Saturday May 21st saw the Newcastle suburb of Mayfield with a little transformation. Transformed into something quite appealing indeed for many of the locals and visitors on the day. What this tiny corner of Mayfield had gone and done on this Autumnal day in May was it turned itself into a, better block.
This wasn’t the first Better Block I’d been to. Long term readers might remember a post on the first Clovelly one in Sydney a few years back. While completely different in what they wanted to do, one thing was a simple theme. They wanted something better than what they had.
The Better Block concept was one that came out of Antonio, USA, a few years back. The concept was a common one for people around the world and adopted (officially and unofficially by many). Whether as permanent changes or simply playing with ideas and getting locals more connected, talking about what they would like to see done differently to the area.
This is a community model of care that I whole heartedly embrace. Watching the whole day come together and seeing the excitement on people’s faces as they begin to visualise something different to what they currently have. It’s exciting and quite inspiring to watch.
Best of luck Mayfield. I think you’ve got something quite wonderful going on.
Today is International Permaculture Day and I thought I would have a little look at the basis of what permaculture actually is, and what it means, in an every day living kind of way?
Whether you live in a tiny busy city apartment or 1000 hectare farm out the back of….well, somewhere well out the back. Permaculture is something that can be easily infused into every day living.
In nutshell, it’s a way of living that designs and builds a system that incorporates 3 ethics- Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share.
Connected productive living within ourselves, our families and our communities…without the destructive environmental cost. Sounds pretty good right?
Break the word down and you’ve got PERMANENT AGRICULTURE, that doesn’t mean you have a permanent collection of farm hands and cattle roaming over your fields. That means you’ve got a system in play that means you’re accountable for your own living, (well as much as possible anyway. )
Still with me? Right so what does this all mean to me and for our family of five living in a regular every day kinda urban city setting?
First up, let’s look at the 12 principles that permaculture is based on. I’ve found some will be used more than others depending on our context at the time and on the day. Basically this is daily living stuff though.
Observe and interact… planning, observing where the sun falls (this might be for heat, growth or simply light) connecting with what everything around us is doing, why and when. Also broadening those community circles and reaching out to others.
Catch and store energy…whether it’s collecting rainwater and sunshine (or my own energy!)
Obtain a yield… yields to date have been still on the novel side, regardless of where we are living. I’m working on it though, damn it…and at least I make sourdough.
Apply self regulation and accept feedback…constantly.
Use and value renewable resources and services. Once you tap into this, it’s hard to tap back out.
Produce no waste…so many things can be reused, used in different ways or simply just not obtained in the first place.
Design from patterns to details…Hooray for thinking outside the square.
Integrate rather than segregate…for some reason this absolutely delights me. Complete satisfaction when I can manage it, even in the tiniest way. Whether it’s in the garden or involving my kids in some minor task.
Use slow and small solutions…so much easier to change or maintain things. Far less confronting than dramatic changes.
Use and value diversity…I’m a big believer in this for any part of life. Growing plants, our diet, or education.
Use edges and value the marginal…another one of my favourites. Creating something from the seemingly unloved, and unused is incredibly satisfying.
Creatively use and respond to change…bend like a reed baby.
As you can see, this isn’t just out in the garden. This is life living skills, numbered beautifully from 1 to 12.
Exploring all the options and making sure everything is reasonably adaptable. What works for me now, might well, need to work differently in the future. Things are constantly changing and tweaking things are necessary dependent on what’s going on around us at the time.
Also, what’s your context? What works for me, may not work for the next person.
A tiny example which up until lately, I hadn’t considered a whole lot was the environmental impact of having a dog or a pet in general. Sure I knew the pet food industry was just as crap as our own mainstream food in many ways but until I was actually standing there in the pet food aisles, I didn’t realise just how ridiculous things really were. Sugar, salt, colourings and food miles for our beloved fur beast? You betcha.
