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Hello and welcome to our March newsletter.

With so much going on in the world we are really seeing and feeling the benefits of the peace and solitude that is Fonte de Baixo.

We have a very full couple of months ahead of us with building and repair projects and setting our food planting, nurturing and harvesting for the coming months.

Each morning we rise at 5.30am for our first meditation session of the day. Part of the focus is How will I use this day? In the evening, we take a moment before retiring to reflect on what happened during the day: How did I use this day to nurture my mind and heart?

Our modern culture does not encourage this time for reflection. If we dont orient our day toward spiritual growth, the speed of our life takes over, fuelled by habitual patterns. While some habitual patterns are a source of inspiration, others just drain our energy. Ahimsa-Portugal offers a space to come and join in the exploration of a quiet spiritual approach to work and self-development.

Modernism was founded on denying time. This is what made it so synthetic, and so tacky. Ahimsa puts time back into the beauty of just being. People who have come to Fonte de Baixo have learnt the techniques of quietness and stilling the mind, so that wherever they are, when they quiet their egocentric mind and return to a state of undistracted awareness, they have entered the peace of Ahimsa-Portugal

Ayurveda

This time of the year is a true miracle. Year after year it surprises me again!!

When the sun comes out after the dark winter months and warms the air, everything starts buzzing with life. In Fonte de Baixo we had 3 weeks of glorious sunny weather already. The bees are flying, the birds are dancing and mating, the first butterflies emerge and green shoots come up everywhere. Awesome!

The effect this has on our minds is instant. From one day to the next we feel lighter, more energetic, feel the urge to move, to spend time outside, to run and exercise.   After the heaviness and lethargy of the winter months we feel a spring in our steps, clean the house, polish the windows and wash the car.

It is time to let go of the excess weight we might have put on in the winter and clear our respiratory systems of any excess mucus which might have built up.

Nature provides us with remedies to get rid of excess Kapha in the body.

Before you get serious with weeding your garden, bring some of the weeds in the kitchen for a tasty salad or tea. You can also add these spring greens to stews and stir fries.

Dandelion Root Tea

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Try this regenerative dandelion tea to give yourself (your kidneys and liver) a fresh start.

Dandelion tea is a renewing tonic to wake us up with the land around us after a long winter. It is rich in minerals and is known as a cleanser of the kidneys and liver, and a very healing herbal remedy that strengthens the entire system. As one of the gentlest and safest diuretics, so it is also a boon during premenstrual syndrome, and is traditionally a good addition to the diet of diabetics. Buy dandelion root at the health food store if you dont find any in your garden.

Ingredients
4 cups pure water
6 tablespoons dried dandelion root (1 year old minimum)
12 tablespoons dried dandelion leaf

Simmer the dandelion root in the water, uncovered, for 20 minutes, and then strain the liquid over the dandelion leaf. Cover tightly and steep for another 20 minutes; strain the tea again.

Spring Salad

My mother used to make this salad every day as a starter in early spring. It looks pretty and it is absolutely free! Dandelion leaves are very alkaline. They purify and build the blood, cleanse and regenerate the cells.

Ingredients:

1 hand full of dandelion leaves
1 hand full of daisy leaves and flowers,
Rocket, spring onion or your first radishes grown in the greenhouse (optional)
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tsp. French mustard
2 tbsp. lemon juice
6 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. honey
Salt and pepper to taste.

Wash the leaves, mix together all the ingredients for the dressing, and toss together. It is ready to eat.

Have a lookout for stingy nettles too. They will provide you with all the iron you will need at this time of the year to recharge your system. You can use nettles as substitute for spinach leaves in soups or casseroles. They make a fantastic soup or gnocchi! We will post you some delicious recipes next month!

Ahimsa-Kitchen

If you want to see the face of hell,
When you come home from work,
Dance with your kitchen towel,
And if you are worried about waking the children,
Take off your shoes.

Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav

Butternut and mushroom soup

Serves 4

The butternut in this mushroom soup gives a low-fat alternative to the usual addition of cream in this type of soup.

500g butternut squash, peeled and diced
200g mushrooms, sliced (a combination of button, field and chestnut gives the best flavour)
1 medium onion, sliced
2 leeks, sliced
2 medium potatoes, diced
30g butter
15ml olive oil
2 teaspoons of medium curry powder
500ml vegetable stock
250ml milk
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon of honey
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the butter and olive oil. Fry the onion and leeks until transparent, but not brown. Add mushrooms and potatoes and fry for a further 5 minutes. Stir in the curry powder and fry for two more minutes, stirring frequently. Add the stock, butternut, milk, bay leaf and honey.

Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the vegetables are soft.

Remove the bay leaf and liquidise the soup.

Heat through, check the seasoning, and serve with a spoonful of yoghurt or crème fraîche.

