Last month Szatyor celebrated both its 12th birthday and worms! The anniversary, taking place in the beginning of May, is always a perfect opportunity for a garden party.

First of all, I would like to start by thanking the European Union for supporting projects that contribute to the development of young people.

It is a dear tradition at the Szatyor Community House that our volunteers participate in hosting and feeding our guests. During the capricious April we had a 5-day event, called CLIPS training, where Ágost and our in-the-house-chef, Zsuzsa created the most wonderul, seasonal, healthy and vegan dishes.

From 13-22nd April I had the possibility to attend a permaculture teacher's training in Nea Sermyli, Halkidiki, Greece. I completed my permaculture designer certificate last year in August and ever since I felt an urge to spread the word about it. This training gave me the perfect opportunity to learn different ways in which one can deliver a lesson/course and to practice how to do it in front of beautiful, friendly faces. :)Throughout the training we had to prepare different "microteach sessions" 3, 15 and 25 minutes long about a permaculture topic of choice. It was a good challenge to invent activities of different lenght with an also beginner level of knowledge. It was rewarding to see how it was getting more and more easy and/or less stressful each session to come up with something to teach. We also had to acknowledge that we were there to learn and to fail. I think I could accept this fact with a big smile on my face for the first time in my life.Just as we were getting really tired, we got a free day and had the chance to explore the surroundings. We drove to a bit remote beach of Sarti where we got a really beautiful view of Mount Athos also and managed to hike a little too. Our last and main task was to form groups and design a curriculum - as much in detail as we can. We designed a training course for youngsters (18-30 years old) who just finished high school/university or just a little bit stuck in not knowing where to go or what to do in life. The goal is to invite them on a self-knowledge/self awareness journey with the help of permaculture. We used "The Hero's journey" framework and the first 4 chapters of permaculture to plan the course. The morning activities are for teaching the bases of permaculture and the afternoon sessions are for immersing in ourselves. The afternoons are representing each steps of The Hero's journey, in which they will use the knowledge and the tools they just learned in the morning about permaculture. We felt that this is a topic that each of us team members went through already or still doing so, this way it also felt as a personal mission for me to do my best in contributing to work this out. We had our own challenges as a team but I am satisfied with our process and proud of our work. All in all, I am very grateful for this experience and will put my best energies into starting my own journey with teaching. :)

As part of my journey in sustainability with Szatyor, I participated in another exciting Erasmus program called the Value of Waste. It is the cooperation of 3 organisations, Szatyor, the Slovenian Knof and the Croatian Udruga Vestigium. The aim of the project is to spark curiosity and offer simple solutions on the global issue of waste management, through discovering the topics of organic, textile and plastic waste.

Budgeting is an important step in achieving financial goals and maintaining control over one’s spending. Whether as a private person, company or government, budgeting is an important skill you need for your life.

Since the theme for February is travel, we decided to explore the sights in the surrounding villages on one of the chilly Tuesdays. I had previously visited the Alcsút Arboretum with my family around this time of year, as this is when the Snowdrop Festival takes place. During this period, snowdrops bloom across the country—in gardens, doorways, and even beneath the bare trees. At the arboretum, you can witness the blooming of an extensive collection of various snowdrop species. As a good guide, let me share a bit about the history of the arboretum, which I found truly fascinating:

Through a sourdough workshop in December, Szatyor volunteers discovered the diversity of baking.

The topic we focus on this month, where we brainstorm and exchange ideas, is:

Now that last week we sorted out the over-used bed-sheets, this week’s workshop started off with brainstorming! Deep diving into Pinterest’s endless suggestions, each of us picked an idea to carry out with our chosen sheets. The boys chose the classic linens, from which they sewed a totebag and a big laundry bag. We are also thinking about painting them in one of our workshops to make them even cooler!

“Buy less. Choose well. Make it last.” - Vivienne Westwood

Practice of Tolerance training, Vilnius

Last Friday, to pursue our effort to kick plastic and chemicals out of our homes, we hosted a soap making workshop.

On November 2nd and 3rd, we spent half a day at the lake, immersed in nature and in the autumn climate, organizing and shredding mountains of branches collected around the village so that we could use them for mulching and in other sustainable ways instead of burning them or sending them to the land fields wrapped in plastic. In this way it is possible to avoid the dispersion of toxic substances into the environment.I personally found it an interesting experience, it was tiring but pleasant to spend time immersed in nature all together, doing something good for the environment and for the community.

