This Spring we launched our training course "Pure earth, pure food - principles and practices of sustainable agriculture", held in the village of Nadarevo. The course covers present-day topics of ecology and production of pure, healthy food. After the Spring meetings, we took a summer break so that students could spend more time in their gardens and hopefully apply what they had learned.  

​

With the Autumn coming, we started again. The weekly meetings began with an analysis of who planted what and how the participants took care of thire gardens. Some of the topics so far have been: the Slow Eating Movement and its link to organic farming, the Living Soil; crop rotation and mixed crops; protecting the garden from diseases and pests with plant preparations; composting and direct composting; the herbs in the area and the benefits of them, both for humans and for the plants we grow. The interest in herbs proved to be great. With the guidance of Galina Pencheva, a lecturer at Botanica Live Foundation, the participants prepared herbal extracts and ointments. Some of them shared their personal experience and knowledge about herbs. A very seasonal topic was the conservation of fruit and vegetables for the winter. A number of topics were raised by the participants themselves and the current events in the village, such as what to do with the large amount of plant waste when cleaning the garden in the Autumn. Another discussion generated by the participants was about how farming can be a good livelihood.