2008

-No its not this author, although we can aspire...I'm referring to George Monbiot, who's new book Bring on the Apocalypse - Six Arguments for Global Justice has leapt to the top of my reading pile. To do that it displaced Nicholas Shakespeares book Secrets of the Sea which I reserved at the library with great anticipation due to my attachment to stories about Tasmania. Not to mention any number of magazines and other tempting material.

The essays in Monbiots' book were, I suspect, originally published in the Guardian in the UK. This makes for snappy, easily digested reading. If only we had such daring writers regularly featured in our daily rags here in Sydney. Monbiot makes no bones about being left wing and he lets fly with compelling discussion about so many of the ills of modern life that you find yourself cheering him on as you read. He is driven to write the material that he knows will not be well received by the establishment and bravo to the Guardian for being prepared to publish him . If it wasn't we would only find this sort of gutsy writing in journals like Resurgence and The Ecologist.

Here in Australia we have a vibrant wine industry including an increasing number of vineyards producing organic and/or biodynamic wine. We are especially keen on the wines from Mudgee in central NSW. This is a dry inland region that is ideal for organic growing due to the lack of humidity which reduces the amount of mould and fungus problems compared to locations closer to the coast, these are generally treated using chemical sprays. One of the oldest is Botobolar, they produce a range of affordable wines that are great examples of big red's, not too subtle but good value drinking. The vineyard is unirrigated and has been much affected by drought in recent years, sometimes picking no grapes at all for a season.

Our favourite vineyard in Mudgee is Lowe Wines, these are really classy organic wines and the cellar door experience when the owners Jane or David are around is definitely worth making the trek for. They are very passionate about their wines, especially the award winning Zinfandel to which we have become quite attached. The 2003 Zinfandel won an international award, beating off well established makers from the US and elsewhere. These are hard to come by now, we recently opened a bottle to ensure that it was keeping well and were blown away, its still a fantastic wine. Now we have to hide the 5 remaining bottles from ourselves or they will all go the same way.

Also worth a mention is Thistle Hill. There are many others around the country and a great place to find them is www.organicwine.com.au. Recently major chains have started to see the light and are experimenting with stocking some organic wine. Last week the Vintage Cellars chain advertised a Sauvignon Blanc they have sourced from a co-operative in France. Its a pity they haven't chosen to promote a local label, still I am keen to try it. For an international overview view of organic wine have a look at the Organic Wine Journal.

Saw this great cartoon over at Devon-Technologies which I have been visiting lately as I start to tackle my own information overload.

Devon-Technologies make some very sophisticated software for the mac, I am exploring DevonThink Professional, an amazingly powerful database.

The May/June issue of Resurgence has arrived and it looks very interesting.

Its a special focus issue titled “The money delusion: In search of true wealth”. It kicks off with an excellent editorial from Satish Kumar which introduces the topic.

Here are a few quotes to give you a flavour of the article:

“Let us be clear. Money is not wealth. It is a delusion to think that money is wealth. True wealth is good land, healthy animals, flourishing forests, clean water, honest work, abundant creativity and human imagination”

and

“For example, there is never a shortage of money for wars and weapons, but it is always in short supply for arts and education”

Its worth a read and can be found here

When Slowlane joined Slow Food recently they sent a booklet outlining their various initiatives, The Slow Food Companion. Two ventures that sounded particularly interesting were the University of Gastronic Sciences (UNISG) and the Terre Madre. The university is based in Piedmont and claims to be the first academic institution in the world dedicated to the study of gastronomy. Subjects include Botany, Food Technology, History of Agriculture, Sensory Analysis and Anthropology. The curriculum combines humanities and sciences with food technology and culture. An article appeared today in the Sydney Morning Herald about a local man who is studying at the UNISG, he is living a simple life in the local village, going to the market three times a week and practising what they are learning by cooking for fellow students in the evening. Also mentioned in the article was the Terra Madre, an annual Slow Food gathering in Turin that bring together thousands of artisanal food producers, farmers, fisherman from 150 countries, cooks, academics from over 200 universities, representatives of NGOS, journalists and of course slow foodies of other descriptions. This years Terra Madre promises to be huge, I hope to attend one of these in the next few years. Sounds amazing.

