Back To Square One: Planning The Future

As most of you already know, I have just moved back to the Netherlands after spending almost 3 years in Norway. This was probably the longest period of time I have spent in one place in a long, long time. Since I was 18 years old, I have moved 32 times between 26 different addresses, across 7 different countries (or 8 if you count Northern Ireland as separate from England) and 3 continents. It was self-imposed and I used to enjoy every move - and still do to some degree. It keeps me from accumulating too much stuff, it is exciting and brings new adventures, it allows me to start over each time and therefore live in the moment more, and it helps me to gain new perspectives and to see the world through new eyes.

Nevertheless, there are also some downsides to long-term travel and living a rootless life, and for the past five or six years these have been coming to the forefront more and more. It can be challenging to maintain close friendships, or to experience a sense of belonging. Even though I can easily feel at home anywhere in the world, I also feel like I am an alien everywhere I go. I belong everywhere and nowhere. Each time I move to a new place it is a little less exciting and more exhausting to start up my life yet again, because I know it is just temporary and I will have to start all over again after just a few years. Saying good-bye to some of the wonderful people I meet along the way and grow to love and respect also gets more difficult each time. Sometimes I feel like an outcast, even though so far it has been mostly by choice.

I feel like it is time for a new phase in my life: a phase where I start to put down some serious roots, settle down, meet people (and really get to know them) and fully commit to building up my life in one place. To me, that feels quite a way outside my comfort zone because in a world that offers no certainties, my sense of security has come from remaining unbound and free. But at the same time that also brings a constant restlessness to my life; a sense of always being on the run (even when I am not).

So the next step in my rewilding adventure will be to build my own self-sufficient home, preferably in an environment where money and ownership are entirely absent (in the wild) or where I could more easily forget about those concepts (on my 'own' piece of land - which would be the next best thing if living in the wild would somehow not be an option). Therefore, the next time I move I am intending to stay for a while; maybe even forever. I will pluck up the courage to put down some firm roots, build solid friendships, and start living my dream: creating a self-sufficient, sustainable environment where I can live in harmony with nature, possibly with room for others to join me. No more waiting for the perfect time, the perfect people to show up around me or the perfect circumstances. Life offers no guarantees. I may be uprooted once again through circumstance, but I can always re-plant myself, and it may even be easier the second time.

The planning phase starts now. The first step will be to decide which country is best suited for me to build an eco-home, grow foods year-round and build a small community (whether in the wilderness or not). At the moment I am considering Norway and France as viable options, or perhaps further afield…

(If you have any advice for me, please let me know!)

Much love to you all. <3

The Forager's Diet - What I've Been Eating So Far

Since starting the Foraging Challenge, I have been learning a lot about plants. It is not as easy as I thought, because each time of the year (and location) offers its own menu of delicious foods to choose from. This means you can't just learn about basic plants and rely on those for the whole year. Also, with wild foods (as well as store-bought foods), variety is very important, because most plants are not healthy to consume in very large quantities. So small quantities of many different ingredients is important to stay healthy.

I will continue researching edibles for the rest of the year, so that I learn about many of the different foods that nature offers throughout the year. Here is an update on some of the things I have been eating so far:

Ground Elder

Without a doubt one of my favorites in early spring! Very mild and pleasant taste, but later in the year the flavor changes and the leaf becomes tough and stringy, even if the plant remains small. Not recommended in late spring / early summer.

Pine Pollen

For a short time during spring, pine trees start to fill the air with yellow dust: pine pollen. You can easily harvest some by walking around with a clean plastic bag, putting the bag around each branch, shaking it lightly and moving on to the next. You can add the pollen to smoothies or eat it as is. No need to break the branches or damage the tree in other ways. Just shake some off. Great taste and very healthy!

Mushrooms (Penny Bun)

Penny Bun is very tasty, available in rainy times (late summer until autumn). There are many different kinds of mushrooms though and it is recommended not to try any unless you are very sure about the species you have harvested. Some can be very poisonous! Can work great as a meat substitute.

Chickweed

Also one of my favorite springtime treats! Not just because of their flavor, but also because they can be eaten safely in relatively large quantities. When they get bigger, they lose much of their flavor though. Spring offers a lot of nutricious vegetables, including chickweed. It comes in several variants: Giant chickweed, mouse-ear chickweed and common chickweed (the tastiest and the one pictured above).

