineyard terrace that was not planted with any vines and now we call it the orchards. In this section we’ve planted rows of trees with support species. We also made a windbreak in the orchard area with some of the oleander. We were careful with them because they are not part of a natural forestry design, they are more a gardening plant.

We also ordered 140 almond trees because we really wanted to put some almond in the valley but we actually received 300 hazelnut trees. Because the hazelnut trees needs a lot of water we did put some of them in the valley gave away about 200 of the hazelnut trees.

On days 3 and 4 we worked up in the almond growth, in the area number 3 on the map. Sam Miller helped us making decisions about the exact plan and how to plant. The area is obviously much more humid than other places. It’s surrounded by trees, there is grass growing all over and between the almonds on this terrace and even moss on the ground in some places showing us that it is a humid enough place and that these trees has a chance of survival. We are happy that we manage to have a tank of 600 L of water up to this terrace with the help of Robert and his truck. It’s good for the future of this project to know that if we need to we can drive water up to this area to water the plants.

In the area, the planting plan was to plant individual trees around the edges of the terrace, in the places where it looked like there was more access to water in the soil. We planted madroños, figs, pomegranate, pear, some fruit bushes and a few other species. Everything on the terrace was planted with some activated biochar, which we activated by peeing in a bucket !! We also added compost.

The planting plan on the almond terrace was to design edges and the rectangles. In between the existing rows of almond trees we dug a slightly lower row, just a few centimetres below the level of the soil to encourage water to come and sit in the ground there. In each rectangles we planted 4 or 5 trees, and left some holes for the almond that we don’t have yet and for the support species that did not arrive yet. In those rectangles we planted nitrogen-fixing species in the middle of the rectangle. In total we had 25 rectangles.

Thanks to an app provided by Life Terra we managed to take pictures of each tree planted, so we can track their evolution. Now we hope most of the species we planted will survive! This is an important step in the development of our project Rovira Regenerativa !

We’re all exhausted from these intense days, but absolutely delighted, our minds full of wonderful memories shared throughout the weekend, and our hearts bursting with hope and strength to continue fighting the climate crisis.

Antonia

I'm taking this year before university to try things out. Still searching and on my way to learning more and more about myself and the world around me. Sending out lots of love!

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Data: Food forest study and soil analysis

Post author By Lou
Post date September 14, 2023
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Data: Food forest study and soil analysis

Results of our Food Forest Productivity Study and the anaylsis of the microbiology of the soil by Sam Miller

Sara passed me the results from measuring circumference and height of our Food Forest trees.

Overall 49 of the 68 trees included in the study are still alive. But we have to recognise that 20 of these haven’t got through their first year yet.

When trees reach full size it will be important to switch to measuring productivity of fruit, rather than height. Only one tree we planted is productive, and we didn’t collect data on the original 3 olive trees and 4 almond trees – we probably should!

A conclusion is that we should focus on enriching the guilds that are still alive rather than adding new ones, and we can see how things improve when the wind break grows. At the moment.. it’s alive but not growing very much.

SOIL ANALYSIS

Our wonderful friend and recently qualified soil microbiolgy expert Sam Miller took a sample from the Food Forest and a sample from the Thyme Terrace project. (Search either of those terms on the blog page to find out more)

For the analysis 25 fields of view are considered from a one drop dilution under a microscope slide. At 400X there are over 2000 possible fields of view available to look at, so it is inevitable that it is not 100% accurate without taking hours and hours of work per sample.

For the Nematode analysis, the whole slide is scanned at 100X magnification so I took the opportunity to document some of the organisms that I saw during this part of the analysis. The magnification of the photos should be indicated in the title of each one. Click on the images to get the full sized view and the title.

In summary: Both places have bacteria and nematodes, but the food forest has no fungi and the thyme terrace has some.

This is what I expected as the Food Forest is an attempt to recuperate highly ploughed dead soil, but the Thyme Terrace is a place that has been left alone for over thirty years and has undergone natural succession and regeneration, and has many more bushes and trees.

You can see the spreadsheets for these studies if you want to go deep here and you’ll find some photos and the latest map in there too!

Lou

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My experience volunteering at Boodaville Barcelona 2022! – Vianna

Post author By Antonia
Post date January 31, 2023
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My experience volunteering at Boodaville Barcelona 2022! – Vianna

Vianna's experience of a year volunteering for Boodaville Barcelona 2022; urban permaculture, eco-festival and more !

