Something uplifting, amazing, inspiring to watch.
Archives for posts with tag: permaculture
If you are interested in the culture, politics, ecology and economy of food in Palestine, may I recommend FoodJusticePalestine, a quite remarkable website curating diverse articles and voices from around the web on many aspects of eating and growing there.
Had I been following this site earlier, I might have been aware, for example, of the neoliberal trade context that makes Nutella a normal part of life in occupied territories, despite an initial dismay, elucidated for me by Aisha Mansour in this article. I’ve also come to question my own assumed unequivocal support of fairtrade products from Palestine, a movement that is well intentioned (and so much about solidarity) but needs to be examined in terms of issues of food sovereignty at the broadest levels.
“International fair-trade companies have also decreased Palestinian self-sufficiency. These companies offer local farmers a slightly higher price for their products than the price in the local market, but the real price of this practice is that high-quality local (baladi) produce is removed from the local market and sold to the global market at much higher prices. This has increased inequalities in Palestinian society, creating a minority of wealthy businesspeople, and leaving an entire population with low quality, imported food.”
There’s much more on this Tumblr site – articles about foodways, Permaculture, trade deals, land rights and more. In fact it brings together so many aspects of how and why food is interesting to me. So I wanted to share it on my blog. Have a look and fall into a rabbit hole of fascination… You don’t need to join Tumblr to view, but joining means you can follow people and ‘scapbook’ your own posts.
I’m so excited about this new book Radical Mycology, the literary embodiment of an inspiring website.
Here’s a fantastic and quite tantalising glimpse into the book from the great teachers at Milkwood Permaculture . I really appreciate all the photos of pages inside the book, especially the ones of the impressive Table of Contents.
Have a listen to Peter McCoy and get yourself inspired. I certainly am. I don’t know how to have the time to take on a major new interest, but if I find it, this will be it.
A medieval garden – from British Library MS Royal 6 E IX f. 15v
The Healing Power of a Garden – A Medieval View. Came across this article this morning and felt a surge of springtime joy, reading about Henry of Huntingdon’s Anglicanus Ortus, a Verse Herbal of the Twelfth Century.
“This is no ordinary herbal: the work is staged first as a discussion between a master and a student walking around a garden, inspecting the plants in their separate beds, and then as an awkward performance by the same master before Apollo and a critical audience, seated in a theatre at the garden’s centre. Beyond its didactic and performative aspects, the entire work is framed as a prayer to God’s generative capacity and the rational order of nature.” –http://pims.ca/pdf/st180.pdf
Check out this link for enticing excerpts pertaining to oregano, strawberry, dill, horseradish, and more. Am a bit sad it’s a $175 book — doesn’t it feel like historical cultural production like this should somehow exist in the commons, for all of us to learn from and enjoy? Maybe this is a book Google might buy and put up on the web…
Enjoy the Guardian podcast above with Jane Perrone, Anni Kelsey and Martin Crawford Thanks to Anni for her wonderful blog where I first saw this. Inspiring and eas(ier) gardening, climate friendly and cheaper, plus interesting, tasty things to eat.
Was just out in the cool, long-light evening, turning the compost with a garden fork and musing on decay. When I see worms in bins, garden beds or in the soil, I imagine a better future in which that zoological multitude replenishes and renews the earth of Earth. Recent research is telling us how important earthworms are in the carbon cycle and offer some positive news regarding climate change. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m feeling happy for the emergence on the food scene of Olia Hercules. I saw this film a while back and felt really thrilled to be learning from someone so deeply rooted in her own food traditions (and she’s deliberate on that plural) yet gifted with such a light and beautiful cook’s touch. That Ukrainian Green Borsht of hers is of course a much more vivacious cousin to my prosaic Schav.
Today in the Guardian is an excerpt from her new book Mamushka. I want it! Want want want! Because I know I’m going to be bowled over with inspiration, just as I was simply from reading about the way she uses fermented herbs in her lovely and simple soup. Make sure to check out the link.
Her version uses dill, parsley, sorrel, celery, and spring onions. Read the rest of this entry »
Upcycle your sprouting potatoes by growing potatoes. Maybe this is completely obvious to many of you, but doing it last year really drove home this possibility for me. It was all small-scale — buckets and barrels and nothing too big, but it would be possible on verges and in any space, containers, or ground you might have, at whatever scale is called for.
“I wanted to be kissed by hummingbirds every day,” says Ron Finley. “I wanted to see butterflies. I wanted to smell lavender, and jasmine, and rosemary. That’s where it started.”
In case you missed it, as I somehow did, you can watch his amazing TED Talk on his website.
“Funny thing, the drive-through is killing more people than the drive-by.”
He’s got a vision of cities and how people and plants can live in them. He is all about health for people, for ecology, and for beauty.
“The problem is the solution. Food is the problem, food is the solution.”
“Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do, especially in the inner city. Plus you get strawberries.”
“The funny thing about sustainability, you have to sustain it.”
Ron Finley has the gift of energy and the gift to inspire, and a boundless supply of fantastic one-liners. He’s the kind of DIY-meets-Social Change that brings hope.
This is for my friend who asked for recipes that I might imagine too simple and obvious: an easy Waldorf Salad variation if you are empowering your digestive microbiota with fermented foods in as many dishes as possible.
Kitchen Counter Culture 