What is it?

BuzzBox sensors help you track hive health from your smartphone. Buy one or support citizen science & open data to save the honey bees!

Sounds pretty amazing, right? The solar-powered BuzzBox monitors the hive’s internal and external temperature and humidity, and barometric pressure. But what excites me is the realtime colony audio analysis that enables automatic hive health updates. What does this mean exactly?
Their team of data scientists have built a system that can automatically tell you how your bees are doing based on input from the kit’s microphone, and you’ll get updates on your smart phone in real time.

I’m into my second season as a beekeeper, and to be honest I worry and wonder quite often about what’s going on in the hive. Are they doing ok? Are they about to swarm? Do they have a queen? The BuzzBox can answer all of these questions by analyzing the sound of the bee colony. Not only that, data from every BuzzBox will be collected into an open source database where it will be analyzed and shared with the world, with hopes of learning more about what’s killing off bees around the world.

To wrap up, check out the BuzzBox Kickstarter-campaign and if you’re a beekeeper or just want to support the important work that Open Source Beehives is doing, consider giving them your support! I know I will.

The post The Biggest News For Beekeepers In This Century? appeared first on Walden Labs.

Now, if you want to BUILD your own sawmill you can actually get some kind of plans showing how the sawmill in the video is constructed. Check them out here.

The post How A Wind Powered Sawmill Works appeared first on Walden Labs.

Bold claims, I know, but I believe them to be true because many of these books are based on what has already happened. Some of the books do include grand visions but the solutions they present are not science fiction, the answers are found in our own history.

The history of mankind shows that a civilization can only be as stable as its food supply. When the food supply falters, be it due to natural disaster or man-made destruction of the top soil, the civilization goes down the drain with it. The result? War, violence, starvation as well as financial, social and cultural collapse, and so on.

What led me to these seven books was a photo and mention on the Facebook page of Ben Falk, founder of Whole Systems Design and author of The Resilient Farm and Homestead (thanks for letting me use the photo!). Ben is a true self-reliance and permaculture pioneer on his resilient homestead in Vermont, and when he said that “there are seven books that NEVER get put away here” because “they are turned to so often”, that got my attention.

Here are shortcuts to the book descriptions below:

1. A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

2. The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka

3. Tree Crops – A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russel Smith

4. Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea and Japan by F.H. King

5. The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

6. A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

7. Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson

Some of the books I’ve read and know from before and they’re all what I consider game changers in my own search for knowledge, and some of the books were new to me.

Without further ado, here are seven books every homesteader and farmer should read. The same goes for every permaculture designer, architect, city planner, politician, president, change maker, activist, and so on who cares about this planet’s future.

1. A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

Considered by many as the father of wildlife management and of the United States’ wilderness system, Aldo Leopold was a conservationist, forester, philosopher, educator, writer, and outdoor enthusiast.

“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.” – Aldo Leopold

First published in 1949, A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America’s relationship to the land.

But it would be a mistake to describe this book as “nature writing” per se, or of that genre. As one reviewer writes, “It is a series of essays in wonderful prose in which nature, outdoor settings or situations provide the backdrop. But it is not written as a naturalist droning about the wonders of some aspect of nature. It is an inspired and deeply insightful description, by a man who clearly has a deep understanding of how nature works, about the ethical dimensions of our relationship with the land and our environment generally.”

Through science, history, humor, and prose, Leopold utilizes A Sand County Almanac and its call for a Land Ethic to communicate the true connection between people and the natural world, with the hope that the readers will begin to treat the land with the love and respect it deserves.

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to the layman. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well, and does not want to be told otherwise. One sometimes envies the ignorance of those who rhapsodize about a lovely countryside in process of losing its topsoil, or afflicted with some degenerative disease in its water systems, fauna or flora.” – Aldo Leopold

Leopold’s legacy continues to inform and inspire us to see the natural world “as a community to which we belong.”

Check out A Sand County Almanac on Amazon

2. The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka

Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands.

“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.” – Masanobu Fukuoka

Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world.

As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book “is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.”

In essence, the nugget of his wisdom is that, instead of struggling to control and command nature, we must learn to work with and learn from nature.

Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort.

“I believe that a revolution can begin from this one strand of straw. Seen at a glance, this rice straw may appear light and insignificant. Hardly anyone would believe that it could start a revolution. But I have come to realize the weight and power of this straw. For me, this revolution is very real.” — Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

Check out The One-Straw Revolution on Amazon

3. Tree Crops – A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russel Smith

From J. Russell Smith’s book: A few of the many photos from around the globe

“Why are the hills of West China ruined, while the hills of Corsica are, by comparison, an enduring Eden? The answer is plain. Northern China knows only the soil-destroying agriculture of the plowed hillside. Corsica, on the contrary, has adapted agriculture to physical conditions; she practices the soil-saving tree-crops type of agriculture.” – J. Russell Smith

With this question J. Russell Smith sets the tone for his book Tree Crops – A Permanent Agriculture. This book reflects a lifetime of research around the world and personal trials on the author’s farm in Virginia on the uses of perennial tree crops for animal and human food.

Smith saw trees as “the natural engines of food production” for hill lands that we should put to work; to produce an abundance of food and fodder and to preserve the soil for future generations, permanently.

During his travels around the world saw many examples of this permanent type of agriculture, for example the chestnut forests of Corsica. He notes in his book: “These grafted chestnut orchards produced an annual crop of food for men, horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and goats, and a by-crop of wood. Thus, for centuries, trees upon this steep slope had supported the families that lived in the Corsican villages. The mountainside was uneroded, intact, and capable of continuing indefinitely its support for the generations of men.”

Here’s David Holmgren, one of the co-originators of the Permaculture design methodology, talking about this 1929 classic:

I’ll leave you with a quote describing his vision, at once practical and lovely:

“I see a million hills green with crop-yielding trees and a million neat farm homes snuggled in the hills. These beautiful tree farms hold the hills from Boston to Austin, from Atlanta to Des Moines. The hills of my vision have farming that fits them and replaces the poor pasture, the gullies, and the abandoned lands that characterize today so large a part of these hills.

These ideal farms have their level and gently sloping land protected by mangum terraces and are intensively cultivated — rich in yields of alfalfa, corn, clover, legumes, wheat, and garden produce. This plow land is the valley bottoms, level hill tops, the gentle slopes, and flattened terraces on the hillsides. The unplowed lands are partly shaded by cropping trees — mulberries, persimmons, honey locust, grafted black walnut, grafted heart nut, grafted hickory, grafted oak, and other harvest-yielding trees. There is better grass beneath these trees than covers the hills today.” – J. Russell Smith

You can download a PDF-version of Tree Crops for free here (1929 edition), read it online, or check it out on Amazon if you prefer a printed version (it’s pricey though).

4. Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea and Japan by F.H. King

“Between these two books [Farmers of Forty Centuries and Tree Crops], you’ve got solutions to most of what faces humanity, food-wise. Read them. Be inspired.” – Ben Falk, Whole Systems Design

For more than 4,000 years, Asian farmers worked the same fields repeatedly without sapping the land’s fertility and without applying artificial fertilizer.

How did they accomplish this miraculous feat?

That’s what author Franklin Hiram King describes in his book Farmers of Forty Centuries, first published by his wife in 1911 after his death.

King traveled to China, Korea and Japan in the early 1900s. The purpose of his trip was to study how the extremely dense populations of the Far East could produce massive amounts of food century after century without depleting their soils.

What he discovered was a highly sophisticated system of water management, crop rotation, interplanting and rational utilization of ecological relationships among farm plants, animals and people.

