The art of growing food

"We can solve all the world's problem in a garden" - Geoff Lawton

In today's society the vast majority of people are completely cut off from the food production process and even from contact with industrially unprocessed agricultural products. [1] The eaten and the eater are therefore exiled from biological reality... The result is a type of loneliness, derived from another separation: those who eat think that eating is first of all a commercial transaction between themselves and a supplier, and then a transaction, purely linked to the appetite, between herself and the food she consumes; what is eaten is a collection of mass-produced and aggressively traded goods. This is the song of progress: technology and mass social organization have deceptively freed us from the burden of growing and procuring our food, supplying us with quality and quantity (distribution in the world!) to say the least questionable.

The time has come to celebrate the production and distribution of food as the supreme gift and the most revolutionary act. [2]

That's why here in Nea Makri the most passionate work we're doing (and that one I'm learning the most diverse techniques during my travels in the last four years) is growing nourishment. The principles we are following are those coming from common sense, traditional knowledge, permaculture or, appropriately speaking, regenerative agriculture. The key of this way of working is that it not only “does no harm” to the land but actually improves it, using techniques that regenerate and revitalize the soil and the environment, respecting its natural water and nutrients cycles: organic amendments and preparations (obviously chemical inputs are full rejected), minimal tilling, cover crops, local varieties, biological pests management and earthworks. Regenerative agriculture leads to healthy soil, capable of producing high quality, nutrient dense food while simultaneously improving land rather than degrading it, and ultimately leading to productive farms, healthy communities and economies. [3] Because working outside in connection with ground, plants, animals with their colors, sounds, smells and tastes, is a therapeutic process itself!

Having clear in mind that every practical decision has to be made according to the local conditions and water availability (or better, the quality of water management), Nea Guinea's main garden is composed of mostly herbaceous annual plants in polyculture. The six garden beds of 1.20m wide×15m long have paths big enough for the wheelbarrow to pass in between and three drip irrigation pipes running over each one of them. They are built in a "raised bed" shape because the initial soil conditions were, very poor; in this way the compost we keep adding for feeding the plants (or, more correctly, the microbes which feed them) get accumulated, making also more comfortable every garden work.The soil is permanently covered, either with alive plants or with mulch: a layer of different organic materials (straw, woodchips, leaves, cardboard, fabric, dead weeds you've just removed) that holds the moisture on the ground reducing evaporation, prevents erosion, helps weeds control, functions as localized fertilizer and enhances microbes activity. 

It's a party for the Plantae kingdom: entering our garden could be overwhelming for people used to conventional farming, seeing dozens of species growing in the same bed, thinking we are very lazy workers; but we are actually trying to be stewards of health and biodiversity! Vegetables are mixed in complex polycultures based on intercropping factors (the compatibility between different plants), nutrients and water requirements, light demands and growing life cycles in time and space. I've been eating freshly picked salads made of 20 different leaves and flowers, potato and pumpkin soups, amazing peperonata [4], beetroot and beans hummus just to mention a few.

The garden is also a location for informative talks on social and environmental issues related to food, presentations of urban farming, practical workshops on planting, seed saving and processing food.[5]

It is also operating as an experimentation site on different aspects of small scale agriculture such as testing of different composting methods and cultivation techniques, selecting varieties that can adapt better in the local microclimate and some more coming from the fantasy of volunteers! 

"Permaculture is revolution disguised as organic gardening" - Graham Burnett 

[1] Sandor Katz, "The art of fermentation"

[2] Vandana Shiva 

[3] Regenerationinternational.org

[4] https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/08/peperonata-bell-pepper-italian-recipe.html

[5] Neaguinea.org