A guide to taking back your power

I don't know about you but I am sickened and desperate by the state of the world. This might be a series of blog posts about what you can do to take action but it might just be this one post. This is something I have felt and spoken passionately about for years, we may feel powerless but we do have power. Every time we spend our money we are voting and supporting who we believe in. I really believe we have the time to make these changes, we have just sleep walked into spending our time differently.

And yes, it takes more time and money to do all of these things and I know I am speaking from a place of privilege but even when I was completely broke, paying my rent on a credit card and couldn't afford to put the heating on I paid for my local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) veg box, avoided supermarkets and Amazon and tried to live by my ethical principles by putting the planet first as it was the only thing that made me feel like I was making any difference at all, however small. 

So here are some ideas:

Find and support your local CSA - this is a big one and will make a huge impact on your local community, your diet and your way of life. They might not be certified organic but they will probably be growing your food with a minimal amount of herbicides and pesticides if any at all

Avoid supermarkets wherever possible, I don't need to go into why but they are a huge part of the problem because of who owns them (and the vile things they support), the way they are destroying UK farming and the mass peddling of processed food

Grow whatever food you can, even if it's just some herbs on your windowsill. I started out by climbing out of my bathroom window in the flat I rented and growing some lettuces and tomatoes on the roof of the flat below

Eat seasonally, it's loads cheaper. Find a good second hand book, River Cottage ones like The River Cottage Year are great and I wrote a blog about seasonal cookbooks a while ago. It was hard to find a website not selling things or behind a paywall to find this information but this one looks good

Eat organic if you possibly can and if not just aim for the Dirty Dozen - the most chemically sprayed foods. I just joined the mailing list for the latest results (from 2023) and I'm sharing them with you (in order of most sprayed to least): Soft citrus (i.e. tangerines).,Oranges, Lemons (try to never use zest from a lemon that isn't organic), Grapes, Pears, Pulses (i.e. lentils), Bread, Carrots, Spring Onions, Dried beans (i.e. Black eyed), Peas, Beans (i.e. green)

Cook from scratch and batch cook a lot of food in one go for times when you don't have time. This means you can take advantage of seasonal gluts, save energy (yours and fossil fuels) and have easy dinners in the future. I love the pressure cooker for this. I chuck loads of stuff in, all raw (i.e. I don't bother to brown onions, etc), top it up with stock or water and when I get home I've got 16 portions of soup. Falling in love with cooking if you're fallen out of it will be key

Use pressure cookers and slow cookers to keep food costs and energy costs down

Seek out your local re-fill store. Mine is about 40 minutes away (because I live in rural Wales) but I'm fed-up with all the packaging from my local wholefood shop. We now know that recycling things isn't the best solution and we should be putting as little as possible into our bins, both landfill and recycling but the current system makes this incredibly hard. Also, I am far from perfect on this front, my recycling bins are full of Brewdog cans, empty tins of tomatoes and plastic cheese containers, etc. 

In general, buy less stuff. If you need something borrow or buy second hand. Buy from local businesses

Use physical shops instead of online shopping where possible. Where we live it's incredibly difficult and local shops are closing all the time as everyone prefers the convenience of shopping online but the future is local, the planet simply cannot sustain this level of consumption and vehicles making deliveries on this level

If you read books support the library or buy secondhand. If you want to buy or gift a new book (which is important if we want authors to make a living) seek out your local independent bookshop or use Hive or Bookshop just don't use Amazon. Avoid Amazon and any place that feels like Amazon like the plague. Also don't also go for the next day shipping option, this has a higher negative impact on the environment and the people who have to deliver them. Seek out UK owned businesses that talk about the environment, their communities and how they support them

Normalise secondhand gifts and handmade gifts, learning new skills which make you more self-sufficient will also feel empowering and save you money

Learn how to mend things or find your local repair cafe

Change to an ethical bank like Triodos, I have two accounts with them but still need to move my main bank account across. 

Boycott businesses that support Israel. Go to the BDS website for the full list

Change your energy supplier to 100% renewables. Spend as much time as possible not using energy. Less screen time, less electric light, etc.

This is a list of tiny businesses that I added to a newsletter in November last year as recommendations and I will continue to add to it:

I buy Ghanaian organic unrefined shea butter from Mo at Clean and Natural.

I love Tom Hirons writing, especially Sometimes a Wild God and have bought it as a gift many times. (Equally anything written by Martin Shaw would make a great gift, buy your new books from local bookshops or Hive.)

A subscription to Moontime Chocolates

Work by Jackie Morris bought from Seven Fables

Brilliant ethical underwear from Molke

I love what Jade does over at Bone Song

I bought some shampoo and soap from Folk Soap and it's excellent

Anything from May Queen Crafts

Ben Edge has beautiful books, zines, t-shirts and calendars.

A gift membership to the Spiral Path community would be amazing.

Any of the wonderful kits or patterns from Thread and Yarn

Beautiful work by Rima Staines, I think the Wayfarer's Year calendar would be a lovely gift

A seed set collection from Earthsong Seeds

I like to buy people (and myself) books from Persephone

Beautiful yarn from Feral Fibres 

For all you witches you can browse the online Treadwells shop

Lovely cards, notebooks and calendars from Tangled Muses

For the wild women in your life, something like Her Bone Bundle by Carolyn Hillyer would be a magical gift

Sacha Archer makes and create beautiful things

You could get a voucher for a course with the lovely Hannah Saunders, Living Lore

I love the work from Anglesdottir

I like to buy jewellery from Feral Strumpet

My friend, Meraylah, has beautiful things for sale in her Etsy shop