We are an off-grid permaculture project in Portugal. We open our homestead and farm to visitors who want to attend a Permaculture Design Course, Food Forest Course, Natural Building Course and Yoga retreats with Permaculture.
We are working on restoring an abandoned agriculture farm into an abundance of food and life through Food Forests, Agroforest and land restoration activities. We have established working Permaculture systems with various natural buildings including Straw Bale, cordwood and cob. Our in-house yoga teacher can also provide you with morning yoga when you visit us.
Permaculture Design Course

Eco Yoga Retreat with Permaculture

Food Forest Courses

Natural Building Courses

Permaculture & Yoga Volunteer programs

Reforestation Program

Latest Blog Posts
Septmeber in the vegetable garden in Portugal
What to plant in September in the vegetable gardens in central Portugal
August in the vegetable garden in Portugal
What to do in August in the vegetable garden in Portugal. Which seeds to plant and which plants to plant out. As part of our efforts to keep up with our veg boxes, we need an excellent gardening plan for what seeds to plant and when. So I am finally documenting and sharing our data […]
Organic veg boxes for sale from our permaculture farm
We have extended our summer garden of vegetables and are now selling veg boxes to local customers. Each week customers buy a box or €10 or €20 worth of vegetables. Laurence packs each box with what is available that week instead of the customers choosing their vegetables.
Shop at Keela Yoga Farm
Please visit our in-house and online shop at Keela to support our small farm. As a Permaculture Farm, first and foremost we are producers. One important part of being a permaculture farm is to produce more and consume less.
Video from our Summer 2023 Permaculture Design Course
Check out the video from our Summer 2023 Permaculture Design Course showing some of the things students get up to during a summer course at Keela Yoga Farm. To find out more about our permaculture design courses please click here
What is Permaculture part 2 – The 12 principles of Permaculture
I like to define Permaculture as a philosophy that follows three core ethics with systems designed based on twelve principles. Permaculture combines natural systems that mimic nature while incorporating modern technology. It aims to create a more sustainable future by producing more, consuming less and working together.
Organic Seeds and Trees Portugal
A list of places to buy trees, seeds and general shops for your homestead for people living in the Fundao area.
What is Permaculture Part 1 – History and Ethics of Permaculture
I like to define Permaculture as a philosophy that follows three core ethics and systems designed based on twelve principles. Permaculture combines natural systems that mimic nature while incorporating modern technology. Permaculture aims for a more sustainable future by each of us producing more, consuming less and working together.
Planting a salad garden
This blog post is to help you plan, design and maintain your salad garden for a continued supply of salad all year. This article was published in our monthly gardening peace in the Central Connects Magazine.
Planting Cover crops in the vegtable garden
Welcome to the first edition of the monthly gardening blog that will feature in Central Connect magazine in Portugal. The focus of this article and future articles will always lean towards the edible garden, known in portuguese as ‘A Horta’. To download your copy of the magazine, scroll to the bottom.
December in the Garden or Farm in portugal
Here is my December gardening article for the central connect magazine. Summer has ended, the rains have started, and the cold is coming. This brings new tasks in the garden and on the homestead. Here is what we are up to at Keela Permaculture Farm this December.
Tropical Strawbale Greenhouse Shower Room
In addition to our outside shower, we have an inside wood-powered shower in our greenhouse. This gives the beautiful feeling of showering outside in nature but inside in the warmth of the greenhouse. The hot water heater heats the greenhouse, and guests stay nice and warm.
Photos from Permaculture Design Course Sept 2022
Photos from our September 2022 certified two-week Permaculture Design Course. Week 1 had two theory classes per day and two practical classes per day. On the weekend, students had the opportunity to visit another local farm for a work exchange. On week two, students were split into design groups; each had to complete a permaculture […]
Photos from Oct 2022 Natural Building Course
Photos from our 5-day natural building course in October 2022. Students got to experiment with various Natural Building methods, including wattle and daub, earth bricks, earthbags, cordwood, cob, earth plaster, lime plaster and straw bale. Please take a look at the photos below from the five-day course. You can also check our video from our […]
How to harvest grapes for wine-making
We run a small co-op where we make wine collectively together at Keela. This post is to help those who are picking their grapes for us to make wine but will apply to anyone who is picking grapes.
Planting trees in the summer
Planting trees in the summer is never ideal but sometimes we just need or want to do it. Ideally, we plant trees bare-rooted trees in Automne (or spring for more frost-sensitive trees). However, we have moved big olive trees and planted potted trees in the summer and this week we planted 21 and this is […]
How to make a sheep skin rug – Easy and quick way
A lot of homesteaders chuck away the sheepskins when the process lambs and so this is a wonderful free resource that anyone can get and turn into a high-quality natural rug. We have been making them for a few years now and are perfecting the method so I thought I would write a blog post […]
Natural Building Applied Technology
Here are some of the technologies that can be used alongside Natural Building Techniques. To join our natural building courses please do check out this link.
Natural Building Techniques
List of different Natural Building Techniques that can be used in a Natural Building.
Natural and Sustainable self build building Principles
Here are our principles for natural building.
Permaculture Diploma Portugal
If you would like to start or continue your Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design with the Permaculture Association you may do this at Keela Yoga Farm. We have opportunities as Teaching apprenticeships, teaching assistants and design work experience at our Permaculture Farm with Tom Henfrey, the only official registered Diploma teacher in Portugal. Diploma in […]
Thomas Henfrey – Permaculture Design Educator
We would like to introduce Thomas Henfrey. Tom is a co-teacher at Keela Yoga Farm’s Permaculture Design Courses. He is the only certified Permaculture Diploma tutor in Portugal. He is an author of various permaculture and ecology books and has 20 years of experience in Permaculture and Ecology.
Registering Sheep in Portugal
We have been through the process to get a licence for sheep and register sheep in our area of Fundao in Portugal and should apply to any area in Portugal I thought I would type up the information to share as it was quite confusing for us and would like to make it easier for […]
Baby animals are so cute – births on the farm
Keeping animals are such a joy, especially when you can integrate them into the farm to reduce work load and increase fertility. Not to mention all the food you get. This year we have had so many births of piglets, chicks and lambs and here is a little into and some photos for you.
Permaculture Internship Video
Want to know what it is like on one of our Permaculture internships? Check out this 20 min video showing what we got up to each day during the Summer 2021 internship. Remember internships are different seasonally and annually but this will give you an idea.
Olive Press Fundao / Penamacor / Castelo Branco / Idanha-a-Nova area
List of Olive presses in our area. Between Penamacor, Fundao and Castelo Branco Area, please leave comments about the ones you have used or if you know any others.
Buy a tree for a gift
Gift a tree to your loved ones! A birthday, Father’s day, Christmas present or whatever occasion you like. We will do a personalised video of the tree planting for you to share.
Chicken food forest update
We planted a chicken food forest two years ago with many species of plants. Fallen fruit and low hanging fruit will be for chickens, middle fruit for us and the highest fruit will be for wildlife.