Hey, there! Another month, another set of workshops and this time we had the chance to have a natural dyes workshop that was by far my favorite (maybe because I didn't have the stress and responsibility to create it eheh). I spent a lot of years following and being mesmerized by content creators that were using plants and the most interesting flora to dye their clothes but I never had the motivation to try it out for myself - it's one of those things that I have the theory but not the practice, so when I discovered that Kriszti, directly from Etyek, would share her skills with us, I was super happy :)We collected onion peels during two weeks, since it was going to be the basis to dye our things, and it's a beautiful way to not create food waste. It is better to try this method with natural fabrics such as cotton (or even cotton blend), linen and hemp, but I tried with polyester and the result was interesting, so my advice is to always try, you never know what is going to be result and you have nothing to lose! We started to immerse our szatyors (cotton reusable bags) in this mix of water, rust and a bit of vinegar, which apparently helps to maintain the color and also with the eco printing of natural elements, and proceeded to create our ensemble of flora that we wanted to have on our szatyor! It was a beautiful process and I was so fascinated to know that there were a lot of plants in our garden and in the neighborhood that were perfect for eco printing! When finished, you have to roll really tight your bag around this wooden stick so it would fit in the pot that was already boiling with the onion peels. You have to leave it for 30 to 45min boiling to get the results!The last process is to let it dry, wash it with natural soap and only then you can wash it normally in the washing machine.I really enjoyed the workshop and we got so excited that we spent the following 2 hours dyeing everything possible and imaginable with things from our garden!

On this week's international night, we had a taste of French and Moroccan cuisine and culture.

Last friday we hosted a workshop on the basics of permaculture. Fi facilitated the first part of the workshop where she presented us the definition of permaculture and the 3 pillars the principles of permaculture are based on: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share, before digging into the principles. After going over the principles, we got some definitions that we had to match with the right principle and we were asked to think about examples that could relate to them. 

Hey there! September marks the month of the first natural cosmetics workshop and I had the pleasure to share some of the knowledge regarding this topic with the community and the volunteers. It has been a long time since I had the chance to teach how to make our own products and after a few reflection we have decided together that the chosen cosmetics were: cream deodorant, body lotion and fragrances. 

Another month, another international night! This week we went to the Iberian Peninsula and had the pleasure to know more about the Portuguese and Spanish culture brought to us by our volunteers. This time, the event started at 18h30, and, we had the chance to try 3 different dishes from each country. We started with the portuguese pataniscas and cogumelos à bulhão de pato (mushrooms with a lot of spices and flavour, normally made with white wine, but we offered a wine free option as well) and the spanish tortilla de patata, well-known internationally for its flavour and creamy texture. The desserts offered were bica gallega and pastel de nata pie, which showed perfectly the Iberian culture. As for the drinks, we had alcohol free sangría and normal sangría. We tried to do something different from the normal flags displayed and offered an interactive museum where you could find the maps of both countries, a list of the best places to visit, as well as some curiosities and folk tales about the different regions. Additionally, we offered the chance for people to know more about the countries and did a trivia night, with around 60 questions, with different levels of difficulty, to challenge the participants and the people from to the community about their knowledge and offer the chance to explain the questions that they didn't know. As for the rest of the games, we played the patata caliente, or hot potato game, whilst listening to a spanish-portuguese playlist, followed by the three in-a-row game.

Last week I went to Nyim to help the volunteers there prepare for the Gyüttment Festival (or Movers Festival). Nyim is an eco-community part of the South Eastern European Ecovillage Network, that’s why the community members decided to create a stage at the festival that would present the network and encourage other communities to join and expand their collaborations outside of Hungary. 

Last week, a few of us got the chance to participate in a training called Live Sustainably in Mariahalom, Hungary. 

