Author: cshimasaki

A Japonica rare breed with a vigorous growth in hot summer sun, rather nutrient hungry during the autumn but tends to wither and fade in colour during the dark winter months. Feed it with plenty of good food and beer. During my time as a primary school teacher, I became aware that I didn't have a definitive answers on how to solve (or at least build resilience against) the big problems of the world that the children are likely to encounter when they grow up. Climate change, food security, extinction of species, energy crisis, water scarcity, environmental degradation and pollution... the list can go on. So I decided to build a camper, go and see some of the possible solutions, experience it and share my learning with you. And have lots of fun in the process.

Meat Paradox

For several years now, I’ve been what is now commonly known as a ‘flexitarian’ – basically mostly eating vegetables with occasional meat. I’ve chosen this way of eating for several reasons. In the order of personal relevance; Worldwide, half of man-made C02 emissions are related to animal agriculture. You can cut down your personal C02…

Tree a Week: Oak

Following on from my last post about Patagonia’s Treeline and Wohlleben’s ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’, this will be the first of a series of post on trees. I’ve always wanted to learn more about trees – how to identify them, it’s uses, a little bit of history and characteristics – and now that I…

Treeline

The winner of Mr Shimasaki’s best cinematography and best documentary award (if there was one) goes to Patagonia’s new film about trees. Superbly shot in the mountains of Japan, British Columbia and Nevada, the sensually framed ancient trees, with insights from scientists, other specialists and a shinto priest, gave me the same feeling of wonder…

Horse Powered Farming

Horses were domesticated about 5,500 years ago and used for agriculture for the last 1000 years. Only a little over a century ago, 90% of all forms of transportation was horse powered. Yet, within a decade after the introduction of internal combustion engine, we shifted dramatically away from the humble animal. From this week, I’m…

Winter Pyrenees

Last weekend, I was invited for a hike over the Pyrenees into Val d’Arran area of Spain by my new local friends. I jumped at the opportunity, dribbling, since I’ve always wanted to try winter alpine climbing but I didn’t know anyone experienced and willing to take a novice like me. But here was someone…

Home Mushroom Cultivation – Growth/Harvest

Once the holes were covered in white mat mycelium, I took them outside for 24 hours where the cold shock initiated the mushroom formation called primordia From the best looking 10L bucket containing about 1kg of dried straw as an ingredient, I’ve cultivated 415g of fresh oyster mushrooms on my first flush. With 2 more…

Home Mushroom Cultivation – Inoculating the Substrate

I think it’s important to note at the beginning that these “how to” posts are in no way conclusive and I’m an absolute beginner figuring things out. Indoor mushroom cultivation is, to my great surprise, a relatively new subject and many home level cultivators are performing ongoing experimentation and tweaking different methods. As such, a…

Home Mushroom Cultivation – How to Multiply Spawn

I can’t pinpoint exactly when I began finding the fungi kingdom fascinating but I do vividly remember finding gigantic mushrooms as a child and being mind blown by the beauty and the inherent mystery of it. And like most Japanese kids, my childhood fantasies were littered with images from Ghibli’s Nausicaa where gigantic fungal species…

Minimalism – How Not to Buy Shit

One of the conclusions I’ve come to in recent years is that, for me, I’m happiest when I have a lot of free time. The time to read, listen to music, go hike, climb, meet friends, be creative, write a blog post, learn new things etc. I suppose I could slave away and wait for…

Sark Experience

Last September, I stayed on a tiny island near Guernsey called Sark for a little over 3 weeks. I was volunteering to help set up a small Permaculture themed festival with music, local beer and workshops. My girlfriend enrolled on a Permaculture Design Course running up to the festival, taught by Aranya who was my…