The garden is my church, the kitchen my altar and pantry a prayer book By Jake

At 22 years old, our new kitchen volunteer has developed an important path as a cook. 

Born and raised in Brighton, Jake shares with us his experience at Newbold and gives away this brief but very emotional testimony of his daily encounter with the kitchen.

He started as dishwasher when he was 14 and got his first chance as a chef at the age of 18. Since then, he has been working and travelling around places such as England, New Zealand, Uganda, Thailand & Vietnam. This has created a great impact on his life and of course in his cooking style.

His aim? To create community through food…. to bring people together.

We are grateful for Jake and his wonderful collaboration and hard work and hope you enjoy his blog post:  

Every time I sit to eat; it is an act of worship.

The garden is my church, the kitchen my altar and pantry a prayer book from which I can, with luxurious will, draw on flavours like a chorus of hymns.

Food for me is a direct connection to creation, to the source of our nourishment, the bubbling spring of natural abundance and expession of nature in tangibly tasty form.

We depend upon the myriad miracles of nature that align (maybe with a little assistance from the gardeners shadow) along a transformative process from sun to soil, seed to fruit, to eventually meet us, yet another integral contributor to the cycle of life.

And so it seems a great dis-justice for these precious jewels of divinity to so often be asphyxiated in lifeless plastic.

In stark contrast I find myself taking a stroll from the bubbling alchemical environment of the kitchen to take some time in communion within the Newbold gardens, harvesting with a grateful whistle, a prayer of sorts, parsley, sorrel, spinach, lettuce and other april offerings. These first enthusiastic arrivals setting the scene for a season of sensual theatrics as vines twine and pods pop.

It is at this threshold, between garden and kitchen where I thrive most. Knowing that the instant a stem snaps there is an obligation to honour in its freshest form the days harvest. I have been known to be found on all fours in the polytunnel grazing hands free to maximise the ‘freshness experience’. It is here that my native self is proven. As I play my part in this sacred cycle i acknowledge I am holding sunlight, condensed into a leaf or berry, lifegiving, planet sustaining sunlight.

Whereas a tree or plant can largely gather information directly from the sun, we as humans must depend upon a far more intricate and longer process of concentrating that energy into be it leaves or flesh. As we have not yet evolved photosynthetic powers, we seek from other organisms. Therefore as a necessary harvest this becomes an act of sacrifice that in turn should rightfully be worshipped. It is with this truth that I cook. 

By Jake

ERASMUS+ Youth Leader Mobility Scheme by Deborah Benham

Newbold believes in a life sustaining society where we can thrive personally, co-exist in harmony, feel interconnected with the living system of the planet and therefore protect and conserve this for future generations. We believe in empowerment and positive leadership. Newbold believes that to build a more positive society we must empower leaders to face the challenges of today.

Reports from a wide range of Youth charities show that young people face unprecedented challenges in the modern world. Finding meaningful employment is increasingly difficult, and with record levels of unemployment and decreasing job security, many feel a sense of anxiety about the future. Collectively, young people will be the most affected by alarming global trends like climate change, environmental degradation, and social tensions based on culture, religion, or class. At the same time, it is our young people who have the most potential and often the most drive to contribute to a sustainable future.

We aim to harness and empower that potential through recently awarded ERASMUS+ funding. Newbold have been awarded 50,000 Euros by the ERASMUS+ Youth Leader Mobility scheme to run two fantastic 8 day trainings for Youth Leaders in August and September.

In the training participants will learn how to empower young people to identify and use their unique strengths and qualities, in service to themselves and their communities. This will enable them to develop more rewarding careers and take an active and positive role in their local communities.

By Deborah Benhan

A PhD Marine biologist and animal behavior expert, Deborah is an environmental educator and sustainability designer working to support the emergence of regenerative culture and the recovery of healthy ecosystems through innovative design, stakeholder engagement, multidisciplinary education and deep nature connection.

