Tag Archives: Herdade do Freixo do Meio

Freixo de Cima

November 12, 2018 Stephen Barstow 1 Comment

On the afternoon of my arrival at Freixo do Meio (see previous posts and also http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=20042), Jorge Carona and I were loaned an electric vehicle to explore the farm. Jorge proposed we go over to a property within the main farm practicing regenerative agriculture using keyline design.

Catarina Joaquim and Carlos Simões have designed and established this impressive garden (see

http://dias-nas-arvores.blogspot.com/p/quem-somos.html)

and we were lucky to find them at home and they gave us a quick tour of this productive green lung despite the dry and hot summer.

Carlos is also involved in the Portugese seed saver organisation Colher Para Semear (Harvest to Sow); see

https://colherparasemear.wordpress.com/sobre

Pines and lavender…the couple grow a lot of aromatic herbs

New Zealand spinach grows well here, self-sows and sometimes overwinters

Couve galega….Carlos told us that they had collected and were conserving old perennial kales in Colher Para Semear too, but he didn’t grow it.

Flat-leaved parsley together with a perennial leek that originated in France and aubergine

The location of the garden within the farm

The keyline design is visible on this Google Earth image

Walk and talk

Herdade do Freixo do Meio

November 10, 2018 Stephen Barstow 2 Comments

Many thanks to my friend Alfredo Sendim for inviting me to hold a course at his amazingly diverse Herdade do Freixo do Meio farm. It is run as a cooperative using many innovative agricultural methods, inspired in particular by Ernst Goetsch and Syntropic Farming! I was very happy that Fernanda Botelho also joined us to share her knowledge on local edible plants!
The 3 videos at the end show Agroforestry methods on the farm at Freixo do Meio, olives intercropped with a wide diversity of edibles and other useful plants!