The Elder Tree

10/02/2026

To Celebrate The Elder Tree's Foundations of Sociocracy In Person Training with Erin Young, we bring you this Re-Release!

Listen to it here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/165-re-release-sustainable-funerals-sociocracy-and/id1646328719?i=1000747271382

March 7th & 8th 2026
Mullum region:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1KcKGEZo8j/

Erin Young is a mover and shaker in the realm of social permaculture and tunes in with us from Kabi Kabi country near Eumundi on the Sunshine Coast. As a certified Human Potential Coach and Sociocracy trainer,she shares insight into how she brings nature-informed frameworks and a holistic toolkit to help individuals and forward-thinking organisations balance nervous systems to establish safety and avoid distraction and dysfunction to make real traction in creating a positive impact. She speaks to living an enchanted life and ecological patterns brought into social settings to encourage a diversity of perspectives and governance hierarchies to make decisions with a "power with, rather than power over".

We discuss her garden and what is growing, her favourite plant, Lemon Grass (⁠Cymbopogon citratus⁠)and its many functions and her healthy journey using Ayurvedic practices,intuitively going to certain plants when she needs them, and the underestimated balm of a cup of herbal tea.

Erin holds a Bachelor of Environmental Engineering and discusses how her first Permaculture Design Course in Portugal unlocked herunderstanding of how life works and led her on this path, whereby she nowteaches Social Permaculture weekend courses alongside pioneer Robin Clayfield(who will be joining us in an interview soon!), speaks at Festivals and teacheselements of her toolkit at courses such as the Change-makers PDC on theSunshine Coast.

Currently, she is partnered with Earth Funerals, an organisation establishing sustainable funerals and natural burial grounds around Australia. With developmental coaching, consulting and training inc ollaborative decision-making and governance (aka sociocracy), social permaculture, and artfully facilitating group processes, she is modelling how groups can be healthy human ecosystems and a regenerative force beyond monoculture thinking!

Show Notes:

Social Permaculture Weekend with Robin Clayfield Feb 11th& 12th, 2023: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/events/564776655431004⁠

Earth Funerals: ⁠https://earthfunerals.org/restoration-burial/⁠

Zen and the Art of Dying: ⁠https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4245204/⁠

Introductory Guide to Social Permaculture & SeasonalGoals - A living Guide: ⁠https://www.erinyoung.net/shop⁠

Connect with Erin:

Website (with e-books mentioned): ⁠www.erinyoung.net⁠

Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/erinyoung.coaching⁠

Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/erinyoung___/⁠

Get in touch with The Elder Tree at: ⁠⁠asktheeldertree@gmail.com⁠⁠The intro and outro song is "⁠⁠Sing for the Earth⁠⁠"and was kindly donated by Chad Wilkins.




https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/165-re-release-sustainable-funerals-sociocracy-and/id1646328719?i=1000747271382

Podcast Episode · The Elder Tree Podcast · 30/01/2026 · 54m

26/01/2026

We are excited to announce our (very belated) summer solstice newsletter! This publication is just brimming with herbal wisdom from shining herb folk from around Australia like:
-Cat Green from Everyday Empowered
- Heidi Merika from Heidi Merika Botanical
- Christopher Smith from Tinderry Mountain Herbs
- Taj Scicluna from Botanical Education
- Naomi Ingleton from FarmacyCo
- Tamara Clements from From The Soil Herbal
- Penelope Maguire from Botanical Kitchen
- Other Elder Tree crew like Thais Soares and Tatiana Dawn from Alchemilla Herbals

This is a news rag not just for The Elder Tree but for the national herbal community. It features articles and recipes from wonderful herb folk around Australia (and one in NZ) and features a national herbal directory. Our newsletter seeks to have the finger on the pulse of grassroots herbalism in OZ.

This newsletter is free to our members and patrons, then available for $5 to the broader public.

Check it out here:
https://www.theeldertree.org/shop

Thanks to our editing team Caitlin Moore and Tatiana Dawn for making it happen, and thanks to all the wonderful herbal wisdom carriers who contributed. A lot of work goes into this!

This newsletter is published quarterly, seasonally, every solstice and equinox. Please get in touch if you would like to submit an article- they can be small or long. Herbal Medicine focused of course.

It could be about growing medicine, making medicine, it could be a herbal monograph, a story, wild-harvesting, herbal astrology/energetics, herb craft like dyeing and weaving, herbal poetry... the sky is the limit. Art/drawings would be amazing too!!!
And we would love more lovely folk on the creation team to help create the newsletter, and help us to get the medicine in the hands of the people.

Get in touch if you would like to contribute:
info@theeldertree.org

25/01/2026

Our next garden working bee is this Sunday at 8am! We would love some fresh faces. Get in touch if you would love to join us.
We've also got signs to paint and varnish if anyone would like to help with that.
PM or email: info@theeldertree.org
🌿

18/01/2026

Our next working bee is this Saturday at 8am! We would love some fresh faces. Get in touch if you would love to join us.
PM or email: info@theeldertree.org
🌿

28/12/2025

If anyone is free tomorrow morning and feels to come help out at The Elder Tree Educational Medicine Garden in Mullumbimby, we would love some extra hands (and hearts) as all the core crew are away or busy. We will be there 7.30.