The book has become a classic of the permaculture/sustainable economics movement for several reasons, as noted by a reviewer:

1. It dispels the myth that fossil fuel-free agriculture will produce much lower yields than industrial farming. Without access to oil and natural-gas based pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, agriculture will be much more labor-intensive. However with global population at more than seven billion (as of last October), the world seems to have no shortage of human labor.
2. Farmers of Forty Centuries paints a detailed picture of tried and true regional models of food, fuel, and construction materials production, as well as regional water and human waste management.
3. It provides detailed descriptions, almost in cookbook fashion, of a broad range of permaculture and terraquaculture techniques.

You can download a PDF-version of the book for free here, as various ebook formats here, read it online here, or get a printed book on Amazon.

5. The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

Cristopher Alexander

“There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are.” – Cristopher Alexander

The Timeless Way of Building is the introductory volume in the Center for Environmental Structure series. In it Christopher Alexander presents a new theory of architecture, building, and planning which has at its core that age-old process by which the people of a society have always pulled the order of their world from their own being.

The book explains the idea of patterns in architecture, and how we can use these patterns to build and maintain healthy living environments. As one reviewer notes on the term ‘pattern’, “there are certain patters in buildings. When the pattern works the building is pleasing. Otherwise it isn’t. These patterns are not architectural design plans, they are instead organic, instinctive, feeling-based relationships.”

[..] despite reading and re-reading the first half of the Timeless Way of Building about 10-15 times since first doing so in college, I am still enthralled at the depth of what Alexander is conveying in this work. Anyone who finds themselves amidst the planning stages of your houses or landscapes: I cannot encourage you enough to spend some real time with his work.” – Ben Falk, Whole Systems Design

Check out The Timeless Way of Building on Amazon (or your local library, the book is quite expensive).

6. A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

“If you are interested in making great spaces – especially homes – and can only spend time with one book, this would be our pick. Read it and read it again. The kind of book you’ll never be “done” with.” – Ben Falk, Whole Systems Design

Also by Cristopher Alexander, A Pattern Language is the second book in the Center for Environmental Structure series and takes a more practical approach compared to The Timeless Way of Building. The book presents a series of “patterns” that the authors believe must be present in order for an environment to be pleasing, comfortable, or in their words, “alive.”

The “patterns” are answers to design problems, such as:

• How high should a window sill be?
• How many stories should a building have?
• How should the light fall within a home?
• Where should the windows be placed?
• How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?

More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given in the book: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution.

As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.

Check out the book on Amazon (or your local library, the book is quite expensive).

7. Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson

Cahuilla woman storing acorns for food

“Nature really misses us,” laments M. Kat Anderson. “We no longer have a relationship with plants and animals, and that’s the reason why they’re going away.”

This book works not only as a history of indigenous horticulture in California, but also as a beginners manual for those who seek to understand more about sustainable, indigenous land management, gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended.

The bulk of Tending the Wild describes how the California Indians tended the land. They did not merely wander across the countryside in hopes of randomly discovering plant and animal foods. They had an intimate, sacred relationship with the land, and they tended it in order to encourage the health of their closest relatives — the plant and animal communities upon which they depended.

Tending the Wild is an important book, because it presents us with stories of a way of life that worked, and worked remarkably well, for countless generations. This is precious knowledge for us to contemplate, as our own society is rapidly circling the drain, and our need for remembering healthy old ideas has never been greater.

“Through coppicing, pruning, harrowing, sowing, weeding, burning, digging, thinning, and selective harvesting, they [California natives] encouraged desired characteristics of individual plants, increased populations of useful plants, and altered the structures and compositions of plant communities. Regular burning of many types of vegetation across the state created better habitat for game, eliminated brush, minimized potential for catastrophic fires, and encouraged diversity of food crops. These harvest and management practices, on the whole, allowed for sustainable harvest of plants over centuries and possibly thousands of years.“

In this book we come to see California’s indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.

“The map in there of California cultural regions before colonization is insanely amazing.” – Ben Falk, Whole Systems Design

Check out Tending the Wild on Amazon

What All These Books Have In Common

The one big takeaway from all of these books, in my mind, is that they irrefutably show us that there are alternative futures possible for humanity. There are ways we can feed ourselves, clothe ourselves and build our homes without depleting the soil and destroying nature.

But if the knowledge in these books can “fix” the world, why did not previous generations get it done? After all, some of these books are over 100 years old.

The answer is simple. As Wendell Berry writes in the foreword to a newer edition of Tree Crops:

“The minds that have dominated agriculture since 1929 when Tree Crops was first published, have been little interested in conserving either the land or the people on the land. They have, Heaven knows, seen no visions of “a million neat farm homes snuggled in the hills.” A farming system in which millions of small landowners would manage devotedly and skillfully a diversified, locally-adapted system of tree crops, pastures, animals, and row crops has been simply unthinkable to them.”

Or as permaculture co-originator Bill Mollison says in Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual:

“We know how to solve every food, clean energy, and sensible shelter problem in every climate; we have already invented and tested every necessary technique and technical device, and have access to all the biological material that we could ever use.

The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or applied by those who hold power, and the reason for this is obvious and simple: to let people arrange their own food, energy, and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems, or governments to help us, and devise ways to help ourselves.“

Now, back to my bold claim. Can a book really save the world?

No. Only human action (and in some cases human inaction) can save the world.

A book can show us the door to another reality, but we’ll have to walk through the door of our own accord.

It’s up to us, the humans who desire this alternative future, to change how things are done and show people that there is indeed a better way.

Nestle won’t get it done. Unilever won’t get it done. Monsanto won’t get it done. Nor any other of the mega corporations below that control almost everything you buy:

These 10 mega corporations control almost everything you buy and eat

So let’s read these books and then get to work making things happen, and start helping ourselves and future generations to a better future. Start in your backyard, create abundance, and I bet you that the rest of your neighborhood will soon follow.

Let these lines from Bob Dylan lead the way:

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

Featured photo by Ben Falk of Whole Systems Design

The post 7 Books That Show Us How To Fix Our Broken World – One Garden And Community At A Time appeared first on Walden Labs.

Well that’s why I follow the people below on Instagram, because they’re some of the smartest, wisest and most pioneering people when it comes to permaculture, self-reliance and off-the-grid living.

By following them I know I’ll get my daily dose of self-reliance inspiration. Check them out:

Ben Falk – Whole Systems Design

Ben Falk is the founder of Whole Systems Design, which utilizes an interdisciplinary team of land planners, ecological designers, builders, and educators to develop resilient and regenerative places.

He’s based out of Vermont’s Mad River Valley where they have an education site and run Permaculture Design courses and he’s an all around cool guy. On his instagram you might see glimpses from the farm, Ben taking care of baby ducklings, Ben grafting fruit trees, Ben skiiing, or anything else that cool guys do.

@wholesystemsdesign on Instagram

Daniel Sjöberg – Walden Labs

That’s me! If you want to get a glimpse of what’s going on in the day to day life at Walden Labs headquarters then check out my instagram. I’m not as awesome as the other cool people on this list, but still pretty cool. At least that’s what my wife tells me.

Lots of planting coming up, both in the kitchen garden and the young forest garden. The nordic bees will wake up from winter sleep in a month or so. Exciting times to be alive!

@danielsjbrg on Instagram (@sjbrg on Twitter)

Geoff Lawton – Permaculture Research Institute Australia

For those of you into gardening and permaculture Geoff Lawton likely won’t need an introduction. His work on spreading the knowledge of permaculture around the globe through the Permaculture Research Institute has been an inspiration for thousands.

On Geoff Lawton’s Instagram you’ll see glimpses of the abundance that’s possible with permaculture.

@geofflawtononline on Instagram

Esther Emery – Fouch-o-matic Off Grid

Off grid since 2013, Esther’s family of five lives in a 314 square foot yurt in the Boise foothills. Esther runs the popular Fouch-o-matic Off Grid channel on Youtube, and on her instagram you’ll get glimpses of their off-grid life and the process of building their off grid timber frame dream home.

