What One Child Can Do

A child does it. The adult dares not. A child has open eyes, is curious and sensitive to nature. A child learns to lie at a young age in order to fit into their society. Today’s child sees the truth about pollution and global warming. They see and feel suffering and change within their own environment. Climate change impact is visible to everyone who cares to look.

Baby say “No”

Write to Santa and tell him you don’t want anything made with plastic. Write to him today because it may take a long time for Santa read your letter. Especially if every child writes to Santa this year.

$89 billion is spent annually on toys. If every child asks for biodegradable toys, the industry will respond. Say no to plastic toys. There are plenty of options already on the market. Books, jigsaw puzzles, board-games, paper craft are a quick alternative.

Tell your family you are happy to get a second-hand toy. If you are concerned about germs or bugs, simply pop the soft toy in the freezer for a few days or take it in the shower for a wash and dry it in the sun. Saving old toys can be a creative hobby. And sometimes that toy becomes a valuable antique.

Baby is Nurtured

Every parent in the world loves their child. Many parents will give the only remaining food in the kitchen to their children first. But they often give food that the baby screams for and not what is good for baby or for the planet. Billions of babies are fed bottled milk instead of healthy breast-feeding The economic pressures against breast feeding are concerning the World Health Organisations. Good health helps the planet. So, if you are child. Say “No thanks” to sweets and additives and become friends with healthy foods.

Baby is Adored

Why is the fashion industry is driven mostly by young people? Because young people need new clothes as they grow. In recent decades these young people have also become a symbol of vitality and beauty. Everyone wants to look beautiful. That’s why the beauty industry is worth billions. Yet in the 70s it was cool to look natural. To have natural hair colour, natural fibres and no make-up. Make natural the new best thing.

Deadly Sequins

Beautiful But Deadly – Most Clothes Clog Oceans

Most children’s clothes are made with artificial fibres. Nylon,  polyester,  acrylic,  polyolefin and spandex are in most clothes sold today. If you can’t see what the fibre is, don’t choose that garment. Why? Plastic fibres shed microfibres every time they are washed. These clothes were also toxic to the workers and the factory environment when they were first made. Search for natural fibres like organic cotton, linen, wool, and silk. Best of all, embrace hand-me-down clothes. Get pre-loved clothes. They are comfy and cost a lot less on the earth.

Protest with Cheeky Smile

You can use a lot less energy if you walk to school. Some communities have walking buses – groups of children with a caring adult. Going to sleep early and waking up with the sun to use natural light for play and study is an easy way to save energy.

Get Grubby

Get Close To Nature

Each time you go outside, you are getting to know nature and how she works. The closer our mind gets to know nature, then the smarter we get in working with natural energies and valuing the great diversity of the natural world. Getting outdoors is healthy for bodies and minds. Being outdoors is our best way to observe and react to change. But rather than just monitoring our own extinction, we invent ways to reduce our impact. Being outdoors in the fresh air builds our resistance to germs, is fun education and uses a lot less energy than being indoors. Get outside and get grubby.

Grow Food

Growing food is super easy. Any child can do it. Use food-waste to make compost, provide seeds and tubers. You don’t need to spend a cent. Getting permission is harder than asking for forgiveness. Just start beside an abandoned ditch and see if anyone notices. Grow food, build a clean environment and share it.

Growing food is easy. Getting permission is tough. Grow it, share it then ask for forgiveness.

3 Bold Reasons To Eat Native

Dianella berries – tart and crunchy

Fit Native Foods

When we started growing native food plants, we thought these young plants would have similar needs to the others. But it turned out they were more hardy. And best of all, they grew in the shade of the fast growing fruit trees like Mulberry, Jack-fruit, Pear, Mango [and our 100 or so other trees.]

Bush Lolly – sweet and juicy

Old-World Exploration Within Modern World

Meet the world of underutilised native foods. These foods are growing in neglected areas out of reach of the suburban lawn-mower. Hidden from the chemical sprays of council workers, and laying low in ditches beside massive fields of cereal crops.

Native foods are resilient to their hometown soil and micro-climate. Some have fallen extinct, some have a precarious existence, but many native foods have enjoyed a renaissance. Many have been developed and are now commercially propagated and enhanced by programs of natural selection.

