The 2000 Year Old Food Forest in Morocco
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
- Geoff takes us for a tour around an ancient 2,000-year-old food forest in Inraren, Morocco. He first visited this valley oasis in 1975, and he's been back a handful of times to document the evolution of what many believe is the world's oldest managed sustainable agriculture system.
If you don't know what a food forest is, check out Geoff’s free Masterclass for an in-depth dive into all things permaculture at www.discoverpermaculture.com.
And if you want to read more about this forest garden, Eric Wallace from Atlas Obscura wrote a neat article titled "The Moroccan Food Forest That Inspired an Agricultural Revolution": www.atlasobscura.com/articles...
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About Permaculture:
Permaculture integrates land, resources, people, and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies - imitating the no waste, closed-loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. Permaculture applies holistic solutions that are applicable in rural and urban contexts and at any scale. It is a multidisciplinary toolbox including agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics, and community development.
About Geoff:
Geoff is a world-renowned permaculture consultant, designer, and teacher that has established demonstration sites that function as education centers in all the world's major climates. Geoff has dedicated his life to spreading permaculture design across the globe and inspiring people to take care of the earth and each other and to return the surplus.
#permaculture #forestgarden #foodforest
As a moroccan I thank you a lot for this video Geoff! 100% on board. If I can help in any way, I'm here. Been interested in permaculture for few years now. Started growing food in a small garden recently, raising chickens for eggs, etc. Testing small simple systems that could be replicated elsewhere in Morocco or worldwide.
Please help. Be There.
Hello friend. Where are you based?
Hi, both in France and Morocco (Bouznika). What about you?
@@survivalmode952 have been following Geoff for years now. Very inspiring. Hi from a Moroccan based in Germany ;)
Hi, hope you're having fun implementing Geoff's principles in Germany!
That is definitely one of the seven wonders of the permaculture world! 😎 Hopefully the gravel works are kept under control so this gem doesn't disappear.
I completely agree, bring in families, with young people and children to learn to both restore and expand the forest. Children who learn how to get things growing never forget. I know I didn't, watched my Grandmother nurture al.ost dead plants back to beauty and growth. In fact, every year I take on plants that normally get dumped in the compost, bring them back to where they thrive. I learn more about plants I have never seen or grown before, this year it's orchids.
I am a retired person, yet I refuse to leave behind a planet devoid of beauty and plenty.
Your beautiful energy will never be forgotten.
I often combine walking for exercise with a Wombling expedition, taking my backpack & a few strong reusable carrier bags with me, I seek out rough land near housing; near wealthier areas works best. Despite the local council operating a front gate garden waste collection service, bizarrely, idiots frequently go out of their way to dump unwanted plants, even perfectly good plant pots, some distance from their homes; ~1200 metres is the furthest I've found stuff from local homes.
It's not uncommon for me to find very large & mature specimens easily worth £80-100 just dumped. On one particular Wombling expedition, I ended up with lily bulbs so large, they were worth about £5 each if brought at specialist supplier, a very expensive terracotta pot complete with compost & dead plant, & quite a few other plants. All in all, I estimate I went home with about £100-110 worth of stuff, so heavy that I could barely stumble to the bus stop, having to stop, start just to get there; I normally walk all the way home, about 3-4 miles. So for the cost of a £1•85 bus fare I did really well. Most of which has continued to flourish in my garden for years.
I'm such a terrible Womble. 😂😂 Often look like an army sniper with vegetation sticking out of my backpack as I walk home and see passing carfull's of people laughing at the sight of me. But I've had the last laugh. What's often been thrown out as dead or merely unwanted, is now HUGE in my garden & all it normally cost me was a walk home.
I also buy the nearly dead marked down stuff in garden centres, shops etc, & like you bring it home to grow on; ~98% successful. And like you I get some decidedly funny looks when buying items that nobody else would touch with a bargepole. For the odd time that it doesn't work, if it only cost £0•5-10 per item, it doesn't really matter.
You are a good person. Thank you.
@@pinkelephants1421 You need to get yourself a car and upgrade your Womble game 😄
@@sandrashane677 Believe me. If I could afford one, I'd certainly do so. There's a wealthy area on a peninsula about 5 miles away. Someone told me a few years ago that people up there dump an unbelievable amount of perfectly good plants. If I had a car, I'd be up there on a regular basis. I've found that there's particular times of year to go plant wombling; 2nd wk of March to end of 1st wk of June & last wk of October at the earliest - 1st wk of November until the end of the 1st or 2nd wk of December at the latest, depending on the weather. These coincide with the gardening planting seasons.
