Professional Documents
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Lessons From The Edge
Lessons From The Edge
Lessons From The Edge
There are some places where a more natural way of living is not just possible,
it’s happening. These places are where the traditional ways are still alive and
can provide a stepping-stone to the future. Jonathan Evelight reports on
one such place in Portugal.
I
f we’re honest, most people would Now we are living in a yurt on the PIG ON A TABLE, HONEY IN A JAR
admit that our present society fertile earth in Alentejo, in the mid- The more I stand on this red earth and
isn’t working for many reasons. south of Portugal – on the edge and at look around the more I see natural
We may be encouraged that many the beginning. And it’s wonderful. We, abundance. You could easily miss it.
people are now choosing to step out being Jenny, ex-solicitor’s clerk turned Many Portuguese are land rich. Quite
onto a self-determined path towards permaculture designer and spinner, and a few live a subsistence lifestyle unchang-
a more self-reliant, co-operative and Jonathan, a solar energy engineer with ed probably in centuries. The bent old
sustainable lifestyle. If society hasn’t a past life in computer networking. Our men and ladies all in black; they may
dropped you (from redundancy or land is on the edge (nature loves edges) be the last generation of their kind. To
other random causes), you may already of a broad plateau and the river Mira say that with them goes an ancient
be finding your own way of dropping floodplain that wends its way to the tradition of simple survival and a
into a life you really believe in. nearby west coast. We share this land working knowledge of the land might
It was paying a mortgage on a house with its rammed earth dwellings and not be far from the truth. If you are a
that Jack built that made me homeless woodlands, inside the national park, with purist their way may not be perma-
for a while. Until I learned to take more seven other people right at the start of culture but the land has kept them in
control of my life along with the help creating a co-operative community. We good stead for a lot longer than the
of a lot of good people on the way. call it ‘Arco-Iris’, Portuguese for ‘rainbow’ EEC has been around – and there’s not
One thing is for sure; you get the life (as it takes all sorts of colours to make much evidence of that in the outback.
you believe in. After finally saving my an eco-neighbourhood). It’s a new begin- Where else can one go in search of
rebuilt house from negative equity ning for us, but for the locals already
and imminent collapse, my partner living here it’s a lifestyle that in many Above: Not a just for pleasure rides,
and I could afford to move to a very ways is way ahead of us. We have much donkeys still play an important part
different world from its sale. to learn from their traditional ways. in the rural ecomomy of Portugal.
A PROBLEMA E O SOLUÇAO
Another couple we know have chosen
to build a wooden house from a Swedish
company. Their land is a woodland glade
of mature cork oaks in a gently rolling
landscape. Turn off the road toward
their place and you might see candles