Rocky Benderskum with crops NOT shops at The Retreat Animal Rescue Vegan Sanctuary
A big shout out to the Crops not Shops Tribe I’d tag you all but I’m a benderskum and that’s way too complicamated for me so instead have a pome xx
Crops not shops:
I want to introduce these folks they really are the tops
A proper growing community they call it Crops Not Shops
They’ve been around in Essex helping people grow
For food is a right for all of us something you should know
In gardens, allotments and a nursery and now down on an animal farm
Though not where they breed the animals for food these are safe from harm
The place near Ashford in deepest Kent is a place that’s hard to beat
A wonderful Animal Sanctuary beginning with Retreat
I went along to give advice? That’s all I have the strength to give
I loved the way the animals are and how they get to live
The poly tunnel frame put up by a valiant bunch of workers
While I sat down and watched because trust I’m a proper shirker
If my body wasn’t so broken I know I could be handy
But this is the body that I’ve got so sitting down is dandy
So all I can do is sit and watch and try to give advice
I’d be helping if I had different one you needn’t ask me twice
So all I can do is write this stuff and watch the world go by
As the poly tunnel is constructed under the bright blue sky
The farm itself is brilliant the staff were all amazing
It’s lush to see happy animals wandering around and grazing
They have a thrift shop and a café with vegan friendly food
I never mentioned my cannibal diet as it seemed a little rude
I know that I will go back down to help whenever I can
I’ll probably grab a plate or two of that lovely vegan scran
The farm is very popular as its one of those special places
When some of the visitors find its vegan food the looks upon their faces
One thing I really liked to hear was none of the food is ever wasted
Because they have pigs to eat the scraps but never themselves to be tasted
Now back to the tribe and the growing of crops when the poly tunnel is built
Organic vegetables and maybe fruit filled up to the hilt
And a biogas digester but I’m not really sure what that is
I was told but it went right over my head
its ok I can give it a miss…
For I’m a simple benderskum and there are some things I know
One of them is Crops not Shops is a thing that is bound to grow
Who is Rocky ? Ethical Vegan AF, Ex-tramp, Ex-teacher, Ex-tremely inappropriate Scribbler of scribbles and writer of similar
Anarchist Geriactivist who once stood for Parliament..
Rocky, a supporter of the cause, joined the crops NOT shops crew at The Retreat Animal Sanctuary all weekend to lift spirits and entertain us all while we greased poles, banged nuts and rode around in tractors and diggers looking like we knew what we were doing…
Thankfully we did and the muck piles some touching 10 metres into the sky, 18 metre squared plot land was leveled, poly-tunnel frame erected and the irrigation trenches cut
So where have we got to ?
The frame and channels are done, water storage tank are on site and ready, the poly tunnel cover is on, though needs door frames around the front and final securing to be done, drainage needs setting back into the tunnel and plant in our crops for 26/9 event.
Biogas chamber is marked out and the prints are being finalised to build the biogas digester engine which will be feed from manure and convert into natural gas to power the chalets heating and hot water, as well as a by product of 200 Litres of liquid organic fertiliser
crops NOT shops are now raising funding for completion of the Retreat Sanctuary site. We have had amazing response from our seed search and have heirloom organic seeds for planting over winter crops at the site, now we need to get the Retreat base humming.
So what do we need funding for now ?
– We need to plant heirloom fruit trees, around 12 for the fruiting area
– We need a power inverter and lithium battery to be funded to hook up 10 ready to go solar panels that we have to start generating power for The Retreat and drive gas and water pumps.
– We need some irrigation arms to link to the tunnel tanks and overhead water storage tanks and a computer controlled timer to regulate watering cycles day and night to keep all crops in prime health
– We need to build a 12 foot fence to protect the whole site from Chickens, too ensure the crops get to maturity without being ransacked by the chickens, you may laugh but it is not just a poultry affair, last chicken invasion cleaned out a complete crop of rainbow corn in 25 minutes…..
To complete this site to perfection, we will need to raise a further £ 1,000.00 from the Community.
We need your support.
What you will be investing in is a fully automated fully functioning organic free food system for the animals, for the people and for The Retreat.
As a centre of the Ethical Vegan movement, the crop NOT shops project directly strengthens the Retreat’s long term self sustainability goals and takes pressure of the team there in using up donations for food and power which could otherwise be used on infastructure.
if you are able to help financially in investing in the project to get this site completed please do so using the below link:
These books are a must have insight into the anarchist scribbling of time and experience, from political activism, to rough sleeping, the big issue, journeys to the inner mind and all the stories interwoven by all.
take a look see..
Peaked your interest ?
Click on the below link and then look for the crops NOT shops logo, that will take you to the Facebook page then post a comment to order (Beware if you read to much, your ban will turn to mush…)..
Jamie on the volunteer crew knocked up a fantastic vegan Jamaican stew, which was then followed by second lunch and 4 ‘o’ clock whistle stop chasers…
one last candle to light at “Angels Rest” memorial garden and then down time, campsite gaffs and giggles into the night…
It’s not just funders and backers we need,.
We need volunteers. If you are ethically motivated for real system change, this vegan permaculture, anarchist RBE Network project may well be for you, get in touch with us and learn how to retake your freedom and rebuild your community for a better world.
26/9 this year is set to be a huge gathering of the ethical, the free folk, the activists, coming together for
– Unity
– Strength
– Change
Camping overnight in the bottom field has been given a green light for those travelling in
Agenda for the event:
– Resource based Economy
– RBE Network
– 5 steps to freedom
– Crops NOT shops
– Michael green’s art for a sustainable World
– Adoption programs
– Amazing fully vegan café and Thrift shop
– Biogas digester engine project
– soundtrack by FISHINABOX
Rocky van de Benderskum will also be on site with workshops, and has pledged some of his books to raise funds for the RBE Network’s Free Food program , “crops NOT shops”, which you will be able to buy at the event.
See the enclosed LINK for the latest update report on Rocky and crops NOT shops at The Retreat Animal Sanctuary here:
Want to be part of system change ? Be there – lets build this RBE Network,
for food,
for power,
for creativity,
for education,
for fuel,
for shelter,
for fun,
for enrichment,
for ethics,
for one love
Since Michael Passed in Costa Rica last year, as executors, we have been inundated from people all over the world both in RBE, environmentalist and Vegan circles with requests to arrange for his project “art for a sustainable world” to be displayed.
Michael’s last artwork, unfinished, recovered from Costa Rica:
For this year, Saturday 26/9 2020, we have kindly been offered space at The Retreat Animal Sanctuary to put some of Michael’s artworks on show for the day.
We will also be holding talks on the five steps to freedom and the RBE (resource based economy) , sharing information and looking for engagement with groups, volunteers , from the community for the evolving RBE Network
crops NOT shops will be opening their second base at The Retreat and their will be talks from Chay Godfree who is driving the project.
One year ago on 26/9 The RBE and VEGAN community lost dedicated activist Michael Green. A permanent memorial was set up for Michael at the Retreat Animal rescue and Sanctuary in Kent. A rescue Michael spent time holding talks and classroom events, fundraising and engaging with the animals.
On the 28th of September 2019 just two days after Michael’s passing, many activists gathered at the Retreat, to write words, memories, share stories and spend time with each other in memory of Michael’s life, though the gathering was so close to 26/9 that there was no time, at that time, to organise any larger event, and, Michael artwork has still not been recovered at that time.
Before Michael left on his last trip to Costa Rica, we sat and discussed his on going activism and artwork and how best to incorporate what works he still had in his possession into the RBE Network activism campaign.
As an artist myself, Michael took me through an unfinished art piece based on Morpheus in the Matrix, a piece that was stolen at an event over ten years before and that he felt so important had repainted from scratch, he asked me to complete it for him and marked out where and what colours he wanted used as he no longer had steady enough hands due to the illness, to complete the intricate parts remaining on the painting, and left it with me to complete as he made his way to Costa Rica for a last chance to get ahead of the cancer.
The painting will be displayed unfinished form the last time before work begins on finishing the piece in line with his instructions.
Other artwork going on display for 26/9 “art for a sustainable world” will be Michael’s TV sets and computer screens that were recovered with only days notice of being cleared and disposed, the paperwork and legalities of recovery and “ownership” as the system puts it, took us right up to the deadline. The sets have had some cleaning and restoration since recovery.
Recovery day photos:
Also on display at “art for a sustainable world” will be Michael’s office chair from the “Tears for the Earth show”
The Soundtrack:
The MG 269 event soundtrack is now in print with all eco packaging / inks etc. The album contains the soundtrack for the art exhibition as well as additional tracks for Earth Liberation previously only available in Japan.
The album will be available at the event on 26/9 or inbox FISHINABOX RECORDS on facebook or @Fishinapot on Twitter to reserve a copy.
FYI – This is a strictly limited print run, there will be NO REPRINTS people so its a case of get it now if you want a copy.
The Retreat Animal Rescue is a 60 acre site and safe home for 1500 animals rescued from abuse , neglect and animal agriculture. The site is based in the rolling country side in Kent, the closest station is Ashford International and there is a bus to Cripple Hill that takes about 30 minutes (information link below)
The Retreat is a fully vegan sanctuary with an amazing vegan cafe, the menu is exceptionally good and suitable for all ages , there is an on site thrift shop and adoption programs are available for those interested in further supporting the sanctuary’s work.
The significance of 26/9:
Michael passed away on a symbolic date for animal liberation: Calf 269 is a bull who was rescued as a calf by anonymous activists, days before his planned slaughter. The significance of the event led to the creation of “269 life”(fr:269 Life France), an animal liberation movement founded in October 2012. The 269 life movement celebrates the life of CALF 269 and raises awareness to the unethical unnecessary suffering endured by enslaved calves for wealth hoarding corporate profiteers.
269 is probably the most common animal rights tattoo or brand globally today.
Join us and engage with the RBE Network and explore the movement for real change, not a politics thing, not a money thing, not a flag waving thing , or race, cult, country thing, this is simply the movement for the free world charter, and how people are taking steps to achieve it outside of all pyramid power structures.
There are very few people on this Earth like Michael Green, become part of the movement that shared his vision of a better world and let’s build a better world, without sanction of Government, Corporations, System indoctrinated social policing. Thank you Michael Green for your belief, your drive your energy spent in opening the door to joe public to embrace change. We have got this and are taking it forward up and down the country.
