coffee Archives - Our Permaculture Life

500 billion cups of coffee

Morag Gamble — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 22:06:00 +0000

Do you also find it absurd that half the world’s plastics are used only once before ending up in landfill? And can you believe that we throw away 500 billion coffee cups a year after just one use? That’s a million a minute. An estimated 1 billion in Australia alone.

(Image: www.mbnep.org)

Coffee cups hare estimated to be the second- largest contributor to litter after plastic bottles.

We have indeed become a very wasteful species. Do we believe we are somehow living outside (or above) the natural ecological system, and the natural limits of this beautiful blue planet?

Ecological footprint studies show that we would need four Earth’s if everyone on the planet lived like the average Australian (using as many resources and wasted as much). Four Earths? We only have one!

I know I am preaching to the converted here, but In just about every aspect of our lives we need to do things differently.

Because it’s Plastic Free July, I thought I’d take a look at one of the big single use plastic wastes we create – the waste associated with the exponential growth of our collective caffeine habit. We call them paper cups but actually most are lined with plastic and cannot be recycled.

I do love coffee. I grew up in Melbourne with quaint cafes making magnificent coffee in colourful ceramic cups. I think I also came to love coffee because of the associations – meeting with friends, having great discussions; but also having personal free-thinking time – just me, a coffee, a blank-page notebook and artists pen. Mind-maps would start forming across the pages uncontrollably….I still find myself doing this. Even today, I had 15 minutes before having to pick up the kids, so I sat in a Maleny Cafe with my large cup of coffee, a big glass of water, and A3 drawing book and a pen. I mapped out a 3 day workshop program – magic!

Back in the 1980s, I hardly ever saw take-away coffee cups. Take-away cups were the stuff of fast food joints. I remember seeing people walking around with take-away coffee cups in the United States during a visit around 2000 and thinking how good it was that still Australians mostly sat down to have their coffee… it wasn’t for much longer though.

Let’s abandon the throw-away culture and become part of the re-user revolution.

In this context, we can simply:

start drinking coffee in ceramic cups again at the cafe – slow down and enjoy…
bring your own re-usable cup for take-aways and office use
if you do happen to get a take-away, refuse a lid and chose a cafe that has compostable cups
take a thermos from home
drink water instead 🙂 …. in a reusable container of course!

The post 500 billion cups of coffee appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Community Connections and the Beauty of Small Towns

Morag Gamble — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 14:02:00 +0000

The richness of community connections nourishes my sense of belonging to place. It is these connections and sense of identity, I think, that makes this little town thrive. Small intact local towns are gold.

Every time I venture into Maleny, my local town, I feel uplifted by the interactions – the conversations, the smiles, the help offered, even the way I can purchase things I need from locally owned stores.

This morning I met for morning coffee with Rhonda Hetzel, local bestselling author and award-winning blogger, who last year graciously offered to mentor me as a writer and blogger. With her support and encouragement I have felt brave enough to begin writing regularly. I am so very thankful to her for taking me under her wing. Rhonda’s blog about living simply, Down to Earth, is read across the globe and just clicked over 20 million pageviews. Rhonda has just returned from a road trip to launch her new book, The Simple Home. It’s in the window at Rosettas Bookshop in town. It was just so lovely to catch up with her, to share adventures and future plans.

with Rhonda Hetzel for morning tea in Maleny

After meeting with Rhonda, I went in search of presents for my 3 year old son – his birthday is this Saturday. In the newly renovated and expanded Endeavour Charity Store was the best little wooden cooker set. Perfect. Also I found a wicker picnic basket for us to go on outings together to the river. As unbirthday presents for the older two children, I found some amazing books in one of the second hand book stores. Finally I nipped around to the little wood store at the back of town to get a piece of exterior board. We have painted this with blackboard paint and will screw to the side of the house for Monty to draw on, write and create. It is so refreshing not having to resort to the major shopping centres.

To end my very enjoyable morning in town, I ventured into the Maleny Village Artisan Food Market for a bite to eat. I was looking in particular for my friends’ brand new sushi stall. Kentaro and Rovielle are just opening and are serving delicious sushi. I can personally recommend the vegetarian one.

I met Rovielle and Kentaro two years ago when they came to Crystal Waters to do a permaculture course. They haven’t really left! Since then they’ve been WWOOFing and housesitting – now they’ve settled in a bit more permanently with their own place and their new enterprise in Maleny. They are also leasing a little piece of land at Crystal Waters to grow authentic Japanese flavours for their sushi. I wish them all the very best.