Lilly Pilly – crunchy, tart and juicy

Best Reasons to Put Native on Your Plate

1. Culinary Joy

New foods can bring colour into our food pallet. Trying a new food can take us on a culinary adventure. Sadly, many of us walk past a native food without ever tasting it. Chefs all around the world are searching for ingredients that are out of the ordinary.
Worldwide there are more than 50 000 edible plants. Remarkably, three of these plants [rice, maize and wheat] provide 60 percent of the world’s food energy intake. Fresh native foods are rarely on our dinner plate.

Australian Native Raspberries – sweet and plump

2. Super Health Benefits of Eating Native

A lot of native foods are superfoods. They are vibrant in colour and rich in nutrients. Sadly these loud qualities can turn some cooks away. Many chefs are finding ways to capture the vibrancy and strong flavours. Western foods, such as Peas, enjoyed genetic selection and culinary attention for centuries. Native foods need chef-pioneers explore ways to harness the super nutrition and complement the bold flavours.

Native and non-native tea herbs growing happily together at Silk Farm

3. Growing Local Suits Us Locals

The greatest benefit of eating Native food is the boost to the environment. By growing indigenous foods, a farmer won’t need to alter the terrain as much. There is a species for wetland, another for zones that are high and dry. Nor will the farmer need to add chemicals or soil enhancers. The plants that are native don’t need specialist support. They know what they are doing and just need appreciation and room to grow.

The native birds will appreciate the habitat. Sure, they will eat some of the crop (as they already eat the non-native crops), but they will also return fertiliser, pick off insects pests and work to regenerate the land. All these factors build a richer food future.

cockatoo dropping a macadamia nut
cockatoo drops nut

Our Top Bush Tuckers

  1. Finger Lime – Many of our friends hunger for this fruit. It performs well on the edge of a forest where it can get a little direct sunlight to form fruits.
  2. Macadamia – the visiting children have learnt when they are ready to eat. They have a devoted smashing station made with two rocks. They look for slight blemishes on the shells. The pattern is mottled like a leopard skin. This develops when the fruit has fallen away and the nut has matured.
  3. Native Raspberry – we select to grow the less seedy fruits. They deliciously tart and fruit nearly all year around but most importantly they are fruit over winter.
  4. Dianella – Wollongong Uni Innovation Campus has the best we have ever tasted. And hardly anyone knows to eat them. These look stunning and taste great.
  5. Walking-Stick Palm – small but delightful and easy to pick.
  6. Anniseed Myrtle – Fantastic leaves for herb tea.
  7. Sandpaper Fig (the skin is tough like a kiwifruit and the flesh is sweet). This grows to be a huge tree – so make sure it is not going to block the sun coming to your home or over your neighbour. It will help to hold the bank of a local creek or an area too steep for other uses.
  8. Native Rosella – the flowers are like a soft lettuce. This is a short-lived delicate shrub. Shrubs and understorey plants that are edible are hard to find in a permaculture system – so this is a must in our food jungle.
  9. Davidson Plum – strong bitter flavour, spectacular plant, erect and ferny with fine pastel pink flowers. It is also an understorey plant until it reaches maturity.  The fruits fall when they are ready so keep a layer of soft mulch underneath to pillow their fall.
  10. Sea grape – small fleshy fruits. Commonly grown in large areas like a steep bank.
  11. Native Orange – the skin is tart but the flesh is perfumed and sweet. There is variation in the fruits on the single tree. This plant deserves to be cultivated and developed.
  12. Lilly Pilly – The best Lilly Pilly my family has tasted are ones that were growing in the carpark of MacArthur Square Shopping Centre. It grows happily here too. Search for varieties with big purple fruits
  13. Lemon Myrtle – good for herb tea and as a perfume. We were very happy for years with this Myrtle until we discover the Anniseed Myrtle. (Just personal taste).
  14. Blueberry Ash – These fruits look pretty but a bit skinny in comparison with Dianella.  A bonus is it fruits late in summer when other plants are having a rest.
  15. Mountain Pepper – delightfully peppery leaves, loves growing here in part shade.
  16. Native citrus
  17. Pigface for flowers and edible stems
  18. Native Leeks
  19. Kangaroo Grass
  20. Nardoo
  21. Native Clumping Bamboo – we have successfully overwintered our first native bamboos from far north queensland and hope to support this crop in the solar traps of our food forest.
European limes, Davidson Plums, little Sandpaper figs and big pink Malay Apples