Ep 24 Charlie Showers - Holistic Orchardist, Landscape Scientist, Asker of Curious Questions

08/30/20 • 61 min

Before you ask, yes this is Charlie Showers of Black Barn Farm - Jade's other half.
Charlie is a fair food advocate, holistic orchardist, landscape scientist and insatiable reader, with an appetite for knowledge that sees him getting up before the birds to devour scientific papers, books and teachings, before putting it into practice at Black Barn Farm.
In this conversation, he shares decades of wisdom with his trademark patience, clarity and intellect. He covers the power of community and regional pride, a new way to frame our 'hypocrisy' in this time of transition, the reality of first generation farming and a sugar-free account of a 'working marriage' and unified vision. You'll get to hear Jade's answers too ;)
No hopium, all clarity in this complex interview that inspires action!
SHOW NOTES

Sitting with the contradiction inherent in your morals and lifestyle
Reconciling hypocrisy in your everyday existence
Being self aware without it becoming unbearable
His childhood role-modelling of ‘family statesmen’ who committed to the needs of their community equally with their own
Maintaining curiosity about our system, culture and economy to impart change
Why farming is the best place for him to share knowledge at a community level and make meaningful change
Why showing rather than telling is the most powerful way to inspire
Being exposed to those who have a different way of being, whirrs the thinking cogs
The importance of self time to recuperate and maintain balance when you’re an introvert
Why endless hope is not always helpful, and hopium is a recipe for ignorance
What a new future might look like
The raw reality of starting up a long-game farming enterprise
The potency of creating a dream together
Undertaking change journeys as a couple
Ideas to ‘blow your mind’
Living examples of how systems interact with and impact on each other
Awe of the Indigenous Australian cultural understanding of the complex web of the world
Making ‘complexity science’ more mainstream for the betterment of all
His evolution of changemaking from panicked urgency to slow and steady solutions
Why being more settled will make his children better change makers
The evolution and personal nature of success
Importance of a ‘solutions based mindset’

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

Black Barn Farm website & Instagram

Support the show

Sitting with the contradiction inherent in your morals and lifestyle
Reconciling hypocrisy in your everyday existence
Being self aware without it becoming unbearable
His childhood role-modelling of ‘family statesmen’ who committed to the needs of their community equally with their own
Maintaining curiosity about our system, culture and economy to impart change
Why farming is the best place for him to share knowledge at a community level and make meaningful change
Why showing rather than telling is the most powerful way to inspire
Being exposed to those who have a different way of being, whirrs the thinking cogs
The importance of self time to recuperate and maintain balance when you’re an introvert
Why endless hope is not always helpful, and hopium is a recipe for ignorance
What a new future might look like
The raw reality of starting up a long-game farming enterprise
The potency of creating a dream together
Undertaking change journeys as a couple
Ideas to ‘blow your mind’
Living examples of how systems interact with and impact on each other
Awe of the Indigenous Australian cultural understanding of the complex web of the world
Making ‘complexity science’ more mainstream for the betterment of all
His evolution of changemaking from panicked urgency to slow and steady solutions
Why being more settled will make his children better change makers
The evolution and personal nature of success
Importance of a ‘solutions based mindset’

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

Black Barn Farm website & Instagram

Support the show

Previous Episode

E23 Futuresteading Shortie : Life in lockdown

Need some lockdown solidarity? Here’s 20 minutes of it, with a real and honest chat about our experiences, and insights, from the ongoing Victorian lockdown.
Jade’s juggling kids on the farm in Stage 3 while Catie is chucking tanties at her laptop in Melbourne’s Stage 4. We hope this little small glimpse into our everyday is akin to a virtual hug.

Caveat: There's no one experience of lockdown, nor prescription for doing it right. We acknowledge our relative good fortune while honouring the tougher-than-tough reality of so many others.

SHOW NOTES

Why Catie's brain is like wet cake
Long funky days at home with kids
Wired brains and screen-impacted sleep
Solidarity!
Finding daily patterns for consistency and reassurance
Why this enforced localisation is giving us the chance to take a microscopic view of our local turf
Sharing a daily lunch with family - snack plates + kids
The value of accepting this period of wartime-like grief
Seeing a psychologist is a mental multivitamin
We are experiencing acute instability
Grief/joy/love are combining to create empathy for others
Human adaptability
At least there's no FOMO!
Willingness to be vulnerable; we are all in this together
The value of maintaining perspective
The value of repetition and order
Diving into abstract, artistic, creative concepts and classic literature
Loving those at home
Letting joy be your compass - harking back to our childhood loves
Why we don't have to have a picture of the new world we want. Nature is emergent; let's be open to unfolding solutions
Seeing the beauty in the immediate

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

Support the show

Next Episode

Ep 25 Cassie Duncan - Sustainable Table co-founder & ethical eating enthusiast

If changing the world over breakfast sounds like your kind of activism, you’ll love this conversation with Cassie Duncan; a woman who took her passion for a fairer food system and plated it up as an accessible, digestible and inspiring not-for-profit: Sustainable Table.

Cassie co-founded Sustainable Table in 2009 as a way to help more Aussies make ethical choices about what they eat. Through beautifully written articles, educational events and innovative campaigns that connect eaters with farmers in deeply emotional (and motivating) ways, Sustainable Table taps into the most powerful change agent of all: story.

Today, we hear Cassie’s; how she became the ethical food enthusiast she is today, why we need to humanise our food system, what our eating choices can change (hint: everything), how she overcame imposter syndrome and why it’s impossible to be the perfect parent.

Enjoy ample wisdom and solidarity in this free-wheeling conversation with one of our favourite guests so far. Dig in.

SHOW NOTES

Her long standing love of food.
How her mother's fierce sense of social justice and standing up for the underdog has made her what she is.
Why the loss of her mum at 21 forced a deep reflection of self.
Food is friendly and positive and we connect to it, but in truth it's deeply destructive.
Applying ethics to the food we choose to buy.
Why starting the conversation with food is a gateway to bigger issues.
How Australians identify with fairness, and yet we haven't translated this fairness to farmers.
How to tell your story honestly until corporations listen and make change.
Her paralysis and overwhelm before finding a way to engage personally.
The importance of having people with different skills, interests, communication styles and audiences.
Managing imposter syndrome.
Why living your truest life influences others like nothing else.
Farmers market family rituals.
Doing the everyday stuff in a way that makes it purposeful.
Taking the time to discover your community.
The gift of building a financially viable life around your values.
Why people will stop buying a product and instead buy into a way of life.
Raising considered, awake kids.
Top tips: Start with what you can control, honour your strengths and skills, connect and communicate with each other.
Growing “gritty” kids by not over-protecting them.
The surprising benefits of asking others for help.