In line with nature

Natural farming - winter storage We have a lot of harvest, so slowly we are preparing food for winter. Drying, canning, and storing. This year, for the first time, we will try to dry potatoes. And we were able to share some veggies with the people around us too! Slowly the big garden is getting established. We hope to give you an update video of the garden very soon! ❤️

Living in line with nature - Bread! When the rhythm and noise of society makes place for the rhythm of nature and the sound of birds, your creativity starts to flower again. For Matthias, it has a lot to do with flower. #sourdough #bakingbread #community #foodautonomy #organic #friendship https://youtu.be/2GmxqK96ECY

Living in line with nature - Join us For a long time we have been running In line with nature on our own. We would like to collaborate with more enthusiastic people! We have already had a beautiful exchange with Jana Mordhorst, for the Food Wallet illustrations and now with Anabel Craps for the drawings for the children’s book. What is / what skills are currently on our list of excitement? ⁃ A logo for SOMUNA, the women’s association. ⁃ Someone with experience with natural ponds (without plastic or concrete). ⁃ Someone who really wants to help FOOD WALLET grow, so that more people can use it and benefit from it. ⁃ Someone with specialized expertise in water retention (Sepp Holzer style). All projects are voluntary, or in exchange. We will create a section on the website, where we will regularly publish what we are looking for. Very much looking forward to meet you! Evi & Matthias We wanted to make a picture, but something funny happened and we decided to share this spontaneity instead. 😂

Natural Building - Outdoor Bathing In August 2023 we posted this photo announcing that we received this old bath as a gift from people who had renovated their homes. When we don't know how to proceed with a project, we just wait until everything is clear. That moment came a few weeks ago. So we turned the bath into a bathroom / relax and sleep under the stars outdoor space. We had to be creative. All elements had to be removable and we couldn't use concrete. But we did it and it looks great! Everything except some screws, the floor in the shower and the mosquito net is recycled and we got it for free. #DIY #naturalbuilding #outdoors #bathroom #inlinewithnature #livinginnature

Creative projects - Children's book update! We are deeply moved to see the book come to life. Anabel's drawings are truly amazing! When I saw a few snippets of her work, my intuition said yes. We decided to design the book together with her and it's perfect! Although it will take a while before it will be completely finished, we wanted to surprise you with a small snippet, just because we are so happy and want to share it. We will organize a kickstart project where you can pre-order the book, to have a rough estimate of how many we will print. The book will also be downloadable. About the book Inspired by Natural farming, this book tells the story about how people long ago decided how to grow their food, based on an income for their family. But they forgot about their big family, nature, where everything and everyone is connected. An inspirational story about the transition we are making as a human race, towards living in line with nature again. With very colorful illustrations made by Anabel Craps.

New events coming up! From August onwards we have a couple of events coming up. We have 4 types of events that we will focus on in the future. Hope to see you there! Food-up Monthly meet-up group For everyone who tries to grow their own food and getting more food autonomy. Speak-up Talks with special people We speak with people who contribute in their own special way to a new economy and leave their mark in their own local community. Sometimes we are invited and sometimes we invite. Catch-up A personal open sharing During these events we give you the opportunity to personally hear from us about what we have been up to and what is coming. Meet-up Live events In the future we foresee the possibility to organise live events where you can share and learn about natural farming, collaborate in a practical way with our local community, or contribute to our project.  Register here: https://www.inlinewithnature.org/events

Living in line with nature - Independency He really didn’t understand why we didn’t want to apply for subsidies, while we have the right to do so. “I don’t want a government label on our website or want to be linked in any way to a government” I stated. Freedom seems to have a price. It is linked to ‘losing money’ or ‘being able to do less’. For us it is the contrary. We don’t need money to do what we do or to be who we are. When we don’t receive donations, we still contribute our time, effort and enthusiasm. When we do receive donations, we are able to do things where money is involved. We are learning more and more not to depend on external factors. That is true freedom. A liberation from many fucked up structures that keep us small. We keep going, just because we keep going. No matter what. The outcome might look different, depending on available resources, but it never determines who we are. #inlinewithnature #freedom #aneweconomy

Natural farming - Our first vegetable basket Being able to harvest your food out of your garden. Knowing it has been cultivated with love, from natural seeds, without any chemicals sprayed on it… Food that supports your body, full of goodies and taste. Food that benefits the improvement of the soil. That grows in a biodiverse paradise surrounded by flowers, herbs, berries and bushes. What should be natural has become a luxury. Let’s make it normal again! #naturalfarming #foodautonomy #fukuoka #growyourownfood #inlinewithnature https://youtu.be/zxhj5SqNPPY

