Forgotten plants, sowing resistance in times of drought

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Species that are well adapted to the environment, edible wild planets, medicinal plants and plants used for garnish are just some of the seeds that we’ll plant this spring during this group activity. We will tend to our goals and intentions with the wild seed nurseries from the Col·lectiu Eixarcolant while we talk and reconsider our bond with the earth as an element of life. We will also gain a better understanding of the food that we eat and the rituals related to different ways of growing crops, leaving behind the production-focused mindset and approaching a fertile space for healing to interact with each other from another space.

In collaboration with Col·lectiu Eixarcolant.

Growing and adding edible wild plants to our diet and recipes is a strategy to adapt to climate change. For years, bringing back and sowing wild seeds has proven to be a way to withstand changes in our climate and drought, as they have a much greater capacity for adaptation. It is a practice that enhances resilience. While planting the garden, we will talk about the ethnobotanic memory associated with forgotten plants. We will play and experiment with crop associations. We will create harmonious combinations and design handling techniques to nurture the plants and turn the space into a small oasis of life and healing. We will talk about food, medicine, and rituals. This therapeutic space allows us to reconnect with the organic and ancestral rhythms that we carry inside us, to reflect and discuss, and to strengthen our deeply rooted bonds.

We will sow seeds in a new biodiverse space filled with fresh aromas, local garden varieties and edible flowers. We will learn about crop planning and calendars, plant associations, soil fertility and agro-ecological remedies.

Crop association will allow us to make the most of the beneficial relationships between greens, vegetables, and a variety of culinary plants. Edible wild plants will allow us to eat their leaves as greens. We will prune easy-to-handle, low-maintenance aromatic, culinary and medicinal plants as they grow and thus lengthen the cycle during which they produce leaves and young sprouts. We will also test the behaviour of plants from other countries that are fully adapted to episodes of intense, scorching heat whose fruits withstand the high temperatures and do not wither, unlike some of our varieties often do.