Dog food I manoeuvred my way through and poo is now being collected in cornstarch bags (if out) and deposited into a worm tower in an untouched corner of the yard if at home. (#6 Produce no waste.)
Worm towers are also favoured within our wicking beds (with an addition of compost and food scraps rather than dog poo.)
While we are still relatively new to our current living environment, permaculture is a system of living that in some shape or form I have been happily living in different contexts from the very beginning.
Some things have changed, some things will quietly remain very similar and some, will simply grow and expand like a 10 year olds legs over summer holidays, (or something like that.) It’s exciting stuff and most of the time it feels really positive to be moving forward like this, (and when it doesn’t, there’s always a wonderful clean slate called tomorrow.)
Here’s five minutes with David Holgrem (co-originator of the permaculture concept) on how we can change the world with permaculture thinking…what a lovely man 🙂
****************
If you’re new to permaculture and not sure where to dive in, here’s a few places to kickstart a whole new way of thinking, living and celebrating life in general.
Permaculture Principles– I adore their yearly calendar. The pictures are inspirational, moon planting incredibly helpful and the little squares are big enough to scribble all your daily ‘stuff’.
Milkwood– whether it’s a hands on course or the goodness of online info.
Pip Magazine– Permaculture in a wonderful magazine format.
I’ve had a few questions over time on how I seemingly get so many things done in the day. I thought it might be easier to do a post, dispel a few illusions and set the base line once more.
First up stop cleaning, really just stop. Keep things generally tidy if you need to, or have one corner that is deliciously tidy, but apart from that, there are a whole lot more important things to do. Just leave it unless it’s absolutely necessary.
So what’s necessary you say?
Well that’s up to you, but scrubbing the toilet on a daily basis sure isn’t one of them and I’d rather be defined by the way my creativity breaks out rather than how well I keep the bathroom clean, (really, no one else cares.)
Secondly, work out what’s important to you, (hence the dropping of any excessive cleaning). If you really want to design a website, paint a ten foot canvas, draft a novel, draw up a permaculture garden, join an acapella group, or take pictures then do it. Don’t just talk about wanting to do it. Follow those words, and walk that talk. I know it’s not easy, (and it’s really not!) to find and make the time but if you nudge yourself closer and closer, five minutes here and there, make the plans, and start, it’s a beginning, and everything has a beginning.
Third point, set aside time each day/ once a week/ once a month to do what makes your heart sing and makes those excited bubbles in your belly pop. This is fuel, creative fuel and for me, no matter in what shape or form it is, it all goes into my own personal bank.
I like writing, and I like taking photos. I also up until recently have always had a child or children at home with me all the time. A long with the regular activities during the day that we do, I always set aside ‘time for me’. While it sounds indulgent, it’s what I can do at this stage, so I roll with it. I make sure she’s had her lunch, my coffee is ready and there is a dvd or activity ready to roll. This doesn’t hold her long, she always wants more food, and the interruptions can sometimes be every 30 seconds. But I do what I can within that allocated ‘me time’. If that means she’s sitting on my lap, head butting me like a young goat and placing her hands over mine as I (we) type well than that’s the way I get things done. Clearly I’m not going to win any Pulitzer prize winner novel-writing done in this manner, but…it gets some things done. Tiny nibbles of things done anyway. If I get to feel even just a teensy bit that I’ve done something I’ve wanted to do, I feel better for it. (Even if it’s just editing some photos…or a photo. I did it, and hooray!)
Number four, if I want absolute solitude time I have to either stay up later at night once everyone else has been tucked safely into bed or get up earlier than everyone else. I alternate between the early or late depending on what’s been happening. I’m naturally more of a morning person, but sometimes I just need more sleep. Again, I roll with it.
Which brings me to the very important number five point. Coffee. None of this instant stuff, but instead pure coffee. A simple stove top coffee pot is the highlight of my day. Just the one cup mind you, and it’s all perfectly timed that caffeine hit. Like I said, I get things ready before hand if I can at all. If that means grinding beans the night before in order to get that coffee made and sipped while the opening credits are being rolled out on the kiddo’s dvd or colouring in session. Well then that’s what needs to be done.
