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Small, local solutions to complex problems
Think Global, Act Local in 2026
Jo Hunter Adams
January 01, 2026
Hi! I'm Jo, writing from Heart & Soil homestead, a 1-acre homestead in the Far South of Cape Town, South Africa. Every week I share inspiration and education for your growing journey. Thanks so much for reading!
Happy New Year! Wishing you growth, life, and health.
Our dragonfruit flower in the final moments of the year.
The connections and interactions among all the creatures in a thriving forest ecosystem are complex beyond the human ability to think. This is the starting point, the primary axiom. And so humility is the primary virtue of good forestry. One must get the scale right, so as not to put too much at risk. One must not use too much power, or be in too much of a hurry. Troy accordingly does not talk like an expert. Because the forest is complex, it requires a due complexity of knowledge and of thought.
In 2026, we’ll be working on improving and sharing our systems as Heart & Soil Agroecology Hub. You can check out our systems, here, and read more about our non-profit.
We believe that the three things that an urban farm can do really well are:
Waste remediation (taking in local organic waste and turning it into food)
Teaching others to compost, grow, and cook good food.
Learning the skills to build sustainability in cities, together with a broader community.
These are all oriented towards service rather than business, so that's our direction. We’re going to be focusing on these three things in 2026.
Waste remediation
We’ll be continuing our Black soldier fly larvae programme, and building up a clear set of tasks to get through a second full year of breeding and growing out larvae. We’ll also be teaching more people about BSF. We made an online workshop available based on an early version of our BSF system, and we’re going to keep on improving breeding and raising so that it can be a practical, sustainable solution to urban waste, and urban chicken feed.
Together with our community, we built a biodigester back in 2024, and this month I’m troubleshooting to ultimately cook with biogas. It’s been more challenging than we anticipated, but it’s another really promising solution to both waste and energy in the city.
Volunteering in 2026
We realised that in order to help others grow, we want to supply better seedlings, and ultimately help our community have a larger/more robust circulation of homegrown seeds.
Part of this effort is to create a volunteer programme for people to visit regularly, work together, and build up our seedling systems with us. You'll see our shadehouse gradually transition to a seedling and demonstration space in 2026. Our hope is that by focusing attention on seedlings, we'll be able to consistently sell organic seedlings of diverse heirloom stock in 2026 .
We’ll be welcoming volunteers on Saturdays between 10 and 11:30- write to me if you’re interested in joining in!
We’re not who we say we are, we’re not who we want to be. We are the sum of the influence and impact that we have, in our lives, on others.
Teaching in 2026: Hosting teens
We’re privileged to have a non-profit high school in our community, with 26 students. We’ve gotten to know a few of the teens over the past few years. Our small first step as a non-profit will be to teach regular classes for all 26 students. We’ll teach composting, growing, cooking, and processing food right here on the farm. Shorter (1-2 hours) regular interactions are an effective ways to building momentum and great relationships. We’re hoping the structure and style will also lend itself to co-learning: how do we teach sustainable practices to teens? What are the goals? How do we know it’s helpful?
With a second non-profit that works on issues of nutrition and youth skills development, to create a placement for interns to take the next step in their work for our community. Watch this space!
Teaching in 2026: Workshops
Workshops are a key part of improving sustainability in our community. Each workshop improves my teaching skills, as well as our systems, based on the interactions we have with you all.
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Funding
We’re still unfunded, and our focus on our non-profit activities requires a leap of faith. If you have ideas of great partnerships, we’d love to hear about them.
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