Tabla de contenidos para Issue 51 - Spring 2021 en Peppermint Magazine

let’s plant the future When it comes to the fight against climate change, every tree – and every action – matters. That’s why we’ve partnered with non-profit environmental charity One Tree Planted to plant a tree for every Peppermint subscription sold. Because, although the problems our world faces may seem overwhelming, we know we can work together to create real, lasting change – one tiny seedling at a time. Now, when you take out a subscription, you’ll be helping to plant trees in vulnerable communities around the world, including North America, Indonesia, the Amazon rainforest and Australia. The simple act of planting trees helps to restore biodiversity, support reforestation, protect endangered wildlife, provide sustainable jobs and income and, crucially, store carbon from the atmosphere in a bid to prevent global…

THAT’S A KEEPER! After a tumultuous 18 months that have seen markets cancelled and makers locked down across the country, we heartily recommend you hop onto The Finders Keepers virtual marketplace and check out the wares from lots of lovely stallholders who usually exhibit in-person. Featuring everything from ceramics and jewellery to homewares, stationery and clothing, it’s the perfect platform to pick up a treat as you support a small business – such as prints from lino-legends Little Rowan Redhead and colourful statement pieces from Love Astrid. thefinderskeepersmarketplace.com GET YOUR KICKS If you’re a keen-as-a-bean runner, then on your marks, jogging pals, because this shoe is actually made from castor beans! Sold via a subscription model, Cyclon’s high-performance running shoe is made entirely of this humble legume, zero waste and…

“I want someone to tell me what to wear every morning. I want someone to tell me what to eat. What to like, what to hate, what to rage about. What to listen to, what band to like. What to buy tickets for. What to joke about, what to not joke about. I want someone to tell me what to believe in. Who to vote for and who to love and how to tell them. I think I just want someone to tell me how to live my life, Father, because so far I think I’ve been getting it wrong.” It’s a line from the TV show Fleabag – striking in its relatability, haunting in its implication from an advertising perspective. In a market so oversaturated, so transient, consumers are…

It’s early morning in a two-level wooden cottage in Brisbane’s Red Hill, and Erin and her partner, Tang, are making a list of the day’s tasks while also attempting to feed and dress their two-year-old daughter, Ren. It’s the start of a juggle that continues in some form throughout the working week, as the pair combine the running of their handmade ceramics label – from first designs to cutting, glazing and boxing, everything happens right here, at home – with the kind of play, snack, more play rhythm of toddler life. If it appears somewhat effortless to the onlooker (Erin describes it as a “peaks and troughs” situation), it’s only because the duo have long-since operated this way – working from a home studio, sharing the load and, once Ren…

woo-hoo! All subscribers will receive a $50 voucher from BIOME! Subscribe in time for summer (4 November 2021) and you’ll receive a $50 voucher from Biome Eco Stores to spend in store or online. That’s right, EVERY SUBSCRIBER will receive this exciting offer (even current ones)! Yasss (eco) queens! Home to a wonderland of sustainable goodies from more than 400 brands (including lots of small Aussie makers!), the good folk at Biome are giving all print subscribers a $50 voucher to use online or in one of their IRL stores (see T&Cs below). Huzzah! biome.com.au • SAVE ON COVER PRICE • CANCEL WHENEVER YOU LIKE • FREE AUSTRALIAN DELIVERY • PAY-PER-ISSUE OPTION • SENT IN PAPER, NOT PLASTIC • NEVER MISS AN ISSUE • ONE TREE PLANTED ON YOUR BEHALF…

Remember how last year’s motto was the Japanese roller-coaster rule, “Please scream inside your heart”? Well, while I’m not convinced 2020 has actually ended, I recently stumbled on an updated version. At an Olympics press conference, Seiko Hashimoto – president of the Tokyo 2020 Games – outlined the new guidelines: “People can feel joy in their hearts, but they can’t be loud.” I’m writing this letter from yet another lockdown, and I’ve got a lot of feels that I’d like to express – very loudly – but they’re not really words I can commit to print (and I’m ironically cursing our limited swearing policy). How are you coping, dear readers? I’m not ok at all, thanks for asking. The relentless march of the virus, coupled with ongoing lockdowns and restrictions…

