James Samuel

A short way from the house I found this mushroom. I’ve eaten a small puff ball mushroom before, and this was yelling out “Eat me!” So I brought it home to cook it.

In New Zealand we have so many opportunities for redesigning our world in a positive manner, and embracing the uncertainty of these times we live in. Be gentle with yourself and each other, do your own research and seek out ways you can become part of the solution. The possibilities for the future are endless, and it’s up to each and every one of us to find where we can or feel moved to contribute, and play our part in singing a brighter and healthier future into existence.

Software is being developed to facilitate vegetable box schemes, offering practical community benefits where ever it is used, and being software it can be used everywhere. The idea is to make is easy to coordinate the collection (gathering) of local food, and then the redistribution of it, in a consistent and predicatable manner. It will create opportunities to entrepreneurial types to quickly begin a local business that benefits eaters (all of us) and growers alike.

After 30 years, and a lot of work, my mother is moving on. If you’re looking for land (or know someone who is) then check this out. This is an off-the-grid 66 acre rural property in the Far North of New Zealand, with a beautiful river, established orchard, comfortable home, and so much more.

Yesterday was momentous. If you have been following Ooooby news, you’ll know that a number of people have been beavering away on this one for the last three months. Well yesterday we delivered.

www.ooooby.org went live last night! This is the story of the first Ooooby food box, which is connecting growers and eaters in a community in a most efficient manner. It’s about the growing and intersecting communities of interest using the readily available technology and readily available resources, to organise. With a focus on the small, intensive, local growers who use the most natural soil regenerating methods, the Ooooby Box is facilitating the distribution of healthy food for local consumption.

An old Ministry of Works depot on the highway in Turangi, is being developed as a permanent Eco Show and a New Zealand version of a Centre for Appropriate Technology.

Nothing beats an organic, nutrient dense beet grown in your very own backyard. But what if you can’t grow everything you eat?

How do you decide which is the next best?

Last week a few of us met and out of the conversation it was clear that we need a space to be together, as we sprint up to the launch of “The Ooooby Box” in the next few days.

I put facilitating the buying and selling of land, in the same basket as brokers trading on the stock market. Neither contribute much to the general well-being of the community in which they operate. I don’t believe that any cash benefit to the community, of selling Waiheke land (and homes) to the highest bidder, has outweighed the detrimental effects of the changes that have come about, albeit as unintended consequences.