Portugal

Why roam far afield, when good things are so close at hand! Conjuring up delicious dishes with local foodstuffs… As a vegan cook, artist, photographer and blogger, I explore the question about how we could drastically reduce the industrial consumption of animals. Through creative projects and by thinking about sustainability and cruelty-free eating. Let’s share opinions, facts, ideas and recipes and grow together. My basic idea when developing this Mediterranean-inspired, three-course, late-summer menu is to use exclusively plant-based ingredients organically grown in Portugal. The ingredients currently offered to us by the season and the local market underlie my menu planning. …

Vedanta Saraswati | Yoga A yoga teacher since she was 19, British citizen Vedanta Saraswati always wanted to be able to offer retreats. She decided to look around Europe to see if there was anything she could afford. To run a venue for this, you need fresh air and quietness surrounded by nature. So she came over from England to Spain and Portugal in the summer of 2005 and had no idea what she was looking for. A series of pictures went through her mind. One of them was of soft rolling mountains. Near Monchique, she found what she was …

Leo Lobo | Circus Vagabunt How much does a clown earn? He’s 39 and was born in Osnabrück in Germany, the son of Portuguese emigrants. He calls himself Leo Lobo, but his real name is Sérgio Augusto. In the 1970s, his family emigrated to Germany. His father worked in the car industry, his mother as a cleaner. When he was six, he returned to Portugal. He lived with his uncle and aunt. He speaks and writes German very intuitively. He went back to Germany when he was 21 to train in circus arts – specialising in the educational/pedagogical side, at …

Vânia Ribeiro | Made by choices Vânia Ribeiro (31) has a degree in psychology and an interest in alternative medicine. For four years, she did a course in Chinese medicine and massage. During that time, she discovered naturopathy. For health reasons, she felt the need to change her diet. She called the consumption of meat and fish into question and started a blog which, after a year and a half, has thousands of visitors in Portugal. Vegan life is presented every day, with new recipes, articles about health, photos, films and documentaries. It is called “Made by Choices”… ECO123 interviewed …

Maureen Robertson  I have been getting stomach aches recently, maybe for two or three months, every time after a meal. The ache comes on about 30 minutes after I’ve eaten and I can’t seem to eat any spicy food lately. Are there foods I should stay away from, and which herbs may be beneficial? It sounds like you might be suffering from inflammation of the stomach mucosa lining and, when the stomach acids and other digestive juices and enzymes are released on the introduction of food into the stomach, the resulting relatively acidic environment will be aggravating the sensitive stomach …

Recipe for finding your way – Building a small wind turbine Have you and your children ever built a wind turbine that generates clean energy? If not, you now have a unique opportunity to sign your children up for a do-it-yourself workshop for the summer of 2017. The target group consists of middle-level pupils and their teachers, from years 8 and 9, aged between 14 and 16. Participation in the ECO123 workshop “I build my own wind turbine” is free of charge if as a parent and teacher you help to support the crowdfunding campaign to finance it. In the …

EN In the dairy of the multi-purpose centre in the parish of Azinhal in the municipality of Castro Marim in the Algarve, where time stands still from time to time, there has been – almost without anyone noticing it – a genuine revolution. For five days a week, the goat rearers association ANCCRAL (Associação Nacional de Criadores de Caprinos da Raça Algarvia) produces fresh goat’s cheese there, and an incredibly good natural yoghurt, unprecedented in the region. As part of his secondary activity, as the finance department would call it, (atividade secundária), Pedro Constância (see photo) collects the milk from …

Human survival during climate change Gil Penha-Lopes is a Guest Lecturer at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon. He has been coordinating European and national projects on bottom-up climate change adaptation with a focus on community-led initiatives. He also lectures on the International Doctoral Programme on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies at Lisbon University. Gil also co-founded the European platform of community-led initiatives on sustainability and climate change (ECOLISE) and recently published a book on “Permaculture and Climate Change Adaptation”. The words that form the title have already started to appear and to be uttered at the events …

Changing the mentality of their parents, who were reluctant to accept the prospect of five years with no profit in order to convert to wholly organic production, was just one of the mountains that the Mariano couple had to climb. They had already conquered other steep slopes. The first was when they decided to swap the comfort of the capital Lisbon to return to their roots in Macedo de Cavaleiros, after an extremely violent robbery perpetrated on the parents of 47-year-old Raquel Mariano, a theologian who has become a farmer since she returned to her starting point in 2012. Giving …

Monchique is well worth a visit. Because people who keep climbing up the ancient cobblestone street in the village generally have one goal in mind: the old Franciscan convent destroyed in the earthquake on 1st November, 1755. On the home straight, the cobblestones turn into a footpath that leads to the ruin, on which the word “FAMILY” is written and in which the family of Vidaul Gonçalves lives. In the middle of the convent, between the crumbling walls, they have put up a fence and have both a chicken run and a fine vegetable garden, which feeds them well. Hikers …