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Tina Teucher joins Ecosystem Restoration Camp

Tina Teucher joins Ecosystem Restoration Camp

Tina Teucher reports live on her involvement in the Ecosystem Restoration Camp Virsoleil in the southwest of France between April 9 and 16.


Video Clip: The Camp Virsoleil Experience

Body Heart & Soil The Camp Virsoleil Experience
This clip shows highlights from Camp Virsoleil and describes the personal experiences of the participants.

Contents:

Camp Virsoleil

Camp Virsoleil is a learning space for education, ecosystem restoration, and regenerative agriculture on a 300-year-old farm in the Dordogne region of southwestern France. Among charming medieval villages and lush river landscape, awareness of regenerative lifestyles is on the rise.

The vision of the camp

Ecosystem Restoration Camps is a global movement that since 2017 has supported camps working locally to restore degraded ecosystems.

Ecosystem Restoration Camp Virsoleil sees itself as an example of a regenerative polyculture farm, offering educational programs and relaxing retreats focused on regenerative lifestyles and local culture. With the motto “by reconnecting with nature, we can restore ourselves,” there is also room for personal recreation and socializing with like-minded participants.

Experiencing nature all week long

Instructor-led restoration activities include developing an ecosystem restoration concept, regenerative food growing, tree planting, creating habitat for pollinators, composting, and developing regenerative business models.

“By reconnecting with nature we restore ourselves”

Virsoleil is a place to restore soils, souls and society. The Centre for Regenerative Living is located in the Dordogne, a wonderful region of South-West France. As soon as you arrive here, you can feel the intent that the founders of this camp are pursuing:

To reconnect with nature and restore ourselves. To inspire, educate, heal and harvest.

In the hope of experiencing this and helping it grow, six people from the Netherlands, UK, US and Germany join the Ecosystem Restoration Camp Virsoleil from April 9th to 16th 2022.

There is no warmer welcome imaginable than the one that embraced the campers from the camp owners and hosts Teryl and Claudia Chapel. At the always richly laid table, dishes from the French region, which is also popular with tourists, spoil the volunteers. In the conversations about the history of the farm, which is over 400 years old, and the family history of the couple, it becomes clear that this is a holistic restoration: The polyculture farm wants to demonstrate how people can thrive with nature.

On the farm tour the campers get some first impressions of the incredible work Claudia and Teryl, the high performance trainer and the carpenter, have already put into the project.  One can see a naturalistic pond according to permaculture principles, a barn completely renovated according to the tradition of the region, refurbished as a meeting room and sleeping facility, a self-built greenhouse, a bee hive set up and many more impressive projects and lovingly crafted details.

In addition, the soil of a field is prepared for planting lavender. This will be the first task of Ecosystem Restoration campers – to be continued!

The scent of summer is coming

Live report from 11th of April 2022

Lavender is planted! Here is how we did it at Ecosystem Restoration Camp Virsoleil:

First, the soil needs some preparation!
At the sight of wild orchids we rake the ground.

In the process, many stones come to light, which are lovingly sorted out by hand.

Now we prepare the ground with the plowing machine – a real beast from the French 1970s…

Rake again

The beast can now till.

Now we also remove tufts of grass that may prevent the lavender from growing later.

Lunch time is quiche time! Our host Claudia Chapel is a gifted cook.

The little lavender plants are patiently waiting to be planted.

Finally, the time has come: the lavender comes into the well-prepared soil.

In doing so, we maintain precise distances.

The campers make sure of that!

Et voilà! Your new home, lavender. May you grow well and thrive!

Now it’s time to water well.

To protect against the sun, wind and dessication, we mulch. Virsoleil uses the remaining hay from the old barn for this.

Chillout after work – in the high tent.

After a relaxing breathing and moving session with elements from the wisdom of Hawaiian elderlies, camp host Teryl shows the group how to climb on the wonderful linden of the farm.

Done! That was fun!

The hosts Claudia and Teryl with dog Maya are proud of their campers.

Sheep holistic grazing in France

12th of April 2022

How can we manage weeds without pesticides? Holistic grazing is a regenerative practice that works with rather than against nature. The farm “Les Jardins de Condaminas” in Périgord (Dordogne) in France is applying this restorative method for biodiverse ecosystems.

Today, Ecosystem Restoration Campers visited Astrid Van Moorleghem and Michiel van Baalen on their regenerative farm Les Jardin de Condaminas in Villac, France. The Belge-Dutch couple started the farm in 2020. In vivid detail, Astrid explained their strong endeavour for a viable polycultural business model that respects nature. While they have 25 hectares of farmland, they only use seven hectares for farming and leave the rest as forest. In the future, the wood from the forest might also be sold as firewood.

