I started my first Youtube channel a few years ago while living in New Zealand. Back then I talked about minimalism and living in balance but also the environment and the ocean. It was a mess. So, I cut out anything that wasn’t the ocean ecosystems and very related topics, and did it properly. But I was missing the more vloggy videos, so I brought them back as a project called Roots and Calluses, a Youtube channel where I share my journey to a life more in balance with nature. Come along, as I relearn how to remove the excess, make things from scratch, and forage for food in the wild.
The previous owner left a lot of trash in the garden hut that needed to be dealt with. Eager to work outside but with rain always on the horizon, I spent an afternoon cleaning it all out. Progress! Eager to work on the land, the rain feels mocking. It’s been weeks and weeks of gray,…
It has been at least eight years since anyone cared for the piece of land that I am turning into a garden to grow food and spend afternoons with a good book in the hammock. Parts of the land are so overgrown that I couldn’t access them. Time for some clean-up. There are blackberries all…
Preserving food is hard. Or rather, learning how to preserve food is hard. The last week’s were a fun trip through my early adventures in canning while the weather was too moody to work on the garden. The dark days of summer have brought rain and thunderstorms, wind and colder temperatures, so I have had…
There are two huts in my new allotment garden, both with leaking roofs. I’ve decided that the A-frame is salvageable. Somehow. I don’t know a lot about buildings. I did grow up in a household with a handy dad who knew how to build anything from bird houses to free-floating wooden staircases but it has…
There is a small piece of neglected, overgrown land that I now call my own. The allotment garden we now rent is in pretty bad shape for growing food. Though most of the cherries are eaten, the trees and bushes are exciting. There is a small piece of neglected, overgrown land that I now call…
When working from home, weekends and weekdays can become blurred. But even in hectic times, I try to take two days a week off. It’s not always the actual weekend. Most weeks, thanks to the structure my husband’s office job provides, Saturday and Sunday tend to be the slow days of the week. While the…
I am rarely home alone. My husband and I both work from our shared apartment. Last week, he was traveling for work, so I spent three days on my own schedule: cleaning the balcony garden, cooking, and visiting the chicken our eggs come from. While it is freeing in a way to have that much…
After a winter of purchasing to overcome depression, I feel stuffed. There are too many things in my life: too many objects, too many responsibilities, too much of a lot. A few weeks ago, I decided that enough is enough, and started taking out everything we own to see what still adds value, what we…
This time, I show you what my balcony garden looks like now in June, share my first harvest, and cook with foraged, home-made, and home-grown foods.
This time, we are talking about living barefoot. I share how I got started, share some beginner barefoot advice, and talk about living without shoes permanently. I don’t recognize the person I was a few years ago. I no longer wear shoes. I sleep on the floor. I don’t own a lot of things. I…
I don’t like drinking water all day but buying mango juice all the time isn’t sustainable. To replace it, I’ve started fermenting my own soft drinks. Much healthier for me and the planet. Let’s make kombucha at home, ferment some tepache, and follow my first attempts at water kefir.
There is a lot out there in the forest that is safe to eat and delicious. Join me for the baby steps of foraging for food out there.