Repurposed Treasures

My community is great. When I asked for plant pots, plant pots rained down on me. It shows how much people hate to put something perfectly good in the recycling. They hold onto things hoping someone else might need it someday. 


Twice per year there is a free swap in my village, where people bring all their unwanted clothes and household items and load up on what they want. This year, I didn't need much in particular. I waited for the first waves of people to diminish and went picking through the left overs.


I am always on the lookout for small plates to put under plant pots, but this year I found myself inspired to turn new items into planters. Here are some photos of the treasures I found and turned into life-supporting vessels. My favourite is the wooden shoe!













Take care!

Minimize that Wardrobe

It is said that we use 20% of our belongings 80% of the time. Despite practicing minimalism for the past year, every week I find more items that have so far evaded my minimizing purges. Every time I think I have nothing left that I could live without, I find myself staring at a piece of furniture or a knick-knack and imagining life without it. Inevitably, it's the next thing I get rid of and the cycle continues.

My 'decluttering' is usually pretty unfocused in nature, and I never developed a system beyond It Must Be Beautiful, Bring Me Joy, or Useful. This system works less well on minimizing a clothing collection. I still have duplicates of black sweaters, farm work jeans, tank tops, etc. 

Until recently I moved every 6 months, and traveled a lot. All my clothes fit in a backpack that wasn't heavy enough to burden me. The climate was not as harsh as Canada, so I didn't need long-johns, snow pants, winter coats, mittens, etc. Mostly I lived in Scotland where summer clothing was equally unnecessary, so no need for summer dresses, multiple bathing suits, or shorts.

Remembering my slightly nomadic existence inspired me to go through my wardrobe as if I still lived that way. Considering my current circumstances I asked of each item of clothing:

If I was going on holiday for several months, somewhere where temperatures ranged from -30C to +30C and I was planning on working on a farm while I was there, would I bring this with me?

It occurs to me that this formula could help others declutter and return clothing into circulation. All you have to do is alter the details within the commas according to what your life and climate look like.

Suddenly it made a lot less sense to hold onto some of the 'just in cases' that have survived monthly clothing purges. 

Perhaps the same trick can help you on your way to living more lightly.

Holiday Gift Giving Guide!

It's mid-November, so naturally everyone is losing their minds about Christmas. I thought I would write a quick no-nonsense guide to gift giving.

1. Ask someone if they want a gift.

This sounds very unromantic, but frankly a lot of people I know would prefer their relatives and friends stop giving them gifts. 

Those of us who have a healthy income can purchase what we need/want when we need/want it. Receiving a throw pillow shaped like an owl might be your idea of an excellent gift, but the person receiving might not actually want another pillow, or a pillow that doesn't fit with their style or colour scheme.

On the flip side, when you have a limited income gifts can be also be a burden. You likely are not able to afford to live in a large space to fill with stuff. My experience with uncertain employment involved me moving apartments every 6 months, extra stuff would have been no gift at all. 

2. If the answer to number 1 is yes, ask what they would like.

Again, this eliminates the element of surprise, fine, but even as a kid going out to choose my own Christmas presents was hugely exciting. The anticipation of knowing added to the joy of unwrapping them several weeks later.

Think about it, when someone gives you a gift out of the blue there is stress involved in receiving it. When you open it, no matter what it is, you have to look delighted in order to make the giver feel appreciated.  Opening a gift when you've told someone what you want is much easier. It's good to give people a few options so that they choose what is appropriate to their budget. Knowing what someone wants doesn't take away from your ability to be thoughtful. It's thoughtful to take the time to ask.

If you have children, this is also a good opportunity to introduce the idea that maybe if they have enough stuff that they would like an experience as a gift. Like a rock-climbing lesson, or taking their two best friends out to see a movie.

3. Whatever the person's answer to 1. or 2., respect it.

The expectation that someone needs to love a gift that you give them is unhealthy. If a man buys a woman a drink in a bar, does she owe it to him to thank him so much for his generosity? No. She doesn't even have to drink it. Why would you expect any different from your loved ones?

Consent is something we undermine constantly in our culture. If someone doesn't want a gift and you want to get them one anyway, at least give them an out. They don't want to hurt your feelings, but by virtue of ignoring their wishes, you are hurting theirs. At the very least mention "I really loved this, and I know you didn't want a gift so no pressure at all. If you don't like it, just give it to me and I will happily have this in my house." Certainly do not make them feel guilty 6 months from now when you don't see that sculpture of a dog sitting proudly in the middle of their living room.

