May24 outing to BD rose-oil farm TERRA in Debre Birhan

Dear friends and family, it has been too long since I  shared some of our experiences. 
Much happened, all interesting and enjoyable, but I'll start with yesterday's outing and gradually over the next week cover the other interesting things we did in March and April.

We went with the 'Deutsch-sprachige Gemeinsschaft'  (Wir waren eingeladen worden) to Debre Birthan, 1,5 hours on a good tarred road. First coffee in the very sophisticated and large modern Eva hotel restaurant. then we went- only a 5 minutes drive- to this beautiful Bio-Dynamic farm on a slightly sloping hill. 

We were warmly welcomed by the project manager of Terra PLC, an Ethiopian. Interesting enough, they have a rose-oil producing farm, 1 kilo rose oil per ha. and they do their own processing. 

This is not a developing project. 17 Ethiopians are shareholders; they have invested in this business. it will take a while before they see returns on investments, but this is what they do! Great! 

Everything is mixed farming and intercropping. They make their own compost, keep cows for the milk, feed them the most wonderful herbs, that grow in between the roses and fruit trees.

The pure rose oil is for the Hauschka cosmetics and costs 7000 euro for 1 liter . The remaining rose water( wuth remains of the oil) is locally sold to Arithi Herbal. 

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Here you see the herbs growing in between the apple trees. and the women cutting and gathering the herbs.

 Then they bring it to the cows or for drying in the wind.

.....and of course Robert and I were bird watching. Amongst others we saw this interesting widow-bird. when it flies it has bright yellow under-wings and a yellow breast, beautiful!