This book was a huge eye opener for me, in terms of reading how other creative woman juggled motherhood and creativity.
And this book too was also a huge eye opener as the comparison between the two books was bloody incredible.
Now I promise there’s no creative mother sainthood here, some days it all seems to slot in beautifully and other days…well there’s always tomorrow right?
These precious kids aren’t small forever and but then again life isn’t particularly long either. So for me it’s about squeezing as much into the cracks of the day as possible, because while my children are incredibly important to me. So is my creativity.
Yearning for something for a really long time, means that when it finally arrives…well it’s a bit bloody exciting.
So what did I yearn for? Sun.
Simply put, just sun.
Sunlight to grow things. I had grown what I could with 2 hours of direct sunlight for a number of years in pots on a rented shared corner of a concrete courtyard. I loved my potted permaculture garden, but with two hours of direct sunlight, well it limits things a bit.
So what can I do now? Now that I have 6-10 hours of direct sunlight?….Oh la la! The possibilities can make you giddy at the knees. Some people said wait, go slow, you’ve got years to get it going. Err, nope, no I don’t think so. I’ve waited in some shape or form for 20 years to do this.
Instead, let’s get in there straight away. Let’s definitely plan, and plan really well. And let’s not be committed to one idea, or even several ideas in the beginning. The first few years will be very flexible in their changes, lessons will be learnt and things will be trialled. It’s all deliciously new and yet it isn’t as well, I’ve been preparing, reading, learning, practising for what feels like all my life, now it get’s put into practise.
I firmly believe in the saying bloom where you have been planted…but I also believe in crop rotation.
And now with all that direct sunlight? Well. I think it’s time to get growing.
Having been throwing myself into all things permaculture minded for the past good few years, it was a little tricky looking over at all the identical perfectly mown lawns and not think of how I would like to quietly rip a good proportion of all that grass up.
Sure it wasn’t mine to rip up, but what an enticing dream it would be.
Instead of perfectly manicured ornamental gardens with impeccable weed free edging, there instead might be a line of fruit giving trees all the way up the street as far as the eye could see. All within easy reach of the foot path, all for people to pluck as they needed, and as often as taste buds sung out.
This line of fruit trees would also give a little shade to those that chose to walk the many uphills under a blazing summer sun. The ones that forewent the air-conditioned comfort of cars, that would drive on unseeing to all that food yet to be foraged by knowing fingers.
Or maybe there would be a canopy of beans to walk through, that might be right next to a forest of nuts and bananas, a pedestrian round about, with herbs circling in a mandala kind of fashion.
The possibilities are deliciously endless and certainly not restricted to the street side. So how does permaculture entwine with creative living?
Well in my mind they lie hand in hand, it’s an ability to think outside the square. To be able to create and be adaptable to the environment that you’ve been placed. Making do with what you have essentially, and in a sustainable fashion, thriving from within it. There are patterns, there are creations, and there are probably a multitude of pops of colour.
finding patterns
The more formal definition of permaculture…
What is Permaculture?
‘Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs. People, their buildings and the ways in which they organise themselves are central to permaculture. Thus the permaculture vision of permanent or sustainable agriculture has evolved to one of permanent or sustainable culture.’ [David Holgrem]
Finding a definition of creativity is a little harder to narrow down. There are so many branches to the word, and as there should be, the word in itself is a creative one of which meaning depends on the user alone.
Not restricting the word to the art world, I did like this line though when reading through the many variations…
‘Creativity is the ability to transcend the ordinary’
And that brings me back to those perfectly damn mown lawns again.
Whether you live in a busy city studio with a cat named Peter or an off grid farm that is the dictionary definition of diversity. What would you do with a street full of perfectly manicured, grassed gardens? Tell me… or even better, what HAVE you done? I’d lovvvve to know.
*****************
(This post is 1 of 3 in a series on creativity.)
