Nicole Sadlier (Yogini, Permaculturalist, Adventurer) currently lives in Brisbane. It was a year long trip WWOOFING (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) around Australia that brought Nic and her partner to Brisbane, where they now find that balance between working in business and following their passions for growing food and engaging in community actions with like-minded people.
Nicole's story goes full circle ... from leaving the city for the country - with a need to learn more about food and organic farming methods ... to returning to the city again and teaching others about the potential to grow in an urban environment but this time, with a fresh perspective and a greater appreciation for 'real food'.
I left the corporate world of high heels and suits in 2000 to work in the adventure tourism industry. Life felt great working in adventure and living at Bondi Beach in Sydney, and I was having a whole lot of fun ... but in the background there was this craving to grow food and care for the environment.
In 2005, I started to attend Council community courses – and little changes started to take place ... a worm farm appeared on the unit balcony ... I learned how to make green cleaning products ... I created a no-dig garden at a local park ... and then filled the balcony with foam broccoli boxes of herbs, salad greens, tomatoes, chillis and a lemon tree. Then came the battles with possums and slaters (accidentally imported with a load of hand picked cow manure). The seed within had started to grow and my 'green journey' had begun.
In 2008, the company I worked with was heading towards administration. It was stressful and I found myself asking more and more “What’s really important to me?” I started thinking I should walk away from it all and spend time in rural Australia and reconnect with simplicity. As it turned out, the company was purchased and my job was secure ... but my mind had already shifted. So, at a time in life where I probably needed the comfort and security of a well paid job, my partner and I decided to pack up our lives in Sydney and start WWOOFing, much to the bewilderment of family and friends.
We wanted to get 'hands on', create a better connection to food, and understand the trials and tribulations of organic farming. Working on a range of properties including a permaculture hobby farm, biodynamic dairy, market garden, orchard, and nursery – we began to experience both the joy and hardship that are a part of growing real food.
We started our organic farming journey on other people's properties - first off working at a market garden in Nymboida, near Dorrigo in NSW. A very remote place ... where we found 'rural simplicity' living in a basic cabin. After 6 weeks or so we spent time at Candelo near Bega, this time on a mixed permaculture hobby farm, assisting a family and their ever so cute poddy calf, Myrtle.
Then onto a commercial organic orchard in the ACT, where we fell in love with eating fresh fruit straight off the tree. A dairy farm near Colac in Victoria was next ... where we discovered that cows have personality!
If you ever get the chance, hand rearing a calf is a beautiful experience with many laughs. The calf I hand fed, Myrtle, used to resort to sucking the edges of my shorts when her milk was finished and head butting me in the bottom. I you've ever observed calves feeding from their mothers, they butt their head up into the udder (I think it's something to help bring the milk on) so Myrtle used to give that a try with my bottom!
A poddy calf has lost its mother so it has been handfed and usually starts on milk, then hay and/or calf pellets (or just good grass).
Ordinary calves are sometimes referred to as 'poddies' too, especially if they've got the pot belly typical of a hand-reared calf (which rarely look as well-proportioned as calves reared by their mothers).
In 6 weeks, we came to know one cow from the next and had the fantastic opportunity to get hands on experience driving tractors and heavy farm machinery.
Each place offered us new life skills and competencies.
We experienced the simple joys: eating syrupy figs warmed in the summer sun ... walking the cows to the hay bales ... witnessing the sky filled with thousands of silvery spider webs ... creating sumptuous lunches direct from the garden ... bottle feeding an excitable 'milky chopped' poddy calf who wasn't yet on a grass diet ... feeling free and connected, and living simply.
We also came to respect the hardships: seeing the dam drying up ... getting ready to fight a bushfire ... chasing off birds decimating a crop ... fierce wind ripping across the ready-to-be-harvested beans ... and discussing the price of milk being driven down by big business. We began to value 'real food' more than ever.
The last place we worked was at a vineyard in South Australia, where I came to a new appreciation of the effort (and pain) involved in producing a bottle of wine! It was a cold wet (miserable) winter and pruning vines was hard yakka! It was heartbreaking to see grapes withering on the vine before harvest. This experience made me realize how much work goes into that one bottle of wine and how risky a venture it is for the dedicated producer, who can see a crop wiped out after months of hard work. It led me to a new appreciation for growing food and managing animals.
By that time, we were ready to come off the road and head for warmer climes. With the promise of a good job in Brisbane, we decided to get some dollars behind us and put that 'Future Goals' document I had been writing into action. I wanted to study, become much more involved in community activity, and apply the principles of Permaculture - introduced to us as WWOOFers - to my life.
Although I'd returned to the office, I spent the first year juggling full time work with studying to teach yoga and learning a lot about myself (the good and the bad)! The WWOOFing experience had been as inspirational as it was educational. Within weeks of arriving in Brisbane, I found the local organic farmers market and now have strong ties to growers and their produce - to the extent that we volunteer for a couple of hours with a biodynamic egg business. The summer floods in January created havoc for many growers and I remember weeks when there was little on offer at the markets. While conventional markets began importing, we used this time to be as creative as we could with the limited local produce available, and did what we could to support local growers through the tough patch.
In February this year, I completed my Permaculture Design Certificate with Milkwood Permaculture in Mudgee, then headed back the following month to learn about earth bag construction.
I’ve learned to balance my current need to work in the city with volunteering on projects that focus on bringing food production into metro areas.
I volunteer at Northey Street City Farm and joined the Brisbane Permablitz crew. I was super excited to learn that the recent Paradise Garden blitz had earth bag raised garden beds in its design.
I quickly raised my hand to be part of the facilitation and share the skills and knowledge gained from my teachers - Neil and Stella from Guiding Star Creations - with an eager group of permies and volunteers.
When people are excited about what you’re teaching, the vibe is electric.
I so enjoy the Permablitz community concept, and am amazed at the genuine people, commitment, energy, and enthusiastic sharing of knowledge that put design into action. It’s so encouraging to see people in an urban environment engaging in sharing and developing skills in communal areas and people’s backyards.
In a way, I’ve come full circle back to the city and am now able to balance my passions with a working life. I can see the full potential of what can be done in an urban environment to grow food, engage with community, and connect with nature.
"We don’t all have to be living on a two acre block in the country – we can live and breathe Permaculture here in the cities and apply the principles to our daily lives and workplace."
With my partner, my future plan involves getting on the land again, but for now we’re implementing our own small and slow solution ... and that is to get involved with community projects, meet great people, learn lots, and share the knowledge that we’ve gained. Four years ago many of my weekends were spent skydiving – now I’m more likely to have a shovel in hand and soil under my nails and it’s equally as exhilarating ... if not more so!
WORDS OF WISDOM:
- A few sentences taken from the album Go Now and Live: "Wake up to the magic of everyday life. Discover the beauty of uncertainty. Seek knowledge. Open yourself to possibility."
- Support your local organic farmers market. You may or may not dream of moving to the country, but if you live in the city and care about real food, this is the best way to support the people who are putting in the hard yards.
- Grow as much as you can. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have acreage - a suburban backyard, balcony, or little strip of soil can produce food. You can always grow something.
- If you have surplus, share it. Food brings people together and a small jar of fresh pesto from your balcony basil crop is valuable.
- Seek out your local Permablitz team and other community groups supporting sustainability.
- Value real books, because if the power goes out you won’t be able to rely on the internet for knowledge.
Want to stay in touch with Nicole?
Nicole provides a by-donation yoga class each Thursday evening 5.45pm - 7.15pm at the New Farm Community Centre, 967 Brunswick St, New Farm. Everyone welcome!
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