Projects you can help us with
  • Buying solar panels, preferably a modular system that we can expand if the group of people there grows. We want to have solar panels on the house to provide us with a good internet connection in the house to make it easier to have contact between Portugal and the Netherlands. We can then update everyone with footage of this beautiful piece of land. Also knowledge that is gained there can be spread out more easily. Next to this, the solar panels will provide us with a bit of energy for light in the house and to charge power tools.
  •  Buying batteries to save all the energy that we will get from the sun to do all above mentioned things.
  • Buying a router and an antenna for the internet connection.
  • Next to this the house needs some attention. There are some windows without glass and the house is not insulated. Preferably the insulation will be with old clothing or recycled cellulose insulation material.
  • Buying of seeds and little trees to do some experiments with! What can we grow on this magnificent piece of land? What will we be growing in the future to feed ourselves and maybe even more people!
  • Building a food forest in the wilder area above the house. This will be a long time project, where every year some of the trees will be replaced with fruit/nut trees to create a food forest over time.
  • Building material for a greenhouse with a rocket stove. Of course, it is quite warm over there in Portugal, but even in the winter it is nice to be able to eat your food from your own land.
  • Building an aquaponics greenhouse system where fish provide food for plants to grow. This might be build above the water basin above the house.
  • Building more compost toilets that will, over time, compose our daily need of pooping into plant food.
  • Building of a plant water filtering system. To be able to clean our gray water, we have to think of a design of a plant water filtering system that suits our piece of land. For this some experiments wil be carried out this year!
  • Building a pizza oven to provide all the hard working people with good food! We will do this mostly with clay from the cave, but some materials need to be bought for this project.
  • Buying materials for an irrigation system for the summer. Whilst the winters can be quite rainy, the summers are merely dry! To give the plants the water that they need we need to design an irrigation system. Expenses for this will be tubes, drip-lines and maybe a pump.
  • Building a washing-machine-bike-system with which we can wash our clothing whilst exercising!
Other nice ideas?

If you have time and other amazing ideas for this piece of land, you are very welcome to join! Just create a plan and send it to tocadocoelhofarm@gmail.com.

If you like to talk to people about your idea first, come to our next day event on the 22nd of February – more information on this later.

Planned projects