Welcome to the one and only @ecotrain magazine! Your one stop shop for incredible posts, engaging Steemians, and this week some pretty incredible vegan dishes... and when I say incredible i really mean it!.. Read on to discover that and so much more on the theme of "Things that help make this world a better place."

Definitely put the kettle on ;-) and don’t forget to follow the passengers you know and love..

The @ecotrain is community of around 17 passengers and 200 friends here on Steemit. Just like in a real train, we have a driver ( @eco-alex) and passengers.

The idea of the ecoTrain birthed with the founding principle of Service To Mankind and the world around us. The full name of this ecoTrain is "ecoTrain Seva"

"Selfless service or Seva in Sanskrit (Punjabi: ਸੇਵਾ) is a service which is performed without any expectation of result or award for performing it. Such services can be performed to benefit other human beings or society."

This name is used to highlight the idea of working without any expectation of reward since it's easy to forget when we are getting upvotes and money from Steemit. Our primary goal is to give service to the world and the people in the form our our posts and up votes. What financial rewards we get are just a bonus! We may make money, but that is not the main goal!

Please scroll to read the Magazine!

@artemislives

Certified Organic - White, Privileged, Expensive, Excluding & Elusive? Anti Fair Trade Even?

The longer I work with Organic - herbs and plants from pristine Thai mountain soils - and the more I interface with western-educated, social-media-savvy customers, the more intense the disparity between "Certified Organic" and what I call "Real Organic" becomes.

Certified Organic aims to document and guarantee some really simple concepts: that no toxic water has tainted the soil, that pesticides and chemicals have not been used in the raising of the crop-plant, and that no aerial spray drift has contaminated the plants. It's a laudable aim. We all want to KNOW FOR SURE that our produce, our herbs, our textiles and fibers are clean. Without question. A very white-western desire born of a culture that doesn't sit well with ambiguity.

But there are under-pinning ideas that are ASSUMED by "certified organic" (you know, that old 'makes a ASS out of U and ME') which means it's simply not workable in some parts of the world. In my humble opinion. And why my business, Pure Thai Naturals is taking a whole other path.

Red Ant Eggs - A Thai Culinary Delicacy Happening in My Thai Garden now!

My evening wander in the garden did not go as planned. 37 red ant bites in the 2 mins I paused to pick some leaves from our straggly kaffir lime tree. Damn. Ant nesting season. Again When the ground is soaked at the end of the rainy season and they move up into the trees - them and their 347 million relatives.

You feel the ant bites all over your feet in the lush long grass, which then makes you look UP for the nest. And voila! I found 3 nests within 5 feet of where I was standing, in the first minute. They look like this:

They feel like fire ants and are often called that (with good reason) but technically they are called Weaver Ants. In Thai, simply "Mot Daeng". Red Ant.

If you can handle the any bites long enough to photograph (haha!) they are FASCINATING constructions:

@nainaztengra

Who are the best people to lead or guide our world - EcoTrain QOTW

Well my first reaction to this was but why do we need leaders? Then to put a little more thought to it, I feel may be not everyone needs a leader but some few do. But what type of Leadership then?

Or then I would rather say we need Mentors more than Leaders.

Leadership in today's time In today's time and age there are Leaders, Leaders, Leaders everywhere and everyone wants to be in this position. There is always a fight to be in this position be it in offices, universities, religious groups, politics, socially and everywhere. The very best example goes with the political leaders of the world. To what extent do they go to reach to this position is mind boggling. The fake talks and promises they give all gets faded once they get that position so getting such people into power is a sheer waste of energy, money and sentiments.

The new entrant in my family of Crystals - Ammonite Fossil

This particular one Ammonite has been on my mind for a long time, but never got an opportunity to buy one. As it is so rightly said things come to you at its right time and finally I managed to get my own very first piece of Ammonite.

Let me tell you something about Ammonite's history and it's healing properties. Well this is my first time working with Ammonite, I have not personally experienced it's effects so I am also curious to reveal what exactly it holds in for me. Though Crystals and fossils have their own properties but sometimes the effects of it vary depending on the energies of the person using it. Though the formation of Ammonite definitely makes certain properties very clear.