As you could see on our social media pages, we had our international cultural night last Friday. It was a very interesting combination of countries, since we were presenting Azerbaijan and Germany together. The start of the evening was, as often, the food. You can see our selection of delicacies in the pictures. Especially, the Azerbaijan kitchen has an emphasize on meat which made it hard to find something to present to our guests, but even that worked out in the end and was really tasty!Following up to this, we played a game called „der große Preis” in Germany, where you have different categories with different difficulty levels. Two teams are playing against each other and try to gain more points by answering questions.After this, we tasted the promised Azerbaijan wine and Aysel and Orxan showed us how they dance at celebrations in their home country.Personally, I really enjoyed the game, since everyone learned something new and it was interesting and educating at the same time. I am looking forward to get to know the other countries too.

Last Wednesday, Szatyor organized an event on awareness of plastic pollution. Me, Fi, and Paula went to a pharmaceutical company where three thousand people work.

Last week we started making some tiles that will be used in the bathroom area of our yoga room. So that our guests when we host events can enjoy some beautiful handmade tiles. 

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Local students visited us interested in environmental awareness.

In the beginning of October, we had the opportunity to travel to Spain to gain experience and cooperate with other associations. The Hungarian team was represented by 4 people, including Italy, Germany and Israel.

This small village became part of our lives for more than 5 months. This is a big and challenging project that involves teamwork and fun learning from practice. We tried to learn how to grow up a great deal amount vegetables without any harmful chemicals and one hundred percent naturally. During this challenge, we faced all difficulties but experienced the great power of success when in the summer we had a chance to see the sweet harvest of hard work. This project also taught us to appreciate bio vegetables in the market and don't feel like they are too expensive for just a vegetable. It was the most enjoyable and impressive path that we get through during the year. You can see that in our faces in the photos. :)

At our place in Etyek we started the English kids courses again. During the pandemic we had to stop the English lessons unfortunately. But for four weeks now, we are practising the courses again. There we try to give children from Etyek the opportunity to learn English, but for that we try to give them more of a light learning. We do not try to teach them like the school, where they already go in the morning. The courses are more like an educational relaxing time, where they can join for learning through drawing, playing and speaking or singing the English language.

Birds are a good and important part our environment. A lot of bird kinds are breeding in closed nesting sites, unfortunately natural nesting caves are getting more rare and uncommon. Also because of the coming winter and the coldness it gets more difficult, for the birds, to build a nest on their own. But with closed birdhouses we can support those birds.

Every summer a children's camp is organized in Etyek, where in addition to creative and playful tasks, various programs structure the children's days.

Our Halloween was great fun, we made a lot of decorations, and the two of us did the halloween makeup workshop for the kids. We really enjoyed it and it seems like the kids and their parents too! 

As the summer ends and the autumn begins, most of the people trim and prune the trees and shrubs in their garden. From this occurrence their remains a lot of green waste. So to deal with this waste in a environment healthy way, we conducted a mulching tour through Etyek. There we drove to the people, which register before and crushed there green waste into woodchips. The people could decide if they want to keep the mulch to use or if we should take it with us.

We had an amazing “Seeds Of Tomorrow” project, that Etyeki Szatyor has made for young people from different countries as Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary. The value of informal learning of how to make sustainable and healthy choices and live a greener life was well shown in this experience.

16.07.-25.07.2021

Here in Etyek we offer English courses for primary school children. The approach we try to adopt is to have a light learning, we don't aim to overcome school or act like it. Kids already attend school in the morning, in the afternoon, taking part to our lessons, they can join a playful learning through drawing, moving and interacting with the garden and the animals in it. 

Worm or vermicompost sounds weird for most of us, however there are many different variations of how we can host and take care for this mini excavators. They are very delicate and sensitive for any changes in their environment. They need little food - kitchen scraps, like carrots or tomato peels - air, humidity and darkness, if they get all these, they are happy, eating our organic kitchen waste and turn them to super valuable liquid or soil full of everything good for our plant both indoor and outdoor. If they are well maintained (content tamagotchi) they reproduce and you will have more of them. If they are for some reasons not happy, they try to escape from their bin.

When I have heart first the word permaculture, I thought that it is a newly created gardening approach attracting urban young people who have no clue about what gardening is, but they are happy to believe in something deep green, romantic happening in rural areas. 

This summer, we initiated an experiment in small scale economy that was inspired by the Time Banking system.

Home made cosmetics are not only free from any unnecessary preservatives, harmful chemicals, but also can be prepared based on our needs and with our favorite fragrances. 

During the summer we collaborated with the Budapest based organization Cargonomia in creating a workshop where people could come along and learn practical bike repair skills.