Why did you see a need for Groundswell? When we launched Groundswell in February 2020, megafires were raging from coast to coast. For so many of us, these fires were a profound wakeup call: we are living on the frontline of the climate crisis here in Australia, and our lives and livelihoods are under immediate threat from inaction. We knew there was no shortage of passionate people, deeply concerned about the climate crisis and wanting to fund action, but many were unsure about how or where to make the biggest impact. We could also see there was no shortage of brilliant climate advocacy work out there, ready to scale up and create impact, but most organisations were restricted by a critical lack of funding. We created Groundswell to join the…

learning to live lighter AIRGARDEN vertical garden Leave limp supermarket lettuce in the dirt with this cool new garden-to-table tech from Brisbane-based startup, Airgarden. Using NASA-developed technology, plants are grown in air and mist without any soil. It also produces almost no carbon footprint, using only 11 cents of electricity per day, and needs 95% less water than regular gardening. Designed to grow over 150 different types of herbs, fruits, vegetables and leafy greens in less than one square metre, the vertical, aeroponic gardening system gets two green thumbs up from us. airgarden.com.au Our pick of the latest in lighter living and homes with heart… THE DHARMA DOOR lamp shades How many Peppermint readers does it take to change a light bulb? One to change it and the rest to stand…

Coles, 7pm. Your weekly shop. Down the aisles, through the produce. Write a list – tick it off. Don’t write a list – forget the garlic. Snake past the regulars. Make eye contact. Feel awkward. Sing along to the song playing over the intercom. Crack a smile. Think about work. Remember that you have to call your mum back. Think about what you’re going to make for dinner. Think about work again. Think about how you have to stop thinking about work. Studies estimate that the average person has more than 6000 thoughts every day. With so much mental noise clouding our thinking, it’s no wonder mindfulness has gone mainstream. From Oprah Winfrey to acclaimed neuroscientists to wellness influencers on Instagram, we’re all trying to meditate our way to inner…

“I decided to look at it as life – I’m going through it because I’m alive.” LINDA SMYTH CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT BON LABEL / SYDNEY In retrospect, the first sign I was going through perimenopause was my mood – I was getting weirdly angry and often would lose my patience, which is abnormal for me. I was 46 when I first started experiencing the symptoms, and once I discovered the cause, I was relieved. I hated being more grumpy and I was genuinely worried about losing my patience. I had a lot going on, my son had suddenly turned into a toddler and life was more demanding. It didn’t feel like ‘me’ but I assumed it was ‘life’ causing these emotional changes. Menopause didn’t even cross my mind as a…

Remember that terrifying summer when the country was on fire and our cities were blanketed in smoke? It was a whole pandemic ago, back when mask wearing was novel. I was six months pregnant and starting to panic about the environmental disaster my baby would inherit. My gut instinct was to shift the blame and expect someone else to solve the problem, like my unborn baby who, to date, had barely lifted a bloody finger to help out. But given this would be her first time fighting over-consumption and the war on waste, I nobly offered to step up and lend her a hand. Together, we agreed on a mission to raise her zero waste, without disposable and single-use plastics – only reusables and recyclables. We became overnight eco-warriors, doing…

TAKEAWEI/WOOLLEN BLANKET IN SORBET An eye-popping, pixelated dream for draping or donning, the lightweight blankets from colourful-ceramic champ Chela Edmunds are woven and dyed locally. $325 takeawei.com TWOOBS/THE OG IN YAMAMILLAH It takes Twoobs to tango… These colourful sandals are the result of a collab between two sets of sister acts – Cungelella Art and Twoobs’ Jess and Stef. $149.95 aus.twoobs.com SEAGRASS DESIGN/FINCH RECREATION PANTS Rise and shine bold and bright by pulling on a pair of Seagrass’ quirky bird-emblazoned babes! Made with a lovely French terry, these unisex elastic waistband trousers are produced in Tassie in sizes 6-18. $150 seagrassdesign.com.au FRANK GREEN/WILD ONES CUP It’s a jungle out there, baby! Make sure your coffee’s hot and your day bright with this no-spill, reusable ceramic cup in a reef-inspired colourway:…

The future of driving is here, and it’s electric. Electric vehicle (EV) sales are accelerating globally, with over three million fully battery-powered and hybrid cars purchased worldwide in 2020 – an almost four-fold increase in the past five years. But in Australia, it seems we’re stuck in the slow lane. Despite demand growing year on year, EVs still only make up a measly 0.2% of our total fleet – around 20,000 cars in total. That’s minuscule compared to most other OECD countries such as Norway, where 13.64% of all cars on the road are electric. Australia is a global leader when it comes to renewables such as solar – so why are we so reluctant to put our foot on the gas when it comes to EVs? “There’s no doubt…

