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10th of June 2025
Everything is about water. And patience.
We, Said and Linde, are currently coping with the hot summer days and continue doing our best to keep the plants alive, as is each summer our main focus. First of all, it is so incredible to see that the older alfalfa that we’ve planted several years ago are still growing healthy and strong. Their roots have grown very deep and now even reach the underground water, while at the same time these roots help storing water underground; this field with older alfalfa hasn’t been watered for over a month and even now in 45-50ºC the precious plant keeps growing back each time, very fast after harvesting it. And so many insects have returned since more alfalfa is growing!
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Secondly, the dates in our old palms are rapidly growing, ready to get ripe during the increasing summer heat. Last April Said climbed up into the palmtree tops to pollinate their flowers with flowers from a male palmtree that lives on our land. This hand pollination is an old technique being used by the people here, to help the pollination process. The wind also does its work in carrying the pollen, and there are still some bees left, but many of them have almost become extinct in these dry regions. Since more insects disappear since the increasing drought, hand pollination has become more and more necessary.
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Datepalm pollination
Our electricity-base & project wall are still in progress. Or rather at a pause. The request for electricity is still at the town hall, at the same time it is incredibly difficult to find specialists who are available to build the second layer of rammed earth of the wall. This layer is necessary to place the electricity counter on, as soon as our request form has been processed by the local authority. Our patience is being tested at its highest, but what you learn very fast while living in Morocco, is that even though things never go as planned, everything comes eventually at the right time.
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Young dates growing in the datepalm
Seeing how nutritious the alfalfa is for the land and animals, we bought new seeds and have sowed lots of it at the start of this year, together with barley which provides shade for the young alfalfa and helps keeping away invasive grass. We have watered the freshly planted seeds with water from the Agdz dam and with bits of salted water from our well-in-progress. Volunteers helped dividing the large fields into smaller plots and restoring broken or creating new canals, so we could navigate the water most efficiently.
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Sowing alfalfa and barley
This year - since September last year - has been a very good year water-wise. After the flood, the water in the well has remained longer than usual, and this is the longest period we’ve seen the garden green. After the water in September, we received again water from the northern dams in January and again in April. This is exceptionally much, we couldn’t be more happy! The volunteers have also brought amazing help during these arrival times of water, helping to repair dams that were still broken from the flood, and leading the water through the fields.
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Volunteers are repairing the broken canal
Right now we are doing our best to harvest everything in time. Over the last few months we received a lot of help from people from all over the world in harvesting the alfalfa and invasive weeds; but at the moment we are only two people in the project (by choice, it is simply too hot to invite people in this season) so this is a challenge. As the barley and alfalfa are growing together, the barley needs to be harvested very fast in order to water the young alfalfa before it dies. While temperatures are rising each day now, we don’t know whether the waterlevel of the well will remain as it is now, or go down completely like last summer. Last week, the whole nearby town Tagounite has been without water for 4 days, and the government water (distributed from a watertower that provides water to several villages, which gets its water pumped up from a well) here in Beni Hayoun has stopped coming entirely since a few months.
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The current barley harvest
As soon as we have enough funds to deepen the well, to ensure having water all year round, and, not salt but potable water, we can start on our garden plan on a larger scale and finally plant trees and a large variety of other crops. By growing the right (native) types of plants, we contribute to the ecosystem by growing a refuge for birds and insects and by storing water into the soil, which then results in less water usage. We have seen that this is possible, even in a harsh ecosystem such as the Sahara.
You can still help us by sharing the ︎crowdfund-project︎ for a larger reach, talk about it with your family or friends or make a donation if you desire this. We have already reached a beautiful amount - a quarter of the goal - but we still have a long way to go in order to start on the big projects. Your help is really indispensable! Even the smallest donations make a difference.
Thank you so much everyone for your support so far, without you this project wouldn’t be able to continue. With this project, we hope to contribute to the place we live in.
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Water is a golden, too often taken for granted life source, cherish it wherever in the world you live. And sometimes when the rain pours down again, make a dance, sing a song or simply enjoy the moment with these precious drops.