In 2022 I began the 12 month volunteering project to start the Boodaville Barcelona, I have been involved in several European Solidarity projects over the years and have spent the last 3 years involved with Boodaville. It was my goal to complete the volunteering before I turned 30, although with COVID causing many delays, I am 7 months later than planned…

Saul and I had the opportunity to build this project with Anna, from the very structure of the timetable and our schedule and to identify our own personal and collective goals with this project. Throughout the year I spent a lot of time in Poble Sec, getting to know the barrio and attending and organising events with the associations who are already supporting the community in a big way and bringing ecosocial transition into conversation and action. For many reasons, it has become one of my favourite neighbourhoods in Barcelona, with Montjuic’s nature being a regular escape from the city.

Throughout the year I spent many Friday’s in Hort de la Font Trobada, a community garden which is also tucked away in Montjuic. With rows of allotments growing aromatics, fruits, veg and edible flowers… This was a real oasis for me, reminding me of how my mum used to tend the garden when I was a kid, she always planted a lot of lavender. I spent a lot of time continuing to learn about the medicinal uses of plants, and collecting things that were growing in abundance to make herbal healing salves and oils.

Some days I spent hours on the computer, researching, learning, writing and organising, completing the necessary, behind the scenes tasks. Mostly I loved being outdoors, with the plants and insects, in the shade of the trees and getting my hands dirty. I love being fully immersed in nature, most of the year I was living in La Floresta and that meant that I had a lot of time to spend with the trees and occasionally running into wild boars.

We achieved many things this year, including building and maintaining some petit jardinets, working in Hort de la Font Trobada and organising and supporting community events as volunteers or participants, learning about permaculture design and sustainability in the city, organising the 4th Maranya Festival and starting our weekly ecosocial meet up.

It’s difficult to summarise in a short blogpost how this year has changed me, and all of the things that we achieved. I will say that I am grateful for the growth and learning that took place, for the reflection and the challenges. This has helped to shape my values and perspective on the world in a more positive and loving way.

Antonia

I'm taking this year before university to try things out. Still searching and on my way to learning more and more about myself and the world around me. Sending out lots of love!

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Tags 2022, barcelona, boodaville, Boodaville Barcelona, Ecosocial transition, education, European Youth, Green spaces, living permaculture, permaculture, permaculture education, Volunteer

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Thinking about the year (On Fridays I write OFIW)

Post author By Lou
Post date January 20, 2023
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Thinking about the year (On Fridays I write OFIW)

This week we advanced with the tree planting activity planning and you can see what Lou is thinking for rest of 2023.

Today is a day for GREAT celebration! Joanna slept all through the night for the first time in her life. 11.5 hours without touching another human. I didn’t actually think she was capable of this and the relief is incredible. Let’s see if it happens again!!

the glass is half full

The kids are in great health. Kira is getting on better with reading and things other than tv, and enjoyed reading a whole book (comic) and going to reading club at the library.

We are going to get 100 free trees from Life Terra and the process was pretty straight forward. We can get more and more.. 1000 or more in autumn.. in fact I don’t think we need to buy trees again. This is amazing! A big project really getting down the grass roots. I’ll keep you updated and the tree planting activity will be open for people to join us. Dates will be confirmed soon, likely mid-february.

Alex has been getting really organised down in Boodaville Caseres, fixing the sink, and I love the map he made showing the routes from Caseres to Boodaville Finca.

the glass is half empty

Well to be honest, sleeping 7.5 hrs straight wipes out most of this. My partner is feeling better today after 5 days straight of high fever, groaning, tonsilitis, and paranoid crazy dreams preventing any real sleep. The child care/ house work implications of this were high for me and our neighbours. The babysitter canceled yesterday and I won’t get either of my free from kids afternoons this week.

I lost my notebook. This is incredibly annoying and I hope I don’t miss anything important.

What else.. I could mention some minor health issues. Ah yes, I also felt feverish and really really struggled through Tuesday and Wednesday. My goodness!! I’d almost forgotten. What a difference having a good day makes.

Oh and we’re set for a 3000 euro cash flow issue if we don’t get money we are owed for EU projects before 1st Feb.

plans ideas dates mishmash 2023

I was going to stop writing here and leave to get my thoughts together for 2023, but why not just share it all here!!

JAN

– Starting Boodaville Barcelona / Boodaville Caseres 2023

– Preparing Doughnut Economics Barcelona Accio Clima funding bid

– Finish accounts 2022

– Possible KA2

– Call for 2 more Boodaville Caseres volunteers

– Call for Site Manager to start mid-april

FEB

Event Boodaville Caseres : Tree Planting

Deadline : 15 Feb Accio Clima. Possible Doughnut Economics project application

Deadline : 23 Feb Erasmus+ and ESC deadline. Vianna Red Tent? Elena Training? Sanilles reapply? Anything else?

Get a job for a week?

MARCH

Final report : Volunteering 2022

Event : Biochar making weekend nr Caseres?