Lambs Quarters

Also one of my favorites and available here in very large quantities in (early) summer time. As with most plants, it tastes best when the plant is still young (or else you can just use the tops). Tastes a bit like spinach. Great raw as well as stir-fried.

Sea Weeds

Most nutritious during spring time, sea weeds are a great source of minerals and vitamins. As far as I know, all sea weeds are edible, but still it is best to identify the species you have harvested to make sure it is in fact edible and to find out the best ways to prepare it as food. Also great dried (can be ground into flour as well).

Berries

Berry season has finally started (end of July), so at the moment I harvest berries every day. I love all of them! Here we mostly have blueberries, wild strawberries, gooseberries, redcurrant, blackcurrant and cloudberries. I have also found wild cherries (technically not a berry, but still delicious).

By the way, I have yet to taste a food that is as delicious as wild strawberry. It is my all-time favorite wild food up until this moment and no other food even comes close to the rich and wonderful flavor of the wild strawberry. Taste it once and you may never want store-bought strawberries again.

Eating berries interestingly has made me want to stop using traditional toilets, because it helps complete the circle of life (and obviously it is way better for the environment).

I will continue learning about free foods as I go along to build up to another attempt of living off the land 100%.

How To Make Dandelion Syrup

I have started a new challenge! To eat at least some foraged food every day.

So far I have mostly eaten ground elder and dandelions, and today I have experimented with a new recipe that I have been wanting to try out for a while:
Dandelion syrup.

Ingredients:

You need:
Approx. 190 ml water
50 dandelions (just the yellow flower head)
1 lemon
(Of course you can double, triple or quadruple the recipe if you want to make more.)

The original recipe that can be found online also uses sugar and less lemon. I guess you need to use this if you want to keep the syrup for a much longer time (you can keep it in glass jars, prepared in the same way as when you would make jam or compote).

The original recipe uses:
400 dandelions
2 lemons
2 kg sugar
1,5 liter water 

Directions:

Pick 50 dandelion flower heads (with as little stem as possible, because that part doesn’t taste very well). Make sure you leave some flowers intact so that they get the chance to spread their seeds again and come back next year. Pick in several different places if necessary. Also make sure you check for insects directly underneath the flower before you pick them, because it’s a favorite spot for all sorts of critters and we don’t want to squash any of them. You will find quite a lot of ladybugs, tiny spiders and other creatures there (on the entire plant, but especially underneath the flower top). If you check them for critters while you are picking (and you pick them from a clean place; e.g. not the side of a busy road) you don’t need to wash them, and that way they also keep more of the valuable stuff, like pollen.

For the next steps, here’s what I did:
Boil approximately190 ml of water; then add the flower tops. Add the juice of one very small lemon (or half or a quarter of a bigger lemon).Turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid. Let it sit for 1,5 hours.
Strain and enjoy! For a thicker syrup it needs to boil a bit longer and you need more flowers.

If you don’t like heating your food and want to avoid the loss of vitamins, you can also just add the ingredients to warm water and let it sit for 24 hours, although it could be that some nutrients of the flower don’t dissolve so well into the liquid if it is not heated, but I guess the different recipes can be used for different purposes.

The syrup, when ready, smells sweet, with a hint of sour and bitter at the same time. If you want to get rid of the bitterness, you need to make sure that there are no green bits left at all on the dandelion parts. However, this is very hard to do without them all falling apart, and it is a lot of extra work. Plus there are many valuable nutrients in the green parts of the plant as well.

Dandelion is supposedly good for the liver and the digestive system. It can be used for skin disorders and as a blood cleanser. The syrup is a good immunity booster and can be used to treat or prevent colds. But don’t take my word for it (or the Internet’s); experiment and discover for yourself what dandelion syrup can do for you. At the very least it tastes really good, and it’s all natural (if you don’t add the sugar)!

Note about the taste:

If you are not used to bitter/sour tastes, you might want to start off with adding at least some sugar or honey, because without it, it may taste a bit sour/bitter. Personally I still liked it like that (and even better when slightly diluted with water). You could also replace the sugar with honey, so that you get the syrupy consistency. If you leave out sugar the consistency is more like tea, but you will get more of the health benefits.

