Sacred Lab Podcast
By Sacred Lab
Sacred Lab PodcastMay 04, 2021
Farming For Health Part 3 - Grasslands and Forests
Continuing our Farming For Health series, today I am again joined by Alasdair Bednall. Alasdair is the chief educator and consultant with Entangled Edible Ecosystems, A syntropic agroforestry, food forest and permaculture consultancy organisation, based near the Blue Mountains in NSW.
He joins me today to discuss grasslands and forests. We cover what succession is, why certain farming practices are better suited for either grasslands or forests, why disturbance is so important to the health of an ecosystem, what the aims of Syntropic Agroforestry are, the nuances of context, the issues with forcing practices onto land, the various macro trends determining if land wants to be a forest or a grassland and much more.
You can find Alasdair on Instagram or Facebook at Entangled_Edible_Ecosystems and stay up to date for when his next workshop will be.
This is a great information rich and important conversation. I hope you enjoy.
Remember to like, share, comment, rate and subscribe or give your Love in any way you see fit.
Thanks to Alasdair for joining me for part three of our Farming For Health series.
On The Sacred Lab front, I have put out a new blog post on the substack, sacredlab.substack.com, called Step 1, breath - where I make the case for implementing a breathwork practice into our lives and list out some of the ways I have benefited. It is a new series I am starting and this is part 1 of step 1, part 2 will be out on Wednesday the 21st, which will be more about the science of breathing and the psychological, physiological and spiritual changes that an intentional practice brings.
I also released a reading of part 1 of my Spirit In The Everyday series, the first part being Altars. You can find that where you are currently listening to this.
As always, thank you so much for being a part of this show and for engaging with this material. Together let us solve the woes of the world, apprenticing to wise folk, like Alasdair Bednall.
Enjoy this conversation, which was recorded at my property in the Dandenong Ranges. Next week I will release the video recording portion.
Without further ado, here is Farming For Health part 3.
Thanks to Maggie Alley for the Intro music. Find her at Maggie Alley Music.
Altars - Learning Spirit In The Everyday Part One
The original piece was published at Sacred Lab on Substack.
In this piece I go into the beginnings of a daily spiritual practice, with the cornerstone of every practice - the Altar.
What is an Altar?
Who is it for?
What is it for?
Remember to like, share, comment and subscribe if you found this episode to be to your liking.
As always, thanks to the amazing Maggie Alley for the theme music!
Farming For Health Part Two - Ecological context through a Syntropic lens
Now, this week we are getting into part two of our Farming for Health series, looking at farming through a Syntropic lens with Alasdair Bednall.
In the first part of the series we cover what nature wants, what the human ecological niche is and how we can fill it.
Part two is about context - the where and how of regenerative practices and why these are important, we also cover the pitfalls of trendy regenerative agriculture, why your neighbours waste stream is a fraught input for your land, what Alasdair's tenets of regenerative agriculture are and much more.
If you want to catch up on everything Alasdair is doing, courses he is holding or if you want to watch or read his posts about syntropy, agriculture and ecology - search for entangled edible ecosystems on facebook or Instagram, give him a follow and if available to you, get to one of his courses on an introduction to syntropic gardening, Alasdair is a wealth of knowledge, a kind and gentle teacher and it is with great pleasure that I welcome him back for part 2 of farming for Health.
Enjoy the discussion.
Music by Maggie Alley - Instagram and Facebook This podcast is edited using Audacity, a free audio editing program.
Farming For Health - Nature and Humanity through a Syntropic lens
In the first part of our series on Farming For Health, we look through a Syntropic lens with Alasdair Bednall. He takes us through what Nature desires and the Human ecological niche.
You can find Alasdair on Instagram @entangled_edible_ecosystems and on Facebook here.
Alisdair has upcoming courses on backyard Syntropic Gardening. You will find the information on the facebook page.
Substack - https://sacredlab.substack.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/the.sacred.lab
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/the.sacred.lab/
X - https://twitter.com/TheSacredLab
To edit the video of this podcast I used:
Clips used in the video:
Zach Bush - On Purpose with Jay Shetty
All material reproduced from the above sources is done in the spirit of education and of making sure that viewers understand who said and did what.
Should this wish for such to be reproduced is not shared, and you are the owner of the material, please email me at Ryan@sacredlab.com
The Shifting Shape Of Prophecy
Read the original piece on Substack.
Poets Attend Mass
Read the original piece over at my Substack.
Gerry Gillespie #3 - Rethinking Waste
Gerry has been involved in the recovery of wasted resources and their reuse for the benefit of community and business for the past 25 years. His experience and skills mean he's widely regarded as a leading edge proponent in innovative resource recovery and economic development and related systems analysis.
