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What would change if we treated the household as a living economy, not just a place to rest between workdays? Su Dennett, permaculture elder and local food pioneer, joins Erin Axelrod to explore how daily life can foster resilience, care, and cultural change. Su lives at Melliodora, the internationally recognized permaculture demonstration site in Central Victoria, Australia, with her partner, permaculture co-originator David Holmgren.

In their conversation, Su discusses what it was like growing up with a self-sufficiency mindset, living in food-conscious cultures in Greece and Italy, and eventually helping shape life at Melliodora. She shares how tending goats, growing food, preparing meals, managing household systems, and building exchange-based relationships have informed her understanding of what it means to live well outside systematic norms.

They explore the difference between self-sufficiency and community sufficiency, and how local food networks and direct relationships with growers can help people rely less on fragile systems. Su also talks about raising children close to the land, reclaiming domestic work from the monetary economy, building health through daily routines, and learning to set boundaries in a community.

Tune in to challenge your ideas about household economics, interdependence, parenting, and the simple yet necessary act of getting back in the dirt.

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What You’ll Learn:

Learn how Su’s early life shaped her connection to food, land, and self-sufficiency. [0:02:08]
Explore how Melliodora’s household economy works through food, animals, and exchange-based living. [0:08:15]
Discover how Su attracted people to Melliodora and introduced them to shared permaculture living. [0:13:50]
Hear Su’s views on retirement and preventative health care, and why she thinks individual agency can drive systemic transformation. [0:17:33]
Unpack Su’s philosophy around parenting, resilience, nature, and learning through daily immersion. [0:30:28]
Understand how she approaches task prioritisation, delegation, boundaries, conflict, and emotional learning in a shared community. [0:45:23]

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Memorable Quotations:

“When you live and work together a lot in a partnership, then you need to have separate domains.” — Su Dennett [0:08:16]

“You don’t need to be self-sufficient, you need to be community efficient.” — Su Dennett [0:11:00]

“Living out of the cities, I think, is such a luxury. And living close to the dirt where you do get your immune boost.” — Su Dennett [0:24:23]

“That’s in general, in life, you don’t rely on anything that you do for yourself. Everything has to be given out to a professional.” — Su Dennett [0:26:28]

“The systemic transformation must always come after the individual transformation.” — Su Dennett [0:27:17]

“We’ve got to take things back into the non-monetary economy.” — Su Dennett [0:39:35]

“Enjoy [the] journey and make sure you’re out in the dirt.” — Su Dennett [0:55:48]

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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Su Dennett – Website: https://holmgren.com.au/about-holmgren-permaculture-design/

Melliodora – Website: https://melliodora.com/

RetroSuburbia – Book Link: https://retrosuburbia.com/book/

Artist as Family – Website: https://artistasfamily.is/

If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics – Book Link: https://www.marilynwaring.com/publications/if-women-counted.asp

Radical Homemakers – Book Link: https://www.abebooks.com/9780979439117/Radical-Homemakers-Reclaiming-Domesticity-Consumer-0979439116/plp

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