Revolution solutions

As the early morning Eurostar pulls past the tired 1960s tower blocks of northern Paris, one of the American students in my coach blurts out, “Is this really Paris? It looks like eastern Europe!” His assumption that Paris is all pretty and eastern Europe is shabby reminds me of the stereotypes we have of places and people different and far away.

What about what we share? We’re currently faced with a global challenge that unites us all, that will define our generation, for better or for worse. As we begin to realise we may be at a tipping point in human history, it’s dawning on us that national and cultural boundaries ultimately mean nothing in the face of the global sustainability challenge, in particular dangerous climate change, which will affect everyone everywhere, albeit in different ways.

Could the sustainability challenge be a struggle that brings us together? A worldwide social, environmental and economic revolution that unites us as humans, with a common streak of ingenuity and capacity for invention and resilience?

Alongside the clichés we use to define difference, we also have plenty of symbols of what we have in common, which can shine out, guide and inspire us and remind us of our shared responsibility to future generations.

Take the bicycle for example - a clever human invention used and recognised all over the world. During a recent Critical Mass bike ride in London, bystanders looked on in surprise as hundreds of cyclists sailed past in a collective good mood. As I peddled on with the pack, I imagined a city full of bikes, freed from oil, travelling at a human pace, with exhaust-fume-free traffic jams, the only sound the gentle dinging of bells and the friendly chatter between fellow cyclists. Sounds good doesn’t it, bikes instead of cars, cleaner, quieter, safer travel in cities all around the world…

The truth is, we’ve already invented the solutions to many of our problems – be it bikes, renewable energy technology or microfinance initiatives – what’s lacking is a critical mass of awareness, support and access. Getting to that critical mass, fast enough, is the challenge. An unsustainable future means we all lose out regardless of who we are and where we live, and for that we need to acknowledge our differences are not as important as our shared achievements and inventions.

Do It Yourself Yummy Yoghurt

Who needs to buy plastic pots full of unnecessary additives when you can make your own yoghurt in 3 easy steps? Yoghurt provides you with calcium and healthy bacteria and is great on its own or with all sorts of lovely ingredients!

1 - bring a saucepan of milk to the boil (it can be semi-skimmed if you like, and of course, organic is better - for you and for cows...).

2 - remove the milk from the heat. When it cools to about 40 degrees C (ie just above body temperature, or a little warmer than your little finger if you dip it in the milk), mix in a generous tablespoon of the "starter", pre-existing yoghurt (this can be bought or the leftovers from your last home-made batch).

3 - pour into a clean container (glass jar, tupperware etc), put the lid on and keep in a warm, well-insulated place for up to 6 hours (overnight is easiest). This can be inside a cosy nest of blankets or a sleeping bag, in a hay box if you have one or in a picnic coolbox with a bowl of hot water inside to provide extra warmth...

Over the next few hours the warmth will allow the friendly bacteria from the starter to spread through the milk and transform it all into yoghurt. It may not be as solid as bought yoghurt but it will definitely be free of aspartame, gelatine, artificial preservatives and so on.

If you happen to live in a warm country (or if global warming keeps up...) you can also mix the starter into a litre of cold milk, put it in a container and leave it in the sun all day to provoke the same process!

Top with honey and nuts, or mix in chopped cucumber, onion and chives, or add to veg soup to make it creamier, or spoon over grilled fish, or schlurp it straight out of the pot ;)

Long live real yoghurt!

Tips for self-preservation

1. Go to south of Spain for the winter to help with a sustainable living project. Meet many lovely people all hoping to save the world or at least look after it as much as possible. Be inspired by these people and exchange ideas over friendly cups of tea/coffee/mate.

2. Eat freshly cooked, non-processed food grown or bought as locally as possible: your own garden, your friendly neighbours', local farmers... Add more chili if necessary. Think about where your food comes from and how you can look after yourself and the planet by choosing the right stuff.

3. Look around you, listen, observe: see the beauty in your surroundings, smell the flowers (if there aren't any, plant some!), listen to the birds singing and do some singing yourself, do something every day to keep the beauty in the world (walk instead of driving, buy glass instead of plastic, buy organic and fair trade treats, smile).