Natural farming - tomato support Finding reeds for our tomato plants was quite an adventure. We drove around looking in the area our neighbors pointed out to us, but were completely lost. We finally stopped in a bar at 10:30 p.m. and asked for cañamo. This turned out to be some kind of drug, so no wonder people were looking at us a little strangely. One man on the terrace understood that we meant caña. He left his plate of food, jumped on his motorcycle and showed us his “finca” where we could harvest as much as we needed. Aaaah, Spanish hospitality and kindness! We decided to return during the day at another time. Enjoy a little taste! https://youtu.be/fJgRwO1WQEg #naturalfarming #caña #aneweconomy #DIY

Living in line with nature - a shift from individual thinking to communal care If we truly want to change the economy and society we see around us, we have to understand that many of our actions are just not in line with the outcome we want to see, so we have to change them. One of the biggest steps towards this new future is a shift in realization that it is not about us, but about the bigger picture and everyone and everything involved around us. Our actions have an impact on the whole system. So you start to care more, you start to love more, you start to give more, you start to share more. Just like nature you sow more and more and more seeds until the dry desert becomes a green luscious landscape again. #care #inlinewithnature #aneweconomy #community #practicalaction

Local support - political engagement The spring in our hamlet to irrigate all the vegetable gardens downstairs is broken for over 5 years. Many attempts and discussions between neighbors lead to nothing. Besides that there is a social centre, which needs a reformation. I decided it was time to take things into our own hands. For a while, I felt to speak with the mayor directly and the moment Matthias went to the bakery to buy yeast for his weekly bread baking, my feet took me to the city hall. The mayor was willing to receive me. I spoke about the necessities of our little hamlet and he promised me to come over with the local architect. They did! The city hall will reform the exterior of the social centre, and they will break open the street in autumn to repair the spring! They were both very touched by all the work we did. ‘Maybe we should give a premium for people wo contribute the most to the environment’ the mayor said. This brought tears to my eyes. A heartfelt recognition of care.

Natural farming - update of the 600m2 garden So here we are, after months of work and with the protection for the hailstorms and irrigation system still to be finished, we see a garden coming to life. Such a difference compared to the upper terraces which have been plowed. Underneath the straw there is fungus and the soil starts to improve. There are many bugs, eating a lot of plants, as the system is balancing out. Where there was nothing more than bare soil 6 months ago, we are growing vegetables, herbs and flowers. #naturalfarming #fukuoka #inlinewithnature

Local support - An association for the local women We decided to start up an association for the local women, which will manage the social centre of our hamlet. Our focus points are: - Encourage women to develop and utilize their creativity and talents. - Support women to market their artisan products locally and legally. - Sustain, revalue and disseminate artisan knowledge. - Empowering women to constructively participate in thinking about and building the improvement of the social and natural environment. - Encourage connections and collaborations among women of all ages. - Create opportunities for women of different ages and in different social situations to meet their own income and basic needs. - Emotional support in crisis situations. - Transcending differences in language, ethnicity, religion, age and other issues that create polarization. Such a happy day today. Three women signed the statutes and foundation act. Welcome SOMUNA! 😍💃 #localsupport #socialengagement

Living in line with nature - The next generation In the neighboring village it is an honor to play in the local band. From a very young age children exercise really hard until that moment that they are allowed to play in the official band. Last week, the band went up the street and visited each house of the fourteen new young members. There, with their families all dressed up and proud, a picture was taken together with the mayor and the band leader, and they were officially welcomed as band members. In the end, they made a picture of the whole group. We passed by without even knowing what was going on. Until someone told us about this beautiful tradition. ‘Grab your camera. ‘ I said to Matthias. ‘This is such a precious moment for them and amazing if you can make a small reminder.’ So he did. He created this short spontaneous video. We were only able to catch a few moments, as it was completely unprepared, but so in line with our vision to support young people’s gifts and talents. With tears in my eyes I witnessed this precious moment; being welcomed in the world of adulthood. Belonging. It reminded me a bit of the ancient tribes, where rituals were common to celebrate the transition from childhood into adulthood. So glad we captured this moment and our village keeps this celebration alive. #youngsters #inlinewithnature #music #community https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc_y9NkLims&feature=youtu.be

