Pip Magazine Issue 16

MARA RIPANI Mara has been a sustainability educator for 20 years, working for non-profit groups and local government. She has always really loved the ‘realness’ of permaculture living. With her partner, Mara has created a permaculture farm called ORTO near Daylesford, that includes fruit orchards, straw buildings, kitchen garden and a wetland. She runs a cooking school and tours of her property and hosts guests at her farm stay. Mara has been documenting her permaculture practice on her social media site Village Dreaming and on Instagram @maravillagedreaming JOHN NEWTON John is a freelance writer, journalist and novelist. He writes about food, eating, travel, farming and associated environmental issues. His most recent books are The Getting of Garlic (2018); The Oldest Foods on Earth (2016), which won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best…

Hello readers, As I write this, fires are burning out of control around the country, lives have been lost, millions of animals have perished, thousands of homes have been razed to the ground and over 8 million hectares of land has burned. As we hear more and more about the environmental crises around the world, interspersed with the lack of action by our governments or even an acknowledgement of the cause of the situation, it can weigh heavy on our hearts and minds. For many there is a feeling of grief and despair. But through all this we mustn’t forget the positive. In amongst the ashes people are finding a beauty as they come together with their communities to care for one another and work out how best to support each other…

MEDITERRANEAN PERMASCHOOL, GREECE www.facebook.com/Nea-Guinea Nea Guinea is a non-profit one-acre permaculture farm in Athens that models permaculture practices and offers education programs. Based here is the Mediterranean Permaschool, which offers a range of permaculture education programs for the community, for youth; and also helps organise permaculture courses for refugee camps located in Greece. Refugee camps are built rapidly but end up being far more permanent than originally planned and are reliant on external inputs. Permaculture courses in these environments can effectively help people develop the skills to transform these camps into eco-villages. They transform their physical and social spaces, grow food, enhance collective resilience, reclaim some control over their lives and begin to heal from the trauma that brought them to the refugee camps. ETHIOPIAN VILLAGE WITH PERMACULTURE APPROACH In the far north of Ethiopia,…

HOLLYBURTON ORGANIC WOOL DOONA Sleep in creature comfort with a breathable organic wool doona that is 100% natural and compostable. Enjoy the wool filling, sourced from sheep grown on Hollyburton Farm in Victoria, the organic, unbleached cotton casing and the 100% cotton or wool thread used to complete the doona. You won’t find these beauties in any landfill. There’s a world of difference between a Hollyburton organic wool doona and a washable ‘natural’ wool doona that is treated with a polymer resin (a kind of plastic). Summer doonas come in 400 gsm, with a double layer for a winter doona. www.hollyburton.com.au From $308 MYSTERY BAY KELP Seaweed is becoming a popular superfood, packed with iodine and other mineral and trace elements, in a very absorbable form, that are essential for our body’s good health. This mbK super…

To place your event here, email editorial@pipmagazine.com.au PIP PERMIE AWARD NOMINATIONS Nominations are now open for the 2020 Pip Permie Awards. The awards will be presented at the Australasian Permaculture Convergence in Brisbane, in April 2020. There are two awards: • Best Permie Project: Open to projects which are current, create positive change and demonstrate the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. Winner receives $250 for their project.• Permie of the Year: For the permaculture practitioner working to create positive change in the world. They will demonstrate the three permaculture ethics in their work, of earth care, people care and fair share. Winner receives a lifetime subscription to Pip Magazine. To nominate a project or person, email us at hello@pipmagazine.com.au with their name, location and age. Include a brief description…

When it says pole and line fishing on a tin of tuna, what does that mean exactly and is it sustainable? (Renee, Adelaide Hills SA) This means the tuna is caught using a mix of old-fashioned and new fishing methods that aren’t indiscriminate, but are sustainable. The important bit is that fish are caught on a fishing rod, not in a huge net, and that is probably the best way to ensure the tuna is caught from a population that is sustainable. When we go fishing on holidays we never seem to catch many fish, yet older people talk of how decades ago they would come home with buckets of fish. What is the cause of the lack of fish in the oceans or are we just bad at fishing? (Sean, Port…