Tasty Millet Frikkadels

Serves 4

Cubes of carrot and brushstrokes of spinach turn these vegetarian frikkadels (rissoles) into an artistic treat, especially when serves with a spicy sauce and either new potatoes or savoury rice.

250g dry millet
625ml water
Half a teaspoon each of dried oregano and thyme
1 tsp salt
1 large onion, chopped
250g carrots, finely cubed or grated
1 tbsp groundnut oil
25g butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large handful of chopped spinach
250g cheddar-type cheese, grated
Milk to moisten, if necessary

Zesty sauce:

4 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 red or yellow pepper, finely diced
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 green chilli, seeded and chopped
25ml olive oil
30g capers or 60g stoned olives
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp paprika
Half-teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
60g sultanas, soaked in boiling water for 1 hour
30g chopped fresh parsley

Place millet, water, oregano, thyme and salt in a heavy saucepan and simmer for 25 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion and carrots in the oil and butter until the onion is soft.

Add the garlic and continue cooking for another 2 minutes. Now add the spinach and simmer until wilted.

Combine all the ingredients, using a little extra milk to moisten the mixture if it seems too dry. Leave to cool until it can be handled.

Wet hands and form 16 20 balls, placing these on a greased backing tray. Brush with beaten egg yoke as this gives a really good colour. Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes, until golden.

Serve with our zesty sauce Skin the tomatoes by cutting a cross in the bottom and pouring boiling water over them. Stand for 30 seconds, drain, peel and chop.

Sauté the onion and pepper in the olive oil until soft.
Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and paprika.
Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add a little water if too dry.
Add the capers or olives, the seasoning, chilli and the sultanas and simmer for 10 minutes.
Check seasoning. Serve over the millet balls and garnish with parsley.

Chaussons Aux Pommes Classic French Apple Turnovers

Makes 4-6 turnovers

These apple turnovers, sold ready-made in most French boulangeries provide an easy made dessert.

2 large cooking apples
12g unsalted butter
¼ tsp grated lemon rind
50g caster sugar
1 level tablespoon, sultanas
250g prepared puff-pastry
1 egg
Icing sugar for dusting

Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. Melt the butter in a saucepan; add the apples and lemon rind. Cover with a lid and cook over a low heat until the apples are soft. Beat the apples to a puree, add sugar and sultanas. Set aside until cold.

Roll out the puff pastry 5mm thick. Using a 7.5cm round, fluted pastry cutter, stamp out circles from the pastry; gently roll each circle with a rolling pin to form an oval about 3mm thick. Spoon the apple mixture equally over half of each pastry shape. Brush the edges with beaten egg and fold the pastry over. Press the edges firmly to seal. Slash the top of each pastry with a knife, brush with beaten egg and leave for 15 minutes.

Bake the pastries on wet baking trays, above the centre of an oven, pre-heated to 210°C for 10 minutes. Lower to 190°C and continue baking until golden brown. Dust with sifted icing sugar and serve warm or cold with cream.

Sustainability Tip

One of the core values at Ahimsa-Portugal is that we try as much as possible to live and work with nature. We are very conscious of our foot print, not only the energy we use but across everything we do. Ahimsa means to do no harm or at least to minimise our impact as much as we can. Below are some of the ideas that we are putting into practice and perhaps you could try some of them too?

Feeding ourselves

As much as possible, we eat from our own land, but because we cannot grow everything needed we source the rest from local suppliers such as the weekly farmers market in Pedrogao Pequeno and the local dried foods store in Serta, which buys from local suppliers where possible.

Our local Farmers Market is a great asset. Its less than 2 kilometres from Fonte de Baixo so we can walk or go by bicycle. We have been thinking of perhaps getting a donkey and trap, just like the old days before we relied so heavily of oil. The market, every Sunday morning provides us with a choice of around 25 producers who sell only local produce.

To further diversify the source of our food, we swap surplus produce from our land and work with our local permaculture group, providing mutual assistance in establishing gardens and orchards.

Overall, we havent done anything very difficult, or very different, except perhaps buy a plot of land in Portugal. The challenge for becoming more sustainable is deciding what to do next or, perhaps more accurately, what not to do next. Our next 25% of saving will be more of a challenge than the first 25%. But if everyone were to start by making the easier savings we would see a huge improvement and, maybe, meet the international targets for carbon emissions.

If each suburban garden were producing food or fibre, the whole city would become a kind of farm.  Permaculturists call this garden agriculture and by re-directing the time and resources that go into maintaining ornamental gardens, high levels of local production could easily be achieved.

By garden agriculture I mean small scale intensive production systems associated with homes and primarily producing for human needs, although tradable surpluses might be produced. Human labour rather than machines provide the major power input.