Focus on delivering SPARK project

Revive Rovira Regenerativa – video?

– Evaluate Boodaville Caseres structure and hopefully get committed site manager through to at least sept 2024

APRIL

9 April Easter, when are school holidays?

Event : end of April till 3rd May : REBUILD THE DOME

MAY

Youth Exchange Mas Les Vinyes

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

UK EVENT? Re-connect / real connect at CAT and weekend with UK friends. End august better

SEPTEMBER

MARANYA FESTIVAL / BIORNE @ MARANYA? – need a team

OCTOBER

– Big tree planting and agroforestry implementation, part of Rovira Regenerativa, get a team back in and talk funding to buy the vineyard

Lou

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Tags barcelona, boodaville, design, nature, permaculture, permaculture education

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On Fridays I write (back after a long break)

Post author By Lou
Post date October 14, 2022
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On Fridays I write (back after a long break)

The big catch up - Bregman, Chipko women, drilling, nursery and a grape harvest! This is an attempt to get you all up to date with all things Boodaville and share some ideas and reflections.

Why the long break?

Well in summer I wanted to write, and found some lovely bits and pieces to share – but was enjoying being with friends and family and the quiet moments never arose. In September I just didn’t even know what day it was while Joanna was adapting to nursery. So here is a rather random attempt to bring you up to date – things will be left out for sure!

My main observation for this week is that people using hammers and drills in the adjoining flat less than 5 metres from your pillow, between the hours of 8am and 5pm on weekedays for 8 MONTHS (!!) grinds you down and down until you find yourself with a snotty sick baby standing on the street at 9am one Monday banging on the door yelling at them to stop. I had a pleasant morning at home on the 17th September, and realised it was because it was Saturday and there were no building works in my head. That day was also Joanna’s first birthday.

Bregman and the Chipko women

In the UK I dipped into Bregman’s book “Utopia for Realists” and enjoyed his style of writing and agreed with what he said – the question in the text below is a great demonstration of how crap politics is “Why is it that so many good ideas don’t get taken seriously?”. His suggestions, in 2014, are brilliant – Let’s create a movement that shares good ideas, rather than always being on the defensive to neoliberalism. Sadly that didn’t work out. Looking back from 2022 we saw Momentum, and Podemos rise and rise, with exactly these good ideas that people supported – then come crashing down, destroyed by the mainstream media. So it’s back to the bullshit jobs and a narrative of “growth, growth, growth”.

I also discovered the origin of the phrase tree huggers, learning from a beautiful children’s book about the Chipko movement. Tree hugging did not start as a spiritual instagram exercise to sell places on your retreat, it started as some radical hard-core activism where women put their bodies around the trees to stop huge companies chopping them down and ruining the watershed for entire valleys in India.

Phil Ball and Vandana Shiva

Also in the UK I heard about an old connection.. back when I used to have a social life with the Young Farmers of Bicester; we’re talking 16 -20 years old… I spent a few discos in the presence of Phil Ball. Recently he caught up with the lovely Jo Soddy in a local pub. He told an interesting anecdote about being in a lift with Boris Johnson and overhearing some truths about the mess behind Brexit, as he is currently a lobbyist /activist of some sort, which is interesting enough for a young farmer from Bicester. But then the full story came out – he was with Greenpeace for many years; he was on the boats stopping drilling for oil. He went to the arctic. He got arrested by the russians and spent six months starving in a russian jail wondering what the hell was going to happen to him. One of the Arctic 30 is our friend Phil Ball. The book about it, which I haven’t bought yet, is “Don’t trust, Don’t fear, Don’t beg” by Ben Stewart. After hearing this I reconnected with him (ok, I will say thank you facebook) which I love, and we are talking about organising a gathering of some sort at CAT in Wales in 2023. The working title is “Re-connect / Real Connect” – inviting old friends who are on a good path, and permaculture people I only know online. No Agenda, just living beautiful rich connections. Probably quite a lot of hugs. Maybe a presentation to promote Permaculture / Boodaville. It would be in August, for a few days. Let me know if you want to come!

I also found some time to at least start watching “The seeds of Vandana Shiva” which I found incredible: Beautiful storytelling of an incredible woman in her power. During September I was writing a project to run another course with Aline at Sanillés (video from our last course is here) and we are focusing on storytelling and narratives because they are so important to the paradigm shift we need, and to teach effectively. You feel a good lesson in your belly. This link probably doesn’t work any more – but here’s the movie.