4. Zero Waste gift ideas

A lot of items we buy as gifts come with a lot of packaging- I like to say 'no thank you' to having my food  or soap wrapped in garbage! Here is my favourite stocking stuffer gift idea: jars of treats. Glass jars come in various sizes and can be taken to a bulk food store and filled with smarties, chocolates, dried mango slices, cranberries, gummi worms, nuts, whatever! My godmother last year gifted me two decorated mason jars with cake and brownie mixes inside!

Glass, metal, and paper/cardboard are very easy to recycle and compared to plastic much less wasteful and toxic to the environment. Gifts in these kinds of packages are preferable. 

Glass bottles? Think wine, spirits, maple syrup, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 

Experiences of all shapes, sizes, and budgets are out there, be creative!

5. Wrapping Without Waste

My family has been re-using gift bags for so long, I don't remember ever buying a gift bag.  If you haven't already got a collection of gift bags in your closet or holiday trunk, then I usually wrap a gift in cloth. If it is material that I particularly want back then I mention that to the recipient. Usually people offer it back anyway. Other alternatives exist, like using the pile-up of re-usable bags that you have as gift bags, but I leave that to your own creative minds.

6. Relax. 

Enjoy the holiday with people who you love and stop making something that is about life, love, and family, into something about consumerism. Happiness comes from within.

E

Between Stress and Semi-Retirement

This time last year my job involved driving an average of four hours per day. I bought food in take away containers. I stayed in motels every other week, and used the tiny disposable shampoo bottles. I opened the plastic wrappers on bars of soap. I made coffee in the motel room and no matter what the coffee maker situation was, this was always guaranteed to yield several items of garbage.

Suffering from imposter syndrome (thinking that I had got into my job by accident rather than merit) I worked seven days per week and didn't bill all my hours because I wasn't sure that I had been as productive as I should have been. I guess my employer must have liked my results because every time I was nearing the end of my client list I would be sent another inspector's client list and asked if I could expand into their region and take over their clients.

The result was that I was stressed out all the time. The job itself was great and I believe in the work the company does, but it wasn't allowing me to live the kind of life I wanted.

Less than a year ago I left that job for a lower paid position that I am extremely qualified for (so no need to worry about imposter syndrome!). I also decided to work part time instead of full time. In order to make my decision look more deliberate and impressive in the eyes of my peers and family I refer to my 'part-time' employment as 'semi-retirement'. I work 38 hours in 4 days, and have three days off per week. 

Since adopting this simpler life, I have been able to devote more energy to what I care about beyond my career. Mainly, the environment. I got myself into the zero-waste movement, and have a zero waste kitchen. This summer I have been bicycling to work almost every day. I use my car once per week. I have time to read about the issues. I email politicians. Because of my research I can have more intelligent conversations and have occasionally broken through to someone who was willing to do more but wasn't sure how. 

The past few weeks have been busy . As my time becomes more in demand and my levels of stress increase, so has the use of my car and my cravings for sugary or salty snacks wrapped in disposable wrapping. It is useful to notice that stress and a lack of time are so heavily linked to our reliance on convenience. The less time we have to fulfill our own personal needs, the less we care about the needs of others.

Working four days a week has been incredible for me. Five days per week going to school, then as an adult working five or seven days per week meant that the majority of my time belonged to someone else. Now I feel my life is mine and I have an adequate amount of time to pursue my hobbies, see friends and family, and sleep! By the time Monday rolls around I am looking forward to going back to work, and by the time I start looking forward to the weekend, I am already very close to it.

Working four days a week is not accessible to everyone, I know. My luck in life has gone up and down and this part of my life is clearly an up. There have been times, and I am sure there will be times in the future, where I needed to take all the hours I could get just to pay my rent. But if semi-retirement is accessible to you, and having more free time is appealing to you, then I highly recommend it. 

A cool way to approach it if you are paid hourly is to ask your boss for a raise. Then say you also want to work fewer hours per week. The employer spends less money paying you and they'll be getting a fresher and more productive you for the hours that you are working. It is a win for everyone.

