Wow! What a place! We visited here yesterday but I am only writing up this up today. !
We made our way from North Wales down to Pembrokeshire which took around 3 and a half hours.
As we approached Lammas Eco Village and drove up some single track roads we were met by a large pond before reaching the Community Hub.
We parked up and made our way to the talk at the Hub, were we discovered that the pond that we drove past was not only a swimming pond but was part of their Hyrdo electric system. The water runs down from the mountain into the hyrdo drum down a 50metre shoot, which then through some electronics wizardry creates electric on 3 seperate loops for the 9 sites at Lammas.
The big pond is where the river down the mountain flows into and then this overflows back into the river which then closes the circle with the water back to the river. As well as hyrdro they use Solar energy and can swap between Solar and Hyrdro. The extra generated electricity heats a water tank which provides underfloor heating around the homes.
The hub was made from a grant by the Welsh Government and the wood used to build the strtucture is local Douglas Fir which I found out is called the Poor Mans Oak. The Hub is the main central area for all 9 sites and contains a kitchen for when they hold events and talks etc
After the intro to the Hub we made our way to the Wimbush Families site who were providing a tour of their smallholding.
The Wimbush site has been an ongoing for the last 10 years. First they set up there small holding and under One Planet Development after demonstrating they had a viable business was able to build a natural building which is sustainable and has a low ecological footprint. The Welsh Government have taken on this scheme and they have to ensure they are proving options for people of Wales to live sustainably and ecology sound lives.
On the Wimbush site, there is their home, a wood store, a Guest House with Shower, Compost Toilet, as well as a goat house. Under construction is the new Earth Centre which will be used by the owners to deliver there healing talks, shamanic drum making and other events.
There home had a real living with nature feel with a robin that requalry vists and barn owls. It was magical and I would do anything to live like that.
This is the new Earth Centre under construction.
This the wood store and the guest house.
Inside the guest house was so lovely. Made from wood either on site or from the near village.
Then we made our way around the outdoor part, where they grow there home food as well as crops which they sell. As most of you will know I am a keen veg grower and sadly I forgot to take photos of most of this as I was just far to excited.
On the way down to the veg plots and polytunnel was this pond which is the rain water collection which provides the irregation for the vegetables.
The veg area used to very exposed so they grew this Privet wall in around 8 years which enabled the plants to obtain higher pollination and therefore a better crop.
They also used the Elephant Grass to cover the beds in preperation for Winter. I found this a really useful and could be implemented easily into my allotment as well as using cardboard.
Permaculture is something instilled in the Garden and the polytunnel with it including a Pond for toasts and frogs to eat the slugs. They also expressed the important of good quality compost which they make incuding "Black Gold" goat poo!
They had just harvested a load of cob nuts but I forgot to get a photo of those.
There were also some small holding animals the Goats and some geese.
I had a really brilliant day and have taken a lot of knowledge from the tour. We also were fed a lovely vegan meal prepared in the hub.
You can read about the whole of Lammas here, but considering this is only one of the nine sites there I am certainly going back next year and veiwing the other sites.