E144 Winter Windbacks 2024 Alex Elliot the firecracker from Cornersmith defying perfection

Futuresteading

Bugger off dogmatic rules - who wrote those anyway. Push off unfaltering sustainable existence - you're leave us feeling guilty. Shhhh up incessant Instagram perfection - it's not real! Tune in to this fire cracker of fresh air to recalibrate your judgment beacon and give yourself a break while you learn to a make a difference in a way that works for you. Could that be quiet food related activism or perhaps sharing practical skills in your community, or waking up to the plastic explosion in our lives and actively curbing your contribution. Perhaps its pickling...everything in sight! What ever your path, Alex is unwaveringly supportive of anyone having a go at even the smallest of things & her final word of advice ' slow down, don't peak too soon...its a long path & its not getting any easier'

Links You'll Love
Cornersmith - Use it all
Cornersmith - Food Savers Guide A-Z

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Show Notes
Growing up in a share house that loved to cook in her formative years
Creating community around the share plate
Being ok with fish fingers and frozen peas
Letting judgement go to make a difference while being accepting
Education to build hope & practical skills during this climate emergency
The exhausting weight of being sustainable 24/7
Wanting to help people fall in love with their kitchens again without ideology
Beginning a business with her husband despite limited experience
Discovering pickling when her kids were tiny & she was losing her mind
Pickling as an onramp to a simpler sustainable life
Lying awake thinking about wasting cumquats
Putting community abundance to good use in a pickling jar
Crossing language barriers to learn food preservation methods from her neighbourhood
Taking twists & turns in business
Why now is the time to stand up & shout really loudly
No person can avoid having to make regenerative choices
Getting bolder with age
Trading with locals who swap backyard produce for coffee
Navigating a food business through covid
Avoiding being black and white
Making spaces where its simple for people to make a contribution
Choosing her favourite pickle
You don’t have to make mega batches of food to make a contribution
Eating and using what you’ve got to reduce food waste
Choose one thing, while you build your habits and reframe your practices
Do we all need to be a little uncomfortable in order to make us all think and create other solutions,
Wake up and stop being passive, owning your decisions or solutions
Using scraps from the bin to create magic
If it can be used - use it
Saving money by using every single part of every single thing
Lucky dip cupboard - food without labels
The process of writing a cook book
Replacing the guilt with creativity in the kitchen
The disservice of instagram perpetuating perfection
Pearl of wisdom - going slower in our change journey to ensure longevity

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