The Krinklewood vineyard was recently given a positive review in the local media so I thought I would give it a try. We would have gotten around to it anyway as we are very keen on organic and biodynamic wines. So last night I picked up a bottle of the 2007 Verdelho which we tried with some high quality lebanese food at a local restaurant. Wow, this is a delicious wine. I haven’t drunk much Verdelho and was not sure whether I would find it interesting. So we were pleasantly surprised to find a light crisp taste with definite citrus/passionfruit characters. To my palate it was not unlike a mild sauvignon blanc. Highly recommended and very good value at around $A21. Importantly there were no negative effects the next morning :)

Here a few notes on the winemaking (read more on their website) “The fruit was picked in the cool of the night at optimum ripeness and was crushed with only the premium free-run juices being used. Fermentation took place in Stainless Steel tanks under cool conditions. The wine was bottled early to retain freshness of the primary fruit characters with very fine filtration” Its good to see bottles boldly declaring their biodynamic origins prominently on the label.

Until recently many makers of organic and biodynamic wines were loathe to promote this aspect of their wine, apparently many wine buyers were of the view that this was synonymous with poor quality. Its also encouraging to see biodynamic wine of this quality coming from the Hunter Valley region. I’ve written previously about the inland region of Mudgee where many of the organic/biodynamic fruit is grown successfully, partly due to the lack of moisture related problems that are difficult treat with the limited arsenal available to the organic/biodynamic grower.

When I considered which of my favourite books to write about for this blog, one of the first to come to mind was William Paul Winchester’s wonderful memoir of life on his 20 acres - A Very Small Farm.

This is a book to pick up over the years and read a few pages, just for the enjoyment of immersing yourself in the manifest simplicity of Winchester’s life. Divided into chapters that are essentially diary entries, you are drawn into the joy he experiences from being engaged in the world around him. Many entries begin with details of the weather (particularly clouds) and then precede to illustrate his appreciation of the rhythms of life that flow through his farm.

Winchester built his own house, barn, put in a garden and orchard, acquired a milk cow and took up beekeeping. Yet he describes his simple life with a humility that belies these substantial achievements, the size of which will be apparent to those who have taken on a piece of land and made it into their own sanctuary.

This book fits into a cannon of naturalist writing that is often compared to Thoreau’s Walden, and it is for me at least, a book that I turn to with the same anticipation of reward.

It is not a how to book for the “back to the lander”, however there is much in it that will appeal to those readers.

It was published by Council Oak , however they no longer list it on their site, so it may be out of print. Amazon still have copies available.

Another very good publisher of books relevant to this blog is Chelsea Green, I will be reviewing some of their books in future posts.

These days we have a reasonable range of organic food available to us locally whether through the supermarket, our local shops and/or box deliveries. However, in common with nearly all modern food, much of it travels substantial distances before it gets to us. In addition it is often out of season for our local environs. This has created a modern conundrum where shoppers seeking to buy organic must often choose a product with many air and road miles included in its true cost of availability. From a purity of food perspective the decision is easy, always choose the organic or biodynamic product. But if you are concerned about your carbon debt or eating in season, its sometimes seems that buying locally grown non organic is a better choice. This dilemma is nicely captured in a cartoon by Mike Adams.

The article accompanying the cartoon at www.naturalnews.com is worth reading and goes into some detail to explain the options shown in the cartoon. Here in Australia we are relatively less affected by this problem than Europe in particular, where a great deal of the fruit and vegetables available seem to have been air freighted from the Mediterranean or the US. The ideal arrangement is to grow some foods yourself (homesteaders may grow nearly all their needs) and also to live near a variety of small farmers who produce the other products that you need. It is then possible to enter into schemes like Community Supported Agriculture where farmers and consumers establish direct trading relationships. The next best thing is a local farmers market, which fortunately are starting to become more common and feature a expanding range of products. I recently found the web site of the 1466group, two couples who have joined forces to farm biodynamically and to setup a Community Supported Agriculture system on the mid North Coast of NSW. As someone who tried to move away from the city and eventually came back for various reasons, I admire their efforts and wish them every success. Check them out here.

