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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...
Building the irrigation system for the veggie garden in zone 1.
Building the irrigation system for the veggie garden in zone 1.This is the veggie garden's third year and, until now, the worst one from a watering perspective. We had a makeshift solution the previous season that got ripped out when we redid the beds this...
Duck processing day.
Duck processing day.Having (hopefully) done his duty of bringing fresh genes into the pool, it was time for the adult drake to go. We're done with ducklings for the season, and will keep some males out of the current batch.This was the first time we tried skinning...
Cleaning with a scythe for the first time, using a brush blade for it.
Cleaning with a scythe for the first time, using a brush blade for it.I need to improve my technique but the first impression is very positive. It works well, and deals with brambles, gorse, and pretty much all other weeds.Compared to the brush cutter, the lack of...