‘The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future’ by Allan Gray

‘The Heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future’
Wendell Philips

This week we were privileged to have the company of Harley & Cally as our guests at Newbold. Co-founding members of Newbold.

 

Harley and Cally spoke about being drawn to Newbold and the determination to create a life at the Victorian House. On 17th November 1980 they officially formed their own community and charitable trust (still renting the house from the landlords) The trust succesfully operated workshops regularly which lead to the Newbold Trust community purchasing the property for £85,000 in May 1983.

The House began to run its economy according to a system of donations, which proved highly successful and offered a persuasive alternative to accepted business practices. Buoyed up by the generosity of its guests, Newbold was paid off within ten years and has been self-managed since under the guardianship of a group of Trustees, plus the management and operations skills of a resident team of core members.

Harley and Cally shared stories through the evening with current volunteers and staff members sharing photographs and experiences of life in community. They told stories of the garden, stories of music, stories of laughter, stories of challenges and stories of change. I felt warmed by their open and loving nature; I felt honoured to be part of the Newbold Story.

Harley and Cally are a couple with strong values who had the drive to create a community that is still vibrant and upholding the same values 36 years later. The determination, love and resilience of Harley and Cally  and the people that joined them are what made everything at Newbold possible and created a future for which the present and future Newbold residents will be forever grateful.

 

By Allan S Gray

Allan, local to the area of Moray and a graduate of the University of Highlands and Islands, Allan has a key interest in environmental protection, adventure and for the community of Moray.

Life is like stepping into a boat by Ceri Oakley

Life is like stepping into a boat that is about to sail to sea and sink.

As human beings we do tend to scramble for certainty, when we realise everything around is sort of upside down, moving, insecure, changing all the time. But really if you think about it everything keeps changing , us, our friends. Life as we want it to stay changes, we seem to be doomed to suffer because we have a real deep fear about how things really are.

Our attempts to find lasting pleasure , security are at odds with the fact that we are part of the whole that is in a process of change.

So Dilema. We resist the impermanency of death , (another day closer to death) .We resist so much we think if we did this or did not do that, somehow we would secure a comfortable, a dependable, controllable life. Therefore we get disappointed when things do not turn out as planned.

I think we have a choice either to cling to the false security of fixed ideas , views even though they bring us fleeting satisfaction or to overcome fear and make the leap to living an authentic life.

How can we relax and have a genuine life, relationship with the groundlessness  of being human.

Ceri Oakley

Resident kitchen focaliser at Newbold and yoga teacher from the Sivananda tradition. I have been immersed in yoga teaching philosophy for the past 20 years. Also recently qualified in teaching yoga to children, something I have fun with and am passionate about.

 

Holistic Homecare by Michael Dresser

As Imbolc is now behind us and we begin to head towards spring (although this can sometimes take a little longer to make itself felt this far north!), our thoughts in the Homecare team at Newbold start to turn towards spring cleaning!

We always try to be as ecologically friendly as possible with our cleaning products. And believe it or not we use vinegar in a surprising number of ways to keep the beauty of Newbold House shining through!

So we thought we’d share with you a few of our top vinegar tips for keeping your own place clean – you’re best using distilled white vinegar for these techniques, otherwise your place might end up smelling a little like a salad dressing!

Cleaning Glass and Mirrors

At Newbold we have a lot of period cut glass panelling and vintage mirrors, not to mention our 8 bathrooms! So our cleaning buckets always contain a spray bottle filled with a solution of 20% vinegar and 80% water. Spray this on the glass or mirror then rub or wipe it off with a loosely crumpled sheet of newspaper – yes it may sound counter-intuitive, but it actually works, and doesn’t leave those annoying streaks the way cloths and cleaning fluid do!

Cleaning Carpets

A combination of lots of delicious home-grown food and big, hungry, workshop groups means our dining room carpet can often end up with spots of spilled or dropped food which have been accidentally trodden in, leaving a dark mark. To lift these off easily and quickly we use a few tablespoons of vinegar mixed in a bowl with warm water. Dip a clean toothbrush in the solution then brush onto the spot. Brush lightly for a minute or so in all directions (take care not to fray the pile of the carpet with too much pressure). Blot with a dry cloth, and, if necessary for more stubborn stains, repeat the process – although you’ll be surprised how quickly what seemed welded on lifts off!

