Eco Developer Creates 40 Acre Permaculture Farm in Costa Rica 

Brendon McKeon - we had a blast! Can't wait to return! Sooner than later - no worries my friend. I'm just glad to be able to get your message out there again 👊

your a beast Brendon, glad we got some more footage of the projects down there, looks great, God bless.

slinky9632 haha I didn't notice that!

tamara Acosta Valois I'm so glad Justin challenged me also. This channel has been one of the best things that's ever happened to me. I really love where it has taken in the last year. I appreciate your support and feedback, I couldn't do it without y'all! Thank you 👊

tamara Acosta Valois I am from Panamá 🇵🇦, but lived in the US for 33 years, however, I do want to go back to my native country and do what these young men are doing, I am in Fl and I build a backyard forest.... however my heart is to go back home and continue with my ancestors legacy, to work the Land the natural way. Health it’s not in medicine, health it’s in NATURE, nature heals the world 🦋🇵🇦

been watching Justin Rhodes since he started his first 100 days of growing food. it was at the exact same time I bought a small house in the netherlands (100 m2 on a 300 m2 property) when I bought the place the entire garden was covered with stone tiles. now there are over 14 fruit trees (espalier) and many other edible crops and still growing. these guys are a true inspiration and I'm glad RU-vid brought us together.. hopefully one day I can buy a bigger piece of land (though that probably won't be happening in the Netherlands anytime soon. we have some of the most productive farms in the world yes, but land prices are really expensive

Discovery Duo thanks bro! So glad I made this trip happen. Brendon and family awesome people! I must say the climate where he was located was superb.

calendula fields nursery yes it is! I've been daydreaming about CR since I left. Thank you👊

Richard Alvarado I appreciate the feedback! The next one might even be better 👊

Thanks Daniel! Brendon is an awesome dude! I’ve learned so much from him.

Good to see your catching up! Brendon is the man in CR 🙌

Pura vida Daniel! 🙌

Our Florida Garden me too! I would love to have one these little toyota's in the states. Glad you enjoyed! :)

@@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL I drive a Toyota Hilux in Australia. It's done over 300,000 miles and nothing ever goes wrong with it.

Thanks Trish! This stop was a real treat for me also, I learned a ton from Brendon! I can't wait to go back :)

Thanks Trish, so glad you enjoyed it!

Jeff I know these epic stops are getting longer and longer. The fun in CR has just begun, hold tight buddy. I wanna put together a group permaculture tour around the country, I'm thinking next year. I think that same video you watched with Brendon is the one that inspired me to go see his site. He has the eco oasis page on RU-vid with the tune key permaculture homesteads.

:) :)

Glad you enjoyed! Man I’m jealous, have fun! 👊

Brad Suarez you aren't lying, Brendon is the man! So glad the I made the connection, can't wait to go back 👊

Brad Suarez I just saw the other two paragraphs. I believe that tipping point is coming my friend. I'm just trying give that push.

Me too! Thanks

This one is fire bro! 👊

11219tt thank you! We barely scratched the surface here, I'm going back very soon to visit some other sites. The climate and diversity here was something else.

Hey, could you share your per a culture playlist with me? 😊

Branko Dobrasinovic sure! Here it is ru-vid.com/group/PLRjkWb598SeUf7SUYcnO0wc6HgZZ6Q15Q It’s all cool, but recently I’ve been enjoying the stuff toward the bottom. The natural farming from japan and the Indian food forest stuff.

It's an extensive list, seen only some.of them. Really appreciated 🙏

What's Ripening? Ready when you're! 😬

YES!!!

Simon Bennett I've watched it a few times myself. Brendon is doing some amazing work.

Awesome!

Natural Living Designs and Permaculture Planet...BIG things are happening!

Permaculture Planet true that! 👊

❤️❤️❤️

Thanks! I’d say only if you live in a cold sensitive climate during the winter, they probably just haven’t pruned these yet.

@@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL Noted. Thanks

Cupuacu and Pataste

Dario Piazza thanks bro!

Living in banana land 🤣

Tim DeJohn I'm actually making some moves this year. Both for business and personal reasons. No not Chili off the top of my head.

Awesome, happy to be part of the journey. You and everyone you visit are a huge inspiration.

goofy roofy not to my knowledge. I've heard the vehicles have to be at least 20yrs old before they can come here.

goofy roofy good question on the animal integration out here. I haven't came across him yet but I'm sure someone exists. Glad you're digging the series 👊

I've heard that they are built to different standards, meaning that they would crumble in an accident more than a car made to us standards.

+Emmanuelle Coway, Iwish I knew the scientific name for this to share with you. The local name we use is Huatite. Let me see if I can find out for you, and yes it is a great base to use for things like Vanilla, Black pepper, dragon fruit, etc.

+Emmanuelle Conway, ok so it's Guititi (Acnistus Arborenses) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acnistus_arborescens

Acnistus arborescens, known as the tree “güitite” in Costa Rica.

Wow! I love that area.

Abundalanced Life yes brendon is on 40 Acres, we only toured a few of them. I’m not exactly sure how many types of animals but I know they had cattle and chickens.

