How to Make Dairy Kefir Banana Creme Fraiche

Dairy Dairies: How to Make Dairy Kefir Banana Creme Fraiche

by Ryan Roberts, 2019 Apprentice

Welcome back, it's Ryan again!

In our last conversation I shared a little about dairy kefir; the history, chemistry and process for making it. This time we'll talk about an exceptional use of dairy kefir - making banana kefir creme fraiche!

Velvety smooth and udderly delicious, this topping is ideal applied atop crepes, pancakes, granola. Next time you're making a pancake breakfast-in-bed for your bae, you can blow their minds with this yummy topping.

Here's the kicker: the bi-product of this process will yield a delightfully flavorful and intensely proteus “banana-infused” whey. I recommend drinking it straight or adding it to your morning shake to spike it with great flavor and a boatload of protein.

If at this point your finding yourself lost on the fundamentals of dairy kefir, check out my first installment of Dairy Diaries here, before proceeding to the next section.

So diving back into the science for a moment; Dairy kefir is a specialized symbiotic colony of organisms, favoring lactose sugars, and adapted to consume them, but this doesn't preclude it from utilizing what sugars are available. Bananas are intensely sweet, potassium rich and full of minerals, making it a fine fuel for your SCOBY friends. The process will break down and alter the banana, unlocking new flavors and heightening nutritional qualities.

This process will take you through the steps of making dairy kefir first, then walk you through separating your two products and processing them to completion.

Ingredients

- Whole organic milk

- Spoonful of dairy kefir SCOBY (or “grains”)

- Glass container for your next batch

- Two medium-sized bowls: one for your creme fraiche, the other for your whey

- Spoon

- Funnel (optional)

- Fine mesh strainer

- Hand blender or food processor (optional)

Process

1. Sterilize your container, using boiling water for your first clean.

2. Chop bananas to your desired quantity and thickness. I chose to use three small bananas. Note that increasing the surface area of your banana by chopping it will make it easier for the SCOBY to access the sugars in the banana. In this step, I quartered the bananas then chopped them horizonally into thin pizza slices. Put the bananas into your container.

3. Put a spoon-full of dairy kefir SCOBY into your container.

4. Pour your organic whole milk into your container, taking care to minimize splashing.

5. Place a lid lightly over the container, creating only a light seal to allow CO2 to escape. Let sit for 12 - 24 hours depending on temperature. Warmer temperatures will yield a faster process. The goal here is to stimulate the mixture to self-separate into the whey on the bottom and the cream on top. It looks funky, but don't sweat it. The cream along with the bananas will become our creme fraiche and the whey, whatever you want to do with it.

6. Pour the whole mixture into a fine mesh strainer. Let the whey drip through the mesh, which will happen mostly on it's own because the cream is now chemically separated from the whey. Light stirring is ok, but seek to minimize the amount of cream that falls through the strainer!

7. Now hunt for your SCOBYs amongst the cream! The goal of this step is different from that of making plain dairy kefir. We want to recover our SCOBY, but we don't want our banana kefir cream to fall through into the whey, so we place our bowl under the strainer now. You may use a gentle scooping motion along the bottom of the strainer to find your grains. Whatever cream falls through should be added back once you've recovered your SCOBY babies. This step can be challenging and awkward.

8. Place your SCOBYs back into their home container, refill it with milk and lightly stir the milk with a clean spoon.

9. Now we have whey in one bowl, cream and bananas in the other and our SCOBYs happily in their new batch of milk.

10. The final step is optional and that is blending the mix. You can certainly enjoy the cream and banana bits mixture at this point, or you can thoroughly blend the bananas and the cream until you produce a uniform appearance. This final step is what yields your creme fraiche.

11. Keep refrigerated till consumption.

That concludes this little adventure into this novel dairy kefir product. Next installment, we'll be exploring a savory herbal cream cheese, YUM!

Have you always wanted to learn about SCOBYs, fermentation or brewing? Check out our upcoming workshops for anything that might be of interest!

Design Ideas for a Sustainable Home in the Tropics

Design Ideas for a Sustainable Home in the Tropics

By Nic & Ali,

At Rancho Mastatal we have been building sustainable homes from natural materials in the tropics for over 15 years. In this time we have tried many different styles, building materials, and designs. We would like to share with you our opinion for the best natural and sustainable home design for the tropics.

For examples and inspiration view our structures here.

We have found that the quickest, cheapest, and most aesthetically pleasing building style consists of a reinforced concrete stem wall foundation, with a timber framed structure, a Dutch gable roof, wattle and daub walls, natural plasters, and an earthen floor. These are the reasons why we chose these methods:

·       Reinforced concrete stem wall: resistant to earth quakes and provides good access around the entire house to spot any invading termites.

·       Timber framed structure: beautiful and utilizes an abundant and quick growing resource in the tropics.

·       Dutch gable roof: provides good protection to your earthen walls on all sides, and allows good ventilation of the roof.

·       Wattle and daub: utilizes an abundant resource of bamboo as the wattle, and the thin walls of daub are fast, efficient, and cheap to install. Provides privacy, security, and protection for your home. 

·       Natural plasters: a logical plaster to put on top of an earthen wall.

·       Earthen floor: a perfect combination with a stem wall. Utilizes natural and abundant materials. Far cheaper than concrete or wood floors.

Other design considerations to include in your sustainable home are the following:

·       Trees near building site: this is a double edge sword when it comes to building. You want the shade provided by trees, but the risk of them falling on your building is worth considering too. And their root systems can damage your foundations.

·       High and insulated ceilings: increases construction cost slightly, but the extra space in your building creates a more comfortable temperature.

·       Large overhangs: provides additional covered space around your building, protects areas from the sun, and is essential to protecting your earthen walls from the rain.

·       Air flow and fans: depending on exactly where you are, even with a well-designed house you may need the addition of a ceiling fan.

·       Covered drying space: always a benefit when it’s raining!

·       Outdoor and indoor spaces and screens: it is nice to have spaces that are screened off and those that aren’t so that they can be taken advantage of at different times of the day and year depending on the heat, bugs, rain, etc.

·       Orientation: think about where you spend most of your time and orientate those spaces to the best views. Also consider where the sun rises and sets and how that will influence the temperature in your house.

·       Water run-off and drainage: make sure to have gutters on your roof and move water run-off away from your foundations.

·       Road access: pretty essential to getting anything to your house! Examples: building materials, groceries, etc.

These are some great pointers to start generating ideas of what you would like your house to look like. At the Ranch we are interested in empowering individuals to develop the skills to build their own dream home. If there are some things that we have forgotten please let us know in the comments section!

want to learn more?

If you think this is an interesting article and you are interested in green living and designing your own sustainable home consider joining us for one of our annual workshops. Generally we host a Timber Frame Construction and Natural Building & Plasters Intensive . We will also have lots of other amazing workshops focused on the subjects of sustainable living. See our website for more info!

Goodbye: Change is our only Constant

Goodbye: Change is our only Constant

Scott Gallant and Laura Killingbeck joined the Ranch team as interns in January of 2010.  The following year they joined the Ranch team as co-directors. From then until the present they have been instrumental in developing numerous critical systems and practices that have greatly contributed to the Ranch’s success.  Their work in the areas of agroforestry, education, finance, human resources, marketing and food systems helped to revolutionize the Ranch in countless ways.  In recent months they have both decided to leave the Ranch to pursue other endeavors and are stepping down as Ranch core team members.   

Scott is largely responsible for what the Ranch will be producing in its orchards for decades to come.  He designed and planted out the majority of the perennial polyculture systems throughout the farm.  He created and has maintained our orchard nurseries, taught hundreds of students the basics of food production in the tropics, and introduced a legion of others to the principles of permaculture as the Ranch’s lead permaculture teacher for a half-decade.  He was also a crucial player in the development of the Ranch’s new website a few years back, has helped to get our financial systems on firm footing, worked to professionalize our educational services and much more.  

Laura worked in a wide array of areas around the Ranch, including farm-to-table foodsheds, fermentation, program development, and community structures.  Laura brought about dramatic changes to our food systems and educational programs, and helped to make our food processing space, the foodsmithery, a reality.  She developed the Ranch's food and fermentation program and curriculum, co-taught the Ranch's first in-house class, and went on to teach thousands more people how to use local foods.  She also instigated the creation and development of many of the Ranch’s invisible structures and worked to put into place systems to better organize and govern the Ranch business and community.  Her work has also led the Ranch to develop policies and practices to improve our communication skills and create a space that is safe for everyone that uses our campus.

Scott and Laura challenged the Ranch to change the transient culture that characterized the Ranch when they arrived and brought stability with their presence over time.  They were crucial in making decisions to increase the length of our internship program, eliminate short-term volunteers and create a more balanced community. They both worked tirelessly to develop our world-class apprenticeship over a multi-year period.

Scott and Laura were also critical players in the Ranch’s transition to participating in the local food movement.  This has reduced the Ranch’s reliance on imported staple foods and increased our presence in Mastatal's local foods economy.

Scott and Laura lived and worked at the Ranch during some of our most challenging years.  Through a period of limited financial resources, Scott and Laura worked long hours for minimal compensation while we struggled to improve our systems, generate more revenue, and create private spaces for our long-term members. 

We wish both Scott and Laura success in their respective endeavors. They are two of the most influential people that have ever come through the Ranch gate. 

Moving forward Scott will continue to work in Costa Rica developing his design firm, Porvenir Design. He will be based at Finca Luna Nueva near La Fortuna for the foreseeable future.

Laura anticipates exploring the world by bicycle while developing her writing profile. She is actively writing on themes of travel, gender, and adventure.

You can follow along with their future adventures on instagram @laurakillingbeck and @scottplantstrees.

Salak Pollination

Salak Pollination - dangerous work, with a delicious pay off

 By Amy Dodds, 2019 Apprentice

As apprentices at Rancho Mastatal, we take on a Plant Skill, where we each are responsible for a plant variety in our agro-forestry system. When we began as apprentices many of us wanted to avoid the Salak palm, as it has splinter inducing spikes throughout the stem and leaves. Following my intention to dive into challenges this year, I decided to take being caretaker of the prickliest palm on the Ranch.

This is a breakdown on my experience, playing Cupid by pollinating this spiky palm!

 Salak palm, or Snake fruit palm, originated from Indonesia, South East Asia. The main reason for planting in an agro-forestry system is that is produces a crunchy fruit that tastes like a tropical apple, which you can eat immediately after peeling the snakelike skin. It does well in humid lowland tropical areas, so is perfect for our climate at the Ranch. It is best to plant in a forest as an under story crop, especially as the young palms require heavy shade. They have superficial roots and therefore needs to be watered regularly, making it thrive in rainy season. Interestingly, pollination is most effective by hand. This can done by insects but is much more productive with human intervention.

While it may appear a harsh plant, I have found the Salak palm to be a rewarding plant to interact with. So far it has meant that every few days I get to go into the lush and cool Fern Gully and practice being mindful in the forest. I have to be slow and calm when navigating the spikes and surrounding orb spiders. And I get the joy of sharing the tasty fruit with my friends!

The main task is pollinating the female flowers with the male pollen at least 3 times a week. I am essentially playing matchmaker in Mastatal’s forest. Salak plants are either male or female. At the Ranch we have 20 plants, with the ratio of 3 females to males in our orchards. The female palms are the fruit producers. Their flowers develop in a hard pointy sheath, which you open with clippers once it becomes more hairy. This allows you to see when they develop a deep pink colour, meaning they are ready to receive the pollen. You can tell the male stamen is ready when they also become pink with small yellow pollen granules. I clip the male stamen at the stem and carry it carefully to the female flower, shaking the male spike on the ripe pink open flowers. Within a few days the flower should harden. If it becomes soft and dry pollination is unsuccessful.

When the fruit is ready it should fall off easily from the bunch. Taste can help indicate if it is ready - unripe Salak has a dry astringent flavour, whereas a ripe fruit should taste juicy and sweet.