Whatever your life struggles are; everything is temporary. If things are good, enjoy them while they last. If not, well, it's only a matter of time before things change.

Gardening for Butterflies

After my last post I received an excellent question: apart from leaving milkweed in my garden, "How else can we encourage the monarchs?"

Milkweed is known to be critical for monarchs as it is the only  plant upon which monarch caterpillars can feed. The adult monarch butterfly however, can feed on any nectar producing flowers. If you want to give them a nutritious pit stop, plant flowers in groups. This allows butterflies to hop from one flower to another using relatively little energy while getting a full meal. 

Here are five great flowers for attracting butterflies.

Coneflower

Purple Coneflower

Aster

Aster

Black Eyed Susan

Black Eyed Susan

Bee Balm

Bee Balm

Lupine

Lupines

This is a beginner's guide as the truth is any flower/plant is useful as a habitat or source of food for an insect. Clumps of grass are great shelter during rough weather, for example. There are flowering charts and extensive lists of flowers and plants that attract butterflies for those who want to be meticulous.  If you aren't interested in having a binder of study material rest assured that having a diversity of plant species is guaranteed to attract winged visitors. Hummingbirds will certainly be attracted by the red flowers of your bee balm.  The only way to go wrong when planning a butterfly garden would be to create a lawn or to use pesticides. 

Biodiversity is the best thing you can offer. Try having perennial flowers that will flower at different times during the season, so that there is always a nectar source. Indigenous weeds are awesome when your gardening budget is low, letting them grow to flower before pulling them up is a great way to create a mini habitat with a huge amount of biodiversity. Indeed, these plant might be host plants for caterpillars from other species of butterflies.

Simply put: have a garden! Your garden is a space you are sharing with wildlife and insects. It is a refuge for these species from the acres of conventional fields and from the pavement and buildings that cover our cities and suburbs. 

Lastly, do them one huge (obvious) favour; don’t cover the plants and soil with pesticides and herbicides. The land might be in your name, but the earth cannot belong to a person. Animals and insects constantly have their food poisoned for something as superficial as a 'perfect' rose bush.

Go forth and make Eden rise! Really, it is that easy.

Milkweed

Milkweed flower

It is important for the survival of the monarch butterfly that there is a 'milkweed highway' from Canada all the way down to Mexico. This is because milkweed in the only plant on which monarch caterpillars feed. Growing milkweed does not have to be just for this reason. The flower is attractive and the smell is strong, which makes it an appealing nectar source for other insects as well. Honey bees can harvest the nectar for their honey, solitary bees, and other butterflies come feed too.

Monarch caterpillar

The most fascinating part of my milkweed education was learning that it is food for humans too! I love all things edible, and as an environmentalist farmer I like finding perennial food sources that don't require any digging! 

Here is what I learned from a book called Backyard Foraging by Ellen Zachos:

Young milkweed shoots are tender and can be harvested when they are 6 to 8 inches tall, just snap them at the base. Then, remove the mature leaves but leave a few immature leaves at the top of the stem. To eat milkweed, you need to boil or blanch the plant before cooking with it. This removes the bitter sticky white goo inside. Once it has been immersed in boiling water for 1 or 2 minutes, treat it like green beans. They taste similar to green beans, but better (according to Ellen!).

The unopened flower buds are described as being tastier than broccoli. Harvest when they are still tightly bunched together, green, and golf ball size. Again, you must blanch first. Then try steaming them with salt and serve with olive oil.


The immature seedpods (1 1/2 inches long, inside should be all white- the seeds should not be turning brown yet!) can be harvested and blanched. Then, try them in soups, stews, or stir-fries. 

Eden is a place where we can live from the land without destroying it. What better way than to allow this 'weed' a place in your garden. The monarch gets a place to lay eggs, the bees get a drink of nectar, and you get to try eating one of thousands of plant species we have forgotten.

Fantastic!

I Will Never be Vegetarian

I assume everyone reading this blog knows about the impact eating meat has on the environment. If you don't, and you want to educate yourself here is one link out of hundreds of resources available to you:  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/meat-and-environment/ I am not a scientist and the point of this blog is not to bombard you with statistics, so please look elsewhere for those icy numbers.

