128. Operating at Human Speed
Jade Miles on Futuresteading, funding a movement & finding a way
Jade Miles is an author, podcaster, farmer, organiser, speaker, and a few other things besides. I first came across Jade’s podcast, Futuresteading, back when it started. Then last year, the visual extravaganza of Futuresteading the book came along - sub-titled ‘live like tomorrow matters: practical skills, recipes and rituals for a simpler life’. It draws on Jade’s family life at Black Barn Farm – which features an incredible orchard of around 100 varieties of heritage fruit and berries, along with nursery, and workshop space in the Black Barn. Jade has also more recently become the CEO of Sustainable Table – so we get the inside story here of that transformative work and Fund we’ve heard a bit about in recent episodes.
Jade Miles during our ‘raspberry walk’ at the farm (pic: Anthony James).
“So I spent more than three days walking this orchard on my own, after I came home from that - so disturbed and so distressed and so dishevelled at the idea that everything we’re doing is bull shit, and it’s built on this colonial paradigm of ego and growth and shouting things from the rooftops, that I thought, what do I do?”
Jade is one terrific communicator and connector. And here there is also some pretty raw, honest and grounded reflection. We start with the fascinating and at times funny back story of their journey to becoming farmers, before exploring that inside story of Sustainable Table. Then standby for our chat about her book and podcast, particularly the one episode that shook her for days - with Tyson Yunkaporta.
And that’s our take off point for exploring her profound experiments with ritual at home, deeply felt mother’s dilemma on education and rites of passage, and her emotional connection with her music selection – one that comes full circle to her life’s beginnings.
This conversation was recorded at Black Barn Farm in Stanley, Victoria, on 29 March 2022.
Click on the photos below for full view, and hover over them for descriptions where added (all pics by Anthony James unless noted).
Get more:
Futuresteading, the podcast (where btw, you can hear more of Jade and I in conversation, on episode 5 of series 5, on 4 July 2022 – though it was recorded after our visit to Black Barn) .
And if you’d like to hear the conversation I had with Jake Claro from Vermont, that’s episode 51, ‘Farm to Plate: Regenerating a state’s economy through food, land and culture’.
Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.