LUNA ESTELI  International Hostel

 A non-profit project by Luz Verde that provides income for the growers plus an organic payment premium, to compensate for organic yield often being lower and yet more labour intensive.

The effort to follow through the aims of making the project self sustainable by finding and creating markets for the production to be sold. So far, Cafe Luz buys a major part of production.

All profits from the purchase of produce is saved and reinvested into the project. That's to say the difference in price paid to the grower and market price thatCafe Luz buys it at. To sell to local buyers and restaurants the price is a fairer price, the 'Precio de Feria' , a lower profit margin but more competitive.

In addition, all purchases at Cafe Luz also win a 20% organic premium paid back to the growers.

Our growers are 8 women and their families, one single man who cares for his elderly mother and a women's association, who work on a paper recycling project, Las Mujeres Ambientalistas.

They were chosen by local community leaders through various criteria, especially focusing on need, committment and reliability plus access to some land. Our smallest producer lives with her 5 kids, in a 2 roomed wooden home and has 3 raised beds outside the front door, on a patch of land no bigger than 4x3m. She's one of the best producers!

A crucial component of the project is to provide an educator. Our technician is a trained agriculturalist who grew up with his family practising organic methods across diverse crops and home gardens.

He is able to create weekly schedules to visit every garden every 15 days at least, to work creating compost, planting techniques, pest controls, garden infrastructures hands-on with the women and their families.

The role is crucial to create support, supervision and development to the project.

Exchange visits are a proven favourite for local farmers and growers, to share with peers their experiences and techniques.

We have had two exchange visits to growers in La Garnacha Tisey and between the growers themselves. Also a visit by another female grower in the area while also offering advice on gender issues.

A cooking workshop is planned for several families, to offer recipes to incorporate their produce, given by another local woman who has worked in similar garden projects and is an experienced cook. We can't wait!

We will be offering training on seed saving, to involve all, plus an opportunity to learn about climate change.

Ongoing introductions at each meeting are given at permaculture methods and our sustainability campaign, not only on the project's successful commercialisation but also in it's practices and methods; transport, materials, and integration as a whole.

We promote public transport, lesser use of plastics and less manufactured materials, promoting live fencing techniques, compost creation through best animal practices, water preservation and better land-use pratices.

To improve our commercial sales to consolidate our current beneficiaries and increase the volume of produce.

The seed-bank project is underway, experimenting by working with some growers and generous collaborators joining our project with their knowledge and techniques.

The climate is having a huge impact in the northern mountains here, and we are trying to provide some viable options to save produce for market while not compromising our values and continue working with local techniques and species to prevent excessive rain or drought damage.

We hope to be able to open up opportunities to local school groups and other needy and enthusiastic families nearby in 2012.

Funding is still needed to support our work, for training and further educational material support.

We are very grateful to Nicholas Ryan and his friends and family of Ireland who funded the initiation of all this project.

The growers are hugely satisfied and so are the consumers! I can vouch for that!