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My Kootsac bags were was born out of a need to contribute something to the green movement, using the skills I have as a textile artist and clothing designer. I have always been a conscious shopper. Considering health, environmental and social implications of everything I buy.

One day, while shopping in my favorite natural food store, I suddenly realized how much plastic filled our shopping carts. Beautiful organic nuts, grains, pulses and other healthy dried goods go home in a zillion plastic bags. I was appalled when I considered how many plastic bags we throw away in a year.

I wanted to find an alternative. They needed to be lightweight, yet strong, re-usable, washable and would fasten with a twist tie. They had to be capable of holding any bulk food item, even flour, without leakage. This was my thinking when I came up with the concept of reusable bulk food bags.

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In the last few years we have all heard reports about devastating droughts in Australia, floods which no-one has experienced in their lifetime, in large areas of Africa and fierce bushfires all over Europe strengthened by global warming has again highlighted how critical it is for us to live more sustainably.  We must prepare, plan and train ourselves to cope with climate change and the depletion of our planets’ natural resources.

Permaculture is one of the solutions we have to redesign the way we live which will enable us to manage our resources both more sustainably and in a more equitable way.  At the heart of Permaculture is design.  Design is a connection between things.  Good design is when things are integrated harmoniously.  

Permaculture ethics are:

Care for the Earth.
Care of People.
Give away Surplus.

 

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I have always been slightly suspicious of the many products that are available to help with the endless task of housework and the message from the marketers of these products that we must annihilate all bacteria and keep our homes sterile, spotless and germ free.

It was not until I gave up paid work to become a full time mother that I did anything proactive about my suspicions.

My instinctive maternal urge made me keep my tiny new-born away from anything potentially harmful, as I always believed that chemical cleaning products were probably more harmful to my child than a less-than-spotless house.
As a busy mum I certainly didn’t feel that I had the time to be scrubbing the oven with bicarb or rinsing the bath out with vinegar. I just used basic products like a scouring agent and dishwashing detergent for just about everything.
But when my second child was born he was plagued with red, sore eczema all over his face and body. This is not uncommon in babies but it persisted well into his first year.