To close the post, I am adding Michael Green’s CV. if ever you are caught shy of the RBE Network and forced to write a CV, it probably should look something like this, if it doesn’t you are likely to be forced by the state into mindless work slavery, where your divine human energy, which you can use to shape your whole reality spirit and community for meaningful life, is traded in a one way transaction, for something as meaningless and worthless as money.
Don’t do it to yourself and don’t let other’s do it to you. Engage in the RBE Network and build an exit from slavery. Don;t know where to start ? then join us at MG 269.
VEGAN KITCHEN – Dandelion HONEY & TOFFEE – LOCK DOWN SPECIAL
Foraging and home growing networks have exploded all over the UK since the Coronavirus Lock down. top of the list in the headline must try go to’s is Dandelion Honey (miel de pissenlit) and its spin off’s, Dandelion root, dandelion tea, dandelion jam (camaillotte) dandelion toffee and even cough syrup.
Dandelion Honey is another great Vegan alternative to Honey, and properly done has a negligible environmental impact. Other great things about Dandelion’s are that hopefully they will impact business away from Bee exploitation and slavery.
We took a deep dive into the good and bad, the pro’s and cons of Vegan Dandelion Honey:
The main area of concern that was being aired was to NOT harvest the dandelions as they were food for bees to make honey for themselves and therefore still part of the problem. we took a look..
Our steps to manage this concern:
For the dandelions that we harvested, we identified council roadside verges and edge ways that were thick with dandelion though scheduled for cutting so the dandelions were being taken anyway, we then harvested in these areas the day before cutting.
If you can’t check this with your local council, or, are not living in a suburban area that has council management the next step is to apply a 1/3 harvesting rule. Only take 1/3 of the dandelion heads in any specific area to ensure there are sufficient supply for insects or all shapes and sizes.
In any area where there are dandelions, some will be ready for seeding, ensure you blow all seed heads in the immediate area where you are harvesting to boost flower numbers.
When you have taken the heads, lay them out to allow any insects to crawl out if any. In our batch of 200+ heads we had two black ants who we returned to the dandelion patch where we harvested the flowers from.
Dandelions are pointed out in most circles of thinking, though not all, as the first food for bees in February so delay your dandelion honey making until end of March April when fruit tress are in bloom and other flowers are available for the bees.
Some studies actually push to harvest as many heads as possible from March on as they point out behavioral patterns around Bees change with dandelions, if there are dandelions the bees ignore flower and fruit blossom and focus on dandelions. in this argument the recommendation is to seed wild flowers early in the area and harvest up and remove as many dandelion as possible, basically the point is ensure you leave blossom food and flower behind you.
Either way a responsible harvesting rule leaves nature to work out the rest. A pot of Dandelion Honey takes 100 head of flowers, two hundred head is a bowlful and two jars lasts months so your harvest rate is very low overall.
The other main area of concern was around the amount of sugar involved in making flower honey:
It is indeed true, recipes are looking at up to 5 and in some even 7 bags of sugar to make a couple of jars of flower honey which though is ethical in the sense that no animals are factory farmed for it, it is a bit of a health nightmare and on a par with golden syrup .
White granulated sugar is what keeps the dandelion honey looking like “Bee” Honey. Messing with the sugar changes the colour of the Honey, and to an extent the taste. We just couldn’t do it to our bodies on a full sugar hit.
To get a healthier more “bee honey” like flower honey we looked at sugar alternatives and settled on Organic Coconut Sugar, its a Lidl staple in the baking section so easy to find and has, like Bee Honey, a lower glycemic index coupled with lower amounts of fructose making coconut sugar a better alternative to granulated white table sugar.
Regular table sugar and synthetic high-fructose corn syrup don’t contain any vital nutrients and therefore supply “empty” calories. whereas coconut sugar retains, in part, the nutrients found in the coconut palm most notable of these are being iron, zinc, calcium and potassium, along with some short-chain fatty acids like polyphenols and antioxidants and a fiber called inulin, which slows glucose absorption and explains why coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than regular table sugar.
Coconut Sugar – What is and where does it come from ? it is made using a natural 2-step process: A cut is made on the flower of the coconut palm and the liquid sap is collected into containers. Then the sap is placed under heat until most of the water has evaporated leaving a brown and granulated product. Its color is similar to that of raw sugar, but the particle size is typically smaller or more variable. Coconut sugar is the dehydrated sap of the coconut palm.
Using Coconut sugar looses that golden Bee Honey colour and gives a very dark treacle colour to the flower honey. In the end its all down to personal taste, if you are someone who eats branded sweets such as Nestle , Cadbury’s, sugar syrups or shop bought desserts etc then amazingly the amount of white sugar used in the recipe is nothing more than these branded products. If you, like us don’t buy into branded junk food then use a fruit sugar or even fruit pectin’s etc and take some of the “load” off the final product though regardless of all that remember that whether it is unethical Bee Honey or the ethical other alternatives, such as Syrup, Coconut sugar, whatever !!! it is ALL still Sugar people no matter what option you take.!!!
The recipe is for 100 head / 1 jar. As we used 200+ dandelions that we picked from road sidings (before the local council came the next day to mow down!) and some from our own area using the 1/3 harvesting rule.
We doubled the quantities in the recipe with a couple of of replacements, firstly, thanks to lock down, we were unable to source fresh lemons (WTF ! right) and so went with the bottled squeezed lemon juice, and second, 7 cups of white processed sugar seemed excessive for us so we went with the coconut nectar sugar instead.
Other than that we followed the recipe and tips pretty much as is..
STAGE TWO:
Add the sugar and start the extremely long low heat simmer, this was the deciding factor in getting the texture of the flower honey right. too much heat it burns, too little it has too much water..etc
The colour changes at this point depending on what sugar you use.
NOTEWORTHY:
The ‘simmer for several hours’ is a bit unclear but after adding the sugar in the second part of the recipe we simmered for approx 3 hours then left to cool over night.
In the morning the mixture was still not thick enough so we popped it back on the hob for another hour which resulted in a good honey texture but after we cooled a bit on a spoon it set solid so we added some boiling water and stirred it in until we got the consistency we were after.
The coconut sugar took the colour of the flower water from a beautiful honey yellow colour to a dark treacle colour so you should expect a much more yellow honey if you are using only white sugar.
All in all we are happy with it and oh my is it amazeballs on toast!! 😋
Once the Dandelion Honey was all transferred into jars we had some left overs which went back on the heat to make the toffee for a coupe of toffee apples.
making the toffee apples was extremely trick and messy, you need a few things… a chop stick, an apple, the toffee and some clingfilm. First we tried to do it by pouring out the toffee, off the boil into cling film bags around the apples…
failed.. lol
…next was to heat up the toffee until a bubbling black liquid, flip off the heat and tip the pan , as the toffee solidified we rolled the apple on the chop stick in the mixture, and, as its cooled it stuck evenly to the body of the apple then stand in cling film and wrap.
RBE goals – UTILITY FREE LIVING – What can YOU do and how to do it
RBE thinking, Resource Based Economy thinking that is; is based around the management of need, based solely on smart and ethical management of available situational resources. The principles are a practical application of the free world charter, a how to live by charter.
Where did I learn about the Free World Charter ? it was whilst we were recovering the late Michel Green’s art work for storage, a last minute appointment with housing and a window of only a few hours to collect keys before they were the housing officer was actually leaving her job and cleaners were scheduled to go in and empty the flat !!
A dash to Eastbourne and a grueling day of saving these pieces. In among the rest was one of Michael’s very old TV screens had a butterfly painted on it and the worlds “Let’s make everything free”. this screen dated way way back, though we hadn’t covered the free world charter as were focused on other areas of RBE implementation, like minds think alike and having signed up to the charter I see again a movement of liberation thinking, free of politics, free of religion , free of money. All ethical vegans should be signed up to the Free World Charter.
These are All pieces of the RBE puzzle that through combining our collective work, come together through these web posts.
Principles of the free world charter
The highest concern of humanity is the combined common good of all living species and biosphere.
Life is precious in all its forms, and free to flourish in the combined common good.
Earth’s natural resources are the birthright of all its inhabitants, and free to share in the combined common good.
Every human being is an equal part of a worldwide community of humans, and a free citizen of Earth.
Our community is founded on the spirit of cooperation and an understanding of nature, provided through basic education.
Our community provides for all its members the necessities of a healthy, fulfilling and sustainable life, freely and without obligation.
Our community respects the limits of nature and its resources, ensuring minimal consumption and waste.
Our community derives its solutions and advances progress primarily through the application of logic and best available knowledge.
Our community acknowledges its duty of care and compassion for members who are unable to contribute.
Our community acknowledges its responsibility to maintain a diverse and sustainable biosphere for all future life to enjoy.
Within application and actual on the ground living and design, the great movers and shakers in the applied RBE world, long established, large central Hubs with endless subscribers and networks, have failed to build site networks within the general public, or support grass roots initiatives for change, resulting in a global stunting the spread of the RBE networks in general.
Part of this is based on a silo mentality, part is based on still being tied to seeking funding and support for the concept of an RBE, with an end goal of full city scale development or Government initiative. As a city planning goal this is all fine but this lacks the elements of accessibility and liberation from the status quo that can be better found in older anti-political idealism of Anarchist syndicalism and abolitionism.
The Venus Project, a key HUB, and founder of the concept of the Resource Based Model provides an excellent FAQ on what RBE program is and represents, as well as the free world charter. Those interested should check the below links to find out more:
Identifying the failure (in engaging general population in network growth) by main RBE hub’s in addition to a recommended review of the method of rollout for RBE ideology goes to Michelle Anne Palmer. She laid out this approach to Myself and Michael Green whilst reviewing workable models for engagement, expressing our right to take back control of resources, at the same time as engaging with Hub Technology, which has led to a model for community roll out to be tabled for vertical farming for Urban populations. A model that can integrate within a Community Anarchist Syndicalist approach to building organic engagement of a grass roots RBE model for all.
This model is sound, and would actually overall see consumption shrink in all business sectors, though requires a social commitment an evolution in thinking in the general population which is hard to achieve outside of an RBE.
Firstly we must be renewable and resource based . Then we must evolve and “DEGROW”.