An article in the New York Times here tells of a couple who are shedding their possessions prior to starting a new life as organic farmers. What I found interesting was that they have had some hostile reactions on the blog they are keeping to document the journey. I suspect that many people find the idea of others who are stepping outside the norm and “letting it all go by” to be threatening.

As a Subaru owner and former city escapee currently back in corporate life, the cover of this book appealed to me instantly. It was brought to my attention by this review at Cool Tools. It seems an increasing number of people are setting up alternative lives and documenting their efforts in blogs and books. No complaints from me as I enjoy this genre, as long as the accounts retain an authentic feeling. Some of my favourites include Urban Dreams, Rural Realities and the Nearings classic The Good Life. More on these another time.

This post has been in my mind since I saw a wonderful program ABC TV. The program “Rare Chicken Rescue” has two themes, one is depression and the other is about rescuing rare chicken breeds. Both subjects are interesting however it was the role that keeping chickens played in rescuing Mark Tully from depression that really struck a chord.

When we lived on the North Coast of NSW we kept about 20 odd chickens and 3 ducks. Watching this mob of birds going about their daily activities was a source of endless fascination for us. If you slow down and observe with curiosity their individual characters become more apparent. Chickens have an astonishing range of movements and noises when they allowed to follow their natural patterns. I can easily understand how watching the birds can bring someone out of a downward spiral and gradually lead to some relief from symptoms of depression.

As anyone who has allowed chooks to free range around their garden will know, they have an uncanny sense of which beds to head for to disperse carefully mulched delicate plants. Roosters also seem to be able to get over just about any fence and into a vege garden.

One of the experiments we trialled was the use of “Chook Tractors”. This is an idea popularised by Bill Mollison in the Permaculture books. The version we used was a chook dome made of poly pipe and chicken wire, that was rotated over half a dozen circular vege beds (as described by Linda Woodrow in The Permaculture Home Garden). One additional benefit of the dome was that it was easy to sit next to and watch the chickens go about their business.

Resources

Finding Optimism - an award winning blog aimed at helping depression suffers and their helpers, also links to their excellent software package for the Mac that provides an easy way to maintain a daily record of your mental health symptoms and the various triggers that are associated with with them.

Horrified to discover the damage that plastic bags were causing to our marine environment, Claire Morsman devised a plan for action - ‘sociable guerrilla bagging’.

The idea is that people make reusable bags from recycled material and then give them away to friends and family or sometimes during mass handouts.
Since it began in January 2007, hundreds of people working alone or in “pods” who work together on the bags have made over 20,000 bags. Its taken off in the UK, US, New Zealand, Spain, Japan, Morocco and France.

The bags are known as Morsbags.

Check out the website here www.morsbags.com.

Zen Habits a frequent and popular contributor of articles that cover many aspects of moving towards a simpler life have published a summary of their articles focused on simplicity.
Check it out 

Michelle Gadd of organicwine.com.au has a good summary of recent coverage of biodynamic wine in the Australia media.

With lots of recent media interest in biodynamic wine producers the rest of the world is starting to discover the absolute quality of biodynamic wines.

She is offering some excellent mixed cases of Australian biodynamic wines including the Krinklewood Vordelho mentioned here on Slowlane recently.

Her new Catalog also has a special on a mixed box of Tamburlaine organic wine. I ordered one of these a few months ago and was very pleased with the value for money.

Enjoy.

While browsing the website of designer Zach Debord (found via a Make RSS post) I came across this great picture of a chook in the snow with a jumper on, she looks very cosy. Head over to their site to see more of these pictures in a slideshow.
Their blog has quite a few posts about their chickens and burgeoning interest in Permaculture.
Worth a look.

For the those with a technical bent Zach’s beam robots are stunning works that merge art and electronics.