Enjoy nature's treasures!

The Moneyless Mindset

I regularly get the comment that my moneyless lifestyle is not technically "moneyless", because I am still depending on money via other people. While I understand the logic and reason behind this to some degree (especially from the perspective of what is accepted in society), I also see another side to it. Here are some of my concerns with this interpretation of reality, and with the use of money in general.
NB: Some of these ideas might seem controversial, but try to read them with an open mind and see what comes up for you.

Money is invented

Money is a construct. It is something that we have invented. It has no value in itself. The value is determined by what you get for it, and in the end all real value is provided by the earth and /or the inhabitants of the earth. So it may be that you pay for things that were created by other people, but in the end we can only use what is already here. If things you buy were created by man, then the fact remains that someone chose to bring it into the world and made it with the resources that are freely provided by the earth. And hopefully they did not just create it with the intention to make money, but to make the world a better place and to help others. In the absence of money, this is the only motivation to do things at all.

Money is not a tool for survival
Many people mistakenly believe that money is a tool for survival, because with the way things are right now everything we need can be acquired through money. So it can also create a false sense of independence, because if you have enough money, there is really nothing else you need to get everything and anything done. But money is only an indirect way to fulfill basic needs, and there are direct means available to get those needs met. So how about we teach ourselves to fulfill our needs directly?
If the monetary system would ever fall away, would you be able to sustain yourself? If that system was all you knew, then there is no way you could survive. At least not on your own. I think this is why some people get so defensive of the monetary system: they have invested all their life into it and put in a lot of effort to be a good player of the game, and their very survival depends on keeping the system in place.In a way, money has made us complacent, and it has detached us from our real survival skills. Acquiring money has become our main strategy for survival. Of course this is completely unnatural: no other creature on earth puts value on an inherently meaningless object and depends on it for survival. Only humans.

Money forces us on a detour

Some people argue that money makes things easier, as it represents a value and makes it easier to compare and exchange things. But does it really make things easier? It actually seems to make things more complicated. Instead of growing my own food or finding it in nature, I have to get a job that has nothing to do with getting what I really want and need, save money and then get what I need after. To buy myself a place to live, I need to save money for many, many years. This means I probably need to work for the rest of my life. I also get persuaded to buy many other things I don't need, so that I can support other people's jobs, so that they can get their basic needs met. And meanwhile we destroy our only home, the earth, because all the stuff we consume has to come from somewhere, and all the trash we create has to go somewhere. 

The issue of entitlement and obligation
Money creates an attitude of entitlement with the person who pays and a sense of obligation in the person who is being paid. This greatly diminishes our general experience of freedom, or at the very least creates a huge degree of inequality. It can also lead to people doing things that go against their values; just because they are 'doing their job'. And it can lead to people doing a lot of damage to the earth because they 'own' it and think that therefore they can do whatever they want. And if anyone complains, they are told to 'mind their own business'. So for some people it can create the illusion that they live in a bubble. They have forgotten that we are all affecting each other, because we are all part of the same ecosystem. We all breathe the same air and drink the same water. So my decisions about 'my' land do have an impact on you and everyone else. What happens to our ecosystem is therefore everyone's business.

Money gives the illusion of ownership

What makes people think they can sell everything and charge money for it? It is a false sense of ownership. We take things that nature provides and sell them for profit, while slowly destroying our own ecosystem and depleting our resources. How is that acceptable? In reality we don't own anything. We are born with nothing and die with nothing. And yet everything we need is freely available. So everything that is made, invented, used and sold belongs to the earth. Everything. How can that be sold? How can we charge money for something that is not even ours to sell? If it helps others, we can give it away and share it, but why would we need anything else?

You may say: well, people want to get credit for things they invent. They want to be recognized. But recognition can come in many different forms. Gratitude is a form of recognition. If people use what you offer them, then that is a form of recognition. What does money have to do with it? The consequence of bringing money into it, is that we create a mindset of conditionality.

"You depend on people who have and use money"

Let's go back to this statement and take another look.

