Friday, August 20, 2010
Giving Back to Nature!
The past few months have been very busy for us on the farm. We broke ground on a new home. We live on 150 acres of land and are dividing it in two parcels. The home where we live at the moment was built as a large estate which is too grand for me. We are selling it and building a smaller home.
The hill where we are building has few trees. Long ago it was just jungle but eventually burnt for cattle grazing. We decided to start the process of bringing it back to what it used to be. So, the past couple of months we planted more than 1500 littles trees on the hill and the surrounding pastures below. We also moved some gigantic Coconut Palms to the main garden and some Dominican Oaks so the children will have shade to play. When we broke ground, we scooped up all the wonderful topsoil which we just spread again around the house.
Amongst the trees we planted there were Cashew trees, Coconut palms, Royal palms, Date Palms, Cycads, Ficus, about 400 Pignon for natural fences (loved by our bees), Breadfruit Tree, Acacia, Flamboyant, African Tulip Tree, Dominican Oak, Mango and Avocados.
The photos aren't great because they were taken with my son's small camera. I finally have my camera back from repairs!
[/caption]
Breadfruit is baked, boiled or fried as a starchy, potato-like vegetable and usually made into bread, pie and puddings. It is one of the most nutritious starches, has complex carbohydrates, and important minerals. It's a tree that will not further deplete any soil. It has fibrous root which prevent erosion. It has to be eaten immediately after harvest which is the reason you don't see it sold in supermarkets.
[caption id="attachment_1145" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Coconut Palms"]
[/caption]The children indulge in these wonderful coconuts every day. They sip the sweet milk and eat the delicious, vitamin rich sweet meat. There is an entire book on how healthy coconuts are for humans and animals, called Virgin Coconut Oil by Brain Shilhavy.
- Royal Palm Seedlings
The tropical majestic Palm that reaches it's fronds to the sky and provided home to many birds, popular to the woodpeckers and many bees!
- Sasha helping load the plants on the pick-up
- Ficus
The Ficus is a wonderful tree to create shade for us and the animals. They have strong, thick branches for the children to climb.
- Cashew Nut Seedlings
We visited a man in the local village that had a cashew tree. We scrounged for all the seeds on the floor and now have about 150 seedlings.
- Children Sowing Seeds
We sowed a few seeds before we left so we will have some vegetables when we return back home.
- A ditch for rainwater pipes
Some of the large Coco palms we planted. This is a ditch that was dug at our new house. My husband built a gravity cystern so we can collect all the rainwater which falls on our roof and store it. We can then use it by gravity for all our plants and animals down in the fields.
- View from our new House in DR.
This is the east view of our neighbor's property.
- View on the Horse Pasture by the big Mango Tree
The is the view of one of our horse pastures from the front garden.
how wonderful that you are planting all these trees! an invaluable experience for your kiddos. such a stunning place that you live!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely, exciting time, doing all that planting, Cheers Marie
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to be creating a new environment and home for your family! I have always wondered about breadfruit but alas living in Arizona has never afforded me the opportunity to try it. Maybe someday!
ReplyDeleteOh my -- just *so* fabulous. Where you live, what you're doing, why you're doing it, and how you're doing it - as a family.
ReplyDeleteBlessings...
Wow! Your property is just gorgeous! Thanks for the invite over. Just lovely!! Your boys are just darling as well.
ReplyDeleteamazing! blessing us all with more oxygen!
ReplyDeleteSo many great projects going on and best of all so much involvement for your boys. What gets better than that. Real, active, natural learning all the time. Such an incredible variety of trees. I especially love those coconut palms. We adore coconut oil here. Happy travels, dear friend!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous, but my you've been busy bees!
ReplyDeletexo
magnifique
ReplyDelete