An autumn ritual for winter wellness.

This is an old traditional way of using wild yeasts that eat sugar, begin to proliferate and bubble making them fizzy like soda. Unlike our store bought sodas, these have lots of health benefits. The herbs and roots are packed with healing properties, the ginger is an excellent digestive and the fermentation has wild strains of lactobacillus bacteria that also aid the gut in its digestive work. The bacteria eat up most of the sugar as they convert it to delightful bubbly fizz.

This soup is simple, elegant and just the right thing to nourish us as we enter the cooler seasons. We love to serve it inside of scooped out little pumpkins.

Pumpkin is super healthy but how we often eat it isn’t. It is rich in nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that give extra benefits to the eyes, heart and skin,

Here is a recipe that uses pumpkin from scratch to make a savory and lightly, honey sweetened galette. My brother grows pumpkins for us every year and he love to mix it up. I’m always game to try the different varieties he has grown each autumn. This year we roasted a Candy Roaster Squash but also love to use Hubbard.

On the honorable harvest.

Feeling overwhelmed? Got chronic pain or digestive issues? Of course we all want a magic pill to immediately cure our ailments. And more so… we want that relief yesterday or sooner.

Yet our quick fix, symptom-chasing mindset perpetuates our wellness dilemma. We frantically chase our own tail hoping to get the finish so we may finally rest or finally grasp a taste of nourishment.

An autumn tradition and celebration.

The fullness, warmth and body of the growing season culminates with the Autumn Harvest. We gather, stock and store the high-density, nutrient-packed foods. The grains, corn, wheat, rice and rye, symbolize sustenance and a longevity of food security for the long winter ahead.

Some days, I’m not excited about cooking an elaborate meal. Or, I just can’t find the time before everyone in my family is hangry. One of my favorite solutions for this, is to have a variety of delicious, homemade sauces on hand. They can be dipped with bread or crackers, spread over simple steamed veggies or baked with a chicken breast. They are easy and add a bright, fresh pop to our meals on the fly.

Making sweet medicine using with the holy plant of the mountains.

Autumn is the time of rooting; drawing vital energy down and into our center as we transition to winter. It can be a vulnerable time for our bodies and minds. The coolness can feel sharp and drying. This transition kicks up wind, which can be abrupt and irritating, as well as the cold and flu season adding a little stress to our system.

Cinnamon…

is a warming tonic herb, circulatory stimulant and a digestive carminative. Cinnamon is an antioxidant, anti viral, anti bacterial and anti fungal so it assists in the transition period to a colder season and fights off infections that may arise in the cooler temperatures.

We love to grow our own carrots; it’s simple and easy. No matter how many times we harvest, the kids always get surprised to see an orange, purple or golden carrot emerge from the dirt. Fresh, home-grown carrots have a vastly different aroma and taste than the bulk bags we can buy from the store. They have an earthy, aromatic smell with a much crisper and sweeter bite. Truly, this is one of the simplest yet most elegant recipes that feels like a celebration of Autumn.

Simple, wildcrafted and packed with health benefits.

The Autumn Lantern walk is an old, potent tradition of making paper lanterns and venturing into the dark, cold night. The ritual symbolize kindling our inner light as we cross over into the long nights of winter. Facing the unknown and the unseen, trusting our inner guides. We celebrate the loss of something we long for and trust in the lesson we have to learn in its’ absence. What does darkness have to teach us? How does longing work on us in the unknown or unseen realms? Perhaps like the plant world, we grow the more we root and like the spirit world, we shine the more we embrace the dark. As we venture into the dark and cold we find that we are not depleted by the lost of light and warmth but fortified by our connection to the cycles of nature.

This bird is brined in apple cider over night and slowly roasted the day of the feast. It is tender, juicy and bursting with unique flavors.

Being invited into an artist’s studio, up the mountain, past the outskirts of town, quite a ways down a winding dirt road and into the forest, feels like a visit to a shaman. Artists straddle the worlds and live in the thinned veiled realms of the creative. Their homes and studios have a unique energy to them. They can’t help but imbue their space and working materials with an artistic magic; alchemizing basic materials into to icons, idols and keepers of human meaning.

We got to spend an early evening in the meadow with our local rancher, Woody Woodward. I knew a little about the work he was doing with the animals and we have a freezer stocked with some of the best beef we have ever eaten from his ranch. What Woody is doing through Magnolia Grassfed is so much more than just providing delicious food. His practices are helping maintain the health of the meadows by mimicking ancient herding behaviors. Woodys work with the ecology of the meadow supports the grater wildlife sanctuary this community calls home.