Pete & Sue Rodgers

Sue is a Chartered Environmentalist, Waste Manager and registered Environmental Auditor. The last 12 years have been spent as an Environmental Management Consultant and registered environmental auditor, implementing environmental performance improvements in a range of organizations and auditing  companies against the International Environmental Management Standard,. The move to the Alpujarra  has been gradual over the last 4 years, whilst Pete has built our house, I have gradually wound down my consultancy in the UK to help create our home in the Alpujarra and develop the course in self-sufficiency , which I passionately believe in.

Pete is a retired Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy and although often away for long periods, including the Falklands, he has always had an allotment. He has grown his own veg for the last 30 years or so and is very experienced in all aspects or organic gardening from soil condition, crop rotation, companion planting to harvesting and storage of crops. The last 4 years he has built our home, a stone clad cortijo in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, cultivated 3 terraces for fruit and vegetables, constructed a chicken  house and run, built a reed filter bed and solar power system with only a little help from others.
We both believe passionately  that everyone can make a difference to improve the environment. However, we don’t believe that it has to be all  hair -shirts, muck and manure, it can be fun. We are not self-sufficient, but we are trying  to minimise our impact upon the environment, wherever and however we can.
We hope that this pragmatic  approach, appeals to you and you will join up at our beautiful cortijo to learn a little about how to be self-sufficientish! And if not learn from our mistakes!