Natural Farming – 2 day workshop

with Kutluhan Ozdemir
9-10 september 2023

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In this 2-days workshop, Natural Farming will be explored both as a practice and as a philosophy, as a whole new paradigm to look at agriculture and food growing.

The essence of Natural Farming consists in giving the power back to Nature and letting go of those mechanisms by which human beings want to master It, knowing that everything they need is provided for anyways.

For instance, fruit trees bear fruits, such is their nature, and they will always tend to bear fruits, no matter external conditions or human influence. Supporting harmonically the natural cycles observed is all human beings can do.

No tilling, no fertilizing, no weeding, no pesticides, no herbicides, no pruning trees. The result? Abundant harvests to rejoice at – in pure harmony with nature.

This is the opportunity offered by Natural Farming.

Do-Nothing Farming

Do-Nothing Farming, or Natural Farming, consists in letting everything do its course alongside nature: no tillage, fertilizer, pesticides or herbicides, weeding, pruning.

After a few years of soil regeneration, the farmer’s work is limited to sowing, mulching and harvesting.

The practice and philosophy of Natural Farming are rooted in the far East: Masanobu Fukuoka was one of its fathers and wrote the book “The One-Straw Revolution”, where the essence of Natural Farming is collected.

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“If nature is left to itself, fertility increases. Organic remains of plants and animals accumulate and are decomposed on the surface by bacteria and fungi. With the movement of rainwater, the nutrients are taken deep into the soil to become food for microorganisms, earthworms, and other small animals. Plant roots reach to the lower soil strata and draw the nutrients back up to the surface.”Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

Workshop leader

Kutluhan Özdemir is a young man, and he introduces himself as ‘a farmer’.

After graduating in Maths from Istanbul’s university, he aimed at growing his own natural food, thus in 2014 he set out on a world-wide apprentice journey, visiting and staying with direct disciples of Masanobu Fukuoka in different countries.

He was mainly trained in South America and Greece with Panos Manikis, who after some years sold him half of his own natural farm in Edessa.

Later, Kutluhan moved to Italy, where he started sharing freely his experience with natural farming according to Fukuoka’s style of teaching during 2-days workshops.

Alongside with its divulgation, he continues practicing natural farming at Farm Shizen in Marche region, established in summer 2020 together with the Natural Farming Center NGO.

He is one of the founders of the Italian Natural Farming Network (RAN) and one of the promoters of the rising international one.

Workshop schedule


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Day 1
– Basic principles of natural farming
– Fertility and how to choose a piece of land
– The soil & its awakening (humus, mulching, green manure…)
– Weeds & no-weeding
– Sowing & seeds
– Trees & pruning
– Reproduction of trees and plants
– Grafting
– Cuttings & clonings
– Air layering
– “Do Nothing”

Day 2
– Natural vegetable garden
– Reforestation through seedballs
– Preparation of clay and seed mix
– Seedball making and throwing

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Workshop location

At Harmony I felt closer to nature then ever before. These days were both intense and life changing. Much love. Leontine

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Harmony Center is located in Abaliget, a quite village in the middle of the beautiful Mecsek mountains in South of Hungary.

Since about 2015 Maria and Marco have been developing their permaculture based garden and food forrest (of approx. 1,5 hct) to be able to grow an abundance of nutritional food and healing herbs to not only become self-sufficient as a family but also provide these nature foods to local community and visitors.

They share their knowledge and everyday experiences happily both through online courses and live in workshops with people that are interested in natural living and permaculture.

Visiting Harmony I feel like coming home. It’s like stepping into a warm bath full of love, good care and delicious food. Francine

Attending the workshop


This 2-day workshop is intended for everyone that is interested in the philosophy and practice of natural farming.

The workshop will be primaraly given in English, although there will be limited room for questions/remarks in Hungarian, Dutch and German.

This workshop is freely given and a zero-waste event!

This means that there will be no entrance fee charged, but we will ask you for a small fee covering the total costs of the event and a optional donation to support Kutluhan’s work. It also means that there will be a focus on sustainable materials used and having local fresh foods.

How to register

Should you be interested to attend this workshop, it is necessary to register for it since there will be a limited amount of spots available. Please don’t wait long to register if you want to be sure that you can attend!

You can register by sending us an email with your interest, upon which we will send you a reply how to finalize your registration and what we expect from you.

Should you wish to stay-over the night (or more nights), please let us know with your registration so we can accomodate you with this. There is a possibility to stay-over by reserving a room or bringing your own tent and equipment.

For international visitors, please let us know if you need any tips or assistance on travelling.

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Any questions?

Should you have any questions, please send us a email and we’re happy to help you with it!

This workshop sounds great, but I still have a question…