Cleaning Showers

As with glass, a vinegar and water solution is also great for cleaning showers. Ours get a lot of continuous use so it’s also important for us to ensure the shower heads are kept clean to avoid build-up of scale and bacteria. Many people use bleach to soak their shower heads but who wants to get under a shower that may still have traces of bleach inside – it’s not good for the skin and it’s not good for the environment! Instead we remove the shower head and soak it in 1 litre of very hot water with 4 fl oz distilled vinegar for a few hours. If you have a non-removable showerhead, fill a small plastic bag half full with vinegar and tape it over the fixture. Rinse out and scrub the nozzles afterwards with a toothbrush to remove any loosened particles.

There are loads more ways in which vinegar can replace many of the harmful chemicals in your home cleaning. For more vinegar tips check out: http://www.versatilevinegar.org/usesandtips.html

Michael Dresser
With a background in music, theatre, graphic design, and office and project management, Michael brings creativity to the Homecare team, and order to the Communications team!

Celebrating the Celtic Festivals – Imbolc by Heather Walley

At Newbold one of our traditions is to celebrate the ancient Celtic festivals throughout the year in order to honour our essential connection to the land and the rhythm of the seasons. We feel it is important to acknowledge the cycles of nature and how they are connected to the growing of our food and to give gratitude to the earth for the abundance we enjoy. This helps us to feel connected to the rhythms of life, each other and the importance of keeping in balance with the natural world that sustains us.

Lighting our Imbolc candle and blessing our seeds.

The first of these festivals is Imbolc, traditionally celebrated around the 1st February, it literally means “in the belly” and marks the end of winter’s reign and the first stirrings in the belly of the earth of the energy of new growth. It is about celebrating the light returning, which we symbolise by lighting our white Imbolc candle,  and the first stirrings of new life in the soil and in the plants. We use this time to plant our first seeds and bless their growth for the coming season.

Planting the first spinach seeds of the season in the greenhouse.

Imbolc is traditionally the great festival and honouring of Brigid (Brighid, Bride, Brigit), so loved as a pagan Goddess that her worship was woven into the Christian church as St Bridget, and the festival is also known as Candlemas. She is a Goddess of healing, poetry and smith craft; also of fire, the sun and the hearth. She brings fertility to the land and its people. One of her symbols is the snowdrop, the first flowers of Spring offering hope and new life after the harshness of winter, which have here found their way inside to bless one of our polytunnels!

Snowdrops in the polytunnel.

Imbolc is a Fire Festival, so we gather round the fire after our seed planting to ask for a blessing on our land and on each other, and to share poems, stories and music. This is usually followed by a delicious meal in the dining room in honour of our wonderful volunteers!

Playing music round the fire.

Brigid’s Cross. This is a traditional fire wheel symbol – used to decorate the hearth as a symbol of protection, here being blessed along with our seeds.

Brigid’s cross and seeds.

More pictures of our celebration can be found on our Facebook Page.

Heather Walley has been a resident member of the Newbold Community for over 5 years and before that, lived on the Isle of Erraid as a member of the Findhorn Foundation community there. As well as being an artist, she is a certified Esalen Massage practitioner, teacher and enthusiastic horsewoman!

Toward a Permanent Culture

I’ve arrived as a new volunteer at Newbold after attending the Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) Course at Findhorn this past autumn. Since 2013, I’ve been volunteering at a number of similar projects — retreat centres, educational institutes, and spiritual communities — each with its own strengths and challenges, each aiming to achieve sustainability, each taking active steps to improve their infrastructures, foodways, social networks, and habits. I’m delighted with how Newbold compares to the others, and how folks here are engaged with the challenges of making Newbold more sustainable.