Extra Bits
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” Maya Angelou
Buderim’s “Eat Street”– Urban Food Street, a neighbourhood initiative that started from a conversation about over priced limes 7 years ago. This initiative now covers 11 streets, with people moving into the area, because they want to be involved.
Four jars were sitting on the kitchen bench top, still piping hot and whispering to me of dishes that they could accompany.
Eggs on sourdough was a given.
Jazzed up fried rice a sure thing.
Hoppers seemed sensible,
and there might even be a little bit of roast chicken action.
Eggplant Kasundi was like that, a versatile little pickle that just brought its own little party to the dinner table. I had only discovered it last year, and celebrated the fact by slapping that stuff on everything that was mouth destined.
An easy, seasonal eggplant pickle that can be teamed up with pretty much anything.
How about you, have you any tiny food obsessions at the moment? Are you pickling anything from the season? What’s your favourite go to eggplant dish?
eggplant kasundi
I didn’t add chilli to this one as my smallest was keen on eating it by the spoonful but if you like your pickles on the feisty side I would say drop a few of your favourite hot reds in.
Eggplant Kasundi
12 finger eggplants (brinjals)
5 tomatoes
2 medium onions
1 head of garlic
1 knob of fresh ginger
1 1/2 tbsp mustard seeds
1 1/2 tbsp cumin
1 1/2 tbsp coriander
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups raw sugar
250 mls apple cider vinegar
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
In a large pot add the ginger, garlic, onion and oil. Cook it up, stirring continuously over a medium heat, add your spices and continue to stir until it smells amazing. Add diced eggplants and diced fresh tomatoes. Continue stirring intermittently, pop the lid on and let the mixture cook down a little further, (you want the eggplant to be soft and cooked through.) Add the apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, sugar and salt, continue cooking (stirring occasionally) over a low heat for approximately 45 minutes or until mixture thickens and comes together.
They are incredible composters, excellent sources of protein, extremely polite by self harvesting themselves and might just be the alternate meat source that world wide dinner circles need to embrace. Say hello to the Black Soldier Fly.
Now the title of this post doesn’t even particularly make sense but hey, it was that or March of the Soldier Fly…actually, on reflection the later was probably a better choice.
The long story of how I came to have a compost bin with a seething wriggling mass of maggots, requires a pot of tea, shoes left at the front door and no place to be for an hour or more, (or something like that.)
The short version was, what started as a small maggot problem with questionable outcomes, turns out is an excellent compost larvae friend of which I have inadvertently created a home for and is now looked upon as some prime utopian real estate for soldier fly larvae.
Seriously, it really is the promised land for wriggly segmented critters.
Now before I disgust some of you any further, and you click off for good let’s quickly recap on why these (quite incredible) critters are good for your compost, (and also why you should just skip to the acceptance and embracing stage of having them in your garden/compost/table and simply bypass the revulsion and dry gagging bit that I had to go through first. I mean really, just skip that bit, these guys are awesome.
Black Soldier Fly are about half the size of a regular house fly, they also naturally keep away house flies- and that dear people is a good thing.
They don’t mind it hot, actually the hotter the better. Anything upwards of 27C is going to show activity and humidity is apparently a big factor. Being in a black compost bin with the weather we’ve been having lately (rain++ and hot++) I’d say has had a big impact on their numbers.
They are excellent composters due to playing a big part in contributing with decomposition and nutrient cycles. They are also rather excellent at aiding the bioconversion of organic waste material.
They are a great form of protein. I’m not ready to get in there for that dinner plate just yet, but for animal feed, herptiles and tropical fish I say buon appetito.
If you were keen on cooking up a little spagetti alle larvae, have a peek at this site, Farm 432. It’s a table top incubator essentially where you grow your own sustainable protein filled dinner.
Protein wise they are filled with in terms of % and in comparison with their other insect counterparts, they are definitely front runners.
They clean themselves just before they self harvest, plopping right over the side, ready to be scooped up.
