GARDEN
Our philosophy is: try growing anything once and if it grows well and you enjoy eating it, grow it again!
Our mission is to promote food diversification in the areas affected by food insecurity. As we all know, maize is still the dominant staple food in Malawi although it has little nutritional value once milled into refined maize flour. Moreover, crops like vegetables, fruits and animals are produced in small scale. Even those farmers who grow these crops primarily sell them for money, not consume them.
To address the challenge of diet diversification we want to overcome the high maize dependency through: 1.) Encourage alternative crops, i.e., fruits, vegetables, legumes, animals, etc. (indigenous as well as those introduced) and medicinal plants (local varieties and introduced such as garlic, ginger, neem, etc.) throughout primary schools and communities nearby. 2.) Provide education to students, parents, teachers and community chiefs on sustainable ways of farming and permaculture.
In the garden you will find vegetables, fruit trees, herbs, spices and sometimes flowers. When people cultivate their own vegetables they enrich their diet with several nutrients. The addition of vitamins and minerals is very important, as other foodstuffs are often short of these nutrients
We designed the garden in harmony with nature, using natural ecosystem as a model for growing food, linking plants, animals, and microbes.