Loaded up with my mind abuzz with ideas, the stomach nourished with good food, presents for the kids, I headed back down into the valley to Crystal Waters stopping along the way at Jim’s organic farm to stock up on some extra fruit and veg to supplement produce from my garden.

It was indeed a good morning in my local town!

The post Community Connections and the Beauty of Small Towns appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Youth leadership and enterprise – cultivating positive leaders for the future with social and environmental responsibility.

Morag Gamble — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 14:27:00 +0000

My 9 year old daughter ran her second pop-up cafe today – the Owls Den Cafe. It was a sell-out event with guests from around the world. I am so proud of her and she’s absolutely delighted. Thanks to those who came to support her.

I’m so proud too with my 8 year son’s initiative. Hugh, who loves bicycles, set up his bike display to promote his eco-social enterprise – Hugh’s Bike Shed.

Both of them initiated these enterprises after I attended a workshop with Joel Salatin and he said that both his kids had on-farm enterprises by the time they were 9 years old. I asked them if they had anything they wanted to do. Within 30 minutes, they had each designed their concept ideas and have been implementing and refining the ideas ever since.

In the carport of our ecovillage home at Crystal Waters, Maia set up her Owls Den Cafe again today. This is her second monthly pop-up cafe – a homeschool project that offers a treasure trove of experiential and contextual learning – budgeting, graphic design, healthy foods, sustainability planning, project management, letter-writing, community service to name just a few.

Maia’s community came support her initiative and to taste the yummy food – so did friends from around the region, and several international visitors. This time she chose her wearable art shirt.

For a little cafe in a tucked-away place, Maia attracted an amazingly international crowd. There were people from Japan, Turkey, the U.S.A., England, Thailand, The Philippines… and friends travelled down the mountain from Maleny to support her initiative too.

Our Japanese WWOOFer (Willing Worker on Organic Farms) has been a great help to Maia setting up, and enjoyed some of the chocolate cake while Monty delighted in a babycino. Over lunch, Rin offered Maia and Hugh a Japanese lesson. Each day she is teaching them new phrases and words. WWOOFers are so fabulous.

Hugh was again at hand. He did some mowing of the grassy area, helped to set up, made a toy tub for the little kids, and was a loyal customer (I think he bought one of everything!). But he was there for his own enterprise too…

Hugh’s Bike Shed

Bike-mad Hugh had some bikes out to remind people of his community service project – Hugh’s Bike Shed. He fixes bikes – squeaky brakes, clunky gears, flat tyres… affordably and quickly. He also accepts donations of bikes that he can repair and either give away or hire to visitors. Today he received another bike donation and a request to hire two bikes for a week. He’s so happy too! Hugh and I will write more about his bike project soon.

Maia and Hugh were absolutely delighted when one of the cafe customers brought them some sunglasses as a gift.

The Social and Environmental focus of Maia’s cafe

Maia’s cafe had both social and environmental purposes. Amongst the many were:

to create a midweek meeting space for the locals
to cultivate community connections and conversations between all ages
to create a safe and interesting play space for the village children
to raise awareness about and give people a taste of deliciously healthy foods.
to create a waste-free cafe and demonstrate this
to raise awareness about endangered animals
to fundraise to support the protection of a different endangered species each time the cafe opens.

Maia just also loves cooking and serving people (and being her own boss by the looks of it). I was her humble employee for the day – paid in coffee, cake, hugs and a delightful note of thanks. What more could I ask?

She received such positive feedback from everyone who came to her cafe, for the food and the vibe. It certainly was a lovely space to spend the afternoon catching up with friends and neighbours and watching the children play.

Some of the first customers to Maia’s Owl’s Den Cafe today.

Some of the environmental initiatives of The Owl’s Den Cafe:

table cloths – fair trade cotton and a selection of fabrics from second-hand stores
bamboo picnic plates – these we have had for 16 years (I am super impressed at their longevity)
drinks offered only in mugs and cups – no disposable cups
cupcakes made in reusable forms
solar powered coffee machine
rain water used for drinks
plastic-waste free cafe
(mostly) organic ingredients
foodscraps given to chooks (not many leftovers though!)
coffee grinds fed to worms
take-aways offered in brown paper bags (and some took them away in their hat!)
supports conservation of endangered species

Maia is using a proportion of the money she made today to sponsor a Snowy Owl – an endangered species threatened by habitat loss and poaching. Tonight when the sun went down, she was excited to hear an owl outside her bedroom. She’s always had a natural affinity with owls. This is the information poster she created and sent out with the invitations, and had on display today.