Fun fact: Her mother, Carla Emery, wrote the homesteading and self sufficiency classic, “The Encyclopedia of Country Living.”

@estheremery on Instagram

Nick Ritar – Milkwood Permaculture

Nick is a permaculture and mushroom teacher, gardener, beekeeper and tree hugger who runs Milkwood Permaculture out of Australia. There’s always something interesting popping up on his Instagram, and I bet we’ll see even more interesting things coming up because this year he’s moving to Melliodora in Victoria.

Melliodora is an amazing permaculture homestead and the home of Permaculture co-originator David Holmgren and his partner, Su Dennett. It’s one of the oldest home-scale permaculture demonstration sites, so I’m hoping we’ll get some glimpses of it when they’ve settled in!

@milkwood_permaculture and @milkwood_nick on Instagram

Diego Footer – Permaculture Voices

Diego is the host of the Permaculture Voices podcast and the PV conference. He’s doing really cool things to spread the message and knowledge of permaculture, and on his Instagram you’ll find his “behind the scenes” gardening and farming notes and insightful advice.

@diegofooter on Instagram

Mr. and Mrs. Wranglerstar

Mr. Wranglerstar, the king of homesteading on Youtube, also has an Instagram account where you can get some peeks from their daily life as modern homesteaders.

@mrwranglerstar on Instagram

Jean-Martin Fortier – The Market Gardener

A young farmer and author of The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming, Jean-Martin Fortier has been invited to talk all over Canada, the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and China.

He’s also releasing The Market Gardener’s Toolkit this year, an educational documentary where he shares his tools and techniques for successful, profitable, human-scale vegetable growing.

On his Instagram you’ll get insights into the life of a market gardener in a cold Canadian climate.

@jeanmartinfortier on Instagram

Angelo Valkenborgh – Becoming Wildman

Now here’s something different. Angelo is an ambassador of @wearewilderness, “a collective of humans striving to be more wild”, and full time student of Living by Nature, a wilderness school specialized in bushcraft and native skills. His Instagram is all about sharing his journey in rewilding, primitive skills and bushcraft.

BecomingWildman is about a journey into self reliance. I’m traveling to learn and practice the skills of the common past. By using the knowledge of bushcraft, I roam and life in nature. Looking for a more simple,meaningful and adventures lifestyle.

@becomingwildman on Instagram

More Awesomeness:

Here’s some non-people that offer tons of inspiration in their instagram feed:

Urban Gardeners Republic

Urban Gardeners Republic is, in their own words, “the biggest gardening community online”. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I can say that their instagram feed is awesome.

@urbangardenersrepublic on Instagram

 Savory Institute

The Savory Institute is doing amazing things promoting large-scale restoration of the world’s grasslands through Holistic Management. Check out their instagram for lots of nature, cows and permaculture places and people from around the world.

@savoryinstitute on Instagram

Please note that yes, I realize I missed out on all the countless men and women who are into self-reliance and permaculture that deserve to be on this list.

This is but a very small sample, representative of a vast ocean of self-reliance awesomeness. Feel free to add more names in the comments!

The post 9 Favorite Homesteaders to Follow on Instagram appeared first on Walden Labs.

“Desert without cheese is like a pretty girl with only one eye” — Jean Anthleme Brillat Savarin (1825)

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) fermentation (F) plays a major part in traditional food processing technology all over the world. LAB produce lactic acid, a gentle tasting acid which can lower the pH of a food making it uninhabitable to other types of microorganisms. LAB F contributes to preservation, flavour and texture of foods. LAB is used to describe species from many genera, most commonly Lactobaccillus, Lactococcus, Leuconostoc and Streptococcus thermophillus. (de Vos, 2005). Certain taxa of LAB are also responsible for the production of bacteriocins, chemicals that inhibit the growth of other bacteria, the example of this par excellence being nisin. Nisin and other LAB produced bacteriocins have been shown to be effective in the prevention of many pathogenic species (Ross 2002).

LAB is the type of F occurring in sauerkraut, yogurt or kefir, cured meats, and idli. It is also responsible for the gentle acidity of the Belgian lambic beers as well as the malolactic wines where harsh malic acids from the grape are converted into softer and more palatable lactic acid.

You cant argue with a wonderful cabbage like this – it went on to become sauerkraut.

Importantly LAB are found naturally in dairy products and many species are able to continue life in the presence of salt meaning that salt can be used as a MO selection mechanism as it is in sauerkraut. Many high quality LAB fermentations typically found in a kitchen are made by ‘master artisans’ who work with these cultures on a daily basis. This is particularly clear with cheese and other products of the dairy industry. Scandinavia has long been a homeland for dairying. Although in early times being split into tribal groups, some of whom did, and some of whom did not milk their animals (especially reindeer), it appears that those communities which practiced milking of animals have been more successful, possibly due to their use of this very important food source. Frederik J. Simoons (1973), when tracing lactose tolerance (tolerance resulting from the production of the lactose hydrolyzing enzyme lactase) in populations found significant biological patterns which led the researcher to hypothesise that nomadic tribes in Eurasia and north Africa were among the first to practice dairying. Gary Nabhan (2004) suggests that around 10,000 BP a mutation occurred in the DNA of an isolated tribe of Northern Europeans which allowed them to take advantage of this rich source of nutrition, Nabhan goes on to suggest that within as little as 15 generations, the prevalence of this specific gene mutation could have become wide.

The success of those peoples in the Nordic countries may also be in relation to the increase in Vitamin D, which normally is produced by the human body in the presence of sunlight, but can also be gained from milk. In the Nordic winters, sunlight is very short, and so, any extra Vitamin D can be key in maintaining health. Nordic cultures were much more inclined to drink their milk soured as in the old times it not considered healthy to drink fresh milk.

“I know that in the old times they milked the cow in a jar and then they put the milk in bigger container for fermentation but used a sieve made by hay or fresh grass to get rid of insects and stuff. The grass, I think, would impart LAB into the milk, and of course, also from the cows teat and the human skin” – Patrik Johansson, personal email exchange, 2012

It is said that when the Romans arrived in Northern Europe they were taught to make butter by the Celts, Pliny the Elder commenting that butter was “the most delicate of foods among barbarous nations, and one which distinguishes the wealthy from the multitude at large.” (McGee, 2004) Sweden was the worlds largest butter producer from the middle-ages until 1898, when Demark took over (Johansson) and Denmark has been in the lead ever since. Below Johansson a Swedish master artisan creator of ‘virgin butter’, describes the specific qualities that make the butter key to the dining experience at Noma describes how he learned to make butter and developed the technique into the ‘unwashed’ product, ‘virgin butter’.

“My grandmother had small dairy during the 50s and 60s where she made only butter on a very small scale. She taught me how to make butter. Her method involved the traditional way of washing the butter, that is, removing as much of the buttermilk as possible by washing it with cold clean water. Washed butter has a higher fat content and keeps longer but we discovered that by washing the butter you take away flavour and also the really nice acidity present in the buttermilk (pH 4,5). So rather than focus on the property of keeping longer we focused on the property of taste and how to maximize it. We maximize the butter aroma during the fermentation time, which usually lasts for 48 hours, but also during the churn by churning at a higher temp than what is usually considered normal in the butter industry. During the fermentation period we use a temp curve (the details are secret). The resulting butter has a more buttery taste but also a nice acidity due to more buttermilk present…

… Late one night I churned by hand and added salt before churning and decided to stop just when the first little butter grains formed. Normally I churn until the butter grains are as big as chickpeas and then I remove most of the butter-milk. When the first little butter grains form the separation between the fat and the water (butter milk) is just taking place and the process requires constant monitoring to the second. Virgin butter has a fat content of 40% as opposed to the regular butters fat content of 80 %. In virgin butter all the acidic buttermilk is present and retained I think thanks to the capillary effect. The result is a butter that is spreadable directly from the fridge with a pleasant acidic and buttery taste. It also has a unique grainy texture.” – Patrik Johansson, personal email exchange, 2012

Interestingly, a very old relative of Patrik recounted to him that washed butter was for the weekends as it had to look pretty, but the unwashed butter was for the weekdays and that he always preferred the unwashed one.