 Included in the pruning process is clipping the suckers to prevent reproduction, pruning the leaves to keep only 4-5 mother leaves and removing any dead female and male flowers.

Other uses for Salak besides food production include using it as a hedge if you don't like neighbours or visitors. Or you can use it as an intimidating potted plant!

Overall this experience has been an important one to improve my permaculture skills of observation and interaction with this particular species. Plus it has become a mindfulness practice!

For more further reading on the propagation and care see our blog article on Salak.

Interested in tropical agro-forestry systems and their design, why not join us for our year long apprenticeship or check out some of our upcoming workshops

From Tree to Bar: How to Process Raw Cacao

From Tree to Bar: How to Process Raw Cacao

by PJ Barton, Apprentice 2019

Living in the tropics I found myself surrounded by cacao trees, which was something you’d dream about as a kid. “Chocolate trees” But like so many things we’re used to consuming we don’t have the knowledge of how to process a raw material into something we can use, within the society we live convenience has removed us from the source. A simple act of making something gives us a connection to our environment. Walking through a supermarket we are surrounded by products readily available with a seemingly endless supply leading to a mass consumerism in our present society. This unsustainable consumption stems from our lack of involvement in the food we consume. So let us connect through raw cacao.

Throughout history so many cultures have cultivated cacao. From Mesoamerrica through to Europe. Its a world wide sweet enjoyed by millions, like most things the origin was much different to the present. Dating back 1400 BC chocolate was fermented into alcohol. It was a common commodity throughout Mesoamerica and the seeds were thought of as a gift from Quelzaledol, the goddess of wisdom.  It was actually used as a currency.

Processing raw cacao pods into beans is easy, tasty and fun!!

Processing 

After harvesting the seeds which should be a yellow or bronzed color you crack open the pods to reveal a white flesh seed with a brown centre.  The fruit itself is commonly eaten in Indonesia and reminds me of a mangosteen.

Scrap the seeds out leaving them to ferment. Place in a bowl and leave with a lid to keep off flies. We used banana leaves. To help the fermentation, yeast can be added we put kombucha to inoculate the ferment. During this process maintain temperatures of around 40 degrees and gradually increasing to 50 degrees. It’s not dependent on this I’ve made cacao before by just leaving it alone but by monitoring the temperature you’re going to create an optimal environment from the enzymatic reaction breaking the acidity of the bean.

After the beans have fermented for 4 – 5 days spread the beans out in the sun to dry the beans. This can also be done using a low heat in the oven but let’s harvest the energy of the sun which will enrich the bean. This can take a few days. The outer shell will be easy to break and the raw cacao is ready to use as desired.

Alternatively you can then roast the nut in a wok or in the oven paying close attention not to burn the seeds. It will start to crackle and a fill the air with an intoxicating aroma of chocolate. Leave to cool and break off outer shell. These roasted chocolate beans can be used how ever you desire.

Chocolate doesn’t grow on trees but if we understand the process it suddenly feels like it. Using ingredients from there raw form makes us more conscience intertwining us with the food we are consuming leading to a sustainable outlook towards life.

In Mastatal we are fortunate to not only grow our own cacao but also live next to a family run buisness, The Iguana Chocolate. Why not come and stay with us as a guest and do a tour at the local chocolate farm!

Dairy Diaries: How I Make Dairy Kefir

Dairy Diaries: What is Dairy Kefir and how do I make it?

By Ryan Roberts, 2019 Ranch Apprentice

 My name is Ryan and I'm part of the apprentice team at Rancho Mastatal for 2019. I've been navigating my lactose-intolerance since I was a child and gluten-intolerance since I identified it approximately five years ago. In this and the following installments of Dairy Diaries. I'll be exploring dairy kefir, in my personal effort to find ways to make dairy products I enjoy healthier, more digestible and more delicious.

I have a mixed understanding of my dairy sensitivity, in part because throughout my life I have chosen to accept the consequences of consuming dairy products that I enjoy such as cheese and ice cream. Over the last few years, in an effort to better understand the nuances of my sensitivity, I've taken to experimenting through exposure and carefully observing my reactions.

Since arriving at the Ranch, I've taken a fascination with dairy kefir, a cultured milk product which we make regularly as a base for salad dressing. My interest was piqued upon discovering that the salad dressing failed to upset my sensitive stomach.

Dairy kefir is tangy, effervescent and probiotic, closely comparable to yoghurt, with origins in the Caucasus Mountains of Eastern Europe. It is made using a dairy kefir SCOBY, which stands for a "symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast", which are often called "grains" in the case of dairy kefir. Dairy kefir grains look like clumped grains of rice that are yellowish white. They tend to clump together in spongy, somewhat tough little colonies.

The SCOBY consumes the sweet lactose in the milk, converting in into lactic acid and multiplying the microorganisms beneficial to the health of our stomach, intestines and the whole ecosystem of our body. This makes it possible for folks with a sensitivity to lactose to consume delicious milk products fermented with this SCOBY.

It's delicious, it's great for you, and I'm excited to share that it is stupid easy to make and maintain.

It really is as simple as adding the dairy kefir SCOBY to your milk and letting the little SCOBYs get to work. When you are ready to consume your freshly fermented kefir, strain out the grains using a fine mesh strainer and a spoon, wash your container lightly and reintroduce the SCOBY and a new batch of milk.

The Process
1. Clean your container, using boiling water for your first clean. Let the glass cool.
2. Put a spoon-full of dairy kefir SCOBY into your container. 
3. Pour your milk into your container, taking care to minimize splashing.
4. Place a lid over the container, creating only a light seal to allow CO2 to escape.
5. Let sit for desired level of tanginess.
6. Pour fermented milk and grains out through a fine mesh strainer.
7. Gentle rinse your container, ensuring you clean areas where the milk is splashed above the milk line.
8. Use a gentle scooping motion along the bottom of the strainer to find your grains.
9. Place them back into your container, refill with milk and lightly stir the milk with a clean spoon.
10. Enjoy your dairy kefir!

Here are some considerations when raising and caring for your dairy kefir babies:

Temperature:
Warmer temperatures accelerate the work of the dairy kefir SCOBY significantly. Here at the Ranch, we let our kefir sit for 12 hours to 20 hours through the heat of the day and the temperate evening. Generally after 12 hours, we put the fermented dairy kefir in the refrigerator overnight, but leaving it over night has led to a tangier, more desirable final product and an easier process.

Time:
The longer you let your dairy kefir SCOBY work, the tangier, thicker, more probiotic, and in my opinion, more delicious the kefir will become. Sit time varies based on your preference from 12 to 48 hours, depending on temperature. Refrigeration will allow you to store the kefir for up to a week. Note that while this significantly slows the metabolism of the SCOBY, the enzymatic activity remains active, breaking down the milk into more bioavailable and nutritious bits for our stomach.

Sanitation:
Like many ferments, the SCOBY creates an environment for itself that limits the growth of competing organisms through increased acidity and the production of ethanol (though in dairy kefir the alcohol is negligible). This means that the risk of contamination is limited to that which remains outside the milk. The best way to mitigate any rogue elements is to wipe away any splashed or remaining milk that won't be under the liquid. Other than that, thorough cleaning of the container for the dairy kefir is unnecessary - a simple water rinse will suffice.

The SCOBY:
The little yellow white SCOBY is actually quite durable and resilient, so don't worry about being terribly ginger with them. The only thing we want to avoid doing is pressing the grains through the fine mesh, which will cut and damage them. Prevent this by using a light scooping motion along the bottom of the strainer.

The SCOBY is also resilient to being left in the milk. If you want to take a break from the dairy kefir, you can do so by refrigerating the SCOBY in milk for weeks at a time. Every two weeks replace the milk with a little bit of new milk. It doesn't needed much.

The SCOBY will also grow in size and multiply. When you begin to find more grains, you can remove them and place them in a separate container to make even more kefir, or better yet, gift them to a friend! Dairy kefir, like many ferments, is the gift that keeps on giving.

So go forth and spread the love: for your taste buds, your gut, and your friends.

Check out Ryan’s other blog on dairy kefir crème fraiche

If you are interested in fermentation why not join us for our upcoming tropical homebrewing workshop?

Sources:
Rancho Mastatal Food Skills , Dairy Kefir, Laura Killingbeck

Brazilian Journal of Microbiology
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3833126/#!po=0.595238

Choosing Consciously for Healthier Families and a Safer Home

Choosing Consciously for Healthier Families and a Safer Home

 By Sharleen Marie, Rancho Mastatal Teaching Staff, 2019

Many of us grow up thinking of home as our safest place. As consumers, we have been led to believe that by the time products make it to the market, they have been thoroughly tested and proven safe. We pick up packaging and read labels before buying, just to know what is in the products. But, what does a label really tell us? What are these manufactured products made with? Where and how was it cultivated, processed, packages and shipped? When I first began looking for answers, I encouraged myself to search, detach and reeducate myself about how better make conscious decisions and take actions aligned with my principals and values for my body, my community and my environment. I became passionate about searching what I now choose for nourishment in food, personal care, and lifestyle.

To begin this journey, I intentionally created the habit of choosing all products based on their ingredients rather than their label. I am grateful and fortunate that I had many people around me who inspired me to learn new ways in which I could live a sustainable life, aware of and driven to practice what was best for me, the people and the places I love and care about. After reading this article, I encourage you to continue your journey to discover alternatives solutions and create the changes that produce the results you wish to see in the world.

Don’t just Trust Labels Read the Ingredients

Labels can be misleading. What we think we know about a product may not be true. How safe are your cleaning supplies and skin care products, really? What does ‘Eco-friendly’, ‘Biodegradable’, ‘Natural’ and ‘Nontoxic’ really mean? For example, when we talk about biodegradability of a material or substance, we’re talking about its ability to be broken down into its smallest components parts. This decomposition can be caused by various natural forces like: hungry microorganisms with a digestive system that can break compounds apart into simpler substances, and by contact with light or water, processes called photolysis and hydrolysis consequently. Biodegradability lies at the heart of nature’s sustainable recycling system. Once created, everything from plants to animals is eventually broken down into its most basic parts, which then become the building blocks for new life that itself will some day similarly decay.

When it comes to household, skin care, beauty, and cosmetic chemicals, biodegradability is generally a good thing. In order for a product to be labeled as biodegradable, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines state that it must degrade when exposed to air, moisture, bacteria, or other organism, and it must return to the natural environment in a reasonably short time when properly disposed of. There is no standard or oversight for the label; manufacturers may label products “biodegradable” at their discretion.

Understanding What You Read

The business of manufacturing cleaning and cosmetic products relies on chemistry. Chemistry itself is not a bad thing. It’s the kinds of chemicals we make and use that matter. Like most anything else, there is a good side and a bad side to all the molecular manipulation chemists practice. There are safe chemicals, and there are unsafe chemicals. Our problem today is that we don’t know which are which. Chemical companies are not obligated to list the ingredients in their products, better known as Voluntary Disclosure Program. This program leaves of decision of wether or not to list ingredients at the sole discretion of the manufacturers. Manufacturers can also legally omit hazardous chemicals if they are part of a mixture the company claims to be a trade secret. (1)

How much do we know about the effects of daily contact with toxic household materials that retailers sell on faith, while we ourselves are serving as the test tubes while we live, breath, and raise our families among these components every day? Toxic chemicals found in detergents, perfumes, solvents, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and household cleaners vary in their severity – from acute (immediate) hazards such as skin or respiratory issues, chemical burns or watery eyes to chronic (long term) hazards.

According to an Environmental Protection Agency  (EPA) study of human fatty tissue samples, every American man, woman, and child carries at least 700 pollutants in his or her body. (2) Today, there are an estimated 80,000 different chemical compounds being made and used. (3) In 2016, the EPA named the first 10 chemicals it will evaluate under the new Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, the first update since 1976 of the nation’s primary toxic substances law. (4)

In the last several years, a growing body of scientific evidence has indicated that the air within homes and indoor environment can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the largest and most industrialized cities. Other research indicates that people spend approximately 90% of their time indoors. Thus, for many people, the risks to health may be greater due to exposure to air pollution indoors than outdoors. In addition, people who may be exposed to indoor air pollutants for the longest periods of time are often those most susceptible to the effects of indoor air pollution. Such groups include the young, the elderly and the chronically ill, especially those suffering from respiratory or cardiovascular disease.