They are only dark in colour at the very end of their pupation, I had previously seen them like that so had discounted mine as something else, as they were cream coloured, (rookie mistake.)
“…reduce the volume and weight of would-be waste: The larval colony breaks apart its food, churns it, and creates heat, increasing compost evaporation. Significant amounts are also converted to carbon dioxide respired by the grubs and symbiotic/mutualistic microorganisms.” (Wikipedia.)
Really, they are hoovering through the compost, considering mine is only weeks old and not as balanced as I would like it, the quality is pretty darn good. I’d say a good proportion of that is due to my wiggly segmented (creamy coloured) friends. (They can apparently reduce composts or manure down by 50-70%.)
Now I’m absolutely fascinated by these critters, having watched their behaviour over the last couple of weeks, not understanding what was happening, seeing them explode in population, and reading up a lot. I’ve gone from dry gagging to grinning excitedly and holding them in my hands.
And really, how exciting is learning something completely new eh.
Wonderful and kind people, bringing shared and much appreciated food. A jar full of honey, an armload of fragrant basil, green tomato chutney, a bucket of red tomatoes, garlic, garlic garlic, a bowl of blackberries and a divine blackberry vinegar.
Cuttings, seedlings and favourite seeds. In a transition period when things can often feel different, unsure and completely out of place- being given these locally grown gifts for immediate nourishment and long term edible growing, it’s something that is incredibly grounding.
Brings a smile to the face and a fullness in the heart that no Westfield shopping expedition could ever hope to replicate.
Nope, not ever.
****************
What are you loving at the moment?
[“Often life’s pleasures pass us by simply because we don’t take a moment to focus on them… Make a point of noticing everyday something that uplifts your spirit or tickles your heart… Stop to breathe in the joy of this moment and then tell someone about it. Share your joy and revel in it. When your joy is savoured, and then shared, it is magnified…” ROBIN GRILLE]
Whether you are are just starting out on your fermentation journey, or have been dabbling in the delights of beneficial bacteria for awhile now, making beetroot kvass should be on your to do list. Here’s a couple of quick wonderful reasons why.
It’s Easy- Really, dead easy. Doesn’t require any crucial measuring of ingredients and is incredibly satisfying seeing the fermentation process begin within a relatively short space of time.
Your Liver- Will thank you, yes it will. Lots of info on what it does can be found here.
Probiotics are your friend- That’s good bacteria in a nutshell. You want your gut full of this stuff, full of a wonderful diverse array of different bacteria and enzymes. (Anything naturally fermented helps with this.)
Now importantly how does it taste?
If you are already accustomed to the earthy tones of raw beetroot in fresh juices, this stuff won’t be pulling any surprises. Seeing as though I’m a relative newcomer to actually liking beetroot in it’s (ahem) uncanned state, to me it tastes like…licking dirt.
Being an avid fan of anything fermented though, I shall persist and my liver will thank me for it. (Or it had better, there has to be some perks of drinking this garden tasting juice.*)
Beetroot Kvass
3 medium sized beetroot
1.5 litres cool boiled water
2 pinches of salt
Peel the skin off your beetroot and dice them up, approximately 1cm squares, if they are 2cm it wouldn’t be a tragedy however.
Pop the beetroot in a large clean glass jar, something with a wide mouth. You need the air yeasts to get to the kvass, so a large wide mouth jar is great to use. Add your salt and water, give it a little swish around to make sure the salt is dissolved and cover with a square of muslin (or paper towel) and a rubber band. Now to get things cracking a little earlier, I did add about 1/4 cup of sauerkraut juice to kick-start things a little, you could also add whey (as per Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions) or nothing and just be dependent on the air yeasts that will get things fermenting.
Have a good smell of it before you put the muslin on. Your nose, eyes and taste buds are the key to great fermenting. Smell the changes as they take place, see them and lastly give it a taste test. Let those three things guide you.
