We have 28 scouts visiting us for nearly a week to experience farm life and participate in the programs happening at Keela Permaculture Farm. They worked in the vegetable.
After three years of bureaucracy and inspections from Sativa, Keela is now listed as a certified Organic Farm in Portugal and is on the EU register of certified organic farms as Laurence Manchee (the founder and trading name of Keela).
In August 2024, we had the first of our new monthly open day, and it was fully booked with 50 people! A big thank you to everyone who attended and helped out; we had an enjoyable day.
26th May -2nd June 2024, Keela Permaculture Farm in central Portugal.
Yoga Immersion in Nature
In 2024, we are excited to combine our retreat hosts into a Yoga immersion. A fully authentic experience with two yoga teacher trainers and a certified permaculture educator to introduce you to Permaculture. Sudhir Rishi will join us from Sthira Yoga, India, and Anya from Yoga in English from Berlin.
The easiest part of managing an agroforestry is raising the funds to plant it and then planting it. The real work comes later, with maintenance year after year. This article discusses the maintenance we must do each autumn in our organic agroforest in Portugal.
A four-day agriculture festa in Fundao is organised by the Município do Fundão with multiple areas, including an organic and regenerative agriculture tent where laurence from keela yoga farm will be presenting alongside a massive lineup.
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 (in spreadsheets) in a more legible form. Join our mailing list to stay updated.
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.
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.
Summer veggies include eggplants, corn, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, green beans, potatoes, onions and more. 20 eur box has more variety than 10 eur box
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
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. more “What is Permaculture part 2 – The 12 principles of Permaculture”…
Bureaucracy is complicated in Portugal, and we have just been through our annual inspection as an organic farm. This time I made some notes on what has to be done each year, and I hope this helps you understand what needs to be done if you go organic.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 design with implication steps. During the week were two theory classes per day to help them with their project.
We finished the week with group presentations and a pizza party
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 2-week course or join us for a future course.
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 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 we do it.
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 to share on how to make a sheepskin rug. more “How to make a sheep skin rug – Easy and quick way”…
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.
Compost Worms
€30.00 – €100.00
Unisex Crewneck T-shirt - Permaculture Ethics
€20.00
Thermal 1-liter water bottle
€15.00