Maia’s Owl’s Den Cafe menu:

Most of the ingredients were organic, sourced at our local food cooperative. Instead of sugar we used stevia drops, and a little honey or a dash of coconut sugar. The icing on all but one cake was also sugar free.

Drinks:

citrus iced water – organic orange and lime juice (from our garden)
organic fair trade espresso coffee (she’s a fabulous barista already!)
lemon myrtle tea – (from our garden)
organic fair trade tea

Food:

orange poppy seed cake
chocolate cake – gluten free
carrot muffins
bliss balls – gluten free, dairy free
chia shortbreads

I’ll ask Maia to write up the recipes and post them soon – they were amazing!

Sugar free frosting:

For some time now we have been trying to find good toppings for our sugar free cakes. We were fed up of destroying them with sugary icing. So we’ve done some experimenting and come up with some super-delicious toppings (and a few disasters I should say). Our favourite topping was the fresh pure cream, raw cacao and stevia frosting for the chocolate cake. The cream cheese and stevia frosting on the carrot cake was amazing too.

The post Youth leadership and enterprise – cultivating positive leaders for the future with social and environmental responsibility. appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Pop-up Carport Cafe – cultivating community conversation & conservation through youth social enterprise

Morag Gamble — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 15:29:00 +0000

All afternoon people from around our ecovillage community and beyond were dropping by our carport to visit Maia’s new monthly pop-up cafe – The Owl’s Den. They came to play, to chat, to eat, and to pick up home some healthy treats after work. It was a super eco-cafe too: solar powered and waste free, and serving organic and local food and drink.

Today was the grand opening of The Owl’s Den Cafe in our carport – a monthly pop-up cafe run by our 9yo daughter as a homeschool project.

She’ll need to bake more of these orange-poppy seed cakes next time!

Creating opportunities for community connection, building relationships with neighbours, creating a fun space for local kids, sharing healthy food, supporting endangered animals, raising money for a local children’s tree planting project, raising money for her own use, and learning many valuable skills were the reasons my 9 year old daughter has spend the past few weeks organising this pop-up carport cafe as one of her homeschooling projects. I am so proud of her – she was just amazing.

A relaxed environment for community conversations and play.

She thought of spaces and activities for little kids, big kids and adults.

Flowers from the garden in up-cycled decorated jars, collections of sewing project fabrics as table cloths and wall hangings.

Getting the driveway chess set up.

As long as I can remember, Maia has been wanting to run a cafe. She sets up stalls at the Nature Kids workshops I lead, offering some healthy snacks, but today was different. Today she organised everything – the idea, the plan, the budget, the menu, the shopping list, the cafe layout, the communication and marketing strategy, the conservation projects she wanted to support.

This was a homeschool project for Maia. This cafe gave her an opportunity to explore so many topics in an integrated way – doing something that she loves.

Helpful Hugh was delighted to assist – by being chief biscuit maker, provider of finance for the float, cake taste-tester (!?!), selector of toys for little people, and carrier of boxes to the carport.

The menu:

Fair trade organic espresso coffee
Fair trade organic tea
Lemon myrtle and chocolate mint tea (from the garden)
Locally made lemon and lime iced cordial (thanks Lizzie!)

Fresh lemon myrtle leaves for the garden tea.

Orange poppy seed cake – sugar free (except for the icing) – organic flour, organic coconut oil, local eggs, local honey, local orange, organic ground sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, local lime icing
Chocolate mini muffins – sugar free (except for the icing) – organic flour, organic coconut oil, organic ground sunflower seeds, coconut, local eggs, local honey, cacao, local lime icing
Bliss balls – dates, organic sunflower seeds, organic tahini, organic coconut, cacao, local honey, cinnamon
Sunflower shortbread biscuits – organic flour, organic ground sunflower seeds, coconut, organic sugar, butter, honey, cinnamon, ginger

There was nothing but biodegradable waste produced at the cafe, and only a tiny bit of that – some coffee grounds and some cupcake papers – all in the worm farm now.

The source of power for the coffee machine and kettle (and the cooking) was solar power. She even sent up a little solar fountain.

The solar-powered mini-fountain was a lovely cooling off point for the kids.

Monty spent most of the time cooling off with his head in the little fountain

Community Conversations

It was just so absolutely lovely sitting in our garden on a barmy afternoon, cooling off a little with the easterly sea breezes – chatting with old and new members of the community, watching the kids play, admiring Maia’s capability and determination. She created a beautiful and peaceful space for people to just relax and connect.