They remind me this work by Robert Klippel which featured 87 small painted objects.

We’re just back from a few days at Hepburn Springs in the Victorian Spa country. Its a beautiful area, quite cold at this time of year but still a rewarding place to stay and unwind.

We wanted to stay in Australia’s only Ryokan (a traditional Japanese Inn) - Shizuka. It was extremely peaceful and served beautiful Japanese food, although the futon was starting to feel a bit hard towards the end of our stay!.

Hepburn Springs has a lively cafe, the Red Star, an eclectic general store and an excellent gallery, the Chameleon. I was particularly taken by some subversive prints by Nick Mau and Carole Porter, eg one work sent up the absurdity of carbon offsets for such crazy things as tourist flights to the moon, in the colour palette of soviet era propaganda.
We also ate at a funky restaurant called Cliffy’s that was into slow food, most of the nights offering being variants of mediterranean slow cooked meat and veg combinations. Apparently the menu varies according to what the farmer brings in which is just how we like it. Very nice, especially washed down with the local organic pinot noir from the Captains Creek winery.

In nearby Trentham is the delicious Red Beard bakery which we visited a few times for their beautiful sourdough bread cooked in one of the few Scotch ovens remaining in Australia.

Just returned from a concert that was the major public event of the 5th World Shakuhachi Festival. This gathering was a rare opportunity to see and hear some of the worlds foremost players and was an extraordinary experience.  Tonights concert featured pieces played on Shakuhachi, Koto, Shamisen and harp. A musical and accomplished Australian Aboriginal welcome ceremony was performed by Matthew Doyle. A mass playing of Temuke by the festival participants was a highlight.

All the performances were excellent, Riley Lee was superb however it was the Ajikan (meditation on the letter A) played by Living National Treasure Reibo Aoki that was the most absorbing. He had a powerful presence that brought a deep stillness to the auditorium.

The latest issue of Resurgence has arrived and it looks a beauty. At quick skim reveals the usual combination of thoughtful articles and fabulous images.

In the spirit of Ghandi’s use of spinning as an act of defiance, Resurgence have chosen baking bread as the theme of their first Slow Sunday.
In each issue of the magazine we will nominate one Sunday when we invite our members to take part in simple actions that symbolise a rejection of commercialism, a passion for the planet and a desire for change.

We will take part here at Slowlane, I will have another go at the dutch oven technique that seems to have worked for many people whose previous bread making efforts produced worthy but not particularly appetising loaves. My two efforts have been ok, plenty of room for improvement though. Its not the fact that this is a no knead recipe that attracts me, rather that it promises to produce a loaf that is crusty yet chewy on the inside.

This post was inspired by a rendition Shane Howard gave of his song Let the Franklin Flow at the Blue Mountains Blues Festival a few months ago.

25 years since the Franklin River Campaign
In July 1983 the Australian High Court ruled the Franklin Dam could be stopped by the new Federal Labour Government against the wishes of the Tasmanian State government.
Prior to this over 1000 people from all over Australia and the world had travelled down to the river site camps and been arrested in a mass act of civil disobedience.
I was there with a number of friends and it was one of the defining experiences of my life.

We camped in the rainforest near Strahan for a week or two and among the many wonderful experiences I remember meeting Bob Brown who so impressed me with his integrity that I have voted for him and the Greens ever since.
In the action where I took part we walked down a logging track (“the Crotty Road”) which had been ruled Hydro Electric Commission land, meaning we were trespassing. There was some media interest as the novelist James McQueen was part of our group and the TV cameras were there. This caused some consternation at my grandparents house when their nephew appeared briefly on the Channel 7 news for his 15 seconds of fame.

Bob Brown getting ready to address the Crotty Road protest in 1983. Photo from the National Gallery Collection - Bob Brown Collection 1.

The action was well planned and we were duly arrested and bundled off to Risdon jail. Expecting to be held in the remand block we were surprised to find that it was full of “greenies” so we were put into the maximum security wing with some unsavoury characters. Those few days in a cell and an enclosed exercise area confirmed for me the wisdom of staying on the “straight and narrow”. Our arrest was eventually ruled illegal and we were free to go.
The Wilderness Society has some videos on YouTube that will transport anyone who was there back 25 years to another world.

