Finca Verde, located in Lanjaron in the Alpujarras region of Granada, Southern Spain, is inviting applicants for our Regenerative Agri-Food Fellowship Program. This is a residency-style program designed for individuals interested in learning about regenerative farming, permaculture design, and developing sustainable income streams within the context of an eco-friendly farm. Fellows will gain hands-on experience, receive mentorship, and contribute to income-generating projects to help support the farm’s ongoing regeneration efforts.
You can get to know more about our project here: https://wiki.ecohackerfarm.org/finca_verde:start & https://fincaverderegen.com/
Why Apply?
We are stewards of 4 hectares of land that we help protect and regenerate, serving as an example for others who are learning how they can engage in similar regenerative practices. The farm is a living example of regenerative agriculture, where we focus on ecological, social, and economic sustainability through permaculture principles.
As a fellow at Finca Verde, you will:
Participate in the ongoing regeneration of our farm through practical, hands-on activities.
Learn about soil health, biodiversity, water management in a regenerative farming context.
Engage in developing and implementing income-generating projects that align with your interests and skills.
Benefit from 5 hours per week of permaculture design tuition tailored to your level of experience.
Receive guidance and mentorship as you learn and contribute to the farm’s long-term goals.
The Fellowship Opportunity The fellowship is designed for individuals looking to deepen their practical knowledge of regenerative farming while contributing to the farm’s ongoing development. The program includes:
Hands-On Farming Experience: Work directly with our team on daily farm operations, including planting, harvesting, maintaining infrastructure, and implementing permaculture design principles for 20 hours per week.
Permaculture Design Tuition: Fellows will receive at least 5 hours a week of tuition in permaculture design, with content tailored to the individual’s experience level.
Profit Sharing: Fellows will have the opportunity to contribute to income-generating projects. These activities will be aligned with your interests and skills, and include participation in our profit-sharing model.
Lifelong Support: Fellows who go on to start their own businesses will receive lifelong support through our alumni program. If you wish to return after your fellowship to continue your work or expand on your previous efforts, we will prioritize your application.
What’s Included?
Food & Shelter: We provide all meals during your fellowship, with an emphasis on healthy, locally sourced ingredients.
Accommodation: Fellows will stay in shared accommodations on the farm, providing a comfortable space to relax and enjoy the peaceful environment.
What You Can Expect from the Area
Finca Verde is located in the beautiful village of Lanjaron, in the Alpujarras region of Granada, Southern Spain. This area is known for its stunning landscapes, tranquil lifestyle, and vibrant cultural heritage. Here’s what you can expect:
Natural Beauty: Lanjaron is surrounded by mountains, hiking trails, and stunning views. The region’s Mediterranean climate makes it ideal for outdoor exploration, from hiking in the Sierra Nevada National Park to cycling along scenic routes.
Traditional Village Life: Lanjaron offers a simple, peaceful lifestyle, where community and connection to nature are highly valued. Experience the charm of this village, with its whitewashed buildings and cobblestone streets.
Cultural Heritage: The Alpujarras is rich in history, featuring traditional architecture and festivals that celebrate the region’s Moorish and Christian influence.
Proximity to Granada: Though peaceful, Lanjaron is only an hour away from Granada, a city full of historical landmarks, modern amenities, and a vibrant culture.
Nearby Orgiva: Just a short drive away, Orgiva is known for its multicultural, bohemian vibe. It hosts a colourful Thursday market, a hub for fresh produce, crafts, and eclectic goods. The market is a gathering place for locals and travelers alike, offering a unique glimpse into the free-spirited side of the region.
Application Process
Send your fellowship application by email to: info@fincaverderegen.com We will review all applications and invite shortlisted candidates for an interview via video call. The interview will help us assess your motivations, skills, and how you align with the farm’s values and objectives.
Eligibility
This fellowship is open to individuals with a passion for regenerative farming, permaculture, and sustainable agriculture and who can be in Europe without the need for visas and work permits. We are looking for applicants who:
Have a strong interest in learning and contributing to regenerative farming practices.
