Category: Nature
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New Wine, Old Pots
When it comes to starting afresh, sometimes it helps to acknowledge a lack of control. That’s the thought that begins to crystallise while visiting the headquarters of De Martino, one of Chile’s most innovative winemakers. We’re standing in a large, bare, warehouse, just south of Santiago, among rows of several hundred clay amphorae. It’s like…
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Phytology
“And though thou seemst a weedling wild – Wild and neglected like to me – Thou still art dear to nature’s child And I will stoop to notice thee For oft like thee, in wild retreat, Arrayed in humble garb like thee, There’s many a seeming weed proves sweet As sweet as garden flowers can…
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The Dogs of El Chalten
The village of El Chalten is a service settlement. Located in the Parque Nacional los Glaciares in Patagonia, southern Argentina, the village is a four-hour walk to a network of ancient blue-white glaciers and the sharp, serrated peaks of Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre and Cerro Chalten. Thousands of tourists come to El Chalten each year,…
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Life in a Time of Plenty, III
Part 3: After Now summer is coming around again. Rain is neither surprise nor burden; a clear sky is nothing more than that. Now is a time of plenty: the reservoirs aren’t full but they’re full enough; gardens grow without assistance; crops fail, or flourish, but farming in Australia has always been difficult. There is…
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Life in a Time of Plenty, II
Part 2: Deluge When the rain came, it came hard. In hindsight that shouldn’t have surprised anyone: the Australian environment is not gentle. By the time then-Minister for Agriculture Joe Ludwig announced in March 2012 that federal drought assistance was no longer needed in Bundarra and Eurobodalla – the only areas still listed as being…
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Life in a Time of Plenty, I
Part 1: Drought On New Year’s Day 2007, drought came to Melbourne. Water restrictions, previously moderate, were tightened, and overnight the residents of Australia’s second largest city found themselves in a water crisis: fountains stopped flowing, gardens went unwatered, and almost immediately the city turned brown. Water still came gushing out of the tap as…
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The Art of Fermentation
Sandor Ellix Katz is the author of The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes From Around The World, “the most comprehensive guide to do-it-yourself home fermentation ever published”. Released in 2012 with a foreword by Michael Pollan, it has received rapturous praise in both the food world and in environmentalist…
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Dead Bears and Pylons
“What the hell is that?” The man was at the bottom of Millfields Park in Hackney, can of lager in hand. He frowned across the Lea River at a cormorant bobbing in the water. “I dunno,” said his girlfriend as I passed by. “A black swan?” When many Londoners come to the eastern edge of…