I was just looking at a couple of my favourite wombled Cordylines yesterday. They were about 1 & 2 feet tall respectively when I found & brought them home years ago. They've since grown to about 6 & 7 feet tall respectively, with nice thick trunks. To my great delight, I noticed that they've matured to the point of flowering for the 1st time; all this for free.
Geoff is doing something amazing with these videos. He is documenting a moroccan natural wonder with time differences of decades!
Yes we do like permaculture in morocco many years ago you are welcom Mr geoff
Ancient engineering with common sense…amazing and hopefully inspiring to new generations for a sustainable world. Thank you Geoff Lawton for sharing. Young and old, community and governments have to speed up the recovery of the nature instead of building too many roads and new developments
Amen to that!
Would be nice to have a course there and have the locals explain how they manage it. There must be a lot of hidden knowledge there
Goldmine.
Right?
@@brianquinn5060 I wonder if they could steer the forest to the side of the goldmine by literally thickly mulching the entire area with only live seeds from that forest so that it isn't all lost. Or maybe save cuttings to replant it, or use funding from the date palms to fund precise AI mining robots to dig around vital things.
@@buckaroobonzai2909 I think he means goldmine in the sense of goldmine of information:)
@@carcass2677 Just to be safe... we should start digging. Don't want to miss out on some gold....
We just had a bad fire here in Aromas California. It burned down the eucalyptus forest that outgrew and took over the native oak forest. Crews came in and cut most of the burnt trees down. At least now there is a clean slate to start off new. I'm grateful the barn or house didn't burn down. If we didn't have sheep and goats to keep the perimeter eaten down the fire would have burned them down for sure. You're greening the desert videos have inspired me to build a small nursery here on the farm to transform the property into a food forest paradise. I used carport frames and covered them with shade cloths to keep all my plants and fruit trees in until they are ready to plant out in the ground. I am hoping I can rebuild and replant after the huge fire. I know a lot of animals lost their homes but lucky for them I built a permaculture nursery to build it back better. Thank you Geoff Lawton for your hard work and for inspiring young people like me to repair the land and to work on making the world a better place.
It’ll come back great. My food forest burned in Australia and it has come back better with all the ash feeding the soil. Have hopefully fire proofed it now but would like to never have a bush fire here again. Best of blessings for your food forest.
Yeah!! I young person like me at age 56!! I'm excited, too.
Such an awesome example for the globe. Hope this spot remains productive and in use for centuries to come.
I grew up in atlas mountains...and what you showed in south if Morocco, was my kid play arena.
I used to play, swim and eat whatever was close to my reach.. everything pure bio. All our food was localy made.
This is wonderful.
More permaculture and more food forests, please ♥️
Truly an Ecological Gem 💎 brought to light.
Awesome!
Let's make these all around the world, in every climate. 😀
Now that’s the spirit, aye! 🙇🏼♂️💚
A PDC there would be a great idea. Hopefully, people will become aware of the treasure this ancient food forest represents, and take steps to conserve it. Thank you for this wonderful video, Geoff. 🙏🏼
I will start to plant my first food forest this autumn in temperate climate. Taking the online PDC last year was one of my best decisions. What a value you offer! Thanks again, Geoff!
The PDC sounds great. Bying zeeing outsiders value the location and realize they are a permaculture heritage,hopefully it will help the young people who remain to value this national and global treasure. Just as the Greening of the desert is now replicating in value to the surronding community! Keep us asare if this moves forward Geoff!
PDC?
@@lpmoron6258 Permaculture Design Certificate
Permaculture Design Course 🙂
Great message, Geoff. I'm currently in Tinerhir and there is practically the same situation in the Todgha valley running up the gorge. I'll be here a few weeks and am really anxious to get in there and see it. I haven't been in this area for 16 years, but remember the valley well as a sustainable agriculture. Since I've only recently discovered permaculture, it'll be nice to study an old system still in use.
Greetings from Arizona growing zone 9b! We love our rain harvesting system. We collect over 400 gallons of rain water to use all over our backyard orchard, Vineyard and garden. Thank you for your guidance, tips and tricks! You are appreciated.