+Abundalanced Life Good question. We do have a farm-full of Animals..cows (Meat and Dairy), chickens, pigs and horses, so we are able to gather majority of our own manures for Soil Ammendment and liquid fertilizer bases. We grow almost all of the food for our animals, whether it be pasture, root crops, green fodder, clabbered milk for the chickens and pigs, etc. If your interested to hear more on this, heres a video where I talk about it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-E_cMSNDnJoI.html We also make our Micro-organism mixes from the forest on our land, which then become bases for our liquid ammendments. Costa Rica also has an abundance of natural resources as we we live in a rural area with lots of farms, so easy to source from people we know if we need additional manure. As far as the Organic certification, they do require that we have a certificate from the manure we use that meets certain requirements. But to be honest on that subject, the Organic certification oversight leaves a lot to be desired and the enforcement of regulations is pretty lax, as I would imagine it is in many countries. I feel it's important to know where your food comes from, whether you can grow some of it yourself or visit the farms where you are sourcing. I think commercial organic is pretty much a joke, though obviously a step in the right direction.

Email Brendon, link in description.

larolimu 6ft1in. I think Brendon was standing in a hole. 😂

Pete Kanaris GreenDreamsFL Right, the good thing about holes is, if you're in one, the only way you can go is up, haha.

hahaha :p

zfallon84 I'm not sure about that one.

Ya, pretty much everywhere here. We combat it with regular applications of mycelium, micro-organism and sulfur sprays, and cutting the affected parts off the leaves. Check out my video "5 tips on how to grow healthy bananas" for more info on this! Thanks for looking out(-:

+zfallon84 Yes, this is a widespread problem in the tropics. We do regular monthly maintenance by trimming off the affected areas of the leaf. It actually doesn't take to much effort, and we have 5k banana plants, and we still get big heavy racks. I actually have a video where I explain more details on how we care for the bananas if you are interested to see more on this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-h4N-QLhXjjY.html

For real!

+englishcoach777 From a broad worldview I can agree with you, and of course Permaculture Principal # 3 "Obtain a Yield" speaks to that idea. That said, I don't think there is only one way to practice permaculture in one's life, as we all have different circumstances and goals. In our case, "breaking even" comes with a lot of benefits, including.... providing full time jobs for 5 local families (they are not breaking even), having a Huge amount of food for my family and to share with friends and neighbors, having a living seed bank with great diversity to share in my region and promote a stronger more resilient community, having my land and food systems maintained in a beautiful and abundant state, opportunities for endless micro-businesses should I or another friend/neighbor be interested in this, and the list goes on and on. I think it's important to understand my statement and goal was speaking only to a "money" return scenario, as of course there is no "breaking even" with a well managed and cared for 40 acre permaculture farm. All of my animals are fed from this "breaking even" and my fridge and freezer is always full of meat, dairy, etc. I didn't review the video, but I also think I explained that this was just my original base level goal, as I was much more interested in a self sustained homestead then I was in direct money returns. I'm pretty sure I also mentioned that it has become apparent that "breaking even" was not what was going to happen, and actually the farm is becoming very financially lucrative. Again, this is all based on personal needs and desires. Certainly if you set out with the goal to have a commercial production farm then making a financial return is the goal. Many people practicing permaculture to know where their food comes from and feed their family will be quite happy and successful "breaking even" from a money perspective, and still be able to pursue their chosen passion for working for money, as I do. It has never been my dream to be a full time farmer, or even run a commercial farm. This requires many many things beyond just having a love for permaculture and your land, and is a full time demanding business. My personal passion is to help other establish permaculture farms of their own, and share all of my experience, both successes and failures. What drives me, is the goal to cover as much Physical land as possible with permaculture based food systems, supporting a more resilient community, and creating models that help forward the Permaculture movement. I am able to make a comfortable income doing this, which gives me money to "create whatever". I know this was a long response, but this is a very important subject to me, and I think it's integral to spread the message that Permaculture comes in many shapes and sizes, it is a way of life, there is no right or wrong way to do it, and each individual will find how it can blend with their life circumstances and bring more joy and abundance however that works for them. Thanks for your comment, I think this is a very interesting subject to discuss as we all search for ways to make our world a better place!

I'd say we are at 80% but could easily be at 100 if we just gave up some of the "treats" we like to buy. All of our meat, dairy, fruits, veggies come from the farm! Some things are just to much work to grow when it's readily available from other local farmers..ex-rice, but certainly could be done if that was the goal. Great question though, not a lot of folks doing it so sometimes seems unattainable.

Brendon McKeon How much of the property and how many trees/plants would you say you use to eat off of and how many people do you feed? (Trying to get an idea of property size to successfully eat off the land) this is my goal. I am really tired of work and city life. So I am doing everything I can to figure out a self sustaining way of life. Good point about rice. I’ve seen some growing rice in their water catchments, but it’s a not easy. But rice is cheap :) Would love to talk more about seasonal crops and how to stay abundant throughout the year.

Hard to say because we have a big ole farm which is way beyond Homestead size. You can feed a family on a very small parcel with around 5 acres being a super fat spread. One main consideration on size is if you want animals and what kind. When you get into raising pasture fed cows and pigs your land requirements go up a bit. We are creating ridiculously abundant family Homesteads on parcels as small as 1-2 acres. Check out www.EcoOasis.org to see one of our projects that is a good example of this. These small 2-3 acre Homesteads can feed a lot of people and way beyond 1 family.

Brendon McKeon dude thanks so much for the info! I’ll definitely follow up when. I’m ready to make the leap.

Thanks! I’ve never had a complaint on music, that’s a first.

Seriously amazing!

@@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL Pete I Would Drop Everything And Come Be Your Sound Guy If You Ever Needed One Im Serious. Have a Bachelors Degree In Audio Engineering.