Combining the following mindsets and application will lead to evolution, a case of, as the “Ghostbusters” would put it of “crossing the streams”
Here are the core mindsets of change:
Crops not shops
Food not bombs
Vegan permaculture
Utility free living
Anarcho syndicalism
Resource based network
No god’s no masters no borders
Make everything free
Equality
Intelligent learning
How not to die
Hemp-Redemption
Ethical Veganism
This will be addressed in later posts under “Degrowth steps for expanding real growth”.
For a system change to be successful, the most important factor is actual change, RBE lends to a non monetist existence where resourcing is spared the wasteful bottling controls of supply and demand financing, and satisfies peoples needs without financial dependence on centralised currencies or barter and trade.
As people we need to develop awareness, and social intelligence, something that the state education, work regulated society seems to dumb down, we need to speak out on the basic obvious awareness issues blocking intelligent awareness
It simply is intelligent sharing and negates the need for an organised Globalised Corporancy, or regulation, or government to manage to filter of goods to public and public to goods.
Urban RBE is a fusion of RBE Silo tech in an urban community based practical implementation, along with an ethical liberation mind set where you, as an individual, can drastically bring change to your family and your communities life, their health, their moral compass and their ongoing nature in balance with the environment they live in..
On an individual scale what are we talking about is meeting your immediate food and power needs ethically and intelligently.
Once these core living costs are resolved and networked, as an RBE community, your major expenditures outside of land rent and entertainment are resolved and the staging table to separation from central Government, Work , schooling, and all aspects of divisional class war and politic is possible.
The first step for an Urban RBE is being able to manage your food supply and dietary needs from you local area , home space or waste land around your home space, we have covered this is the below link:
The second step for an Urban RBE is being able to disconnect from the Grid and provide your own power source, firstly to meet your own demand 100%, and, secondly to develop your power network for overs to engage a Network as an urban RBE HUB
STOP !! “buying” electricity .
and
START “making” electricity.
then
START “sharing” electricity .
Power : What type of Power and Where do you get it ? How do you get it ? What should you get and why ?
We have taken extensive time looking at a number of energy solutions and have isolated two practical , accessible and easy to implement power sources , that in combination provide a good day / night power supply subject to some geographical limitations, thee are a number of others that are less accessible or practice though will touch on them here for diversity:
Bio Mass – Applicable to House, outbuildings, can be used for Agriculture though NO vehicle application – wood pulp/ chip burnt in a off grid burner, very efficient , responsible cost effective though required buying form a corporate point of supply and locks you into a designated fuel source. sourcing your own wood fuel chipping/ pulping is an issue as the fuel is stored cured and delivered at an optimum level of moisture etc so that it burns efficiently, fueling the burner with untreated or self treated wood chip leads to residue and clogging to the burner and equipment that required increased maintenance or break down. very efficient and can get you off grid but you are still tied financially to a supply chain (Global Corporancy NOT RBE)
Bio Gas – Applicable to House, outbuildings, agriculture, vehicles (via charging point)- Bio gas is driven by organic matter, waste, very useful for recycling house waste though the issue here again, like Bio Mass was clean fuel, you have to use a converter , which can be found in a home unit application, though reliable units are still in their infancy. large Bio Gas converters are excellent for animal waste processing, though housing animals to provide an accessible and collectible waste source requires unethical animal agriculture learning toward exploitation, which is out of step with Urban RBE .
Solar – Applicable to House , outbuildings, agriculture, vehicles (via charging point) – Solar provides good return during daylight hours though is impacted by cloud cover and changing seasonal weather. There is also potential drop in output (though currently their are no statistics relating to impact) from geoengineering that reduces the amount of solar energy travelling through the atmosphere. Solar though is an excellent and stable power source. Output can be improved by investing in better yield panels and reducing load on the system.
Wind – Applicable to House, outbuildings, agriculture, vehicles (via charging point) – Wind turbines subject to wind speeds, provides a good return though can create issue in densely populated areas due to noise levels from larger blades and turbines. Yield can be improved with stronger turbines and blade types. An alternative to Wind Turbines are Wind Cubes, favored by the late Michael Green. As the wind passes through the Wind Cube covering, it becomes concentrated resulting in increased velocity that leads to more power generation, it is a better design for output and quieter for urban areas, though is relatively new and in limited distribution, so a developing power source rather than immediately available everywhere .
For the Purpose of an accessible urban RBE network that can be built up in a community from the grass roots, a wind and solar combination is the recommended start point for off grid networks. The following links and information will help you understand the basics of these two power systems, identify your specific need, model, type and combination and look at improvement options to make a shift to Solar / Wind a successful.
A satisfying transition from the global corporate power network that not only unfairly prices power supply, which is a resource that should be free to the people, but also cause extensive environmental damage in sourcing that power.
Corporations, legalised by Government, voted for by uninformed people, steal our resources, time, and the fruits of our labour and charge their profit margin on top. its time to cut out the middle man.
lets get you up to speed on the knowledge on Solar and Wind solutions for home conversion:
SOLAR BASICS (TODAY)
FACTORS IMPACTING SOLAR CAPACITY ON THE GROUND
Do your Homework
Possible Concerns of Geo Engineering?
Challenges the global shift to renewable systems such as solar power, pushing power back to fossil fuels or above atmoshere sola rppower systems owned by the Global Corporancy.
It damages the immune systems of all air breathing life, opening growth for big pharma vitamins immune boosts and basic cold and hayfever medications.
It contaminates water supply justifying additions of heavy toxic bleaching purifying chemicals to water such as fluoridation and sodium chlorination (which poisons you long term and again supports the above point).
It effects the natural seasonal cycles confusing plant life and hibernating animals It interferes with nautical directional senses in sea mammals.
It normalises the effects of pollution from animal agriculture (methane) allowing meat and dairy to continue scaling production without environmental pressure.
Reduces your ability to harvest good charge from renewable solar energy.
Cause an all dependency on global power structures to maintain climate stability (ensuring the longevity of state and corporate dependency)
Though the media is split on whether the program is already live, the impact of this program needs to be considered in any long term RBE planning.
RBE adjustment to negate effect of solar radiation:
– Power hybrids , solar though increasing cell collect-ability is still around 25% capacity and any improvements will be negated by solar radiation spraying, you need to hybrid your system to provide second power source – please look at the wind cube (American wind cube not Chinese) over and above the wind turbine, if looking at turbines, check your local wind speeds .look at a post 2019 Chinese 500w turbine (not American choose the Chinese on turbines)
– Lithium batteries – reducing cost – source second hand lithium from hospital equipment re-sellers, they have to routinely change the batteries regardless of charge and testing these spent units so far indicates that you still get around 90 percent capacity at 150-250 quid a until instead of 3k…build bigger banks to supply high UV lighting drain for farming (what!).
– UV lighting,. yes you are going to have to set up UV lighting facility for long (90ft max per unit) soil based grow tunnels,. recommend dig down for any new set up to extend seasonal growing ,. ensure your power needs are covered by off grid stand alone supply for the tunnel. Do not piggy off the grid for UV ,. build capacity into your off grid to heat
When you are up to speed with the combination of these two power systems, look at your load requirements for your home space by checking your energy bill from your current supplier, then review how you can reduce your energy load and reduce your costs for power:
Some other helpful pointers in addition to the Utility Free Living Link to look at cost reductions. We recommend you keep your full capacity before reductions so there is an over supply which can be made available through storage batteries to a network for sharing.
Thee are many extending developments from managing your power, shared networks, water supply, community water turbines applied, use of water, human , agri, though initially you can’t really start expanding into these areas before the basic foundations of food and power are in place.
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RBE Legacies – Where Next MICHAEL GREEN ? walking in my friends shoes.
In January 2018 on one of Michael’s long weekend visits, squeezed between an Animal Rights activism event and a train to Eastbourne, Michael told me that we should start backing up research between us. He was insistent on the importance of finding time to put this in motion, nearly a year before his illness even became openly visible.
We had know each other a considerable amount of time and were firm friends, both going vegan at the same time, for different reasons based on the same anti-politic and both ending up on the same protests, me working for Anonymous at the time on the Japanese Anti-fishing campaign and Michael arguing with a Police officer outside the Japanese Embassy who wanted him to stand somewhere he didn’t want to and to stop chalking, Me coming up the street and standing next to him masked as usual and Michael carrying on chalking saying “hello Andie,” not even looking up, “i’m ignoring this twat (the police officer) because telling her to fuck off is not working”..
That was Michael..
I had been building a library of deleted publications for quite some time covering, alternative lifestyle, development tech for resource based economies, ethics, anarchist syndicalism and the underground history of resistance to the Global Corporancy for a long time, and Michael had also been working along similar lines since his heavy involvement in the Zeitgeist movement and the Venus Project and so we started to cross back up our records and information.
We had spend much time discussing how our own project could support Michael’s ongoing activism in the future, though delay after delay in financing and also unnecessary and petty court restrictions delayed events from shaping and moving forward.
Michael Green passed away from throat cancer on 26/9 2019.
As a result of our long friendship , activism and like minded anti politic and belief in change, Michael left two executors, of which i am one, to manage and carry forward his story, our activism and his works, art writings and research.
Who was Michael Green, well, a lot of people around the globe met, knew, spent time with Michael. For those that didn’t , he was a hell-raiser ! in to “everything” and pushed the boundaries constantly, well that was up until in 2008. Then he “woke up” and from that point on his life changed and had dynamic focus.
He started to work on using his art to raise awareness about Monetarist slavery and the failure of the system we live in to nurture, protect and enrich our lives and instead that had become a system that commodifies, divides and enslaves the majority of people, animals and the environment to maintain a status quo where a small minority of people control wealth, opportunity, resource and power for their own interest and no other.
As Michael’s health declined through 2019 he spent more and more time insisting on the importance of using all means necessary to collate and share his activism, we had already shared quite a lot of campaign work already as Michael had picked up events and campaigns that we were restricted from doing ourselves. We agreed the Website was game as a medium for sharing as much information as possible but where to start, with memories or stories or events or unfinished campaigns or archives…
For me, trying to make sense of the loss of someone so dear and also to find a way to carry on with what he asked of me started with looking at a pair of Michael’s battered old “Macbeth” vegan shoes, I stared at them, now i wear them, and i carry on walking in his shoes in and finally after months or , working out how to carry this responsibility forward.
I think the biggest priorities are about the research and work that is in danger of getting lost, social media or old website articles reaching domain expiry dates so that is where these news feed articles will begin and hope fully will provide a permanent space for them ongoing.