The EDE Course divided sustainability into four aspects: spiritual,economic, ecological, and social. Something Newbold does particularly well is the social aspects. I like how we Newbolders incorporate spirituality throughout our daily life, from the morning meditations & Taize singing, to casual conversations at tea break or mealtimes. No one insists that we all follow one particular path, yet I get the sense that we all hold some things sacred, which makes me feel welcomed among warmhearted folk.

An exciting area with which I’m involved is the development of in-house educational programmes at Newbold. One of Newbold’s strengths is on the social side, for instance, a new monthly-meeting Permaculture Design Course (PDC) will be offered at Newbold soon (permaculture.com.au/what-is permaculture).  Permaculture espouses a more ‘permanent’ ‘culture’  including pattern thinking, sustainable design, re-imagining human settlements and resource management and also include personal and social permaculture aspects, which is why it seems like such a natural fit here at Newbold. Many of the places I visited were using permaculture, especially the ones concerned about local food.

 

Permaculture applies the same principles used in ecological systems to social systems (loobymacnamara.mouseman.info/people-and-permaculture), encapsulated in the phrase: “planet-care, fair-share, and people-care.” If we are to become a truly sustainable culture we’ll need to communicate, make decisions, negotiate conflicts, and gather for celebrations and ceremonies. People-care is what Newbold does particularly well. The culture here includes a balance of work time, informal group time, and personal time; meetings happen regularly both for personal sharing and to take care of business. There’s an emphasis on non- violent, or “compassionate communication,” (compassionatecommunications.us) so that when difficult conversations need to happen relationships can stay intact, or even be strengthened. Sociocracy structures (sociocracy.info) help discussion of changes in policy, and ensure that most of us are well-informed when decisions are taken. I’ve been introduced to the 8-Shields work of Jon Young (8shields.com), with specific practices to create a more regenerative culture. We who work and reside here feel valued, nurtured and supported so that we can ably convey our sense of well-being to guests and visitors. It’s striking to me, and I haven’t found anything like it in all my travels. At Newbold, I have I found a culture which cares about people *and* the planet. So I’m hopeful, and encouraged, and plan to stay a while to learn what I can, and teach what I’ve learned.

 

Root Cuthbertson is an environmental educator, local food gastronomist, honey collector, dance teacher, story-teller, singer-songwriter, blog-writer (that’s a new one!), and is working on a sci-fi action adventure novel.

Newbold Garden – Thinking Back/Looking Forward

The calendar year is drawing to a close and this morning Kristy and I are doing a spot of tidying around the front lawns. The last forgotten leaves of autumn are matted, thick and damp on the butterfly lawn and we’re raking them up to let the grass breathe and stretch out. It’s good meditative work and perfect at this time of reflection and planning. Occasionally I pause, lean on my rake and muse over the lessons from the year gone by and weave my dreams for the one to come. Colours, shapes and green sculptures form in my mind’s eye. Something as simple as removing leaves from one place and allowing them to rest in others carves out space and gives definition, painting with leaf, grass and rake.

It’s amazingly mild and seems to have been for some time. It’s easy to think that spring is here already…… but January and February are still ahead so beware impatient gardeners ;-). The low winter sun casts a warm, golden light on the vibrant, rusty, brown bark of the Scot’s Pines surrounding us. I’m sure the mere sight of the light, from my place in the shadows of the lawn raises my temperature a couple of degrees. I shed a sweater and woollen hat before continuing with my meditation.

 

Lunchtime finds me atop the wall of the vegetable garden, I don’t know how, it just seems so long since I looked at the garden from this place. Even in the depth of winter the land gives nourishing food, only less variety is there. Row upon row of leeks, and beyond out of sight but still there, the same in parsnip and further to the left swede, sprouts, cabbage and kale. As I gaze over the land I remember the many people that helped create this beautiful space, especially in 2015. Ben and his calendula strawberry combination, Kristy and Steve sowing swede and beans, Coco and Charlotte planting garlic and the host of Monday volunteers that helped among many other things to shape and plant the chicken run. The list goes on, too many to mention but rest assured I carry you all in my heart and it nourishes me every day as I walk in this beautiful garden.

