Thrive into Autumn!

The wheel is turning in the plant kingdom. 

There are little hints all around that the seasons are changing, cooler nights, darker mornings, and the leaves on the trees have begun to turn the colors of the sunset. 

Temperature fluctuations become noticeable, with summer-like heat one day and cold and rain the next. 

Plants once vibrant and green, or flowering are "going to seed" and casting their hearty offspring into the warm earth. 

In preparation for the coming cold, energy the plants use for growing moves into the roots.

  

As the seasons change, if we tune into the plant kingdom, its signal is for us humans to follow by nourishing and caring for our bodies.

How many of us begin to feel the shift in our bones only to end up with a cold or flu? 


We may feel run down,"under the weather" or simply tired.   

via herb companion

Maybe our digestive system gets sluggish or we wake with puffy eyes and stiff joints.

The reality is, we are connected to our natural world and the more we are able to care for ourselves in a way that is interwoven within the rhythm of this vibrant world, the better and healthier we will feel during the change.

We can do this by taking a few extra steps and raising our awareness just a bit, during the transition. 

Here is an offering of ideas and hints to thrive into the slower, changing days of Autumn.

REST:

Get in bed earlier. This sends a signal to your body that it is time to slow down from the fast pace and long days of summer. You may naturally feel the shift inside your body, and feel your eyes drooping earlier than you are used to. Try to listen to your body and give it the rest it needs.
Crawling into bed even 15 minutes earlier will help with the change and 1 hour earlier is ideal. I even recommend spending a few nights outside (in your tent) sleeping close to the earth.  If this is not possible, take your blanket out under the golden falling leaves and have a little autumnal nap.

via whidbeycamanoisislands.com

NOURISH:
Eat foods that are in season now. You can find lists online or if you have a farmers market in your area, check into what plants, vegetables and fruits are available in the Fall months.The shift into Fall calls for heartier foods and warming spices, soups, roasted root vegetables, warm teas, healthy oils, freshly cooked warm foods, good protein, and stewed apples. These are just a few examples. 
Eating healthy, fresh, seasonal foods is an everyday essential not just during the seasonal change.
Don't forget to drink lots of fresh water!

via Firefly Yoga

EXERCISE:

Give yourself lots of permission to slow down. Take time to cultivate a sense of gentleness within the body. Stretch. Take a walk outside and drink in the color of the sky, the trees, the plants. Move with your breath. Tune in and ask your body how it would like to be active.Don't pressure yourself to do as much or push as hard as you do in the bright summer months.
Balancing and detoxifiying yoga poses are especially helpful this time of year.Try these suggestions: Yoga Journal Balance Sequence and Yoga Poses for Detoxing the Body

TONIFY:
Make a High Mineral Tea (nettles, oatstraw, red clover, alfalfa, red raspberry,rose hips) and sip it throughout your day. There are many lovely Fall plants such as yellow dock root, elderberry, burdock root, horseradish root, and spinach, that can be eaten or made into medicines such as yellow dock tonic, elderberry syrup, or a "last" greens pesto. 
These will help support your immune system while giving your body a little extra umph.

RITUAL:
Set intentions. Play with your intuition. Make time for Self Care. Practice simple ceremonies. Light a candle or watch the sun rise. Connect to and talk to the plants or a special tree, ask them for a healing or some fall wisdom. Drum. Create art. Write. Cultivate a sense of inner awareness. Listen. Meditate. Attune to the changes in weather.Ask for a healing dream before bed. 


Many spiritual traditions have their New Year during the Fall. It is an excellent time to contemplate the letting go of anything no longer serving your highest good and making room for the new.

LAY ON THE EARTH:
Spend 20 minutes everyday outside on the earth. It will help with much that ails you!

Thank you for this most amazing day

for the leaping greenly spirits of the trees

and a blue true dream of a sky 

                        and for everything 

which is natural

       




which is infinite

which is you.

-e.e. cummings

Old Timey Strawberry Icebox Pie (Gluten Free)

This is the "Cottage", it has been in my family for over 100 years.

Its located along the Susquehanna River in rural PA...

and almost every year since I was a baby, I have been coming here.  

The summers are hot and lazy, there is no internet, and the phone is an old mickey mouse rotary dialer. 

The river is languid and wide 

and most days are spent reading, napping, 

riding old bikes, 

going to farmer's markets and junk shops, as well as local dairy farms and flea markets.

For a moment I can imagine that time has stopped, and I live in a simpler, slower time. Where the world is less noisy and filled with technology, where there are less cars and the kids run free in packs until dusk.

There is a poetry to all that quiet slow, the cicadas loud in the trees along with the lazy buzz of flies.  

Ahhhh, the Cottage...

"I'll call you Huck and you call me Sawyer, and we'll wear tattered clothes (from all the rough housin'), and make up games and use our imaginations and go fishin' and lookin' for toads."

As you can tell all that river time started to get IN me 

so this year I was inspired to make a 

Strawberry Icebox Pie

Its simple, delicious and gluten free. 
I hope you make it on your own lazy summer day.