Of course we all depend on one another, because we are all part of one world. That in itself creates a certain level of interdependence. There is no question about that, and I wouldn't want it any other way. But the question is, do I necessarily depend on people with money, and do I therefore depend on money? I think that people who are used to using money depend on money, but I don't necessarily depend on it.
For the past year and a half (and in the years before to a lesser degree), I have been focusing my efforts on learning survival skills and increasing my independence (independence from the system; not necessarily from other people). How? By learning more about plants, sourcing and finding drinking water, building shelters, and so on. Most people who live the money-lifestyle know how to make money and how to buy food in the store. But how is that going to help you in a survival situation? How is that skill in any way related to your survival? And most importantly: can you see how having and using only your money-skills inevitably makes you dependent on others for your survival? It makes you dependent on people who know how to grow food (farmers) and people who know how to build homes and shelters.
So when I use the term independence I am not saying I want to be independent from other beings on earth, but mostly independent from the way society is currently organized. That is the goal of my independence. Not independent from other beings, because that is not possible and it is also not desirable. We share this world and we are all connected.

The Money=Contribution Myth
Obviously that doesn't mean we should allow some people to get lazy and leech off others. But again, without money this naturally balances out. People will eventually stop helping others who are not contributing anything beyond themselves; simply because we all have to make choices where we place our efforts to help others and it is much more rewarding to give to someone who is appreciative and who has a positive impact on the world around them. So there is a natural flow of giving and receiving that rewards giving and contribution. But money tends to disrupt this natural flow. It can even reward and reinforce greed and egotism to some degree.

A spider that lives in your home also contributes: he is a natural pest control guard on your mutual territory, because he eats other tiny creatures (and some of them may be harmful to your health). Does that give him the right to live with you? No, because his right to live stands on its own. It doesn't depend on any kind of contribution. But he does contribute. He can't not contribute. It's his nature to do so.

Many people confuse parasites with symbiosis / mutualism. If you aim to live symbiotically then you will always contribute something valuable. As outlined above, money can hinder this natural flow of contribution. It is not valuable in itself and creates a conditional, calculated mindset. In fact, many people who value money live like environmental parasites. It is just the way the economic system is structured, because it is mostly aimed at consumption and expansion at the expense of our ecosystem.
So I would argue that whether someone contributes to the world or not has nothing to do with money.
(Read more about this here.)

Money teaches conditionality

No creature on earth pays rent... so why would you?

Let's look at the phenomenon of paying rent as an example. Which other creature on earth has to pay rent just because they exist? None of them. Does that spider that lives with you pay rent? Does he "depend on people with money" because he is living under your roof? Of course not. But what is the consequence of our sense of ownership and conditional mindset? We think we have more right to live in the house than the spider. Some people even kill the spider, because it is "their" home. But in fact that spider has as much right to be there as you do. And it definitely has the same right to live. We share this planet with all other creatures.

So the consequence of this conditional mindset is that we think we somehow have more right to be here than other species. And that we can use other animals for our own purposes. They have to earn a living too. They have to help us make money. There is no room for equal partnership because we have paid for them which makes us seem more powerful. We "own" them. With the money-mindset, this is a common trap. If we do things free of charge for others, it often creates an expectation of some kind of reciprocity."You owe me" quickly turns into "I own you". There is little difference in the conditional mindset, but a huge difference when you let go of that mindset.

Question the Status Quo

I encourage people to question everything, so that's not limited to things that are different from the norm. Let's not forget to question the status quo, and let's do it often. Why are we doing the things we do in the way we are currently doing them? Does it make sense or is there another way that makes more sense?

Don't just take my word for it. Put these ideas into practice and experience them for yourself. Go moneyless and see what it does for you. Experience is the best (and only) teacher.

10 Ways to Adopt a More Environmentally Friendly Lifestyle

Below are 10 tips to change your lifestyle and live with less impact on the earth and your environment. But before we start, make sure to check your foundation often; the place where it all starts. This consists of what I call the golden rule.

The Golden Rule: Be present. If your mind is polluted (or 'in charge'), then it is hard to clean up your surroundings. If you are not conscious of the impact of your actions on the earth and its inhabitants, then why would you change anything? One way to raise your consciousness is to follow a path of passion. Meditation also helps. The objective is living in the present moment, so whatever helps you be more present; do more of that! And then, practice, practice, practice.

