After organizing and attending our first syntropic farming workshop in 2019, our team at Porvenir Design knew that we were looking for just the right client to implement a larger scale system to learn more about these ideas. Finca Luna Nueva presented that opportunity as they were seeking to expand their existing cacao orchards and we had recently taken over full administration of their farm.
I don’t drink much these days, but I do make a lot of alcohol. As I write I have a rum mash fermenting and I’m cooling down the mash for a spiced araza cider. I mostly share or trade the cider and rum, most recently for car mechanic services and yoga classes. Being able to share homemade beverages adds to one of the great joys of my life, hosting friends. But my interest in brewing and using tropical ingredients in my brews goes far beyond that.
This article is about Holistic Management and decision making as a tool and how we use it in our business, Porvenir Design.
“Hi, I found your website researching vanilla. I want to know if you think my property would be good for growing vanilla to sell. I don’t need to get rich, I just need for it to cover the property expenses. I’m located near Quepos. Please let me know if you can help me set up my vanilla farm? Thank you!”
What to make of a client inquiry such as this? In some ways it is quite a simple question: can we help them set up this farm enterprise? There is a problem, though.
Porvenir Design, cedula juridica #3-102-747-347, is a landscape design firm that specializes in helping clients put their land to productive work by building soil, capturing water and growing food. Porvenir operates primarily in Costa Rica and is owned by Sam Kenworthy and Scott Gallant. The business is seeking a part time associate to provide technical land planning, design, and implementation oversight for clients around the country.
Ten years ago I had the opportunity to join a land-based project (Rancho Mastatal Sustainable Education Center in Costa Rica) already eight years into operation. Upon my arrival I found a site that had focused on infrastructure and program building through its early development. This was an important leverage point in building a financial base as an education center, but it meant that some aspects of the campus were still in their infancy, such as the agricultural and food preservation systems. I arrived during a shift in focus to the latter systems, which enabled me to participate simultaneously in different phases of site establishment.
Brave Earth or Tierra Valiente is a young shareholder based community located on a 35 hectare property in the La Fortuna area of Costa Rica. The project was founded in 2016 by a large group of friends who were connected through their activism and the larger healing arts and medicinal plant communities.
The project is squarely in the early experimental phase of development.
As usual our calendar is filling up! We have been running around the country with work, making mistakes, getting some things right, and learning and learning and learning. We been in Pavonnes, Parrita, Nosara, Santa Teresa, Turriabla, La Fortuna, Mastatal, Monteverde, Upala, and more for all sorts of projects big and small. Below is a peak at our main work over the last few months.
Like many of us I saw the Life in Syntropy video a few years ago and was immediately intrigued. Syntropic farming looked like the type of agroforestry that I envisioned in my personal and professional work. I dug around for more information, but was slowed by the Portuguese language barrier and lack of distinct resources unique to this style of agriculture. To overcome these challenges I decided to organize a workshop here in Costa Rica on Syntropic Farming.
The vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia) is one of the world’s most interesting plants. Of the nearly 35,000 species of orchid, the second largest botanical family of plants, vanilla is the only species that produces an edible fruit. True vanilla is a sought after product, usually the second most expensive spice in the world, yet we associate the word vanilla with plain, boring, and commonplace. Native to Mexico and Central America, the vanilla vine is well suited for any tropical homestead. Yet vanilla is a particular plant requiring special care, in particular during pollination where every flower must be hand pollinated.
There’s nothing like the smell and flavor of real corn, baked into cornbread or roasted on a skillet as a tortilla. Corn has been grown and eaten in these ways for thousands of years throughout the Americas. Unfortunately, in many areas, genetically modified, chemical-dependent corn monocultures have given this plant a dicey reputation. But older corn varieties, grown organically on small farms and cooked using traditional methods, are a beautiful expression of corn’s real and wonderful legacy in the human diet.
