Tag: permaculture

Posted in General Blogs

Big and Small

Posted on by Robin KellyGoss

Recently I have had the honor of being in a chat group with roughly 100 people, (mostly young, fresh out of college but some closer to retirement age), that have seen fit to uproot their lives and spend 2 years going to simply serve others. This is hope in action. And I couldn’t be more excited.

Many conversations, news reports, and social media posts today are full of fear, revenge, grief, and downright hateful thoughts, but there is not much action. Granted there are peaceful protests, sign making and chanting and I admire those people. Some sentiments I agree with and some I do not, but I fully respect the people doing something, especially if they are actually informed about what they are doing.

I read an interesting blog recently stating that the more news people watch, the less inclined they are to actually do anything about the situation. And yet, ironically, people claim they watch the news so they can be informed and work for change. The blog goes on to counter several points of contention about needing the news for information and suggesting instead real and meaningful conversations with people, books, periodicals – things with actual facts, not sound bites meant to skew one way or the other, as real sources of knowledge and inspiration.

But there are many people taking action in the world in small and big ways. Food sufficiency has always been my passion and it is this that I focus on. Small actions, like our 2 school projects and seed bank in South Africa are small, but to me, meaningful steps in helping the planet by helping people have some sovereignty in their lives. The Regenerative Farm Design course Stephen, Themba, and I took recently in South Africa allowed us to meet many such people. Here’s a link shared with me yesterday by one of them

I encourage you to look around and see what people are doing in small and big ways to affect change. Yesterday I toured a small garden and chicken coop hidden in an overgrown field. Pathways were cut and shade cloth was put on top to detour hawks. There were random tomatoes and peppers thriving among copious amounts of rag weed. The house was a rental and the tenants were not allowed gardens or animals so they carved out a niche in a nearby field working to restore itself to a forest. It was tucked away yet beautiful and made my heart glad, not to mention it is helping to restore the field. It’s small, but it is progress.

On a bigger scale, to the 100 or so young people preparing to head to Senegal in September with the Peace Corps, I salute you. Your contributions are important and life changing not only for the people you will serve but for you. You will leave a ripple of big and small changes that continue to work for good long after you are gone. How about we all work to leave such ripples?

Posted in General Blogs, SA Specific Blogs

Welcome to Jacaranda Gardens!

Posted on by Robin KellyGoss

In April 2024, Mahala Love welcomed our newest supported site in KwaMhlanga, South Africa. We welcome Jacaranda Gardens. Jacaranda Gardens is owned by our Regional South Africa leader, Stephen N. and his wife, Brenda. We have been working with Stephen for the past 7 months as a leader in the area and are now proud to support his site, Jacaranda Gardens.

Jacaranda Gardens serves as a Mahala Love demonstration site in the area and has already hosted an Open House to showcase the large amount of food that can be produced in a very small foot print. The recent build is 1.2 X 2 meters in size and produces – meat, eggs, and vegetables. Additionally, water purification functions support a catfish/bubblefish tank for even more protein.

Stephen and his wife, Brenda, hosted Robin on this last trip in April 2024, which allowed lots of time for planning, laughing, and building community. Follow this link to see more about the build at Jacaranda Gardens.

Mahala Love is so pleased to welcome this sweet family and their beautiful garden. Mahala Love and Jacaranda Gardens – Sharing with the World

Posted in General Blogs

South Africa -Spring 2023

Posted on by Robin KellyGoss

The beginning of 2023 has brought many adventures – Getting married being one of them! I am so happy to introduce Sam to the picture here at Mahala Love, not to mention to my life all around! He is funny, organized, and loves to do projects. He is a great asset to ML!

We had a combination Mahala Love working trip and honeymoon in South Africa in March. Sam got the crash course in people, food, places and our projects there. Except for the fact that he is very tall and South African shovels are perilously short, it was a great fit!

Together, Sam and I worked on the Seed library with Themba in Limpopo (see that page), met with Cinderella to design the new permaculture garden at the beautiful new school location, (See ML-South Africa, Mpumalanga) and did a little touristy sight seeing.

The trip was fantastic and never long enough. But September will be here soon enough and we can continue our work there. In the meantime, those locations are in very competent hands and the work continues there while we continue to work here.

Posted in General Blogs

Be Kind, Grow Things

Posted on by Robin KellyGoss

It’s been pointed out lately that I tend to be, “reductive.” I think that’s code for terse, curt, short or any number of other words meaning not only – “to the point,” but most likely, “ too to the point.” Perhaps it is true. I do like a good basic noun-verb combination to start a conversation, with a few adjectives thrown in because I’m Southern by raising. Examples, “pick up your shoes” – Southern version – “Pick up your stinking shoes.”