The evidence that does exist strongly suggests that exposure to many of the common products we take for granted can cause chronic diseases, cancer, fertility issues, ADHD, compromised immune system, hormone disruption, nerve and organ damage, allergies, asthma, sinusitis, anxiety, depression, and other health problems. Do any of these health problems sound familiar?

The 2017 American Association of Poison Control Centers' National Poison Data System (NPDS) reported, consistent with the previous year, that the top 5 substance classes most frequently involved in all human exposures were analgesics (11.08%), household cleaning substances (7.43%), cosmetics/personal care products (6.76%), sedatives/hypnotics/antipsychotics (5.74%), and antidepressants (5.02%). Including the top 5 most common exposures in children age 5 years or less were cosmetics/personal care products (12.59%), household cleaning substances (10.96%), analgesics (9.18%), foreign bodies/toys/miscellaneous (6.39%), and topical preparations (4.84%). (5)

Healthy homes must extend into the larger world beyond our windows. By definition it means not only making sure that the activities that take place inside our houses are as nontoxic as possible, but also doing whatever we can to make sure that these activities don’t negatively impact the environment outside. As ever increasing amounts and types of different industrial chemicals are being manufactured and used, our environment is becoming increasingly contaminated by the pollution these chemicals create. This is because many of the synthetic chemicals made today do not easily break down into harmless bits and pieces as natural materials do. Instead, they resist decomposition, and once they are introduced into our air, water, and soil, they tend to remain there for long periods of time. This persistence means that as more of these chemicals enter our environment and bodies, they accumulate in ever larger amounts. 

What Can I Do? Small Changes = Huge Benefits

Manufacturers and the organizations that works to protect their interests aren’t going to make the changes we need. If, as consumers you want the right to know exactly what is in the products you purchase and to change the toxicity of products used all around you and your family, you need to ask for and demand change.

Research the products you buy. Purchase only from companies that list all the ingredients on their products’ packaging. When you do have a concern about a commercial product, contact the company and express your concerns about their ingredients and/or marketing practices.

Ask the places you frequent —schools, daycares, workplaces, in community centers— to change the products they use to safer, less toxic supplies for the well being of our children, friends, parents, and community.

Speak about this issue and your concerns with your family, neighbors, coworkers and friends.

Make your own cleaning products for your home, using less toxic ingredients. There are many resources available including immersive trainings like Sustainable Practice: Homesteading to Skin Care, which I will co teach this May 2019. During the course students will learn how to create their own line of nontoxic natural products and free themselves from a dependency on wasteful commercialized goods. This course and others like it can provide an introduction to topics such as fermentation, distillation and herbalism in order to help build the foundation skills and confidence students often need in order to safely create their own personal care products and promote holistic wellbeing in their home and environment.

Article written by Sharleen Marie, co-founder of Atabey Botanicals, a social enterprise dedicated to supporting you develop practical applications of sustainability into your lifestyle that will improve your health and well being and protect the environment.

The workshop will be held at Rancho Mastatal, Costa Rica. Learn, Stay and Explore the education center, working permaculture farm, lodge and community rooted in environmental sustainability, meaningful, place-based livelihoods, and caring relationships.

To know more, access https://ranchomastatal.com/sustainablepractice or contact me through atabeybotanicals@gmail.com

Sources:

(1) Welsh, M. S., Lamesse, M., Karpinski, E. (2000) “Te verification of hazardous ingredients disclosure in selected material safety data sheets.” Appl Occup Environ Hyg. 15(5):409-420.

(2) US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Toxic Substances, “Analysis of Human Adipose Tissue, Volume 1: Technical Approach.” (1987) Accessed online on April 4th 2019, https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/10003C6I.txt?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=1986%20Thru%201990&Docs=&Query=human%20adipose%20tissue%20technical%20approach&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=2&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&UseQField=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%5CZYFILES%5CINDEX%20DATA%5C86THRU90%5CTXT%5C00000000%5C10003C6I.txt&User=anonymous&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=-f%3Apubyear&MaximumDocuments=15&FuzzyDegree=-1&ImageQuality=r85g16/r85g16/x150y150g16/i500&Display=hpfr&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionE&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=1&SeekPage=x

(3) Steve Waygood, “Uncertainty Persists on Chemical Equation.” Environmental Finance, September 2004

(4) https://www.ewg.org/research/under-new-safety-law-epa-picks-first-10-chemicals-review

(5) Gummin DD, Mowry JB, Spyker DA, Brooks DE, Osterthaler KM, et al. 2017 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' National Poison Data System (NPDS): 35th Annual Report. Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2018 Dec 21;:1-203. PubMed PMID: 30576252.

How Can We Make a Change in the World

How Can We Make a Change in the World

 by Diana Dagash, Apprentice 2019

Everything seems to have been created by a higher intelligence that has designed this universe in mysterious ways for us to live off. We live in a perfect symbiosis with nature. Everything seems to have a purpose which co-exists with all that is around us yet we don’t have an explanation to all this perfection.

What if we had the access to tap in to the secrets of nature, would it be possible to live a healthier and more sustainable way?

How does our connection and understanding of nature relate back to ourselves?

What if the way we treat our own bodies reflects on the way we treat Mother Earth?

If we look at the patterns in nature we can see that  Earth is a macrocosm reflection of our own organisms. Earth is our body, the trees our lungs, plants our hair. The waters, seas are our fluids, that are in sync with the moon and the planets. The stages of the moon reflect on our emotional, energetical and physical states. The new moon represents a new cycle for growth, setting intentions, regeneration and with the full moon we reach peak of our energy as the tides of the sea rise, the winds get stronger, nature is at its highest strength. It is a good time to harvest what we’ve sown.

 When the body is ill and weak it struggles to regulate its own temperature the, extremes of hot and cold temperatures resemble the behavior of our planet. Observing today’s climate change and  natural disasters  reflect on how we’ve been treating this planet. We already see the consequences of our actions. We have abused and exploited the forests and waters.

Mother Earth is patient and compassionate, she embraces us , provides us with all our needs , we are her children. She needs our cooperation , our understanding of the messages she sends to us, for us all to survive and thrive. We have forgotten our origin, where our food comes from, what allows us to coexist.

We are trying to live against the cycle of life by suppressing our illness symptoms just as we are manipulating the weather to cover the climate change that we have caused. Society has surrounded itself with comfort, trying to protect itself from nature and  to change its power dynamics .We came out of sync and communication with Mother Earth. We are already paying the price of destruction, exploitation of natural resources and struggle to live in abundance.

The amount of food wasted that could feed the whole world if we stopped and reevaluated our needs and priorities in life. The individualism and race to accumulate more that we could every possible need! The greediness has blinded many of us from love and care to ourselves , to one another and to the planet we live on. The industrialism has left very little space for small farmers to survive. The food grown is mass produced and poisoned in interest to earn money as well as pharmaceutical companies wants us to always come back.

    Our heads have been turned to the other side. Our education has not introduced us to our connection with nature and the healing powers within us and around us. We have not been taught to peacefully communicate with one another, nor how to explore our inner world that provides us with intuition and peaceful mind.
It has been said already “ The whole world is within you.” If we focused ourselves within, maybe we could find the answers to our problems and create a peaceful world we there is no war?

“You cannot solve a problem with the same way of thinking that create it “

I believe that if we integrate education on sustainable living into schools, children growing up with have more much awareness on the importance of sustainable living and the change we can make to a healthier life.
I strongly believe that if we want a change education would be at the base of it all.

How I believe we can make a change:

1. Proper education on sustainable living for example : permaculture, agroforestry, natural building, carpentry, homesteading , making your own biodegradable  body and cleaning products, culinary skills.         

Workshops to inspire and empower you to change

2. Taking responsibility for our actions, the consequences of consumerism and how to stop mass waste production. For example – grow your own food.

Planting seedlings for food production

3. Self-development, healing the micro and macrocosm. Bringing awareness within, practices that pro mote introspection and self-reflection like meditation , learn to peacefully interact with others. Some great book references for this are the following :

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Non-Violent Communication Dr. Rosenberg

The 4 agreements Don Miguel Ruiz

4. Learn life skills that are beneficial to your environment.

Bamboo building at Rancho Mastatal, a sustainable building material

5. Choosing the possibility to live at your highest path , to stand for righteous actions and lifestyle.

6. Gain knowledge of medicinal plants in your area, get familiar with natural medicine, self-healing and maintain a preventative holistic lifestyle.

7. Make space for self-exploration , discover your interests and passions that you heart calls, surely they will benefit the world.

For me it is a priority to dedicate my life to create a greener healthier world, to learn how to be self-sufficient , build my own house , grow my own food, live harmlessly in nature, educate and promote that lifestyle and provide a good future for future generations .

Currently I live in Costa Rica doing a year long apprenticeship on sustainable educational farm that focuses on those matters and has created a heavenly community of loving , caring people that come together to learn and make a change.

I like to visualize a world that lives in abundance and has everyone’s basic needs met. A planet with clean air and water, where we would have food forests all around and houses surrounded with edible greens and herbs. It inspires me to think of what’s possible and focus my energy onto creating it.

Together we can change the world, so let’s take action, create ripples that will spread across the world. The power is within us to create the world we want to live in.

I wish you to pursue your purpose in life and discover your highest path for living.

I warmly invite you to visit farm that teach about sustainability such as Rancho Mastatal, learn about self-sufficiency, minimizing industrialism and harm to the ecology

Seeing all the movements rising to save our Earth I have faith and am excited to see the good changes happening in our society.

There is a rise in consciousness around the globe, let’s all be part of it!

Blessings to all
Diana

Using Mountain Microorganism to Create Organic Fertilizer

Using Mountain Microorganism to Create Organic Fertilizer

By 2019 RM Apprentice Amy Dodds

The need to cultivate a “living soil” that is full of microbes is something I hear frequently in the organic farming and permaculture world. As an apprentice at Rancho Mastatal this year, I have the unique opportunity to look further into the universe of these small and unseen allies. A way into this world was through the Ranch’s process of making organic fertilizer, one that harvests and inoculates the soil with Mountain Microorganisms (MM). This is similar to compost tea, where we create a fermented fertilizer with microorganisms such as manure. MM differs from this by using forest soil and duff layer to create a fertilizer. You can create MM fertilizer anywhere in the world so long as there are forests in your area that has a healthy amount micro life!

In just the second week of our apprenticeship, the Ranch hosted guests from Ecogrecia, another local farm and research centre who are using MM. We were were privileged to get a demonstration of how we can cultivate our own indigenous microorganisms. I will detail this below so you can create your own MM fertilizer but first here’s a bit on the science.

There are many diverse living organisms that improve the soil ecosystem, these include invisible bacteria and fungi and visible worms and insects. A few of the benefits of fostering this micro-community include: aeration of the soil, making nutrients available, fix nitrogen and prevent pathogens. With this in mind we want to cultivate soil in our orchards that is full of microbial life.

Agro-forestry systems at Rancho Mastatal

Our main farming practice at the ranch is agro-forestry. This is essentially using trees with other crops to create an ecosystem that mimics the tropical rain forest environment of Costa Rica. Most forests need a fungal dominated ecology, while still needing bacterial organisms, for optimal soil. The “fungal to bacterial biomass ratio” needs to be 10 parts fungi to 1 part bacteria. Especially important is the mycorrhizal fungi that live closely with tree roots to allow the plant to take up nutrients and water. Therefore we want to harvest a fungal dominated fertilizer. In the past Rancho Mastatal has used manure fertilizers which work well for gardens and vegetables but are less tailored for forest soils, due to their high bacterial rate. This is where Mountain Microorganisms come in!