Are motivated, self-directed, and open to working in a collaborative, hands-on environment.
Have an entrepreneurial mindset and are interested in developing income-generating projects.
Are excited to immerse themselves in rural life and become part of our farm’s community.
During Cohort 1 from October to December
Seasonal work includes tree maintenance, wood stacking, olive harvesting. Also drying and processing of herbs and vegetable gardening and design.
During Cohort 2 from December to February
Seasonal work includes tree maintenance, wood stacking, olive harvesting. Also drying and processing of herbs and vegetable gardening and design.
Application Timeline
Applications Open: 1st August 2026
Application Deadline: end of August 2026
Interviews: Ongoing
Fellowship Start Dates: 1st October 2026, 1st January 2026
The EuPN Permaculture Gathering 2026 is a return to the kind of event the European permaculture movement has always done best where people coming together to share what they know, and leaving with more than they arrived with.
The last full European Permaculture Convergence took place 2018 in Ireland. This September, we will pick up where we left off and this time its in rural Brittany, France.
When: 4-6 September, 2026
Where: Afrinoon Permaculture – Priziac, Morbihan, Brittany, France
Cost: from 45 € for a day-ticket and from 120 € for the whole gathering
The weekend is self-organising, which means the programme is shaped by the people who show up. When you register, you are invited to propose a session or a skill to share, a project to talk about, a question worth exploring together.
It might be a practical workshop, a tour of your property, a conversation about community, or something else entirely. If it connects to permaculture, it belongs here.
The gathering runs from 4 to 6 September 2026 and is open to everyone. Whether you have been practising permaculture for ages or are just finding your way in. What matters is showing up with curiosity and a willingness to contribute.
The Venue: Afrinoon Permaculture, Brittany
Afrinoon Permaculture is a working smallholding in Priziac, in the Morbihan countryside of Brittany, run by Glen and Karen.. They moved here from the the Middle East in 2017 with the intention of building something more connected to the land, animals and with community.
The Digital Circle celebrates 10 years of work and we want to take a moment to celebrate!
The Digital Circle started in 2016 and since then we have been exploring, testing, and prototyping digital tools for permaculture. Over the years, many people have contributed to this work. Some have helped with websites, servers, systems, documentation, research, governance, community support, tool testing, open source advocacy, hosting, troubleshooting, and countless behind the scenes tasks that often go unnoticed but make the work possible.
To all past and present contributors: thank you.
The Digital Circle exists because people keep showing up to ask difficult questions about technology. Who owns the tools we use? Where is our data stored? What happens when community infrastructure depends on extractive platforms? How can we make digital systems easier to understand, easier to maintain, and more aligned with care for people, care for the Earth, and fair share?
Within the circle, there is also a micro-enterprise team: supporting permaculture projects, organisations, and aligned initiatives with practical digital services, including ethical hosting services, Nextcloud collaboration spaces, app development, tech support, digital infrastructure advice, and guidance on open source tools.
This work is rooted in open source and free software, open hardware, privacy-first tools, resilient systems, renewable and lower-energy hosting, and appropriate technologies that serve communities.
You can learn more about the Digital Circle and its services here:
At the moment, the Digital Circle is also actively contributing to the Grow Project through several connected areas of work:
CollectiveImpact, GRP1 Through our Permaculture Convergence Aggregator team, we are participating in this research project which includes building a repository of existing permaculture research and contribute to buildling a collective impact framework elevating permaculture as a viable answer to today’s global challenges.
EthicalSoftware, GRP2 Continuing the Digital Circle long-standing work of researching, testing, and promoting ethical digital tools, including open source alternatives that better match permaculture ethics.
PermaGlobalSpace, GRP3 Contributing to the development of shared digital spaces where permaculture practitioners and aligned projects can connect at a strategic level, collaborate, and find each other across regions and borders.
Community Owned Startup Incubation, GRP5 The Digital Circle Services is supported to develope our Micro-Enterprise through participation in the Community Owned Startup Incubation programme identifying areas for improvement and investing time and energy to address these.