Ammonite is not exactly a crystal, it is a fossil. It is a fossilized shell of an extinct species of Molluscs. Molluscs is the phylum of invertebrate animals. These ancient creatures who once inhabited the Oceans their remains are now found in marine rocks.

@solarsupermama

Establishing Kid Community: the down side of almost every kind of schooling

I've never bought the socialization argument as a reason not to unschool. It's hogwash. Unschooled children often spend lots of time out in the world with other kids and adults. The ones who are isolated are in that situation because of other choices of the parents. It is by no means a requirement of unschooling or homeschooling, nor is it even common.

Mostly, though, I don't buy it because nearly all schools do a terrible job of socializing. Children are forced to be quiet and still and do as they're told for a large majority of the day, and then they are completely ignored by adults for the small portion of free time they have. Recess and physical education have been cut significantly shorter in places where they even exist at all. Even lunch is frequently as short as 20 minutes which is totally unhealthy on top of everything else.

Peeling Away the Layers: Some Thoughts From a Privileged White Radical on Racism, Sexism, Colonialism, and More

Well, it's been another humdinger of a week. Seems like I thought the chaos was over, but not so much. I actually have several posts written and just sitting there waiting to be posted. I just haven't been able to do it. I guess it's a combo of things. My parents have been visiting, and I haven't seen them in a year and a half, so I've been trying to spend some time with them. Their presence also means a week of not worrying about things like money and food. It's also a week of good wine I can't usually afford. Of course the kids were with us the whole time, so I didn't get much kid free time. I'm also dealing with a bit of depression. I just don't wanna. And of course menopause is a hateful, evil bitch, and I'm occasionally violently angry, sobbing, blazing hot, and/or bleeding like a stuffed pig.

Me right this red hot minute with the worst fever blister I've ever had

@riverflows

Spring Dreamings: Captures, Poetry and Blossoms, the earth speaking

Oh god I love you, Spring. Come here and give me a wet sloppy kiss, throw your arms around me and swirl me around in the sunshine! I worry at your early arrival though, pushing winter away with your pushy showiness. Winter rains need to stay a while yet, and it's not been cold enough for the warmth to be so welcomed. There's a 50 percent chance of El Nino here in Australia - we're all holding our breath and daring not to say drought, yet knowing it could come, as it has before.

I want to do with you what Spring does to the cherry trees - Pablo Neruda

In the last few weeks I've started to use my proper camera again. There's something ritualistic about taking it out of it's bag with the intention to capture beauty - a something that doesn't quite come with the phone in your pocket, cyborgian extension of self. The SLR is a hand-me-down of my father's, who, when upgrading to the camera that will make him happy this time, sells it off to us cheap. It's a beautiful Sony with two Zeiss lens and I'm starting to love it. It gives me a sense of mindful attention - breath held, focus on the frame. I'm not an expert and nor will I pretend to be, but on this day and this post, I capture an essence of the day that maybe, in future times, I will look back on and say: ah, that was a day. It was a day.

Firewood Collecting Dreaming II Ants, Spiders and Cows, Cockies, Turtles and Eternity II This is Enough.

The cockatoos are out early this morning, screeching like billy-o. I don't want them to land - they wreak havoc, tear fruit from limb, wake us from needed sleep violently. They sit in the trees like the cockies they are - arrogant, so completely in and of themselves a cockatoo. J. said that when they were deciding where to send the birds, they sent all the big noisy ones to Australia. And it's cacaphonic, at the moment, as Spring calls them in. I look at the sway of the tall trees and know it's not a day for surfing, but that's okay, because there are so many other things to done in this seasonal change over.

We go wooding this day, a verb we use to say we are collecting firewood. It's both practical and a spiritual practice.

I may be gone
For a while
I think I'm done
For a while
I must away
For a while...

@vegan.niinja

Crispy Flatbread with Za´atar - Fruits and Veggies Monday

Hi guys and happy new week! Have you tried or even heard from the spice mix called za´atar?

