SOUL-fully SOIL
Who I AM....now
Organic, Diverse, Messy, Innocent, Disturbing, Reverent, non linear and ever changing experience of WHO I AM... I AM ALWAYS Chasing LIFE!!! Where is that "Living Edge"? Where is the uncomfortable and uncertain EDGE of what seems impossible or unthinkable...in this moment and what is beyond? What else is there to discover about the world and by proxy, My SELF?
Mandy Sandbach
I AM an Ally, student and Lover of SOIL
I AM the Teeming with LIFE, Rich, Moist, decomposing, fertility found in your COMPOST pile
I AM a living expression of Gaia (mother earth)
I AM a SOUL who thrives on the Living Edge of a changing time
I AM a WILD fungal midwife of the biodiversity required for a New human Story
I AM Innocence that disturbs
My passion and gift is tending to SOIL. SOIL as Sacred Organic Interconnected Life.
This page is to capture my ongoing adventure of SOUL fully SOIL. I spent many years without a sense of how to best express permaculture as I "express" it. I have experienced all kinds of permaculture design methods, practices and philosophies and none have felt fully ME. they haven't felt WHOLE.
SOUL fully SOIL is more than a typical Permaculture service. It is a reflection of the gifts and abilities that I AM as an awakened visionary who knows herself to be an aspect of Gaia (mother earth). I look to her as the "expert" and Elder Carrying wisdom I could only hope to feel.
My "business" model is based solely on who I AM and what I am lit up in doing. My passion and gift is growing SOIL and thus community. SOIL as Sacred Organic Interconnected Life.
All LIFE on this planet is dependent upon the diversity and nonseparation of each part of an eco system. The more connections/relationships in the community, the stronger the eco system is. The more diverse and varied the kin of the eco system are, the more resilient and anti fragile the system is.
SOIL is the most beautiful metaphor for how I see my world. All species living, thriving and depending closely on one another. These SOIL communities are Weaving an abundance, growth, and resiliency for each member when they embrace, foster and share their own unique gifts. An earth worm acts and does as an earthworm does. A Nematode act and does as a Nematode does. A butterfly, bacteria, fungi etc...When are you most lit up? What is your unique gift?
I AM inviting you to look at the resiliency, growth, re-generation, and collaboration, with our original "mother", Gaia (Planet earth), thru a connected and sacred lens. When we see Gaia through a connected and non separate lens, we start to see patterns, behaviors, and strategies that become our gateways for transformation during these troubling times of disconnection and polarization.
Everything that the "earth" is and does is perfect. There are NO exceptions to this. It is my belief that when I embrace SOIL as it is part of my own BEING, I act and create in alignment with my larger “role” or “purpose”. I am in my own authentic FLOW.
I am here to experience and foster beautiful collaborative designs/communities/reciprocity that CONNECT both the land and the communities of people, trees, shrubs, plants, flowers, insects, birds, fungi, and animals who live on her. I hear the call to my personal WILD and to CONNECT the experience of GENERATIVE food systems, perpetual growth of SOIL, and the blossoming of the new biodiversity.
I choose to act with her best interests at heart and those of my children's great great grandchildren. What kind of an ancestor will I be?
Day to Day the "business" model for SOULfully SOIL will look different. I may plan and execute the building of a community garden, co-create a herb spiral/ yoga workshop, plant a food forest, upkeep a local food bank garden, travel to Hawaii to engage is sacred water ceremony, partake in a sweat lodge, host women's gatherings, collaborate with the Eco System of Evolution, or choose to teach at the local food bank. Regardless of the task, the intention and underlying gift is SOUL fully SOIL. I am deeply present, mindful and engaging with others who are called to create a New World thru the expansion of SOIL (Sacred Organic Interconnected Life).
Fuzzy "money" and "hours of operation" details..
If you are called to collaborate or would like just a bit more clarity about what I will or won't "do", please feel free to connect with me at the bottom of the page. I understand that this may seem a little unclear and a-typical of other "business's" but I am willing to create, co-create, host, hold space for, engage in, consult with....anything that moves me.
You will not find direct fees and a clear time table for hours of operation here... A moving changing force creates her own schedule and prices based on reciprocity. There will always be those who wish to "write a cheque" and that is wonderful, but I believe strongly in a gift economy and am looking for a deeper and more meaningful experience of "money". So, prices and fees will always vary depending on each individual experience and are ALWAYS open for honest and connected conversation.