Mountain microorganisms was originally a Japanese practice that take forest leafs and soil from native forest within the land you are growing in to create an anaerobic ferment (without oxygen). I see this is as beautifully symbiotic as we are inoculating the soil with indigenous microbes from the local environment. We essentially take the mother culture which contains the diversity and variability perfectly suited for your local forest.

Mountain microorganism fertilizer is a better process for our agro-forestry systems, than say compost tea made from manure, due to the high fungal microbes available in our mother culture. Rancho Mastatal has been using the MM process consistently for 3-4 years and noticed improved conditions in their food forest.

One of the first steps in this process, which we did with our apprentice team and the crew from Ecogrecia, is going into the forest and gathering the local microorganisms to create our current solid fermentation. Around the large well established trees, we harvested leaves and sticks that are crumbly and breaking down. They have the delicious white mycorrhizal growth on them. Under the leaves we collect the soil that contains the visible fungi.

Spraying the orchards with an organic fertilizer

From this we can create a solid fermented product and then a foliar spray that will inoculate our soil with the microbiology that we need to improve our soil life. Once it is in foliar spray form we take our backpack sprayer once a week to our orchard trees. Below are the recipes for creating your own microorganisms:

Mountain Microorganism Recipe

MM Solid

3 sacks of Microorganisms
-        This is the duff layer of brown leaves and sticks that contain the mycorrhiza

2 sacks of semolina
-        This acts as the protein, other flour work such as yucca or green banana

1 gallon of molasses
-        This is the sugar that provides the microorganisms with energy
-        Alternatives include fruit or cane juice

1 gallon of water to dilute molasses
3kg of rock dust phosphate
55 gallon plastic drum to store (never metal) 

Mix a layer of the duff with the semolina on a tarpaulin with your hands. Sprinkle the molasses and water over this as you are mixing layers of the duff and semolina.

Shovel the mix into your drum, while you have a friend stamp inside to compress and release any air (as this is an anaerobic ferment). Seal well and store for at least one month in the shade.

This lasts 3-4 years :)

mixing the the recipe above

MM Foliar Spray

5 kg MM Solid
1 gallon of molasses
55 gallon plastic drum filled with water

Add the molasses to the water. Use a screen sack to hang the MM into the liquid. Seal and let it sit for 5 days.

 Use within 3 weeks.

 When applying as a foliar spray, you can dilute with water. Make sure there is at least 10% MM liquid to be effective.

Inoculating the soil with micro-life is only one step in this process. Fungi thrive in high carbon environments so mulch, mulch, mulch! Watering and composting still need to be continued, especially in the tropical dry season.

Happy foresting and fermenting!

 If you are interested in Permaculture and Agroforestry check out some of our upcoming workshops!

References:

Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis Teaming with Microbes: A Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web (2010)

Craig R. Elevitch & Kim M. Wilkinson The Overstory Book: Cultivating Connections with Trees (2001)

Phil Nauta Building Soils Naturally: Innovative Methods for Organic Gardeners (2012)

Scott Gallant Making Microbes: Fungal vs Bacterial Soil Life

https://permaculturenews.org/2016/11/14/making-microbes-fungal-vs-bacterial-soil-life/

The Biodigester

The Biodigester

By Mike Paladino, 2019 Rancho Mastatal Apprentice

It's 5.30 am in the dewy morning rainforest of Mastatal – the cacophony of squawks and birdsong remind us that the winged beings have begun their daily business of foraging for themselves and their young, the toads have tucked themselves into the nook of a tree or within a pile of leaves to avoid the relentless heat of the new day, and one by one the guests at Rancho Mastatal stretch and yawn their way out of their abodes and ease their way towards their first cup of coffee. Within moments of a couple of team members arriving, one opens a valve on a stove and WHOOSH! sparks the flame upon which we will cook our breakfast. But the source for this gas isn't of your average origin. This fuel comes from one of the most potentially troublesome yet profoundly utile resources on Earth: poo.

Here at the Ranch we are utilizing two means of generating alternative energy known as “biodigesters.” A biodigester houses various bacterial species to break down organic matter and capture biogas (namely, methane) released by the bacteria in a process called anaerobic fermentation – i.e. the organic matter is digested by the microbes in the absence of oxygen. In the particular case of Rancho Mastatal and many other sustainability centres around the globe, the common organic matter for these microscopic busybodies is excrement, primarily bovine with a smaller source coming from yours truly. There are several kinds of microbes at work here. Some break the matter into simpler molecules of sugars and acids. Other microbes, which find oxygen toxic, are able to break down the simple organic matter to form gases. The ultimate end result of this process is both energy for heat and electricity as well as valuable soil amendments which we disperse throughout our gardens. Essentially all of our breakfasts (roughly 30% of all food cooked here) are prepared solely with the captured methane gas from the combined two mechanism. It is estimated that reliance upon propane as our major cooking gas was cut by roughly 50% percent after the installation of the biodigester systems.

The human waste system is (and should remain) an ultimately hands-off process. A six-foot deep brick tank surrounded by an air seal was installed seven years ago and inoculated with bacteria to jump start the production of biogas. As the two toilets are flushed, they drain into the tank where the material broken down by the bacteria and transformed into methane which is piped directly to our stove top. The system involving cow manure demands daily attention, but can usually be tended within thirty minutes or less. It requires adding fresh cow patties (one and a half recycled rice bags for us) to a 55-gallon barrel and filling it up with water. It is necessary to pulverize the material so that it becomes water soluble – roughly 15 liters for every kilogram of organic matter. Here it is left to sit for a twenty four hour period prior to being pumped into the four barrels below. As the solids settle to the top, the liquid is moved through the series of tanks below before finally arriving in a PVC bag. The gas is captured and then join the same pipe before reaching the kitchen. The solids are tossed into a 14-day compost rotation before they arrive to the gardens to be sifted and applied to our beds.

Any technology that enables us to transform abandoned “waste” into usable energy shows much promise for small-scale homesteads striving for self-sufficiency as well as society at large. And that's not just another hippie talking s&%t.

How to Make a Simple Woven Basket

How to Make a Simple Woven Basket

By Abby Kuchar, 2019 Rancho Mastatal Apprentice

One of my favorite hobbies is working with natural fibers. Soon after arriving here at the ranch as a new apprentice, I was eager to experiment with weaving a simple basket. The Ranch has an existing collection of beautiful baskets, which play an important role in storing food, while maintaining necessary airflow in this hot, humid climate.

Although I tried researching online the traditional materials used in this area for basket making, I was not able to find any specific plant recommendations. Instead, I began to explore what was readily available around the property.

Each day we enjoy delicious salads composed of greens  such as katuk and the tender leaves of sweet potato vines. The result is a compost heap continuously stocked with both stakes and long, flexible vines.

Katuk, Sweet Potato vines, some examples of vines used for basket weaving.

To begin, you will want to gather eight straight(ish) katuk stems that are around the same size and a large bunch of sweet potato vines. 

Step 1: Preparing the Katuk

 Strip the branches and leaves off and enjoy them in a delicious salad.

Next, trim off the ends so that you are left with eight 10-12 inch long pieces (or 25-30 centimeters).

close enough!

Step 2: Prepping the Sweet Potato

 The preparation of the sweet potato vine is very similar. Simply remove the leaves and the smaller vines off the sides.

I then coiled the vines to keep them tidy and “train” them into being in a tight circle, much like coiling up a garden hose.

I’ve set the thinnest one to the side to use first

Step 3: Weaving the Basket

For clearer instructions on these next few steps, I’d recommend checking out Jon’s Bushcraft tutorial on willow basket making  here. Full disclosure, I was able to make a functioning basket, but the materials were a little fiddly. It’s much easier to see the steps with clean and crisp willow branches.

Start by laying out the katuk branches in a cross shape, 4 by 4.

Yes, my finger nails are very dirty

Next, take the thinnest, most flexible section of sweet potato vine and wrap around each spoke in a clockwise circle

Like I said, fiddly

After going around a second time, split your spokes in half (two katuk branches together) and begin weaving “over, under”

Voted off the basket

After another go around, split your spokes again so that you are weaving between each individual katuk branch

Continue weaving around and around. When you run out of a segment of sweet potato vine, simply lay the next piece on top of the end of the first one and continue on as normal.

After you have reached the desired size for the base of the basket, begin gently coaxing the katuk branches upward

This part can be a bit awkward. Avoid snapping your branches, but if it does happen, the weaving should still hold them in place.

When you reach the desired depth of your basket, it’s time to snip off the excess. Usually, the remainder of the stake is woven back inside the walls of the basket, forming the top edge. However, the katuk was not quite flexible enough, so I chose to use additional sweet potato vine to create a top edge.

I got my inspiration from a basket found in the main house which has some kind of plastic cordage.

Step 4: Have a local teach you how to make a proper basket

After completing my own attempt of a simple basket, I was fortunate enough to meet the older man in town who is responsible for making all the beautiful baskets around the house. He very kindly offered to show me the vines that are harvested from the forest, as well as tips for improvement for this extremely useful craft. Stay tuned for Mastatal basket making 2.0!

Lighthearted Advice for New Apprentices

Lighthearted Advice for New Apprentices

by Denise Mc Keown, 2018 Rancho Mastatal Apprentice

NOTE: For those of you not proficient in Denise’s North Irish humor, this article is written with tongue in cheek about the Ranch’s 11-month apprenticeship.

Arriving in the jungle was quite a shock, especially when they called the time of year of our arrival the “dry season”. Moisture seemed to pervade every orifice. Sometimes that was a good thing, but mostly I’d argue that it was not. Still, the vegetation thrived, as did the bacterial and yeast colonies that fill every niche of life in this ecosytem. As apprentices we learn how to wield these little microscopic buggers for our own benefit in a process colloquially known as “fermentation”. Sandor Katz, the well-known author of Wild Fermentation and other great books about food refers to this process as the place where “life meets death”. He suggests that the best tool for informing you at which point you arrive to a nice fermentation equilibrium is your sense of smell. Here at the Ranch that equates to anywhere along the continuum of “rico” to “bury it deep in the compost”. Piece of Advice 1: When the stinks right, eat it.

The tropical woods that we are afforded to work with gave me a special type of masochistic pleasure. I could lovingly carve some poor joinery with inexperienced hands only to awake the next day and see my piece, bowed four ways from Friday, writhing and distorted. It’s a fun feature of fast growing tropical wood and a never ending learning curve. Piece of Advice 2: Don’t forget that two people test all your furniture so embrace the process of “practice”.

Upon arriving to the Ranch I was staggered by its feats of natural building, much like the adobe bricks that I made at the start of my apprenticeship. Yet the result of the adobe's’ non-conformity, as I liked to qualify their shape, meant that they had to be rendered back to the earth from once they came. Piece of advice 3: Do it right or do it again.

“Ag” is not an abbreviation for agroforestry or agriculture around here as it is commonly thought.  Instead it’s what you will say and feel when your knee-deep in the orchards. It’s also what you’ll exclaim when you taste the fruits of our labor and that of many others before us. It’s a different world in those food production systems; miracle fruit, mangosteens, ice cream beans, cashew apples, rambutan, vanilla and black pepper. Prepare to have buckets and wheelbarrows of fun helping the fruit trees to thrive. Piece of Advice 4: Don’t touch the cute caterpillars and watch out for snakes.

You’ll really dig Zone 1.  Take care to nurse and propagate the work we started. Remembering that sometimes it’s overwhelming and that it will be your job to swing that ‘whelm’ towards the food and flowers and not the weeds. Piece of Advice 5: Learn to fill a nursery bag the right way from the get go.

I wish I could tell you that “Chester the Molester” was just a cute nick name, but “molestar you” he will, which is fine as he’s just one of the Ranch’s cat. The less said about Max (short for “Maximo Gordo) the better. “Lola” or “Lolita” is just like the story, a young pup who’s only companion is a male dog several times her age, the elder which we call Jack. They all protect the Ranch from motorbikes and people with umbrellas and hats. Piece of Advice 6: Don’t f**k with Chester.