Boodaville EU funded activities 2023

A funding deadline for Erasmus+ and ESC just passed and we managed, thanks to the incredible support of our new collaborator Elena (I will be in touch again Elena – thank you so much!) to apply for three AMAZING projects :

Youth Worker training at Sanilles with Anna, Aline, Sam. We’ll do it in summer so Bernat and the family will join, as well as participants from all over Europe, AND participants from the BiorNE permaculture association here in Catalunya.
A Youth Exchange at… my favourite permaculture project in all of Spain, and probably the world 😉 .. Mas Les Vinyes! We are collaborating with them to offer a week of Active Permaculture in May 2023
6 volunteers – 2 at Boodaville Barcelona, and 4 at Boodaville Caseres. The calls are open! You can see more info and apply at our Beacons page.

the grape harvest

The most wonderful thing that happened in September was the grape harvest, which came about as part of the Rovira Regenerativa project. We have been given access to land in Vall Rovira: Manuel / Roger said yes. The 8 hectare plot right under Boodaville – the vineyard next to the red brick house, plus olive trees and an almond grove up the next valley are now ours to work. We started work right away by harvesting 240kg of grapes, and our wonderful friend Mike from Artesano Vintners is making us towards organic, regenerative, tempranillo blend natural red wine. AND I saw him this week and he said it’s drinkable. It’s currently in the new Boodaville tank in his celler nr Montblanc. So much thanks to Terri (in the photo!) who had energy for the harvest at just the right moment to make it happen, and to Marc, the ever wonderful Sam Miller, our volunteers Elisa and Aurore and the lovely baby Joanna for enjoying the day and being a very good baby. Also thanks to Yuri and massive thanks to Mike who is making it all happen. We need to design labels for the 160 bottles of wine we are going to produce, and will need help bottling in about May 2023 – let me know if you’re interested!

more site news and ideas

Our new 8 hectare plot (please note, we will need to buy this land in two years!!)

– I’m thinking get the volunteers to harvest almonds if there are any after the April frost, and seed some alfalfa or whatever cover crop we have, up there. The vineyards are overgrown with cane and wild fennel so we could learn the best things to do with that and get on with it.

– Design the vineyards and get a digger in in autumn as planned but with a design to fit the actual land we have (meeting planned for 31st October)

– In December we have boodaville olives and another hmm 40 trees on the new land. soooooo much work!

site manager 2023 and permissions

We have some great applications from people who want to manage Boodaville site and the volunteers next year! We are talking to them during October and November, but the application period is still open so if you are interested please see Beacons for the info and application form. Beacons page.

We now need a “técnico” for the next step in the permissions process which is “memoria de actividades” to apply for permission for specific activities. The process is unbearably slow, but just yesterday I found a contact who is ready to do this work! Thanks to our Vall Rovira neighbour Ana.

The Boodaville site and the flat in Caseres will be empty from the 20th December until the 2023 project starts so there are possible opportunities for winter get togethers!!

boodaville barcelona

Oh, and don’t forget our Barcelona project! Tomorrow we are running a stand at the “

IV Fira d’Economia Social, Solidària i Sostenible” in Poble Sec

Come and see us in Plaza Sortidor!

Lou

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On Fridays I write – usually about Kate Raworth

Post author By Lou
Post date June 17, 2022
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On Fridays I write – usually about Kate Raworth

Lou, founder of Boodaville, goes all out Kate Raworth / Doughnut Economics this week and writes her a letter. (As well as project updates)

Please don’t think for a second that I “have time” to write this. I am struggling in a multitude of ways with parenting, a heatwave, a sore throat (COVID? – everyone has it since Primavera Sound) and interrupted sleep. In fact these crazy entries are part of a wider project to try and highlight how hard it is to be a parent of a child under 5.

Dear Kate,

I want to thank you so very much for coming to Barcelona. I see so much in what you do – props, visuals, knowledge, perfect presentation, involving the audience. A perfect holistic design of how to engage and inspire – and you are changing the world with your work. You had the sun in your face during the talk, on a scorching hot day in Barcelona and then you still stayed behind to say hello and take this photo. I’m happy to be one of the people singing along with you – and your dancing just shows how well you understand the real world. Doing the best thing, instead of the expected thing (in the world of Economics anyway). I agree and value the way that you promote everything from a positive place. After many years around the climate movement I also concluded that yes, the collapse exists and it’s something to grasp and manage (see Joanna Macy to dive into this) but that from an EDUCATIONAL place, and to get people moving, the most effective tool is just finding love and beauty, singing, feeling economics like part of the beating heart of our world. I wonder if you have read the Braiding Sweetgrass chapter on Economics, which I absolutely LOVE. Maybe that could be a help for us here, to design, now that Barcelona loves the Doughnut model.