“We’re focusing on motivating, inspiring and uplifting kids, and sewing is merely the tool with which we’re doing that. We also want to provide kids with strong male role models, and specifically powerful Black role models.” Like so many of us, Melburnian Simon Turner found he was at home a lot more than usual during 2020 and decided to use the extra time for a creative pursuit. Having been gifted a sewing machine for his fifty-second birthday – he found his favourite shirts were too expensive so wanted to make his own – Simon enrolled in a beginners sewing course at the start of 2020. Halfway through, the course was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but by that stage Simon was too excited about sewing to simply give up.…

Bean Ground & Drunk Founded in 2001, Bean Ground & Drunk’s 100% Arabica Fairtrade blend is sourced from ethical growers worldwide before being prepared at The Bean Alliance in Melbourne – an Australian manufacturing facility certified to roast organic. Choose from classic, espresso and decaffeinated (via the Swiss Water method) beans, to be ground and drunk for your daily cuppa! IncaFé IncaFé’s mission is to cultivate plants in native environments that suit their needs rather than forcing them to grow where they don’t belong. The brand’s six flavour-packed blends are all Biogro organic and fully traceable from bush to cup, and the brand works directly with local grower cooperatives in Peru, Indonesia and Ethiopia to help budding coffee industries bloom. República A trip home to Colombia, accompanied by some bad-tasting…

What made you dedicate your life to food and cooking? It’s a two-part thing: my father is a professional chef, so I always saw it as a career choice, where other people may not have. The other is that my earliest memories are of me baking in the kitchen in New Zealand and my mum dropping me off to my Chinese great-aunty, who used to give me cooking lessons every time I went to her house. I guess it was really babysitting, but I felt like I was going there for the lessons. We’d cook everything from char siu bao and bird’s nest soup to steamboat. I just grew up cooking. You’ve been a chef in some of the most celebrated kitchens in the world – why did you walk…

Can you explain the Mettle concept? Mettle was created as a way of assisting women facing homelessness as a result of domestic and family violence, by establishing financial security when there were no safe options available to them. Our national gift delivery service is the mechanism that gets these courageous women back into the workforce and provides them, and their children, with the holistic support that they deserve. Why is telling these women’s stories such a crucial part of your business? We’re only successful because our business model was created in collaboration with survivors around Australia. Their input ensured we built a business that removed all of the barriers that they had faced in the past. Every woman we employ brings new experiences and knowledge to the table and it’s…

FACE UP TO IT If our faces tell a story, Emma Lewisham wants it to be a luxurious tale of natural, science-based ingredients that make a difference. Years in the making, Emma set out to prove that science and natural skincare can co-exist, and the resulting New Zealand-made, refillable, farm-to-face range champions sustainability, transparency and circularity. The brand is also working towards being carbon positive – facing the future, one cream at a time! emmalewisham.com MAKES SCENTS Offering an alternative to the ethanol-laden spray bottles, new kid on the perfume block Odesse is making waves with its solid, refillable compact. Boasting evocative fragrances like Forest Floor, Amber Haze and Winter Field, the perfume is housed in a recyclable, and oh-so-cool, aluminium case. odesse.com.au WAX ON, WAX OFF Family-owned New Zealand…

Very few humans get to witness the wonders of our marine biome, let alone spend minutes swimming around in its splendour on a single breath. But it’s through this demanding pursuit that Julia Wheeler hopes to motivate people to protect this precious ecological community. “My ambition has always been to inspire and be a voice for the environment,” she says. Julia’s freediving has taken her to Hawaii and Honduras for competitions and the Caribbean for training. She’s dived with Greenpeace in the Great Australian Bight, to highlight what saying yes to oil drilling in the region would destroy, and swam with humpback whales in Tahiti – these gentle giants mimicking her movements to play and communicate. For World Ocean Day 2020, the 35-year-old photographer and documentary filmmaker directed and edited…

“Many fat-bodied people have never had the luxury of walking into any store they like, feeling welcome and finding clothes that fit straight off the rack.” What led you to create SÜK Workwear? I grew up a tomboy on farms and cattle stations, and I was very attracted to hard work and the classic cowboy aesthetic. As I got older and started work, I was drawn to intensive labour environments, which I always really enjoyed and thrived in. I spent my twenties working on building sites, farms and long-haul ships. When I developed breasts and thighs, wider hips and a softer bum, I found it really hard to find work gear that held my body and made me feel as tough and professional as I knew I was. It was…

