Lehman’s Country Life

Here in the British Isles we refer to our vacations as our holidays. This goes back to the root ‘holy days’, those days within the ecclesiastical and liturgical calendar when even the lowliest of labourers would get their chance of a rest. I’ve just got back from my holiday and my spirit is certainly refreshed and revived.

With the cost of gas being high both in the USA and Europe - we are paying €1.33 a litre - I am grateful that we decided last April to attend a music camp that was less than 100 miles from home. With no wilderness in Ireland to really compare with what is available in, say, the North American West, camping on a low-impact, light-upon-the-Earth site is our homegrown alternative.

The Earthsong Camp is an eight-day music camp and admission includes a smorgasbord of workshops in drumming, dancing and singing. It’s family friendly with a very strict no alcohol, no drug, no cell phone, and no electronic music policy. It was rare to even see someone smoke tobacco.
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There is a little hunter-gatherer in us all. Before humankind settled down and started to make gardens in settlements we were nomadic hunter-gatherers. And June is really the start of the foraging-for-free-food season.

I tend to think that hay fever is the sophisticate’s response to being alienated from this most ancient of activities. One herbalist told me that if you looked out in the countryside you would probably find something to heal whatever ails you within twenty yards of your doorstep.
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Wineries are hip, hot and profitable properties these days, but could vermiculture, otherwise known as worm composting, become the wriggly new trend? With growing awareness about our carbon footprints and the need to recycle, all sorts of old technology is getting a modern twist. The typical American lifestyle consumes so much energy that it would require six planets to keep feeding our consumer habit. We need to increase our commitment to reuse, recycle and renew. Composting is one way that every household can make a contribution to reducing its carbon footprint.
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One of the better value strategies for a low impact, more carbon neutral way of life is to compost. You do not need a huge garden. You just need to figure out the best way to match your own domestic set-up. When you compost carefully you will be given a wonderful by product - humus. This is a dark brown, light and crumbly soil that is gold to all gardeners.

Compost is the natural way to recycle waste and it is truly a miracle in the making. You layer up newspaper and cardboard (brown material) or woody shrub prunings (also brown material) with the moist ‘green material’ - the potato peelings, damp paper towels, tea bags and coffee grounds. You make a compost ‘lasagna,’ alternating the dry and damp in layers. In time, heat and worms do the real work of breaking it down until there is a lovely, crumbly mixture. My first gardening teacher, Delores Keegan, pronounced that the best way to construct compost was to lay down a piece of newspaper, scrap your spuds, parsnips and carrots onto the paper, wrap it all up and then you have the perfect brown and green balance in a neat parcel to deposit in your compost bucket.
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When my partner Tony and I gave ourselves a challenge to live as consciously and as sustainably as possible, I figured we would ace it in twelve months. Now, nearly four months into our experiment, I am beginning to have some doubts. It’s just that there is so much to consider once you do start to consider things. Take laundry for instance.

Laundry is an essential task. You can be careful not to overdo the cleanliness obsession. I have access to a good ecological laundry detergent that is effective at 40 degrees. You can make sure you always do full loads. But then there is the drying process.
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