DigitalLit, GRP8 Building digital literacy is a core activity for the Digital Circle so that more people in the network can understand, choose, and use ethical digital tools with greater confidence.
Techservices, GRP9 The Digital Circles offers practical technical support and digital services to CoLab members, circles, projects, and aligned organisations that need reliable, ethical infrastructure on a day to day basis.
Digital infrastructure shapes how we communicate, how we organise, how we share knowledge, how we build trust, and how accessible our work is to others. The Digital Circle helps provide the ethical tools to do so. If you are interested in ethical digital tools, open source software, digital infrastructure, appropriate technology, or supporting permaculture projects with practical tech skills, you are warmly invited to join the CoLab and our circle, or send us an email to contact@thedigitalcircle.org to inquire about our services.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this work over the years.
First published on Medium – Aug 20, 2022, written by Aimee Fenech
Bringing my question whilst being myself, listening with my experience, my identity, my context and my emotional state.
When the starting point may already be laborious, in cases where we already know before sitting at the table that there is no shared language, for example, making it necessary for ground work to be done before any debate can really commence.
Even when we think we have a shared language, it may transpire that in fact we need to do the clarification work as we go along and to keep checking in to ensure we are on the same page.
If we take, for example, the term abortion, many of us will have our own understanding of this, and we use the word in our discourse as advocates for and against access rights to this procedure. Now consider that different countries legally allow for the termination of a pregnancy up until different stages, and here comes the use of additional terms in order to distinguish between these late-stage terminations at x weeks and early-stage terminations before x weeks. The weeks here are a determinant clarifying term in that as a people we share an undisputed understanding of the 7-day week. Early stage by itself is again not specific enough. Another scenario to consider is an incomplete miscarriage, which is when the pregnancy is terminated by the body, but the fetus is not expelled, and therefore a procedure is needed to remove the fetus. Here’s an example where clarification for an unfamiliar term is provided; that’s not to say it couldn’t benefit from further clarification.
This process of clarification is essential to build a common base of understanding. Often public debate is not based on a common understanding and this is where a lot of energy is spent without arriving at any reasonable conclusion other than: “someone is wrong on the internet”. People shouting over each other, we leave debates with contempt and anger with each other and we perpetuate this over and over again.
Keeping abortion here as an example, this is critical because laws are defined to limit or increase access to this procedure. In some places, no type of abortion is legal, but people protest and express the right for access rights to be introduced as a right to health care.
Creating safe spaces on common understanding
Sitting with the other in discomfort is hard, but if we build a common base, there is already a part of us that feels safer, more grounded and perhaps more ready to be in conversation rather than waiting for the other to finish to have our turn.
Forming words and expressing ideas in a space which feels safe may bring to light things that may not be expected, even to ourselves.
Expressing how it feels in our body and how it reminds us of our experience brings people into a relational space, and this creates a container for being personal. For a more in-depth position beyond the expression of ideals and beliefs merely as a statement, but as a perspective built from experience.
Being present and sharing that for example: “Hearing you talk about your ideals and what that means to you, reminds me of the time when…. Hearing you say that I feel…”
What on your side are your troubled by and what do you find of value on the other side? —
Acknowledging that our position may not be totally for or totally against positions, but more nuanced in that we may agree on the yes when situations arise and not when limitations arise. Although we may advocate for a particular position, we may acknowledge that we still have questions, and we still need clarification to identify with these specific parameters.
For example, we may acknowledge that ethical production and consumption of food is something we advocate for, but we acknowledge that defining these parameters and the support needed around that needs further and more lengthy debate. Indeed, diverse action depending on the context, perhaps even an overhaul of the agri-food industry, and perhaps even economic and financial systems that need significant changes to get to the ideal state of ethically sustainably grown produce for all.
If we put the topic on the table and ask, “What if we view ourselves as a being that is not entrenched in the cause and rather view ourselves as independent individuals with our experiences that arrive here with curiosity?”, how might that change our experience of the debate? How do we see the other who is arriving here in the same spirit?