Four years ago, ABC’s War on Waste host Craig Reucassel stood in front of a 6000 kilogram mountain of clothing in Sydney’s Martin Place. He asked passersby to estimate how long it took Australians to throw out this amount of clothes. Guesses ranged from five years down to two days. The answer – a staggering 10 minutes – illustrated a scary truth: our country has a massive fashion-waste problem. If the tide has turned since, it’s only marginally. New research by the Australasian Circular Textile Association has confirmed Australia’s textile consumption rate has been underreported. It estimates individual figures of consumption to be close to 41 kilograms per year. This includes clothing and household items like bed linen, curtains and furnishings. Of the textiles that are being discarded, about 80%…

The talented Emma Downing of Yarn Industries has designed four exclusive Peppermint patterns, alongside a handy dandy set of instructions so you can go forth and get your stitch on. THINGS YOU’LL NEED All you need is five pieces of equipment to get started! Needle: Most needles will work just fine, however, you want to avoid using one that is too thick as it may puncture big holes in your fabric. Thread: Embroidery threads such as DMC, Anchor or Semco are made up of six strands of cotton. You can separate the strands to create finer stitches. Threads come in a wide variety of colours – even sparkly, neon and woolly ones. When cutting a length of thread, be careful not to make it too long as it can fray…

We collaborated with the clever patternmaker behind Just Patterns, Delphine Colbeau, to create the Milton Pinafore. Channelling all the cottagecore vibes, this twist on a classic pinny is a wardrobe tour de force. Get meadow-ready by layering it over a tee or floaty peasant top or – if your inner cool-girl is calling – strap in the girls and dance the night away sans top. With straps that can be worn straight or crossed (they’re buttoned on the inside of the dart-cinched, separate waistband), the sewing fun is in the detail – concealed pockets, shaping bust darts and a statement-making button closure! Now hop on ya bike and add it to your to-sew list, pronto! We’re super grateful to our sewing partner Spoonflower for helping to make this free pattern…

WILDLING SHOES Wear your values with the Tanuki shoe – hand-made using 75% washi fabric, the left shoe features an embroidered rainbow flag. wildling.shoes/en HANNAHPAD Reusable, Certified Organic and in various sizes and absorbency, hannahPADS are suitable for period, maternity or light incontinence. thebrandhannah.com.au DEVA CACAO Hand-crafted with love and wrapped in compostable packaging, Deva Cacao’s organic, raw chocolate is sweetened with bush honey. devacacao.com.au GRANTS OF AUSTRALIA Natural Whitening Toothpaste includes baking soda to help remove stains and spearmint to leave your mouth fresh! grantsofaustralia.com.au EARTHYARD Alcyon’s new range of ultrasonic aromatherapy diffusers are the perfect match for earthYARD’s essential oils. earthyard.com.au KOGUIS Showcasing traditional techniques of northern-Colombian artisans, Koguis’s hat collections are hand-woven and ethically traded. koguis.com.au SMITTEN MERINO Ethically made in Australia using 95% merino, these breathable,…

Serves 4 ½ red cabbage120g butter4 anchovy fillets150ml brown chicken stock2 garlic cloves4 thyme sprigs1 egg50ml milk100g plain (all-purpose) flour250g panko crumbs oil, for deep frying1 bunch young radicchio or similar bitter leaf ANCHOVY MAYONNAISE 2 eggs15g Dijon mustard25g anchovy fillets1 tablespoon oyster sauce1 tablespoon lemon juice, plus extra for seasoning1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce230ml grapeseed oil RECIPE FROM: ‘HOW WILD THINGS ARE’ BY ANALIESE GREGORY, PUBLISHED BY HARDIE GRANT BOOKS, RRP $45, PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADAM GIBSON. In Hobart, I’ve always bought cabbages from an organic farmer named Tony Scherer. He knows how to grow a great cabbage. After glamour cabbages like the sugarloaves are all finished, there’s always some dense red cabbages right at the end of the season that require a different method of cookery…

CO-OWNER 656 PLENTY ROAD PRESTON VIC Why a milk bar? We know how integral the local milk bar has been throughout history as a place of community connection. As suburbs have grown, big-chain grocers and supermarkets have filled them – slowly pushing out the smaller operators who couldn’t compete with the one-stop convenience and low price points thanks to mass buying power. The pandemic has shifted our routines: we’re commuting less and staying close to home more often. Alli [my co-owner] and I have both worked in hospitality through the pandemic; we’ve seen our local communities come together to support one another – it’s how many of us have survived. Neighbours have become friends more than ever. We wanted to create a space that could provide both – a place…