Current Newsletter

Olá from Fonte de Baixo.

What a fabulous month it's been with hot sunny days and warm evenings to sit under the stars and dream. We have made little progress with actual building but this was to be expected and so we are not disappointed. At the moment we are happy to get a feel for the land and how we want the buildings to look and feel. Our architect Manfred is playing with ideas and evaluating our various options for building environmentally and with the holiday season in full swing he is off to Sweden and his family vacation.

We have received so many encouraging emails and letters from our first newsletter, so thank you. At first we were not sure any one would be interested in Ahimsa and what we hope it can be, but from the responses so far it appears there is. We have finally got this website up (www.ahimsa-portugal.com) and over the next few weeks and months we plan to add additional pages - news and events, meditation and yoga teachings along with other interesting and topical features from Portugal and around the world.

Bruni took the opportunity to take part in an advanced Thai-yoga massage workshop with Laurino Bertelli one of the senior teachers of the Sunshine Network Institute.

Both Laurino and Bruni were originally trained by the late Asokananda, arguably the leading Western teacher of Thai-yoga massage. The workshop focussed on learning to work with the 'intuition', a style of working with the body developed by Piched Buunthumme, in Chiang-mai, Thailand.

Bruni has taught extensively in India and Mauritius and is interested in extending the deep connections between yoga and Thai-yoga massage. Once Ahimsa-Portugal is able to take guests, Bruni will be offering a range of Yoga and Thai-yoga workshops and retreats. For additional information on the Sunshine Network Institute visit: www.thaiyogamassage.infothai.com

"When we are on a journey we need a compass; even when we are at sea, surrounded by great waves, a compass can help us to find our direction. In the same way we need a spiritual compass to find our direction in life.

A spiritual compass can help us to navigate our path through confusion and crises, through the suffocating allure of materialism, and through delusion and despair.

The ancient Indian tradition of Ayurveda offers us such a compass: a compass of three qualities. This compass can help us to find the way of wholesome living". - Satish Kumar

Over the coming months Bruni will be writing about Ayurveda and yoga which I'm sure we are all going to enjoy.

At the beginning of the month I facilitated a retreat entitled "Learning to be real". One of the participants commented, "This is a full-time job. It won't work to just practice at certain times." To make this type of commitment you have to want to be real at any cost. You have to love being real - even if you don't like what you are feeling or who you are in any particular moment. One of the key themes of the retreat was building 'awareness' of what is happening, what one is experiencing, moment by moment. On day two the group participated in an exploration session which I called 'Bringing Awareness to Where You Are.'

This exercise will help you to attend more fully to where you are. Begin with your experience right now. What is going on? Where are you in this moment? What is happening to you? What are you feeling, sensing, thinking, and noticing around you?

You want to feel where you are. You want to see it, experience it, recognise it, and understand it. You don't want to anywhere; you are not trying to accomplish anything. You just want to find out where you happen to be in this moment and to explore where you are consciously, fully and with awareness and presence.

After you've done this for a while, consider the experience you've just had. Your awareness can expand and deepen, or become limited and more constricted. What expanded your awareness? What limited it?

Ahimsa-Kitchen

From our vegetable terraces and small orchard come these seasonal recipes which we hope you will enjoy.

Peppers in Oil

Makes 2 x 500ml pots

The warm sun has really provided us with a bumper crop of red, orange and golden peppers, far more than we can eat so this wonderfully easy method of catching summer in a jar is coming in useful.

Ingredients:
300ml white wine or cider vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
1 head of garlic, cloves peeled
Approximately 4-5 red, orange or golden peppers, cored, seeds and membranes removed, and cut into long wide strips.
A couple of handfuls of basil leaves.
180g green olives
Approximately 500ml extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Pour the vinegar into a medium-size saucepan, add 700ml water and the salt and bring to the boil. Add the garlic and half the peppers bring back to the boil and simmer for 8 minutes, then remove the peppers with a slotted spoon (leaving the garlic in the pan) and drain on a clean tea towel, cupped-side down. Cook the remainder of the peppers in the same fashion, before draining together with the garlic.

At the same time as cooking the peppers, heat two half-litre Le Parfait jars (or whatever jars you are using) for 5 minutes in a medium to hot oven at 190°C. Cover the base of the jars with a few of the pepper slices, cupped-side up, a couple of basil leaves, poached garlic cloves and olives, and then pour enough olive oil almost to cover them, then press the peppers down with the back of a spoon. Repeat with the remainder of the ingredients, pushing the peppers down each time you add the olive oil to submerge them. Finally cover the vegetables with a few millimetres of olive oil, and close the jars.

The pickles can be eaten immediately or stored in the fridge for up to a month. The oil will harden but liquefy at room temperature. Once opened store in the fridge for up to one week, making sure the vegetables are submerged beneath the oil.