The core team might be the only thing in the tropics not trying to kill you.  This is because they have enough to do. While it might feel like you’re doing some of the shittiest jobs, pun intended, it’s nothing compared to the effort put in by the “tico” team. If you make it through the first three months, you’ll be capable of the rest.  If you do it without any holes in your clothes, then you’re not really doing it. Or you have some fancy-assed clothes. Piece of Advice 7: Remember that “ticos” can always do it faster and better

The tropics will jolt you in the same way they will your electronics, leaving you somewhat reeling and occasionally frozen in time when asked to do more than one task at once. You’ve been forewarned now, so come prepared for your life to never be the same again. Last Piece of Advice: If you care about it, leave it home.

How to Make an Earthen Floor for Your Sustainable Home

How to Make An Earthen Floor

Why Build an Earthen Floor?

This Earthen Floor adds a wonderful warmth to the Ceiba Lounge

Earthen floors add a great earthy touch to your sustainable home; whether that’s in your cob house or conventional stick frame home. They have more give than concrete or tile, meaning they are more comfortable and easy on your feet. Earthen floors can be durable and last a long time, but are not the best material for all spaces in your home. They will break down faster when there is a lot of moisture on them or heavy items dropped on them. So places like your kitchen and bathroom are not ideal locations for an earthen floor. Earthen floors work great for bedrooms and living rooms.

Mixing by hand gives you a great feel for the mixture

Here at the Ranch we have been practicing and perfecting our earthen floors for more than 15 years. We strive to create sustainable homes from natural, local materials. Natural building is one of the ways we practice green living. We have seen what works and what doesn’t in many different structures and spaces throughout our community. After having an earthen floor in our kitchen, a space that produces three meals a day for an average of 30 people, and after repairing patches again and again, we realized this space is too heavily used for an earthen floor. Spaces like our guest cabins are perfect for earthen floors. Of course with hundreds of people going through these spaces they wear down over time. If you correctly lay an earthen floor in your home, and take care of it, they should last you for a long time. 

Wooden guides can be used to help keep the correct thickness

How We Build Our Earthen Floors

Base and final coat in a sample, always make tests!

Here in our tropical environment, with the materials locally available to us, we have finally figured out a bomber earthen floor. Here is a simple step by step guide on how we lay an earthen floor.

An earthen floor is comprised of 4 different layers

·       Water proof membrane

·       Tamped gravel (optional to increase total depth)

·       Compacted road base (mixture of sand, clay and gravel)

·       Two layers of final floor (mixture of sand, clay and chopped straw)

Make sure your samples are large enough to be representative!

Before you begin make samples! Always make samples for anything you plan on building; whether that is for your cob house, outdoor pizza oven, or natural plasters. We recommend making at least 3 samples with different ratios of clay, sand, and straw. These should be at least 1 meter by 1 meter to get an accurate example of the final product. 

Steps once you find the correct ratios

1)     Lay down a waterproof membrane, wrapping it up the inside of the stem wall.

2)     If you need to increase the depth of your floor height you can add tamped gravel.

3)     Compact your road base. Minimum depth is 4 inches.  

4)     Lay down your first layer of final floor. We do ¾ inch thick. Let completely dry. 

5)     Lay down your final layer of floor. We do ¼ inch thick. This can be troweled smooth to close any holes. Let completely dry. 

6)     Paint multiple layers of linseed oil/thinners combo at 3:1 ratio. This provides a protective coat that will increase the longevity of your floor.

Want to Learn More?

Perfecting an earthen floor takes time and practice. If you are trying to create a sustainable home consider using earth for your floor and throughout your home.

If you would like to get some hands on experience in natural building join us for one of our upcoming courses check out our workshops page for our latest offerings.

References:

Earthen Floors - A modern Approach to An Ancient Practice By Sukita Reay Crimmel & James Thomson

Ranch Reading Recommendations: 8 Great Books I Read This Fall That Relate To Our Work

Ranch Reading Recommendations: 8 Great Books I Read This Fall That Relate To Our Work

By Tim O’Hara, Ranch Core Team

During my annual visits to see family in the United States, I oftentimes have the opportunity to catch up on some reading that regularly alludes me during the busy seasons here in Mastatal.  More than any year in recent memory, I felt as if I hit the jackpot with the titles that I was recommended, came across, and picked up this fall.  Here’s a quick glance at them, all of which I’d suggest to anyone looking to add a good volume or two to their personal or professional library.  I think that all of these titles are relevant to our work at the Ranch and the greater work that so many of you that read our blog are interested in.  

The Story of the Human Body:  Evolution, Health and Disease by Dr. Daniel Lieberman

An informative and thought-provoking book for readers interested in human and cultural evolution and how they have come together to impact our specie’s health in modern times.  

The Wizard and the Prophet:  Two Remarkable Scientists and their Conflicting Visions of the Future of the Planet by Charles Mann

A dissertation about two philosophies on how to tackle current problems of feeding a growing global population and dealing with climate change.  One view contemplates technological and engineering solutions while the other espouses resolutions with a softer touch on our environment.

Neither Wolf Nor Dog:  On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder by Kent Nerbern

Nerbern documents the thoughts, beliefs and stories of a Lakota Sioux elder in this eye-opening, sometimes heartbreaking, and other times hopeful look at how humans might change the way they live to find common ground in addressing past atrocities and future challenges.  It had been quite a few years since I read a book focusing on Native American challenges.  I couldn’t put this book down once I started.  Some other titles related to Native American history that I’ve read in the past and also recommend include Peter Matthiesson’s In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, John Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks, and Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues.   

Lost Connections:  Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari

An eye-opening book about the nature of anxiety and depression and some surprising strategies to deal with these increasingly challenging and difficult social issues.  I read another of Hari’s books last fall entitled Chasing the Scream:  The Opposite of Addiction is Connection.  I raced through both books.  Hari’s writing style is accessible, absorbing and compelling.  

How to Change Your Mind:  What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness , Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence by Michael Pollen

A fascinating read about the history of psychedelics and their potential use to address social problems such as addiction, depression and terminal illness.  Pollen strays from writing about food for the first that I know about in many years.  I think that this is a courageous attempt to shed light on an oftentimes contentious, misunderstood and polemic subject that deserves another look by researchers, academia, medical professionals and society as a whole.  

Bringing it to the Table:  On Farming and Food by Wendell Berry

A nice compilation of essays about food and farming.  Over the last decade or more I have repeatedly returned to Berry when I feel the need to reground.  His essays are a refreshing look into the darkness of what has become of conventional agriculture in the United States and elsewhere.  

The Gift of Good Land by Wendell Berry

A great collection of short essays by one of my favorite authors.  Berry’s compositions never fail to get me thinking deeply about the topics that are most relevant to my future.

I’ll also add another book even though I haven’t finished it yet as it is offering a fascinating perspective about humans and our current predicaments.  

Sapiens:  A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

The book goes deeper into some topics populated by Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel and Charles Mann’s 1492.  It’s a fascinating read that includes new research and theory as to how we have become the planet’s dominant species with insight as to why that argument is changing so quickly and alarmingly as humans impact the natural planetary systems that sustain them.  

I found all of the books on this list riveting, well-written and provocative.  They all had me at one time or another thinking about what I could be doing better as a father, business owner and global citizen.  The information that I ingested was at times difficult to read, inspiring, despairing, hopeful and motivational.  As I always appreciate personal recommendations for new books, I wanted to share with others the topics that have most recently been on the forefront of my evolving brain.  

Mastatal’s Local Library

The Basic Pantry Analysis: Design, Food, Sourcing

The Basic Pantry Analysis:  Design, Food, Sourcing

By Laura Killingbeck, Porvenir Design's Food System Designer

The Human Diet as An Ecological System
Cuisine is diet that's unique to a physical place and a human cultural group. We can taste the patterns of modern cuisine in the melding of characteristic ingredients into characteristic forms. Wheat noodles with tomato sauce points us in the direction of Italy. Fermented spiced cabbage leads us to Korean kimchi. Even amid tremendous variation, and even as these cultural foods are exported, appropriated, and evolve in different ways in different places, we are still able in many cases to recognize a cultural and geographical narrative embedded within relational patterns of flavors and forms.

Across the span of human agricultural history, cuisine sprung from ecological relationships—people ate what grew well in their area, and they grew what nourished them. Humans shaped the morphology of plant, animal, and microbial species by selective breeding; in turn, these foods changed the physiology of the human body. Cultural groups vary widely in their tolerance and desire for certain foods—these are genetic adaptations to their peoples' long history of evolution with specific cuisine. The co-transformation of people and food species was exquisitely mediated by the opportunities and limitations of the ecological niche of the place where they lived. Growth was balanced and calibrated within an ecological feedback loop of regenerating resources.
But in recent human history, globalization expanded our access to place and people, while simultaneously breaking this ecological feedback loop. We travel, and food travels; neither is linked, necessarily, in place. People are still connected with the world, but now we are connected differently. This shift is transforming the evolution of cuisine in unprecedented ways.
 

If you imagine the path of human ecology as a train traveling down a railroad track, globalization is the conductor turning the train onto a new track. Human relationships with food are now evolving in a different direction than they did before. The foundation for cuisine is no longer an ecological relationship between people and place; it is an economic relationship between people and business. Businesses grow or produce food and ship it around the world, where chains of distributors buy it and warehouse it in grocery stores. Surely this is not the only way that food works, and local food cultures still thrive in many areas. But it is a style of human-food interaction that is growing and replacing such local cultures. As we become increasingly separate from our direct relationship with the ecological patterns that once mediated food and diet, we become more deeply fused with a new, abstract, relationship with global commerce. The foods we like to eat often have less to do with healthy ecology, and more to do with macroeconomics and marketing.

We know there are a lot of problems with this. The Western Diet (aka, global cuisine) is correlated to chronic disease and poor health. Mass agriculture depletes soil and species diversity. Industrial pesticides and fertilizers damage ecosystems. There is a lot more to say but I don't have to say it—on some level we know, all the time, that this is bad. And even as we know, we still eat global-industrial foods, because we're hungry, its what we know, and its what's there.

Post-Harvest Permaculture Design
Permaculture design is essentially applied ecology for human development. It studies and teaches how life relates to place, with the object of sustaining that life and that place. A lot of the literature within Permaculture Design centers on the infrastructure development of building, landscape, and agricultural systems. It most often highlights the agricultural side, with ideas and methods of learning how to integrate human agricultural systems with the larger ecology of life on earth.

But interestingly, the focus on agricultural systems within Permaculture Design methodologies often only lightly brushes post-harvest food handling and cuisine development. The general thinking is that once people understand food production as a functional part of ecological systems, they will be able to grow more food. This has been very successful for many people, with one caveat—growing plants, animals, or microbial species that are edible does not mean you are growing food that is ready to eat. A a plot of wheat and a chicken pecking bugs can be wonderful parts of an agricultural ecosystem, but if you want a chicken sandwich there is still a lot of work to do.

Over the last nine years I've worked with two farms and education centers who dedicated themselves to the process of farm-to-table food production—one in temperate Massachusetts, and the other in tropical Costa Rica. This allowed me to study and practice food preservation and processing across climates, and see the similarities and differences that unfolded.

At Rancho Mastatal in Costa Rica, even very common foods, like malanga, tiquisque, cuadrados, pejibaye, and chaya were all new to us. And what do you do with a sudden hundred pounds of ripe bananas? At Round the Bend Farm in Massachusetts, we needed to preserve large quantities of food seasonally to last the winter, in a way that was totally different than in the tropics. We also transitioned from a home-scale cooking facility to one which could serve hundreds, and had to scale our systems up to meet new demands. At both organizations, it took us a lot of time, and a lot of trial and error, to acquire the skills, tools, and labor to do these things. And to do these things efficiently, it took structured seasonal planning. The teaspoon of ginger you need now in your recipe had to be grown a year ago, then harvested, dried, powdered, and stored. We had to learn how to organize ourselves in relation to local food, in ways that were intrinsically different from how we used to organize ourselves in relation to globalized foods.

