Permaculure develops at Curaçao
Band'abou
is the western part of Curaçao. Here used to be the agriculture.
Nowadays there isn't much left. Roland's family still owns an old
'kunuku'* with lime house, but the land is overgrown with Neem and
Noni trees and Kadushi, an edible cactus. The good news is: Roland
has permission to start a permaculture project there!
*Kunuku means something like 'vegetable garden'.
*Kunuku means something like 'vegetable garden'.
Locally grown veggies
Looking
for organic food in the supermarkets Roland didn't find much. There
are imported products, the same brands you see in Dutch supermarkets
(organic brands too). No local organic vegetables or fruits … yes,
one exception: fresh sprouts (micro-greens) with the brand 'Nos
Kunuku'. He bought a box. At home he googled and found the facebook
page: https://www.facebook.com/nos.kunuku/.
He made an appointment with the owner, Henny Barbolina.
Nos Kunuku
Four years ago Henny changed from regular agriculture to organic. He
knows the permaculture principles and tries to apply them as much as
possible. It's a way of development. He says permaculture is like
nature in the tropical rainforest. There is always an abundance of
food, not grown by humans, but by nature itself. No energy is wasted.
He discovered 'aquaponics', based on old knowledge combining culture
of fish and vegetables. In this video Henny tells about aquaponics,
about the importance of local production and exchange with other
permaculturists (in the USA mainly):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZXq9_1z-O8
Eco Village SOL
From
the Netherlands Roland had e-mail contact with Salomon Bomberg of Eco
Village SOL (facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ecovillagesol/
). Salomon wants to start Curaçao's first 100% self-sustaining
community. It's not only agriculture, but a centre for development
and exchange of knowledge. Salomon did research on green techniques
as well as personal growth. He is very interested in Fibonacci's
findings on numbers in nature.
Numbers and permaculture
Salomon
showed Roland the land he is cleaning, together with some volunteers.
In the past it was a junkyard, full of rusty car parts. A part is
already cleaned and changed into Salomon's own specific sort of
permaculture. He experiments with numbers, trees planted in pentagon
and hexagon shape. In this video he tells about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPoB_Of2UBs
He
has some cows too, for them he is making stables and grazing fields
in a hexagon shape. It is divided in six parts, while the cows graze
one part on the other parts new grass grows. You can see it in this
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y8hL9_c0O8
Salomon's
greenhouse is a double dodecagon, or a lemniscate, the shape of
'flowing energy'.
Info, photos and videos by Roland van Reenen, (v)ITAL, facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/V-Ital-Biologisch-in-Suriname-en-Curacao-706528842781626/