Rolling back the clock on Michael’s activism takes us back to the beginning of his journey and how it crosses with or will cross with yours,. his work under “Art for a sustainable world” and “One depends on the other”.
We spend a lot of time looking back at Michael, his life and wonders and who he was, its time to look forward at Michael and what he was trying to do and be..
Veganism was for him the first / basic slice of the pie of ethical and meaningful existence, the basic driving licence on the road to global change, not the actual global change event horizon itself.
His research went down into food health disease, social change and unity betterment, the theory of indefinite life, social reorder, change educational review. every level of tangible rational existence..
Encompassing veganism into the larger mold of social change, Michael drove the RBE (resource based economy) though was constantly frustrated by the most basic questions about work, money, greed, luxury, that would come back..
One of the many discussions I had over and over with Michael was how to get Peoples minds to open to the concept of the RBE without the shackles of the world we live in disrupting the presentation of the model and its application.
so with all that in mind i am inviting you all to question the square wheel world that most people subscribe to and apologise for with opening your minds to the concept of real change.
Credit: Sara Palmer
The blocker ? –
Every SINGLE time it came down to this….. (in the video) Alan Watts here hits the nail on the head in WHY the brainwashed and socially conditioned work/god/greed/war/poverty/class/race/money/vote slaves (most people) cannot get their head around system change…..
Can you get past that ONE THING ?..
Can you take a few minutes to understand about relative consciousness and engagement.. ?
if you can then off the back of his video . go to google and search for “the Venus project FAQ” read the questions and read the answers and if you think “where do i start” inbox or comment on here and i will show you whee to start implementing real change in your life and community.
Michael left a lot of work to be done, a lot of research over 15 years,. its time to decide whether veganism is where you stop. or whether a vegan money free balanced positive world is what you want to be part of . where your needs can be fulfilled and greed is history,. where unity is strength and change and no government , army, divisional political financial or racial group has any power…
if you think that’s all a pipe dream, then you just CAN’T get “the one thing” pointed out in this video., and if you can’t get that one thing,. those that can will just carry on without you.
here is your chance
here’s the basic
veganism (only the first slice of the ethical pie) is not going to be enough for real global social evolution, you need to ..
do more, be more, grow more..
from Veganism there is RBE implementation, from RBE there is food energy fuel perfection from food energy fuel perfection there is medical re-connection to deleted health and knowledge and from there, there is the movement for indefinite life being knowledge permanence (sustainability),. we remember the lessons of the past and learn from them.
so you see MUCH still to be done..
There is here, a new idea, yet so very old that we are trying to assimilate in people to effect change.
from the video –
the “system” we live under is the “Crystal Sphere”, it is a lie,
It is meaningless and yet in the current reality, we are fully dependent upon its “existence” , you see one depends on the other. In order to improve our existence and the existence of all life and the environment it is contained in, we have to effect a change, to not fight the system head on, but to effect a change in the relationships of organisms in and around the system whilst disengaging with out dated modes of living to allow space (and time) for change to take place unhinded by old value systems. and this essential understanding is what is needed to create real system change.
Change requires ALL elements in the whole to change. This is a fundamental reasoning that Michael sought to explain, though it is quite inexplainable, Alan Watts in “one depends on the other” captures the salient points..
Do you want to be part of social evolution ? start here with the “one depends on the other”..
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VEGAN KITCHEN – I think i’m cooking Japanese, I think i’m cooking Japanese I really think so
I’m cooking Japanese, I think I’m cooking Japanese , I really think so…
so here we are, one of those rainy nights, kids and dogs sprawled out all over the place and kids asking when dinner is , when dinner is , when dinner is… A Jumanji movie is standing in as a surrogate parent whilst we whip up a little Japaneses special…
Fancied a Wagamamas, but alas they don’t deliver and hey who can afford it anyway so a good old rummage in the magic cupboard provides all the ingredients for a kick-ass Japanese meal…
Its more than Sushi , you see…
First up is the rice,.
We Recommend you use Sushi Rice or at least a risotto rice, after all you want it thick and you want it sticky.
Wash your rice 5 times until water runs clear then cover with water , a one inch top, heat and then put a lid on the pan. Switch off the gas and allows to steam for 15-20 minutes under its own heat..
For rolling you need a rolling mat and also Nori sheets, you need the right kind of seaweed so pick up a pack or Sushi Nori Sheets. Nice and thick and perfect for rolling sushi, you can also use thinner snacking seaweed sheets if you dont have the sushi sheets or are using up whatever in the back of your cupboard for ingredients, though you will have to work a bit harder to get it looking crisp and neat if you use the latter.
By now your sushi rice should be nice and cool, if not , go have a cup of tea and read a book for a bit until its cooled off then when ready cover your Nori sheet with a layer of your sushi rice and flatten it evenly and gently with the back of a large plastic paddle or wooden spoon.
Next up sprinkle black sesame seeds as evenly as possible over the sushi rice and layer your main vegan filler ingredients across one length of the Nori sheet in a straight line, usually towards the top of the roll so that it centers in the fold as you turn it over (as shown below) and slice the roll at two centimetre lengths with a super sharp mother fucker of a killer knife so it slices straight through without losing the shape.
Avocado, Cucumbers, Pickled Ginger (Sushi Ginger) , Carrots and even broccolli are great filler ingredients.
Variations with Full Nori Sheet….
All Done… Now for the dips, Soy sauce, Tamari Sauce and Teriyaki Sauce make great dips, and if you have time make up the spicy sushi sauce by mixing Veganaise, Sriracha sauce, lemon juice and sesame oil.
The rest is all in the presentation,. lay out the sushi and dips and grab those chop sticks.
Once you have stuffed your self with Sushi its time to get up and go make Ramen. Should have done that before you sat down with the sushi right ? lol
Ramen, a healthy filling Japanese soup,. lots of ingredients, go into this in a two stage process, so make sure you have everything on the list below before you get started
6 garlic cloves
Pickled sushi ginger, couple of good spoons
3 tbsp organic miso paste
1 tbsp neri goma (white sesame paste) or tahini
Half box button mushrooms split into 2 for section 1 and 2
1 large teaspoon of vegan stock
1tbsp of pickled lemon grass
6 tbsp soy sauce
2 packs of firm tofu, cut into chunky cubes
2 tbsp cornflour ground rice powder
2 packs udin noodles
2 head of pak choi deleafed and split down middle
spring onions, only the green sections
A couple of scrunched up snacking seaweed nori sheets
Bag of beansprouts
Carrot sliced thin
A bit of salt
Stage 1
pan 1 _ chop the garlic, then put it in a saucepan with the ginger, miso, tahini, mushrooms, stock and soy. Pan fry it all for 5 mins. Strain off into a bowl and clean the pan for the noodles
Frying Pan – fry the chunks of tofu with ground rice powder until golden brown, texture like sun
oops oh yes forgot to say you need ground rice flour to get the crispy breadcrumb type look on the tofu..
Stage 2
Boil the noodles 5 mins, then drain and add new water, add all the veg and add the pan 1 cooked mix. Thrown in a ginger top up , the Lemon grass a spoon and some mayo curry spice, simmer for ten mins and done
don’t thrown the stump of the Pak Choi out, leave a couple of very small leaves and put in a rumkin with water and the leaves will grow through again and can be used for another meal later on
That’s all there is to it,. Eat lots and let it dribble all down your beard or chest or whatever
Music Matters: The 25th Annual FRIEND Festival – New Age Revivial ? They never stopped
Since the Battle of the Beanfield; the unrelenting harassment of the peace convoy under Heseltine’s sneering gaze; the end of Beetle Mania (that’s VW not John Lennon btw); Glastonbury pushing up prices to £16.50, (working class rip off) and putting in barriers along with the waning of the spirit of Stonehenge, as the Police, having infiltrated the anarchists to death and since turned their attention to Animal Rights; festivals have totally dropped off my happy list.
Once Joyous celebrations, free folk gatherings, it was all over. One after the other they had been poisoned by rampant profiteering and state infiltration of what seemed like forever.
New festivals have popped up over the decades, oh yes never ending dates on bill boards, with ever rising ticket prices, backed by junk food demons peddling animal abuse in a bun, endless beer tents and irrelevant stage acts where the performers have nothing to say of any value whatsoever, are role models for exploitation objectification and violence, and obviously the endless cascading “profits before people”
It is not just about “Music Matters”, I’d completely ignored the scene, though raised an eyebrow of interest when Morrissey’s refused to finally go back and decline playing Glastonbury in 2015, over ethics.
Morrissey had already had a run in with Glastonbury in 2011 where he was reported to have released the below press statement:
“In 2011, I played Glastonbury and attempted to sing the song Meat Is Murder. Behind me, a screen that usually shows the many evils of factory farming remained blank. I was told that Michael Eavis (owner of the festival site) had stopped the screening of the film because it wasn’t indicative of how his dairy farm operated. He didn’t quite understand that the poor souls in the actual film did not want to be there in the first place. Michael Eavis also went on to justify banning the film by saying it would <upset> younger people.Like most animal haters, Michael appears to be one of those people who love dead animals, yet hate live ones. How is this sane, or logical, or possible?”
Glastonbury 2015, brought in pointless and talentless rapper Kayne West to headline the festival to fill the gap and justify the ticket sale price. Kayne West also has in an interest in fashion, specifically, Astrakhan (the fur of an unborn lamb). Yes, a foetus. The sheep is slaughtered, and the unborn lamb is ripped from her womb, its coat still curly and unformed.
Liz Jones (Mail on Sunday) reviewing Kayne West 2012 Paris fashion collection, was reported as stating ‘No imagination, no morals’: a damning verdict on Kanye West’s ‘ghastly’ fur-filled Paris show. (Did you also know that lambswool is most commonly taken from the backs of just slaughtered lambs? What did you think they did: used a little pink comb?)
The “Cult” of Glastonbury really sums up the problem with our Festival Scene, overpriced ,outrageous and unapologetically unethical and I am sure a great driver for a growing population of ethical aware people who simply do not want to be associated personally with pre-packed, don’t give a damn, show me the money, shrink wrapped Corporate Satanism.