After meeting you last week I went to the Aliance of the Donut Economics (our DEAL) meeting with Ona Riera and Marta Cuixart from the ayuntamiento. The group exists, and I hope it can grow in strength and make connections to become an important citizens voice in the application of “Doughnut Economics” in the city. I will support them where I can. I will also continue to teach the ideas of Doughnut Economics wherever I can to get this model out there and really start replacing the awful ones, and driving the paradigm shift we need.

I wonder about your background – I wonder how you found your holistic, intersectional vision. There’s not many British economics students I know who would stand up and sing and dance. I found it through many many years of nature connection and then connection with permaculture via the Boodaville adventure.

Oh, and if you can share the presentation from last Saturday please that would be great, I want to get the graph of all the countries’ donuts, and the hospital image printed out to take them to the festival. Well everywhere I go.

I look forward to your reply in the comments! (imagine that!!)

Anna Gurney (mainly know as Lou Boodaville)

here is a video of us singing the doughnut in barcelona!

(Correct use of apostrophe this week???? I have two corrections from the last two weeks posts —- 1) both apostrophes last week are WRONG!! 2) I wrote about Kae Tempest refering to them as “she”. This is the whole freaking point, and I initally missed it. We have to make changes too. Non-binary people take their place in the world and we all need to adapt a bit.

project stuff and crazy ideas this week

Well… I’m still 15 mins away from finishing the Jordi post, and haven’t got the post ready to share the planting 7th May. I have found a new accountant which is amazing news and fundamental to everything else. The food forest productivity study should be happening as I write – but the heatwave has crashed things. We are excited to start collaborating more formally with the Can MasDeu garden volunteer project and thrilled that they will be inspiring our Barcelona volunteers this year and in the future.

I hope we pull together the event for 1st July in the garden Hort Font Trobada. We are still just about managing to share the Food Forest story three times a week on Instagram.

So let’s see where we all are next week!

I know—-

¡¡¡¡We’ll be at Maranya Festival!!

I apologise for there being no links at all this week, you can use “Ecosia” to find what you are looking for. I need to get ready to excape Barcelona for the weekend now.

See you at Maranya!! Happy Sant Joan!! I won’t write next week.

Lou

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ESC volunteering in 2022

We are looking for 1 volunteer for Boodaville Caseres - 3.5 months in our rural site from 1st Sept - Xmas. This is a funded placement for youth with the European Solidarity Corps.

Boodaville Caseres – ESC project

WHEN?

The activities take place for 3.5 months in 2022. Starting the 1st Sept

We are looking for 1 more International volunteer from Europe.

WHO?

This is a placement for participants with a maximum age of 30 as it is funded by the European Solidarity Corps. We are looking for people who are highly motivated to learn and apply Permaculture, who are responsible and have an interest in nature and outdoor activities. Applicants should have good communication skills and be ready to live in a small community. They should be prepared for quiet village life and able to travel between the village and the Boodaville site by bike or walking.

We also invite participants with fewer opportunities.

WHERE?

For 30 hours a week volunteers will be at Boodaville, a developing rural permaculture centre in the Matarranya region of Spain. Visitors learn about effective & sustainable design techniques in a place with challenging climate conditions.

Boodaville started in 2008 with the purchase of 1.5 hectares of olive terraces and pine forests in a stunning, tranquil location. Over the years, many people in an ever-growing international community have become involved and we’ve learned about, and applied, permaculture design during the development of the site.

The long term goal is to create a working example of permaculture principles in action and create an eco-education centre with plenty of space for workshops and courses.

Volunteers will live in rented accommodation in the small village of Caseres,

Caseres is a rural village about 3 km from the demonstration site of Boodaville. It is a small village of about 300 people located next to the Algars River where you can bathe.

See more about Caseres here : http://www.caseres.altanet.org/

WHAT?

Looking after the Boodaville permaculture site, helping with events in Boodaville and beyond, learning about rural living and networking with likeminded people.

WHY?

This European Solidarity Corps program is an opportunity to make something for you and for the world. All basic living expenses are covered as well as the expenses to travel to Caseres, and you receive monthly pocket money.

You will be living and learning ethical design, as well as experiencing life in a rural Spanish village. There are all sorts of possible day to day activities, please read the infopack for more information and if you are eligible you can start the application process by filling in this form.

APPLY HERE BEFORE 23 JUNE!

Interviews for shortlisted applicants will be held via zoom between 24th and 26th June.

Boodaville Barcelona – ESC project

WHEN?

A 12 month contract starting in January 2022.

(Application deadline 10th December 2021)

WHO?