My dreaming continues. I see 2016 as a year to welcome even more people to this wonderful venue, both to contribute in its evolution and simply to take respite and enjoy the surroundings. The air rings with flute, violin and laughter as I anticipate fun filled Spring Saturdays and lazy, balmy summer evenings. A seat to enjoy morning tea with the chickens and outside, on the edge of the woods, another to enjoy the orchestra of bees surrounded by tall comfrey.

Lunchtime is over and the dreams are paused as the present moment demands more active pursuits in some of the cluttered sheds. More cleaning and sweeping ahead of the new season. I wish you all a prosperous 2016 and hope to meet at least some of you in the year to come.

Warm wishes from Martin and the Garden Team ☺ .

Community at Christmas

Candlelit Carols, mulled wine and more,

Good fortune and joy, this year had in store,

Storytelling, sharing, solstice and song,

Quiet time, reflection in this place we belong,

 

Welcomed by winter: the festivities bring laughter,

I gaze at the beauty of creatives and crafters,

 

Woodland walks, a time for reflection,

Sharing this winter, a loving connection,

 

For all that we share: food, wine and song,

Gratitude, appreciation, for this place we belong,

 

Let us be thankful for all that we share,

and pray for those less fortunate with true love and care,

Wishing family, community and friends the most wonderful Xmas

From all at Newbold Trust Community xxx

How community can save our planet

At the Newbold Trust ‘We envision a world where people live in a life sustaining culture which supports the interconnected wellbeing of individuals, community and the Earth‘

Therefore our interest in the protection of our planet from the devastation caused by climate change is vital. COP21 saw Political Leaders, Climate scientists and Energy ministers negotiate on carbon accountability, carbon footprint reduction and importantly national targets to reduce carbon emissions and form a global treaty on climate change (now know as the Paris Agreement). 196 countries have committed to freeing up funding for action on climate change, starting a transition away from fossil fuels and prevent temperatures rising above 1.5oC (compared to pre-industrial levels)

It is vital that we remember our work is not done (nor has it just began). We alongside many others have been working towards a greener and most sustainable future for decades but now the political leaders are on board so the opportunity for a revolution comes now. The opportunity to work with one another and build a greener and more sustainable future is here.

Communities are at the forefront of change.                                                                         Environmentalists and activists will now take center stage as governments and communities align to start to build a low carbon future. The agreement is simply a framework for change but the agreement does not guarantee staying within 2oC of change (or more importantly 1.5oC). It is therefor imperative that we pave the way for a greener and sustainable future and hold government accountable to their pledges. Its important that we set an example by living low carbon lives and together we can create an example of how living in harmony with the planet is better for our economy and our community.

How we can collaborate and work together to create real change                                  The headlines speak of political victory but its people power that is impactful when it comes accountability for lowering emissions. There are many incredible organisations that work locally, regionally, nationally and internationally that bring together communities to offer low carbon solutions paving the way for a more environmentally friendly planet whilst empowering the communities that support them. Here is how you can get involved:

http://www.treehugger.com

https://avaaz.org/en/

http://www.edie.net/news/

http://www.theecologist.org

There are organisations who hold governments accountable for actions and are the collective voice of our communities and there are individuals who write, act, sing and create in raising awareness of the problems, solutions and opportunities in our transition to a greener and more sustainable planet.

http://www.foe.co.uk

http://350.org

http://www.stopclimatechaos.org

http://www.theclimatecoalition.org

http://www.campaigncc.org

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk

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To find out about how we implement sustainable values at Newbold Click here – http://newboldtrust.org/sustainability-commitment/

To find out how you can help with our community and have hands on experience with sustainable living check out our volunteer and community guest programmes – Click Here http://newboldtrust.org/community-guest/ http://newboldtrust.org/volunteer-programmes/