I think it is in ideas that I tend to be reductive as oppose to words though. What seems to be complicated issues to some people, I seem to think are more simple. If you’re lost, either metaphorically or literally, why flounder alone driving in circles? Pause and ask for directions. When everyone is getting on my nerves, pause, look in the mirror, there is the source.

Here we are in the most confusing times of near history, with a nonstop onslaught of verbiage coming at us nearly 24/7. I find this hard to take. I don’t know why the same story is reported on 73.65 times in a single day, with 18 points of view from 13 people that I can see as having no connection other than someone handed them a microphone and a makeup artist to pat the shine off of their nose. Wait, who is this and why do they have an opinion and where did they get those facts and are those really facts and why do I trust her opinion and who told him to have that opinion in the first place and have any of these people actually searched for a fact on their own or are they merely regurgitating the spew from social media that will keep them existing as a persona, as opposed to be erased if the unpopular view dare be brought in to the light as anything that might beworthyofevenlookingatbutthenwhatabout… You get my point. Does anyone else feel this way?

So, with all of that, I would like to get to my point. Times are strange, people are stranger. I probably don’t understand you, and you probably don’t understand me. But I can still love you, honor you by listening to what you believe, and know you are a person as worthy of your opinions and place on this earth as am I. As we navigate unknown, unprecedented waters, let’s grow together – whether it be community, flowers, food, a government responsive to the folks who elect them, let’s all try and remember that we are neighbors, friends, and family long before and long after the stress and politics and pandemics of the day are over. Let’s just be kind, and grow some stinking things, shall we?

Posted in General Blogs, US Specific Blogs

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun or When You’re Crawling Out of a Pandemic.

Posted on by Robin KellyGoss

Where to begin updating you on Herban Renewal – After a pretty productive lock-down period of installing gardens, trying a few hugelculture beds, testing aquaponics, setting up the vermiculture, getting our chickens set up and starting to lay, we did the next logical thing and decided to sell the Herban Renewal property in town! Yep.

However, after finding Buyers, then finding another property, things just didn’t go as planned. The house was packed into boxes, utilities were set to switch, many, many plans were made. Also, there were the way-too-many plants and seeds ordered and hatching eggs set to deliver, the sketches of raised beds and food forests, all in anticipation of a few acres and a couple of awesome out buildings, and then, on the final day, –(cue dramatic music) things…fell … apart.

You could say I was a bit shook, but I am a big believer that things work as they should. What has been unsettling is my lack of ability to decide if I wanted to stay put or move. The plants and hatching eggs arrived because I couldnt bring myself to cancel them. The plants made lovely gifts and egg hatching is always fun, even though I was not planning to have 30 plus chickens in my laundry room. But we hatched them because, well, because we could. There is nothing as fun as the anticipation and hearing those little eggs when they begin to peep. And the chicks are also delightful for about the first week. They continue to be delightful, but their odor inside your home – not so much.

Now here we are at the beginning of fall and we continue to live in our home and it’s still not for sale. So I am publicly declaring – I’m going to stay put!! Let fall planting begin.

Posted in General Blogs, Limpopo

Meet Themba

Posted on by Nthavela Themba

Avuxeni (Greetings).

Since I was introduced into Slow Food Network five years ago (2015), I started developing interests in practical activities of people producing food for their own consumption as well as to sell the surplus to their communities. This has encouraged me to be part of the Slow Food 10 000 gardens project in Africa, and since then we have created over 50 community gardens in Vhembe area, in association with Adopt A River group (an association of people with over 99% women representatives who voluntarily collect garbage to clean their community, water ways and river banks for better environment). I have been the coordinator of the Slow Food 10, 000 gardens project in Africa in Limpopo (South Africa), since then.  

Apart from that, I have been engaged in policy platform nationally, continentally and even globally with the Landless Peoples Movement of South Africa since 2011. I have participated in policy debate platforms led by the South African Government under the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform including Civil Society Mechanism Platforms.  I also had an opportunity to participate in the United Nations on the Declaration of Peasants Rights and Other people working in Rural Areas, in Geneva, Switzerland, for over six years until it was adopted in New York in my absentia in 2018 due to other logistical issues.  

With Mahala Love, we are going to complement the already work done on the ground and ensure that initiated projects are sustained through skills development and other programs that will benefit the community.

Food production is not a once off thing, it is a continuous practice that needs everyone in the world to play an important role, and there is a need for continuous support (Technical, Financial, Emotional, skills training, etc.) in community projects and Mahala love is here for that.

In reality, we cannot end poverty, but we can end hunger and the only way we can eradicate hunger and malnutrition is by affording the community the opportunities to grow their own food and place resources at their disposal and we want Mahala Love to be the vehicle to achieve this goal.

There is still much work to be done on the ground and by walking together we will go extra miles.

Inkomu (Thank you)