Category Nurture

We use and value diversity in our gardens, farms, national parks and nature reserves. Yet do we use and value the diversity in our bodies, in that vast collection of unseen communities we call our microbiome?

When there are trillions of microbes involved that can directly affect your mood, immune system, weight and health, then diversity is definitely what you want to consider ‘culturing’, growing, farming and valuing in your own body.

If you are what you eat, then you are definitely what your microbes eat. Everything you grow and eat from your own and others’ gardens and farms, plus the way you eat food (eating a variety of colourful vegetables, eating your own homemade ferments, etc.) and your lifestyle choices (such as avoiding unnecessary use of antibiotics and reducing stress) will affect the diversity of your microbiome. And it is affected not just by what you put in your mouth, your environment and your stress levels, but also by the diversity that exists in nature. We are inherently connected to nature. Diversity matters to nature, and therefore to our own health and happiness as well.

Death is not an easy subject to talk about, but it’s an inevitable final chapter of life. By choosing a natural burial over a conventional burial or cremation, you minimise your environmental impact and depart the world in a way that is aligned with your values.

Natural burial has no set definition or standard in Australia, so the rules and regulations vary from state to state. But across the board, the principles of a natural burial generally centre around one fundamental aim: to return bodies to the earth as naturally as possible.

Burial Without Harsh Chemicals

In conventional funeral practices, embalming is an option given to families, especially when cadaver reconstruction is required, an open-coffin is requested or when burial has been delayed. Embalming is only legally required if an aboveground vault is being used. This process uses a toxic chemical cocktail including formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen. Over time, as bodies decompose, these chemicals can leech into surrounding soil, destroying microbes and potentially contaminating water systems.

Unless you’ve embraced the ‘no poo’ method (where you eschew shampoo), you’ll be regularly pouring hair products onto your head. Shampoo, conditioner, perhaps a hair treatment mask every now and then, texturising spray, styling pomade, colour treatment …

All of these add up, not only in cost and precious shower space, but in increasing your environmental footprint. A lot of energy goes into making and transporting even the smallest of plastic bottles, with most not being able to be recycled after their use.

Many of the products on the market also expose you to nasty chemicals such as propylene glycol (which has been linked to headaches and kidney problems), triclosan (a hormone disrupter) and parabens (which can cause skin irritation), and the majority have been tested on animals.

Kay Saarinan grows medicinal herbs, creating a range of organic skincare products in a purpose-built lab on her six-acre property on the NSW far South Coast. She started her business Saarinan Organics ten years ago, selling five products at the local markets. Kay now has 37 different products in her range, including facial cleansers, calendula ointment and moisturising creams.

Kay grows what medicinal herbs she can, right outside the door to her lab. These include calendula, echinacea, comfrey, aloe vera, nettle, borage, chickweed (wild harvest), rosemary and elderberry, to name just a few. These are then harvested at the optimal time, dried and made into the medicinal skin care range.

‘What we can’t grow on the farm, we source as locally as possible,’ says Kay. ‘As farmers we know how important it is to be supported locally. We source local low-heated beeswax and honey, lavender, echinacea, olive oil and chilli. What we can’t, we’ll buy Australian certified organic.’

Mention the words ‘vegan permaculture’ and you’re bound to get a mixed reaction. For many, the idea that permaculture principles can be applied without the use of animals just doesn’t sit right. Yet a growing number of people are combining the two, and .nd that the principles align beautifully to create a system that is modern yet sustainable.

Vegan permaculture is built on the desire to live a lifestyle that improves the health and wellbeing of animals, people and the planet. In the Vegan Book of Permaculture: Recipes for Healthy Eating and Earthright Living (Permanent Publications 2014), Graham Burnett describes permaculture as ‘a useful framework for positive action whatever our lifestyle choices’. When the permaculture ethic of fair share is extended to include animals, a choice is made to seek alternatives to commonly produced animal products; vegans also phase out consumables considered as by-products of animal-based food sources. It’s an empowering small and slow solution.

The perfect scrub for gardeners, crafters and anyone whose hands get rough treatment and need a good scrubbing.

MAKES: 1 x 250 g jar APPROXIMATE SHELF LIFE: three months

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of caster sugar, or salt for a coarser scrub

zest of 1 lemon

What can we do to help our teens become the sustainable innovators and guides that the planet needs? More so than ever before, young people need positive opportunities to escape and explore, to move from talking and watching to doing.

For the past eighteen years we’ve run the Crossing Land Education Trust, where we have camps for young people. We create opportunities for young people to learn and become inspired, for example through teamwork, environmental restoration and monitoring, sustainable design, tool use, outdoor activities and organic gardening. We believe that teens need to be given the following experiences, to: contribute with purpose; improvise and make mistakes; and explore natural places. Well-designed school camps, with excellent leaders, are great for this; but as parents and guides to teens, we can create such opportunities in a variety of ways.

When you think back to yourself as a teen, and the people you looked up to, there was probably at least one cool uncle or aunty, an older brother, sister or cousin, a teacher or camp leader who was influential. Whether by accident or design, they were the ones who supported you to launch off on some early adventure. Pushing the boundaries of activity and adventure was okay by your parents, as long as you had that acceptable guide nearby. It’s good to surround teens with positive and inspiring role models they can relate to.

Several years ago I coined the term ‘frugal hedonism’, partly railing against the assumption – of more mainstream friends – that a life of gleaning, gardening, hitchhiking and op shopping was part of a grey and dismal martyrdom endured for the planet’s sake. But I knew my days were rich with sensory indulgence and diverse pleasures.

As time crept by, many of these friends plunged into debt, overwork, middle-aged spread and a general sense of entrapment. It became clear that curtailed-consumption keeps us self-reliant and free enough to be truly alive to pleasure, and I realised how protective it can be against many of the ‘ills of modern life’.

Anyone reading Pip is likely already pretty cluey about the ecological reasons for reining in our rabid consumer habits. However, reshaping our priorities and habits is challenging, especially in the face of a larger culture that suggests spending as the starting point for all pleasure. We don’t want to miss out on pleasure! We are only human.

Connecting with the earth and nature gives me a very different perspective on which to base my environmental endeavours. Feeling a deep connection with nature, and experiencing myself as part of our living, breathing planet – not separate from it – supports me in acting for positive change, and earth care, in a natural and passionate way.

I’m motivated and I act because of the love, respect and connection I feel for nature; not because I’m fearful that, as humans, we’re trashing the planet and we’re all going to die.

I have felt this way since I was a young person, exploring my grandparents’ garden. Simply spending periods of time in nature, especially forests, supported me to deepen this sense of connection with all of nature: to sense myself as a part of our beautiful blue-green planet earth.

There is something so absolutely delightful about seeing children play outside in nature, creating worlds and games together, using just the things they can find around them – branches, sticks, feathers, rocks, water – and being totally enthralled for hours.

Ask my children where their favourite place is: ‘The river!’, always the river. We often venture down to the river after school with a little picnic, or some things to cook up on a campfire. Our spot is in the upper Mary River – shallow, rocky, shady, cool – a peaceful place in the restored riparian zone of Crystal Waters Eco Village.

The children skim stones, rock hop, find bridges and islands, float sticks and leaves, search for fish and yabbies, make harbours, swim, splash in mud pits and smear themselves from head to toe, climb trees, build cubbies and create complex games. I hear their constant chatter and laughter, and sometimes songs. I notice how intensely productive they are in making ‘things’ for their games. There is real meaning, purpose, creativity and collaboration happening. Deep learning takes place in this play time. They love it so much they even ask for their birthday parties at the river.