It can form load-bearing walls or can simply insulate

Such bucolic scenes seem a world away from, say, modern suburbs, where rivers of asphalt and concrete flow

Most bacteria are harmless, and some are deeply helpful!

Ireland still has a healthy local culture of butchers that use meat from local farmers — but meat from supermarkets, fast food and restaurants often comes from farther afield, and we just trust that they know what they are doing

A study provides some of the most compelling evidence to date that lifting weights is a powerful tool in the fight against cognitive ageing.

I took the bus to a Dublin office every day for 12 years – three hours on the bus, nine hours in the office – and one day measured how much of that time I spent without loudspeakers blaring in the background. It was zero.

The plants themselves are amazingly nutritious

A few generations ago, though, children had virtually no toys and didn’t need them

They add variety to fields that would otherwise go sterile

Nom-noms

These will hit the spot

Meaning is something we often lack in modern Christmas celebrations, where we feel pressured to spend too much, eat too much, drink too much, listen to the same few terrible pop songs over and over

The technique, called hugelkultur (HOO-gul-kul-tur), has the advantage of being simple to understand and easy to make, and lasting a long time

Ireland today has become like most modern countries; the aged are no longer valued

Most people today seem pretty miserable, ignorant and superstitious, and few people I know read books anymore

Greenhouses are a handy option for gardeners in most climates, albeit an expensive one

Most of our homes require large amounts of energy to run, which we burn fossil fuels to acquire

One of the most nutritious of vegetables overall

Medieval people regarded smiths as they did alchemists, people who could transfigure bits of the world into something else, and doing it feels a bit magical

An elegant-sounding, delicious, nutritious way to disguise leftovers.

The environment is the trees and weeds and insects around where we live, and how many of those could most people notice or name?

They help insulate your home, which can spare you heating and cooling costs

"I had been an investigative reporter and was not easily shocked, but I kept stopping them in conversation and asking to go back and explain something that sounded unbelievable"

They don’t do well dried or frozen, so they have to be used quickly, so in those weeks we’re busy using elderflowers any way we can.

You are investing in infrastructure like a house

Teachers held classes in woods or in the corners of fields, teaching boys and girls alike, surrounded by hedges that hid them from passers-by.

Few parents would allow their child to wander the neighbourhood unsupervised, or play in the woods, or wander in and out of other houses

Look at the food we throw away and realise how much of it is quite edible

We screen out most of the relationships that would truly help us grow into understanding adults.

Few trees have as many uses

We use many times more energy keeping warm than our ancestors did

Continuous brightness for a lifetime as we have today, however, might be as bad as one continuous kind of food for a lifetime.

An interesting proposal

Here are some quick and easy recipes for extremely healthy dishes that keep your belly warm and your immune system flying during the harsh months

There is one kind of food that can be grown by anyone, indoors, in any time of year, in a few days