This May Regenerative weekend was exceptional in all respects; hands-on practicals in the vineyard were balanced with afternoons in the river. The conversations exploring ideas of regeneration were animated and productive, and sharing a meal together while watching Venus in the sky was perfect.
What I’m trying to say is.. come and join us August 21-23 to do it all again!
Fun and Learning
The flow from the first moment was perfect with a very pleasant picnic dinner by the river on Friday and an early start on Saturday to get out into the field before the heat.
After the hydrological design consultation we were able to experiment this weekend with ways to apply the long-term cover crop strategy – which is to “roll and crimp” the vegetation. In layman’s terms this means squash it down and break the stems to create a “mattress” covering the soil and keeping water in the soil. In the past we’ve wanted to leave the vegetation as habitat to increase biodiversity, now we are committed to dropping it down to increase soil health and humidity, while leaving some “biodiversity islands” in every field.
All this was done in a very Boodaville way. Since we are experimenting with the edge between nature connection experiences and farming, we are looking at working with manual tools in groups and we invented a way of using rebar and human feet to roll and crimp.
In the long term we will have animals to do this work – almost certainly sheep and chickens. If you would like to see how the hydrological design consultation and the learnings with this group have contributed to how Rovira Regenerativa will reach its vision, there’s a video of my Sunday presentation further down this post. I was really happy that the group were interested to listen and see the decisions and design process.
Value what emerges
We always share the overall vision of Rovira Regenerativa on these weekends, bringing together many different elements from the holistic design we have for a regenerative food production, education and community project. One of the aims is to make the most of what already exists in the valley with forgaging and observation.
We were very happy to see two cherry trees full of perfectly ripe fruit that was otherwise not going to get eaten. I saved some of the cherries to scatter around near the Thyme Terrace project and hopefully grow more trees close by. We scatterd the pips there, but I wanted to also leave whole cherries to get eaten, pooed and have a greater chance to thrive as part of natures’ cycles.
In our closing circle we shared our highlights.. of course I have to mention the quote of the weekend when Manolis said he wanted to “get out there and punch the cover crop” and other highlights were river swimming, mealtimes, and fresh cherries!*
We hope to see you next time, and if you join via the crowdfunding campaign (limited spots available!) you can help secure the purchase of the vineyard and accelerate the land regeneration activities! AND it’s tax deductible!!
*we can’t guarantee cherries on every regenerative weekend of course! They are seasonal and need the right conditions to flourish.. this is the first time the tree has been full!