This is a placement for participants with a maximum age of 30 as it is funded by the European Solidarity Corps. We are looking for people who are highly motivated to learn and apply Urban Permaculture, who are responsible and have an interest in ecosocial transition. Applicants should have good communication skills in Spanish as there will be networking and social media tasks. They should be prepared to come to the Poble Sec neighbourhood to work at least three days a week.

WHERE?

Volunteers will live in, or close to, Barcelona and will work in the Poble Sec neighbourhood to create regenerative projects. They will work in a variety of locations including co-working spaces, the offices of collaborating organisations, urban gardens and outdoor public spaces.

WHAT?

January will be a month of observation, planning and training, after which volunteers can implement projects they choose ranging from: organising events and workshops promoting ecosocial transition, implementing permaculture design in the Poble Sec neighbourhood, communication tasks for Boodaville, collaborating with existing organisations on publicly funded projects, creating the project “Permaculture Poble Sec”, helping the Boodaville Association grow by engaging young people and sharing opportunities.

There are many opportunities for independent work, as well as roles collaborating with exisiting groups. There are also opportunities to be involved with permaculure networks across the city and at a regional, national and international level.

Volunteers will work closely with Anna Louise Gurney the coordinator and mentor for this project

WHY?

This European Solidarity Corps project is an opportunity to engage in promoting ecosocial design with long-term effects in a city neighbourhood. All basic living expenses are covered as well as the expenses to travel to Barcelona, and you receive monthly pocket money.

You will be living and learning ethical design, as well as experiencing life in an urban neighbourhood. There are all sorts of possible day to day activities, please read the infopack for more information and if you are eligible you can start the application process by filling in th

Lou

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On Friday’s I write – Project updates and Kate Raworth on Regenerative Business

Post author By Lou
Post date May 27, 2022
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On Friday’s I write – Project updates and Kate Raworth on Regenerative Business

This week Lou, founder of Boodaville, shares project updates from Caseres and Barcelona and insights from Kate Raworth abour Regenerative Business, as well as the usual personal reflections on life as a permaculture city living mother.

Last week I came back to writing after a long gap and tried a little self-care experiment asking for some appreciation. This was inspired by the appreciation cards we do for each other on courses – a lovely take away at the end of a hard week, with all the positive comments in one place. This little action worked, and I believe that as well as lifting me, it is a positive experience for all who participated and read the comments. A little reflection time stepping out from the mundane. Thank you so much to everyone who joined in – some real blasts from the past as well.

I am settling in well to mornings without Joanna, and after two weeks am feeling a little more on top of things, the next challenge is to find child care in Caseres village during the summer, finish organising the summer trip to UK – (Does anyone know any nice permaculture projects in Wales that might host us for a visit?) and then the big beast of looking at the economics for the year and how the resources, needs, offers and euros will circulate during the rest of 2022 and then 2023.

Regenerative Economics

Talking of economics, I am finally finally finishing Doughnut Economics the book – here’s a nice quote,

Regenerative industrial design can only be fully realised if it is underpinned by regenerative economic design.

What’s said in the book, and the reason it is so important, is that economics underpins everything. That is where the change and most importantly the paradigm shift, needs to come. The economic system (and money) are social constructs and could, and should be tools to make our lives function well. The biosphere is reality and our only home, this is where the real limits are. We can create a new system, within our own household, our own neighbourhood, but maybe not yet in large scale industrial design. How can I be positive when you’ve just told me that the entire economic system has to change? Surely I have no influence over that? Well no, most people don’t have the power to influence a country (and the one’s that do are lying buffoons, and they promote themselves as lying buffoons and somehow that’s popular). We all have influence over something. Looby McNamara talks about the positive life we live if we stick to our circle of influence and work at making it bigger and bigger over time. Kate Raworth talks about talking to people with open doors, and growing that way. Doughnut Economics is catching on, it’s even in IB text-books in schools. In fact that brings me to one of last weeks crazy ideas – if I want to teach Doughnut Economics.. which I do, the perfect place to start would be offering sessions in secondary schools to IB students. My circle of influence, let’s get as many of them as possible writing about it in their exams this summer!

maranya festival – tickets go on sale 1st june

Plans are afoot!! 24-26 June we are having a party and you are all invited. Vianna has been working her socks off preparing the information pdf so you can all find out how to get your tickets! We’ll be at WildLab farm, an hour from Barcelona, mixing up the usual amazing activites, Uncle Jam with inspiring permaculture workshops, relaxing in nature and by the swimming pool, dancing and boucing and smiling, and most importantly the gathering of brilliant people and making beautiful connections. See more at @maranyafest or join the conversation with us at facebook.

boodaville caseres

Even though I’m in Barcelona I’m feeling very connected with the Caseres team this week which I love. We are in the geeky process of mapping out and creating a digital version of all the plants and trees in our food forest system, our new strawberry mini-food forest area, and the thyme terrace project where we are scaling up towards actual agriculture. We have over 63 different plants and trees to water by hand, every 3 days.. except not this week because it RAINED!!! The watering by hand serves the added function of observing, touching, learning which is extremely important as we go on learning about how to manage different species in our valley. In the future, when we know better what works it can be scaled up with less of the personal touch – but we will still run a highly labour intensive project in the long-run as part of an efficient, regenerative, ecological design. If the economic regeneration moves along in line with our plan (come on Kate!) then we will also find that machinery, fuel, excess water use become incredibly expensive in euros, whereas labour is valued, and taxed less.

