Paradise Food Forest

Making it taste
We produce four different flavours of juice.

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Variety	What is it?	Availability
Pineapple	This is our standard pineapple juice	Throughout the year
Pineapple-Mango	Very sweet and viscous juice mixture	During mango seasons in January, February and June, July August
Pineapple Ginger	With a hint of ginger for a great refreshing taste	Throughout the year
Pineapple Passion	With the exotic taste of passion fruit	Whenever it is not dry season
Pineapple Special Mix	A mix of pineapple and seasonal fruit (physalis or papaya)	From August to March

Making it right
We produce our juice right on the farm without transporting the fruits far from the fields. This way we can keep an eye on our fruits and harvest them when they are best. As we don’t have electricity connection to our farm we have set up our own solar plant that powers our small factory. So we run our factory on 100% solar energy.

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Making it better
You will feel the taste difference! We monitor our pasteurizing temperature very well so that the fresh taste of the fruits is not lost during processing. The freshness of the fruits also contributes to this. Our fruit juices are made from pure fruits, no water is added. This gives you the authentic and natural refreshment, nature has planned for you.

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Making it with minimal impact
We use re-used glass bottles. This may look too common to you, but for our planet it is actually the best solution. This way we reduce plastic waste and the glass bottles can be used many times. We wash the bottles with treated water from our well and sterilize them in a boiler heated with wood from our forest. It is all in a circle. That our label is paper (and may tear some times when moist) is also a conscious decision. We want to contribute to a cleaner world which we can leave to our children with good cautious.

The idea

Permaculture goes far beyond organic farming. Permaculture is about growing the right plants and putting the right elements together so the plants benefit from each other and the system as a whole becomes naturally balanced, productive and self-sustaining. Permaculture is about observing and learning from natural processes and using them to our advantage to design a resilient system to produce nutritious, wholesome food and many other products.

Permaculture is about cooperation and so are we combining different plants and crops in our food forest that do well together. A food forest is a man/women made forest mimicking a natural woodland with the difference that the food forest produces mainly edible crops.

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Our tree planting
We started with tree planting. We have coconut, mango, orange, lime, soursap, cashew and also a few timber trees.
The trees have a special function in our production system. Not only provide they a light shade and create a more balanced climate, but they also help collecting water and make sure the water seeps into the ground, so that it is later available to the roots of all plants. The deep roots of the trees also bring nutrients from lower soil layers to the top by shedding their leaves and so helping to feed the other plants. And we see it clearly: it is not only our workers and visitors who love the cool environment the trees create: we also observe a big range of birds.

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Our shrubbs & vines
The passion fruit is a vine that can climb other trees or needs to be provided with support. Before the great tasting passion fruit matures the beautiful flower has to be pollinated by wind or insects. By the way, have you thought where the name of this fruit comes from?
Another climbing plant we have started growing is black pepper. We hope to offer this very soon also on the market. Then we also grow various shrubs a bit of papaya, guava, banana and plantain and also miracle berries.

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Our perennial and annual crops
We count our most important crop, the pineapple.Besides this we also produce physalis and of course ginger. For the farm and factory kitchen we have also chilli, cassava, cocoyam and some maize. We even tried rice, but the birds were quicker with harvesting than we were.

Our animals
We also keep sheep, chicken, pigs, cats and a dog on the farm. In the ponds we have mudfish and tilapia and very soon ducks will join us.
The animals can make use of left over crops and provide very valuable manure for our plants. In addition we also get eggs and meet for our farm and factory kitchen. The pigs help us with the land preparation. When we want to plant cassava or vegetables in a portion of the forest, we fence it and leave the pigs to work the soil. Within a couple of days they have ploughed everything and have also eaten up most of the weeds.

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The way we produce
In our food producing forest we are trying to create a balanced and self regulating forest. We don’t use synthetic pesticides as the pests are controlled within the system by competing beneficial insects. The same competition happens between diseases and beneficial micro organisms. It is not that we don’t lose any fruits to pest and diseases, but usually the damage is limited as nature regulates itself. The same applies to fertilizer use. We use manure, compost and plant mulch to provide the crops with nutrients. We don’t need to add synthetic fertilizers.
All this will make our products better for your and extra wholesome.

Hospitality
This is one of our projects. Within two years we want to build two guest rooms so that we can welcome visitors on our farm. This goes along with our passion for permaculture. We want to share with visitors the beauty of our place but also what comes out of the food forest.

Learning
When starting this project we knew very little about the practical aspects of permaculture in Ghana. We started knowing very well that it will be learning by doing. Every day we add new experience and knowledge about the interactions between plants soil and animals. It is challenging but very fulfilling. These experiences we want to share with visitors and interested partners. We strongly believe that in an active exchange both parties can add to their knowledge.

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Working together
In this sense we are looking for partners who would like to spend some times with us, working in field and factory and exchanging about how we can improve the world we are living in. As soon as our on farm accommodation is ready we will start promoting this part of our vision and offer farm stays to interested people.