The human element of how we interacted with food based on our personal and cultural backgrounds was another huge piece of the puzzle for local eating, especially in Costa Rica. We craved western-style bread products; people didn't always like Costa Rican cuisine; some people were afraid of new foods like fermented bananas. Eating locally meant coming to terms with the cultural references for desirability of foods we had brought with us, in relation to the ecological and cultural backdrop of a new country and climate. We had to adapt ourselves to new styles of cuisine, and adapt that cuisine to ourselves as newcomers.

Most of my work in Costa Rica and Massachusetts was to create, systematize, and implement post-harvest food processing and preservation strategies based on farm foods. I also worked with numerous farm owners, communities, and homesteaders who were and are in the process of divesting from their dependence on global-market food supplies. It is through these relationships and experiences that I began to notice consistent patterns in the challenges people faced in transforming their farms into food. I started comparing patterns of limitations and successes that people were reporting, with those of the organizations I was working with. I used permaculture design to organize these patterns into a systematic format that I could use to consult with people about how to achieve more efficient and accelerated farm-to-table food system success.

I call this consultation service the Basic Pantry Analysis. The title and process drew inspiration from many collaborators in the fields of permaculture design and farm-to-table cuisine; in particular the work of Costa Rican ethnobotonist Rafael Ocampo, as well as that of the Sat Yoga Institute. A similar process focused on family nutrition has also been promoted by the Instituto de Nutrición de Centroamérica y Panamá (INCAP). My version of this process is based on my experience working with farms and communities, and is an adaptation of a wonderful wealth of collaboration among many individuals and organizations.

The Basic Pantry Analysis
The Basic Pantry Analysis matches the ecological needs of your land, with your cultural and personal frames of reference, your dietary needs and desires, and your resource capacity, to form a “basic pantry” of ingredients, whole and value added, that you will use to develop your own dynamic cuisine—that is, the meals you eat every day to sustain yourself in the place you live. This process is useful for anyone who wants to accelerate their ability to grow, process, and eat local foods.

Your Basic Pantry will be designed through a combination of personal decisions and desires, which inform a multitude of what are often very simple tasks. Those big ideas and those little tasks are what build the complex whole. The consultation service is divided into four primary parts: Vision, Layout, Basic Pantry, and Adaptation. The scope of service varies depending on the client's needs and desires.

Sample Outline of Basic Pantry Service
Please note this varies based on client needs.

Vision
This is the overall concept of your cuisine. Exploration of goals and values, and how those relate to your capacity. Make decisions about priorities for ecological, cultural, dietary, financial, factors.

What the client receives:

    •    A one paragraph vision statement for your cuisine.
    •    A one page analysis of the factors and values that contribute to that vision.
    •    A sample set of meals you could expect to eat over the course of the year.

Layout
This is the architectural layout of your plan—it shows clearly how different food elements and tasks fit into your cuisine over time.

What the client receives:

    •    Daily, weekly, monthly, and/or annual list of post-harvest food tasks for your mature food system.
    •    Analysis of tools and infrastructure.
    •    Analysis of skills and labor needed.
    •    Basic five year analysis of how your food system transitions through time.
  
Basic Pantry
You need lots of ingredients to make meals—this is the list of those ingredients, whole and value-added. I work closely with the agricultural team to make recommendations about food species.

What the client receives:

    •    Sourcing and Growing list
    •    Processed and Preserved foods list

Adaptation
Your Basic Pantry Analysis is a starting point, not an end. It will grow and shift and evolve as you and your land do. This section is a structured feedback loop to help you grow and shift your cuisine based on your priorities.

What the client receives:

    •    Design concept follow up questions
    •    Blank harvest, processing, and/or other charts for feedback
    •    Supporting appendix—contains client-specific documents on further skills and strategies, and/or other supplementary documentation as needed.

For more information on costs and deliverables of this service please write our team at info@porvenirdesign.com.

For information on food related workshops at Rancho Mastatal please see go to our Workshops page.  
 

Flexitarianism: Living and Sharing Solutions to Climate Change

Flexitarianism:  Living and Sharing Solutions to Climate Change

by Matthew Livingston
Matt is currently one of the Ranch's year-long apprentices.

DISCLAIMER: These are my thoughts and experiences on what can be a deeply cultural, charged and personal topic: diet. There is a lot we don’t know, especially when it comes to what a sustainable diet is. For one, most studies have been centred in high-income Western countries (Jones et al., 2016); it’s also still largely unclear exactly what a “healthy diet” should consist of, nevertheless what a truly sustainable society would look like. Integrating all of these concepts is an enormous challenge.

“Defining what represents a macro-nutritionally balanced diet remains an open question and a high priority in nutrition research.” (Song et al., 2016)

Before coming to the Ranch, I had been vegetarian for about a year and a half, predominantly for environmental reasons. Currently, I would probably classify as a “flexitarian” or “ethical omnivore”, as are most of the denizens here, with the majority of the diet being plant-based. Ideally ~95% of our calories would come from plants, due to extensive research on the health, longevity and environmental benefits of eating a predominantly plant-based diet (1, 2, 3). A 95:5 plant to meat ratio is manifest in all of the Blue Zones (4), examples being Okinawa & Sardinia, where people live the longest and most healthful lives in the world. Allow me to explain how I came to this decision and why I’m sticking with it for now…

My original swap to vegetarianism was influenced by my desire to live “more sustainably”, and healthily, as it is for many people now. I saw the documentary film “Cowspiracy” (bear with me) and this initiated my research into food and agriculture, which carried over into my environmental sustainability degree. It was also enough to shift one of my fundamental behavioural patterns – my diet. It was a little tough going at first,  but I soon found that I didn’t miss eating meat much at all. I felt a bit better about myself, “knowing” that I wasn’t contributing as much to global warming, as my research indicated that changing one’s diet can be one of the most impactful ways of reducing your carbon footprint (Aleksandrowicz et al., 2016)…

Fast forward to May 2017, when I travelled to Ridgedale Permaculture farm in Sweden for my Permaculture Design Course with Richard Perkins. Richard is a proud meat-eater, being particularly fond of freshly line-caught fish, properly cured bacon & sausages, and a nice, juicy steak from locally reared, regeneratively farmed livestock, as viewers of his Youtube channel will know. He was keen to point out that there are in fact “no ecosystems on this planet that exist without animals driving the nutrient cycling” (Perkins, 2016). Ecosystems depend on the cycling of nutrients (and minerals) in order to function, and these nutrients can be accumulated, dispersed and concentrated by animals in such a way as to benefit the whole.

One beautiful example of this is the salmon of British Columbia, that feed the bears, eagles, forests and pretty much everything else that lives there with nitrogen and other accumulated minerals from the ocean when they return to their spawning grounds. Another was the Great Plains of North America, where tens of millions of bison roamed. These prairie lands were extraordinarily diverse habitats for a multitude of co-evolved flora & fauna, micro and macroscopic. Now they have predominantly been turned into endless fields of corn, wheat and soybeans, using fossil-fuel powered machinery and chemicals to maximise profit whilst depleting soil of not only its nutrients, contributing to erosion and nitrogen runoff, but its life too.

Regenerative Agriculture aims to work differently. The challenge is to maintain healthy yields and livelihoods whilst simultaneously enriching soil, biodiversity and ecosystems and improving the system’s ability to regenerate itself. Through various mechanisms, we can actually draw down carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soils and vegetation. What’s more, animals can help achieve this goal. Grazing animals such as bison co-evolved with grasses (which are extremely efficient sunlight accumulators, astronomically more so than our photovoltaic panels), such that massive herds would graze through perennial grasses whilst defecating and trampling the remnants down to create a mulch that left the soil covered, before moving on. The grasses would get a natural fertiliser boost but wouldn’t be eaten down completely, which meant that they could grow back and not have to deplete their soil nutrient reserves. Over time, this kind of rotational grazing, especially when well-managed, can build significant amounts of soil. At Ridgedale, they have employed it, along with other techniques such as Keyline Design, to build over 6 inches of soil in just four seasons. There is even a project called Pleistocene Park in northern Siberia that hopes to repopulate the Mammoth Steppe, which historically supported one of the largest densities of herbivores in history and could function as a massive carbon sink. Surely we need animals as a part of our (agri)culture, then?

Well, you might point out that ruminant animals like cows and sheep that we are now cultivating in extremely large numbers produce methane as a part of their digestion, a greenhouse gas with ~30 times more “global warming potential” than CO2. Greenhouse gas accountancy is a complex topic and there is still significant debate as to whether the sequestered carbon pays off the methane produced during the lifecycle of the animal (see Garnett et al., 2017 & P.P.S.); that said, it’s also possible that the earth historically supported much larger numbers of herbivores, many of which were likely driven extinct by humans thus contributing to ecosystem disruption, as discussed in Sapiens and elsewhere (7, 8).

Another common argument is that eating animals is calorically inefficient when we could eat what we feed them. I would say this is a partially valid point in that animals, especially cattle, often need more land and water to produce than their plant-based counterparts, but it’s less valid when discussing purely grass-fed animals whose rumens are evolutionarily designed to digest grass, which most of us humans obviously don’t do very well; this suggests that if you want to obtain food from a parcel of land that wants to be grassland, you could force it to be not grassland, or you could manage and eat animals that are designed to live in and perpetuate that ecosystem. The Sustainable Food Trust goes so far as to say “the only sustainable way to obtain food from grassland is to graze it with ruminants”, which does sound a bit extreme especially considering that rabbits and geese are just two examples of non-ruminants that can be grass-fed. Livestock especially are getting a lot of bad rap due to the significant environmental damages of deforestation for pasture (an example of forcing an ecosystem to be something it doesn’t want to be) and their methane and nitrous oxide emissions (Steinfield, 2006; Stoll-Kleemann, 2015; many others).

Whilst not negligible, I’m concerned that many of the livestock systems under scrutiny aren’t representative of best-practice regenerative methods and that there is definitely the problem of reducing a living creature to the efficiency metric of its greenhouse gas emissions per kg of meat without considering all of its other beneficial functions and services; this metric has led people to the conclusion that “landless systems” or feedlots are better for the environment (Garnett et al., 2017), despite animal welfare being known to be abysmal and where wastes are concentrated and rarely dealt with properly. These factors go against the principles of regenerative agriculture and thus wouldn’t be allowed to continue; yes, grass-fed cows and other ruminants require more land, but we could limit the amount of land devoted to raising them and thereby reduce the total stock and consumption. In this manner, by allowing animals and ecosystems to express their true functions and behaviours according to the co-evolutionary properties of the animals and their environments, it might be possible for humans to yield ethically sound animal-derived food that positively contributes to the whole-earth system.

There are also a few points I would like to discuss with regards to plant-based (especially vegan) diets. Vegetables and whole grains, which form the staples of most healthful plant-based diets, as well as fruits and nuts, obviously take some amount of energy to produce, thus we need to consider where this energy or fertility comes from. We also need to consider where the dietary fat, protein and vitamin B12 will come from (amongst other nutrients/minerals) when meat is abstained from completely; I believe it is possible to meet your protein needs on a plant-based diet (Ranganathan et al., 2016), but doing so in the dead of winter in a temperature climate in a sustainable manner might be more difficult (are the Inuits an unsustainable people?)

Even the “most sustainable”farming methods I am aware of (which may or may not be organic certified) acknowledge that the inputs to grow food ultimately have to come from biological nitrogen fixation, conversion via animals, or inorganic elements (chemicals). For example, compost is vital to almost all organic, traditional and regenerative farms, and often incorporates animal manure, which adds additional nitrogen and biology to the soil and ultimately to the plants. The only exceptions I can think of to this would be Jean-Pain compost (which uses only wood chips and water) and Masanobu Fukuoka style rice and winter wheat cultivation, where the straw from the previous crop was left on the field as mulch and nutrients. Even the ancient and incredibly successful Meso-american Chinampas systems, as well as the rice cultivating nations of China, South Korea and Japan, have utilised ferti-irrigation techniques comprised predominantly of the wastes of fish as nutrients. Thus, since no sustainable farming methods can use inorganic chemicals derived from fossil fuels, most consumers that eat a purely plant-based diet are still deriving their nutrients from (the functioning and inclusion of) animals… Perhaps the question then becomes can, should and how would we integrate animals into our farming systems without eating them?