It is important to note that some LAB preparations can be easily made in the restaurant kitchen, giving the chef some ability to manipulate the organoleptic properties by changing variables within the process. For example LAB are also extremely important in bread making, especially when the natural levitation process of using a sourdough are involved. Bread made with natural leavening is much tastier, and this is in part, is due to the high levels of LAB in the mother dough – this will be covered in a later post.

One useful way to inoculate a ferment with LAB (e.g. fish sauce (see previous post titles ‘Umami from Salt rich Fermentation’) or cured meat (future post) is with the addition of whey, thus hastening the process of acidification due to both the presence of lactose and of LAB in the whey. Whey can be collected after making cheese, or by straining yogurt. At NFL adding a little whey proved very useful in a number of experiments. Lactic fermentation of thinly sliced root vegetables (carrot and beetroot) proved useful in making deep fried ‘crisps’, due to the LAB processing of sugars, there was considerably less caramelisation during the high temperature frying to try this, mix thinly sliced carrots with 2% Salt and a bit of whey, leave them weighted and submerged in their own juices until the sweetness has turned to a gentle lactic acidity, then dry ‘em and fry ‘em – yum.

In other dairy products, yogurt and yogurt whey are used a great deal in adding certain flavours and textures to foods. Marinating meat with yogurt has long been practiced by various societies, the recipes for yogurt and a yogurt-marinated leg of lamb is given below.

Yogurt

Better gel is obtained with skimmed milk

• Heat to 90 °C and keep there for 10 minutes – again to help with gel formation
• Cool to 42 °C and add around 5 % by weight of live natural yogurt
• Keep at 42 °C for 6 hours
• Cool to 5 °C
• Use and use a little bit of this to inoculate the next batch

Recipe: Yogurt Marinated Leg of Lamb with Juniper

• Remove skin and fat from leg
• Rub with 2% Sea Salt and 0.5% juniper powder
• Leave uncovered, hung at 5°C for 6 Days
• Put leg into a vacuum bag with 300ml yogurt and leave at 5°C for 2.5 Days
• Cook sous vide with 60 g butter at 58 °C / 36 hours
• Remove from sous vide bag, drain and pad dry
• Separate the leg into its individual muscles
• Rub each of these with neutral frying oil
• Roast above very hot coals until golden
• Rest for 15 minutes in a warm, humid place
• Slice and serve with walnut sauce and bitter greens

Bibliography

De Vos, W.M. (2005) Diversity of lactic acid bacteria, in Nout, M.J.R., De Vos, W.M., Zwietering, M.H. (eds) Food Fermentation pp. 21-28, Wageningen Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.

Ross, R.P. et al (2002) Preservation and fermentation: past, present and future, International Journal of Food Microbiology 79 : 3.

Nabhan, G.P. (2004) Why some like it hot: food genes and cultural diversity Island Press, USA.

McGee, H. (2004) On food and cooking: an encyclopedia of kitchen science, history and culture, Hodder and Stoughton, UK.

Simoons, F.J. (1973) The determinants of dairying and milk use in the old world: ecological, physiological, and cultural, Ecology of Food and Nutrition 2 : 83.

Originally published on Nordic Food Lab

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The earliest preservation techniques would have utilized the sun, wind, rock salt, or salt from partially reduced seawater as well as ash from certain salt rich plants to dry meat. Partially drying meat allows the survival of only certain microbes with anti-pathogenic qualities whereas removing all water makes it impossible for the survival of any micro flora.

Originally most products were made with mineral salts. The nitrous compounds contained in mineral salts help with preservation. Sea Salt (which is iodized) and in modern use is frequently mixed with nitrates to assist the process. Legally, one must have salt checked for impurities. Salt (NaCl) does not kill microorganisms but a change it’s surrounding’s osmotic properties. This change in the osmotic relation to the environment leads to less available water leaving less for the microorganisms to metabolize. This leads to an overall lower count of microorganisms.

In cooked products heat must reach a level, which kills pathogens. Curing process must contain a fermentation stage, which leads to the competitive expulsion of pathogenic organisms, for example the spread of preferable lactobacilli over salmonella or E. coli.

Salting consists of two steps, firstly the physical addition of the salt and secondly the absorption of the salt into the meat. As the meat absorbs the salt its osmotic and ionic properties of the meat are altered which kills a lot of the microorganisms. Appropriate salting is useful for selection of microorganisms to assist fermentation but also for the prevention of enzymatic action within the muscle tissue.

The decrease in aw value is crucial for the creation of successful preserves. Aw is the system of measurement for water molecules available for action, i.e. a count of the unbound water molecules available for reaction. It is the measurement of vapor tension, i.e. the ability of water to transfer into steam within a cell.

The aw value of a glass of water at normal pressure is always 1

At: 0.82 to 0.83 -bacterial growths inhibited but not mould.

0.7 -(jam) water bound but on surface can form moulds.

0.63 -no development of microorganisms possible (or at least nothing relevant).

Proscuitto has an aw of 0.9 and salami of 0.85.

Salting can be done in four different ways: – By massaging the salt into the meat, by placing the meat into a large quantity of salt, by placing meat into a salt solution (brine) or also through the injection of the meat which happens through numbers of needles going into the meat then injecting solution as they are taken out. Needles can also be used by injecting arteries, which then distribute the salt through the meat.

In Northern Europe the ancient meat preservation techniques have used smoke to create a physical layer on the salted meat which keeps it from spoiling. in the photo above is a shoulder of venison which we have put to salt, making our version of the Norwegian Fenalaar. Normally the meat used for this process is Lamb, we’ve chosen to experiment with different meats, this example being Red Deer, we started it yesterday, we’ll keep you updated with the progress! We’re looking forward to setting up the cold smoker and smoking this baby with some beech wood, or perhaps some wood from old whiskey barrels.

Products which are designed to age for a long time are traditionally made during the cold months November or December. This allows the drying process to happen in cool temperatures, the aging process, a slow enzymatic process can then occur over the summer months to then have your cured product ready to eat thinly sliced the following winter. Now is the season, get experimenting!

so… a couple of ideas to get your mind and hands working,

Culatello Di Zibello – collected Zibello 2008 by B.R.

• 8Kg Rump Side of Hind Leg of fat Pig
• Tie into neat bundle
• Big Sea Salt (as much as will stick to the meat) with some black pepper in it
• Douse with 100ml of white wine macerated with garlic
• 1.5°C for 1 week
• wash off salt with a cloth
• Clean and rehydrate pigs bladder
• Sew meat into Bladder
• Bind in traditional style
• Puncture well with pins
• Hang in cellar for 1 year
• Remove from bladder – if dry put in water for 1 hour, if very dry put in white wine soaked towel until ready.
• Slice thinly and eat immediately with bread and, especially in winter, butter.

Lucanian Sausage – provided by Apicus (2 4)

• Pound together cumin, savory, rue, parsley, mixed herbs, laurel berries and liquamen.
• The berries need to be roasted and ground to release more flavor.
• The spices were pounded next into well beaten meat.
• Then Liquamen, peppercorns and plenty of fat and pine kernels were added.
• The mixture was inserted into a sausage skin, drawn out very thinly and hung in the smoke to dry

Or, the big time classic, Parma style:

• Firstly the hind leg is trimmed and salted, as much salt as will stick on it really, the leg is then left flesh side up 1-3C for 1 week. some producers are more calculated, putting an exact amount of salt per kg of meat. 20/30g per Kg on lean parts and 10-20g wet salt on the skin is massaged in. The ham can then be left to absorb the salt – 14-21 days – after this period can be brushed down and the leg is left in the same temperature for 3 weeks.
• Next the leg is hung for around 60 days in cool ambient temperature during this time the outer layer of exposed fat and flesh is removed with particular attention being paid to the area directly surrounding the bone .
• After these 60 days the meat is washed using a pressure washer then dried thoroughly, the open side of meat and fat is covered in a layer of fat mixed with salt, salt and pepper.
• This must be then hung for a further 9 months and checked for its quality before being eaten/sold.
• For a more visually appealing ham, the peppery fat is removed and replaced with pure white fat that gives the ham a cleaner feel. Some flour can be mixed into the lard to firm it.
• For a more visually appealing ham, the peppery fat is removed and replaced with pure white fat that gives the ham a cleaner feel. Some flour can be mixed into the lard to firm it.

