Our partner organisation Sporos has been working tirelessly in the organic garden over Spring and Summer, being busy with many new projects.
All the hard work from Winter and Spring has paid off and now it is harvesting time. Zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes, and eggplants have been picked from the garden and given to visitors at OHF. We still have many herbs, flowers, green beans, peppers, salad and much more growing in the garden. The Garden team has also expanded the garden and has built beautiful flower beds and planted flowers around the OHF grounds.
Seeing all the garden produce is amazing, however it is not its only purpose! One of the goals of the garden is to educate visitors and volunteers on sustainability and growth, and to also provide a green and comfortable space in which they can relax.
One of the volunteers, Mahmoud explains: “It is so calming to be around flowers and green plants. I like it a lot. Everything that is green.”
The ‘compost master’ Matteo has also restarted the compost program, making new use of the lunch leftovers and all the oranges from the fresh orange juice production in the OHF-Café. Akbar, who has been working in the garden the past month says: “Most of all I like to water the plants and see everything grow. I also like to collect vegetables – both feeling and tasting them is really nice. The green peppers are my favorite – they taste so good and I know it is super healthy too”.
Sporos also arranges hands-on permaculture classes on their farm outside of the city, giving the participants an understanding of the principles and applications of permaculture. The course includes food production systems, rainwater harvesting, seed saving, small-scale renewable energy systems, organic waste management, and much more. The next courses start in September. Sporos has many other plans both inside the camp, at the farm, and involving the kids at OHF even more, so stay tuned for more green garden updates.