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We wandered along to the Art Gallery of NSW today for our Slow Sunday. I wanted to take another look at the Harold Cazneaux exhibition. It is the most inspiring collection of photographic images. Wonderful use of light and location, especially when you consider the equipment that he was using compared to what we have available today. The images are highly atmospheric and clearly present themselves as art.

“Cazneaux was the leading exponent in Australia of the school of ‘pictorial photography.’ Indeed, Max Dupain once called him ‘the father of modern Australian photography.’ The pictorialists argued that every photograph should be a work of art and that the camera was an aesthetic instrument to be used on the way to a final image rather than a purely functional tool”

Click here For an online gallery of his pictures.

We also took in the Taisho Chic exhibition which shows Japan coming to terms with Western culture in the 20’s and 30’s

Many of us have been aware of many of the dangers associated with processed foods and the artificial chemicals introduced by the food industry for some time. I was reminded of the horror story again recent after reading Michael Pollans excellent book In Defence of Food.

The book starts with a blistering criticism of “nutritionism” - his term for the ideology that underlies much of the food marketing and health food industry. The work specifically refers to the idea that individual nutrients are the key to understanding food and that food is no more than the sum of its parts (in this case the parts are those that have been identified by the food industry as having valuable qualities).

The second half of Pollans book provides a series of guidelines for eating. The simplest of which is

Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants

Here are some of the other gems (paraphrased), each of which is given a concise explanation in the book

• Avoid food products containing ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than five in number or contain high fructose corn
• Avoid products that make health claims
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible
• Eat well grown food from health soils
• Regard non traditional foods with skepticism

There are many others. One that has resonated with me since I read the book is the reference to no more than 5 ingredients. Its a simple yardstick for how processed a food is and quite effective when selecting foods during the weekly shop. Although it has to be said that not many foods in the supermarket can meet this rule!

Excessive packaging is another give away and for this reason as well as the fact that it is inert, I have always looked out for food in glass jars. After all people have been preserving food in glass and ceramic jars for millenia. However, the humble glass jar turns out to be harboring a hidden menace. Its the seal under the lid. These are usually made from PVC and contain chemicals including Plasticisers which give it the properties to form a good seal. They work by softening the PVC and can make up as much as 40% of the gasket. The plasticisers are mostly made from expoxidised soybean oil (ESBO) and a combination of phylates. ESBO reacts with hydrogen chloride released from the PVC under the high temperatures used when sealing the jar. This forms chlorohydrins which can be toxic. Phylates are not permitted at all in food materials in the US and some have been banned from use in toys (eg DEHP).

Choice magazine recently published an article highlighting Plasticisers in food. In their tests many products including those labelled organic contained levels ESBO and Phylates in excess recommended EU limits. The foods which showed high levels were those with fat levels over 4g per 100g. A typical example is pasta sauce which often has much more fat than that.

Check out the article have a look around on the web and you will be looking at glass jars with fresh eyes.

I have love notebooks, especially interesting quirky ones that help me feel creative.
My latest notebook is the Makers Notebook from Make magazine. Its modelled after a lab book with graph paper pages. Solidly bound and with loads and useful (and just plain weird) data in the back pages. Included in the book are two manifestos, The Makers Bill of Rights and a Crafters Manifesto. Here is an extract

People get satisfaction for being able to create/craft things because they can see themselves in the objects they make. This is not possible in purchased products.The things that people have made themselves have magic powers. They have hidden meanings that other people can’t see.The things people make they usually want to keep and update. Crafting is not against consumption. It is against throwing things away.People seek recognition for the things they have made. Primarily it comes from their friends and family. This manifests as an economy of gifts.

One of my other favourite notebooks are Moleskins - these are fantastic and come in many great formats. Lots of magnificently illustrated moleskins can be found at moleskinerie and at their Flikr pool (here).  This photo is taken from the Logan Wines Cellar Door in Mudgee.