Originally published here.

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Birch

Birch trees tapped for syrup, in March. photo credit: Josh Pollen

Papery white bark, long lean trunks with eye-like knots, the warming sweet smell of the sauna – birch trees (both Betula pubescens spp. and B. pendula spp.) are an iconic symbol of the Nordic region. They were among the earliest trees to re-colonize the land after the last ice age (Kullman, 2002) and grow abundantly all around the Northern Hemisphere with species spanning from Morocco to Greenland (pfaf.org). Aside from their distinctive outward appearance, many parts of birch are also used for food: their sap is traditionally drunk fresh, boiled down into syrup, and even brewed into beer (Buhner, 1998), and the small buds, harvested in the winter before they begin to shoot, are deeply resinous and aromatic. Yet birch’s great gastronomic potential does not end here. Below the outer bark, the inner bark has a beautiful reddish colour and a sweet woody aroma, and can bring a unique flavour to many dishes.

Flour from the inner birch bark, dried, ground, and sifted

This inner bark is also called phloem, the layer between the distinctive papery outer bark and inner hardwood. It is a living tissue, consisting notably of specialized filtering sieve-cells for transport of water and nutrients, starch-storing tissues, and other specialized cells for structural support of the tree (Sjölund, 1997). It is through the phloem that sap travels in early spring, carrying sucrose and other nutrients to nourish the tree as it begins to bud. Compared to the outer bark and inner hardwood, phloem has a lower concentration of anti-digestive compounds such as lignin and phenols (Chaney, 2003); in fact, it is relatively nutritious, with about 1000-1200 calories per kilogram, though it tends to have a bitter taste.

Figure 1 – General tree anatomy and physiology. A tree’s bark and wood consists of many distinct layers: the exterior bark comprised of dead, accumulated cells is called the rhytidome, while the entire outer bark layer is called the periderm; the inner bark is also called phloem and consists of vascular tubes to transport nutrients; the thin cambium below is made of living tissue that builds the phloem outward and provides a protective barrier against rot and disease; the sapwood is the newly formed wood containing living tissues and water; the heartwood is older, dryer and the core of the tree’s structural stability. Drawing by Anna Sigrithur.

The outer birch bark has been widely used as a building material, and for food storage and preservation due to the antimicrobial properties of betulin, a compound (as the name would suggest) which the tree has in abundance (Haque et al 2014). Use of the phloem, however, has not been documented nearly as widely. One group that historically uses the inner bark is the Sami people of northern Scandinavia, for whom the birch tree is nearly as central to their way of life as the reindeer. They typically harvest the bark from trees felled for timber, firewood, waterproofing, or handicrafts, peeling it off in large sheets from the smooth trunks while still fresh. Traditional practice warns against harvesting bark from the full circumference of a living tree lest its nutrient flow be cut off (Laila Spik, personal communication, 2015)—a process known as girdling, used in other contexts to manage forests and even to grow extremely large vegetables. Once harvested, the reddish brown, almost cork-like phloem is separated from the outer bark and left to dry either in the sun, by a fire or wood stove, or in a dehydrator. It is then ground into flour and used to make bread and crackers. Birch flour does not contain the gluten proteins typically required to give bread structure and cohesion, and for this reason it is rarely used alone in baking. More often it is mixed with wheat or rye flour to make the dough more cohesive, and to smooth its bitter taste. Bread using birch bark flour, for example, has been made in Sweden and Finland for centuries (Zackrisson et al., 1999).

Here is a recipe for a simple birch bark bread. The crumb has a beautiful reddish hue and a unique aroma, almost reminiscent of raspberries.

Birch bark bread

600g whole grain flour
400g tipo 00 flour
75g birch flour
20g salt
925g water
200g sourdough starter

Combine ingredients and soak overnight. The next morning add 200g sourdough. Over the next 4-5 hours turn the dough every 45-60 minutes by pulling up one corner and folding it over onto itself. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat until you have made it all the way around.

Shape loaves into tight rounds and let them rest for 20 minutes. Then fold them into tight packages and place in a rising basket. Allow to rise for 2-3 hours.

Place Dutch oven with lid into oven and preheat oven to 250°C. Once hot, drop the dough into the pot, score, and put the lid back on. Decrease temperature to 230°C and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 25 minutes until the crust turns a beautiful golden brown.

Pine

The bark from the rugged, ancient pines (Pinus sylvestris spp.) of northern Scandinavia is also a source of flour for breads and baking. The Sami traditionally harvest the bark from living trees in vertical strips that wrap no more than one-third around a tree’s circumference—a method known as ‘window pane-ing’ (Laila Spik, personal communication, 2015). Typically the strip is harvested using a steel or bone blade to make horizontal cuts at the top and bottom of the strip then using a scraper to peel the strip down vertically, leaving the cambium undamaged below (Zackrisson et al., 1999). Harvesting occurred during most of the snow-free months, although specifically in June, and was most often carried out by women (ibid.). Prior to the 19th century, the trees were most often stripped on the north/northwest/northeast side of the trunk, and first strippings were most likely to be facing north, with subsequent ones facing other directions (ibid.). Interestingly, evidence of stripping from the 19th century does not indicate a specific preference for direction.

A pine tree with evidence of bark regrowth over an old ‘window-pane’, in northern Sweden.

In the days before modern communication, seeing fresh window panes on pine trees was a signal to travelling Sami that others were living nearby (Laila Spik, personal communication, 2015). Indeed these window-panes are still visible on some Lapland pines, some grown over for hundreds of years: the 700-800 year old pines around Laila’s home, near Stora Sjöfallet National Park, register evidence of the most active continuous use of pine bark of anywhere in Sweden during the period between 1450 and 1890 (Zackrisson et al., 1999). Pines are less desirable than birch for fire and construction, and are thus typically felled less often, so harvesting respectfully from the living tree is appropriate in this case. The pines from which bark was harvested were also in many considered cases sacred, and would not be used for firewood also for this reason (ibid.).

The eating of pine tree bark in the Nordic regions has commonly been regarded as a famine activity—yet the historical evidence suggests otherwise:

“There is no indication in our records that historically well-known famine years resulted in more bark being peeled in those years (see also Niklasson et al. 1994). This may strengthen the interpretation that inner bark was not a famine food for Sami, in contrast to what has been described among Nordic and Finnish farmers (Hansson 1996). The use of bark for food among Sami people was instead always described in the 1600’s and 1700’s as a normal staple food resource (Schefferus 1674; Leem 1767; Rheen 1897; Graan 1899; Lundius 1905; Drake 1918). It has also been pointed out that rich Sami families with many tamed reindeer and large milk production normally collected the largest quantities of Scots pine inner bark for food (Drake 1918), which is understandable as inner bark was often mixed into milk (Schefferus 1674).” (Zackrisson et al., 1999)

Thus, when it comes to Sami culture, use of pine bark may have been much more connected with wealth (in the form of more reindeer and their milk) than poverty and famine. Nonetheless, the use of bark in the 18th and 19th centuries was often described as primitive and as a sign of extreme poverty (ibid.). The 19th century saw official claims that eating bark and its products was dangerous and unhealthy; Swedish authorities generated intense propaganda against the use of bark for food; and from 1870 onwards Swedish legislation forbade the harvesting of bark from trees growing on crown land (ibid.).