Some of what I have created in the past looks like this: Herb Spiral building, compost, mulching, water saving techniques, tea drying/blending workshops, permaculture as a way of BEing conversation, Becoming Gaia gatherings, Regeneration of SOUL and SOIL experience, full and New Moon Red Tents, Gluten and Dairy Free cooking classes, Fermenting, Clean eating and cleansing cooking classes, Canning and food preservation classes and community work B's
So..Call me, email me, message me, Instagram me a picture, come to my home.....whatever....just connect soon.
Mahalo
Mandy Sandbach
a mother, partner, permaculturist, Student and lover of SOIL, colon hydro therapist, reflexologist, gardener, farmer, WILDER, supporter of community gardens and a-WAKE community
Lands Acknowledgement for where I lay My head:
OKI (Okhee)
I Live on Traditional Blackfoot Land
Original Peoples of this Land: Kainai, Piikani and Siksika
The Siksikaitsitapi otherwise known as the Blackfoot Confederacy
These lands are now known as Treaty 7 Territory or "Southern Alberta" This land has been gracious enough to allow my play and curiosity to be sustained and infused with LIFE and more REVERENCE.
The Blackfoot peoples of these lands are the Original Caretakers. I owe a great debt to their sharing of land care, knowledge keeping, and language. My life is and will forever BE more richer and humble because of my relationships on and with the land and its original peoples.
Love Letters to Gaia Podcast and Writing
This is the space where I host conversations and create content to inspire "a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible" (Charles Eisenstein) and where I send my deep Respect, Reverence and LOVE to our planet and all her kin. Knowing that I am not separate from her but rather made in her image and deeply interconnected with her every intelligence. Plants, Animals, Trees, Fungi, Microbes, Water, Wind, Fire, Earth and so much more. This is where I dance the elegant and messy human life I came here to experience.
Village Buzz
Locally and Globally hosted Events, workshops, gatherings, tours, perma BLITZ's, webinars and general PLAY can be found here...
Community Creations 2023
Are on Pause for 2023... Hoping to Birth new offerings when I land in Nova Scotia this fall.
Come and Learn how to preserve the fall Harvest in Community
Scotsburn Community Food Forest is excited to kick off a series of classes on simple, budget-friendly ways to feed yourself and family healthy, local food year-round. To start us off...
Thursdays 6-8pm
October 5: Soups & Broths
October 19: Preserving Overview
November 2: Fermenting
November 9: Jamming
See discussion below for full details on each class.
$15 per class or $45 for all 4. To register: scotsburnfoodforest@gmail.com.
New Moon Gathering Eco System of Evolution
Dates to be updated
** Photo credit to Mark Sander Photography
Your invitation from Nancy Hanlon
My intention for these New Moon gatherings is an honoring and celebration of Life, Water, the Moon, Community and the many cycles of BEING. The invitation for these Gatherings is to show up, rest and be in the emergence of your own discoveries in the good company of others doing the same.
Suggested donation of $10 per gathering.
Upcoming Gatherings
6pm EST, 7pm Atlantic
Community Creations 2023 Are in a Pause for the first half of 2023... Hoping to Birth new offerings when I land in Nova Scotia this fall.
Join Mandy Sandbach of SOULfully SOIL in a Sunday Community Creations afternoon.
We all seem to be feeling the separation the past few years have created. It is tough to find activities that feel empowering and important.
Join Mandy Sandbach for the Sunday Community Creations :
Mandy will host in community, a hands on creation day. All of the ingredients you will require to participate in and in person/online knowledge sharing opportunity. We will each use these local ingredients to create luscious and healthy supportive foods/medicines together....
** other classes this spring will include**
Culinary Herb Blended Salts
How to make your own Kombucha
DIY household cleaners
Ginger bug Ferment and Soda making
DIY homemade Salve making
Sauerkraut
At home Kimchi
There is only 10 seats per class so be sure to register soon.
Fees for this workshop are. $40 per person and can be done by email transfer to soulfullysoil@protonmail.com or on the website at the time of registration
Fermenting Basics 101
Join Mandy Sandbach of SOULfully SOIL will be hosting fermenting classes fall/winter of 2023 stay tuned for updated times and locations
will be hosting Mandy Sandbach of SOULFully SOIL in the Fermenting Basics of making your own Sauerkraut.