STRAWBERRY ICEBOX PIE
for the filling:
32 oz Organic Strawberries
3 TBS Organic CornStarch or Arrowroot Powder
1/8 Cup Honey or Agave (or to taste)
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Lemon rind


for the crust:
1.5 cups crushed gluten free gingersnaps or gluten free graham crackers
3-4 TBS melted Earth Balance
3 TBS Rice Flour


-Crush cookies, add rice flour and Earth Balance. Mix and mush with your hands. The mixture should be a little like wet sand.
-Press into a pie pan and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until crust is slightly browned and toasty. Remove and let cool
-Cut Strawberries, add honey, lemon rind and lemon juice
-Dissolve cornstarch in small amount  of cold water 1/4 sup or so
-Place half of berry mixture and juices into pan, bring to a boil and add corn starch
-Let it get bubbly and thick and mash the berries, stir
-Add other half of berry mixture and let cook a 2 minutes, remove from heat
-Fill cooled pie shell with berries and place in fridge (icebox!) for 3 hours


-Top with fresh organic whipped cream and eat within 2 days

MMMMMMMM! Old Timey!

thanks huck.

Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn. ~Garrison Keillor

Ahhhh plants!  
                            In all shapes and sizes and colors!  

There is nothing like the growing season to inspire, music, poetry, art, cooking and more....

My heart begins to beat a little faster in early April, when the plants, usually daffodils or crocus begin to poke up through the ground.  

It's as if my whole world is righted again,

 and I hear angels singing

I even have the urge to frolic outside barefoot, even when its not quite warm enough to do so 

via flickrhivemind.net

From April to November, here in Boulder, CO there is a weekly Farmer's Market

"The market" (as it is called by the locals) is full of local organic produce. 

Enough to make your eyes pop out of your head (in a good way), and to get your salivary glands flowing.

I get excited to see what is in season, starting with the tiny lettuces and other greens in early spring to the mouthy abundance of late July with its burgeoning beets, bright green fava beans, succulent corn, bursting cherries, vermillion and amber carrots, big toothy kale varieties, and so MUCH more!                                           
                                                   sigh. 

Even winding into the fall with pungent garlic and storage potatoes, roasted chilis and bosomy squash. 


                                         ~AMORE~  

It's thrilling isn't it?  

To eat produce just picked, so fresh the zucchini is oozing with water droplets when you cut into it, and the tomatoes so fresh and plump you can actually taste the sunshine.  I'm tellin' ya....

It goes without saying that plants can be food AND medicine and often both at the same time.  Here is a very short tour of a few of the seasonal plants available at the market right now...enjoy.

Beets!

 "The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly is more feverish but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious"-Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

Beta vulgaris

• Beets have the highest sugar content of all vegetables
• Chard is a beet thats grown strictly for its leaves
• In Roman times beet juice was considered an aphrodesiac
• Beets treat anemia, are antiinflammatory, help purify the blood and help dissolve kidney stones
• They cleanse the liver, alleviate constipation and promote menstruation
• The leaves are an excellent source of folic acid and Vitamins K and A

Fava Beans!

This is one of the oldest cultivated vegetables. 

Fava beans were an Old World mainstay.

Fresh Fava beans have a rich buttery texture and a sweet earthy and slightly bitter flavor. They may be cooked whole and eaten like green beans, if under 3 inches. The larger beans (like the ones pictured here) must be shucked then peeled and cooked. 

Vicia faba

• Store fresh Favas in a paper bag (no plastic)
• The beans improve blood circulation and water metabolism
• They are rich in L-dopa a substance used to treat Parkinson's disease and to increase libido.

Basil!

Ocimum basilicum

• Also called Tulsi or Holy Basil
• It's name comes from the Greek, basileus, and means "king"
• Mosquitoes, house flies and cockroaches don't like the scent
• A native of India, it is a popular tea ingredient and memory tonic in the West
• It supports kidney, liver, stomach, spleen and large intestine functions
• The essential oils in Basil have potent antioxidant, anticancer, antiviral and antimicrobial properties

More beneficial properties of basil:

Considered an aphrodisiac, it is also used to treat mild depression, headache and menstrual pain.

It calms the nerves, aids memory and digestion, treats fevers, constipation, nausea, insomnia, fatigue, colds and flu. 

Storage: Keeps well in a glass of water on the counter, rather than refrigeration.

Mushrooms!

Lentinula edodes

• Mushrooms draw upon that which is decaying: in the body mushrooms are said to absorb and then eliminate toxins. 
• These toxins include undesirable fat in the blood, pathogens and excess phlegm in the respiratory system.
• They are high in protein and a good source of vitamin B2 and zinc.
• They enhance the flavor of any savory food they are cooked with.
• Boosts weakness and exhaustion and chi

Pleurotus ostreatus

Onions!

Allium cepa

• One of humanity's oldest vegetables
• A relative of asparagus
• Contains quercetin  a potent anticancer agent
• Onions have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory antibiotic and antiviral properties
• They help remove parasites and heavy metals in the system

Tips for not crying over onions:

-Cut with a sharp knife

-Chill the onion and then peel it

-Burn a candle, the flame will consume the sulphur

-Wear contact lenses or goggles

~~~~~~~~~~~ a few more photos of the market~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rhubarb and...?

Sprouts!  Get in my belly!

Ah. Rosemary. I remember you...

 

Yes, I WOULD like to taste the carrots, how did you know?

As I was taking photos this guy said "Take my photo!" I did. He had a pug with him.

All the coolers for just one farm! 

It must be summer.




*all the FABULOUS information about the vegetables came from a book called :

Check this book out too:

It has some beautiful recipes. May I especially recommend the beet cake, super yum.

HAVE FUN, EAT UP!