The Dalai Lama (Heavily criticized for disrespecting the morals of the Buddhist order yet claiming some sort of headship over it, and participating in supporting violence by eating meat), was also in attendance at the 2015 Glastonbury festival. Unlike most Buddhist monks, who don’t eat meat because they believe it’s wrong to murder and commodify the bodies of any sentient being, the Dalai Lama is not vegan , not even vegetarian, yet despite this still try’s to maintain a media image of being a “sage” of sorts but really is nothing more than “sage and onion” stuffing for other suffering. That some frazzled maniac at the Festival attempted to start a chant when His Holiness walked out on stage. “One Dalai Lama! There’s only one Dalai Lama! One Dalai Laaaaama!” No-one joined in, Say’s it all…..
Commercial Festivals..
It may be fine for “flexitarians” to turn a blind eye to the backdrop of the festival site at Glastonbury, to crowd the field, and raise choruses of “oh Jeremy Corbyn” when JC used the Festival as a PR event for the Labour Party. JC “for the many” turned a blind eye to Michael Eavis questionable morals affecting the lives and freedoms of the “many” hidden out of sight as he played for political support from the “crowd” with yet another great speech of his.
For others who have a better moral compass, we seek a Festival with out the dark shadow of greed.
Why so much on Glastonbury in the post ? Well, the founder of F.R.I.E.N.D Festival Mark Eaton used to work Glastonbury Festival, distancing himself from it in the 80’s when those fences started going up and the ticket prices started going up too.. Glastonbury was once everything that was right with festivals, now it is everything that is wrong.
Glastonbury is out, as well as “priced out”, the site of an Animal Prison camp can never be a “happy home” no matter how loud the bands play or how fast the beer flows.
F.R.I.E.N.D. is in, the bands are still loud , the beer flows and the animals, all actually rescued form farm slavery, are free form abuse and commodification to live out their lives in peace, no one gets hurt , turn up the Bass Mark for the 25th annual F.R.I.E.N.D. Festival.
Let’s do this yeah !
One last thought for the Animal Prison Camps of Glastonbury, was some video footage sent over to FISHINABOX by one of the mind blowing bands that played F.R.I.E.N.D festival, a must see band called MOBIUS LOOP .
The band stopped by a dairy farm, just a regular farm, on the way back from the festival to film the below footage and add this comment to their story feed:
“This is how dairy is made in the UK. Babies separated from mothers so that a mother’s milk can be sold for profit. Even on organic dairy farms babies are separated 24-48 hours after birth. Complex mammals like cows have strong instincts to protect and nurse their young. All mother cows and their young end up in the slaughter house after forced pregnancies and births that always result in separation. #dairyisscary There is no need to fund this treatment of sentient beings when we can support our local British Hemp farmers and make nutritious hemp milk. A mother’s milk is made for her baby. We sing AHIMSA to all beings and their babies.”
Music Matters so let’s Get to F.R.I.E.N.D.. who’s on the playlist for 2019 ? With the exception of The Balsall Heathens, who were a late addition, to the playlist, the below is the full Festival playlist , check it out and see who’s who..
We rolled up through the main gate, greeted old faces not seen for years, and worked our way up across the fields. A sense of nostalgia reminiscent off the old peace Convoy free festivals of the 80’s, painted vehicles, a mish-mash of tents flags, and people wandering between.
The story of F.R.I.E.N.D. farm goes back to the mid 80’s,. originally the festival as a memorial day for Gari Allen, a great friend of Mark Eaton’s. One of Gari’s friends, Aileen (who attended the 25th Annual Festival), made a memorial stone to remember Gari’s life and achievement for the animals, and this was laid at F.R.I.E.N.D. Farm animal Sanctuary.
As Marks commitments took over in running F.R.I.E.N.D. he decided to enlarge the event to grow into a music festival, to bring joy peace and the party to the farm. Originally the dates coincided with The equinox but Mark moved the festival into July to avoid clashes with Stonehenge and also to get into better weather.
Mark didn’t make F.R.I.E.N.D Festival exclusively a Vegan festival, non-vegans are not restricted from attending in any way and bands would come from all cultures and backgrounds not always from the Vegan community.
So many of the musicians would comment about the rescue work going on at F.R.I.E.N.D whilst they were there, and Mark noticed they would ask to come back year after year due to amazing atmosphere at the festival .
There was also a natural progression in their thinking and lifestyle towards animal agriculture as they became more ethically engaged with the world around them.
Mark is clear though with all participants and attendees, to avoid any confusion about what people can bring with them regardless of their personal ethics, “This is vegan festival, please fully respect these principles by not bringing any meat, eggs or dairy onsite.”
As Mark says “you actually don’t really need any activism or workshops at a music festival, we have the rescue animals here on site, people can connect directly with the animals, make there own conclusions and make the right choices.”
Mark had invited people to paint signs for recycling, showers, paint up the toilet blocks, and a general all out color fest of activity and creative expression, artwork sporadically started to grow around the site.
As we parked almost on top of it at first, we got the a job to help directing people to the showers, a portable water shower and palette station at the back of the field. Showers were easy to use quick and clean. Toilet blocks where all biodegradable, using sawdust, wood chip and paper no plastic boxes or chemical poisoning that is so familiar at commercial festivals. The whole festival the toilet blocks were clean accessible and well maintained.
Graffitti Bill Boards popped up around the site and mind bending amazing artwork began to form fast on them.
Another massive plus at F.R.I.E.N.D festival was the food and rotating Menu’s. There is only Vegan food at the festival as anything else would be a sickening insult right to the animals that live there, rescued from factory farming and safe from commodification and violence in their forever home..
so the food…..
Damn….. AMAZEBALLS !!
“Vish” and Chips / Vegan Burgers, spicy / plain “V”Cheese you name it all the options / Asian Tofu Noodles / Curries / black beans / bean dishes all rotating so you had the sense of a festival menu.
There was also a range of desserts with a tea and cake tent which seemed to be open day and night which worked massively for everybody !!!! The Tea tent also run a Merchandise stall for T- Shirts, Hoodies, hell i’m sitting in one of the t-shirts now writing up this article, and all manner of absolutely stunning jewelry.
There was also some fund raising clothes rails with a range of amazing vintage clothing and a donations box, everyone appeared to put in decent donations for clothes they took a shine too, the money of course goes straight to the animals so the good feeling in supporting positive steps for the animals clearly had kicked into the crowd en mass.
“Moth3r” perform in the Marquee tent.. beats… rhymes… sublime….
MARQUEE:
A look at some of the bands playing the Marquee Tent – The Marching Skaletons / Niall from Ten Bags / Public Speech
The Marquee tent housed the “Razorback Inn” where the beer taps ran day and night.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, renditions of “Pick a bail of Cotton” performed earlier that evening by one of the bands called the Faux Pas, who ran a set of hypnotically catchy numbers earlier that evening, started to form and raise in volume again in the late night crowd, ….”Jump down turnaround, pick a bale of cotton, gotta jump down, turnaround, pick a bale a day etc….”
relaxing at the bar with the slowly quietening crowd , guitars came out again and the tunes started again and lingered way into the early hours and over into the dawn mists and the magic of dew forming in the early light. The rising sun finally bought the revelries to a close and we drifted off to a few hours slumber before the stage opened again for the next days set.
The Marching Skaletons , “ska” as in Two tone rock steady rhythms, These guys popped up all over the festival on the 2nd day, pressing beats and hypnotic rhythms as ska versions of Spiderman, Krartwerk’s The Model and and endless string of classics rolling out.
Niall heads up the folk punk group the Ten Bags, One of the fantastic things about F.R.I.E.N.D is the impromptu nature of how some of the acts fit together, Niall jumped into a gap in the running list to give us some spoken world poetry, gritty life insights such as “banned from the tesco” and “the mosley observation” a welcome set of renditions
Public Speech had the night spot, though every band has there own style the mix of rock and running rap lyrics between melodic flavours reminded me of the heavy rock band “Senser” who used to dominate main stage in the late 80’s and early 90’s , loud high energy, delivered.
MAIN STAGE:
The Ten Bags – Folk punk troubadours from the middle of England banged out a fantastic set of own tracks interspersed with some great covers, CRASS, Exploited and the Pogues a real Anarcho-Celtic-Punk fest as they rampaged through folk tradition!
MOBIUS LOOP,. These guys are on another level that we all need to evolve to, i’m actually just going to post their mission mantra to describe their stage set –
“We are married by our love of philosophical songwriting; channeling each lyric, melody, rhythm & harmony & weaving them into the tapestry of our union which is sanctified by the co-creation of our journey.”
If you achieve anything this year in the line of Creative pursuit, you MUST get to see this band live.
From monk punk to panto punk; from retro funk to garage junk; from pirate-sing-along to jazz metal; from a cult classic to a classic cultists here’s Chalice. a Christian band out to save your souls through rock n roll. Choppy chops and thrashing beats of Raymond Chinzano, smooth, meandering bass lines of Thomas “T Bone” Wheeler and the mathy licks in among syncopated, cutting guitar stabs from Benedict Quetzal. Then there’s Cede Von Taylor leading the line from the front with raspy, accusatory and confrontational vocals. They also do exorcisms !!
Rites of HADDA – Anarcho, pagan, gothic, psychedelic Witchpunk band from London. Born from a weekly jam session in a London squat and have released 3 eps; Samhain Ritual #1 (Live At The Gunners), From The Blow and the recent 7 track Witchpunk. Headed up by the enigmatic and hypnotically entrancing “Wilderness Wasp Howl” who presents on stage in a spinning swaying colourfest vibrating “forest” of organza, there really is nothing quite like this.
Johnny Kowalski and the Sexy Wierdos – “The Go To festival band for the moment” (BBC introducing Hereford and Worcester) After several years wowing audiences across the UK and EU music scene, playing rapturous festival sets at Boomtown, Nozstock, Y Not, and Tramlines, and then recording their second album with highly respected producer Gavin Monaghan (The Destroyers, The Editors, Robert Plant), the Sexy Weirdos are now gaining international acclaim for their third album “European English ” (available on Bandcamp, Spotify and I Tunes).
The list of bands was endless, we couldn’t cover them all, but that is where our invitation stands to YOU. Get down to F.R.I.E.N.D and get a taste of a whole new level of “Festival”.
Check out links to the other bands performing here:
Friend Farm Animal Sanctuary is located on a beautiful 10 acre site in rural Kent. The rescue was established in 1994 and have given sanctuary to upward of 2000 animals in the following 25 years.
F.R.I.E.N.D currently have approximately 200 non human animal residents including pigs, goats, sheep, cows, hens, ducks, geese, turkeys and more.
