Chelsea Green Blog
Community Resilience
Ten Facts About the Water We Use
Most people have a basic understanding of the importance of water conservation. We’re taught to turn the faucet off while brushing our teeth and not to try and take shorter showers. However, we might not be aware of just how important conserving water is, how it impacts our lives, and how much we need it…
Read More
The Importance of Nutrient Cycling
Putting nutrients back into the land is almost – if not more – important than harvesting from it. When it comes to growing pretty much anything, it is all about balance, and nutrient cycling can help you maintain equilibrium within your land. There are many simple and affordable ways to practice nutrient cycling, from compost…
Read More
A Different Way of Working
While it’s true that machines can make life easier, they don’t necessarily make it better. Robert Somerville, author of Barn Club, understood this fact. That’s why he decided to gather a team of volunteers to come together and build a barn the old fashioned way – with a little sweat, tears, and his hands. The…
Read More
The Barn: Cathedrals to Nature
When renowned craftsman Robert Somerville moved to Hertfordshire, in southern England, he discovered an unexpected landscape rich with wildlife and elm trees. Nestled within London’s commuter belt, this wooded farmland inspired Somerville, a lifelong woodworker, to revive the ancient tradition of hand-raising barns. This is a tale of forgotten trees, a local landscape, and an…
Read More
What If Schools Nurtured Imagination?
Imagination is central to empathy, to creating better lives, to envisioning and then enacting a positive future. Yet imagination is also demonstrably in decline at precisely the moment when we need it most. In his book, author Rob Hopkins asks why imagination is in decline, and what we must do to revive and reclaim it.…
Read More
Chelsea Green’s Audiobook Gift Guide
We all have one of those people on our gift lists. You know the type: the hardcore hobbyist with very specific taste who is sick of socks and isn’t all that into reading. Lucky for you, some of our most popular (and interesting) books also come in audiobook form! Get your loved-ones the gift of storytelling and knowledge…
Read More
RECIPE: It’s The Perfect Time For Rosehip Jam
All good things must come to an end– and that includes warm summer nights. But with the close of summer comes overnight frosts, the ideal time to gather plump, ripe rosehips. A rosehip’s sweet, unique flavor is perfect on morning toast. There are endless variations on ingredients and many ways to make rosehip jam. Here are…
Read More
The Motivation Behind Change
In #futuregen, Jane Davidson explains how, as Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing in Wales, she proposed the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015—the first piece of legislation on Earth to place regenerative and sustainable practice at the heart of government. Unparalleled in its scope and vision, the Act connects environmental and social health…
Read More
6 Books That Bring Hope to Life
Books can bring comfort, happiness, and most important: hope. Let these books fill you with inspirational stories of perseverance, hope, and innovation. Following the collapse of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy, social activist Ruairí McKiernan questions whether he should join the mounting number of emigrants searching for greater opportunity elsewhere. McKiernan embarks on a hitchhiking odyssey…
Read More
Change Ourselves, Change the World
Lisa Fithian has shut down the CIA. She has disrupted the World Trade Organization and camped in a ditch with Gold Star mom and protester of the Iraq War, Cindy Sheehan. She has stood her ground in Tahrir Square, occupied Wall Street, marched in the streets of Ferguson, and walked in solidarity with tribal leaders…
Read More
The Spirit of Hitching
Gone are the days where you can stick out your thumb to catch a carefree ride. For a long time though, hitchhiking was considered normal and even reasonably safe. Even more, it gave people a chance to connect with strangers, share stories, and spend a bit of time in someone else’s shoes. While the days…
Read More
Save Your Soil the Power of Pee
It’s time to roll up your sleeves and get down into the dirt – but you may want to grab a bucket, especially first thing in the morning. Nutrient loss in our soil is an ongoing issue for some gardeners, but you may find help in an unexpected—liquid—form. The following is an excerpt from The…
Read More
Neighbor Loaves Program: Maintain Grain Value Chains and Feed the Community