Straight or Wild

There are two types of approach to vegetable gardens within permaculture systems the intensive and the wild. The intensive system will probably use straight rows, lots of compost and winter crops planted as soon as the summer ones have been harvested. Yields can be very high. Because this kind of garden gets a lot of attention, the higher value crops like peppers, aubergine, tomatoes, carrots, brassicas, etc. can be very successful.

The wild system is more like a miniature ecology combination of insects, birds, mulch, soil and plants that are more or less complementary in the way a natural ecology is. This is a very low input garden, but it can still produce good yields. It lends itself to high production of the easy vegetables basil, potatoes, courgettes, beetroot, broad beans, garlic, lettuce, pumpkins, sweet corn (you will need a lot of space), parsley and lemon grass.

At Fonte de Baixo we use a combination of both systems at the top of the land and along the edges of the meadow we use the wild system in the middle terraces we use the intensive system as this gives us the best of both worlds.

Many of the annual vegetables are self seeding they drop seeds in situ or seeds like the pumpkin go through the compost and back to the garden the next spring. As well as the annuals, the garden is a nursery for fruit seedlings apricots, peaches, apples, loquats, and avocados pop up each year, having spent some time as seeds in the compost heap. These volunteers are either left in place or transplanted to other parts of the land or to friends gardens.

Gardening Tip:

Its time to sow; in fact Ive already started in the poly-tunnel: tomatoes, peppers, celeriac, chillies, sweet peas, aubergines to name a few. Ive sorted my seeds by planting times and drawn out a plan so I know where to put them. My organic seed potatoes are chitting in a light cool room. Some on my compost bins are empty and seaweed (collected free from the beech last autumn) is mulching some beds and where Im going to plant the potatoes. Using the Permaculture approach I dont dig trenches instead I lay the potatoes on the soils surface and cover them over with mulch, straw, compost and old shredded newspapers.

Lets have a look at what plants need in order to thrive. All fruit and veg need plenty of sun, water, space and a well-drained, moisture-retentive soil. In a nutshell, this just means keeping on adding as much well rotted organic matter as possible and mulch, mulch and more mulch. Mulching is a highly virtuous activity. The addition of bulky material e.g. well rotted manure, compost, spent hops, composted paper, cardboard or straw to the surface of the warmed and wetted soil, helps to suppress weeds, preserve warmth and moisture , to provide optimum living conditions for worms and micro-organisms and to ultimately provide nutrients and humus.

A word about molluscs and seedlings. Slugs and snails are greedy little blighters and will happily polish off a whole row of tiny tender plants overnight. There are many effective deterrents.  Bruni and I are in the process of writing a small booklet of how to manage these little pests. If you would like a copy, then please email us and we will send one out to you.

Now is the time to harvest the last of the winter crops and place all debris in newly emptied compost bins. Add organic matter to the soil, mulch where and when appropriate. As I dont dig the soil I just use a light rake to loosen the very top of the soil to make a seed bed. Warm the soil with cloches or plastic sheeting and hoe as soon as weeds appear. Carrots and parsnips dont want any organic matter added to their beds. Now is the time to plant early potatoes and onion sets. Under cloches you can plant beetroot, spring onions and early radishes. I have planted my first sowing of peas in newspaper cones which are in the cold frame and parsnips can go in at the beginning of the month and carrots at the end.

Gardening by the Moon in March

Planting: Flowers, 5^th & 6^th and 15^th

Leaves, 16^th &17^th; Fruit, 8^th - 10^th; Roots, 11^th - 14^th.

Sowing seeds: Flowers, 23^rd - 25^th; Leaves, 25^th 27^th, Fruit, 1^st & 2^nd, 19^th -20^th28th-29th; Roots, 3^rd & 4^th, 21st-24^th, 30^th-1^st April.

The Bees

As the days lengthen and the weather warms up, the bees are becoming more active. The queens in each hive will start to increase egg laying as will foraging on fine days. As our meadow comes into bloom with all the spring flowers and herbs, together with the rising sap on the pine and eucalyptus trees, there is plenty of food for them. I havent actually opened the hives up yet this year a job I will be doing over the next couple of weeks. 

Beauty Tip:

Milk and Honey Face Rinse

Another of Cleopatras Beauty secrets!  It is known to keep away wrinkles.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. raw honey
1 cup skimmed milk
2 teaspoons Aloe Vera gel

Combine the ingredients in a jar and shake well. Apply to your face morning and evening with a cotton wool pad. Store the mixture in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

If you want to add anything to our newsletter, events, workshops, ideas or services for sale or trade, please dont hesitate to send them through and we are happy to add them to future newsletters. If you would like to go onto our newsletter list then please send an email to: info@ahimsa-portugal.com

From Projeto-Ahimsa and Fonte de Baixo -