Foccacia

Makes 1 Loaf
(1½ hours needed for proving)

Ingredients:
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for kneading
7g easy-blend dried yeast
1 teaspoon of fine sea salt
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
300ml hand-hot water
2 tablespoon rosemary leaves
2 heaped teaspoons coarse sea salt

The Method:

Mix flour, yeast and fine salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, the water and mix into a soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil a large, solid baking sheet. Roll the dough out into a rectangle measuring approximately 20cm x 30cm and place on the baking sheet. Cover with a clean, damp tea towel and leave in a warm, draft free place until double in size. This will take about 1½ hours.

Preheat the oven to 230°C. Using fingertips dimple the surface of the dough. Drizzle liberally with the remaining extra virgin olive oil and scatter with rosemary. Sprinkle over the coarse salt and bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool slightly, cut into squares and serve.

Pesto

Makes approximately 200ml

With so much sun we have a bumper crop of really fragrant basil from our poly tunnel that we just had to make this wonderfully fresh and tasty accompaniment to Foccacia, pasta or new potatoes which we are also enjoying steamed.

Ingredients:

75g pinenuts
50g fresh basil, stalks removed
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
75ml extra virgin olive oil
3 rounded tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan or Queijo da llha if you want a more authentic Portuguese flavour.

The Method:

Lightly toast the pinenuts under the grill or in a dry frying pan, being very careful not to allow them to burn. Cool for 15 minutes.

Place the basil, pinenuts, garlic and olive oil in a mortar (or if you are lazy a food processor). Season and blend to a paste. Stir in the Parmesan or Queijo da llha

Basil Ice Cream with Nectarines

Serves 4

This actually doesn't sound too wonderful, but tastes divine so give it a go.

Ice Cream
250ml fresh milk (we use goat's milk, not yet from our own stock)
250ml double cream
Small bunch of basil (less is more in this recipe)
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
6 medium egg yolks
70g - 100g cater sugar (depending on how sweet you like your ice cream)

Nectarine Salad
3 sprigs of basil
50g sugar
1 lemon
200ml of water
4 ripe nectarines

Method:

Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan. Roughly bruise a handful of basil (including the stems) and mix into the cream and milk with the lemon zest. Set over a low heat and slowly bring to just below boiling point. Do not let the mixture come to a full boil. Remove from the heat and leave the flavours to infuse for 30minutes.

Meanwhile make the nectarine salad. Put 2-3 large sprigs of basil in a small saucepan with the sugar, 3 strips of zest pared from the lemon and the water. Place over a medium heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Bring up to the boil and cook briskly for 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes quite sticky. Remove from the heat and mix in the juice of half the lemon.

Quarter and destone the nectarines. Cut the fruit into fine slices and strain the warm (not hot) syrup over the nectarines and set aside until needed.

Put some ice and a little cold water in a large bowl and set aside while you make the custard for the ice cream.

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar together until thick and creamy. Reheat the basil-infused cream and slowly pour into the egg yolk mixture as you continue to whisk. Pour back into the saucepan and set over a low heat. stir continuously with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens to the consistency of double cream and can coat the back of the spoon - this will take 5-10 minutes - then immediately strain into a bowl set over the bowl of iced water and stir until cool

Churn the custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufactures instructions. Alternatively, pour into a shallow plastic container and place in the freezer. (This is what we do as we don't own an ice cream maker) Use a fork to mix in the ice crystals every 40 minutes or so until the mixture is set.

Serve scoops of ice cream with the nectarine salad.

Sustainability Tip

One of the core values at Ahimsa 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?

There is plenty of evidence we are living unsustainably - about 20% of the world's population is using 85% of the world's resources, very rapidly. Even if there were unlimited supplies of energy, we are on a dangerous course, because plenty of energy simply drives the consumption of other precious resources. No one can be quite sure how long oil, gas, soil or forests will last, but we do know that the 'developed' world is causing pollution, climate change, psychological stress and for the other 80%, poverty and starvation.

Change and choice

We make choices every day. The choices we make are very powerful - the combined effect of many millions of choices makes a huge difference. By using ideas and guidance from permaculture, bio-dynamic and Mahatma Gandhi principles and practice, you can choose to increase the chance of human survival and the survival of the other species of planet earth.

People in every country live as if the earth was created just for them. Very few people question whether it is right to use up resources and cause pollution in the way we do. Whether it is right or not, it is dangerous - most people in 'developed' countries now rely on 'high tech' systems to provide all their water, food and fuel.

This is a fragile and dangerous situation - relatively small loss of oil production capacity has had a huge effect on oil prices. In 2003 the very hot summer in North America resulted in days with no electricity in many cities. These are just two small warning signs of worse to come.

There are people all around the globe who are questioning the dominant way of thinking and at Ahimsa Portugal we want to join this growing world family and demonstrate that there are alternatives that don't mean we have to go back to the Stone Age.

