My name is Lucija Palavra. I am a proud mother of four sons and a daughter and have been a pioneer of Biodynamic Agriculture (Demeter) in Croatia since 2009. My farm extends over 70 hectares of land, 10 hectares of which are hazelnut plantations with 4000 hazelnut bushes. Welcome to my project "Tree of Life". As a little girl I worked a lot with my parents, especially my father, on our farm and spent a lot of time in nature. From this, a connection has developed. When I am in nature or on my farm, my heart just opens and I feel connected to everything. After school, I emigrated to Switzerland and pursued various jobs, in the industrial sector, in gastronomy, as an office worker and finally as a school teacher for the subject religion. But the longing for more nature in my life wouldn't let me go, and so in 2006, I decided to scrape together my savings and buy one piece of land after another to build up my own farm in my home country Croatia. I would like to make my attitude to life visible and do more for Mother Earth, nature and the community. With biodynamic agriculture I can create sustainable habitats for people, animals and plants. I would like to share my joy with people and motivate them to connect with nature and maintain or create sustainable habitats for our children and the next generation. Because of the deep connection I feel with nature, it is not a must but a privilege for me to reciprocate this love, honour and care from which I was once born myself and to complete the circle of perfection of life through my daily work. This philosophy brought me to biodynamic agriculture. There lays incredible potential in it and this is a strong foundation to create and maintain sustainable and high quality resources. I share the work on the farm with my son Matija, his partner Lucija and our employee Stanko. My son is a mechanic by profession and is in charge of the tractors and machines so that our fields, plantations and areas can be well cultivated and maintained. His partner Lucija is responsible for the care of the hazelnut bushes and assists me with the hazelnut processing. Stanko works with the trimmer, maintains the areas where Matija cannot reach with the machines and supports us wherever necessary. Besides hazelnut processing, I mainly take care of the organisation of the farm and sales. My aim is to introduce people to biodynamic agriculture, an extension of agricultural practice that is beneficial for the climate, our lives, our health and the environment. Personally, I set the best example and hope to reach many people in order to shape with them the common sustainable living space for all of us and following generations. A strong community can move and achieve much more. Social contacts and the exchange of experiences are very important here. On our farm we organise seminars, workshops and offer opportunities to put what we have learned into practice. Through our cooperation with CrowdFarming, we hope to meet many like-minded CrowdFarmers who enjoy living with nature, who value quality and sustainability, and who are interested in getting to know and supporting small farms. We would also be happy if CrowdFarmers enjoyed our organic hazelnuts and hazelnut oil and integrated them into their daily diet.

My farm is called the Lebensbaum (Tree of Life). In nature, each organism influences all other organisms, just as in the universe each planet, and each star has an influence on all the others. Thus the farm becomes a unique organism in which each living being needs the other: man, plant, animal and soil work together. If you look at the earth and the sky above and look at this wonderful diversity in between, you will see that beautiful, living structures emerge - a true tree of life. That's where the name of my farm comes from. My farm is located in Croatia, in the region of Slavonia - in the so-called Golden Valley. Due to the many cereal fields, the valley really does look golden in high summer. The small village of Ugarci has just 57 inhabitants. Next to the golden cereal fields is our hazelnut plantation and there is a kind of park with many different medicinal herbs. Nearby is the Papuk National Park, and you can also enjoy the thermal baths, visit various religious institutions and a museum, or explore the countryside on the numerous hiking trails. Economically, the region has unfortunately somehow reached a dead end. Important roads such as the motorway are far away. People are mostly engaged in agriculture and only a few make a living from trade, gastronomy and tourism. Besides the jobs in my farm, I also bring joy and an awareness of a different approach, a different way of interacting with nature, people and animals to the region through my work. I emigrated from Croatia to Switzerland at a very young age. The desire to build up a farm arose from the wish to do something good for my children, myself, nature and as many people as possible. I wanted to create a place where my children could put down roots, an oasis where people, animals and plants live in connection with nature and are happy to maintain and develop themselves and this oasis. I started buying one piece of land after another. In 2006, I finally planted the first hazelnut bushes and then bought some machines and the first tractor. Finally, I built the rest of the infrastructure with the stable and farm buildings until the circle was closed. Right from the beginning I focused on organic and even biodynamic farming, becoming a pioneer of biodynamic farming in Croatia, and I was a member of the Demeter association for a long time. I built all this up while commuting back and forth between Switzerland and Croatia. Besides all the joy my work gave me, there were also hard times. In 2020 I had to sell my beloved animals, my cattle herd. The difficulties during the Covid pandemic and my own health challenges unfortunately made it impossible to spend enough time in Croatia. Unfortunately, without animal husbandry, I could not keep my Demeter certification either. However, this has not changed the way I manage my farm. Now I am looking optimistically into the future again and I am sure that times will get better and I will be able to look after my farm more intensively. Maybe soon there will be animals living on my farm again. We only work with biodynamic preparations made from various medicinal herbs such as camomile, nettle, yarrow etc. according to the teachings of Dr. Rudolf Steiner and spread them on the fields. We also make compost tea and use it to strengthen our hazelnuts and cereals via the leaves. Beyond the methods of biodynamic agriculture, I always try to protect the nature that surrounds me and to promote a harmonious coexistence. My hazelnut bushes are ideally adapted to local conditions and do not need artificial irrigation. Unwanted weeds are removed mechanically up to four times a year so that they do not get out of hand, and I encourage beneficial insects to help me keep pests at bay. To do this, I plant flowering strips, set up insect hotels and throw cut branches into piles that serve as shelter for the beneficial insects. When our fields are not cultivated with cereals or other agricultural crops, they are always covered with a mix of flowers that serve as a food source for bees, clover grass or lupins. This not only reduces erosion and decreases the emergence of weeds, but also promotes soil life and fertility and increases biodiversity. I respect nature and give it plenty of space on my land to promote biodiversity. In addition to various trees and shrubs growing on and around my plots, some of which even form small forests, there are grassland areas that are not cultivated but only mowed or mulched. We collect rainwater in a tank to use it for various purposes on the farm. I only sell nuts that look healthy and vital. The sorted nuts and the shells are ground and spread as fertiliser. The tree cuttings are shredded directly on the fields and enrich the soil there, larger branches are placed in piles and serve as a protection for small animals. The remaining waste products are composted and become valuable fertiliser for the hazelnut bushes. After I was hardly able to put any work into my farm during the Covid pandemic and the business was more or less dormant, I am all the more pleased that I have now been able to employ 3 permanent staff again since the beginning of 2022. They are paid above the standard wage and I attach great importance to a harmonious working atmosphere.