A new economy - Giving We are beginning to realize more and more the impact we have. * The doctor who allows a few patients each month to donate to projects that touch his heart instead of paying for the consultation to him and one patient who chose In line with nature. * The woman who sold donated ceramics from a store that had been discontinued and donated the money to our organization. * The woman who sells tomato plants and gets such a positive response when people hear that the money goes to In line with nature that they want to give more. * The woman who gave a donation after being deeply touched by the realization that she could do what she wanted with her garden after a heartwarming conversation.... What a gift for us to receive your wonderful stories! To see how creative you all are. This is how freely given works! Thank you so much! For your trust, your generosity, care and love! We will do such wonderful things with it!

Natural farming - Blackberry bush garden Just a moment with the camera in the garden while planting. Nothing we record is rehearsed or repeated. It is just natural in the moment. Perfect imperfection. We are building a bond with the garden, while observing and spending more time here. Out of that, new actions arise. #naturalfarming #inlinewithnature https://youtu.be/2PeyHCJuiXE

Community support - Cleaning the acequia The people of the ‘irrigation community’ in the valley need to clean the water channels every spring in order to have access to irrigation water for their gardens. This channel is 2,5 km long and each group needs to clean about 500m. As we are using the vegetable garden of our friend, he asked us to do the cleaning for him this year. We can tell you, it was tough! As someone had not done his job properly last year, we won the price to clean up someone else’s sh*. We all realised once again how important it is to remember that it is not only about us, but our current actions have implications for others in the future. In this video you see a part of the acequia cleaning. We did this with 6 people, which are our closest neighbors and friends. There are many water snakes living in the water of the canals. This year the canals still held water, which made it much harder to clean it. All the roots from the sides had to be removed. In total we cleaned up 500 m and spent over 7 hours with 6 people. #community #inlinewithnature #collaboration https://youtu.be/Kwzfa8c061o

For you - a new podcast episode Yesterday something happened to our dog, Misty. This whole situation brought up so many things that we decided to record another podcast episode. This second podcast is about how life keeps course correcting us to align more with nature and how our relationship with nature is deepening. An open and vulnerable sharing. Enjoy! #inlinewithnature #podcast #naturalfarming #dogs https://www.inlinewithnature.org/podcast/episode/19f7d427/deepening-our-relationship-with-nature

Natural farming - Planting and sowing in the 600 m2 garden with water It is the first time we are planting and sowing in this garden, and although we put down a layer of manure, opened up the soil and covered everything with straw, the clay is so hard in some areas, it is not easy to plant the little seedlings. This is the list of plants we have been planting and sowing, and we will add more the upcoming weeks. ⁃ Veggies: pumpkins, corn and beans (three sisters planted together), tomatoes, melons, artichokes, grapes, berries, chard, lettuce, eggplants, peppers, zucchini, lentils, cales, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, chickpeas, potatoes, peanuts, spinach, radishes, beets, rucola, mustard & onions. ⁃ Herbs: basil, savory, perennial fennel, dill, parsley, yarrow, mint, sage, thyme, rosemary, hyssop, coriander, sint John’s worth & foxglove. ⁃ Flowers: echinacea, chamomile, marigolds, sunflowers, dragon’s head, summer aster, columbine, cosmos, atlas flower, everlasting flower, red linseed & lemon bee balm ⁃ Grains: oat All of them we grew ourselves out of organic, real seeds. We have no idea which ones will do good in this climate, so we just decided to sow as much biodiversity as possible. Now it’s up to nature! #naturalfarming #fukuoka #biodiversity #inlinewithnature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD4Npzee1VU

Natural farming - update for the 600 m2 garden with water We planted berries, grapes, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes and sowed oats, chickpeas, lentils, artichokes, sunflowers, beets and onions. We noticed that the straw cover was not high enough and a lot of weeds were coming through. There are also weeds everywhere in the seed rows, even though we have not yet seen any seeds emerging. Before we sow and plant in the other beds, we will lay down a thicker layer of straw and make holes instead of rows. Many potatoes have been somewhat damaged by the cold. Curious how they will continue to grow. At this time we see no difference between the traditional planting method and last year's potatoes with shoots that we did not plant but covered with straw inspired by Ruth Stout and our own laziness. So interesting to see how this new garden is developing. A different location with different challenges. We will keep you posted! https://youtu.be/rY9FoUn8S1s