Workshops at Living Ground
We have become deeply dependent on systems outside ourselves to grow our food, define what is healthy, explain our bodies, and supply what we use for our gardens, homes and health. In the process, we have lost much of the practical knowledge that once helped us feed ourselves, work with the land, use plants, preserve food and understand our own bodies.
We need some of that knowledge back in our own hands. That is a large part of what Living Ground is about, and it is the foundation of our workshops.
I believe Terrain Theory is the way of the future because health begins with the conditions that allow life to thrive. Soil, microbes, plants, food and the human body are not separate systems. They are one living continuum.
The four workshops at Living Ground bring those pieces back together.
LIVE BLOOD ANALYSIS
What is happening now? See the blood alive and moving and learn what the internal terrain is showing in real time.
DRIED BLOOD ANALYSIS
Where is the terrain heading? Learn to recognize developing patterns and what they may be showing if nothing changes.
THE SOIL FOOD WEB
Understand how nature actually grows plants and how microbes cycle nutrients, support plant strength, and influence the nutritional and healing qualities of what grows from the soil.
KITCHEN & PLANT ALCHEMY
Take what the land gives you and turn it into food, ferments, preserved harvests and plant medicine.
Taking the Power Back
Self-reliance is about taking some of that power back. It is about returning knowledge, observation and practical skills to the individual. Some of this is new learning, but much of it is knowledge our ancestors lived by, passed down through generations, and we have slowly lost along the way.
These workshops reconnect that old knowledge with what we understand today.
You will learn to observe, understand and make decisions for yourself, including gaining a clearer understanding of your own health. You will learn how to grow truly nutritious food, how plants gain their nutrition and healing qualities through living soil, how microbes shape the terrain, and how much you can actually do with your own hands and your own understanding.
You will leave Living Ground more capable, more informed and with practical knowledge you can take home and use for the rest of your life.
WORKSHOP CALENDAR
Living Ground Project · Southern Ecuador
You Are Coming to Living Ground
Living Ground is not a retreat centre or a classroom. It is a working project in the mountains of southern Ecuador where what you are coming to learn is already part of daily life.
We grow food and medicinal plants, build microbe-rich compost, work with the Soil Food Web, forage, ferment, preserve harvests and make many of our own foods and plant medicines. We use microscopes to look at the microbial life in our soil and compost, and to explore the terrain within the human body.
The land itself is part of the teaching. Much of this property was depleted and damaged, and we have been bringing life back by rebuilding the soil and restoring the biology. You will be able to see what happens when we change the terrain and give life the conditions it needs to return.
During your time here, the gardens, compost, kitchen, apothecary, microscopes, café and surrounding land all become part of your experience. You are not learning these things removed from where they actually happen. You are living among them.
Living Ground is about seeing how much we can grow, make, understand and do for ourselves. When you come here for a workshop, you become part of that for a little while.
Planning Your Stay
Living Ground is in Masanamaca in southern Ecuador, about 10 km south of Vilcabamba at the Quinara turnoff.
Getting Here
If you are flying, your destination is Catamayo Airport (Loja). From the airport, Living Ground is approximately a 1.5-hour taxi ride and costs about $40. Once your workshop is confirmed, we can help with directions and getting you from the airport to the Project Site.
Staying at Living Ground
We have six guest rooms available at the Project Site:
2 private rooms
4 shared rooms
Guests staying onsite will also have access to our spa area, sauna and yoga room, giving you space to relax and recharge outside workshop hours. Accommodation is limited and onsite rooms are available on a first-come basis.
Food
Food is prepared through our Gratitude Café right here at Living Ground. We use food from our gardens whenever possible and source additional ingredients locally. We can accommodate different ways of eating, including vegetarian, vegan, meat and gluten-free diets.
Specific accommodation, meal and pricing options are provided on each individual workshop page.
Who Is Teaching You?
I am Leisha, founder of Living Ground Project. I have spent more than 30 years exploring natural health, plants, food and the terrain of the human body. My work has taken me through naturopathy, herbal medicine, Live and Dried Blood Analysis, and eventually into soil microbiology and the Soil Food Web.
I never expected soil and human health to become so intertwined in my work, but they did. The microscope helped bring those worlds together for me. Whether I am looking at blood or looking at soil, I am interested in the conditions that allow life to thrive.
Living Ground has become my place to put all of this into practice. I took on a property that had been badly depleted and damaged and decided to see what would happen if we brought biology back. It has become my classroom, my laboratory and, quite frankly, one big ongoing experiment. Our intention is flowering into an Education Center on Self Reliance.
I have also written books on Live Blood Analysis, the Soil Microbiome, wild and medicinal plants, flower essences and natural perfumery. But I don’t want these workshops to be about sitting and listening to everything I know. I want to give you tools. I want you to look through the microscope yourself, ask questions, get your hands into things and begin making your own connections.
Interested in Coming?
Choose the workshop that interests you to see the full program, accommodation and food options, pricing and registration information.