020 Jean Pullen & Alan Cacao: Living Seed Banks & the Breadfruit Revival
Regeneration Nation Costa Rica
Release Date: 02/14/2023
Regeneration Nation Costa Rica
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This episode is with a dedicated community organizer living in the Osa Peninsula, Tricia Stapleton. Tricia shares her embodied wisdom with each question she answers. Relistening to this episode to prepare it for publication was a treat! I had a hard time selecting which portions of this interview to use for the 3-4 highlight reels I produce with every episode because there was SO MUCH amazing content. You’re lucky to be listening to this episode right now. One of the many things that Tricia and I have in common is the responsibility we share as regenerative projects of not ignoring the...
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Rodo is a master natural building teacher from Costa Rica who’s been studying & teaching bamboo construction around the world for over 40 years. I’ve released Rodo’s full-length interview on , complete with a visual tour of his handmade tools and a demonstration of a few bamboo building techniques he shows us. Still, I decided to release this shortened version of it for my podcast listeners, cutting out the parts that were primarily visual. We start this interview in front of one of his most recent compost toilet & shower installments...
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In today’s episode, we get the privilege of visiting with not one but two leaders in the regenerative space, Jean Pullen & Alan Cacao. Through their project , Jean & Alan have been tirelessly promoting permaculture education, seed propagation, food sovereignty, & community-building projects throughout the country. Regenerate Your Reality is a permaculture, agroforestry, and education project working to bring sovereignty and happiness to our communities. It’s their mission to restore the relationship between humans and the earth to build a...
info_outlineIn today’s episode, we get the privilege of visiting with not one but two leaders in the regenerative space, Jean Pullen & Alan Cacao. Through their project Regenerate Your Reality, Jean & Alan have been tirelessly promoting permaculture education, seed propagation, food sovereignty, & community-building projects throughout the country.
Regenerate Your Reality is a permaculture, agroforestry, and education project working to bring sovereignty and happiness to our communities. It’s their mission to restore the relationship between humans and the earth to build a regenerative present.
They start the conversation by describing their work educating people at their biodiversity sanctuary in the mountains, near Platanillo, up the hill from Dominical. If you schedule a visit to their 1-hectare food forest, you’ll be welcomed to a tour of more than 300 species of food they have planted there. All of which is a living seed bank.
We discuss their partnerships with Kiss the Ground & Jungle Project and how they’ve been empowering local farmers with a regenerative livelihood, growing syntropic food forests with a focus on the abundantly producing breadfruit tree.
With the help of Earth University, INA (Costa Rica’s National Institute for Learning), and Kiss the Ground, these two life advocates and the rest of their friends at The Jungle Project provide ongoing, multi-year technical assistance to small-scale farmers on a variety of organic regenerative practices.
The organization’s mission is Trees, Training & Trade. The farming families learn to restore and maintain the ecological health of their farmland in ways that improve their nutrition and their income.
This crew is actively seeding a regenerative nation.
As Alan put it, connecting with the earth is our first medicine and one worth practicing daily. Participating in a world where the color green is ever out your window, and the sounds of birds and insects are perpetually punctuating the periphery of your awareness - for me, that’s a life I want to live. It’s the one I want to participate in preserving and passing on to my grandchildren.
I loved the moment when all three of us were relating to the transformative power we’re gifted with when we embody the experience of volunteering or interning at a permaculture center. You become a product of that project. It changes your life forever.
I was impressed to learn that the Jungle Project is rewarding partner farms by buying 80% of the fruit they produce.
Their mission is to substitute grains in people’s diets with breadfruit. Changing people's habits can be a long road, but it doesn’t stop them from walking it. After the interview, I had the pleasure of trying Alan’s handmade breadfruit tortillas with the abundant garden salad we all shared. The tortillas were delicious and had a very agreeable texture! I think they have a shot.
If you’d like to learn more from Jean and Alan, check out Regenerate Your Reality’s website and the permaculture webinars they’ve created. You can find Jean’s book there, as well.
That’s what I’ve got for you this time. If you like the episode, pass it on to a friend. If you’re hearing the show for the first time, subscribe to Regeneration Nation Costa Rica wherever you find podcasts. We’re on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and most other players.
Have a fantastic day, and the next time you have a friend over to visit, consider gifting them some seeds!
To follow more of Jean & Alan’s contributions toward a regenerative world, check out:
Regenerate Your Reality - https://www.regenerateyourreality.com
Jean’s Book - https://youtu.be/1hpulzhRNTM
Jungle Project - https://jungleproject.com
Kiss The Ground - https://kisstheground.com
FB - https://www.facebook.com/RegenerateYourReality
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/regenerateyourreality
Order Breadfruit Flour by contacting team@jungleproject.com
Breadfruit Flour Recipes (in English) - https://regenerationnationcr.com/breadfruit-recipes
Recetas con Fruta del Pan (En español) - https://regenerationnationcr.com/recetas-con-fruta-del-pan
Other recommendations from our discussion:
Punta Mona - https://www.puntamona.org
Mystical Yoga Farm - https://mysticalyogafarm.com
Essence Arenal - https://essencearenal.com
My interview with Nico Botefur of Essence Arenal - https://regenerationnationcr.com/podcast/nico-botefur
Envision Festival - https://www.envisionfestival.com
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Special thanks to Albán Corrales for editing this episode!
Music: Rite of Passage by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4291-rite-of-passage
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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