There are many documents suggesting that pine flour be made from the phloem similarly to birch (MacWelch, 2014; Gottesfeld 1992; Zackrisson et al., 1999). However, Laila’s recipe for making pine bark flour is simply to harvest the shaggy outer bark (rhytidome) which can be flaked off relatively easily with a sharp knife. The grey surface is weathered and can be discarded in favour of the rusty-coloured, aromatic layers lying below, just above the smooth, white cambium. Similar to the method for birch, the harvested pine bark flakes should be dried and ground into a flour using a stone grinder, a mortar and pestle, an electric blender or mill, or a combination of these methods. The pine flour is then mixed with wheat, spelt or rye flour and typically baked into thin knäckebröd, or Swedish crisp bread. It is also well documented that the phloem and cambium can be made into flour by stripping away the rhytidome and periderm and peeling the cambium off in sheets, dehydrating it, and then grinding into powder (Zackrisson et al., 1999). This kind of harvesting should only be done on non-living branches or trees because of the damage it would do to the living tree. Small pieces of the cambium can also be enjoyed as a fresh mid-harvest treat, with a sweetness and texture reminiscent of fresh coconut meat.

Nutritionally, the periderm and rhytidome are not as generous as the phloem or cambium as they do not contain starches or carbohydrates digestible to humans (Chaney, 2005). However, they do contain condensed tannins called procyanidins that are being researched for potential health benefits (Li et al., 2015). Aromatic hydrocarbons such as terpenes and phenols which give pine its distinctive warm, woody scent also deliver antimicrobial properties, perhaps useful for blending with other flours to preserve their shelf life. The phloem of the pine is rich in ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), which during the 1800s helped the Sami of the interior of Norway and Sweden avoid the scurvy that was at the time devastating the coastal populations of non-Sami farmers (Zackrisson et al., 1999).

Making pine bark flatbread with Laila Spik in northern Sweden.

I [Anna] learned how to make this bread from the outer bark from Laila Spik when I was learning from her this summer; the aroma that fills the kitchen while these are baking is irresistible and resinous, just like a walk in the pine forest.

Laila is pleased to share her recipe with pine bark flatbread with anyone who is interested. You can get in touch with her at laila.spik@gmail.com (or check out her website).

Another batch of pine bark bread made at the lab

I’ve recently been working on another recipe with the pine bark flour, which we served on Monday at a party to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of our move to KU and the past, present and future of NFL.

Pine bark cookies

75g sugar
113g butter
1 egg white
60g pine bark flour
90g wheat flour
2g baking powder
2g salt

1. Oven 180˚C, 10% humidity.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar; add lightly beaten egg white.
3. Sift together dry ingredients and slowly add to creamed mixture. Stir till combined.
4. The mixture should be quite fatty. Wrap, and place in refrigerator for one hour.
5. Roll between sheets of parchment very thinly (at this point it may be helpful to put the rolled out sheet in the freezer for 5 minutes to firm it up a little bit), and then cut out cookie shapes (I used 30mm circle cutter).
6. Bake on silicone for 5 minutes—less if they are very small, and more if they are larger.
7. Cool and enjoy sandwiching this tasty bastard:

Celeriac white chocolate buttercream

approx. 300g celeriac (½ large), peeled and cut into 5cm chunks
milk for poaching
90g white chocolate pieces
50mL heavy cream
2 sheets gelatin

1. Poach the celeriac till very soft in two changes of milk.
2. Let cool and strain away milk (save for delicious rooty toot tootin’ lattes!!)
3. Purée with blender, then pass through tamis to remove fibres.
4. Heat the cream and chocolate over a bain marie, whisk to combine.
5. Soften gelatin in some water and melt over bain marie with a dash of cream. Whisk gelatin into chocolate mixture.
6. Pour over celeriac puree and blend thoroughly. Spread into container and let cool for at least 4 hours.
7. Purée celeriac white chocolate again for smoothness; spread on half of your pine cookies and ever so gently top with another pine cookie (they are delicate flowers).
8. Put in the refrigerator to set again, half an hour. Serve immediately and enjoy or they may become soggy.

The finished pine bark oreo.

Contributions

Avery wrote the first version of the Birch section, and developed the bread recipe. Anna wrote the Pine section, developed the pine biscuit recipe, and updated information and added citations throughout.

Works Cited

Buhner, Stephen Harrod. Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation. Siris Books: Boulder. 1998.

Chaney, William R. “Why Do Animals Eat The Bark and Wood of Trees and Shrubs.” Forest and Natural Resources (2003): n. pag. Purdue University, Aug. 2003. Web. 30 June 2014.

“Digestibility of Plants.” Plant Structure & Function. University of Waikato, n.d. Web. 30 June 2014.

Gottesfeld, Leslie M. Johnson. The importance of bark products in the aboriginal economies of Northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Economic Botany, 46:2. 148-157. Web. 29 October 2015.

Haque, S., Nawrot, D. A., Alakurtti, S., Ghemtio, L., Yli-Kauhaluoma, J., Tammela, P. “Screening and Characterisation of Antimicrobial Properties of Semisynthetic Betulin Derivatives.” Panepinto J, ed. PLoS ONE. 2014;9(7):e102696. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102696.

Huebner, Matt. “Study Shows Metabolic Benefits of Birch Bark.” Next Level Nutrition. N.p., 14 May 2011. Web. 30 June 2014.

Kullman, L. (2002). “Boreal tree taxa in the central Scandes during the Late-Glacial: implications for Late-Quaternary forest history.” Journal of Biogeography, 29: 1117–1124. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2699.2002.00743.x

Li, S., Xu, M., Niu, Q., Xu, S., Ding, Y., Yan, Y., Guo, S. & Li, F. Efficacy of Procyanidins against In Vivo Cellular Oxidative Damage: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLoS ONE. 1 October 2015. Web. 29 October 2015.

Lindsey, Rebecca. “The Migrating Boreal Forest : Feature Articles.” The Migrating Boreal Forest : Feature Articles. NASA Earth Observatory, 20 Aug. 2002. Web. 30 June 2014.

MacWelch, Tim. “Survival Foods: Can You Really Eat Tree Bark? | Outdoor Life Survival.” Survival Foods: Can You Really Eat Tree Bark? | Outdoor Life Survival. Outdoor Life, 9 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 June 2014.

Sjölund, Richard D. The Phloem Sieve Element: A River Runs through It. The Plant Cell, 9. 1137-1146. July 1997. Web. 29 October 2015.

Zackrisson, O., Ostlund, L., Korhonen, O., and Bergman. The ancient use of Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine) inner bark by Sami people in northern Sweden, related to cultural and ecological factors. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 9:2. 99-109. July 2000.

First published on Nordic Food Lab

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The chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus; Báhkkečátná in Sami language) grows on birch trees. It has become a trendy ‘superfood’ in recent years, marketed as a mystical Siberian tonic for many ailments. Yet it has also been used as a traditional medicine for thousands of years in Sápmi, the territory of the indigenous Sami people in northern Scandinavia, as well as in other regions of the sub-Arctic.

Use of chaga has declined over recent generations. Yet, after researchers began studying the fungus for its health benefits and it became a health supplement sold in pill form, younger people started to reclaim interest in chaga’s traditional use. In this episode, Sami teacher Laila Spik Skaltje talks about both the uses and cultural meaning of báhkkečátná, and Sami journalist Máret Steinfjell shares her perspective on what she describes as chaga’s youth-driven renaissance.