Being present has so many benefits. It helps you be a good role model, because you are no longer defensive or dogmatic about your views on life. You allow people to change (or not) in their own time. You are able to communicate your message with love and confidence, without hurting others. You are able to really listen to others, which makes them more open to listen to what you have to say. And your relationships are loving, nurturing and fulfilling.

If you are present, you are naturally open and doing what matters. Presence is the key.

Read ‘The Power of Now’ for more on this topic.

So what are some things that matter? What are some of the ways you can start living more in balance with the earth, your fellow humans and all the other creatures on earth? Here is a list with some suggestions (each with several options):

1.       Dumpster dive, only shop local organic, or grow your own food

There are many benefits to dumpster diving. By dumpster diving, you can save food from ending up in landfills, you can feed others and experience the joy of giving, you can raise awareness about food waste and you can show supermarkets that the food they throw out is still perfectly okay to eat (most of it anyway). But dumpster diving is not a solution in itself. It is a form of ‘treating the symptoms’.

To make a statement with where you spend your money, choose options that are good for the earth. That means supporting local, organic farms. Get your food straight from the farm if possible! If the food was produced locally, then that means they are fresher and usually not treated with chemicals to keep them fresh. Of course the transport in itself causes a lot of pollution too. Another benefit is that if you choose local foods which do well in your climate, chances are that you will do well on them also. They provide what you need where you are at that moment.

And if you really want your food as fresh as possible and know exactly how it has been treated, find a space where you can grow your own food. It does not have to be your back yard. If you don’t have a back yard, maybe you can initiate a community garden or a shared space to grow food. Or perhaps you know someone with an unused patch of land where you can get started. Make sure the seeds you use are organic too!
Here is my little garden with rescued plants (from dumpsters or donated by the store):

Me and my little veggie garden with rescued plants and herbs

2.       Consider adoption or make the decision not to have children

With a world population of 7.3 billion people and a current annual growth rate of 1.14 percent, it is clear that this is unsustainable. Each additional person uses up natural resources and takes up space, which means that more native flora, habitat and wildlife are lost and even more air and water becomes polluted. Therefore it is strange that having children is considered so normal (almost 'mandatory') in our world. Because of the situation we are in now, it is not a decision that can be taken lightly. Do you really need to reproduce in order to have a fulfilling, meaningful life? Perhaps not. And if you want to experience parenthood, there are other ways than going through childbirth, as there are many homeless, underprivileged or orphaned children longing for a loving home. What about them? And if you love going for walks in nature, just imagine what would happen if the population keeps growing. Will you still be able to enjoy that? What kind of world are we creating for the children on earth?

3.       Eat less meat/fish/dairy, choose organic meat and dairy, or eat only plant-based foods

The meat and dairy industry not only contributes to huge amounts of pain and suffering to innocent animals and the people who have to work there, but also contributes a lot to climate change. If you want to learn more about this, watch the documentary Cowspiracy.

Fish is also not a good alternative, because the oceans are overfished and fish populations are decreasing at an alarming rate. But the good news is that we can live happy and healthy lives on a largely plant-based diet. And if you are not ready for the change yet, you can still get your meat from dumpsters! That way you are at least not supporting the industries financially.

4.       Drive and fly less, take public transport more, or travel only by bike and foot

I sold my car last year as I was not using it much anymore anyway and I was moving countries (from the Netherlands to Norway). Now I only have my feet and my bike and I have not really missed my car since then. Even in winter, when it gets very cold and the roads get icy, I find myself more in touch with my surroundings and being more present when on the road. This is especially true when I am going somewhere on foot.

5.       Buy less stuff, or stop buying stuff for a while to make yourself more conscious of consumption and what you really need

Every time you want to buy something, ask yourself: do I really need it? Maybe there are other ways to get the job done, like borrowing things from others. Sharing and exchanging not only results in great friendships but also cuts out the need to buy everything. Also, you’d be amazed of all the things you can find in dumpsters. So if you need something, first check the dumpster of the stores that sell it for a while. And if you end up borrowing someone else’s stuff, make it a habit to always give back in some way, even if it is just by making it cleaner than it was when you borrowed it.