At F.R.I.E.N.D. the animals are the number 1 priority. The Rescue is a large 10 acre site and the music is contained centrally away from the animals who are free-roaming as much as possible.
They are able to keep a very comfortable distance throughout the weekend and remain in very peaceful areas of the sanctuary with little impact on their day to day business. The volunteers see FRIEND as the animals’ home first and foremost, and a space for the musical festival second and we manage the event with their well-being prioritised at all times.
F.R.I.E.N.D. Farm relies solely on donations from members of the public. Want to help out ? Here’s the link to support F.R.I.E.N.D: https://friendfarmanimalsanctuary.org/donate
Financial donations are spent on food, bedding, essential equipment and veterinary bills. We are a no kill sanctuary, we re-home a small amount of companion animals but most of the animals that live here stay with us until the day they die.
Unlike the bin and trash city big commercial festivals , recycling was key at F.R.I.E.N.D, recycle stations were everywhere, tea cups were returned to the wash stations, by the end of the festival there was only one , yes ONE black sack of non recyclable waste from the entire festival, such a massive contrast from the post Glastonbury scenes you see of what looks like a landfill site of debris left on the festival fields…
Not only is F.R.I.E.N.D. a relaxed safe family friendly event, the whole festival management and the crowd takes on a level of responsibility about the environment that I haven’t even seen in the greenest of gatherings around town.
These are people who care about how they party, and that is why this festival gets my best festival UK vote for 2019. These are the kind of festivals we want for the future, Eco friendly , ethical , great music, great atmosphere , family age and well managed through out.
Get to F.R.I.E.N.D for 2020 , to hell with the big sell out corporation , steel fenced, plastic chemical toilet, landfill site big money festivals that masquerade as a good time in “Brexit Britain’s” consumer selfie society.
Make exploitation history and have a great time doing it.
Photographers: Rachel ARA / Sharon Lee Tucker / Andie Kumafaro / Dan Pope
Urban Vegan Permaculture Project – Credit Crunch Living outside the BOX
Are you running to stand still and paying a heavy interest Inherited “Mortgage for life” Debt ? Working 9 to 5 …and the rest? Don’t Drink ? Don’t Smoke ?… sick of politics and can’t be bothered to Vote (and why should you ?). Can’t keep up with the Jones’es and sick of the sight of them ?
There is half a nation like you out there, financially crippled by the lies and small print of the monetary system. Sold the Reality Asylum “Dream” but more like a cell where no one can hear you scream.
If Austerity has not yet reduced you to “I Daniel Blake” then there is a way to start turning the tide. Regardless of whether you even know about the concept of a Resource based Economy or a Vegan Lifestyle this post may open your mind to selling your square wheeled life for a new set of rubber treads and some more.
Free Thinkers have been engaging the Public in, discussing, theorizing debating the benefits of Ethical Monetary free living for decades. We have seen Communes and housing projects, ECO villages, even whole city programs like the Venus Project. What is missing will all of them is mass engagement. Access for large groups of people to engage with change systems.
Whilst advocating a resource based Economy, the frustration we are left with on the daily is in still paying , living, being locked into the rat race and the money trap which burns down our pitiful financial resources and our time and head-space.
With that in mind we looked closer to how at a three step strategy to getting breathing space from the System. Our focus for this project fell in three main steps:
1 – Food (shift to Home Grown) to cut costs of £600 – £900 (all food and drink – family of 4 average) all in a month
2 – Power (shift to Home Produced) to cut costs of £200 (Water Gas / Electricity / Fuel – family of 4 average) all in a month
3 – Self Sustainability (shift to Self Funding) , barter and trade with the increasing network of other people achieving the same, zero financial cost living, (that’s everything else we pay on from taxes to toilet paper)
Like 24 million other home dwellers in the UK, We are Stuck in the bog standard Urban / Suburban House, a 3 or 4 bed, the usual, some crubby semi or an end of terrace scenario with a slap-on under delivering box extension and a 100 – 120 foot garden of wilderness and bare lawn pressed in between two rows of decaying council fences, a collection of old pots, marigolds and tomatoes a potato here and there and a general lack lustre pair of unkempt fruit trees.
Gearing this up into an all year round pesticide free and ethical home grown supermarket seemed like a mammoth task.
Visualising and implimenting the change (Step 1 FOOD)
Rather than lead you up the garden path, a few good connections can see you straight to an organised satisfying home farming solution. On a lazy afternoon up at Dial House I raised the issues, Penny Rimbaud forever thoughtful on who needs who and why seemed to know the right person to get in touch with and be able to see why long before you do yourself, dropped in to the conversation “Do you know of a chap called Graham Burnett” (Spiral Seeds)…
Graham was the enabler to our “Step 1” and for those who don’t have the all solving connections in their daily trudge and want to get out of the mud and clean up their “trench foot”, this post is your short cut guide to getting home farming up and running fast.
If you need any background into why this only works as a Vegan Permaculture Project, then before you cut your power off so to speak, tune in to Netflix and watch COWSPIRACY…
specifically the below 1.22 Minute section which points out your biggest enemy as an urban home grower, lack of space…
Step 2 is tied into knowing what you need power wise, not just a case of a solar power upgrade and sell back to the grid, or finding bio gas home generators that generate the right consistency of gas to power your car or home appliances or whether and how to set up a grey water system….
Step 3 is the final stage where you apply the wishful thinking “If I can’t grow it or get it through shared home farming network or barter it, then I do without it” to the rule.
Then step out of your job, resell the overs on the power supply to cover insurances and taxes and in true Felicity Kendall Style, embrace the good life.
THE KNOWLEDGE:
There’s an endless list of self sustainability stories , dreams, ideas, vegan this and that, anti capitalist this that, so we are just going to spoon feed you with what you need for an “urban” change and walk you through our project.
You will need to understand your space, be able to grow, harvest and eat from it all year round and make sure you can protect what you grow naturally to make this work.
The best hand books we found and used were Graham Burnetts “Guide to Vegan Permaculture “combined with the “beginners guide” along with “ecology of the self” and “top of the crops”. They cover the basics and inspires all sorts of environment improving ideas that ensure success and yield.
We are shamelessly plugging those titles as “The Knowledge”
You are due to plant for summer in the next 2 – 6 weeks !
INFASTRUCTURE:
This again you can find and build low cost low stress from the guide. We wanted NO cost and NO stress so we took building composters and planters a little further.
Stone paving crates. They are dumped everywhere. All you need is a large vehicle to haul them. Line them with 1 ton sand or gravel haulage bags, again, these are found literally lying about everywhere and you have a dual purpose composter and planter ready to put together.
Cut the bag to fit the frame but leave the flaps, as initially you will need to wrap the whole planter with the additional Canvas and secure whilst using as a composter. This protects and keeps the heat in. Composting will take a minimum of 12 months.
SEEDLINGS:
We use Steel racks, and a little potting compost. (Yes the ones you see in your local large grocers or corner shop.)
They are on wheels so you can move them around, have adjustable levels so you can create or remove space depending of the height of your seedlings as they grow (or don’t – forgot to water ? over-watered ? too hot too cold wrong soils, too rich, not rich enough, rich or poor sand or stone mixed soils ?… oh dear…………its death death death death – how to avoid “death” – read the guide to Vegan Permaculture)
Dead heading…
Eaten something you want to grow ? Never ever want to pay for it again but want to eat it forever ? then dead head it.
Our experience – it was great for salads, celery, herbs, spring onions (cut to bottom of stem let it grow back up, do not dig up, use when season regular onions run out… ) poor success with root vegetables but don’t let that stop YOU ! We just had too much on to keep on top of the deadhead root veg.
Conservatory or garden ?
Ginger, Chilli’s and Peppers thrive inside or in a sun trap or conservatory. Our experience is that all these did much better inside rather than outside buy hey try you luck split your seeds and compare.
Planting directly into planters, this means less work transferring seedlings or plug plants into planters later on though if you are planting early you will need to use plastic / poly tunnels to keep in heat and protect against any last frosts. We plant straight in and the results are very good all year round.
COMPOSTS / SOILS:
Except for potting compost, we prepare our own soil through composting. Ours mostly came from our rescue work with Chickens, recycling our “crops not shops” lifestyle and a few adds such as seaweed to make rich ever giving compost.
Cook on an open fire –
There are some controls to observe in Urban Areas when cooking on an open fire A guide from the department of the environment food and rural affairs is included below.
When done correctly, and, by the guide, with the correct fuel, wood burning is environmentally friendly, cost-effective and produces very little smoke pollution . Done incorrectly with wet wood , treated wood it is not.
Burn Clean Fuel, Eat well, Compost well.
We use seasoned (dried) wood which we have collected or dried from tree cutting. Make a space to store and dry your wood. Wet wood gets smokey which is unpleasant as well when cooking.
Use the wood ashes. They do not contain nitrogen and will not burn plants, they can be useful in the garden, especially in the compost pile. Wood ash compost can be a valuable source of lime, potassium, and other trace elements.
Composting seaweed speeds up the compost process –
When you are next at an AV event in Southend, be sure to pick up a bucket of Seaweed from the beachfront after. Don’t wash it as when using seaweed as compost, any saltwater or clinging sand simply add to the beneficial and essential elements within the soil amendment.
Apples, don’t let them rot just compost them –
like practically all other organic waste, are ideal for composting. Even hard apples will rot and get soft very soon
Chicken Manure –
Perfect, it is very high in nitrogen and also contains a huge amount of potassium and phosphorus. The high nitrogen and nutrients are the reason that chicken manure compost is the best kind of manure to use.
Save animals AND secure a supply:
Rescuing Chickens is your best step to excellent constant supply of high grade organic compost and fertilizer.
Chickens have a seriously hard time in a Human dominated world – Based on the rate of destruction, http://thevegancalculator.com/animal-slaughter/ Chickens are pretty much the most hated land based animal on the planet.
They have become so objectified in mainstream society as to be seem as little more than a coveted snack food, whose value is assessed wholly on the limitation of their life, how they can be modified, abuse enslaved and com-modified planet.
The constant endless breeding, hatching, fattening processes they are pushed through has led to them being unable to ovulate normally (period is accelerated 26 times to lay an egg a day instead of once a month) to over feed and to have an artificially shortened life and excruciating painful death (cancer, tumours).
These accelerations have all been driven by human financial demand to eat them. Basically “YOU” the consumer ensures that these animals suffer and die for snack food.
