I’m Mattia and I feel compelled and motivated to learn how to best live as an integrated and regenerative force in my host ecosystem. I aspire to embody such spirit and action through growing food & education, an essential element to self-sustainability. That’s where my presented business idea of Sunray farm, one which is organically regenerative and socially oriented, comes from.
Friends that took part in EU programs such as ESC and EYE, recommended me to investigate to be potentially supported in my journey to observe, do and learn from virtuous contexts. One of these is the project Madre Talea, a social promotion association and farm dedicated to regeneratively managing a patch of land with fruit trees, an olive orchard and chickens.Through this collaboration I expected to gain experience and entrepreneurial skills in regenerative agriculture and eduction to develop my plans and expand my network.
Some of the many activities of the EYE stay have been:
•The spring preparation of soil in the vegetables garden: applying self produced compost, olive leaves and past crops mulching, using minimal tillage.
•Irrigation was a crucial aspect, particularly during the scorching summer: understanding the drip system (tanks, pumps, pipes) and water-saving logic in a drought-prone context.-•Observation and practice in the workshops and education sessions.
•Observation was key to read the agricultural landscape: understand plant, soil communication and act accordingly.
•Pruning according to different successional stages and stratas of species
•Management of the chicken flock.
The months of collaboration between me and the host went positively and in line with the objectives set out in the commitment. At times the farm’s pace, and thus the relationship, has been intense and goal oriented, but there was mutual collaboration to respect our commitments and ensure a mutually fruitful exchange.
These EYE experience turned out to be formative in many aspects.
Some of these have been:
•The first hand practical (& theoretical) experience gained from the daily interaction with the farm’s systems (successional agroforestry, permaculture approach & design, workshops & education, agricultural tools & machines use, cob construction, scouting for cheap/free resources as farm inputs)
•Conflict resolution and tools for harmonious interaction and coexistence with groups of people
•The relationships and contacts’ network weaved through the interaction with other like minded farmers, entrepreneurs, students… ex: contacts made with Amadeco, a mediterranean syntropic successional agroforestry project.
•Access to online group of knowledge and experience exchange of Mediterranean practitioners of syntropic farming
My EYE experience at Madre Talea taught me to read the land and people before interacting with them: caring for an agroforestry system, observing biodiversity and soil vitality, and engaging with projects’ social & education dynamics. Living a way to be a regenerative force in one’s host ecosystem.