The focus of the farm is lavender. From the 3,000 planted lavender plants, the couple is planning to extract around 7 litres of essential oils. Generally it is said that lavender can’t be grown in this region, especially because the soil is rather clayey. Astrid and Michiel decided to choose cultivars that can handle the soil and climate conditions more easily, like Lavandula stoechas lusitanica (depending on where you live, it’s also called Spanish lavender, Portuguese lavender or butterfly lavender).

The Gardens of Condaminas are the only producers of this variety of lavender in France, the products have a shelf life of 5 years. Lavender seedlings are also sold to other farms like Ecosystem Restoration Camp Virsoleil. Condaminas’ business model is based on tourism and products. People love to come to the certified organic farm, have a picnic and enjoy the lavender, which blooms three times a year.

Animals help to mow so called “weeds”

Blooming lavender thanks to holistic grazing with sheep:

The regenerative approach of the farm is to work with nature rather than against it. “A weed is a plant that is growing in the wrong place”, Astrid says. She chose to leave the weeds in the lavender fields without herbicides. They found another way to solve the “weed” problem: Animals keep the field clean.

Between the rows of lavender, 50 sheep enjoy the grass and weeds. In the regenerative practice of holistic grazing, the farmers move the sheep every day to another plot to mow.

Although sheep wool has no economic value in Europe and sheep meat prices cannot compete with industrial sheep fed with soy, the sheep bring an income for the farm: The EU pays subsidies for grazing animals to stop meadows from becoming forests.

Bees are humming around their hive, happy to discover the first lavender blooms. The lavender harvest is done by hand, trimming the flowering part.

Distillation of essential oils

Astrid and Michiel make essential oils from the lavender in their distillery. The slow distillation process with low pressure at around 100 degrees Celsius takes around 2 hours. The heated water starts evaporating in the copper column. Inside, steam wanders through a serpentine and becomes liquid again.

At the end, two products come out of the separator: essential oil and hydrosole (water with the biochemical compounds of plants). They can be used for aromatherapy, as room fragrance and as a base for repellents. Maintaining a greenhouse and herbal seedbeds, the Condaminas Gardens also manufacture other essential oils like from oregano, sage, thyme, peppermint and laurel. The fragrance of these natural treasures enchant the visitors.

Managing natural cycles

Striving for real sustainability, Astrid and Michiel try to design everything on the farm as part of a circular economy. For example: the trees that block sunlight getting to the lavender plants are cut and in order to keep them in the farm cycle, the wood chips are spread on walking ways. Over time, they decompose and turn to fertile soil. To reduce the risk of illnesses killing all the plants, the lavender is planted with enough space between the seedlings.

Keeping a farm like this up and running is not easy, Astrid admits. “Farming is like a gambling addiction. It’s not under your control. Weather and other risks can screw all efforts”. The dedicated couple learns every day and keeps their efforts high. They welcome visitors, reservations under contact@condaminas.fr

The website is currently (April 2022) under construction and will be available later on http://www.condaminas.fr/

Astrid Van Moorleghem explains to the Ecosystem Restoration Campers how she designed the lavender farm with her husband Michiel van Baalen.

The soil is supposed to be too clayey for lavender – but the lavender still blooms.

Over 3.000 lavender plants were planted by Astrid and Michiel in Villac, France.

Bee hive in Condaminas Gardens.

Early lavender blooming.

Sheep grazing near the lavender fields.

2 days old sheep with Ecosystem Restoration Camper.

Laurel cut freshly from the laurel tree for distillation.

Chipping of the laurel in preparation for distillation.

Distillation of essential oils, in this case from laurel.

Lavender babies: Seedlings to be grown in fertile earth.

Pregnant sheep in the Condaminas Gardens in Périgord, France.

Hey Hay Guy! We need some mulch over here!

Planting of another 200 lavender plants in Camp Virsoleil.

Tea time! Campers in between of lavender planting.

1001 bees – agroforestry for biodiversity

14th of April 2022

On April 14, 2022, we visited the nature conservationists Valerie and Philippe in their project 1001 Abeilles (1001 bees) in Boisseuilh (Dordogne), France. With their association, they practice natural beekeeping, environmental education, permaculture and are just starting an agroforestry project.

Sustainable construction

The couple lives in a self-built, octagonal, sustainable house. Most of the elements in it are made of upcycled materials – for example, the doors are made of chestnut wood that other households have discarded. The foundation is on stone and lime, and old tires provide good insulation. The soil lends itself to sustainable building, but not so much to gardening. That’s why many of the beds designed according to permaculture principles are raised beds.

Octagonal housing
Kitchen with wooden sink
Roof of the octagonal house from the inside
Valerie shows a nature inspired model for houses and bee hives

Well designed water ecoystem management

When they bought the neglected property, they first began to build a good water management system. It takes the longest time to develop a pond as an ecosystem, so Valerie and Philippe started with that first. From the fact that there are now small snakes living there, you can see that the ecosystem has fully matured: these animals live at the top of the food chain. There are enough frogs and snails for them to eat. These animals, in turn, find enough plant food.