By Amy Halloran, author of The New Bread Basket. It originally appeared on foodsystemsjournal.org. The Neighbor Loaves Program In the surreality of March 2020, as states closed the doors on business, my colleague Alyssa Hartman had a great idea. Watching businesses struggle, she wondered what she could do as a non-essential worker to help farmers…
Read More
Ireland: A Journey into the Heart and Soul
The following is an interview with Ruairí McKiernan, author of Hitching for Hope, and originally appeared in the Chelsea Green 2020 Spring Journal. It has been adapted for the web. What does the future have in store if politicians aren’t beholden to the people, if the pace of development is compromising mental health, and if…
Read More
Enter Biochar: Reduce Your Pet’s Carbon Pawprint
Many carbon-conscious pet owners are aware of the non-recyclable waste that comes with owning a pet. Between kitty litter, puppy pads, and all those plastic dog bags, the waste adds up. Enter biochar. Imagine a world where the puppy pad is so odorless that your dog wants to sleep on it and the kitty litter…
Read More
The Man Who Planted Trees Before His Time
Though nature can be a mighty force, it takes great care and a gentle hand to support the growth of the environment–especially trees. Trees are essential for life; they create oxygen and are home to thousands of species, yet we’re experiencing rapid deforestation. It only takes one person to plant one tree in their community…
Read More
Resiliency: Becoming an Adaptive Human
They say history is bound to repeat itself if we don’t take the time to learn from the past. Our decision-making skills and resiliency are essential for survival but, for some, it’s difficult to connect the dots between the cause and effect of said decisions. However, in this day and age, it’s important to recognize…
Read More
Publishing in the Time of a Pandemic: On Birth and Survival
The following is by Charlotte Dennett, author of Follow the Pipelines, and originally appeared on Medium.com. It has been adapted for the web. April 2, 2020 was supposed to be a special day. Not the usual birth-day, mind you. And not the kind of day I anticipated a month ago, before a pandemic took over our lives. I…
Read More
Survive the Future: Three Principles to Get Started
What guiding principles will you need to not just survive the future, but imagine a better one? To answer this question we not only need to look within ourselves, but at our community as a whole, and identify our flaws. By understanding each other, we can work together to build a better future. The following…
Read More
Limits to Growth and the COVID-19 epidemic
It comes to no surprise to anyone that the human population continues to grow, rapidly. However, there is a limit to that growth that we don’t quite know yet. Dennis Meadows, an emeritus professor of systems policy and social science research at the University of New Hampshire, walks us through the connection between population grow/decline…
Read More
A Dictionary for Our Times
How would you define the word “Empowered”? Before you run to the dictionary, we’re not talking about the straight definition; what we mean is, what does it mean to be empowered in today’s society. Read on for short extracts from Lean Logic that speak to these times of crisis. The following is an excerpt from…
Read More
Planet Coronavirus: Survival, Resistance and Regeneration
“There are times in history when sudden events—natural disasters, economic collapses, pandemics like Coronavirus, wars, famines—change everything. They change politics, they change economics and they change public opinion in drastic ways. By Ronnie Cummins, author of Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal, and originally appeared on…
Read More
A Small Farm Future COVID-19 Special: For Whom The Bell Tolls
By Chris Smaje, author of the forthcoming book, A Small Farm Future, to be published Fall 2020. This article originally appeared on Chris Smaje’s website Small Farm Future. It has been adapted for the web. Since nobody seems to be talking about anything except COVID-19 at the moment I thought I’d join the crowd and, in…
Read More
Resilience in Challenging Times: A Message From Our Publisher
Dear Readers and Supporters, As you know, Chelsea Green has been at the forefront of publishing books on self-sufficiency and sustainable living for over 35 years. Given the hundreds of books we’ve published and the groundbreaking authors we’ve had the privilege to work with, we like to think we have a lot to share about…
Read More
Making Massive Small Change
For generations, we’ve worked collectively as a society to build our cities into vibrant communities where we can progress and flourish together. Over the years, however, we’ve lost the art of collective and community evolution as our governments step in with their big ideas for urban growth – many of which come at a steep…
Read More