Quality Living: Creating Quality Living – Lessons from the Church of Fruit

In this episode of Quality Living With Peaceful Support, Amanda Whittemore chats with Stephen Brooks, a passionate permaculture teacher and founder of the Church of Fruit. Stephen shares his unique approach to connecting people with plants, emphasizing the spiritual and communal aspects of eating diverse fruits and honoring the origins of our food. He discusses […]

Episode Transcript

(00:14):
Hello. Hello. Welcome to Brookings, Oregon.
Thank you listeners out there on the KCIW
one hundred point seven channel. This is Amanda
Whittemore with Quality Living with Peaceful Support.
If you are new to the program,
it is simply a moment that we take
together
to turn up the radio, maybe pull the

(00:35):
car over,
and really
intensely
listen to our guests
and listen to your own thoughts.
Just have a moment to really seriously listen,
because sometimes that's one thing we forget.
We think too much. We move too much.
We do nothing too much.
We're here to just fine tune all those

(00:58):
and give a little bit of quality.
So, again, thank you to all the volunteers.
This is a fully
volunteer ran radio station,
and we wouldn't be here without you. So
thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your
donations and your time to make this station
stay alive.
And now,
believe it or not, we have one of

(01:19):
the world's
most incredible. And that's not an exaggeration. Literally,
everywhere in the world, in every continent,
our guest right now is one of the
world's greatest
permaculture teachers,
designers,
plant communicators,
amongst a gazillion other titles, a cacao ceremony
master. There's just so many delicious, wonderful things

(01:42):
to talk about, mister Steven Brooks. A warm
welcome, everybody.
Woo, Steven. Thank you. Thank you. So good
to be here.
It's an honor. Yes. Yes. Yes. Absolutely.
We are so thrilled and so excited to
hear about
you and and all the facets of your

(02:04):
existence because beyond
your,
the taste of tell us about all the
things that you do, the taste of your
world.
As we're speaking about the taste, I actually
just came
from New York where I was leading. I
am the pastor
of the Church of Fruit.

(02:25):
Hallelujah. Hoo hoo. Yeah. That's the only rule.
That's the only rule. The only rule in
the Church of Fruit is every time we
say Church of Fruit, everybody needs to scream,
hallelujah.
Hallelujah. And, you know, it's
you might be wondering what is the church
of fruits. And, you know, really, I'm
obsessed
with plants.
I'm in particularly

(02:46):
obsessed with fruits,
and I love people to connect to the
divine
through eating fruit they probably
never have tried before or some new flavor
that's just, like, so out of the ordinary
for them. And I I love being that
conduit. I also love being kind of just
a bridge,

(03:07):
you know,
to to
the humans and the plant world. You know?
The plants are
constantly just
singing the most beautiful symphony, and often we
don't even hear it.
So I'm here to remind people and help
people to listen to that symphony of plants.
That is so peaceful and so beautiful. And

(03:27):
that's that's really true. Like, we really
forget to take a moment,
Like, not just smell the flower,
that's an action, but actually
listen.
Because they scream, they yell, they sing, they
talk.
It's true. It's really, really true. And

(03:48):
and sometimes you just need translators. And that's
in many ways I feel you know, for
a long time, I wasn't really you know,
it's hard to describe really what I do,
and it sounds really kind of weird and
esoteric.
And I do that through many different, you
know, modalities, one being teaching permaculture. But, you
know, really just trying to figure out ways
where we can incorporate

(04:10):
useful plants in particular, plants that that radically
improve humans' lives. Like, how can we incorporate
that into the design of our community?
And so that's what I've been dedicated to
trying to figure out.
Right. And including also designing,
conscious communities that are
purposely designed and created to encourage this style

(04:30):
of living.
Exactly. Exactly. You know, a long time ago,
so I I was living in I live
in Costa Rica. I've been there now for
more than thirty years. And, you know, I
was teaching about plants. I was teaching permaculture,
and I was, you know, already doing that.
And I realized, wait a minute.
How can we merge all these incredible plants

(04:52):
into a community? So
I they didn't exist, so I said, wait
a minute. Maybe we just need to start
these types of communities that incorporate all of
these incredibly
all of these incredibly useful plants. And and
the tropics is such an exciting place to
grow. So there's so many tropical fruits you
wouldn't even believe it. I'm in these, like,