His experience includes a 21-year period of working in a senior positions in government, initially with the ACT Government Department of Urban Services then for 12 years with the NSW Government in the Office of Environment and Heritage in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.
Gerry's priority now is providing leading edge services with a focus on ROTS to communities and farmers alike. Wherever possible, he's keen to work with farming families to help reduce their input costs and increase their soil health.
The Finch and the Psyllid
Read the original over at my Substack.
Christianity Without Proselytising
Read the original piece over at my Substack.
Jacob Fry - Faith and Charity
Jacob Fry is the head content manager at Christian Youth Camps (CYC) Cowes.
Having faced severe challenges in his life with multiple life threatening car accidents and the long road to recovery, you could understand if Jacob was bitter or cruel.
But he is anything but those. He is a kind, caring, generous and hilarious individual who embodies the best traits of following Christ.
After my own religious experience I only had one person to call, Jacob. He was understanding and receptive to the strange situation and offered to Baptise me in the Lord's name.
This conversation ranges from Christianity, to Community, to healing and many takes many pit stops along the way.
Follow Jacob and CYC Cowes on their instagram here
Dr. Tim Moss - Men's Health #1
Joining me this week is Dr. Tim Moss. Tim is currently the health content manager at Healthy Male, one of Australia’s leading organisations in the Men’s health field. Tim is also an adjunct associate professor at Monash University in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department.
He joins me today to discuss penis sizes, sperm count, raising boys and so much more.
Tim’s article on penis size and sperm count in the context of adverse chemical exposure.
Thanks for watching or listening.
Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, share and or leave a rating.
Any feedback or potential guest ideas is welcome!
Stephen Jenkinson - Grief and Love #1
Stephen and co are touring this next year in Australia - find the dates here
Buy his books, his music and read his ongoing blog posts from the road here at Orphan Wisdom.
Some of the areas we cover:
Does the Land grieve?
Do lands grieve?
What is Love?
How to shuck relationship baggage?
How do we change?
What is the cost of entering a Village?
What is being responsible without owning?
Are Father's needed now more than ever?
Patrick Jones (Artist as Family) - Emergency Response and Preparedness #4
Patrick Jones is an Artist and Activist living on Djaara land, in Daylesford. His property, Tree Elbow, is a staple in the Permaculture world. If you want an example of an incredibly well developed and resilient lifestyle, Meg and Patrick are the folk to talk to.
Patrick joins me today and discusses:
- Morning Routine
- The Flerd run on common and private land
- Goat lead regeneration
- The issues with conservation and Neoliberalism
- Bureaucratic inefficiencies
- Working with nature by not deeming some plants bad and others good
- Art and Activism and Artist as Family
- Neo-peasantry
- The housing market
- The need to be prepared to fight, come together or flee
- Resiliency through emplaced community
- Volunteer opportunities at Tree Elbow with Meg and Patrick
Tim McNeilly (Creative Cultures) - Emergency Response and Preparedness #3
Tim McNeilly hosts semi-regular Fermenting workshops, having been Fermenting now for 25 years his workshops are very clear and the processes are very simple.
You can find out more about Tim and any upcoming dates for his workshops through his facebook page.
Next Workshop - 23rd of October and the 4th of December at the Lighthouse Regenerative Farm. Also some others, find out more above.
Show notes:
12 years of running workshops. Averaging fortnightly workshops but with recent move to Queensland, this has become a little less intermittent.
Looking for workshop spaces and interested people...*hint hint*
Doesn't buy anything that's advertised as they have to cover those costs and to a degree can't focus on the quality of the product.
Pasteurised factory Kombucha.
Mead... The good stuff! Make more than you can drink quickly and keep making batches.
Clover honey. Gum honeys. Manuka honey, complex sugars, 12 month brew - amazing and potentially medicinal?
Me not very well sharing John Marco Allegro's Sacred Mushroom and The Cross.
Alot of history buried beneath cultural priorities about ancient fermenting practices.
Why Organic is ideal. Monocropping and Petro-chemical defoliators and pesticides.
Metabolising toxins. Kombucha can help pass BPAs.
Bioferments. All failed ferments go into Garden. Fermenting weeds and fruit scraps.
Working with the local animals and plants not against.
Life span of ferments: (Temperature, moisture levels, Larder/Cellar, etc)
Sauerkraut will last several years. Can lose nutrient value and flavour profile changes but long term storage of cabbage, this is ideal.
Viili doesn't last very long but you can do repeat top ups with leftovers.
Milk Kefir can last a few months.
Tepache (very tasty) can last a couple months.
Decarboxylated Amanita in honey.
Pee on your citrus trees!
