This is the final in a four-part series about my visit to Stacia and Kristof Nordin's permaculture project in Lilongwe, Malawi. Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet. Travel anywhere in Malawi and you'll see people sweeping-the sidewalks, the floors of their houses, and the bare dirt outside their homes. And while the sweeping makes everything look tidy, it's also one of the major causes of damage to soils in the country. Because sweeping c...

Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet. While touring Lilongwe, Malawi, we met Kambuku (which means "leopard" in Chichewa), who was soundly sleeping in his 2,500 sq meter backyard of fenced green landscape. He was rescued by the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre after poachers shattered his knee in Nyika National Park (making it impossible for him to ever return to the wild.) As we toured the facility nearly every animal we saw — fro...

This is the first in a two-part series about my visit to the home of Kristof and Stacia Nordin in Lilongwe, Malawi. Stacia and Kristof Nordin have an unusual backyard. Rather than the typical bare dirt patch of land that most Malawians sweep “clean” every day, the Nordins have over 200 varieties of mostly indigenous vegetables growing organically around their house. They came to Malawi in the 1990s as Peace Corps Volunteers, but now call ...