Below is a link to a podcast bringing together opposing views into a generative debate.
Aimee Fenech is a permaculture teacher and student, she is co-founder of Eco Hacker Farm and a project manager at Finca Verde where Permaculture principles are applied on a day to day basis. She is an experienced teacher, group process facilitator and public speaker, an advocate and activist for open source, open knowledge and passionate growing permaculture into the world. Within the International Permaculture CoLab she is an active members of many projects, circles and micro-enterprises.
First published on Medium – Aug 19, 2022 & Written by Aimee Fenech
In a world full of distractions, how are we doing at listening? When we listen, what is it that we are hearing? What questions are we asking to better our understanding?
I recently enrolled in a course by Krista Tippett on the Art of Conversation hosted on Acumen Academy. I quite like the format of the course on this platform and have to admit I am a fan of their high-quality content. I do not get anything for saying that, by the way, in case you think I am getting any benefits from promotion. The course is self-paced with no deadline, with around 2 hours of video content.
The premise of the course is to find new ways to foster dialogue across our differences including politics, religion, experience and other divergences.
Better questions for better debate
What is a generous question? How do we elicit a response from people’s better selves? How do we build questions in reflection?
Start with recognizing the context. Who are you talking to? What are they going through? What is their reality?
What do you mean by X? — The art of clarification
Particularly useful when we do not have a shared language or use words that others may find triggering in diverse social spaces. Acknowledging that diverse groups and different individuals mean different things with terms that may feel inflammatory to us, to recognize our embodied reaction and taking a moment to check in with the other about their meaning.
What makes you hopeful? — Tapping into the positive part of very difficult situations even in disagreement
What frightens you? — perhaps remember that intention here matters, are you asking out of care and wanting to understand?
Shining a light on emotions may give us a common ground on which to empathise with the other, as humans share hopes and fears often in common. Humanising the other as a reflection of self.
Staying in relationship even when we disagree
We can have relationships with people whom we don’t agree with, because maybe you don’t want to, but you need to in order to co-exist.
What do I admire in the position of the other, that I can honor even if I do not agree with the other?
Staying in relationship requires acknowledging that despite our differences we have our similarities and enough trust to talk, agree and share insights around those things that we do agree on.
Aimee Fenech is a permaculture teacher and student, she is co-founder of Eco Hacker Farm and a project manager at Finca Verde where Permaculture principles are applied on a day to day basis. She is an experienced teacher, group process facilitator and public speaker, an advocate and activist for open source, open knowledge and passionate growing permaculture into the world. Within the International Permaculture CoLab she is an active members of many projects, circles and micro-enterprises.
At the heart of permaculture is a commitment to care for people, the earth, and ensure fair share. But how often do we reflect these values in the way we write and communicate?
We’re excited to share a new resource that will help you do just that: Inclusive Writing in Permaculture – A Handbook to Simple and Respectful Communication, generously created by Mayi Lekuona, a permaculture designer, educator, and co-founder of Maïa Permaculture Cooperative.
This beautifully crafted guide is now available for free download in English, French, and Spanish.
Why Inclusive Writing Matters
Inclusive writing is more than choosing the right words. It’s about ensuring that our messages are accessible, respectful, and welcoming to everyone—regardless of their background, abilities, or language skills. In a global community like ours, the way we communicate can either build bridges or unintentionally exclude.
This guide will support you in:
Writing clearly and avoiding jargon
Using gender-neutral and bias-free language
Honouring cultural and linguistic diversity
Making content accessible and visually clear
Applying permaculture principles to your communication
It’s practical, easy to follow, and full of actionable advice you can apply immediately.
A huge thank you to Mayi Lekuona for creating and sharing this valuable resource with the permaculture community under a Creative Commons license. Her work reminds us that inclusivity starts with intention and everyday actions—like the words we choose.
Find More Resources Like This
This guide is part of a growing collection of practical tools, guides, and handbooks designed to support permaculture practitioners, educators, and community projects. You can explore more resources like this in the Downloadable Resources section of our website.
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