Shelf stable foods for supply chain disruptions. Rice, Beans, Grains.
Get out of the city.
Start a vege garden.
Network with people already growing food.
Eat weeds. Keep in mind Into The Wild.
Balance stocks of what you can produce and eat with what you can trade.
Monsanto and their monopoly on seeds.
Distilling water can remove fluoride.
Add a bit of salt and bicarb.
Vortex and pray over.
Alasdair Bednall - Emergency Response and Preparedness #2
Show notes (Summarised and not in order):
La Nina macro weather system wet season
Indian Di-pole - The Monsoon winds
Negative Indian Di-pole - Monsoon travelling south into Australia
Two types of flood - Slow flood from consistent rain, building up the local creeks and soaking the ground. Fast flood from heavy downpour which moves logs and stones and deposits debris onto plants, suffocating them.
Situation of many farmers in Hawkesbury River area walking away from farms until a better time when they can restore the land and infrastructure without heavy downpours and when the growing season picks up.
Agroforestry - a response to several situations. Perennial systems are more resilient. Perennial systems are also more productive as there is a diversity of crops and canopy. Various animal species can be included in the system too. Working slowly in perennial systems allows the reduction of chemical use
and smart approaches of weed reduction (Shading out Lantana with tree species that will come up on canopy floor, planted beneath the Lantana).
Standard farming operations keep the Earth in a low state of complexity in order to turn out Annual crops.
Syntropic Farming - Reducing energy expenditure of plants to maximise plant growth and foliage output. Works to feed energy back into systems, doubling down on them and operates in the opposite direction to Entropy.
Troubles with Conservation - Weeds are targeted above all else and with chemical sprays, creating more problems than we started with.
Gerry Gillespie Returns - Emergency Response and Preparedness #1
I have the great pleasure of speaking with Gerry for a second time. This time I focus on Emergency Response and Preparedness, which will be a consistent theme for this latest run of the Podcast.
Go to Gerry's website to find out more about what he has going on and his previous work.
Show notes:
IBI - International Biochar Initiative https://biochar-international.org/
Biochar water filtration
Frank Strie
Opportunity over mess - clean water in days, healthy food in weeks with Biochar
Contiki Pyroliser to Gasifier
Lismore Flood damages
Worm farm processing:
- Islands in the Stream
- Nutrisoil
Source separated waste
AKT International - KIX System http://www.akt-kix.com/portada-english.html
Peter Davies - ID Gasifiers https://www.idgasifiers.com.au/
Herpes virus to kill - https://pestsmart.org.au/toolkit-resource/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-carp-herpesvirus-cyhv-3/
Feraliser - https://www.pilnet.org/case_study/minterellison-feraliser-ltd/ $1 per KG of feral pig, turned into Foliar spray (Hydrolisate).
Hydrolisate - simple biofertiliser foliar spray. Dilute 100 to 1 or 200 to 1 (Quite low PH). 5L per HA.
Organic Nitrogen in the form of Hydrolisate stays where you put it, whereas Inorganic or synthetic Nitrogen is lost at a rate of upto 90% to rain and wind.
Waste Between Our Ears - Gerry Gillespie
Soil as basis for disaster resilience and recovery
Green Cover - https://greencover.com/
Axton's from Canada using multiple grain species to mitigate fertiliser use. Investing in high quality sorting machine instead of wasteful poisons and synthetic fertilisers.
Grant Sims https://downundercovers.com/
Compensatory payments for Farmers in light of price hikes with low output of high value crops.
Measuring water retention capacity of soil and nutrient density of food as ways of accounting for regenerative practices and paying a premium or compensating farmers in some way.
Carbohydrate for LAB Serum, high amounts in bioferment guides from Gerry are to do with longevity of product and can be reduced quite dramatically.
Various ends covered with the use of weeds for creating hydrolisates. Seeds for creating LAB inoculant and leaves/timber making protein (Macerated) for the hydrolisate.
Fungal skin growing on the top of my LAB serum, can just stir these in (for those wondering!)
1L per 10 Cubic Metre of SPICE. 40% of water and a cup of SPICE for 2 Cubes
Think along the lines of biology, very effective and powerful in very low quantity.
David Hardwick, Agro Ecologist - https://events.humanitix.com/organisers/5ea56cca3ffc610007b712a7
Robyn Francis (Djanbung Gardens)
Show notes with links and key concepts:
Interview begins, post ramble, at 7.38
Australasian Permaculture Convergence
Third ethic: Fair share/limits to population and growth
Permaculture Designer's Manual
Ecological footprint - Australia using 3x planet's capacity
Antarctic Beech Forest west of Wauchope anti-logging protests
The importance of more political involvement from Permaculture
15km radius of Nimbin there are 40 plus Intentional Communities
'Visions of Nimbin' as part of raising $118 thousand to buy the school as a community
Jarlanbah Community - a 55 acre village, the first multiple occupancy community title in NSW, designed in part by Robyn
Billen Cliffs - Strata title for establishing a body corporate which distributes freehold title to occupants, took three years to be granted.
