Wow. I sat down to do Friday writing an hour ago, and have just actually started typing. We have, as you may have noticed, switched to a new webpage! An amazing feat, which is still ongoing and writing a post isn’t the same as it used to be. I’ll get used to it right?

I haven’t written for three weeks now… and that’s fine. It’s been a weird time here with some trips to Boodaville that seem like a looong time ago, and my daughters birthday. It seems that the time when I could enjoy my child’s birthday are behind me, it is very much about what they want at seven. And very dramatic. I really feel like it’s all easier when there aren’t any presents or games where kids scrabble around and fight over presents from the piñata. Actually I think last year Kira was most happy when she organized the other kids in a neat queue and ave them one chupa-chup each. I’ll bear that in mind next year. 

My world is so busy right now I haven’t been keeping up with the latest craziness from the world. I have signed up to bulletins from “Nature” though in an effort to receive things I want to see. Not like when you hit the search button on Instagram and are blasted with recommended (?) or popular (?) images in a sad burst of seeing how the world really is.

I learnt from Nature that the combined mass of human created stuff, is now bigger than the mass of all living plants, animals, fungi and microbes on the planet. Now there’s a turning point for the anthropocene. It makes the solutions pretty clear though right? Let’s increase the amount of life! and redress the balance. More life, less concrete!

So here are my sustainable steps this month…

Pickled chard

I didn’t think fermenting was for me. Then I tried this, with a ridiculous level of success. I turned the white stalks (my least favouite part) into something delicious. It is remarkably easy – water, some salt and garlic in a jar with chard stalks. You’re supposed to leave it 7 – 10 days, I left it two months.. and it was great! Since we eat a lot of non-processed food, and “rice and vegetables” is a standard dinner, i’m very excited about jazzing it up with jars of tangy deliciousness.

At least say no to the marketing

It upsets me a little that so much food is sold using cartoon animals, bright colours, tricks by huge companies that do incredible amounts of research on how to affect your behaviour and make you buy more of what they want you to buy. So anyway, on the days where we do buy cereal from a normal supermarket, I take the plain white bags out the box, turn the card inside out and add it to the craft drawer. 

Berkey water filter

Yes, this was expensive at 350 euros. I calculated that if we carry on buying mineral water from the mountains 120km away in plastic bottles we would spend over 200 euros in a year. The Berkey is the filter with least plastic and best ethics (for example they don’t sell on Amazon). Most importantly we are extremely happy with it – the flow gets slightly slower as it gets emptier so you notice and don’t forget to fill it up, the tap is really convenient, and best of all we now have filtered water for cooking and hot drinks as well as drinking water. No more faeces particles, or anti-depressants in my tea!

Gifting seeds

I’m full of joy at the prospect of gifting re-used little jars with a few seeds, a Boodaville almond to suck up the humidity while they are in the jar, and a little hand written note about why these plants are useful, a bit about the story of their use over the centuries, and some info on when to plant. In the past I’ve prepared jars like this with soil, an egg carton cup included so you have all the material right there! Thinking about this now, I would love to include longer stories, giving a picture of indigenous cultures. Our modern consumerist culture has so much to learn from other cultures that hold wisdom on sustainable living – these ideas (such simple ideas as gratitude for the natural world) are key to finding our path towards a better future.