It's an oriental spice mix with sesame that is very common in Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon and eaten together with a flatbread for breakfast. The flatbread or manakish as it is called is like a pizza bread, and you simply add this spice mix with olive oil on the bread and bake it for 10-12 minutes. It is usually served with fresh veggies and olives, sometimes also cheese.
When I was a teenager I worked in a pizzeria one summer, and the owner and his family were from Syria. They always served this breakfast for us before we started to work, I loved it so much and when I saw a picture someone posted on Instagram the other day, I remembered the flavor and how much I had loved it back then! So I decided to try out to make my own! I didn't have sesame at home though, so I just mixed the dried herbs with olive oil and added it to my flatbread.
It turned out so delicious that I have decided to share the recipe for the base and the za'atar with you.

RECIPE - Sweet no-bake tart with a creamy filling worth trying out! Gluten free - refined sugar free for CHOCOHOLICS

Hi darlings and happy weekend! It's time for another recipe! This one is a sweet chocolate tart for the weekend! My idea was to make a breakfast tart because I used chia for the filling, but the tart turned out way sweeter than I planned, so no breakfast tart this time, at least not for me! But of course you can enjoy a piece for breakfast if you like to, some days need to start extra sweet. dont you agree;)

I hope you have had a great week! I spent much time sorting out old stuff at home, and throwing away a lot of it! Slowly our home is getting empty and full of space! Such a relief. My little boy caught a cold and had a fever yesterday but was feeling better today but still in need of much sleep and rest. So we spent most of the past 2 days just cuddling and having a cozy time at home.

@walkerland

#Earth Deeds - The True Nature Of Recycling

@elamental has put out a call to action asking steemians to share weekly stories about their Earth deeds.

This is an important initiative to educate and inspire others to step up and care for mother earth in real ways.You can read more about the challenge and incentives here!

This week I've decided to talk about recycling and how we recycle on the the Walkerland homestead.

A friend of our was visiting our homestead and lamented that we did not have a curbside recycling program.

My eye started to twitch as I prepared myself for what promised to be a frustrating debate.

She lectured that she could live anywhere that didn't have a recycling program and looked at me haughtily implying that we didn't care about the planet by not having blue bins in our garage. I reminded her that most homes out in the countryside don't have luxury town services. You are left to your own devices just like in the old days. This is like ... homesteading for real.

Sunflowers: The Cheerful Cover Crop, Nutritious Food & Bringer of Joy

Dramatic and cheerful the sunflower (helianthus annuus) is one of my favourite flowers.

It is actually quite a practical homestead crop, with a lot to offer. It can help improve soil, provides nutritious food, attracts pollinators and lifts the human spirit.

Sunflowers also act as an excellent trellis and provide valuable shade in gardens. You'll often find vine plants like cucumbers growing up the stalks of the sunflowers in our gardens.

We started growing sunflowers simply to have an army of faces gazing east towards the sun. Over the years we have learned a lot more about this amazing plant and the long list of benefits it offers and so we just keep planting more and more of them every year.

@senorcoconut

Proof Of Works... Making Bread!!!

What An Amazing Feeling It Is, Making Your Own Bread!!!

I am only posting to show a proof that it works recipe I found on Steemit.For the original recipe please read the following post by @llfarms:

Rustic Braided French Loaf | Recipe

So I followed @llfarms's recipe almost to the T... I do not have a kneading machine and all I had was whole wheat flower instead of all purposeflower, but it still made an amazing, little crustly on the outside and fluffy on the inside loaf of baided bread!!!

I really was busy yesterday, I shouldn't havd taken time to make the bread (for some reason time slowed down yesterday). It was raining all day and there were things I needed to do inside our camper.

Turns out the most time consuming thing in the recipe is reading it, making sure I had all the ingredients ready to go and watching a short video on kneading bread properly.

I got everything ready and went to work, warming some water to activate the yeast with and mixing up all the ingredients to make the dough.

🍅Growing Tomatoes Without Water Update🍅

This fruit, the tomato, should be the forbidden fruit!

I just really really love me some tomatoes... I know, I've said it before... no need to remind me, but I do love a fresh tomato and now I have my own, growing right in the garden!!!

As some of you may know already, I have two different tomato plots... one is a test plot, growing without water, fertilizers or staking which is a technique developed by Pascal Poot where tomatoes are trained to live their lives without human support.

