An Investment in the Future

When we first arrived at Fonte de Baixo it was overgrown (parts of it still are) and covered in self-set pine trees. These type of trees are not so good for burning in stoves, the wood was of poor quality and not useful for building, we decided to clear them. In all, about 50 trees of various sizes.

We felt very guilty for doing this, Bruni was really upset at the time and we made a collective decision to replant, this time with fruit or medicinal trees that would add beauty to the landscape, resource to the kitchen and a long term benefit to the bees and birds. This week we purchased another 12 fruit trees to replace all the pine we chopped down. We have now added 3 kiwi trees, 2 apples, one eater and one cooking variety, a plum tree, a kaki tree (similar to a sharon fruit) and 5 olive tree saplings. We still have some way to go before we replace all the trees we cut down, but we are making progress.

Whenever anybody comes on a work retreat we will ask them what tree they would like us to plant and then make a plaque to dedicate the tree to their contribution towards making Fonte de Baixo an even more beautiful place and Ahimsa-Portugal a place to remember.