Skip to main content
Read page text
page 4
87 contents 86 WIN SUBSCRIBE 45 GET EVERY ISSUE DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR LIFESTYLE Wellbeing 59 HEALTH AND MINDFULNESS Stretch your body, get better sleep and boost energy levels 60 WHOLE WOMXN JOURNEY Go back to the foundation and tend the roots 64 YOUNG SKIN Our pick of the best ethical products for teenage skin 65 REST AND NOURISH What to do when new mum tiredness is more than just a lack of sleep 68 YOUR TREE SIGN Discover the secrets of your birth tree in the Celtic Ogham Home 69 NATURAL LIVING Get started gardening with kids and how to grow happy plants 70 HOW WE LIVE Explore a family-run flower farm 75 MEET THE AUTHOR How to use the no dig method in your garden 4 • THE GREEN PARENT 83 70 64 93 Eat 77 SEASONAL FOOD Zero waste Easter and cookies for breakfast 78 MEET THE CHEF Vegetables are bad-ass – here’s how to get the most out of plant-based food 83 FOLLOW YOUR HEART How one home educating family have turned their love of wild food into their livelihood Explore 86 SLOW TRAVEL Nature reserves, walking festivals and wanderlust in the north 87 WIDE OPEN SPACE Hidden beaches in the North East 91 CITY BREAK: LEEDS Thriving arts, big heart and plenty of vegan options LIFE NOTES 93 WIN ALL THIS Enter all our competitions 95 ASTROLOGY What’s in store for you in the stars? 96 PLAN AHEAD What’s inside our next issue, out in May 98 UNSCHOOL MAMA
page 5
editor’s letter Welcome W elcome to the latest edition of The Green Parent magazine – an issue brought to you by the willow – a tree of dreams and intuition. I’ve recently learnt the Children’s Forest song for this catkin-adorned beauty and it’s magical. One of the uses of this tree is as a weaving material – at Solstice we made lanterns to light the longest night and now, as we enter spring, my family will be using its flexible branches for another purpose. In the coming weeks, we will be helping to make my mum’s coffin from Sussex willow. She died peacefully at home whilst we were creating this edition, and I wanted to share a bit of her story. To give you a glimpse of the amazing woman who was my mum, Sue. Let’s start at the beginning. The seed of this magazine that you hold in your hands was sown by my mum. She raised my sister, brother and I with a strong connection and love for nature. My mum was way before her time; into natural birth, alternative medicine, tending her allotment and vegetarianism back when it was really, really niche. When my sister and I were knee high, she took us on our first protest march in a fight to save the whales. As a teenager, I’d go to Friends of the Earth meetings with her. Our childhood holidays, inspired by my parents’ love of the outdoors, were week-long walking holidays on the Pembrokeshire coast or the Yorkshire Dales. Mum taught me the Latin names for plants and today, when I walk through a garden, I hear her voice listing the names: Lavendula officianalis, Digitalis, Passiflora. She also taught me which plants to use as medicine, and the basics of homeopathy. In the kitchen, my mum was queen – every night she’d cook us nourishing food from scratch. We were the kids with handmade pumpkin quiches and toasted seeds in our lunch boxes (the ones “When my sister and I were knee high, she took us on our first protest march in a fight to save the whales” longing for the standard twix and packet of crisps combo everyone else had!). My mum had MS for 18 years and she dealt with this condition with grace and courage. She was the cheeriest, most positive woman you could hope to meet – she gathered friends right up to the end, even when confined to a chair at home, unable to move. This edition is dedicated to the memory of my wonderful mum. Thank you for reading and I hope you find some nourishment and joy in its pages – she’d have wanted that for you, and more! Love from Melissa : EMMA CROMAN PHOTO connect with us, we’d love to hear from you Instagram @thegreenparentmag Facebook @greenparentmag Email letters@thegreenparent.co.uk what I’m doing right now LISTENING TO The Grief Gang podcast – a funny, chatty monologue (and sometime conversation) by Amber Jeffery READING Wise Power – about discovering the liberating power of the menopause, starting with the prep work required in your 40s – it’s gold! USING the gorgeous rose face cream made by the Seed Sistas (seedsistas.co.uk) MAKING Peanut butter and chocolate anything – cookie dough, brownies, bliss balls. It might be the best flavour combination ever. THE GREEN PARENT • 5

Page Text

View plaintext

editor’s letter

Welcome W

elcome to the latest edition of The Green Parent magazine – an issue brought to you by the willow – a tree of dreams and intuition. I’ve recently learnt the Children’s Forest song for this catkin-adorned beauty and it’s magical. One of the uses of this tree is as a weaving material – at Solstice we made lanterns to light the longest night and now, as we enter spring, my family will be using its flexible branches for another purpose. In the coming weeks, we will be helping to make my mum’s coffin from Sussex willow. She died peacefully at home whilst we were creating this edition, and I wanted to share a bit of her story. To give you a glimpse of the amazing woman who was my mum, Sue.

Let’s start at the beginning. The seed of this magazine that you hold in your hands was sown by my mum. She raised my sister, brother and I with a strong connection and love for nature. My mum was way before her time; into natural birth, alternative medicine, tending her allotment and vegetarianism back when it was really, really niche.

When my sister and I were knee high, she took us on our first protest march in a fight to save the whales. As a teenager, I’d go to Friends of the Earth meetings with her. Our childhood holidays, inspired by my parents’ love of the outdoors, were week-long walking holidays on the Pembrokeshire coast or the Yorkshire Dales. Mum taught me the Latin names for plants and today, when I walk through a garden, I hear her voice listing the names: Lavendula officianalis, Digitalis, Passiflora. She also taught me which plants to use as medicine, and the basics of homeopathy. In the kitchen, my mum was queen – every night she’d cook us nourishing food from scratch. We were the kids with handmade pumpkin quiches and toasted seeds in our lunch boxes (the ones

“When my sister and I were knee high, she took us on our first protest march in a fight to save the whales”

longing for the standard twix and packet of crisps combo everyone else had!). My mum had MS for 18 years and she dealt with this condition with grace and courage. She was the cheeriest, most positive woman you could hope to meet – she gathered friends right up to the end, even when confined to a chair at home, unable to move. This edition is dedicated to the memory of my wonderful mum. Thank you for reading and I hope you find some nourishment and joy in its pages – she’d have wanted that for you, and more! Love from Melissa

: EMMA CROMAN

PHOTO

connect with us, we’d love to hear from you Instagram @thegreenparentmag Facebook @greenparentmag

Email letters@thegreenparent.co.uk what I’m doing right now

LISTENING TO The Grief Gang podcast – a funny, chatty monologue (and sometime conversation) by Amber Jeffery

READING Wise Power – about discovering the liberating power of the menopause, starting with the prep work required in your 40s – it’s gold!

USING the gorgeous rose face cream made by the Seed Sistas (seedsistas.co.uk)

MAKING Peanut butter and chocolate anything – cookie dough, brownies, bliss balls. It might be the best flavour combination ever.

THE GREEN PARENT • 5

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content