@thegreens

The story of The Greens: In 2010 @thegreens was founded, planted 1000 trees and educated 300 young people via Beautiful Clean Green Schools (BECLEGS)

The Story of The Greens Part: Reminiscing the year @thegreens was founded.

The idea to start a youth environmental organization was conceived by @mr-greens in 2009.

What inspired @mr-greens to start @thegreens?

Growing up in a poverty stricken community plagued by diverse environmental crises such as poor waste disposal, climate change, rapid deforestation and species extinction; amidst the absence of young people in environmentalism, @mr-greens was inspired to make a difference.
In 2009 he conceived the idea of bring together young people to address the complex environmental issues plaguing his community and on the 1st of January 2010, he pledged to become an Environmental Defender. He then mobilized a group of young people who wanted to do something to clean-up, fix-up and conserve the environment. Together, they went around cleaning and greening schools in a project he called "Beautiful Clean Green Schools (BECLEGS)";. The success stories of BECLEGS greatly inspired him and in November 2010, he was among one of the first Cameroonian youths to register a not-for-profit, apolitical, and non-sectarian youth environmental organization in his region.

Start it now, don't wait; the best time to start cleaning up the world is NOW!

Start it now, don't wait; the best time to start cleaning up the world is NOW!

I started serving as an Earth Ranger in 2009. I want to encourage citizen of this planet to think about the fate of our planet.
We are gradually transforming this planet into a pile of filth and if we don't take action then i fear that humanity's survival is at risk.
During this summer holiday, i have worked with young people of the Earth Rangers Summer Holiday Program (SASH-Program) and i am glad that we have been able to use the power of Steem to educate, inspire and engage young people in community service.

Together with the Earth Rangers of the SASH-Program, we are making a difference and i urge you to join us to make a difference. Start Now!

@zen-art

Endorphins - chemicals in charge of your happiness

Is there a better way to start a week than by "feel-good" chemicals? Sure, I could have won the lottery but since I haven't, I will have to get my happiness-high someplace else. Luckily, I have my friend brain with me who naturally produces chemicals that help me cope with the pain of not having that lucky ticket that would give me millions. Those chemicals are my little happiness boosters that will not only get me through this loss but also return that bright smile on my face and make me say "Forget about that, let's do something fun!"

Not so long ago, I made a post about different chemicals called Meet your happy brain chemicals and boost them! Oxytocin, Endorphins, Serotonin, Dopamine and more. In it, you can read about different chemicals and get some basic knowledge about them. This time, I will focus on endorphins, and provide you with much more information about them. Buckle your seatbelts people, this is going to be a fun ride!

Grape & peach smoothie

It is grape season!!! We have two grape trees at home and they create a gorgeous roofing over our yard and terrace. Most of our neighbors have them too so the entire street has a lovely sweet grape scent. There are so many grapes that we just can not eat it all so most of our friends come and happily help us eat them. My favorite way to eat grapes is in smoothies or elixirs of health as I like to call them.

The best thing about having A LOT of grapes is the fact that we have enough to share. There is no way we can eat it all so we happily share it with others and even swap them for other fruit. Some of our friends have apples and peaches that they happily give to us and receive our grapes in return. Sharing is caring. We just received peaches and figs last week and are going for some nice apples today. Here is my recipe for the purple elixir or the grape and peach smoothie...

@holisticmom

A Tale From The Not Too Distant Future

A boy looked out into the sky

He turned to his grandmother with a questioning sigh.

"If only I could reach the stars and visit planets like Jupiter and Mars"

She took his hand and gently replied,

"But you see my dear boy for many years we have tried.
We built zooming rockets to travel afar,
As a way of getting to the stars.
They were the brightest ships laden with great new tech.
We sourced the finest materials and stuck out our necks.
The best pilots were chosen to complete the mission,
People who could operate with careful precision.

@trucklife-family

Earth Deeds- What I am Doing To Be Of Service To The Earth

What I am Doing To Be Of Service To The Earth

This post is in response to @elamental's new initiative Earth Deed's, where he has asked members of the Steemit community to document/record the actions that they are undertaking, to show that they are being of service to the earth.