Fun things we could do:

☀️finish painting signs
☀️lacquer signs that have been painted
☀️w**d w**d w**d (and turn it into compost)
☀️plant medicine in existing beds
☀️fill up new beds with soil
☀️love up the portal/ entrance.. attach wire or more timber then plant Passionflower and Apothecary Rose to grow up it.
☀️all kinds of other things... we have lots of fun jobs in the go

Let us know if you would like to come join in.
Send a PM or email:
info@theeldertree.org
💙🌳💙

24/12/2025

🌳 SUMMER SOLSTICE BLESSINGS! 🌳
From The Elder Tree family, we wish you a joyous christmas/solstice/new year/whatever you choose to celebrate at this time of year.
Within The Elder Tree space, we focus on the cardinal points of the year- the summer and winter solstice, and the autumn and spring equinoxes. We also navigate and time things by the lunar cycles with our projects, meetings, podcast episode releases etc.

A couple of days ago on the summer solstice, a few of us gathered by the waters edge to sing, connect and be creative. We drank and ate herbally infused goodness, and painted up a few signs for The Elder Tree educational medicine garden. In Celtic/Druid's folklore, the Summer Solstice is the most powerful day for the Elder tree (Sambucus nigra) so it is an auspicious day for us to gather.

We had hoped to have our newsletter out by now but who wants to be on the computer at this time of year. On the Earth around the fire and by the waterside is the place to be. But lookout for the newsletter over the next few days.

Much love to all of you.
From The Elder Tree family
🌳

15/12/2025

🌳 Herb Farm Tour- Day 3 & 4- Marleen Herbs 🌳
We had the honour of visiting the Van de Winckel family in Northern Lutruwita for one and a half days on our herb farm tour.
With their wonderful Dutch hospitality, they totally spoilt us with their delicious herbal teas, coffee roasted by the family, cacao ground by the family, and delicious food and treats handmade by them.

They showed us around their huge organic herb farm- the biggest in Australia. They showed us their fields, their machinery, their medicine making facilities. We learnt a lot about their methods and approach to farming herbs, hard their wonderful stories, and of course got to experience their potent gemmos.

Marleen Herbs provides the fresh plant tinctures four PPC herbs who are Australia's only commercial fresh plant tincture supplying company. We had such a wonderful day learning from these elders Ronald and Marleen, and from their daughter Emma.

Looking forward to returning next year!
🌳

14/12/2025

Today's working bee was great, we got 2 big raised beds built on either side of our portal/ main entrance. Massive shout out to Mikaela and Damo for bringing heaps of tools and energy and staying so late to for it finished. Also big gratitude to Melissa Shaw and our new helper Malika who is going to help us paint up some signs .

Happy with the progress though our volunteer numbers have dropped a bit with the heat so would love to bring in some heat tolerant herbies to come next week and help us plant out our new beds and make up some signs.

Considering the following options:
- late afternoon of Monday 22nd Dec
- early morning Tuesday 16th or Tuesday 23rd
- early morning of Wednesday 24th

Please get in touch or comment below if you could attend any of these times.

We would also love donations of medicinal plants! Get in touch before bringing them please.

Excited to be planting out lots of medicine 🌳

10/12/2025

🌳 NEXT WORKING BEE THIS SUNDAY 🌳
Sunday 14th Dec
8.00am-11am
Bring some food or drink to share at morning tea
Please RSVP

Come along and get your hands in the Earth and help us make an amazing educational medicine garden for the community!

We meet here:
https://goo.gl/maps/k5VzRRvKdAiNrZVu7
(Please park out on the road and walk in)

We are focusing in these next two sessions on the following things:
•⁠ ⁠Weeding
•⁠ ⁠prepping to make herb spiral (unloading and stacking bricks)
•⁠ ⁠turn the compost
•⁠ ⁠⁠sign painting weather permitting

Would you like to help us paint some signs for the garden?
If you have any outdoor paint and brushes to donate we would be most grateful. If you had a steady hand to paint signs that's even better!
If you have a brush cutter please bring along. We are also gathering bricks and stones and all kinds of materials so get in touch if you have any to offer.
Hope to see you there!
** Please bring a dish of food/drink to share for the Sunday session**
** We don't have many tools yet so bring your own gardening gloves and your preferred tools if you have any **
** We would love if you could RSVP so that we have an idea of numbers **
.........
In the furure at The Elder Tree Educational Medicine Garden, we will hold regular classes, courses, workshops and events and the medicine garden will be an educational garden for students. We will also produce medicine from the garden that will go to volunteers and surplus will be gifted to those in need/sold at a low cost for fundraising.

We are so excited to be doing our part in building community resilience and coherence and connection.

Get in touch if you want to join us! Also, we have a Whatsapp group for volunteers so let us know if you want to be added to that.

We are looking for donations of garden tools and landscaping resources and things like bark mulch, frames to set up shade etc etc.

Get in touch if you have some resources to share: info@theeldertree.org

The Elder Tree is a registered not for profit (charity) and we welcome financial contributions. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, please let us know!

To find out more about The Elder Tree, go to www.theeldertree.org

10/12/2025

A wonderful post from Naomi Ingleton at FarmacyCo sharing about our gemmo exploration at Marleen Herbs on the herb farm tour.

05/12/2025

🌳 Herb Farm Tour- Day 2 - Hop Valley Farm 🌳
What an incredible second day of our adventure, with Monica Francia and Cara. A perfect example of a thriving small scale young farm blooming with vitality and potency. We learnt a lot about their systems and methods- everyone was buzzing at the end. And the lunch was incredible. Will report more later... for now enjoy some photos....