Valerie explains the permaculture principles of her garden

Permaculture principles also in the greenhouse

In a greenhouse, the couple grows many plants for themselves, as well as friends and acquaintances. Some of the plants grow vertically, providing pleasant cooling and shade, so that it doesn’t get too hot in there in the summer. The water supply to the beds is provided by clay pots, which gently release filled water over a long period of time.

The greenhouse, the seed beds, in front: the natural bee hive

Stories from the bee expert

The 1001 Bees Association got its name because there are over 1,000 species of wild bees in France alone. Worldwide, there are just over 20,000. The honeybee is a livestock animal as are cows or sheep, and it is only one of thousands of species of bees. It originated in Europe and Africa. It was not until colonization that it made its way to the Americas. Winnie-the-Pooh, the little honey-eating bear and his fellow wild bears, are certainly happy about the introduction of this “invasive” species….

The main bee hive has a window for visitors to look inside

Valerie is an absolute bee expert. She told us many great wonders about these little giants. Male bees are born in the spring and die in the fall. Female bees live 1.5 months (those born in spring) or 6 months (those born in fall/winter). The queen bee lives about five years and always stays in the hive. She leaves it only for mating and when the swarm splits. New queens can only be created when the so-called “royal jelly” is fed to new eggs.

Bee expert Valerie with an opened “Cathedral”, a hive for natural bee keeping

Is there such a thing as “fair” honey?

Honey, which tastes good to us humans, is actually the bees’ winter food. In conventional beekeeping, the bees are deprived of their honey and given industrial sugar instead. Valerie, on the other hand, only takes the honey that is left at the end of winter – if there is any left.

The life of a bee colony keeps fascinating the visitors

How to fight the Varoa mite naturally

Danger for the bees comes from the varoa mite. It lives on bee eggs, as a parasite. The occurrence of Varoa mites decreases when

  • the swarm splits, because the queens do not lay eggs for 3 weeks during the reorganization of their colony, so the Varoa mites do not find food
  • enough honey has been produced in summer and fall, so the queen stops egg production. But in conventional honey production, beekeepers are constantly taking honey away from the bees, which is why they are always producing new eggs to replenish the honey supply.

The bee paradox

We live in a bee paradox, Valerie explained. There are not enough, and yet in some cases there are too many. As in agriculture, size matters in the honey economy. To make a living from honey production, a beekeeper needs between 200 and 400 hives. However, the density of the colonies puts the bees under stress. Especially in cities, this can become a problem. All insects benefit from a growing urban flower diversity, with blooming balconies, urban gardening, and parks. On the other hand, Paris alone has over 1,000 honey bee colonies covering an area of 87,000 square kilometres – an overpopulation that leaves little food for other pollinator insects in particular.

Bees are gifted architects and constructors
This basket is used to relocate bee colonies. It is partly made from blackberry (bramble) wood.

Naturalistic beehives

Naturalistic hives help honeybees to live as close to nature as possible. Valerie and Philippe make such hives from wicker and raffia and showed us how to protect them from weathering with a special compound. The mix of lime, milk, cow dung and fire ash dries quickly. In an almost meditative, sunny workshop, we applied this natural protection to a bee hive at Camp Virsoleil. Soon the first colony will be able to move in.

Production of the bee hive protection compound
Bee hives from wicker before application of the compound
Ecosystem Restoration Campers get their hands dirty for the bee hives
Almost done…
Finished bee hive

Environmental education in practice

In order to establish agroforestry, Valerie and Philippe buy a neighbouring green space. They use the lush blackberry bushes there as sustainable raw material for their beehive production. We Ecosystem Restoration Campers were also allowed to try out how to carve pliable, unbreakable willow sticks from blackberry branches.

Blackberry bushes can provide wood for natural baskets
Stick carved from blackberry bushes / bramble

With their association, the two natural beekeepers raise awareness about the value of insects, give courses on building natural beehives, help relocate bee colonies and call for participation and donations. More information about their dedicated work is available at https://1001abeilles.org

Spring in Ecosystem Restoration Camp Virsoleil

Cover photo: © Ecosystem Restoration Camp Virsoleil – modified


Tina Teucher supports sustainable projects as a ‘Sustainable Matchmaker‘ to spread, grow, scale and multiply their ideas. As a moderator and speaker for sustainability, she inspires at events online and on site. In 2022, she is particularly committed to ecosystem restoration and wants to bring international stakeholders together within the framework of the Generation Restoration initiative.
Tina Teucher’s newsletter provides information about current sustainability topics about four times a year.


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