Permaculture's principles and techniques guide many people who are acting and thinking differently. Techniques such as re-using water, recycling our waste are helpful in the short term, but we must plan to use less water, less packaging, less petrol and diesel - that is less in total - as they are simply running out. There are plenty of alternatives, but we need to get serious about these, rather than living as if there was an unlimited supply of what we know to be limited resources.

Permaculture is an ethical design system guided by a set of principles. A permaculture-designed system is one that uses renewable resources for most of its 'capital', and one that generates forests, good soils, clean air, clean water and local healthy food as 'income'. Permaculture design can be applied to farms, gardens, buildings, business and community. The permaculture approach is two fold and simultaneous:

1. The big picture - a vision of an ideal way of running the world, based on solar energy running local, small scale systems that provide for our needs.
2. The practical methods - personal, household and business scale choices that are not perfect, but heading in the right direction.

Both approaches require effort, they require change, and they require a different way of thinking, within a rapidly changing world, so why not make it change for sustainability?

Each month we will expand on these concepts and hope that you can develop your own permaculture project. This month we will explore one of the key principles of permaculture - Integrate rather than segregate.

The connections between things are as important as the things themselves. This is shown in the Mollison principles (1991) where 'every element performs more than one function' and 'each important function is supported by many elements'. Design of farms, cities and landscapes often assume there is plenty of space, and plenty of energy to move from one place to another. So we don't have much experience of integrated systems as generally we are seeing un-integrated ones.

Integrated design on a small scale includes, for example, a grapevine (an element) that provides shade, grapes and mulch (functions). Water (an important function) is supplied by more than one means: rain water tank, mains, spring, bore, dam, etc. At Fonte de Baixo we can boil our water that comes from our own spring, bore hole or captured rain water by gas kettle, electric kettle or, in winter, on the top of our wood stove. So is the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow or an empty gas bottle won't stop us making a cup of tea! On a larger scale, a sustainable farm may be developed by a farming family, or perhaps a group of share farmers, as a multi-functional farm, rather than as a mono-crop of pasture or grain. This is especially useful as we see a growth of Community Supported Agriculture programmes, which set out to provide a range of fresh foods all year round.

Integration is also applicable to the way we design our human community - eco-villages, co-housing/cluster housing and a wide range of co-operatives and community initiatives are developed to achieve this integration.

We have to see the big picture as well as taking responsibility for small things. Taking responsibility becomes possible when we have the right things in the right place. For example, deciding to reduce your car use becomes possible only when you make decisions about living where walking, cycling, public transport, or staying at home are options.

Plants and animals are integrated in their relationship with each other - i.e. they co-operate. Plant and animal systems recycle nutrients like we recycle bottles, but those natural systems are powered by the sun, whereas most recycling is powered by oil or other fossil fuels.

Integration is limited only by imagination if any waste product from one part of the system meets the need of another part, e.g. waste food from the kitchen is no longer waste if it feeds the chickens or the worms. The same can apply in an organisation where something that might be rubbish can be central to another part of an organisation. There is a sugar beet factory in East Anglia, England that produces compost and hydrogen as by-products. The compost is sold to gardeners and local horticulturists and the hydrogen is piped a short distance to the largest glass-house in the world where they grow approximately one-third of the UK's tomatoes with no additional energy costs.

Without co-operation at a detailed level between families, friends and others in the community, any kind of self-reliance is impossible. "Permaculture can be seen as part of a long tradition of concepts emphasising mutalistic and symbiotic relationships over competitive and predatory ones".

""Declining energy availability (over future years) will shift the general perception of these concepts from romantic idealism to practical necessity." Kropotkin, P. Mutual Aid 1903

The Bees

The bees have really settled in to their new surroundings and already they have a honey flow in progress. We are not expecting a large harvest this first year but there should be enough to see us through to next spring. We have added another hive to the apiary to house a swarm I found in a bush just a few hundred meters from the barn. As they are still busy building their new home we are giving them a regular feed of sugar syrup to keep them happy. Eventually we hope to have a few goats and chickens to supply the kitchen with fresh milk, cheese, yogurt and eggs.

Simple Honey Moisturising Masque

(Enough for one masque)

You will need:
2 tablespoons of honey (this should be runny - if you only have set honey then warm the jar in a Bain Marie for a few minutes and it will melt down but don't let it get too hot or it will spoil the taste of the honey)
2 teaspoons of milk

Method:
Mix the honey with the milk in a bowl. Smooth over the face and throat area. Leave for 10 minutes before rinsing off with warm water. This is a fantastic refresher if you have been in the sun or near the sea.

If you want to add anything to our newsletter, events, workshops, things or services for sale or trade, please don't hesitate to send them through and we are happy to add them to future newsletters.

From Projeto-Ahimsa and Fonte de Baixo -