(05:13):
incredibly
nerdy Facebook groups.
You wouldn't believe that some of the Facebook
groups I'm in, like, deep rabbit hole of
nerd.
And,
and there's
constantly even new fruit that people that have
never been domesticated
coming out on the scene right now as
we're speaking here.
And this is actually super factual. When when

(05:35):
I did the permaculture course with you through
EcoVersity,
my favorite fruit that you introduced me to
that I'd never heard of, never
seen was the caviar.
The caviar lime. Yep. The caviar lime. That's
a great one. It's an exciting one.
Very, very exciting. Yes. So that's a it's
a it's a citrus. They call it the

(05:55):
Australian finger lime. It looks like a little
green finger,
and you break it open and squeeze it
on these little caviar balls. Like like, literally,
they look like fish eggs, but they're, like,
packed with sour citrus juice. Just so delicious.
You know? And there's so many there's so
many fruits out there that are just
absolutely mind blowing that you, like, literally feel

(06:17):
like you're
walking through the factory of Willy Wonka. This
earth is so abundant.
And, unfortunately, most of the foods that we
actually get to know
are really only the ones that are already
being grown at mass scale and that ones
that have long shelf life. Some of the
best fruits in the world, they have, you
know, under a day shelf life, so you'll

(06:38):
never see them in a market.
Wow. That's kinda sad.
I mean, it's it's But it's so exciting
too. Super exciting. Yeah.
Yeah. How would you encourage people to get
how would you get people encourage people to
get
to know your fruit as you provide, you

(06:59):
know, through of course, through your social media
channels. But, however, in real life, like, how
do they physically get to
taste the world?
You know, there's people there's people like me,
really dedicated in finding and pushing the edges
and and growing different things. I would recommend
going to your farmers market and seek things
out. And if you see someone selling something

(07:20):
you've never tried,
try it. You know? It's it's
incredible. I mean, where where you are in
Oregon, I'm sure there's people that are are
really pressing
the edge of what's possible to grow there.
And
and you're too and to you know, I'll
I'll never my permaculture teacher is from Orcas
Island, Washington.
And I remember going there to visit him

(07:42):
and eating many things I had never tried
before.
Mhmm.
Orcas Island. So that's kind of the key
is,
I mean, even the grocery store, believe it
or not, there's a lot of Latino markets
and a lot of farmers markets like you're
mentioning. And just
looking with your eyes, seeing that thing you've
never seen before and being like, what is
this?
Ask the ask the person selling it. If

(08:04):
they don't know or if they're not familiar
or
you know, just take it home, buy it.
Who cares what it's called? Just taste it,
try it, look it up, research it.
Yeah. Exciting time. Exciting times. And, you know,
and now if you like like exactly what
you said, there's ethnic markets around the world,
like Asian markets.
Some of the greatest a lot of times,

(08:25):
like, I just came from New York. My
big shop was in Chinatown.
And, you know, at the Church of Fruit
the other day that I did in in
New York. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. When I did in
New York the other day,
we served
jackfruit, fresh, ripe jackfruit. We served lycheeze, lychees.
We served muscadine grapes, which is native to
Georgia

(08:45):
that many people have never tried before. And
it's a it's a delicious fruit. We had
star fruit, and we had,
Fuyu persimmon.
And and I you know, I think the
other thing that I think that, I really
like to bring to the table is is
bringing in ritual,
you know, and and sacredness. Like, these foods
are sacred.

(09:06):
And you could just, like, you know, you
know, try to, like, slam your food down
between your at your lunch break, or you
can, like, slow down and and really
see the absolute miraculous ritual that it is
that that plate of food in front of
you has ingredients from 20 country,
and you have the opportunity to really just

(09:28):
honor those ingredients, honor the people that discovered
them, honor all the shipping and the movement
that happened to get them there.
It's it's an absolute miracle. It's an absolute
miracle. So, you know, it it there's something
to it about really honoring that miracle and
and bringing this sacred and deciding, wait a
minute. This meal I'm about to eat is

(09:49):
a is a sacred ritual
It's so true. Like this radio show.
Aw. Yeah. It really it really is. I
wonder how it all comes together
and how it nourishes us. You know? And
our food is our medicine and our sound
frequencies is
major medicine.

(10:11):
Totally. Totally. And it's up to it's up
to us. You know, ritual's changing. You know,
religion's changing. Like, we decide what's sacred. We
decide where
and how we want to hold sacred space.
Mhmm. Mhmm. Absolutely.
And and another really unique transition that happened
was with,
with Ecoversity.

