Jema spends most days thinking about, planting, tending, harvesting or selling vegetables, a vocation that extends across her work and personal passions. She grew up on 5 acres on the east coast of Australia and learned a simple version of permaculture at her small primary school, where all the kids could have a garden of their own.
Her early professional life turned out to be a self guided tour on organic farming, biodynamics, compost making, soil building, garden planning, seed saving and assorted outdoorsy-practical things. Completing a PDC at Fair Harvest Permaculture, teaching workshops herself and running her own micro-farm business have all been more recent explorations. Given that veggies take up a lot of her time, she really loves pondering ideas around how communication, community resilience, social structures, feminism, gender, sexuality, and domestic life intersect with permaculture.
Outside of the garden, Jema aspires to always check for underwear sections in op-shops, finding lost hair ties on the pavement to replenish her supply, and perfecting the art of fixing broken thongs with Gaffa tape.