13th December 2024

Permaculture club @TreflachFarm

Thursday Permaculture Club @TreflachFarm

Was fun to be joined by the children today at Treflach Shropshire, and our permaculture club is open to all ages and abilities.

The long term focus of this project is to build a team of people committed to habitat restoration in the region. At Treflach farm, our base we are developing a mandala garden, with 20 raised beds, which we will use to develop a soil testing experiment which will run over the next 4 years hopefully. We are using BRIX testing methods to  assess the nutrient density of food, and from this we can make assumptions about the quality of the soil and the soil biota as a result.

We are using biochar preparations to increase soil carbon, water retention and fertility. Watch this space for the results, we are only just getting started on this.

The this is the refractometer we are using to measure the sugar and mineral content of the plants we are analyzing.

Lovely picture created by ‘Indi’ using the plant juices after we had tested them for our soil experiments. We found some lovely colours from lettuce, spinach, comfrey, lilac and parsley.

Mt Elgon Coffee

Produced by permaculture trained farmers in Eastern Uganda, buying this coffee is also a great way to support our project, as well as supporting the farmers. They are also part  of a co-operative of 700 growers engaged in tree planting and habitat restoration. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DragonsBrewCoffee

Exploring the link between soil biota and food quality

Our garden is inspired by the Ferme du Bec Helouin in Normandy and we intend to use it test the relationship between the life in the soil and quality of the food it produces.

We are doing this as part of the Grffn project which is collecting data set to support this research. The implications are very significant and could help in both cliamte mitigation, increased nutrition. in our experiments we are using biochar inoculated with farm manure to boost soil-life, water retention and it long term fertility.

https://www.fermedubec.com/la-ferme-du-bec-hellouin-entame-une-grande-transition/

Growing Real Food For Nutrition CIC

Learning how to grow, measure and promote the benefits of nutrient dense food

  • Grffn’s vision is for a world where all food is grown for its nutritional qualities using regenerative practices, and made accessible to all, creating an abundance of health and harmony, reconnecting humans with Mother Earth 
  • Grffn’s mission is to deepen citizens’ understanding of how we derive nutrition from natural processes and to realise its impact on human development

GoFundMe

Please help us deliver Permaculture educational services through the S39 Academy of Permaculture. We are specifically seeking funds to support a Lockdown Permaculture class for kids in Busia Uganda over the coming month.