I’m still considering the implications of these questions and my position on the frequency and type of my animal consumption. We’ve had four “Pig Parties” in the four months I’ve been here at the Ranch, and chicken about once a week on average, all of which was reared and slaughtered locally in Mastatal. This corresponds pretty well to a 95:5 plant:meat ratio (see P.P.P.S.). For the first of the two pigs I visited the farm where it lived, died and bore witness to how it was processed; for the second we had an intro on how to properly butcher a pig. I think this is a crucial missing link for the majority of meat consumers and we need to continue building awareness of the realities of industrial slaughterhouses. Both of the animals I visited lived outdoors in tropical home gardens, feeding on bananas and other food scraps, although I’ve now been told it’s likely they were fed some concentrated feed. Pigs will eat just about anything, including chickens – they are probably the ultimate organic material recycling animal. Feeding farm animals to other farm animals is illegal in many parts of the world, but we need to always be searching for ways to turn “waste” into food, and pigs are one effective way of doing so. They in turn provide manure to feed back into the ecosystem and, when the time is right, are themselves converted into protein, fat and flavour for dozens of people for multiple meals. They can also provide piglets so that the system can continue, perhaps indefinitely. Without pigs in this system, you would have to replace the dietary protein and fat, which in our climate would likely come from more annual beans and palm oil from cleared forest land, as well as find another method of recycling the food scraps (vermi-compost is great, but doesn’t provide food in return).

Based on this discussion, I would like to present my initial take on a scale to classify diets based on their ability to be sustained, from best to worst:

1. Local regenerative

2. Local organic certified

3. Non-local regenerative

4. Non-local organic certified (many vegetarians/vegans in cities)

5. Local conventional

6. Non-local conventional (most consumers)

Where locality is on a scale from hyper-local (within 5km), to local (within 50km), to regional (within 250km), to non-local (further than 250km). Another important variable that goes hand-in-hand with locality is seasonality. Thus a checklist for regenerative dietary choices might be something like:

1. Is it local? (as the crow flies to place of origin): <=5km — <=50km — <=250km — >250km — Don’t know

   1. Does it come from your garden, your nearest farmer, your nearest market, or another country?

2. Is it in season?: Yes — No — Don’t know

   1. Are you regularly eating avocado, chocolate or coffee in winter in a temperate climate? What can you eat and drink locally and seasonally to replace imported goods you habitually desire?

   2. Are you consuming fermented foods and beverages? The Japanese have one of the strongest food cultures (called Washoku 和食) and longest lived people in the world, and 5/6 of their staple food ingredients are fermented foods. Fermentation is not only extremely beneficial for your health, but ties in beautifully with preserving the abundance of the harvest.

3. Was it produced regeneratively?

   1. Did it build soil and/or sequester carbon?: Yes — No — Don’t know

   2. Did its production support local farmer(s)/community? Yes — No — Don’t know

   3. Did it use no chemicals and no or very little fossil-fuel powered machinery in its production? Yes — No — Don’t know

It is my guess that many consumers would tick No or Don’t Know for every field, whilst falling into the worst category (non-local conventional). We need to shift first from ignorance to awareness before we can shift to understanding and action – behavioural change is flipping hard! All I can say right now is the link between diet and planetary health is crucial in navigating our transition towards a sustainable prosperity.

Let me be clear: plant-based diets are absolutely a big part of the solution, and there are many cases (including the average Western diet) where meat consumption should be reduced, but nevertheless animals aren’t the enemy. Vegans, vegetarians and ethical omnivores have a common enemy, and that is industrial agriculture (especially feedlots, which are completely awful). Meat in moderation, i.e. Meat Mondays as opposed to Meatless Mondays, may be a way forward for many people, rather than jumping straight to 100% plant-based diets based on quinoa and avocados shipped in from someplace slightly more exotic. I think this better follows the Transition Ethic that Rob Hopkins thoroughly emphasises via the Transition Network, by meeting people where they’re at – there is an irrepressible demand for meat due to complex sociocultural factors that will take time to shift away from, but if we can make ethical compromises that simultaneously shift mindsets, we will be well on our way to a more symbiotic relationship between humans and Nature.

May The Triforce (Plants, Animals and Fungi!) Be With You!

P.S. Follow the debate here, and here.

P.P.S. For the adventurous you can read my Regenerative Agriculture Brief and explore the references there too!

P.P.P.S. Three meals a day with chicken for 52 meals and pork for 12 meals in a year = (365*3-(52+12))/(365*3)*100 = 94.2%.

References, a.k.a. some of the things I’ve read:

• Aleksandrowicz, L. et al., 2016. The Impacts of Dietary Change on Greenhouse Gas Emissions , Land Use , Water Use , and Health : A Systematic Review.

• Badgley, C. et al., 2017. Organic agriculture and the global food supply.

• Beuttner, D. & Skemp, S., 2016. Blue Zones: Lessons From the World’s Longest Lived. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, vol. 10 • no. 5.

• Davis, K.F. et al., 2016. Meeting future food demand with current agricultural resources.

• Garnett, T. et al., 2017. Grazed and Confused? Ruminating on cattle, grazing systems, methane, nitrous oxide, the soil carbon sequestration question – and what it all means for greenhouse gas emissions. FCRN, University of Oxford.

• Gephart, J.A. et al., 2016. The environmental cost of subsistence : Optimizing diets to minimize footprints.

• Hathaway, M.D., 2016. Agroecology and permaculture : addressing key ecological problems by rethinking and redesigning agricultural systems.

• Jones et al., 2016. A Systematic Review of the Measurement of Sustainable Diets.

• Perignon, M., et al., 2017. Improving diet sustainability through evolution of food choices: review of epidemiological studies on the environmental impact of diets.

• Perkins, R., 2016. Making Small Farms Work: A Pragmatic Whole Systems Approach to Profitable Regenerative Agriculture.

• Ranganathan, J. et al., 2016. Shifting Diets for a Sustainable Future. World Resources Institute.

• Reay, D.S. et al., 2012. Global agriculture and nitrous oxide emissions. Nature Climate Change, 2(6), pp.410–416.

• Smith, P.S. et al., 2014. AR5, WG3, Ch 11, Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU). Ar5, Wg3, pp.811–922.

• Song, M., et al., 2016. Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality.

• Steinfield, H.G., 2006. Livestock’s role in climate change and air pollution. Livestock’s Long Shadow. Environmental Issues and Options, pp.79–123. Available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM.

• Stoll-Kleemann, S. & O’Riordan, T., 2015. The Sustainability Challenges of Our Meat and Dairy Diets.

• Weber, C.L. & Matthews, H.S., 2008. Food-miles and the relative climate impacts of food choices in the United States. Environmental Science and Technology, 42(10), pp.3508–3513.

• West el al., 2015. Leverage points for improving global
  food security and the environment.

Contemplating an Uncertain Future: The Ranch and Climate Change

Contemplating an Uncertain Future:  The Ranch and Climate Change

by Tim O'Hara

Climate change, after decades of lulling at the bottom of the news cycle, has belatedly made it into the headlines as increasing numbers of people become aware, convinced and concerned about the environmental and social impacts of the Earth’s evolving atmospheric conditions.  I frequently think about disrupted weather patterns and what my role in this unfolding story should be.  

Many climate experts argue that we have surpassed the carrying capacity of our planet and that our natural resource base cannot support our modern lifestyles at our current population numbers.  I find this argument believable given the observable degradation of our natural systems everywhere I go.  Modern technology might for a time delay the worst impacts of our behavior, but soon we will stare more squarely in the face the consequences of the environmental alterations that we’ve set in motion.  Indications of a more brittle world are clear to me. 

Humans are descending to systematically destruct our limited natural resource base and in turn one another.  I am discouraged thinking about the future that my daughter is inheriting and struggle to decide how to divide my time between work, personal care and engagement in efforts that help mitigate some of our biggest societal challenges, especially climate change.  I’m not optimistic, but I cherish life, my family and my friends and strive to do my part in figuring out how we can usher in a more just world.        

I was recently asked how Rancho Mastatal is responding to climate change and whether we feel as if we are helping to create an alternative future for those becoming heir to the approaching changes.  In large part Robin and I started the Ranch to address and answer this question.  Widespread social and environmental injustice partly inspired us to leave the United States and a more common life path to set up an “alternative” project that we hoped would contribute to a brighter future.  We are dedicated to learning and teaching more environmentally appropriate ways to grow food in poor soils, build structures that are kinder on Mother Earth, and implement practices that allow us to meet our basic needs without destroying the elements that make it possible for the soil and atmosphere to sustain us.  We are helping to teach future generations that there is indeed a better way to live; a way that is not dominated by an addiction to consumer purchases and modern conveniences or reliant on oppressive economic systems.  We are experimenting with community structures that rely on cooperation and regeneration and have made efforts to conserve a relatively large and intact tract of rainforest.  

A loss of corporate and governmental confidence in dealing with our warming climate has prompted us to start to execute strategies that make us less reliant on traditional businesses and executive bodies.  We’re working towards attaining personal and communal well-being with our everyday activities and are compelled to look for ways to avoid our compromised medical care systems by looking at food as medicine.  We’re looking for ways to engage in the process of designing and building our own homes with the help of friends and learning techniques to grow food for our family and community as global food supplies become more susceptible to unsteady financial systems and weather patterns.  Communities are being torn apart by pollution, sickness, flagging economies and racism.  To address this we want to learn and practice other forms of governance and community structure that we believe can serve us and the world more equitably.  

Our modest efforts won’t be enough to stem the suffering for everyone.  In fact the sad truth is that it might not even prevent future hardships for myself and family.  Nevertheless, we’ve chosen to focus on this work with the hope that profound change might come from the accumulation of millions of small acts, projects and movements that when influential enough will begin to shift the human perspective to a more caring one.  It’s also a way for us to prepare for changes ahead.  

Future challenges will in part be most successfully met by strong networks of compassionate people dedicating their lives to the local problems that most impact them.  As our daughter gets older we’ll encourage her to explore avenues that will simultaneously challenge her intellectually while leading to improvements in our world.  Some of the areas that I encourage Ranch students to explore include energy conservation and renewable energy, education, responsible food production, social and environmental activism, politics, medicine, and counseling.  A warming climate will require bold and courageous engineers, teachers, farmers, activists, health care professionals, mentors, and politicians.  I encourage each of you today to take one small step to become a more engaged steward of our planet.  If not now, then when?

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Check out our updated workshop schedule to see how you can start building relevant skills to make a difference.  

Read this interesting article about how agroforestry can help to sequester carbon, Can Dirt Save the Earth? 

How Mentorship will Help our Permaculture Community Grow

This article was originally published by the NuMundo Transformational Times blog. Please go to their website to read the entire article.

How Mentorship will Help our Permaculture Community Grow

by Scott Gallant

Mentorship may be one of the biggest opportunities for growth in our fledgling permaculture movement. There is interest in professional careers as permaculture designers, but the field lacks quality mentoring opportunities. By these I mean mentoring in a specific field, by a professional who has years of experience, with the goal of developing a specific skill set and livelihood.

Earlier this year I formalized my permaculture design consulting business as Porvenir Design. I’ve been doing design work for the last four years, but part time, informally, not running it as a genuine business. It was a side hustle that is now becoming a primary livelihood.

Never have I craved mentorship like I have during this process.

To finish reading this article please go to the NuMundo Transformational Times blog.

Interested in learning more? Consider joining the Porvenir Design team for their upcoming Permaculture Design Certification at Rancho Mastatal Sustainability Education Center! This intensive two week course is designed to give students hands on experience in a real world site design scenario.

Where to Buy Your Trees and Seeds in Costa Rica?

Where to Buy Your Trees and Seeds in Costa Rica?