Via Nordic Food Lab (CC BY SA)

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Everybody has probably experienced this feeling at one time or another, the feeling of being passionately involved in a creative project. That passion is the sign of what might be called authentic work, true work, or soul work. The human spirit rebels at doing anything we don’t truly care about. The rebellion is closest to the surface in the young: hence, the sullen, resentful, rebellious, angry teenager. As we get older and the spirit crumbles, we come to accept that life is “just like that.” Working in drudgery for external rewards so that you can live your real life during your “time off”.

Think of the assumptions built into that phrase, “time off”. Time off from what? If we enjoy freedom only on the weekends, vacations, and evenings of our lives, then what does that say about the rest of life? It is slavery. What about being free all the time? That is what you are, when you do something you love. You are free.

I am not just speaking of the obvious drudgery of the working class here. Even among the elite, many occupations are not rewarding on their own merits. One corporate executive told me that his job consisted of “lying to the customer.” Another told me that his job was to scare customers into buying computer security systems that they didn’t actually need. And imagine if your job were to promote Colgate over Crest, or Pepsi over Coke, or any brand over any other, essentially identical, brand. Or if your job were to write software to help someone else do that. Or to provide the financing or insurance for someone to do that. Something in you would say, “I was not put here on earth to sell soda. I was not put here on earth to lie to the customer. I was not put here on earth to make children learn standardized testing curricula. I was not put here on earth to push a broom. I was not put here on earth to fill out medical billing statements. I was not put here on earth to collect garbage.”

The nature of work-as-we-know-it—tedious, routine, degrading to self or others, unfulfilling to the spirit—has very deep roots. One root grows from the Machine, with its requirement for standardized, replaceable parts and processes. Another grows from the mentality of domestication, laboring today for the sake of a future harvest. Ultimately, all originate in our sense of self as discrete and separate. More for me is less for you. The true artist never does anything merely “good enough”—good enough for the grade, for the customer, for the boss. The true artist keeps working and working on a project until he or she can look upon it with satisfaction. Then, and only then, is it ready to give to the universe. The true artist might receive money for her work, but the work is not done for the money because no amount of money is sufficient. The real motivation is elsewhere. True art is beyond price.

My conversation partner asked, “But in such a world, who will collect the garbage?” My short answer was, “In a more beautiful world, we are not going to produce very much garbage!” Now I would like to give a longer answer.

Both the question and the answer were spoken on two levels, the first literal, the second metaphoric. On the literal level, we can envision an economic and monetary system that structurally discourages waste. When all costs are internalized, a huge incentive is created to produce goods that are fully reusable or recyclable. This is a return to the very recent past. My ex-wife recalls that in her childhood in rural Taiwan, there was no such thing as a garbage truck. Food scraps were composted or fed to the pigs. Newspaper, metal, and glass were all recycled. Food bought at the market was taken home wrapped in bamboo leaves. Containers were refilled by local distributors or producers. Another friend of mine recently returned from a visit to Cuba, where she was amazed to find that an entire village of several hundred people only filled one garbage can a week.

Ultimately, to make an object beautifully requires that we consider its entire history and future. The artist-engineers of a more beautiful world will incorporate reusability and sustainability into their design specs. They will do so for beauty’s sake, for their own joy and satisfaction, and they will have an economic incentive to do so as well. Products that generate waste will be more expensive. Beauty and money will no longer be at odds. If you are curious to know more, read the economics of Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins, as well as Chapter 7 of The Ascent of Humanity.

But really, the question was about more than just garbage. Generalized, it might go something like this: “There are a certain number of unpleasant, tedious, degrading tasks that have to get done in order to have a modern society. Who will do these tasks in a world where everyone insists on work that is rewarding?”

My answer generalizes too. Tasks like that will become much less necessary when industrial design consciously seeks, not to minimize costs, but to minimize drudgery, tedium, and waste. Secondly, our demand for endless piles of cheap, generic consumer items will diminish as we transition into a new conception of wealth and surround ourselves with durable, elegant material objects made with love. I believe that many consumer goods that are mass-produced today will revert back to local, more labor-intensive production. This is especially true of food, and also to some extent clothing, medicine, shelter, and entertainment. Thirdly, as new currency systems render money into no longer a scarce commodity, we will no longer support enterprises whose dominant motivation is to reduce costs and maximize dollar efficiency. We will desire goods and services produced by artists, not slaves. Such a thing as a garment made in a sweatshop will seem ugly and repugnant to us. To have a surfeit of such things is a strange concept of wealth indeed. To me, true wealth would be to live among unique treasures, not mass-produced uniform objects made with the crass motive of profit above all.

In a more beautiful world, we will not be comfortable eating at restaurants or staying at hotels or working in office buildings that depend logistically on masses of broken souls pushing mops, washing dishes, flipping burgers, and entering data. Nor will there be many people sufficiently broken, by training or poverty, to do such work. Any enterprise will have to make consideration for human dignity.

I believe there will still be such things as hotels and restaurants in a more beautiful world, and there will still be a limited amount of work washing dishes and chopping vegetables and pushing mops. These jobs are really only degrading and soul-destroying when you feel compelled to do them day in and day out, with no hope of anything better. For a teenager to do something like this a few hours a week for a year or two is a different matter entirely. One of the best jobs I ever had was in a cafeteria dish room in college. There are times in life as well, personal transitions for instance, where a period of mindless labor can be comforting. So there may always be a limited place for such jobs in even the most beautiful society. No one will feel that he is stuck there, though.

People will do many more things for themselves. It is degrading to clean other people’s toilets all day; it is not degrading to clean your own toilet, or even another person’s toilet out of love. I do not find it degrading to change my son’s diapers, or to physically care for an ill loved one. Such tasks are part of the richness of life, yet ironically, in this, supposedly richest society on earth, we pay other people to perform the tasks of daily living, converting them from richness to degradation. I think that the toilets in tomorrow’s office buildings will be cleaned by the people who work there.

All the same, it is nice to be pampered sometimes, and there are people who love to do that for others. A more beautiful world will abound in inns, restaurants, spas, massage clinics, and other places devoted to making people feel great. Inns and restaurants will operate on a smaller scale than today’s mega-hotels, and all the slogans about personalized hospitality will come true.

There are some who say that if everyone suddenly insisted only on rewarding work, and refused to compromise their dignity, then society as we know it would fall apart. From this assumption follows the whole regime of oppression and control, with the associated guilt of knowing that your freedom and fulfillment is based on another’s slavery and misery. Well, this way of thinking is correct about one thing: society as we know it would indeed fall apart. But that doesn’t mean a descent to barbarism. In fact, I doubt the transition would be nearly as difficult as you might imagine if, say, all the garbage collectors of the world went on permanent holiday. Your purchasing habits, your composting habits, and so on would change very quickly I am sure, soon to be followed by our production systems.

If all the mop-pushers quit, saying, “I’m too good for this”; if all the burger-flippers quit, saying, “I am too good for this”; if all the marketers decided that lying were beneath their dignity, if all the soldiers said, “I will no longer kill”; if all the manufacturers said, “I will no longer produce in a way that pollutes the air”; if everyone just refused to go along with anything that felt wrong, can you imagine the world we could create? Let us not be afraid to create a world in which no one is broken to be anything less than an artist.

I think we can all begin creating a world like that right now. We can become refusers ourselves, as much as courage allows, and we can encourage each other with the knowledge, “You are meant to do something beautiful here.” Most of all, we can see in every maid, every check-out cashier, every janitor, ever data drone, a divinely creative spirit that is much bigger than that role. See everyone as big. Never through word or deed imply that they are small. Every time you treat one of the lowest functionaries of our society with humanity and respect, you are committing a small, revolutionary act, because your respect contradicts what the system has made them. Even if they are 99 percent broken to their role, even if they accept with 99 percent of their being that life is just like this, even if they willingly comply with their own degradation, there is something deep down that refuses ever to accept it. No human spirit can ever truly be broken. Your humanity and respect will speak to that tiny, buried, and indominable spark of dignity and rebellion in every human soul.