(10:33):
I'm not I've talked about Ecoversity before on
the show, listeners, and some other episodes. You're
more than welcome to look back on the
Quality Living
with Peaceful Support
link here on kciw.0rg.
However, Stephen Brooks is here with us right
now on air, and,
he is one of the the main creators

(10:54):
of the EcoVersity.
And
we have
so
much to give and to learn.
And,
just tell us a little bit about EcoVersity,
please.
Yeah. You know, it's what what what we
started to find is, like, some of the
most important things on Earth to learn,

(11:16):
they're not teaching us in school. You can't
learn a beer you know, you can't learn
about growing your own food. You can't
understand water systems or, you know, ecological design,
you know, or building
or, you know, community or even communication and
nonvolting communication. Like, these some of the most
important things on earth, we can't they're we're

(11:37):
it's it's getting harder and harder to learn
them in your traditional
way, you know, conventional educational system. So EcoVersity
was born with that dream, you know, and
I've been teaching
the this these types of, you know, of
ecological design and permaculture and and organic farming,
you know, since the mid nineties, but I
was doing it in Costa Rica on my

(11:57):
farm. And what we found
was, you know, everybody can't just pick up
and go to Costa Rica to learn these
things. Like, we need to make way more
accessible.
So EcoVersity
is offering
you know, we teach six month classes in,
in which we we offer an herbal certification,
herbal medicine.
We we do a six, six month online,

(12:20):
certification
in permaculture.
And we also do in person, which you
got to come and experience in Costa Rica,
and we're actually doing another one. We haven't
done one in years. We're doing another one
now in February. This is actually the first
plate I'm publicly paying if we actually decided
today
to actually do it. But we're doing this
an event called Step Into the Ecoverse

(12:41):
Oh. In Costa Rica in in January 29.
Woah. I just got fascia tingles.
Step Into the Ecoverse.
Exciting.
Yeah.
And that's a real sacred space. Very exciting.
Yoo hoo. I say hallelujah to that. Mhmm.
And, you know, that's the really beautiful, tangible

(13:02):
course of of all these things out there
online, all these things in the ether and
in
all the all the plethora of just saturation
of marketing this and marketing that and things
everywhere. Like, that's why I'm really grateful for
you and knowing you in human form and
being able to have that
frequency

(13:22):
of
accepting that this is real. And you know
that I am me because I'm here in
the studio and we called, of course.
It's it's just this
beautiful
portal of
of reality
through all the midst
of the facades that are out there through
our social media. So I'm super grateful for

(13:43):
that sacred space. I don't I don't know
if that makes any sense to anybody else,
but I just wanted to say thank you,
Steven.
You're welcome. And, you know, I agree. Like,
when when we first had the idea, when
my when Alexa came to me and said,
we gotta bring these we gotta bring these
classes online. I was kinda like,
I don't think we can transmit
what it is we're teaching in a room

(14:03):
in a Zoom room. I don't think it's
possible.
And I was wrong. I actually was wrong.
You know? Like, I am
amazed
at what is unfolding in these Zoom rooms
and the community and the bond and the
connection
that are happening in these weekly classes, you
know, and these live classes that we offer.
You know? And it and, sure, like, the

(14:24):
information that we're sharing is profound and important,
but the
connection
that is possible even in a Zoom room
is totally blowing my mind. Mhmm.
Mhmm. It's it's real. It's very tangible. It's
very, very real. As real as the fruit
that we grow.
Yes.
It really is. It really is. Well, can

(14:46):
you say to our listeners
listeners, we're here talking with Stephen Brooks from
EcoVersity
and the Church of Fruit.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
And
we would like to learn how to connect
with you and how to physically get in
touch with you, how to sign up for
these classes. Like, what is the best way

(15:06):
for our listeners to get involved?
So, yeah, EcoVersity is online. It's at ecoversity.org.
You can find me on Instagram.
I'm I'm constantly uploading,
you know, different videos. I do this thing
called know thy fruit. I'm constantly introducing people
to new new fruits.
My Instagram is steven, s t e p

(15:27):
h e n, r brooks.
And, yeah, I love I love helping people
connect to the plant world. And then the
other kind of thread of what I've been
doing in Costa Rica is so we I've
started now, and we're on our fourth ecovillage.
We have three neighboring ones in an area
called San Mateo, which is about an hour
outside of San Jose. The first one is

(15:49):
called Laicovilla, which was 45 families.
The second one was actually my 2007
Burning Man camp,
bought the property up the street, which became
another 25 families. And then in 2018,
we started one called Alegria Village, which is
another 145
families. We're well over 200 families
now from 40 countries. We have over a