So there is nothing kinder that to get in touch with your local British Hen Welfare Trust and re home some hens. Take a look: https://www.bhwt.org.uk/
There are restrictions in most councils in urban areas on keeping Roosters, though Hens do not have to registered up to flocks of 50. A usual amount for an urban sustainability project of this size, to meet your composting needs, would sit around a comfortable 6 to 8/10. Some councils have chicken coop limits on sizing though a small flock of under 10 will sit comfortably in local guidelines.
For those of you that like the idea but are new to Chickens be aware of The Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 which sets out minimum standards under which farm animals (including chickens kept for domestic purposes) and try to make a couple of trips down to a Vegan Animal Sanctuary such as The Retreat in Kent, or Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norwich, Hopefield Animal Sanctuary (went fully Vegan in Jan 2019) in Essex.
More Sanctuaries can be found in the below list, though do check with them before visiting that they are 100% Vegan as to visit a sanctuary that is peddling animal products out of their rescues are just perpetrating the cycle of abuse.
The first question you will be asked if you keep chickens is do you eat the eggs ? What you have to take in to consideration is that the chicken is breed to have an accelerated menstrual cycle. They have a cycle (an egg) every day in stead of once every 26 – 28 days naturally. Look at any human female and how difficult their lives are during their monthly cycle and ask your self how would their health and quality of life be if they menstruated every day ?
Feeding the Eggs, that’s ALL the eggs back to the Chickens is important for them because a large amount of the calories they are eating are put into producing the daily egg, and not into their own bodies, which, if not fed back to them debilitates them quickly hence why a free range hen only lives a life of 2 – 3 years whereas a wild hen would live for around 8 to 10 years.
Taking Eggs from a chicken with the misbegotten “ethic” that they lay them anyway and discard them shortens their life by 75% . imagine again an average Human female and limiting her life form 80 years to 20 and making her suffer every day of her adult life with a menstrual cycle.
With that in mind, It is common practice for farm animal sanctuaries to feed eggs back to their rescued chickens, as it has shown to help them live longer,combating tumours, cancer and exhaustion and lead to fuller healthier lives.
In addition the consumption of eggs works against the health benefits of home growing as the single biggest cause of high cholesterol are eggs.
What about Protein ? – Eggs are high in Protein:
In our own project our Hens are living on average 6-7 years and are battery farm and hatchery rescues. Don’t take the eggs, feed it back to the Chickens, supplement a non GM layer pellet feed with Apples, Seeds, Brocolli, green vegetables Rice, Porridge, wholemeal. In short, Make sure to try and feed your chickens wholesome foods,.
As a general rule if you can eat it so can they. EXCEPT fatty foods or foods with lots of salt in, (Junk food). Processed food is in direct contradiction to the principle and practice of this project and also consumer chronic poison. (See Sugar the bitter truth and Fast Food Nation)
So back to our building blocks , our foundation of the project: SOIL – Our Compost rots down naturally, no odour, no additives, in 12 months.
For Year ONE we had pre-prepared 4 tonnes of ready rotted compost , supplemented with 4 tonnes of organic shop bough compost.
For year TWO we had a full 12 tonnes or high quality compost from recycling. we turned over the Year ONE compost with Year TWO and doubled the output.
Graham Burnett’s Book “Vegan Permaculture” is an excellent source on soil, “make compost not war”.
Mummy , There’s a Monster under my Bed !!
No Hunny that’s just my Mushrooms sprouting !!
To create an indoor bed for your mushrooms, fill a wooden box that’s at least 6 inches deep with your hopefully by now) good old trusty Chicken manure from your rescues.
Leave a few inches of space below the rim of the box. Spread the readied spored material from your mushroom kit on the top of the soil and mist it thoroughly so its moist, place in darkened corners everywhere.
So we finally got there on Button Mushrooms, we grew them forgot them , they died, we grew them didnt harvest them and they tirned in to massive flying saucers, still ate them. we grew them cut them and ate them perfect..
For outside growing you can grow in closed composters (fold the flaps of your planters over or use early composting to give yield before ready for regular vegetables, you can use part composted manure after about 6 weeks (if forked) or 3 months (if not). It needs to reach the stage where it has zero odour of manure or ammonia at all when exposed to the air (you can’t smell it with the flaps closed so open up and do a smell test). Chicken Manure, and their hay / straw spent bedding that has partially decomposed is perfect
Fork it over every few days, which will speed up the decomposition process. When the heat goes, it should be in the right state. Make sure there is no ammonia smell – as ammonia is very toxic to mushrooms. It also needs to be cooled to 25C, before you can use it – button mushrooms will die at 35C and composters are hot in the centre. Spreading the compost and mushroom spawn into a layer no more than about 9″ high, on the surface of the composter block will help to cool it once the thermophilic decomposition is complete and inspire good growth.
Quantities of spawn – 60g to about every 2kg of manure/straw. We worked on scales on 1000 kg (1 tonne) selecting 100kg being the top layer and used a 250g pack. Sprinkle some on the surface and then dig it in to homogenise it.
What about a woodpile like you see in the forest ? Mushrooms grow very badly in wood bark and straw only, as it is a secondary decomposer, and needs to have the cellulose cut into smaller pieces by bacteria before it can grow. Stick to indoor or composters for success.
You can grow it in the log-pile if you like, but button mushroom doesn’t like to grow on logs, so the logs would be nothing but decorative. As the aim is to grow to eat, our recommendation is stick to interior boxes in dark corners cupboard and under beds or use a closed composter.
Apples…
Doughnut Peaches….
Tomatoes all varieties…
Plums…
Figs and Olives… (New plants, will need south facing sun spots)
Cherries, Pears…
We also put in Honey Berry, Goose Berry and Blue Berry. Strawberries, Hob Nuts…. all good essential fruits
Sweetcorn..
Squashes, Pumpkins, Courgettes, Zuccinnis. From 5 full tonne planters. We got 3 full annual yields of around 40 -55 a yield. 150 a year. after each harvest we cut back and composted dead leaf. The seeds were mixed so we were nto exactly sure what was going to come up as a apart form colour of seed (brown to blueish to red) you can’t really tell them apart. The planters were placed in full sum tray at rear and part shade in front, Leaf growth was larger in semi shade but yield only half of the rear planters.. just a pointer, root veg for semi shade and squashes, corns, tomatoes in full sun.
Potatoes…
Peas and Beans..
Cabbages..
Cabbages, We sacrificed these to slugs and snails mostly planting between spinach and chard as fodder for the garden battlefield. We picked up 5400 cabbage seeds for 1.99, of which around 600, 700 grew . our yield was very low but it kept the snails and slugs off the aubergines, chard, spinach and salads which were the more important crops.
Why not use Slug Pellets or pesticides ?
Aubergines… 8 plants, outdoor 1/2 tonne planter, yield 38 aubergines – long (late crop) and short (early crop)
Mustard Lettuce
Spinach (Epinards) Planters 3 tonne all year round snow or dry
Chard all year (cut and come again, allow self seeding, never dies snow or dry) 2m sq Ground sewn
Chard and Spinach together delivered yield 4 carrier bags a week spring summer autumn and 1 bag a week in winter
Rhubarb…
Beetroot (seeded and early growth over packed in 1 tonne planter cut and come again for the leaves then separated out twice and grown sewn to allow larger growth of the beetroots to continue)
Harvesting Beetroot leaves all year, beetroots constant supply from October to February. We seeded 500.
Broccoli – Autumn all through winter.. again harvest the leaves, over and over until the florets come through
Through the frost and any snow just shake off the poly-tunnels every day, check moisture level ensure no exposed gaps. Frost under the poly tunnel will kill your crop.
Nutrition –
Vegans get up to speed on nutrition very very fast. If you are new to having to think through and plan what you need to maximise health and performance, and, also translate that to what you put in the ground here is your essential must have bible:
Any left over wood from planters or tree cuttings, build furniture , stools, seating..
Harvest… Whilst the main crops come in season there are constant weekly , daily collections to be done of ripened crops, even when you get to the tail ends (corn for example) you can cut away any damaged veg and feed it back to the Chickens.
Preserve it, Cook it , Eat it ..
Process your fresh grown supply as fast as possible, stew it, bake, it, curry it, stir fry it, dehydrate it, freeze it get your meals processed and stored as back up for Winter short supply and for any shortage fail in any type crop.
Over he Project life of 24 months, we reduced food monthly spend reduced by £600 to £150 – 200 by supplementing with an urban home grown program of vegan permaculture.
Our new spend covered all food and drink for (in our case) a live in family of 6 average and visiting additional 3 two weekends a month.
Being able to live “The Good Life” in an urban environment,the stranglehold that Austerity has on so many of us through crippling finances was pushed right back.
There is a large time and responsibility commitment needed through out the project to ensure that crops are protected, tended and watered without fail. Be proactive, don;t let the basic gardening slip and your yields will stay high.
The focus gained in understanding our immediate environment and how to maximise it for best return is highly satisfying, not only that, to be able to ensure that the majority of your food supply is free from pesticides, storage, contamination , stabilisers or other additives or processes, means that our food supply is the best we can offer our body’s and souls, the change in quality to home grown is something, from our experience, we firmly believe we can all thrive on.
With food tested and proven, our attention shifts to Power sources. We are all living in a box,. you don’t have to be told any more.. Break out.
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EPIPHANY CAKE – We 3 Kings of ORIENT are – Ethical enlightenment in the very best of VEGAN bakes
This weekend sees the Annual Epiphany Festival, celebrated mostly in Catholic home and nations from France, Iberia through Italy and the Med to the North African Coast, This is a bake off to get stuck into..
When it comes to amazing “Divine” religious bake offs, France really did perfect the Epiphany Cake (Galette des Rois. The Galette is like the ultimate super size me stuffed butter cookie, which, personally I find much more satisfying moorish than the fluffy “Christmas tree light” cakes of the south, Spain and Mediterranean (Roscon de Reyes).
The only down side is that the traditional Galette has been a graveyard for the fattiest animal by products, and, as such, out of reach for the Ethical.
UNTIL NOW
Baking has moved on, we have dropped the unethical animal cruelty, and finally we can dispense with the last of satanic ingredients being “Palm Oil”.
Yes we Veganised it.
So Epiphany,.. in some parts, the arrival of the Three Mages; in some parts the baptism of Christ and his first recognition as a God.