We are also active on instagram (@boodavillepermaculture) these days, sharing bit by bit, the full story of our food forest project.

boodaville barcelona

We hold our open Eco-meets in Poble Sec, on carrer Blai in front of the library every Friday 17h – 19h. Anyone is welcome to come and meet us and to get involved in projects in the neighbourhood. We’re planning an excursion to learn about plants, especially edible ones, and especially very very edible ones that can be foraged from Montjuic – with a cooking and tasting session at the community garden afterwards!

The most exciting thing I saw this week was in the Clot neighbourhood, where I’m mentoring a group of young people in a European Solidarity Corps project. The youth are creating the Green City Lab project, and the huge, ambitious, beautiful and city changing “Hort del Clot” project is being run from the same place. Kait and Julia are the energy and coordination behind this project which has already raised tens of thousands of euros of public money to build a green space/vegetable garden. They are implementing Urban Permaculture at a neighbourhood level, with a reach of thousands and thousands of local residents. Everything they are working on to coordinate and design the way this space works and provides and gifts the community will be shared – open source – for other neighbourhoods to learn from. Our Poble Sec team are very excited to visit them in June and accelerate our own project. We already have the green space, we need the tools to link projects, and different community groups together to create an effective and regenerative whole! They have a sociocratic map / design of the different people and groups which is exactly what I was trying to explain to the volunteers at lunch after a sleepless night a few months ago! It is so inspiring to see and could be a wonderful tool for us. How do we create a structure that encompasses and energises and supports all the networks and groups that already exist?

So let’s see where the next week takes us all. I love my daughters more each day.

Lou

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Better Than New Youth Exchange

Post author By Antonia
Post date January 13, 2022
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Better Than New Youth Exchange

During this youth exchange “Better than New” we invited the participants to have a look at all that's wasted in our society and how to use these resources creatively.

Six countries represented, 11 nationalities and a big mountain of rejected food and a very wide range of rejected things. That’s the summary of the youth exchange Better than New. Together we explored what gets thrown away these days, why it gets thrown away and how we can give it a new life. We started with a workshop in deep ecology. The rest of the week was filled with excursions to a food producer (did you know red bellpeppers get thrown away because it’s fashion to eat them green or yellow these days?) and a local recycling centre where the participants surprised themselves over how many useful objects get thrown away and given the opportunity to take items home to give them a new life.

We loved all sorts of international dances and I’m confident to say that the Hungarian dance was the favorite. More intercultural sharing took place as we learnt about the different cradle to cradle projects that are happening. Also the amount of skills brought to the exchange by participants was phenomenal. From permaculture workshops and Italian pasta making to menstrual pads out of recycled materials (a great way to repurpose broken umbrellas and tents!)

This youth exchange is a collaboration between Boodaville and Pipirimosca. It started as a wild idea I spoke out loud one day. With the three of us, Anna, Pere and me, Jessica, we made it happen. Little did we know that Anna was going to give birth to a beautiful baby girl on the second day of the exchange!

Link to articles in the press https://increiblesostenible.org/mitjans/articles

Read more about the exchange in Catalan below!

Press note for the article previous to the youth exchange:

Del 17 al 27 de setembre. 30 joves de cinc països de la unió europea (Hongria, Grècia, Eslovènia, Espanya i Itàlia) es trobaran a valls per aprendre sobre l’economia circular, prendre consciència de la problemàtica dels residus i aprendre a tornar a donar vida a moltes coses que es llencen.

Aquest intercanvi juvenil internacional s’emmarca dins de les accions Erasmus+ finançades per la Comunitat Europea, i ha estat organitzat per l’associació Boodaville amb col.laboració amb l’associació pel Desenvolupament Local i Alternatiu (ADeLA) que té la seva seu a Valls a la masia anomenada Can Pipirimosca.

Durant la seva estada, els joves visitaran la deixalleria de Valls i partint d’objectes que han estat descartats, aprendran a reparar-los o a modificar-los per donar-los un altre ús.