This is something that is very close to my heart and something that we should all be doing. We all have a responsibility while we are living this life, to ensure that we leave the earth, in a better way than it was. Be it on a small scale, working on the land that surrounds your home or on a larger scale by getting involved in projects that work at protecting the environment and promoting a healthy relationship with nature. We are all more than capable of such things and we are smart enough to realize that we can not keep taking from the earth, we need to be giving back, we need to be of service.

In my reality, this is what I see and this is how I feel

I love living in the mountains, nestled in the valley, and none more so than when there is a thunder storm. It has rained most of the day and amongst all that rain has been the thunder. At one point there was continuous rumbling for 20 minutes, non stop.

The sound of that thunder bouncing off the mountains and rumbling down this valley was pretty darn awesome. I lay on the couch with my youngest daughter wrapped in a blanket next to me, engulfed by the sudden darkness and the notion of how very small we are on this earth. Yet how very well the earth takes care of us.

It is pretty obvious that we all need a healthy planet in order to thrive, in order to be healthy and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

@mountainjewel

An Eternity on Earth: Grounding the Mystery, Inhabiting the Mundane

This morning I'm challenging myself to write a different sort of article than usual.

It's easy to write articles about plants and homestead life, but sometimes it's nice to streeeetch and press the bounds of other parts of my brain.
Over the past two days I've read 2 books by Louise Erdrich, "The Round House" & "Future Home of the Living God".

Erdrich writes superbly about complex life themes with Native American roots.

"The Round House" kept me wrapt with beating attention the entire time. It also made me think about living in a woman's body and the lack of safety (the book started off with a violent rape of an indigenous woman and continues as the mystery unfolds of who did it and why). "Future Home of the Living God" also set my mind thinking as it takes place in a dystopian present where all of our worst fears come true, food becomes unavailable and women are turned into "breeders" as the world increasingly becomes unsafe for human life.

@celestialcow

Steemit Iron Chef final round: Beach dream fig and custard apple ice cream cheese cake

This week's challenge is a dish for the beach! One of my favourite places to be, I love the sea air and that's exactly why I live here on the coast of catalonia. Last week I was just in langkawi where there are some gorgeous beaches but also some not very nice ones with plastic trash washed up. Lots of trash is dumped into the sea regularly and I even saw people leaving there plastic picnic containers on the rocks and beach for the sea to wash it. Its a hot topic and big problem right now.

I only just got back and that's why I'm a little late posting these. I managed to smuggle back a few exotic frutos with me like this custard apple, star fruits, passion fruit and rambutans cousin (a fruit that looks and tastes a bit like rambutans but not sure what it's called). The figs I picked up from the local market here yesterday.

@stortebeker

Cascadia to Aztlan – Rolling Down to Victoria

Just as planned, I stayed at the Doighouse Earthship Build until the end of the season, marked by the long weekend of Labor Day. This symbolic cut-off date at the beginning of September indicated the end of the busy tourist activity on Vancouver Island, along with the start of the school year, and – oh no – the end of Summer! So now, it’s time for me to embark on a different adventure, one I have been dreaming about while hanging out at Recyclistas and building my bike, La Zorra Roja: riding down the Pacific coast of the US by bicycle.

Not Riding Alone

As luck would have it, I’m not riding by myself either. My friend, who doesn’t like to appear on the Internet, but I’ve mentioned in various other posts about our bike-trips on Vancouver Island, will be riding with me, at least part of the way. He is an experienced touring cyclist, and in fact it was him (and others like him) who inspired me to this undertaking. In the previous years we had the pleasure to work together on other Earthships, and I always admired how he arrived by bicycle. So I’m quite excited to share the experience of long-distance riding with him.

@ecoTrain

Supporting People Who Help
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DRIVER
@eco-alex

VIP'S / CURATORS / DELEGATORS
@amitgiat
@blueberrybison
@hopehuggs
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@likedeeler
@lukestokes.mhth
@michelios
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@nainaztengra
@omdemian
@sashagenji
@senorcoconut
@stortebeker
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@tribesteemup

PASSENGERS
@afifa
@aware007
@artemislives 
@celestialcow
@ecoinstant
@holisticmom
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@omdemian
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@riverflows
@sashagenji
@senorcoconut
@schoonercreek
@sharoonyasir
@solarsupermama
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@trucklife-family
@vegan.niinja
@walkerland
@zen-art

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