Thats all very well and nice and church like but don’t let pagan types be put off from getting some cake too, for like so many of the Christian festival, they generally are rooted and repackaged from pagan faiths. In the case of the Epiphany, we draw from the Befana…
For those that want to delve into Epiphany’s Celtic or Druidic roots ( also see Yule, Yule log, Bonfire, Krampus, Crampus, Odin and the goats) Check out these links below. If you are not bothered about that then just carry on dear Christians, or cake lovers, or both, for there be much of interest in this little festival.
The Befana goes back to more ancient times than the Epiphany feast from which it takes its name (Epifana) and combines elements from Pagan, and other pre-Christian elements.
A witch and guide for the Magi, she flies on her broomstick the eve of Epiphany delivering sweets to the good children and coal to the naughty ones with which to warm themselves and better their temperament, bonfires of pine and pine cones are lit to drawn back the sun and shorten the cold night and after her visit, Befana lays seeds for the people and fertilises the soil ready for Spring. Over time she has become somewhat morphed into the common symbolism of the celebrations surrounding the Christian Deity, and also backstory in the Pagan Druidic traditions of the burning of the old year, and birthing of the new.
Exciting stuff though Befana is only celebrated unabridged in small regions these days and was on the way out by the 4th century as the Christian Epiphany took over.
Epiphany, as it is today originated from the merging of the old stories into the new of the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem to honour the newly born with gifts and this date is, however, recognized as national festivities, in many countries as Three Kings Day. if you want to delve into Epiphany’s pagan past, check these links below:
Over with the ancient history and on with the baking in the new:
There is no excuse for Animal Abuse, Christianity, in it’s orthodox form, lends strongly to Vegan Ethics, the following links explore the relationship between the two:
There are quite a few mysteries and secrets around the Epiphany Cake and Celebration that have just been steam rolled over and stolen by zealous inquisition prone Catholics, and in doing so have lost all that was / is Divine about the cake.
When John Henry Hopkins Jr. penned the hymn “We three kings” in 1857, he picked up on more truth that he could have imagined, the key is in the lyric”we three kings of Orient are.
The Orient up until the late 1800’s was classed as the land as far west as Morocco and to the east, India, and to a lesser extent China. With a dumbing down of language and studies toward the end of the 19th Century, and the Geographical Americanization of the known world, the old Orient was displaced to the Levant as the primary subject of Orientalist research.
This decay continued to further hem the borders of the Orient to East Asia, Southeast Asia, and eastern Central Asia by the mid-20th century, history books of our Modern Western scholars generally considered “the Orient” as just the the Middle East or the Far East.
The shifting of borders leads to a whole re-visualization of our 3 kings as no longer oriental and instead Arabic.
Roll back History and follow the trail of these oriental 3 kings and a whole new journey opens on he road to religious historical truth, one covered beautifully in the BBC Documentary “Jesus was a Buddhist Monk”.
Combine the findings of this documentary with Knight Lomas The Second Messiah along with The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ and you need up wanting to book tickets fro a trail to the final burial-place of Jesus Christ in Srinagar, Kashmir. (known to the locals as Rozabal, meaning the ‘Honoured Tomb’)
Where historical literal fact pinpoints that the Ascension story didn’t exist for over 200 yeas after events on Calvary hill
Where a 1st Century agitator executed on Roman record for sedition has been re-branded in Rome by the Emperor Constantine (AD 306–337 as the undisputed resurrected Son of God.
Where three sages traveled from the Orient looking for the Ascending enlightened being, a Dalai Lama and of wealthy earthly standing, and who’s life teaching have more in relation with eastern tradition and belief than Judea
Questions while baking the Divine start to create questions upon questions. We hope that the content of this post and he Questions thereon will create in your thought a genuine “Epiphany” in the true meaning of the word: “an intuitive grasp of reality,” “an illuminating discovery, realization, disclosure, or insight,” or simply “a revealing scene or moment.” in short an epiphany is “a moment of sudden or great revelation that usually changes you in some way.”
Anyway Away with 200 years of controversial truths, its time to get the baking done:
What do you need to create and “Epiphany” ?
Firstly you need one feve / pebble / ceramic figure :
100g of Caster Sugar – its finer than the regular stuff, easier and cleaner to work with
1 tin of Aquafaba (you get that in a tin of chickpeas in water – drain the water and put it in a blender until it looks like egg white (obviously its a replacement for eggs….)
125g of ground almonds
250g of flour
1 feve
2 tbsp of Almond Extract
Step 1 Step by Step:
Mix together the Vegan Butter and Sugar then add the Aquafaba mix again then finally add the Flour and Almonds Mix and the extract and mix well. Place the mixture on a sheet of clingfilm wrapping the mixture in to disc / circle shape. Put it on a plate and freeze for 30 minutes.
Its a 2 step recipe – SECOND the outsides….
250g of strong plain flour
1 tsp of salt
250g of that lovely vegan palm oil free butter again
150ml of COLD water, not warm not tepid (COLD as your ex’s heart…)
Sift flour and salt in to bowl. Chop the butter into chunks and add to the bowl and rub in loosely still being able to see bits of the butter though in the mixture.
Make a well in the mixture in the mixing bowl and add in 2/3 of the cold water. Mix until you have a firm rough dough adding water if needed. Cover with a dry cling film and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Insides in the freezer and outsides in the fridge – got it ?
20 minutes later – Turn out the outsides onto a floured board and knead and roll gently into the form of a rectangle. It doesn’t have to be perfect but try to do some justice to divine geometry at least.
Roll in one direction only until 3 times the width of 20cm x 30cm. Keep the sides straight and even , don’t overwork leaving a marbled effect (the butter streaks through the layers NOT worked all the way through)
Fold the top third down to the centre then the bottom third up over that. Give the dough a quarter turn to left or right then roll to 3 times the length, fold as before put back in cling film for another 20 minutes then its ready to roll out and cut as below
Just follow the pictures:
That’s two identical layers of outsides. Take out the insides from the freezer, push your feve into the frozen mixture and place between the outsides and press together the edges with your fingers then with a sharpe knife score a pattern on the top from the centre out in slow circular curve (like the start of a spiral) to the edge of the top edge with a design with a fork.
Decorate with Almond flakes and then it is ready for baking.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees for 20 -25 minutes minimum then check every 5 until done (some fan assisted ovens bake close to 25 minutes and non fan more like 45 minutes) remove from oven , leave to stand to cool for 45 minutes dress with the Kings Crown and serve.
Overall verdict..
Though the tradition of becoming the Queen/King (based on who finds the feve and therefore takes the crown and commands) leans to Royalist or elitist social pyramid models (correctly lack of values rather than values as they are based on devaluation of the majority) of class division and servitude, this also opens the subject is open to discussion with family and leads to understanding the evolution of the “idea” of equality which fits snugly with how we live today. This is further supported by reproducing this classic “untouchable”recipe as a vegan cruelty free cake. The subject of equality is tied intrinsically to Species-ism, and can be captured in the language of modern political spin by the Corbynist slogan “for the many not the few”(The Many actually refers to ALL beings not just the human voting public).
Enjoy the history, Bring in meaning to the “game” and enjoy the cake.
Its cruelty free and it’s damn good. This Vegan Palm oil free Version of this cake really delivers, there is no difference in process or output, apart from the ethics. no extra effort to source ingredients either.
Its “religion”,
its “politics”,
its “history”,
its “truth and lies”,
its also great fun – tuck in. ENJOY.
DISCLAIMER: Links to information and information collected from external sites on external sites other than those operated by FISHINABOX RECORDS are provided for your convenience only and are not an endorsement or recommendation of those sites, findings or opinions. FISHINABOX RECORDS does not control or provide any content or information at these sites, makes no representation or warranty of any kind with respect to these sites or their content, and does not maintain, operate, or take responsibility for information provided. FISHINABOX RECORDS does not endorse and is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of such content or information and any use thereof is solely at the user’s risk.
Folks, It’s a New Year, whats the New Story ? You know about Anonymous right ? Though do you know about Anonymous evolution groups? Not to be confused with cyber terrorists, hactivist, and anarchist organizations, Evolution movements deal with awareness.
Anonymous for the Voiceless (AV) have been on the rise since 2016. They hold an abolitionist stance on animal exploitation and use Truth content to challenge Animal Agriculture Media Marketing subversion.
With the largest ever AV event in History rolling out this summer in Times Square NY we need to get funding to send one of our colleagues, friend and veteran street activist out to cover the event live from New York.
AV events are taking the world by storm, though coverage, frustratingly, still remains sidelined by corporate media channels.
Social Media carries the stories though often these rotate mainly around the supporting networks.
We can run the live feed and coverage through need a reliable source out on the ground to cover the event.
Michael Green is a veteran of street activism, Awareness and Public Engagement and familiar face attending and supporting hundred’s of events day in, day out.
The Cube of Truth is an awareness event that Michael has engaged, supported and attended in many global locations run by Anonymous for the Voiceless.
Michael Green at AV:
Mainstream Media is simply not a reflection of reality of what is happening on the ground, and social Media does not have the scope and spread to communicate Truth events without restriction within community guidelines (i.e. corporate censorship) on their respective platforms.
We would like to see Michael on the ground to pick up a full and thorough report on the event in it’s entirety including the wide scope of public interest, engagement, outreach, and overall response to this form of street activism.
This event is due to run for a week with more global participation than ever before seen for this form of event. We need to be the media eye, to ensure this type of event is made available on all channels.
We need your support to get him there for the event in it’s entirety.
The event has its own Charity funding direct through the Anonymous for the Voiceless site for those that are supporting the event. Though independent (of AV team) activists will need to fund themselves to attend.
For those that recognize the importance of independent investigative media, urban journalism, and live feeds on challenging the arts, culture, and social political events; this is your opportunity to support and follow this event live, and unedited.
This kind of work can only be done with your support – We have a shortfall in costs to cover the event for the whole week, please help, close the shortfall.
Click here to support funding the shortfall to get Michael to the event:
DISCLAIMER: Links to information and information collected from external sites on external sites other than those operated by FISHINABOX RECORDS are provided for your convenience only and are not an endorsement or recommendation of those sites, findings or opinions. FISHINABOX RECORDS does not control or provide any content or information at these sites, makes no representation or warranty of any kind with respect to these sites or their content, and does not maintain, operate, or take responsibility for information provided. FISHINABOX RECORDS does not endorse and is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of such content or information and any use thereof is solely at the user’s risk.
