This Regenerative Lifestyle

Regenerative. What does this mean?

There are a lot of buzz words and trends in food and agriculture right now. Some say the food industry is seeing a similar “gold rush” type of hype.

Everyone has an opinion about what diet is better than another and what type of food to avoid. Interestingly, many food entrepreneurs have popped up around these issues. Problems or “gaps” in the marketplace have created much opportunity. And there are certainly a lot of problems in the business of food – which means there are a lot of new food products and companies popping up.

All this attention on diets, GMO’s and how food is made brings the awareness back to the root of the issue and that is to the place and person growing your food.

Learning to grow food wherever you live is a viable option today. There are many “living wall” and container gardens that allow food to be grown in small spaces and urban areas.

I started growing taro in planter boxes and herbs in pots as an urban dweller to get a better understanding on what it means to grow your own food.

Now that we’ve moved onto a 7-acre agricultural estate, this desire to grow our own food just got real.

We’ve started with a “kitchen garden” planned for vegetables and fruits to feed our family. The kids are encouraged to participate in every step. They shoveled the organic soil that will be used to grow their food.

Tomatoes, both purple and orange sweet potatoes, taro, eggplant, green onions and basil are planted for now.

I’ve started incubating some Dinosaur Kale seed from Seeds of Change since a critter has been eating our kale in the kitchen garden. These seedlings will be transferred to raised beds in the planned greenhouse to eliminate the slugs and unknown kale muncher.

This regenerative way of planting and growing food includes “processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials, creating sustainable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature.”-Wikipedia.

The idea to work with the laws of nature has been a no-brainer. Learning from my mentors at The Sustainable Living Department at Maharishi University of Management see link here (https://www.mum.edu/sustainable-living) has taught me to go beyond sustainability and how to create new growth using a Deep Ecology holistic approach. They are currently the #4 ranked Environmental Science University in the US (link).

Next on our list is to plant fruit trees, test our soil and get the larger part of the property ready for planting canoe plants! I’ve signed up for a Permaculture class and will be writing about my journey from an urban dweller to caretaking this agricultural estate.

This IslandWyse editorial space has been a way to document bridging our lifestyle between the rugged allure of an upcountry agricultural estate without some urban conveniences. The process of learning how to be more self-sustaining has always intrigued me….Watch us grow.