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Stories from the farm - a closer look at the people, the place and the bio-diversity at 5EyesFarm
The 5! (our 5 focus areas)
—01 Organic Farm
The backdrop of 5EyesFarm based on Organic farming. The farm itself is a growing ecosystem full of biodiversity and we grow over 150 vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, flowers, legumes and medicinal plants. We make compost, improve soil, manage pests and weeds manually using Natural farming, Permaculture and Integrated farming methods.
The farm is not just what we do, it is where we live, it is our life-style and our place. And the farm itself is like a canvas for us to offer a different kind of learning and to create different kinds of foods and offer a different kind of experience for our guests and visitors.
“The organic farm includes the animal farm, the aquaponics, the medicinal farm, the productive raised beds and the orchids. It also includes the worm farms, the cricket farm, the black soldier fly (BSF) farm and the compost processing centre.”
Imagine an organic farm with aquaponics, animal farm and insectarium that is also a giant recycling project. This is the canvas for our Green-Ed learning centre- between the trees.
—02 Green-Ed
5EyesFarm is establishing a learning approach called Green-Ed. Green-Ed aims at sustainable practices and seeks to work in and with the natural environment. Working on projects that involve wood, soil and elements, as well as developing systems that enhance natural processes, Green-Ed is a journey of new discoveries. Green-Ed gives scope to doing and making with our hands exploring creative ways to convey what we are learning and integrating between modern and traditional methods.
Reclaiming our material intelligence: the essential skills that prevailed before late industrialisation, is one of the goals of Green-Ed, and studies show that learning in nature and within the natural environment dramatically enhance the connections to learning anything. There is almost no limit to the kinds of projects that we can tackle, and we try to include a rich panorama of the Sciences, the Arts, History and Culture and sustainability concepts and practices in what we learn by doing through Green-Ed.
—03 Sustainable Living
We call it sustainable living, not to sound lofty but as more of an idea to aim towards. What we mean by that is a whole lot of emphasis on the environment, on recycling and remaking and on learning anew about what we consume. It’s quite complicated to employ a value set and a practice to reassess products, find out where things come from, what is in them, how they are made and to choose carefully and seek options. We are learning more and more about living with less and being more careful.
Sustainable living includes organic farming and its processes which are done by hand using low impact processes. It includes offsetting our presence here with planting trees, building sustainably and managing waste. We now rely on organic waste for helping with the farm processes. We are working on alternative energy solutions and have several small innovations in place. Sustainable living is an attitude that looks at what is available and seeks to work it into whatever is needed. That applies to cooking and shopping as much as making a new fence or even fixing a car. We are trying to mitigate the early effects of climate change here and also trying to have a zero footprint.
“We have been here for 3 years and no waste has left the farm”. And now we are going out and collecting extra waste to process and use on the farm! And we want to do more...
—04 Good Food
Excellent foods that come from the organic farm are wonderful in their own right. They taste better, richer, fuller. Not like the shallow, empty taste of that ‘good looking’ fruit or vegetable in the supermarket! But there is always cooking too… amazing exotic, fusion foods made from the exquisitely home-grown, pesticide and herbicide-free farm foods is where we are at.
Teas, spices and herbs - both traditional and intercontinental are a fun and healthy thing to mix and match and experiment with. We are learning to make our oils, juices, cereals, pasta, bread, cakes, incredible meals and desserts.
We process and produce a range of small scale foods, and we experiment a lot with food to make it very interesting and unusual and tasty and super health. Our guests eat well and it is said that they want to come back for more...
—05 Community Engagement
We are supporting the village that we live in and the wider region. Helping educate local school-aged children, developing opportunities for communities around us: learning opportunities, business and employment opportunities.
We are working with the village leadership on various initiatives to improve awareness around sanitation and waste management. They are big areas and these are things we can't do ourselves. We aim to make and sell great food and host great learning experiences on the farm.
From this, we aim to generate income and support in helping with community engagement in what is an overlooked context. Our small project has bigger dreams, and we hope to inspire others to get involved as we grow.
Related posts
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An organic farm has a special life of its own
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—05
Our aquaponics project is in the first stage as we adapt what we know to the context here in the tropics. It is a system with good potential that needs a lot of developing. We are aiming to produce healthy, organically raised fish and food plants consistently with no artificial or bought inputs.