(16:09):
120 children in the school that the parents
co created,
and
we're it's a thriving
village. I mean, there's a health food store
in our town now because of what we've
been doing there. And it feels,
you know, I I I think what I
would what I would love to say to
to your listeners is to radically question
everything. You know? It's like things are the

(16:30):
way they are,
but they don't need to be that way
any longer. You're like as we don't need
to endure
mediocrity
anymore. Like, we deserve
to live a life where we're thriving and
where
our ecosystems
around us are thriving and our children are
thriving, and our elder parents are thriving. And

(16:50):
they all are because we created an ecosystem
that supports all of that.
Mhmm. Mhmm. I have tears in my eyes.
It's just it's surreal. It's super real. Like,
I physically have been there and it does
exist and it's real and it's totally possible.
And, you know, when we have those
networks where we come together and we get
these teachings and we get these sensations

(17:10):
and we feel and we hear about ways
that are possible
and we think to ourselves, wow, we could
just live this way. Well, you guys actually
are.
Yeah. Yeah. It's that does it's not a
dream. It doesn't have to be a dream
anymore. Like,
the, you know, the dream is now, and
we are it. And,
and, you know, I mean, some advice I

(17:31):
would give to people is, like, get really
clear on what your dream is because you
won't ever,
you know, you won't ever get there if
you don't even know what it is. You
know? Get clear on, you know, where do
you wanna live? What does it what does
it look like? You know, who is it
with? You know, who are the people you
wanna live with? And and, what like, I
often ask them, what is the commute like
to your best friend's house? Is it a

(17:52):
flight across the country,
or is it ten minute walk over a
river,
you know, through a fruit orchard?
Mhmm. You know? Or what's the what's the
commute like to your children's school? You know?
And and and how proud of you,
how proud of you are how proud are
you of the school that your children go
to? Is it are you just enduring it,

(18:12):
or are you are you really happy about
it? How are you dealing with your parents
as they as they age? I mean, these
are such important questions
that life just gets so crazy and busy
that we just kind of can't even keep
up.
Yes. It's very real. It's very, very real.
And, you know, it's especially coming here, like,
I I was I am very grateful and

(18:34):
very fortunate for living in Costa Rica for
many years and experiencing all this and being
able to
be called. Like, God literally picked me up
out of what I was doing and dropped
me here at the ocean in Brookings, Oregon,
right here on the edge of harbor at
the California border.
And it's so
different. It's night and day different. And it's

(18:56):
like you're saying, it's a it's a retiree
community.
We barely have enough young people. We have
traveling nurse. We almost don't have enough people
to care for a lot of our elders
around here. It's really,
you know, there's an awakening happening. Like, the
permaculture
world that I learned through EcoVersity really gave
me this shining light from within

(19:18):
to create the world around me that we
wanna see.
We now have yoga studios in town. We
that, you know, we have eight of them
and there was one that COVID closed and
I we all bonded together and we're like,
we're we are not taking this. Like, we
are creating the world we wish to live
in.
And we're bringing love and light and organic

(19:39):
foods and nurturing and caring and, you know,
the schools and the board of commissioners. And,
you know, I joined the planning committee. Like,
there's so much more work to do and
there's so many more there's so much room
for growth and nutrition on every level. And
it's because of teachers like you that we
even know that this is possible. It's it's

(19:59):
a way to nurture our environment. And the
permaculture world goes beyond our garden. It's it's
in completely for all aspects of our life.
Totally. Totally. Yeah. And, I mean, even the
way we communicate and interact with our, you
know, our closest people and our families,
then, you know, the this is this is

(20:20):
an exciting time to,
yeah, to just bring bring upon change. You
know? I love what you said that you're
on the planning commission.
You know? People sometimes feel so helpless that,
you know, the president and the government
feels so far away,
but that's where you have to start thinking
about your local government and maybe even maybe
even your HOA, you know, and the community

(20:40):
that you live in. Or, you know, get
on, like, you know, figure out what if
you live in an apartment building, like, how
can you get involved
in bringing the kind of improve to, like,
whether it's the cleaning products that they're using
or you know, it's like change starts
right there at home, and it's up to
you.
It does. And it is. And it's totally
possible. And it's just this beautiful

(21:03):
gift that just keeps giving, really.
And, we have one question that we ask
our guests,
and that is well, we have a couple
questions.
But how how does the word quality
feel to you? Or what does it how
does it what does it represent in your
world?
Quality.