Putting Things Off has a nice post about changing the way we work.

This week, we went to the opening night of a new movie called Son Of A Lion. It’s a really moving and interesting story set in the tribal region of northern Pakistan, where the Pashtuns live. You know, in the media, they often portray Pashtuns as extremist terrorists and followers of Osama Bin Laden. But that’s not really true for most of the people, including those in this story.

The synopsis goes like this

In the Pakistan tribal weapon making village of Darra Adam Kel, a young Pashtun boy defies his fathers expectations that he will carry on the family’s business and demands an education instead.

The movie was shot in secret by an Australian who was taken in by the local tribespeople and included in their life in a way that a conventional movie crew could never have been. The movie is completely authentic as it is shot during the normal life of the locals. This gives it a vaguely documentary feel, as does the handheld camera work (the only type camera that could be carried in and effectively hidden). The performances are touching as is the very simple lifestyle of the locals who live in mud huts with very little in the way of possessions.

In this weapon making village, where the tribes people have been making weapons for decades, people are constantly wandering out of their workshops and firing their loaded guns into the air to test them. This constant firing forms one of the recurring themes of the movie and is central to the unfolding of the plot. The soundtrack is also very good and would be well worth listening to on its own.

Highly recommended. sonofalion

Since my post about chickens which mentioned the Linda Woodrow inspired chook dome. I have noticed that people are searching in google for information about chicken tractors. This post provides a few more links to information on this subject.
The Chicken Tractor gallery has over 140 pictures with many different types shown. As the construction skills required are very basic, a good picture will often be enough for you to build your own using materials to hand.

DIY

• Build a chicken tractor from old pallets (video)
• How not to build a chicken tractor (video)

Commercial Chicken Tractors

before Permaculture they were generally just known as moveable coops or arks)

• McCallum Chicken Tractor
• Royal Rooster

General Chook Matters

• Backyard Chickens - check out the coops section.
• Alanna Moore has written widely about keeping chickens, one popular title is Backyard Poultry - Naturally, available at Green Harvest Books. She also writes a very popular column in Earth Garden magazine.
• Automatic Feeders

Eating Locally: Backyard Chickens at Treehugger.com. Keeping chickens in the urban backyards was commonplace in Australia during the depression and war years and is making a welcome comeback. I wonder how many people are actually able to kill and eat their chickens. I have tried and it takes some getting used to!. Having the chooks for eggs alone is the easier route and very worthwhile as we have posted about before.

Reading Alan Watts in my teens I experienced my first taste of eastern thinking which has led to a life long interest. In his essays on Zen and the Tao I could feel deep truths were lurking just beyond the words. A particular favourite is Cloud-hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal.

This collection of essays and transcribed lectures was compiled in 1973 shortly before his death. Watts was an enigmatic character who during this latter period of his life lived on a houseboat moored near San Francisco. He was a hedonist who loved life and indulged in it, causing many to dismiss him as something of a charlatan. For myself and many others however his writings opened the door to eastern thinking. He attempts to convey something to the reader that points to reality and to evoke flashes of insight. I came across an animated cartoon with an excerpt from a talk of his today via a post at Post at Goodlife Zen, definitely worth checking out.

Recordings of Alan Watts are available here and are very stimulating and entertaining.

Its Blog Action Day - my plug is for BEN the Bicycle Empowerment Network of Namibia.
Established by Australian Michael Linke who had previously edited Australian Cyclist, which at the time was Australia’s largest circulation cycling magazine, and ReNew, a magazine aimed at people designing, making and using solar, wind and biofuel energy devices, lowering their energy consumption and designing environmentally sustainable houses and businesses.

Since starting in May 2005, they have distributed more than 7,000 bicycles, 80 bicycle ambulances and 9 community-based bicycle workshops. BEN has partnered with 51 community-based organisations, mainly focused on home-based care services for people living with HIV/AIDS and orphans and vulnerable children, as well as the dissemination of information on HIV prevention.

Head over to their web page and make a donation.