By Nic, Core Team

Costa Rica has always been a challenging place to source your materials, as more places are getting online though, it is getting easier and easier to find things that were once impossible.

We are delighted to be able to share with you some of our favorite places to buy grafted fruit trees, seeds and so much more

Gary Zill is one of the leading produces of tropical grafted trees in Costa Rica and the tropics. A must visit in Orotina area. Check his website out for more info

Peter Kring runs a fantastic botanical gardens in Puerto Viejo and has many rare and difficult to find grafted fruit trees. Check out his Facebook, he also sells fruits at the puerto viejo farmers market every week.

The La Garita area in Alajuela just off the pan american highway near the airport is a place with many many nurseries, it is probably one of the best areas to purchase your more commonly available fruit trees like mango and citrus, but they are unlikely to have any more niche trees like Durian or Salak. El Punto is one we have used in the past.

CATIE in Turrialba area has a large seedbank of cover crops, native trees, timber species and some fruit trees. you can contact them through their website for upto date info about what they currently have.

ICE, Costa Rica’s electricity company usually has stock of native trees and nitrogen fixers available for free for reforestation projects. They can be phoned for free on 800-VIVEROS (800-8483-767) for more info.

For local annual vegetable seeds, our friends at Semillas Plantae have a fantastic selection of organic seeds available in country that can even be delivered to your house!

At the Ranch we also have a small nursery with a variety of Nitrogen Fixing Species, grafted fruit trees etc.. Please contact us if you would like to know what we currently have in stock.

The Earth University also maintains an extensive nursery, David Guido can be contacted on +506- 8639-9928

Join us for our annual Permaculture Design Course to learn more about designing, implementing, and maintaining your own farm and project.

Permaculture Education: Virtual Reality and Keeping it Real

Permaculture Education: Virtual Reality and Keeping it Real

By Laura Killingbeck

This article was first published in the Permaculture Design Magazine.  

Nearly a decade ago I moved to where I live now-- a tiny, isolated, town in rural Latin America. Its charms include lush towers of tropical rain forest, rainbows of succulent fruits, and a nightly chorus of a thousand frogs. A single disheveled bus leaves in the morning and returns at night, except on Sundays, or when the road washes out. The place is home to farmers, families, and a spattering of eclectic foreigners. The town's namesake, the Mastate, is a tree that bears a thick white sap which people sometimes drink in coffee, like milk.

Our house at Rancho Mastatal. My partner Scott Gallant and I designed the yard to grow food, medicine, and market crops. (Photo Credit Laura Killingbeck; Mastatal, Costa Rica)

I live in a two-room cabin made of wood, earth, and bamboo, and teach food and fermentation classes at a sustainability education center. Each morning I commute six minutes to work—by foot, of course--on a trail through the orchard. I do not have WiFi. And until very recently, I did not have a cell phone, a car, or grid electricity either. My life has been, and largely still is, made up entirely of the world that reaches me directly.

Despite the rural nature of my home and work, I am constantly surrounded by a transitioning cast of characters—short and long term residents of the community, students and instructors from around the world, and international guests and groups. I frequently share breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with 40 or more people. So my isolation really is a relative one: I have constant contact with many people face to face, and very little with anyone more than a quarter mile away.

Rancho Mastatal students and apprentices come from around the world to learn about engaging deeply with place. (Photo Credit Laura Killingbeck; Mastatal, Costa Rica; Instructors from left to right: Bill Steen, Athena Steen, Benito Steen)

Not all of my time is spent here. For part of the year I live on another beautiful and secluded farm in Massachusetts, where I also have no car, no cell phone, and limited internet. Here I also live in community, sharing most meals with at least a half dozen folks, and enjoy a social circle that radiates about five miles, to neighboring farms, the park, and a local brewery.

It is a simple and curious life. Most of the time I am literally surrounded by people, yet I have almost no access to anyone that is not directly in front of me. For most of my life, my participation in an online identity has been “virtually” blank.

This relative isolation has shaped my relationship with the world around me. Until very recently I never looked at something—a beautiful sunset, a fallen leaf, a friend--and thought to take a picture. I did not have a cell phone to take a selfie, or text someone, or make a Facebook post. It was just me, and us, and the moment I was a part of. With no truncated or modified story about what I was doing or why, I had the freedom to choose it and experience it, completely and wholly, of my own accord. In many ways, this “isolation” felt like the ultimate integrity.

Round the Bend Farm Center for Restorative Community in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. (Photo Credit Laura Killingbeck)

But the way people communicate, share, and socialize continues to evolve. A big part of how we understand ourselves and others is sculpted from the stories we tell about our lives. These stories begin from our own perspective, which is then shaped and shifted by the responses of others. How we understand ourselves and our lives is personal, and also social. And as more and more people are “virtually” social, my “virtual” isolation has felt more, well, isolating.

Social media, blogging, Facebook, Instagram, the internet in general, are all “virtual realities” of human engagement. The pictures we post, the hashtags we link to, the words or emoticons we use, form a web of “virtual” identity and relationships. Increasingly, we supplement or even replace our direct experience with other people and the world with the indirect experience mediated by this technology. And increasingly, we shift the way we actually live our real lives, or the stories we tell about our real lives, to accommodate the beast of social media.

Filming the online Fermentation Tutorial. (Photo Credit Spenser Gabin; Mastatal, Costa Rica, of Laura Killingbeck)

Over the years I have seen thousands of people pass through my tiny corner of the world, seeking education, rejuvenation, inspiration. I have watched dozens of instructors across many disciplines—agroforestry, permaculture design, natural building, renewable energy, health and nutrition—repeat over and over again the same mantra—that we must learn how to engage with the world around us to create truly sustainable homes, livelihoods, and communities rooted in place. We have to actually feel the clay to know if its suitable for making clay plaster; to watch the tree to know when its time to prune; to taste the pickles to see if they're fully fermented. We need to focus our energy on the vivid, tangible relationships between the objects of our immediate surroundings. Every aspect of applied permaculture and sustainable design on some level revolves around this single spark of observation and engagement with real reality.

Just as there is an irony to my constant contact with streams of people in a tiny, rural setting, there is an irony that permaculture educators must increasingly tell the story of their direct experience with the world around them via the interface of the internet. We now use social media, online videos, and blogs to teach permaculture theory and skills, and connect with others doing the same. This makes sense--we need to be able to tell the stories of our lives and work in a way that people can access. Our great challenge in this is to translate our real reality into virtual reality, while keeping our lives really real, and keeping our students really involved.

I use Instagram to share simple recipes and special moments about real life. These are two varieties of jackfruit from the farm. (Photo Credit Laura Killingbeck; Mastatal, Costa Rica)

For most of my life I resisted getting a smart phone because I wanted to fully connect with the people and place around me; I finally got one for the same reason. This year I bought my first smart phone and got connected to the web. I entered online participation by starting an Instagram account and filming an online fermentation tutorial (Fermenting in Warm Climates, to be released in November, 2017). The purpose of the tutorial is to enable people to understand the broad theory and methods behind fermentation, in a way they can adapt to the specific foods from the place where they live. As devoted as I am to place-based experiential education, there was a constant irony to filming something designed to be accessible to a global market. But this is exactly the challenge of permaculture education in all its iterations—using a globalized perspective of broad methods to hone in on specific relationships with particular places. For this reason, the tutorial demonstrates patterns and methodologies for fermenting vegetables, dairy, fruits, etc, and provides instruction about how people can adapt these to their own local foods. The “best” fermentation recipes are not the same for everyone, everywhere. The best recipes are intrinsically tied to the fresh foods and cultures (both human and microbial!) of the specific places where people live. By creating an online tutorial I hope to be able to reach more people who find this information useful, while simultaneously leading them to engage directly with their own local foods.

Scott Gallant maps a landscape with a phone app. (Photo Credit Laura Killingbeck; Mastatal, Costa Rica; of Scott Gallant)

Online education, social media, and all other outlets of virtual reality that teach us about permaculture design and applied skills should always draw us to engage more in real reality. Real reality is dynamic, unstandardized, unhomogenized. Information on the internet often defaults to the least common denominator of most common products or ideas. In the case of fermentation, recipes often default to the most widely accessible ingredients, microbial cultures, or plant varieties from mass markets. This funnels more and more people into understanding fermentation and food from a peculiarly standardized perspective. But local food is dynamic, and microbes don't care about business as usual. Filming the online tutorial made me realize how important it is that we hold our ground and address a global audience with a clear emphasis on the dynamic nature of real reality, even if it doesn't fit the current most popular algorithm, hashtag, or SEO. When we go virtual, we need to keep it real.

Quiet moments are important arenas for self reflection. (Photo Credit Laura Killingbeck; Mastatal, Costa Rica)

There is something valuable about crafting our lives without anyone looking. About feeling, and appreciating, a moment without anyone knowing. About making decisions because they represent the core of who we are, nothing more and nothing less. I sometimes fear that the constant contact of social media draws us farther away from this core. I see people poking away at their phones when they could be experiencing a spectacular moment in real life. Or maybe not a spectacular moment—maybe just the mundane. But even these moments, rote, predictable, commonplace, are arenas for our minds to wander, probe, filter. We can find strange things in these moments. Simple or complicated truths. The moments when there is nothing to think about and nothing to do are some of the greatest resources we have for self reflection. To lose these to online shopping, Facebook scrolling, or texting would be devastating.

I learned a lot about tropical starch fermentation online. (Photo Credit Laura Killingbeck; Mastatal, Costa Rica)

But there is also something both valuable and necessary about sharing our lives with others, listening to a wider range of voices, and participating in global conversations. Even in Mastatal, my tiny green town, there is no real escape or seclusion. Here we see changes in climate that affect our crops; changes in tourism that affect our economies; changes in policies that affect our land and homes. You can escape from many things, but not from everything, happening all at once, sweeping you with it.

As a millennial just entering the periphery of online participation, I realize I am on the far end of a spectrum for how I balance my real life with my virtual one. But my position on the sideline has given me the advantage of a unique perspective about how to manage this balance. Most days I turn my phone on twice—once in the morning to check emails and make an Instagram post, and once in the afternoon to follow up on questions or comments. The bulk of the day is internet free, but I am still able to connect virtually to lots of people. I understand that this limited access is not possible or desirable for everyone. Lots of people do amazing and positive work via the internet, which I value to no end. What does apply to all of us though, is the understanding that we often have more power than we think to design a balanced relationship with the internet, and as permaculture educators and practitioners, we can use this to our advantage. We can leverage the global access the internet provides, to funnel people towards local engagement, without losing our real selves in the process.

When I gave my partner Scott the first draft of this article to edit, he read it and said “This is great, Sweetie, but I think this conversation already happened...twenty years ago!”

Students learn about herbal medicine by making it. (Photo Credit Scott Gallant; Mastatal, Costa Rica; of Laura Killingbeck and students)

I thought, “Dang.”

But then I realized that the longevity of this conversation is part of the point here. As time passes, our relationship with technology becomes habit. The fast growth and evolution of the internet means we continually need to navigate our interaction with it. As permaculture designers and educators, I think we need to embrace technology in its myriad forms to regenerate a positive human ecology with the earth. I also hope virtual reality will always remain a compliment to, rather than a replacement for, direct engagement with our real and living world. I think we need to pay attention to this as much now as we ever have, and I hope we do.

Bio: Laura Killingbeck has been working with Rancho Mastatal Sustainability Education Center in Costa Rica since 2009. She oversees the development and management of the Ranch's food education programs, and creates systems and strategies for utilizing whole foods on both a community and home scale. Follow her on Instagram @laurakillingbeck

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Looking for opportunities to expand your horizons?

Join Rancho Mastatal for one of our upcoming 2018 workshops.  Learn more here. 

ViVerde is a developing educational eco-lodge and permaculture farm on a 15-acre property right outside of colonial Granada, Nicaragua.  They are now recruiting for two work-trade positions, one to do fine woodworking and the other to coordinate the community kitchen and farm to table systems.  Go to http://www.viverde-nica.com/recruiting-work-traders for more information.