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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...
We said goodbye to the two Toulouse geese yesterday.
We said goodbye to the two Toulouse geese yesterday.Surprisingly easy to dry pluck, despite still growing feathers after their recent molting. Also surprisingly light (2kg and 2.2kg dressed, the same as a relatively light Muscovy male), despite looking quite large.
Processionary caterpillar season ramping up.
Processionary caterpillar season ramping up.
Fresh pasture for the birds, and an electrovalve box broken with the lawnmower during the move (hi David!).
Fresh pasture for the birds, and an electrovalve box broken with the lawnmower during the move (hi David!).