Sofia Matsi Biography
Co-founder
Designer/Consultant/Educator
Sofia was always curious to observe how nature works and had a thirst for troubleshooting. She first decided to study Chemistry. When she found that to be too limiting for her creativity, she progressed to a master's degree in Fine Arts. Being troubled though by the growing challenges our planet is facing due to industrialized and degenerative farming and living practices, she decided to direct her life purpose into finding creative solutions through regenerative farming. That’s when she entered Permaculture.
She completed her Permaculture Design Course in Re-Green Center, Seliana, Greece and later on did her Permaculture Trainer Course with Rosemary Morrow in Mallorca, Spain. Experimenting with farming in Cyprus’ arid climate, she realized that a more concrete understanding on rainwater harvesting techniques was in order. She then attended Warren Brush’s Rainwater Harvesting Workshop in the Natuum Masai community in Kenya and since then has been fascinated with water.
She later on completed a one-month internship at Greening the Desert Site in Jordan, alongside Geoff Lawton, learning how to set up and maintain a fully productive food forest system along featuring small animal systems, water harvesting features and soil regeneration and amendment techniques.
Since 2014 she has been living at Petrera Permaculture Site, in Kalo Chorio Orinis, thirty minutes outside the center of Nicosia and has been working on developing it into a semi-arid climate-adapted permaculture site. The site concentrates on implementing Permaculture’s basic principles: caring for the people, caring for the earth and moving nutrients and resources in the system through as many circles as possible. Organic regenerative farming practices are applied to the existing olive, fig and pomegranate orchard, and chemical-free fertilization and pesticide-control strategies are used for the caring of the perennial herb garden and seasonal vegetable beds. Natural building is also part of the site’s investigation using available materials such as earth and stones to build needed structures.
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In 2016, along with her permaculture partner Gabriel, she formed Permaculture Designs Cyprus, with the goal to offer regenerative and resilient design solutions for homes, schools and farmlands.
Her enthusiasm for sharing her acquired knowledge led to her facilitating multiple permaculture courses and specialized workshops as well as a TedX talk. In 2018, in collaboration with Ierokipio Permaculture Land and Cyprus Seed Savers, she initiated the annual trail running race RUN FOR SEEDS aimed at bringing awareness to the importance of heirloom seed preservation and the promotion of natural living.
Sofia is an avid supporter of natural living and aims to craft as many of the basic household supplies as she can; from homemade soaps, cosmetics and house cleaning products to herbal remedies and preserved food. She also runs a small business of healthy homemade snacks and through that promotes her passion for healthy plant-based eating. Sofia is always on the go and when she is not working in the garden or building a new structure, she likes to run, cycle, swim and rock-climb.
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