Originally published here.

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Yet it is not hard to see that most of this scarcity is artificial. Consider food scarcity: huge amounts, as much as 50% of production by some estimates, are wasted in the Western world. Vast areas of land are devoted to producing ethanol; vaster areas still are devoted to America’s number one irrigated crop: lawn grass. Meanwhile, land that is devoted to food production is typically farmed by chemical-intensive, machine-dependent methods that may actually be less productive (per hectare, not per unit of labour) than labour-intensive organic agriculture and permaculture.

Similarly, scarcity of natural resources is also an artefact of our system. Not only are our production methods wasteful, but also much of what is produced does little to further human wellbeing. Technologies of conservation, recycling and renewables languish undeveloped. Without any real sacrifice, we could live in a world of abundance.

Perhaps nowhere is the artificiality of scarcity so obvious as it is with money. As the example of food illustrates, most of the material want in this world is due to lack not of anything tangible, but of money. Ironically, money is the one thing we can produce in unlimited quantities: it is mere bits in computers. Yet we create it in a way that renders it inherently scarce, and that drives a tendency towards the concentration of wealth, which means over-abundance for some and scarcity for the rest.

Even wealth offers no escape from the perception of scarcity. A 2011 study of the super-wealthy at Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy surveyed attitudes towards wealth among households with a net worth of US$25 million or more (some much more – the average was US$78 million). Amazingly, when asked whether they experienced financial security, most of the respondents said no. How much would it take to achieve financial security? They named figures, on average, 25% higher than their current assets.

If someone with US$78 million in assets can experience scarcity, it obviously has much deeper roots than economic inequality. The roots lie nowhere else than in our ‘Story of the World’. Scarcity starts in our very ontology, our self-conception and our cosmology. From there it infiltrates our social institutions, systems and experience of life. A culture of scarcity so immerses us that we mistake it for reality.

The most pervasive, life-consuming form of scarcity is that of time. ‘Primitive’ people generally don’t experience a shortage of time. They don’t see their days, hours or minutes as numbered. They don’t even have a concept of hours or minutes. “Theirs”, says Helena Norberg-Hodge in describing rural Ladakh, “is a timeless world.” I have read accounts of Bedouins content to do nothing but watch the sands of time pass, of the Amazonian Pirahã fully absorbed in watching a boat appear on the horizon and disappear hours later, of native people content to literally sit and watch the grass grow. This is wealth nearly unknown to us.

Scarcity of time is built in to the ‘Story of Science’, which seeks to measure all things and thereby renders all things finite. It delimits our existence to the boundaries of a single biographical timeline, the finite span of a separate self.

Scarcity of time also draws from the scarcity of money. In a world of competition, at any moment you could be doing more to get ahead. At any moment you have a choice whether to use your time productively. Our money system embodies the maxim of the separate self: “More for you is less for me.” In a world of material scarcity, you can never ‘afford’ to rest at ease. This is more than a mere belief or perception: money as it exists today is not, as some teachings claim, “just energy”; at least it is not a neutral energy. It is always in short supply. When money is created as interest-bearing debt, as ours is, then always and necessarily there will be more debt than there is money. Our systems mirror our collective perceptions.

“More for you is less for me” is a defining axiom of separation. True in a competitive money economy, it is false in earlier gift cultures in which, because of widespread sharing, more for you was more for me. Scarcity conditioning extends far beyond the economic realm, manifesting as envy, jealousy, one-upmanship, social competitiveness, and more.

The scarcity of money, in turn, draws from the scarcity of love, intimacy and connection. The foundational axiom of economics says as much: human beings are motivated to maximise rational self-interest. This axiom is a statement of separateness and, I hazard to say, loneliness. Everyone out there is a utility-maximiser; all are in it for themselves. You are alone. Why does this seem so true, at least to economists? Where do the perception and experience of aloneness come from? In part they come from the money economy itself, which surrounds us with standardised, impersonal commodities divorced from their original matrix of relationships, and replaces communities of people doing things for themselves and each other with paid professional services. As I describe in my book Sacred Economics, community is woven from gifts. Gifts in various forms create bonds, because a gift generates gratitude: the desire to give in return or to give forward. A money transaction, in contrast, is over and done with once goods and cash have changed hands. The two parties go their separate ways.

The scarcity of love, intimacy and connection is also inherent in our cosmology, which sees the universe as composed of generic building blocks that are just things, devoid of sentience, purpose or intelligence. It is also a result of patriarchy and its attendant possessiveness and jealousy. If one thing is abundant in the human world, it should be love and intimacy, whether sexual or otherwise. There are so many of us! Here, like nowhere else, the artificiality of scarcity is plain. We could be living in paradise.

Sometimes I lead a workshop activity that involves prolonged mutual gazing between two people. After the initial discomfort fades and the minutes go by, most people experience an ineffably sweet intimacy, a connection that penetrates through all the superficial posing and pretence that define daily interactions. These pretences are much flimsier than we would like to think – they cannot withstand more than half a minute of real seeing, which is probably why it is considered rude to gaze into someone’s eyes for more than a couple seconds. That is all the intimacy we typically allow ourselves. That is all the wealth we can handle right now. Sometimes, after the activity, I will observe to the group: “Can you imagine – all that bliss is available all the time, less than 60 seconds away, yet we go for years and years without it? Experiencing it every day, would people still want to shop? Drink? Gamble? Kill?”

How close is the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible? It is closer than close.

What need, beyond basic survival needs, is more important to a human being than to be touched, held, groomed, seen, heard and loved? What things do we consume in futile compensation for these unfulfilled needs? How much money, how much power, how much control over other people does it take to meet the need for connection? How much is enough? As the Boston College study implies, no amount is enough. Remember that, the next time you think greed is the culprit behind Gaia’s woes.

A kind of obscene excess accompanies each dimension of scarcity on our planet: hunger side by side with obesity; drought with flooding; energy shortages with profligate waste; loneliness with virtual hypernetworking; crushing debt with huge excess banking reserves; bloated houses with shrinking public space.

I could go on to mention many other kinds of scarcity that are so normal in our society as to escape notice: scarcity of attention; scarcity of play; scarcity of listening; scarcity of dark and quiet; scarcity of beauty. I live in a 100-year-old house. What a contrast there is between the regular, factory-perfect commodity objects and buildings that environ us, and the old radiators in my house, clanking and hissing all night, with their curved iron, their irregular valves and connectors, made with a touch more care than they needed to be, that seem to possess a quality of life.

I drive past the strip malls and big box stores, the parking lots and car dealerships, office buildings and subdevelopments, each building a model of cost-efficiency, and I marvel: “After 5,000 years of architectural development, we’ve ended up with this?” Here we see the physical expression of the ideology of science: only the measurable is real. We have maximised our production of the measurable – the square feet, the productivity per labour unit – at the expense of everything qualitative: sacredness, intimacy, love, beauty and play.

How much of the ugly does it take to substitute for a lack of the beautiful? How many adventure films does it take to compensate for a lack of adventure? How many superhero movies must one watch to compensate for the atrophied expression of one’s greatness? How much pornography to meet the need for intimacy? How much entertainment to substitute for missing play? It takes an infinite amount. That’s good news for economic growth, but bad news for the planet. Fortunately, our planet isn’t allowing much more of it, nor is our ravaged social fabric. We are almost through with the age of artificial scarcity, if only we can release the habits that hold us there.

From our immersion in scarcity arise the habits of scarcity. From the scarcity of time arises the habit of hurrying. From the scarcity of money comes the habit of greed. From the scarcity of attention comes the habit of showing off. From the scarcity of meaningful labour comes the habit of laziness. From the scarcity of unconditional acceptance comes the habit of manipulation. Is it any wonder that we are wreaking havoc on this planet?

Originally published on CharlesEisenstein.net.

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