I started seeing bubbles with 24 hours surprisingly, however I let it ferment for a further few days. The length of time is going to depend on the season and how warm it is in your kitchen.
*************
If you are new to fermenting I highly reccommend Sandor Katz’s book The Art of Fermentation it’s easy to follow and really is a ‘forever’ book that you’ll keep dipping into dependent on what you’re interested in at the time.
* You can add ginger lemon rind etc as a second ferment to tweak the flavour a bit.
How would you describe the taste of a strawberry to someone who hadn’t ever eaten one before? Soft and sweet obviously. But then, then? That’s where my descriptions falter. It tastes like…
I asked the smallest and current hardcore daily-strawberry-advocate.
“…it tastes…likkkkke… strawberry?”
Obviously not feeling particularly poetic today my girl.
Now the benefits of having a blog is being able to see what you were making a year ago, two years ago, (…or eek, 6 years ago?) I knew it was strawberry season, and I knew I wanted to make something easy. I looked at my recipe, scrutinised it for a second or two and then thought, yeah, I reckon I could go a step further in the making it even easier department.
Blend it!
And so I did.
Here’s the slightly tweaked version. Lots of seasonal strawberry goodness, and really low in processed sugar (1.4 tsp per serve.)
Now tell me, how would you describe the taste of a strawberry?
Strawberry Shortcake Crumble (serves 7)
100g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of a whole lemon
1/4 cup raw sugar
75g almond meal
150g self raising flour
hulled, washed and roughly chopped strawberries
Pop strawberries into an oven proof ramekins. In a blender, add all of your remaining ingredients together and then spoon mixture on top of strawberries. Into an oven at 180C for about 20 or so minutes or until golden.
Try for one, or two, or if you feeling particularly revolutionary, go for all of them.
A long time ago I made a pact with myself. Any purchases that I made, needed to be as ethical, locally made, fair trade, or as a conscious purchase (do I really need it?) where ever possible. For some things it’s been fairly easy, other things, not quite so much.
I thought I’d create a little list of some of things I’ve been super happy with over a fairly large chunk of time, (both bought and not bought.)
How to Dress like a Revolutionary
* Pure Pod– Kelli’s range of ethical fashion is divine. I’d happily wear any one of their outfits.
* Op shops- frequently provide goodies. Timing, choosing your op shops, and mostly down to just whether the op shop goddesses are smiling upon thee is dependent on what you’ll find.
* Undies- Tuffy’s and Tuffette’s (locally made and owned in Australia- their excess plastic wrapping is a big sore spot however.)
* Friends and family are also often kind enough to pass on kids clothing.
* A soccerball gift- Etiko has a lot more than just soccer balls though, have a peek at their fair trade underwear, clothing and shoe range as well.
* Make it myself- My sewing skills are still somewhat lacking, so while I would love to make a lot of our family clothing it’s really not going to happen for awhile, smaller things that I can make though, yep, I’ll give it a crack.
* If you are going to be a human billboard, be aware of what you are advertising, (Sea Shepard as pictured here.)
* Buying second hand- living in the city, I’m incredibly lucky as there really are so many practical options for this- Garage Sale Trail is also a good one to do.
* Ecolosophy– Small loving business that has all your ethical clothing, kitchen, food options also covered.
* Organise a clothing swap in your community.
* Yoshi Jones– small designer in Sydney, that does divine Japanese influenced unique clothing (think vintage kimonos), especially good if you are after something for a special event.
* Go looking on Instagram- it’s great for finding small businesses. I LOVE how I have found different people and their work over the time I’ve been on instagram, and really enjoy supporting them- community shopping at it’s very excellent best.
Supporting small ethical businesses where ever possible is important. I know it’s not always easy, financially, time wise, and also accessability. Having three kids, I very much get that. Pay the extra dollar when you can though. New shoes, they really shouldn’t be costing $8, someone is being ripped off if they are.
************
How about you, do you have any revolutionary links to add?
cityhippyfarmgirl 