This hands-on community inspired workshop will offer participants the opportunity to create their own DIY Kraut. Participants will learn the basic recipe, do's and dont's of basic fermenting. Do you want to use your full harvest but are running out of space on your shelves, freezers and fridges? Perhaps the age-old practice of fermenting is one way to increase your food security. Teeming with delicious healthful biology, this fermenting practice will offer participants a sense of wellbeing and empowerment in learning to safely store their own food.
Each participant will go home with their own jar of kraut made hands on in the community kitchen. There is a registration limit for these classes and will fill fast.
To register, you can email Mandy at soulfullysoil@protonmail.com
Community Creations 2023
Are on Pause for 2023... Hoping to Birth new offerings when I land in Nova Scotia this fall.
Come and Learn how to preserve the fall Harvest in Community
Scotsburn Community Food Forest is excited to kick off a series of classes on simple, budget-friendly ways to feed yourself and family healthy, local food year-round. To start us off...
Thursdays 6-8pm
October 5: Soups & Broths
October 19: Preserving Overview
November 2: Fermenting
November 9: Jamming
See discussion below for full details on each class.
$15 per class or $45 for all 4. To register: scotsburnfoodforest@gmail.com.
Most inspiring Words that dance as a tribute to Gaia
This is a running log of those videos and pictures I experience, create and that inspire me.
" I welcome it as a transformation of magnitude. I welcome the spewing of myself into every aspect and corner of the life I am creating. I want the juicy, fertile bits of me to land and seed EVERYWHERE. This is my medicine. My contribution to Gaia and humankind."
Mandy Sandbach of SOULfully SOIL
The joy of Decay Podcast
Part 2 Feedback and Decentralizing power
Moving and meandering through physical, scientific and spiritual terrains of thought, Tessa and Mandy dive into meaningful and relevant questions around feedback and de-centralized power as modelled to us by Gaia’s organic cycles and communicative mycelial networks. While Tessa weaves her experiences as a dance artist into the conversation, Mandy shares the wisdom she has gained through her practices of permaculture and colon hydrotherapy. Mandy speaks eloquently to what it means to live a life that actively acknowledges our deep entanglement with Earth as well as what else might be possible if our willingness to step into a deep-time, multi-generational mindset is encouraged and nurtured by our environments.
“How can we de-centralize power to create multiple webs of connection? So that if a corner of our web gets chewed up, the rest of it is completely stabilized, completely abundant, completely thriving.” ~Mandy Sandbach
The Poetry of Predicament with Dean Spillane-Walker and Mandy Sandbach
Mandy is back (having spoken with us just a month ago) to share her experience of bringing transformative and internally referent life-skills to her to her home life and her parenting. This interview is a perfect fit here, in the Poetry of Predicament... and, just as valuable in our special-focus sister podcast, Take My Hand: Conscious Parenting in a time of stolen dreams. This is a special offering in our Living Resilience programs page, Deep Academy
Dean Spillane - Walker safecircle@gmail.com https://livingresilience.net Podcast: The Poetry of Predicament (YouTube channel) Deep Academy Online Learning Safe Circle Support Dean’s Coaching / Guidance Practice as described in his Deep Adaptation Forum listing. https://guidance.deepadaptation.info/...
Strong transformative practices - Deeper Presence in the Face of Stress.
Another in our ongoing series of talks with advanced practitioners in transformative methods of: Self Regulation, Co-Regulation, Resilience and embodied discernment of moment by moment of truth, integrity and radical aliveness.
Dean Spillane - Walker safecircle@gmail.com https://livingresilience.net Podcast: The Poetry of Predicament (YouTube channel) Deep Academy Online Learning Safe Circle Support Dean’s Coaching / Guidance Practice as described in his Deep Adaptation Forum listing. https://guidance.deepadaptation.info/...
Tyson Yunkaporta on Pattern, Kinship, and Story in a World of Decontextualized Minds
The Emerald
In his book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, author, teacher, artist and Apalech clan member Tyson Yunkaporta presents a model of five minds — kinship mind, story mind, ancestor mind, pattern mind, and dreaming mind — that together form a way of seeing, knowing, and interacting with the world in a relational context. This episode looks at the rampant fragmentation in the modern world — which impacts everything from spiritual movements to transhumanist science to conspiratorial worldviews to progressive discourse — through the lens of these five minds. From Aboriginal rain rituals to QAnon pattern-seekers, from sorcery and curses to alternative communication models, this vibrant and polytropic discussion between Tyson and Josh explores what context means in a fragmented world, and how to truly find it requires seeing beyond obvious dichotomies into deeper layers of connectivity.
Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/theemeraldpodcast)
Books, Essays, and written works
This is the section where I share what I am reading and inspired by...I suspect this space will be vast in its content and diverse in its thought. This space is being updated weekly...
"The bible for the D.I.Y set: detailed instructions for how to make your own sauerkraut, beer, yogurt and pretty much everything involving microorganisms."--The New York Times
The original guide to kraut, kombucha, kimchi, kefir, and kvass; mead, wine, and cider; pickles and relishes; tempeh, koji, miso, sourdough and so much more…!
Winner of the James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference and Scholarship, and a New York Times bestseller, with more than a quarter million copies sold, The Art of Fermentation is the most comprehensive guide to do-it-yourself home fermentation ever published. Sandor Katz presents the concepts and processes behind fermentation in ways that are simple enough to guide a reader through their first experience making sauerkraut or yogurt, and in-depth enough to provide greater understanding and insight for experienced practitioners.
While Katz expertly contextualizes fermentation in terms of biological and cultural evolution, health and nutrition, and even economics, this is primarily a compendium of practical information—how the processes work; parameters for safety; techniques for effective preservation; troubleshooting; and more.
With two-color illustrations and extended resources, this book provides essential wisdom for cooks, homesteaders, farmers, gleaners, foragers, and food lovers of any kind who want to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for arguably the oldest form of food preservation, and part of the roots of culture itself.
Readers will find detailed information on fermenting vegetables; sugars into alcohol (meads, wines, and ciders); sour tonic beverages; milk; grains and starchy tubers; beers (and other grain-based alcoholic beverages); beans; seeds; nuts; fish; meat; and eggs, as well as growing mold cultures, using fermentation in agriculture, art, and energy production, and considerations for commercial enterprises. Sandor Katz has introduced what will undoubtedly remain a classic in food literature, and is the first—and only—of its kind.
Connect With me
Here are a few of the places you can find me. Please note that I have made the leap off of the traditional Social Media. The legacy of the last 20 months has been for me a recognition of a long dormant desire to practice more in the moment and in person. In my attempt to create the " New world", I am letting go of a need to be seen in all platforms virtually. Please feel free to email, call, or add yourself to my newsletter below.
So.....What do I do and who do I play with?
These are Some of the folks you may find me in collaboration and creating LIFE with.
Eco System of Evolution
Our framework for living is simple: We create meaning in our lives by becoming deeply familiar with our inner states of being, and we often turn to Gaia as a role model for evolving, loving, embracing and letting go. Breathing is a key component of our framework, as are powerful conversations held in sacred sisterhood with the intention of exploring greater self-intimacy.
Many women who have spent time exploring their inner landscapes are familiar with the phenomenon of falling back into old patterns — of living habitually rather than intentionally, especially when life gets busy and the external world seems impossible.
The Ecosystem of Evolution offers a different way of living, one that is grounded in the notion that our bodies are exquisite expressions of life, and that we can source inspiration and personal transformation from other expressions of life on earth — from Gaia.
If you have gone as far as you can within your human story — excavated it, recycled it, raged against it, become complicit within it, all of it in hopes of finding the more majestic expression of yourself that you sense inside — then this ecosystem is for you.
If you’ve found pieces of your majesty trapped deep in the underbelly of your human story but never found the space to fully become and live it — then this ecosystem is for you.
If you are ready to leap like your life depends on it, to enter the naturally expansive story of Gaia — welcome to the Ecosystem of Evolution.
R&R handmade
Raina Mcdonald and Ruben Irons, Collaboration as a way of being
We are Raina + Ruben. We met as deckhands on a tall ship bound for Antarctica, returned to Canadian soil after our high sea adventure and began weaving together a life and family in the backwoods of Nova Scotia. Here we share our journey of creative, intentional living – connected to the land, our food, our art and a vibrant, evolving community. Thanks for stopping in. A warm welcome to you!
Sign Up and Keep in Touch
I will aim to send no more than once per month correspondence to share the happenings from SOULfully SOIL and community. I do not share or sell any personal information. This is simply a newsletter list to keep in connection outside of other Social Media platforms. This is an intentional list and revered as SACRED!
© 2016