This system makes me think of the man in Phoenix who noticed when the curb was broken and the water could run off and pool, things started to grow. So he started breaking curbs and letting nature take it's course. I tried goggling him but could not find him.
@@johnlozauskas778 try googling curb cuts, there's a man in Tucson, Dante Archangel.
@@johnlozauskas778 I didn't break any curbs in my neighborhood but I did build a little mote to catch the runoff from a neighbor's irrigation, I tried pumping it into our yard but it just was too shallow..
As our world becomes smaller and we begin our journey of learning from each other we gain respect for each other’s cultures and agricultural development
It's such a shame that the local gravel is being extracted to the detriment of this food forest. It might not have something obvious such as a sign up saying private property, or a registered owner saying that it is an important piece of infrastructure pertaining to the food forest, but we need to treat it as if it did because it has an important function in maintaining that wonderful local asset.
This is so interesting and amazing. Getting new blood in there to take care of, preserve and even expand the place seems like a very worthwhile endeavour!
I also just recently discovered the Dehesa in Spain and Portugal. It's roughly 8000 square miles of ancient food forest and Silvopasture! It's like 2000 years old too and in an arid Mediterranean climate also. It thrives powerfully! All those miles are carefully tended and maintained by humans.
The cows and pigs from that region are highly sought after and very expensive for their high quality. Thousands of miles of totally man made Silvopasture savannah. It's also an ancient treasure that supports many thousands of people! The Spanish take very good care of it though!!!
There's a few CZcamss on the region but not much written on the subject that I could find. I'll continue to search. I did find one seemingly great book: Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes by Campos, Huntsinger and (5) others that I have not read yet. It's expensive and BIG (520 pages) but seems to be very exhaustive and thorough, kinda like Bill Mollison's big book. Heh. Looking forward to reading the thang! Cheers!
I didn’t know you were a surfer! Nice!! I love body surfing!! 💙💦
I also love the awareness and education you are bringing to the world with places like this! 🌿💚🌿 May it revive and spread through Morocco and be an inspiration to every dry land. We can nurture the land, our planet, and consequently ourselves along with all the other beings here with us.
That was great to hear you covering some history about this place,it was a paradise,nowadays slowly disappearing,Soo sad , but still good part of it remain and we wish to preserve it and help out and share knowledge. I'm from the area and would like to see it great again for ever.i heard about geoff was here a month later
It breaks my heart to see.... But at least they'll have fresh gravel on their roads 😑.
Geoff and his followers have changed my life. I am food forresting as fast as I can and spreading the permaculture way. ❤
Thank you for this video. I think it's very interesting to talk about the local irrigation system called khettara
Dear Geoff,
So glad you visited this place and showed it in some detail, as I've heard you refer to this system before and how inspiring it was for you.
InshaAllah you can help these people to save this special, blessed place
Thanks
A project in Morocco? I'm on board. Sign me up!
Thank you Geoff! It is amazing how so much old knowledge and wisdom can be lost in just 2-3 generations, I sadly grew up knowing so little and I am making it a goal and mission in my life to learn how to forage, grow sustainable systems, and help spread the word peaceful and with love. Thank you so much for your courage and passion to explore learn and grow and to take us along the ride with you. We are learning heaps of information that I know will be passed down to future generations and in turn, restore healthy ecosystems.
Thank you, Geoff!
Thanks for sharing about this site in Morocco again.
Yes! Absolutely yes!
Fantastic idea to run workshops to repair/improve this ancient example of permaculture- while educating!
Yes yes yes Geoff.
Thank you for your incredible, consistent work in leading the way for our planets food and biodiversity systems...
Thank you thank you thank you.
Utterly priceless
So uplifting!!! Thx Geoff. Love the concept. Even the donkey looked happy!!! 💖
Thank you very much Geoff. A permaculture course and documenting this is critically important. This living sustainable treasure trove is so important for food and knowledge. I hope the Moroccans will actively preserve and conserve , fund this sustainable living system that has been used for over 2,000 years. 800 people farmed here. “Plant the rain” in mulched ditches and reinstate the citrus and bananas. Cover crops and swales would be so good on the bare expanse where the Berber man and his donkey were. Moroccan local governments please get your road rocks elsewhere. Rocks are critical to prevent desertification here.
I would so love to see this as a film to show the critical drylands knowledge, history and food production. Gardening elder’s knowledge……including Berber and relevant other’s oral history.
Spent a new year is the paradise valley 😍 what a sweet spot.