4. Be careful with dangerous tools and machines. Do not, for example, develop a burn scar on your thumb caused by explosive mashed potato, shorten the tip of your finger with a very sharp vegetable slicer, or put your foot under your neighbour's JCB digger while trying to help get it past the vines on a small village path. If you do do this, apply vast amounts of arnica to avoid bruising.

5. Do believe that you can do something to change the world for the better. Every little step is a step in the right direction and is worth it. Cycling, recycling, voting, composting, everything has an impact and everyone can do something to limit climate change, pollution, poverty, and all the other Miserables coming our way. Think, swap ideas with others and act!

Just compost it!

The meaning of life? It's all about compost! Never again throw out your carrot peel and ground coffee: compost it all! Your bin bags will be smaller and cleaner, you'll help keep landfill to a minimum and you'll get your own free home-made healthy compost to give to your garden and house plants :)

All kitchen and garden waste can go on your compost heap or into a compost bin (except meat and fish which attract nasties...). Alternate layers of dry stuff (leaves, shredded newspaper, small twigs) and wet stuff (veg peels, teabags, leftovers) and keep covered so that the heat produced by decomposition can do its thing. Even if you just leave the whole thing to itself, in a few months you'll get nutrient-rich compost ready for use. It's simple, it's easy, it's free and it's super eco-friendly too!

Get more tips and instructions on the web (eg.
http://www.ehow.com/how_137794_set-compost-system.html). Happy composting!

Winter gardening

Lately we have been busy planting winter vegetables: carrots, chick peas, beet, lettuce... We plant some of the seeds with micorrhyzal innoculum (see www.sunseed.org.uk for more info). This mini fungus helps plants and trees to grow and is particularly helpful in the dry difficult soil here. Innoculated plants tend to grow bigger and stronger than others, and the innoculum is very easy to make, providing a low tech and accessible way to support growing in semi arid environments.

Along with the garden veg, we are also growing argan trees with micorrhyzal innoculum. Famous for appearing on tacky Moroccan postcards being climbed by goats, the argan tree grows only in Southern Morocco and produces a fruit from which a valuable oil can be obtained. It is thought that the argan tree once grew in this area of Spain too. As the tree is more or less an endagered species, successful micorrhyzal growing could help to plant more trees in Morocco...

The rain in Spain

Life in Los Molinos is finally back to normal after a long week of RAIN! A somewhat exceptional event around here, it rained gatos y perros for days across all of Andalucia. For us here at Sunseed it mainly meant that the dust turned to mud, and the major drawback of solar power was rapidly revealed: in order to stop the batteries being completely emptied we cut the power and lived by candlelight... But since we depend very little on electricity here, it didn´t seem so bad, and made for some very cosy evenings...

Now that the sun has returned the valley has sprouted a beautiful green haze of grasses, clovers and plenty of weeds in the vegetable gardens! The week´s rain marked the transition from lingering summer to winter: nights and mornings are now very cold while the middle of the day is still hot. Hot water bottles at night and shorts in the daytime!

Life at Sunseed

Sunseed Desert Technology here in Los Molinos aims to develop, demonstrate and communicate accessible, low-tech methods of sustainability in a semi-arid environment.

Based in the village of Los Molinos near Almeria in the South of Spain, Sunseed has permanent staff and regular volunteers who come to learn about sustainable living, growing organically and in drylands, eco-construction and maintenance, and appropriate technology.

In practice this means growing as much of our own food as possible, minimising waste, recycling useful objects, planting trees, baking bread, using power from solar panels and using our fab pedal powered washing machine!

We get up at 7.15 and work in the morning around the project. In the afternoon volunteers can work on various projects of their own. It gets dark early now in the evenings but is still warm so we talk long after dinner by the solar powered lamps outside...

The gardens produce all sorts of delights for us. They are irrigated using the 800 year old irrigation system bringing water from a spring, put in place by the Moors and maintained now by Sunseed for the whole village.

What impresses me the most living simply and without plastic or TV is the amount of unnecessary stuff we produce the rest of the time. When there is nowhere for rubbish to go you realise how much packaging we use and how useless it is... As for other waste: more about compost toilets next time ;)

Pics of Los Molinos

bienvenida en sunseed los molinos!

Here I am at Sunseed Desert Technology in Southern Spain, learning to garden, fix terraced fields, bake bread, make compost, and generally live simply and sustainably.
Just a few pics for you to get an idea of the landscape. I'll tell you more about the project soon.
Love to all.
GG