For years I have been toying with becoming Vegetarian because I know it is the Right Thing to do. For a few years I wasn't doing it because I was in a relationship with someone who was very outspoken against vegetarianism and veganism (he genuinely believed if my friend would eat meat she could be magically cured of a chronic illness). Then for a couple years my excuse became that I didn't want to inconvenience my family.

Two months ago I learned that I suffer from co-dependency issues. I am afraid that by standing up for my beliefs and my ethics people will not like me, so I let myself disappear into the background. Having vocabulary for behavioural patterns is instrumental in being able to alter them. This is impacting several aspects of my life, including my diet. I wasn't becoming vegetarian, something I have always believed in, simply because I was afraid of setting a boundary.

I will never be Vegetarian. The label "vegetarian" is associated with hippies who love animals and think with their emotions first. I have worked on farms that produce animals for meat, and I have plucked the heart from the bodies of many dead turkeys in my line of work. I do not want to be a Vegetarian.

I do practice vegetarianism and I do eat a plant-based diet because I am an Environmentalist. I no longer eat meat. I want my intake of animal products (products like eggs and cheese) to be a very occasional treat. Eating fish of any kind has been off the table for me for awhile since I educated myself on the effects of fishing on our oceans (which will be dead by 2050 if we continue as we are). 

If you are an environmentalist I strongly suggest you practice vegetarianism. If you aren't sure how that would help, there is a lot of information out there that will convince you without a doubt that it is a necessity. If you suffer from a fear of judgement the way I do, start small. Setting boundaries for people with co-dependency issues is very difficult, but you need to. None of us should be afraid of being ostracized for doing the right thing. Practice vegetarianism for meals when you are alone at the very least. 

This is the simple biggest thing you can do to reduce your impact on the environment. It is time to start.

The Us Versus Them Bias

At lunch break my colleague expressed sorrow for the people who saved up money for a holiday and had to come home early because of hurricane Irma. Another colleague said yes, but they were lucky because she knows that some people weren't even able to book another flight-- they had to stay for the storm.
I frowned over my lunch and quietly said "yes, it is a shame for the rich people* who have gone on vacation. I think it's probably worse for the people who actually live there."
They immediately agreed, but it hit on a theme I had been thinking of for a few months. 

I remember in middle school we learned about the rainforest in science class. The ongoing destruction of this delicate forest for more farmland. What they didn't teach us was that this farmland was used to grow crops that would feed livestock and that by eating meat we were contributing to the destruction of forest ecosystems. They also didn't teach us that Canada's forests are also continuously being cut down and burned for agriculture. Instead, they taught me that people in these almost imaginary far off lands were less educated than our class of 12 year olds. They were cutting down these precious forests because they didn't know any better. 

By that age I knew enough about Canadian history to know that all the farmland around my school had once been a mature forest. It seemed that if we cut down forests in the past, that was okay, but people cutting down forests now was bad. And since all our forests were cut down a long time ago, we can no longer take any of the blame for ongoing climate change.

Last year I worked as an organic farm inspector. Before I go on, I want to point out that I do believe in organic farming and that all farming should be organic by default. Pouring poison directly on our shared planet and directly on the plants that feed us is frankly horrifying. But here is something problematic I discovered during the course of my work.

In order to avoid the three year transition phase for a conventional field to produce organic food** farmers were clearing forested land in order to plant their organic crop and earn certification in their first year. Because this land had never been farmed conventionally there was no need for a transition period. 

This is the problem when ethics clash with capitalism. Farmers are business people. They want more money for the business. That forest is not generating any income, we need to downsize the parts of the business that do not generate income and expand into new product lines that do. Hence, cut down the forest to produce organic buckwheat, hemp, corn, soybeans. Of course, this goes against the philosophy of organics, but it is hugely wound in our society's way of perceiving money as Good above all else. We worship the thing that makes us slaves.

Blaming people across the world for practices we ourselves perform, and then feeling sympathy for our own when natural disasters (exacerbated by our thirst for carbon and our destruction of perennial vegetation) is all part of the same problem. We see Us as something different than Them.  We are all humans that share one planet. If we could do away with borders, maybe we could see that more clearly. What affects one person in our global community affects us all. 

It can be overwhelming as an individual to realize our way of life is being attacked by capitalism and climate change from all directions, and yet we do have power to change things. Want to fight back against capitalism? Stop consuming more than what you need. Want to reduce your impact on the earth? Stop participating in practices that are known to contribute to climate change. In the meantime, we need to stop blaming the Other and start holding ourselves and our neighbours and our communities accountable for what we have the power to change.


