What if you could harvest delicious and healthy food
from your own designed food forest?
There is something magical about growing a food forest. Building a relationship with all the trees and plants, experiencing how nature works together with you. How new life appears and diversity increases. And how, with a little love and care, you will receive the most delicious and healthy food, fresh from the trees and plants.
A food forest is an edible landscape of trees, shrubs and plants that live together like a natural forest (or forest edge). Designed and planted in such a way that all the parts support each other ánd the surrounding environment. You basically create an ecosystem.
A food forest needs some proper love, care and knowledge, especially in the first phases. After a while, nature will do its work and continue to create an abundance of delicious, healthy food for you (and the birds).
In one week, you will learn everything you need to know to design, execute and care for a food forest. Including:
- the principles of a food forest design: the multiple layers, water, soil, nutrients, light and shade, access, pest control and more
- which plants, trees, shrubs to use in which environment
- the different types of, and perspectives on food forests
- practice by making your own food forest design
- practice of implementation by planting the second food forest on our finca
During this course, you will design your own food forest, based on the environment that you choose. Maybe you already have a specific place in mind that you want to turn into a food forest (for instance in your home or community garden), or else you choose a climate where you would like to grow one in the future.
This course is for all people who have an intention to create a food forest (big or small, sooner or later). You don’t have to have any prior knowledge. A healthy dose of curiosity and eagerness to learn will be all you need.
As with all our programs, this course is embedded in a setting that allows you to connect to nature and yourself. You will stay at our beautiful finca with its hills, forests, fields and river. Next to the theory and practice on food forests, we will also spend time connecting to nature in other ways, like sitspotting*, swimming and cooking.
An example day would look like this:
8-8.30 sit spotting*
8.30-9.30 breakfast
10-13 theory/practice
13-14 lunch
15-18 practice/freetime
19-20.30 dinner
21-23 campfire/nightwalk/freetime
*Sitspotting is a very simple yet powerful practice. On the first day, you will find yourself a spot in nature where you will return to every morning, just to BE, without any distractions.
This is the beginning
We like to see our programs as stepping stones. When you return home, you don’t go back, but further. The program is the beginning. To make sure this program (and what it brings you) is embedded and integrated into your life, we include a 1 on 1 check-in call before and after your stay with us, for all programs.
"The course brought me a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of new knowledge and inspiration. New ideas and seeds have been planted in me. And I now have a more concrete picture of how I envision my own food forest."- Marije
"I hoped it would be a good balance between knowledge and experience of how living the food forest life actually is, and it was exactly that! It brought me hope and trust in this kind of future. I learned so much! I felt inspired and excited, stepping into these first steps of this new path in my life!"- Saskia
"I liked the content and teaching approach of Bastiaan. I look back on it content and happy. Not only because of the workshops, but also because of the place, you guys, and the food." - Joppe
Start learning now!
Your hosts
Hello! We are Bastiaan and Jorien
We believe our relation to nature lies at the core of the transition to a healthy and happy world. Therefore, we envision and embody a nature-connected life.
Bastiaan's inspiration mainly came from his extensive travel experiences. During these journeys he broadened his perspective, learned from indigenous people and worked on permaculture farms. He continued his path by a dedicated (and continuous) self-study on the areas of permaculture, foraging, food forests, agroforestry, regenerative agriculture and more. He was part of various ecological projects in Mexico and Guatamala and put his knowledge into practice by creating a foodforest and kitchengarden in the Netherlands and setting up the holistic Land-management of a project in Spain, including a foodforest, kitchen garden and regenerative farm.
Jorien has been working alongside social entrepreneurs, as a consultant for social initiatives, coordinating sustainable events and setting up a retreat venue in Spain. Meanwhile she has been unfolding herself on a personal and spiritual level through conscious dance (5Rhythms, Gabrielle Roth), indigenous nature rituals (VisionQuest, School of Lost Borders), mindfulness (Plum Village, Thich Nath Hanh), and as a Spirit of Nature guide. She has a strong intuition for working with our inner nature and our bodies, which she puts to use as a facilitator, space-holder and mentor.
Bastiaan
Jorien
Accommodation
-Bring Your Own tent
find your own spot and pitch your tent on the land. Maybe you want to be close to the river, or maybe to the toilets
-Bring Your Own campervan
bring your own little home with you and find your spot on our camping space.
-Stay in one of our Comfortable Tents
a spacious canvas tent in which you can stand up, where there is a bed with comfortable mattress with all the blankets and bedlinen, ready for you to dive in. With towels included. We host two people in one tent, meaning you will share your tent with someone else.
*For couples or friends, we could also make one double bed instead.
*Depending on availability, it is possible to rent a Comfortable Tent for just one person.
The facilities add to the nature immersion, since they are all made from wood of the land. The two sanitation sheds offer 3 dry-toilets and 3 showers, of which 2 warm. Under a big roof is the communal outside kitchen, a central meeting point where we cook and eat. For rainy days (when you are done dancing in it), we have a cosy yurt where you can also read a book of our library.
It's a remote finca: the water comes from the source and river and after use it runs back onto the land, the energy comes from solar panels. All organic waste (including from the toilets) is composted into fertile soil.
Travel
To get to the finca, you can either drive to us by car, or let us pick you up at Figueres Vilafant trainstation. This trainstation has good connections with Girona, Barcelona, Perpignan and Paris. Our programs usually start around 18:00 in the evening, and finish around 10:00 in the morning. We provide a pickup at Figueres Vilafant at 17:00h and drop-off at 11:00.
After you sign up, you will receive more extended information on how to get here. To make sure your timing is aligned with the times of the program and taxi service, please check this information before booking your travels. If you have any hesitations or questions, you can always ask us!
Price program
The price includes all food, non-alcoholic drinks, the program, and two 1:1 videocalls. It excludes accommodation costs, travel costs and potential costs for pick-up at the nearest trainstation.
The program price is €575,-
Price accommodation
- shared spacious tent €20,- pppn
- BYO tent/camper €10,- pppn
We like to have an intimate tribe, therefore there is a maximum of 10 people.