Last February we went to visit Serene Light Gardens in Tenerife, Spain. A project to create an ecological settlement, which will include a therapeutic and educational centre, and aims to serve as a model for an integrative and symbiotic way of life with the natural environment. 

We spoke with the founders of The School of Creative Consciousness, Michael and Yasmin, who are running the project, and have worked tirelessly with the help of volunteers since 2016 to make this project come through. 

We discuss with them sustainable living, permaculture, regenerative works and much more. As you have probably noticed, this episode is much longer than the usual. That is because after chatting with Michael and Yasmin, they took me around to show me the transformation of what had once been a damping site.

Ep4 | Sustainable living and regeneration of the land

Ep5 | We all live under one sun, community work in Tottenham

Until 50 years ago, saving your own seed was an integral part of gardening for most vegetable gardeners. Knowledge of how to save seeds has drastically been lost by amateur gardeners and today many of us blindly buys them in packets from a seed supplier year after year. 

The positive news is that there are organisations working hard to change that. One of them is the London Freedom Seed Bank.  We had the opportunity to attend the Seed Bank Network get-together which took place in St.Luke’s Community Centre, London back in May. 
The evening featured talks by network members who spoke about their seed saving journeys and reasons to join the Network. Amongst those speakers was Helen Schulze, co-director of London Freedom Seed Bank, writer and editor, who shared her Master’s research on UK seed savers and you will be able to hear at the end of the episode.

After the event, we spoke with Charlotte, who runs the Seed Bank. She told us what inspired the creation of the Seed Bank, the political dimension of seed saving and how gardeners can benefiting from the organisation’s training programme. 
She also helped us understand the current UK Seed legislation, what hybrid or F1 seeds are and how they have completely changed modern agriculture.

Ep 6 | London Freedom Seed Bank

Tired of gloomy grey UK, Teaspoon of Soil is travelling around Australia to meet some of the change makers of the southern hemisphere. 

Our first stop is The Margaret River Soup Kitchen, in South West Western Australia. Margaret River town is based in a wealthy wine region well known for its vineyard restaurants, artisan food and spectacular surf spots. So, naively it seemed a bit of a surprise to hear that such town had a Soup Kitchen that run twice a week.
Luckily for us we got to meet Dave, who has been running the community kitchen for over 20 years. He shared with us the reason he decided to start this service and how good of a response it has had from the local community.

Ep 7 | The Margaret River Soup Kitchen

Teaspoon of soil is a multi-platform documentary project that narrates the stories of individuals and organisations using food as a tool for  change in the UK and beyond.

teaspoon of soil