*I know that not everyone who goes on holiday is rich from the lens of someone who lives in Canada. Compared to their neighbours they may not consider themselves rich, but compared to the global community, they are.

**Farmers want to avoid this transition period as the first years of transition have lower yields and as the crop is still considered conventional, they cannot demand the higher prices that make organic production competitive.

Climate Change

"For more than forty years, the view of the Earth from space has been the unofficial logo of the environmental movement- featured on countless T-shirts, pins, and bumper stickers. It is the thing that we are supposed to protect at U.N. climate conferences, and that we are all called upon to "save" every Earth Day, as if it were an endangered species, or a starving child far away, or a pet in need of our ministrations. [...]

When we marvel at the blue marble in all its delicacy and frailty, and resolve to save the planet, we cast ourselves in a very specific role. That role is of a parent, the parent of the earth. But the opposite is the case. It is we humans who are fragile and vulnerable and the earth that is hearty and powerful, and holds us in its hands. In pragmatic terms, our challenge is less to save the earth from ourselves and more to save ourselves from an earth that, if pushed too far, has ample power to rock, burn, and shake us off completely."

-Naomi Klein
An excerpt from the book This Changes Every Thing - Capitalism vs. The Climate 

A Better Life

When I visited the village of Barauli, Nepal in April I fell in love with the place. The houses were small, on half acre lots where the land was perfectly levelled and filled using a system of ditches connected to the river ankle deep with water. Rice was growing in perfect rows and women hand weeding the fields, barefoot. 

Through the streets there were women walking their small herds of goats, or water buffalo. Many of them wear dresses in vibrant colours- clothes I would never dream of wearing for farm work for fear of getting them dirty! Around the houses there were chicks, chickens, and ducks. I walked all of the streets of that village on my own, everyone said hello as I walked past, and I felt safe and at home and more than anything I wanted to live there.

When I visited a city less than an hour from my home two weeks ago (Perth, Ontario) I was surprised to find it equally appealing, with flowers exploding out of every possible nook and cranny, the main streets are full of stores, pubs, and cafes run and owned by local people. The farmers market had live music and lots of interesting vendors. I wanted to move there too!

The problem with this thinking is that it doesn't allow me to fully appreciate my role in the community where I currently live. If I want my community to become like Perth or Barauli, I have to be part of that change. I have to stop looking with jealousy at what another has and put that energy into turning what I do have into something that is worth appreciating. 

My village has that look of a place which might have at one time been bustling with a lively centre but which has since been slowly dying. The symptom of nearby box stores offering people lower prices along with lower quality of life. 

If I want to live in a place vibrant and alive like Perth or Barauli (without moving there), I need to be the change I want to see in my community. I can make my front yard explode with colour and plant life. I can create a garden that can feed me, and share the excess with my neighbours. I can say hello to everyone I walk past. I can go to the art studio across the street that hosts live music on Sunday mornings to show there is a demand in this little village for affordable entertainment. I can give up the uncomfortably tight waistband of jeans and wear my beautiful dresses that I usually save for 'special' occasions that never come. 

This theme of making our place on earth more beautiful was a big part of my choosing to start Eden's Rise. I chose the name "Eden's Rise" for my orchard because I like that it invokes the idea that this orchard is where the Garden of Eden begins to reclaim the earth. 

I want to invite everyone to take their own journey and remember what is really important to them. Quiet the voice of culture and listen the child that lives within you. The version of you that survives societal pressures to conform. When you think of where in the world you would prefer to be - or what in the world you would prefer to be doing - I want you to really acknowledge those thoughts. Don't push them aside. There's no thought too big to be worth exploring. 

I have started with very small ways I can make my world better today, but I dream of living in a world where women are not still sold into sex slavery, a world where there are no borders preventing people from living in areas where they can find better work, a world where everything doesn't need to be wrapped in plastic, a world where we place more importance on preserving biodiversity than on making profits, a world where we care more about the health of people than profits.

We cannot do the work of improving this world if we don't first imagine what a perfect world looks like. Once we admit there is a problem with the current state of things we can begin to find a solution. Perhaps together we can make our world even just a little more like the Eden of which we dream.