6.       Become aware of the amounts of (natural) resources you use each day, try to minimize your use of resources, and eventually move towards a self-sufficient life off-the-grid / build an eco-home (such as an earthship)

You can harvest your own electricity/heat, water and food. Install rainwater tanks, re-use gray water, insulate your home with natural materials, collect solar power… There are many ways to make your home and lifestyle more resource efficient (the term energy efficient doesn’t really cover everything, so resource efficient is a better fit). When you simplify your life, you find that you don’t really need much to live a great life. And simplifying means that you will have more time and other precious resources to do the things that really matter to you.

One of my personal goals in the long run is to build a simple eco-home somewhere, preferably from found materials, where I can live in harmony with nature and be largely self-sufficient. 

7.       Recycle whatever you can, reduce your amount of waste, or go zero waste

Choose unpackaged food products (from the market or directly from the farm), bring your own bags to the shop, reuse items at home or give them away to others… There are many ways in which you can reduce your amount of waste. At the moment I technically don’t have any waste because I am living off of society’s waste, but even now it is shocking that I have so much plastic waste. This heap of trash is only 2 weeks worth of products’ packaging:

Only 2 weeks worth of packaging from rescued foods :(

8.       Disconnect from appliances and connect more with life. Spend time in nature.

Although all the appliances we think we need seem to offer more comfort and ease, they also come with the price of disconnection. For example, watching TV robs you of valuable time that could be spent in nature or with friends. Spending time in nature is a good reminder of what it is all about. This is what you are working for. To protect the animals and the plants and the trees. To be able to sit quietly in nature and enjoy the oneness of just being.

9   Reduce your dependency of substances, or go substance-free

This can be medication, tobacco, caffeine, alcohol and other drugs. All those substances make you very much dependent on others and most of them also have quite a big impact on the environment. Even the pill can be replaced by a non-hormonal variant, such as Ladycomp (although this does require some dedication). As with all forms of contraception though, there is always a risk of getting pregnant, so the safest option is to get sterilized.

    10. Learn more: Watch inspiring documentaries!

It is always interesting to learn about alternative ways to live your life and the impact your life choices have on the world. The following documentaries have really helped me to put things in perspective:

* Cowspiracy

Brilliant documentary about the dairy, meat and fish industries: consumption and ‘production’ (which is really a strange word to use when talking about other beings, which implies a lot of things that could be questioned).

If you want or need to see the hard, horrible and depressing truth of animal industries, I can recommend Earthlings – however, the images can be quite traumatizing! I only managed to watch the first 29 minutes with tears running down my face for the entire time, often covering my eyes in absolute horror, and even then some images remained stuck in my mind for at least a few months after. I still feel horrified just thinking about it.

* Zeitgeist: moving forward

Watching this documentary helped me to stop believing in money and seeing the importance of becoming more self-sustainable.

* Fat, sick and nearly dead

This documentary launched a revolution in my food consumption. I was already interested in healthy eating and into raw food at the time, but this documentary really gave me long-term commitment to feed my body with as many nutrients (from plants) as possible. At the same time I also came across the book ‘Peace Food’ by R. Dahlke, which provided me with the science and cemented my motivation to stick largely to plant-based foods.

* Just eat it

 Great documentary about food waste and dumpster diving. It shows how easy it is to find huge amounts of food (after some initial research) and to survive entirely on rescued foods.

How to start a new habit:

The way that works best for me is to treat it as a challenge! My Stop-Shopping-Challenge has helped me to stick to my goals, so if you want to change something, it might help to set yourself a temporary challenge where you can experiment with the new behavior and be motivated to complete the challenge. Make it long enough for it to be challenging so that you will need to problem solve, because if you can overcome those initial 'problems' it is a very empowering feeling which might lead you to extend your challenge!

Some words of encouragement...

When learning about the state that our earth is in right now, it can be very depressing and discouraging. It can make you feel like it doesn’t matter what you do and that you can’t really make a difference. But that is why it is so empowering to know that one person CAN make a difference and if we all do our part, life on earth does not have to end this way. And more and more people ARE doing their part, so you are not alone (even though sometimes it seems that way)!
We can live harmoniously with other creatures and share the planet. We can simplify our lives and live happier, healthier and more meaningful lives, with more freedom, depth and other things to be grateful for than ever before. It may take some work and getting used to in the beginning, but the journey is well worth it.