The environmental projects supported by the Owl’s Den Cafe:

Fundraising for the local tree-planting and supporting a critically endangered species. Maia had prepared information sheets for these too which she emailed to everyone, and had just a few copies on hand today. The preserves were donated to us to help raise funds.

Children’s Tree Plant:

Maia has been involved in planning a children’s tree-planting to create a shaded walkway between the Crystal Waters village green park and the Mary River swimming hole. The planting happens in just over a week. The trees have been donated, the mulch is being collected locally too, but we need to buy the tree guards and stakes to protect the plants from deer and kangaroo.

At Maia’s cafe today she invited people to sponsor a tree. She had lots of great response and will continue to fundraise for the trees over the next week.

Critically Endangered Species:

I cannot remember a time when Maia was not passionate about protecting wildlife, particularly critically endangered and vulnerable species. As a 4yo, she taught herself how to research online to find out more information. Today she chose to raise money to adopt a Lynx through WWF – she chose the Lynx because it is one of the most critically endangered species on the planet.

She has already repaid me for buying ingredients, paid back Hugh for the float, gone online to adopt the lynx and has put aside the remaining money to be able to seed her next cafe. Her budgeting was spot-on.

Being a good leader and communicator, building community, caring for the environment, starting a social enterprise and learning about ethical entrepreneurship are such valuable skills for young people have – for them to be resilient and adaptive in a changing environment. With these skills, I hope that wherever my children find themselves – that they will be able to cultivate a sustainable livelihood, through sharing and connecting, creating and giving.

The post Pop-up Carport Cafe – cultivating community conversation & conservation through youth social enterprise appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Worm Towers – a quick and easy way to turn food waste into garden fertiliser – without digging or turning.

Morag Gamble — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 05:55:00 +0000

Australian’s typically throw away 20% of the food they buy – that’ one out of every 5 shopping bags full. In one year, Australian’s waste $8 billion of food. Sadly much of this food waste ends up in our bins. I was appalled to hear that up to 40% of our garbage bins are filled with food. The financial, social, and environmental costs of this are high.

My boys are starting to get bigger now, so I don’t often have leftovers at the dinner table. Leftovers however don’t ever go to waste – they are lunch the next day or incorporated somehow into the next dinner. Every single scrap from my kitchen is in high demand. I separate the food scraps – some for the chooks, some for the compost, and some for the worms.

There are lots of ways to easily process food scraps into compost, but the easiest way I know, for even the most squeamish and reluctant gardeners is, to turn the food scraps into fertile garden soil using a worm tower.

Compost worms are VIPs at our house – turning food scraps into fabulous fertilizer – creating healthy soil, for healthy plants, and therefore for healthy food for the family.

A simple worm tower is a pipe buried 400mm into the ground with holes drilled into the underground section for the worms to move through. The food is posted down the tube to them. A bonus is that the worms can retreat if it gets too hot.

The bonus of worm towers is that they don’t require turning, digging, or actually any need for handling the worms and castings. The worms process the scraps and take their casting directly to the roots of the plants. A worm tower is a simple way to improve fertility without double handling – the worms do the work where you need them to be.

I space my worm towers about 3 metres apart. They are excellent too in raised garden beds. It is important to put in a few handfuls of compost worms (blue, red, tiger worms) into the tower to really get the system powering.

Our three worms towers receive a bundle of food every couple of weeks. I always add a couple of handfuls of mulch or shredded paper on top to prevent flies, then replace the lid (an upturned pot). I also regularly add coffee grounds.

A newly installed worm tower.

The same worm tower many months later – working away silently in the middle of the garden.

Worm towers work well too in herb gardens

Some other ways to reduce food waste:

check the cupboard before going shopping
use leftovers
keep a good list
don’t shop when you’re hungry
try not to cook too much

The post Worm Towers – a quick and easy way to turn food waste into garden fertiliser – without digging or turning. appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

Certified Organic Fast Food Chain

Morag Gamble — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 13:39:00 +0000

Today I found real food at a Motorway rest stop at Officer, on the outskirts of Melbourne – typically junk food only zones. What a total surprise!

There snuggled calmy and with complete ease between the major two junk food outlets was Oliver’s selling fresh natural and organic food – taking on the unhealthy giants at their own game with aplomb. For Melbournians, this might be normal now – but I found it absolutely incredible – another example of the huge shift that is taking place in our relationship to food and our food system.

Organic fresh food from a socially responsible company – at a Motorway rest stop!

