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Grow With Us
Alo Land Strategy Summary
Alo Land is a regenerative initiative by us – Petru and Inês. We are former tech professionals who moved to Portugal with our two children. We currently manage a 1-hectare plot with a food forest and own an additional 2.5-hectare undeveloped plot nearby.
Vision and Goals
- Land restoration using regenerative practices
- Supporting holistic well-being (physical, emotional, spiritual)
- Cultivating eight forms of capital (financial, material, living, social, intellectual, experiential, spiritual, cultural)
- Building community resilience
Current Challenges
- Overwhelming workload maintaining the food forest
- Potential for more social connections, particularly for the adults
- Gaps in food production despite potential
- Restrictions on travel due to land care responsibilities
Strategic Approach
The family has shifted to an incremental growth strategy that focuses on:
- Leveraging existing resources and activities
- Attracting people to the land (as participants or volunteers)
- Creating a volunteer pipeline
- Thoughtful development of their 2.5-hectare plot
What's with the name?
From Wiktionary: alō (present infinitive alere, perfect active aluī, supine altum or alitum); third conjugation
-
- I foster, I nourish
- I raise (as a child, an animal, etc.)
- I feed, I maintain, I develop
From our visual diary...
With so many things going on, the vegetable garden ended up falling into a second tier priority.
With so many things going on, the vegetable garden ended up falling into a second tier priority.Still, it seems like we are getting a tasty motivational gift: after trying several seasons, the eggplants are now fruiting.
Two groups of one month old Muscovy ducklings together for the first time. The pecking order needs to be established.
Two groups of one month old Muscovy ducklings together for the first time. The pecking order needs to be established.
The brown momma Muscovy was ready to move on – started laying eggs again yesterday, and really wanted to get back with the adult flock.
The brown momma Muscovy was ready to move on - started laying eggs again yesterday, and really wanted to get back with the adult flock.So, we took the white momma Muscovy out too and let all 27 ducklings be together. After some initial pecking order fighting, they...