“We weave ideas, scribe forward, align with life and create connection.”
— Dr Demeter | Emily Samuels-Ballantyne
Island Almanac is a Tasmanian regenerative journal gathering reflections on land, food systems, culture and community economies from the edges of farms, gardens and communities. Covering topics on Foundational Economics, Convivial Governance, Anthroposophic Philosophy & Everyday Regeneration in Tasmania.
Overview
The Island Almanac is a living compendium of stories, tools and place-based examples that weave together foundational economics, anthroposophic wisdom and the rhythms of everyday life. Rooted in the soils of Tasmania and flowering from Magical Farm Tasmania. Across its pages you’ll find:
Practical essays on redirecting public and private wealth into community resilience
Anthroposophical reflections on seasonal rhythms, ritual and soul-led innovation
Tasmanian case studies from coastal hamlets to mountain valleys
Project spotlights on island-wide initiatives, from seed libraries to solar co-ops.
Living Architecture: A dynamic framework of interconnected practices, food, housing, energy, governance, culture, activism and economics that grows, adapts and breathes like an ecosystem, rather than standing as static policy or infrastructure. These seven pillars form the Living Architecture of Regen Era Design Studio & The Island Almanac: integrating heart, head & hands to power a truly regenerative future.
Food, Plants and Planets
Housing and Natural Building
Energy
Community Life, Learning & Culture
Sacred Activism
Convivial Governance
Regenerative Economic Design.
Carrot: On Ecological Abstraction and the Return to Ethical Material Life
This position paper contributes to emerging literature on ecological governance, food systems, and sustainability transitions by challenging the increasing dominance of representational and metric-based approaches to ecological engagement, arguing instead for a return to material participation as a primary condition of ecological competence and civic resilience. It introduces the carrot as a simple diagnostic object that exposes the limits of ecological abstraction, demonstrating how ecological claims ultimately depend on embodied practices of soil care, food production, and situated ecological knowledge rather than communicative or institutional performance. In doing so, it addresses both scholarly debates and practitioner realities by insisting that ecological systems cannot be understood, or repaired—at a distance, and that meaningful transformation requires renewed collective capacity to grow food, with the carrot standing as the most basic and unavoidable test of that capacity.