(21:23):
Yeah. I mean, I it's still funny. Right
when you said it, like, what came to
me is fresh.
Mhmm. You know? I want fresh. I want
new. I want, you know, I don't want
old and and, you know, I want things
that are like, I'm thinking when I think
about quality, I think of I'm thinking of
food
and and and how far away did it
come from and how carefully was it grown.

(21:44):
And I wanna I want things that are
are are made by or grown by or
created by people who I know their first
and last name. You know? That to me
is quality.
Oh, I love it. Yes. Yes. And I'm
in the I imagine you ask a lot
of people that.
Yeah. And, you know wonder, is that a
different kind of answer than you get? Yeah.

(22:05):
This is our hundredth show, and we have
not had one repeat answer.
Amazing. I love that. Yeah. I love that
I'm on your I I'm your hundredth show.
Hundredth show.
Yeah. I was like, this is gonna be
big. This is we're making it happen. I'm
so stoked.
It's it's it's been a lot of work,
and it's been worth it in every you
know, all different walks of life. We've had

(22:27):
architects.
We've had dentists.
We've had,
real estate agents and,
Bill Gierski, the broad Beacon Broadband, the Wi
Fi, Internet technology is super important. You know,
as much as quality we get through our
food and our nutrition, like, our technological frequencies
are extremely as important to have those full

(22:47):
of quality too.
Totally. Totally.
Yeah. And Yeah. There's one other question. We
like to talk about peaceful support.
What is that to you? Where do you
see it in your world? And how do
you encourage people to bring more of it
into their community?

(23:07):
Yeah. I mean, I think you'd I think
you're saying it right there, community. Like, surround
yourself with people that care about you, you
know, and that you care about them and
that together,
you're supporting each other. You know, it's so,
like, it's so
common where people just, like, live in their
own little bubble and they're so alone. You
know? And that's why, you know, this this

(23:28):
epidemic of loneliness is, like, just sweeping the
world. You know? People are just feeling so
alone.
So how can we create this
support network whether we have you know, create
a men's group, create women's groups, you know,
create,
you know, support even in your relationship, like,
other couples, you know, where you can help
support each other in times where things get

(23:50):
challenging. You know? It's like,
really need to just,
surround yourself with, you know,
the support on in all things.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
That's you know, when you said community, it
felt different than when I said community.
I don't know if the listeners I don't
know if you guys felt that or heard
that.
But so because the community

(24:11):
that I live in
is, like, just
coexisting
within the majority of people in town because
it's where we live, like a town. But
when I heard you say community, I really
felt like
there was a different existence of literally knowing
people's first and last names, having had a
a moment like this, sharing a educational session

(24:34):
or growing something, you know, food together or
having
real community
of support. Like, it just felt different.
I Appreciate that. Mhmm.
Mhmm. Yeah. These are exciting times. These are
exciting times that that
on on one hand, they feel really daunting

(24:55):
and and scary. And at the other time,
like, you know, the you know, these crises
that are
are, you know, before us are, you know,
extreme opportunity
to bring in something different and to create
a new way.
It's so true. So true.
And
we have one minute. We would love to

(25:16):
hear a goal
that you could give for people out there.
Yeah. I mean, a goal would be to
to not feel alone and to feel the
support around you and to connect with the
people that are growing your food and to
connect with the people that are creating the
things that you purchased. Right?

(25:38):
This is a time now more than ever
that you need to surround yourself
with people that are trying to do things
differently. And and as you do, it's gonna
happen. So I just wanna invite you
to radically question the way things are happening
around you and start coming up with ways
where you can, you know, start taking steps
to improving it.

(25:58):
Yes. Design your own. I'm so excited.
I'm really
just super grateful and I'm like,
this this show is it's happening. We're airing
it. It's going on. Ecoversity
and the eco portal,
ecoversity.0rg
is where everyone can sign up. This is

(26:19):
Steven Brooks that we're talking with here on
the Quality Living with Peaceful support show. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you, Steven.
You're so welcome. And then just the final
thing that if you're interested in coming to
live with a town in Costa Rica,
it's E T E
T E R N A Dot Earth. E
Terna Dot Earth. I'm out there on the
web. Oh, yeah. To receive you.

(26:42):
Thank you.
Many blessings. We did it. We did it.
We did it. Hallelujah.
Amazing.
Church of church of,
church of fruits.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.