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June update
10th of June 2025
Everything is about water. And patience.
We, Said and Linde, are currently coping with the hot summer days and continue doing our best to keep the plants alive, as is each summer our main focus. First of all, it is so incredible to see that the older alfalfa that we’ve planted several years ago are still growing healthy and strong. Their roots have grown very deep and now even reach the underground water, while at the same time these roots help storing water underground; this field with older alfalfa hasn’t been watered for over a month and even now in 45-50ºC the precious plant keeps growing back each time, very fast after harvesting it. And so many insects have returned since more alfalfa is growing!
Secondly, the dates in our old palms are rapidly growing, ready to get ripe during the increasing summer heat. Last April Said climbed up into the palmtree tops to pollinate their flowers with flowers from a male palmtree that lives on our land. This hand pollination is an old technique being used by the people here, to help the pollination process. The wind also does its work in carrying the pollen, and there are still some bees left, but many of them have almost become extinct in these dry regions. Since more insects disappear since the increasing drought, hand pollination has become more and more necessary.
Datepalm pollination
Our electricity-base & project wall are still in progress. Or rather at a pause. The request for electricity is still at the town hall, at the same time it is incredibly difficult to find specialists who are available to build the second layer of rammed earth of the wall. This layer is necessary to place the electricity counter on, as soon as our request form has been processed by the local authority. Our patience is being tested at its highest, but what you learn very fast while living in Morocco, is that even though things never go as planned, everything comes eventually at the right time.
Young dates growing in the datepalm
Seeing how nutritious the alfalfa is for the land and animals, we bought new seeds and have sowed lots of it at the start of this year, together with barley which provides shade for the young alfalfa and helps keeping away invasive grass. We have watered the freshly planted seeds with water from the Agdz dam and with bits of salted water from our well-in-progress. Volunteers helped dividing the large fields into smaller plots and restoring broken or creating new canals, so we could navigate the water most efficiently.
Sowing alfalfa and barley
This year - since September last year - has been a very good year water-wise. After the flood, the water in the well has remained longer than usual, and this is the longest period we’ve seen the garden green. After the water in September, we received again water from the northern dams in January and again in April. This is exceptionally much, we couldn’t be more happy! The volunteers have also brought amazing help during these arrival times of water, helping to repair dams that were still broken from the flood, and leading the water through the fields.
Volunteers are repairing the broken canal
Right now we are doing our best to harvest everything in time. Over the last few months we received a lot of help from people from all over the world in harvesting the alfalfa and invasive weeds; but at the moment we are only two people in the project (by choice, it is simply too hot to invite people in this season) so this is a challenge. As the barley and alfalfa are growing together, the barley needs to be harvested very fast in order to water the young alfalfa before it dies. While temperatures are rising each day now, we don’t know whether the waterlevel of the well will remain as it is now, or go down completely like last summer. Last week, the whole nearby town Tagounite has been without water for 4 days, and the government water (distributed from a watertower that provides water to several villages, which gets its water pumped up from a well) here in Beni Hayoun has stopped coming entirely since a few months.
The current barley harvest
As soon as we have enough funds to deepen the well, to ensure having water all year round, and, not salt but potable water, we can start on our garden plan on a larger scale and finally plant trees and a large variety of other crops. By growing the right (native) types of plants, we contribute to the ecosystem by growing a refuge for birds and insects and by storing water into the soil, which then results in less water usage. We have seen that this is possible, even in a harsh ecosystem such as the Sahara.
You can still help us by sharing the ︎crowdfund-project︎ for a larger reach, talk about it with your family or friends or make a donation if you desire this. We have already reached a beautiful amount - a quarter of the goal - but we still have a long way to go in order to start on the big projects. Your help is really indispensable! Even the smallest donations make a difference.
Thank you so much everyone for your support so far, without you this project wouldn’t be able to continue. With this project, we hope to contribute to the place we live in.
Water is a golden, too often taken for granted life source, cherish it wherever in the world you live. And sometimes when the rain pours down again, make a dance, sing a song or simply enjoy the moment with these precious drops.