Wonderful food system. I'm really wanting to do a food forest in the AZ desert. Working on a small one now.
You growing moringa yet? I often consider moving to AZ just to grow those❤
@@rosebraskett Sure am. Had two small ones in pots, thought they died. Planted both together in the ground. I'll be dipped, if they both didn't start growing.
Ones about 5ft tall, the others about 2ft tall. Doing great. I'm in the low desert, near Yuma AZ. Hot.
@@4wdboss230 I ordered some "improved" seeds, pkm2 I think they were called. Out of 25 seeds I got 21 plants lol. I am in WA so I must keep in pot and bring in over winter. Can't beat that nutrition though, so way worth the effort. ❤
@@4wdboss230 moringa love the heat, especially at night and if they have good water. I'm growing some in SoCal right now and they will die back in the winter but once it warms up in late spring they take off
You'll need irrigation,… unless it's a Saguaro forest.
Good work Geoff, I think I remember you visiting this place a long time ago and covering it briefly. A PDC does sound like a good idea.
Beautiful! Shade is important.
Thank you very much for this most interesting programme.
For these systems to survive, there will need to be a totally rethinking of society (NOT the "great reset" however!!). Agricultiral "deserts" are the logical result of materialistic thinking and " money first" prioritization.
Your ideas are valuable and valid, keep on this track!
Thanks for posting and sharing
Brilliant, Geoff.
This is so fun to fallow you. My family came from Morocco before moving to Mexico. It's fun to see all the places you go to show plant growth. God bless you.
I agree it would be a great idea to bring in courses and encourage the young to stay and manage that system. It is too precious to let it die out.
Excellent lesson!
Awesome one Geoff!!! Always motivating and inspirational!!! That red soil looked so rich! So much deeper in color than the surrounding land...
Moving to see this food forest.
wow, what an incredible set up they have, and to be there for 2000 yrs! Using it as a teaching site is an awesome idea, it might make the local industry think twice about destroying the area. (one can hope at least)
Absolutely beautiful
preach brother
Glad to see you revisit this amazing site. Amazing how old this concept. Glad you pointed out the simplicity. True on the not sacrificing thisis icon. Agree on holding a course there and helping to support its continuation.
You’re absolutely right, there should be a school there at this food forest. This is absolutely brilliant. The water moving through the system is used so well, and the shade of the loose canopy creates a favourable microclimate, while building soil, providing a diversity of crops to harvest. Thanks for the video.
Great video Geoff. Thanks for sharing and bringing attention to this. What a great system, I hope it stays
We just bought a little Quinta in Portugal and I am looking at ways to change the orange monoculture to a more diverse set of fruits and cropping so this video came at the right time for me. Really interesting looking at over storey coverage and food forests in drier areas. Thank you so much.
This CZcams Channel „The Dutch Farmer“ might be interesting for you.
I love it!!!
👏👏👏👏
Thank you Geoff.
Thanks for showing these kinds of places Geoff. Huge eye opener. May you continue to work and live for 100 years 🙏👍🍻
This video makes me so happy! That there is ancient evidence of food forests... !😀😇🌲🌱🌰🌴🌵💧🌞
I look forward to the course!! And I suggest if you'll allow me a discount for Moroccans to encourage locals to keep the knowledge and take action. Thank you so very much for this!!
Anyone else here from the Guardian article? Fascinating video!
This is truly magnificent! Thank you for sharing.
Hat off Mr. Lawton!
How amazing it is to see and realize how traditional agriculture is in connection and symbiosis with the environment taking care of the soil and letting mother nature do the work for us. Industrial agriculture and extensive single crops are completely the opposite. Destroying the soil with chemicals.....
Thanks for sharing!
Great job!
That's awesome,simple yet productive 👌👌👌
Thank you for doing this story and loved the himar pronunciation. It was perfect
Thank you Geoff for a lovely and always educational with passion. I dream of having a permaculture farm in marocco. I was there in 2007. Beautiful culture and I Loved the local fresh food. Great idea with teaching a course there. I Hope with my whole Heart that people join together to preserve that beautiful system you showed. It is amazing working with nature and it is all mostly ease and grace if you understand nature. Thank you Geoff for that you do and especially bringi g back the wisdom and understanding to people and communities. Love and Support from Sweden.
You‘re doing seriously important work brother!
Come on Geoff..an English Surfer 🏄♂️ ..lol.
Mate, ever get involved in the regreening guys in Australia?