L’intercanvi, que s’anomena “Better than new” (millor que nou, en anglès) vol conscienciar que el concepte brossa no existeix a la natura, i com a concepte humà, son objectes i materials que tenen un impacte negatiu sobre el planeta, fet el qual, tornar a dona’ls-hi ús té un doble impacte positiu, ja que és un residu menys i un recurs menys que s’ha de produir. D’aquí que reparar i reutilitzar, a nivell d’impacte sobre el planeta, sigui “Millor que nou”.

Just els últims dies de l’intercanvi, el dissabte 25, de 10 a 14h, hi haurà el Mercat del Recanvi, organitzat pel departament de sostenibilitat de l’ajuntament de Valls al pati de Valls Genera, i que serà obert a tothom, on, amb inscripció prèvia, es podran portar objectes per intercanviar. Serà en aquest mateix espai on els joves exposaran el treball fet durant l’intercanvi, mostrant objectes recuperats de la brossa que han estat reparats, modificats o reutilitzats.

Al mercat també hi haurà l’espai de regal de la Fira del RicRac, que organitza Valls en transició amb col.laboració amb la Recicleria Digital.

Press note for the article after youth exchange:

Del 17 al 27 de setembre 30 joves de cinc països s’han trobat a Valls per aprendre sobre economia circular, prendre consciencia de la problemàtica de les deixalles i emprendre accions, tot reparant i reutilitzant deixalles. En grups de sis, joves de Grècia, Hongria, Eslovènia, Itàlia i Espanya s’han reunit per aprendre i compartir, tot respectant les mesures COVID vigents.

Aquest intercanvi juvenil internacional s’emmarca dins les accions del programa europeu Erasmus+ i ha estat coorganitzat per l’associació Boodaville, situada a la regió del Matarranya, i l’Associació pel Desenvolupament Local i Alternatiu (AdeLA). L’Associació ADeLA té la seva seu a Valls, concretament a la masia anomenada Can Pipirimosca, lloc on s’ha realitzat l’intercanvi, i des del 2005 promou i fomenta la transició cap a una societat sostenible, justa i participativa.

L’intercanvi, anomenat «Better than new» («millor que nou», en anglès) posa èmfasi en que el concepte de deixalla és un concepte humà, ja que no existeix a la natura, i en la necessitat de la reducció de les deixalles. En paraules d’un dels formadors, membre de l’associació AdeLA: «Podríem definir com deixalles tot allò produït pels humans, sobretot el darrer segle, que no només no tenen ús per un altre element del ecosistema sinó que tenen un impacte negatiu sobre l’ecosistema, contaminant i posant en perill la vida dels éssers vius.»

Les activitats van començar divendres 17 amb dos dies de formació sobre ecologia profunda.

«En la societat occidental els humans som al capdamunt de tot i les altres formes de vida i el planeta es veuen com simples recursos al servei i disposició dels humans. L’ecologia profunda ens proposa una visió biocèntrica, on la vida entesa com totes les formes de vida i la pròpia biodiversitat son al centre. Ens convida a veure’ns com part de la natura i a respectar els altres éssers vius independentment del valor o utilitat que tinguin pels humans.»

Amb aquesta formació inicial es vol donar una base als participants del «perquè» és important no només reduir les deixalles que generem sinó també cercar maneres de tornar-lis a donar un ús.

Tornant a donar ús a una deixalla, ja sigui reparant, reutilitzant o donant-li un altre utilitat, s’obté un doble impacte positiu pel planeta: una deixalla menys i un recurs menys que cal produir. D’aquí el concepte que millor que nou, sobretot pel que fa a l’impacte sobre el planeta.

Del 19 al 24 els participants han estat aprenent com reparar, aprofitar o donar ús a coses que es llencen o que no s’aprofiten. Han pogut participar a tallers tan variats com bricolatge, fusteria, impressió 3D, costura, conserves, permacultura, elaboració de sabó, boles de llavors per reforestar, reparació de bicicletes, així com diferents sessions de cine-forum on han après i pres consciència de diferents problemàtiques, com l’obsolescència programada. També han fet dues visites al projecte de la barraqueta agroecològica per conèixer el funcionament i els reptes d’un productor local ecològic.

Dissabte 25 els joves participaran del mercat d’intercanvi i segona mà organitzat pel departament de sostenibilitat de l’ajuntament de Valls, on mostraran en una exposició els objectes recuperats per conscienciar de la necessitat de l’aprofitament dels recursos i la reducció de les deixalles.

Antonia

I'm taking this year before university to try things out. Still searching and on my way to learning more and more about myself and the world around me. Sending out lots of love!

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Tags Better than new, community, European Youth, nature, organic produce, permaculture, upcycling, youth exchange