Meet our team of instructors and facilitators for the 2022 Summer course programme at Quinta do Vale.
Wendy Howard
Coming originally from the UK, Wendy is your host at Quinta do Vale. A mother, grandmother, designer, eco-builder, gardener, biologist, ecologist and activist, she has been practicing permaculture principles for the best part of 3 decades with 14 years at this present project. Quinta do Vale hosts visitors, volunteers and interns (Erasmus+/ESC included) and runs courses and workshops.
Over the last 8 years, she has refined an original design by Anna Edey into an open source vermicomposting flush toilet system, which now has installations worldwide. She’s also actively involved as a founder member of ArBOR, a local umbrella organisation for regenerative projects in the area, and which is currently engaged in reforesting 100ha of village commonlands with native species following the October 2017 wildfires.
She’s passionate about the natural world and sharing this through both philosophical and practical explorations into our relationship with nature, ecoliteracy, sustainable systems design and permaculture. She also loves to design and build natural structures from the materials she finds around her. (More …)
2022 Courses : Teaching on …
- Batch Rocket Mass Heater Experimentibuild
- Permaculture Design Certificate Courses
- Post-PDC Practical Courses
Floris Winkelmeijer
Floris comes from Holland where he studied permaculture and where he participated in several Rocket Mass Heater workshops.
On his travels through Europe he found a place in the Portuguese mountains where he bought some land together with his wife and daughter. This is where he joined the batchrocket project. As part of the project he has built many heaters in peoples houses and has facilitated several workshops teaching people how to build their own. He is excited about simplifying the building process of the heaters so they become available for as many people as possible and he loves talking about the details of the workings of the heaters.
He has his own project on his quinta, Under the Elm.
2022 Courses : Teaching on …
James Chapman
James completed his PDC in 2008, his Diploma in Applied Permaculture in 2010, and set up NonStuff Industries shortly after. James has many years’ experience living with and applying permaculture principles and ethics. He’s lived in a self-sufficient community, managed woodlands, built sustainable timber frame structures, and worked on a Community Compost project. James has also worked as a consultant, designing large and complex projects and community businesses.
In 2016 James and his family purchased a 7 acre mixed site at Leadburn, 10 miles south of Edinburgh, which is evolving into a permaculture demonstration site. He is a keen promoter of living and working towards a sustainable and regenerative future, and is one of Scotland’s busiest permaculture teachers.
2022 Courses : Teaching on …
- Permaculture Design Certificate Course July only
Liselotte Wuite
Since a young age Liselotte has been exposed to many different cultures and landscapes. This opened up fascination and deep respect for the living and breathing world around her. In 2013 she graduated from University College Utrecht having studied Anthropology and Ecology.
In 2016 she sat the PDC course in Sunseed Desert Technology where she subsequently ended up coordinating for a year. Seeing the transformation in people, their habits, and their way of living, inspired her to keep sharing knowledge and the importance of raising consciousness, using Permaculture as a tool to move forward.
The various homesteads, eco-villages and educational projects around Latin America and Europe gave her experience in diverse elements of community living, eco construction, gardening, baking, seminars, preservation, natural cosmetics and medicinal plants. Currently she lives in the Alpujarras of Granada, is a coordinator of the reforestation project SiembraBosques, is running a market garden and is enrolled in the International Permaculture Diploma with Gaia University.
Apart from the wonders and expansive world of Permaculture, she is an animal lover, passionate baker, practices yoga and loves the art of dance!
2022 Courses : Teaching on …
Adriana Garcia Aparicio
From Spain, Adriana is a biologist and a botanist, holds the Ecovillage Design Course from Gaia Education, several trainings on classic sociocracy and S3, and the Permaculture Design Certificate.
She was born in a big city and escaped to the countryside. She has lived in different eco-projects and ecovillages all around Europe, learning about and teaching self sufficiency and sustainability. It has been a journey of implementing many different tools from the complexity and richness of Permaculture. The vision of a society with more evenly-distributed power, collaborative, inclusive and nature connected, brought her to this learning path of useful skills to be shared with people.
She facilitates PDCs with Circle Permaculture in different venues, with Wendy Howard at Quinta do Vale and with a Spanish team in Rúcula farm and Kausay project. Currently she is studying group facilitation with IIFACe and completing her portfolio for her Permaculture Design Diploma. She collaborates with the organisation Sunseed Desert Technology.
Fascinated by the wild world of plants, as bio-indicators, medicines, foods and teachers, she is also a great partner for acroyoga and dance … everywhere!
2022 Courses : Teaching on …
Sophie Bastable
Sophie first became interested in Permaculture when she went on a PDC in 2012. While on the course she caught the permie bug and decided to study for a Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design with the Permaculture Association UK. This took her on a journey from Scotland to rural Portugal, where she currently lives on a small holding with 8 goats, 10 chickens, 2 dogs, 1 cat, her partner, and their young daughter. She loves sharing her passion for lower impact living with others and has taught on a few courses, as well as documented her adventures in her blog.
2022 Courses : Teaching on …