June 23, 2022

There’s a reason why the words “food crisis” are making headlines, and it might not be the reason you think. Also in this post: three other random, hopeful things.

Food – are we facing a Crisis or an Opportunity?
June 20, 2022

The lunar cycle offers us a template for reconnecting to Nature and living in more balanced, regenerative ways. In this post: lunar cycle and full moon concepts I’ve been learning about, along with the journal prompts I use at the time of the Full Moon.

What will the Full Moon Reveal for You?
May 25, 2022

Sometimes change asks more of us than we have to give, and we break. Sometimes we recover, but whether we recover or not, there is no going back to what we were before the change. We’re transformed us, forever, into something different than we were before. Here’s why I feel that this degree of change is upon us collectively now, and why I feel hopeful even in the midst of all that’s happening around the world.

Change… and Hope
April 25, 2022

An earth-floor, deep-litter system​ has big benefits for the health and well-being of ​chickens, and it’s also the easiest way I know to build an ongoing compost creation system in which most of the work is done for you. ​This article shares ​what we’ve learned about ​deep-litter composting ​since we built ​our new earth floor chicken shed​ in 2019.

Deep Litter Composting With Chickens
April 13, 2022

Ideas and tips for tuning into Nature’s cycles to help us re-create the depth of meaning and connection that has been all but lost as the “consumer religion” has swept around the globe.

Reclaiming Meaning for Our Holy Days
March 28, 2022

The Equinoxes – the time of balanced light and dark at the midway point through Autumn and Spring – provide an opportunity to examine how we’re managing the balancing act between doing and resting. This short post shares an uncommon idea for our culture and our times: “It is safe to rest.”

Balancing Busy-ness with Rest
March 14, 2022

Recently I began to appreciate the sheer beauty of the Mexican tarragon in my garden. Then I learned what a delicious iced tea it makes, and from there I discovered its huge array of potential uses in the kitchen, the medicine cabinet, and the garden.

Mexican Tarragon
February 28, 2022

The lunar cycle holds wonderful opportunities for learning and growth, and for reconnecting with Nature’s wisdom. This post explores what the waning moon and the still, empty, “mid-winter” moment at the dark of the moon have to teach us.

​What the Waning Moon can Teach Us about ​​​Connection ​​and Support
February 21, 2022

What is “happy meat?” ​Is meat-eating inherently destructive, or can we have “happy ecosystems” along with happy meat? ​What does meat-eating mean for human health on a more-than physical level? And what about avoiding eating animal products because you care about ​animals’ welfare?

Happy Meat, Happy Ecosystems, Happy People
February 14, 2022

This super-short post has some commentary on home-dairying, a tongue-in-cheek recipe for raw-milk banana milkshake, and something easy and useful to do with your egg whites when you only need the yolks. There are also a few links to related resources that I hope you’ll find helpful.

Home Dairying, Banana Milkshakes, and Spare Egg Whites
February 7, 2022

​​Pictures and commentary from our garden​, ​a super-simple recipe for banana milkshake (simple only if you don’t count the steps that bring the milk to the kitchen)​, and a brief mention of one useful thing to do with your egg whites when you only need the yolks.

Farm Update: In the Garden
January 31, 2022

​What gardeners do ​is somewhere on a continuum from controlling the ​life (and death) cycles in the garden, to managing them, to interacting intelligently with them. We tend to default to ​control because of our culturally ingrained assumption that without control there will be chaos and anarchy.

​​This has implications far beyond the garden. How do our ​​assumptions about the need for control shape our world?

Moving from Control Toward Intelligent Interaction, in Gardening and in Life
January 24, 2022

The possible uses for bananas–the fruit, the foliage, and the trunks–seem almost endless. In this article I share lots of images and ideas for using banana patches as mulch producers and for an erosion control project.

Bananas for Mulch Production and Erosion Control
January 17, 2022

The best way to get more effective at growing your own food is to make it super easy to eat something directly from your garden on a daily basis. Here are 5 categories of low-maintenance food plants (or plant parts) you might have been overlooking, and strategies for using them to build more food sovereignty into your life.

How to Make Home Grown Food Simpler and Easier
December 28, 2021

Examine and learn from the year gone by, to make your New Year resolutions far more effective. Or use this process during any kind of ending and new beginning.

5 Questions to Help You Learn From Last Year and Make the Most of This Year
December 16, 2021

An index of all the “Empowered Thinking” posts written on ARealGreenLife in 2021.

All “Empowered Thinking” Posts for 2021
December 7, 2021

Where those difficult emotions might be coming from, what might be amplifying them, and why it’s important to be gentle with yourself when they show up.

Difficult Emotions are Allies in Disguise
December 6, 2021

Ginger has thrived at our place since I learned to think about what it gives and what it needs in terms of its connections to the other plants around it, to me as the ginger-grower, and to me and my family as the ginger-users.

Ginger in a RealFood Garden
December 6, 2021

The success of your food garden depends on the connections between the plants and each other, and between the plants, you, and your kitchen (and also your medicine cabinet).

How to Plan a Food Garden
November 15, 2021

The “bus” I’m talking about is entire populations of people all gabbling without listening to one another and without thinking clearly. The bus is hurtling toward a cliff, with no-one in the driver’s seat. ​The opinions, the conflict, the angst, are all fueling the bus. Here’s how to understand what’s going on, and how to disengage from the insanity.

Get Off the Bus