Chrystal Waters - Similar occupancy title to Billen Cliffs
Dry compost toilets
Lee Davidson, Southern Cross Uni
Ray Flanagan
Community resilience
Forgotten Arts Fare - 7th of August
August PDC at Djanbung Gardens - August 14th to 28th
Gerry Gillespie ( Author of The Waste Between Our Ears)
Show notes with links and key concepts:
The Waste Between Our Ears from Paper Chain and Acres Magazine
Focus on engagement and education.
Queanbeyan, the location for the first City to Soil program.
"We need this stuff really clean because it's going into the soil to grow food to feed your children."
Recycling program success is measured by contamination levels. The initial program in Queanbeyan had a contamination level of less than half a percent. With four councils involved, Goulburn, Canberra, Armidale and Queanbeyan, the levels were at .2%.
City to Soil research lead to the yellow lidded recycling bins.
With a paper survey about the program, the response rate was 55%!
Soft drinks bottles are the same material as bicycle helmets.
Non-hodgkin Lymphoma related to Glyphosate - (unrelated but interesting) Maurice Blackman legal case
$2B increase in Agricultural value over next decade at the same time as $800m of land degradation due to salinity in the Murray Darling Basin alone.
455 million hectares under Agricultural practices in Australia. 70% of this has less than 1% organic matter, which increases water retention and microbial activity.
Minton Farmer growing 5 different grains, that support each other microbially. Uses an expensive seed mill to sort them. No poisons used.
Fleabane can be bailed and composted, with an inoculant, to become biostimulant.
Weed control has to do with time of removal and how it is disposed of.
Scotch Thistle has a high protein content, higher than grains. Often treated as weed but cattle can be trained to eat it.
William Albrecht
Weeds in City to Soil compost have 0 viable seeds due to heat in compost and the time of their removal/collection.
Sir Albert Howard, author of An Agricultural Testament.
Maye Bruce - Quick Return Method of composting, developed during WWII. Student of Rudolf Steiner. Had a dream that the essence of everything was in the flower. 6 week turn around for Compost.
Journey to Forever - Quick Return Method
Compost from City to Soil in Armidale is sold for cost recovery.
Research on Estuarine systems by CSIRO
International Biochar Initiative
Inoculate your charcoal/Biochar before using it in your garden.
Turning cyclone debris into biochar for filtering water and growing vegetables quickly.
Interview with Hayley Dickinson (Eat For Baby)
Eat For Baby, Dr. Hayley's nutrition and wellness company focussing on healthy pregnancy, is now taking Pre-orders for their wellness bites - Lemme Feel Well Bites
I am going to provide a bunch of references here (Thanks to Dr. Hayley Dickinson for providing all of the resources):
- Women’s involvement in clinical trials: historical perspective and future implications
- Development of a PubMed Based Search Tool for Identifying Sex and Gender Specific Health Literature
- Drug Safety: Most Drugs Withdrawn in Recent Years Had Greater Health Risks for Women
- Putting gender on the agenda
- Twenty years and still counting: including women as participants and studying sex and gender in biomedical research
- Improving the Use and Safety of Medications in Women Through Sex/Gender and Race/Ethnicity Analysis: Introduction
- Reducing the Risk of Medication Errors in Women
- Male/Female Differences in Pharmacology: Safety Issues with QT-Prolonging Drugs
- Gender Equity in Research
- Clinical Trials in Women's Health Research Part I: The Drug Discovery and Development Process
- From Bench to Bedside: Role of Gender-Based Therapeutics in the Clinical Care of Women
- Biological Rhythms, Medication Safety, and Women’s Health
- The Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health: Impact of Science on Regulatory Policy: An Update
- Participation of Women and Sex Analyses in Late-Phase Clinical Trials of New Molecular Entity Drugs and Biologics Approved by the FDA in 2007–2009
- Sex and Racial Differences in Pharmacological Response: Effect of Route of Administration and Drug Delivery System on Pharmacokinetics
- Sex and Racial Differences in Pharmacological Response: Where Is the Evidence? Pharmacogenetics, Pharmacokinetics, and Pharmacodynamics
If you want to get in contact with Hayley, go to her Linkedin.
Cameron Semmens And Local Poetry
We filled the tank on this one, so no poem or local music.