I hadn’t gone in the rest stop to buy food – we always pack sandwiches, fruit and some other little snacks for a road trip with the kids – but I was drawn over to the shop to take a closer look. It was all organic and a lot of fresh food. On the counter were chia-coconut taste-testers. No coke or fried food in sight. I couldn’t leave empty-handed, so I ordered a couple of organic coffees – they were actually quite delicious and issued in compostable cups.

The signs around their store said things like “Would you like beans with that?” – a complete take-off from the usual fries, but the offerings here were steamed green beans of edamame (young soy beans in their pods). Apparently in the first month that they offered this, they sold 1000kgs of beans.

Their snacks too included things like bliss balls, raw chocolate, dips with fresh crudités, and raw organic nut mix. I really couldn’t believe my eyes – it was like being in a health food coop!

Beside me on the counter wall was their statement of philosophy talking about healthy food, wellbeing, nutrient density, organics and so on – the heading being Hippocrates statement from 400BC “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”.

Looking into Oliver’s a bit more this evening I discovered that they have just become the world’s first certified organic fast food chain. It seems they are planning to open many more franchises around the country and abroad – even a couple up my way. Oliver’s actually started in 2005 at a truck stop in Wyong, just north of Sydney, by Jason and Paula Dunn. Over the past decade they have gone from strength to strength. I am surprised that it has taken me so long to discover them – but I suppose I am not a big highway traveller around the country.

I also found out in my research of Oliver’s that they aim to be a socially and environmentally responsible company. For example, their ‘Share the LOVE’ program supports many orphaned children through ChildFund. Their staff too are encouraged to meditation.

Healthy fast food, is of course not going to solve the problems we have in our current food system, but this enterprise certainly seems to be making a positive contribution towards change in the right direction. I feel happy to have happened across it today – things like this make me realise that positive change is happening all around us all the time, we just need to keep our eyes open to see these little things, and be prepared to spread the positive news.

The post Certified Organic Fast Food Chain appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.

A Coffee Alternative

Morag Gamble — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 14:00:00 +0000

I love good coffee – perhaps a little too much, so I am trying to find some tasty and healthy alternatives using freshly harvested leaves from my permaculture garden.

Tulsi is a great base for the tea but on it’s own, the flavour can be a bit overwhelming, so I like to blend it. I concoct different brews depending on what jumps out at me in the garden and spice rack.

The tea I made today included tulsi, lemongrass, lemon myrtle, coriander seeds, honey, cinnamon, and ginger. The only thing not local was the cinnamon!

My tulsi tea ingredients

The tea was absolutely delicious. Even the kids give this tea the thumbs up. When my 7 year old ‘food critic’ son says something is good, I know I am onto a good thing.

My blended Tulsi Tea

Tulsi is also known as sacred basil and is a revered plant in India where it has been used for over 3000 years. It is said to have many healing qualities and is used particularly in ayurvedic medicine for colds, breathing, stress and digestion. As a tea it is known to have uplifting effects, which is why it is good as an alternative to coffee.

You can buy Tulsi tea, but I think freshly picked herb teas are so much more flavoursome and have so much more vitality. They are also much cheaper.

Tulsi growing under our Mandarin tree

Lemongrass

Today’s herb tea ingredients:

2 cups water

a small handful of chopped tulsi leaf

a small clutch of of lemongrass leaves chopped

2 lemon myrtle leaves

a tsp fresh ginger root

a tsp of coriander seeds

a tsp cinnamon

a tbsp raw honey

Chop herbs roughly

Directions:

To make this tea, I chopped up the herbs and ginger roughly, added the cinnamon and coriander seeds and simmered in a pot for about 5 minutes. I stirred the honey in at the end to help to preserve its raw qualities. It is delicious as a hot cuppa, but it can also be served iced.

Add coriander and water

My trimmed Lemon Myrtle tree in the herb garden

Tulsi: the plant

I have Tulsi (Sacred Basil) planted in many places around the garden – particularly as an understory plant around my dwarf citrus as a bee attractor. It is bigger than sweet basil so I keep it out of the salad garden. In the Indian tradition, they grow it in a pot near the front door.

It is a very hardy, drought tolerant and versatile plant that can be grown in most mild climates around the world.

I always take cuttings to new community gardens I work with. I must have given out thousands of cuttings from my plants at talks and workshops over the past couple of years.

Permaculture design always encourages you to have the things you need or use the most closest. I have tulsi, comfrey, lemon myrtle, aloe vera, salad greens and herbs in the gardens closest to my verandah entrance.

The post A Coffee Alternative appeared first on Our Permaculture Life.