Dani Austin and Sam Ryan – Folk of All Trades

Folk of all trades

Story by Poppy Fitzpatrick. Photography by Jason Porter.

Above: Dani Austin and Sam Ryan refer to themselves as ‘apocaloptimists’ – acknowledging that our environment is suffering, but having faith that everything will turn out okay.

Many people emerged from last year’s isolation period having rediscovered longlost skills. Backyards overflowed with produce, friends exchanged crusty loaves of sourdough, and a sense of traditional community values seemed to return to our lives. For Sam Ryan and Dani Austin, this period epitomised the ethos behind their educational business Folk of All Trades, as well as the sustainable lifestyle they’ve always sought to embrace.

Sam and Dani met in a biodiversity and conservation lecture at a Canadian university while on study exchange – Sam from South Australia and Dani from the UK. They soon bonded over similar environmental interests and a shared nostalgia for the soft narration of David Attenborough heard throughout their childhoods. After some time living in England, Sam and Dani made their way to Australia, armed with a unique assortment of new knowledge and ideas. With no immediate jobs to go to upon their arrival, there was plenty of time to experiment and fuel one another’s enthusiasm, drawing inspiration from their learnings at the Low-Impact Living Initiative in Redfield Community, UK.

Dani began making plastic-free beeswax wraps, before being asked to host a workshop for Adelaide Sustainability Centre, after which she became the go-to person for wrap-making classes. While continuously developing their own sustainability skills, Sam and Dani felt compelled to impart each useful discovery with others following low-impact journeys of their own. Their natural knack for teaching saw their repertoire of ad hoc workshops grow quite organically, before they officially established Folk of All Trades in 2018.

Above: The yard’s weed management is a hands-free exercise managed completely by their chickens – and they’ve cultivated a garden so abundant they almost never have to purchase fruit and vegetables.

indoor plants, composting and worm farming, growing vegetables and sewing produce bags. Participants are invited to learn how to make their own herbal teas, cleaning products, kombucha, kimchi and sourdough and how to shop plastic-free. More broadly, they’ve guided people on how to introduce principles of permaculture into their lives – a sustainability framework around which the pair have structured much of their own lifestyle.

The name Folk of All Trades is a play on the phrase ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’, which fits well with the seemingly endless collection of skills they have to offer. Case in point: Sam tinkers with his handmilked kefir drink fermenting on the countertop as we chat, while Dani makes a pot of tea from a jar of herbs she’s grown and dried herself. As I sit down on their second-hand couch, Dani pulls back the coffee table so the dark floor can store the sun’s heat streaming through the window. Every item in their strawbale home has been mindfully accumulated and each design element carefully considered to work as part of a larger system. ‘We’re always looking for how we can improve each system so that the inputs are easy to get in, and then the outputs become the inputs for another thing,’ Sam said.

The pair apply this circular approach to almost everything. Their wormpit is kept damp at the base of their greenhouse by the residual moisture from the plants above. The yard’s weed management is a hands-free exercise managed completely by their chickens. They’ve cultivated a garden so abundant they almost never have to purchase fruit and vegetables, with most of the hard work revolving around harvest. Not only do their various systems save time, but many facilitate effective avenues for waste. As a household, they fill no more than one red bin of rubbish a year and their recycling only quarterly. ‘Which means there’s still room for improvement,’ Sam added.

Sam and Dani acknowledge that this lifestyle is a privilege, but also a choice. Conscious decisions to live within their means and only accept part-time work allows them ample time to maintain the home life they enjoy, while continually feeding their insatiable hunger to learn. Although Folk of All Trades is a business, their commitment to >

Above: Sam carves wooden spoons out of ‘green’ wood and both revel in cultivating healthy abundant food that translates into a healthy and abundant lifestyle.

sharing their knowledge clearly remains a passion: something they both do out of love, rather than simply to make a living. Sam also works as an Education Officer for Green Adelaide, while Dani just started a new position as Environmental Education Coordinator at Tatachilla Lutheran College.

Having shaped their own low-impact lifestyle from scratch, Sam and Dani both see significant value in a slow and steady approach; each small change or new skill acquired unlocks the next, and gently fosters broader ideas about sustainability. They also hope their workshops will go beyond the individual experience to inspire a culture of community sharing and engagement – an essential component for both people and the planet to thrive. ‘There’s no such thing as self-sufficiency,’ Dani said. ‘It’s about community-sufficiency, because it’s ridiculous to think you can do everything yourself; you have to do things together.’

Sam and Dani reminisce about their cluttered initial attempts at growing vegetables, while peering out over their organic hops for Sam’s home brew, flourishing berry bushes and trays of sprouting seedlings. Their realistic and accessible approach to ancient skill building, DIY and simple living makes a sustainable lifestyle seem a little more attainable. The pair refer to themselves as ‘apocaloptimists’ – acknowledging that our environment is suffering, but having faith that everything will turn out okay. I’m sent home with a handful of vibrant yellow chillies, a hankering for sourdough and a reignited sense of promise for our planet’s future.