Enjoy your shows btw.
What a beautiful documentary, such an incentive!
That was magical Geoff
Absolutely enjoyed video brilliant help this is great I got so much work to catch up on and these videos right on the mark thank you permaculture team you're doing great work we got this
Bravo et merci
Thanks for sharing Geoff!
Geoff is a legend
A very needed message.. 🙏
Incredible place, many tanks for sharing.
The manor is not placed randomly. It's piled up strategically until it's cured, so as not to burn the vegetation. then over time, they spread it out when crops start growing.
Thank you for sharing. Gorgeous and inspiring!
Something I see missing from the tropical and subtropical permaculture is date palms.
Yes The Do Grow in Wet Environment. These days they are being commercially grown in Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Indonesia,,,, and they produce a huge amount of food. The only thing is to cover their fruits while ripening so they wouldn't get wet or insects get into them.
And they produce a perfect upper story for other plants growing under them.
Great ideas for course and to find similar simple sustainable productive systems around the world.
Truly amazing!
Beautiful work brother 🤜🤛
Thank you for this video, i got goosebumps watching it, because it is so true if this simple knowledge dies with this old simple farmers it is a shame on us for running away from it and live in the cities. We should keep it and learn from it sometimes the simple random organized chaos gives us many lessons.
What an important place!
I hope this can continue, the world need it, as these are native and there seeds should be saved, and like he said lets keep it going and learn from this. I am an organic Gardener, I have started my own Food Forest in the High Desert in NV state, I have over 30 fruit tree's and shade tree's all kinds of stuff mushroom, chicory, dandelions, and so much more, keep up the faith, the world need's FOOD FOREST, we have bird, and bee;s dragonfly, and so many animals, visit. this yr I am planting pounds of seeds on my 1/2 ac self sustaining farm. will be do happy to see more shows on this Food Forest, thank you for sharing, and for caring about this paradise in the desert. Many Blessings. PS. I would love seeds if you can spare some as I am a seed bank in NV state, I am trying to help people to learn they can grow, in the desert and live better plus saving seeds and the bee's in Nevada state USA. NancyCollins@RRRCVNV I will be doing show soon, com check it out.
Very important.... a wonderful example!
Great video. I hope enough people understand the urgency of protecting land before its too late.🌎
Great video Geoff. As a Cornishman who also travelled to Morrocco to surf Anchor Point and swim n Paradise Valley (I didn;t get there until the early 90's) I enjoyed this one very much. I've just secured a small piece of land near where I grew up and am hoping to have a permaculture dwelling there. Your videos are a great resource for me in my planning of the project. Many thanks!
Thanks Geoff...
A serious time in history, calls for serious messages to go out. Glad you're onto it Geoff.
Excellent video, presentation and content!
It's beautiful and inspiring
Very much so! "have you enjoyed it", it is marvelous, especially when heard coming out/narrated by your mouth.
It immediately pictured south of Pakistan in my mind, arid/barren still with orchards of date palms without an idea of a fruit forest underneath.
Thank you very much for keep enriching us on permaulature.
Muhammad Yousaf
Peshawar
Pakistan
Thank you ❤️
Geoff: It’s “Use it or lose it” when it comes to the good things in life! Bravo for finding exemplary food systems so motivated people can help. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund certainly don’t want to encourage food and water independence, but there’ll be enough local support.
Greetings sir:
It was eye opening!
Thank you.
Liked and Subscribed.
Wonderful
Loved it!
Thank you.
Nice video, thanks for share!
Thank you
I live in BCS Mexico close to the only fresh water pond going into the Pacific. Rapid development and very poor land management have created a dry lowland where palm trees have lost their water source and easely go up in flames. I have nonetheless started a regreen tiny part of desert in high tiny valley close to the village. I wanted to create a co-op with 2 other cooperative co-owners to implement such a food forest. Every drop is reused as it only rains maybe 5 days a year up here while the village uses careessly the natural water source from the Sierra. It is discouraging doing everything alone without support and limited means. I wish to be part of a group that is actively doing and supporting these LIFE sustaining practices. Bless you Geoff sharing your knowledge and spreading HOPE.
Well done Geoff.
Thanks for showing this. Me and my partner are currently working in transforming sone desert space in Texas into something like this. The neighbor has similar trees on her land along with vegetables etc. We are doing the same
Brilliant Geoff, I'm listening 🌿💚🌿