Tis the season to be berry. To exude the ripe, ephemeral sweetness with a touch of sour thrown in. To fill the lands entirety with awash of colours, all shades of berry, mingling with the greens that envelop them, most of the year. Now, their time to shine, the bears are there biggest fans, they frolic and gorge themselves on blue juices and feed their young until they are good and plump. My berry noshing habits are the bane of anyone who comes for a walk expecting to get anywhere. Leisurely I stroll through the bushes, inspecting ripeness, relishing in readiness and popping the little wild gems one after the other.
Summers staple food lends itself generously to many a dish. Crumble is of course, a classic, and no summer is complete without some version of this comforting dessert. The smell of lemon balm is so refreshing yet full of calm. I added it to the crumble hoping its aroma would shine through. It’s there, ever so faintly, amidst the strong tannins of the blackberry. My rhubarb is skinny and running wild, we found her in the bushes and I managed to harvest a few good pieces before our crazy chickens destroyed the whole lot. Who know chickens eat rhubarb? Who knew mice eat avocados? Who knew humans eat yoga mats?
Enjoy this scrumptious berry crunchious crumble with some coconut cream, ice cream, heavy whipping cream, yogurt, creme fraiche, or just about anything creamy and delicious! Happy berry season to all!
Potent little packages of pure goodness. My heart sped up when I saw two huge bunches of the most perfect italian parsley in our CSA box this week. What a treat, and on top of that, gorgeous fresh mint bundles and long spindly green onions. Wild oregano has replaced grass in our yard, its one of the few things the chickens don’t nosh on. So what does one do when the herbs are all a plenty? Mix copious amounts with buttery rice, summer vegetables, fresh mango and hearty meatballs. Yes, yum.
I didn’t think I was hungry enough to devour a huge bowl of this herbed goodness, but I was wrong. Even with chop sticks it all disappeared pretty fast.
Rainy Days. I clutch my baby to my chest as we stare out the open door, smelling the downpour, staring at the falling water, hearing the roaring thunder. We are both in awe, one moment he is crying, the next he is entranced. I am grateful for this water, the plants soak it up, the river flows more freely. But I wish to send some blessed rain to the people who need it most, to parched soils, and mouths, all over this crazy world. May rain come and bring you all sound sleeps and excuses to loll in a warm place, contemplate.
Some days tiredness sticks to my bones and I can’t shake it. Gone are the days of solid night sleeps. Even when my precious darling doesn’t wake up, I still do, I gently place my hand on his little heaving chest and drift back to nowhere land. Today we dozed off together, a little hand resting upon my clavicle, and I felt still, as if we were one. Lack of sleep doesn’t always manifest in tiredness, there are also times when I feel boundless energy and profound inspiration. The ebb and flow of life doesn’t bet its basis on sleep. While I thought before babe that I would be a zombie for the next years, most of the time I am more fuelled to live fully than ever before. Interesting to note that our ancestors, before the invention of electricity, had a tendency to awaken in the night for an hour called biphasic sleep before entering into a second sleep. The sleep break was used to reflect, meditate, read, ruminate on life’s happenings. A lot of “insomniacs” might be happy to know their mid night wakefulness is really completely normal.
Idea sex. Today I listened to an interview with Jason Silva, short shooting philosopher de you tube, whose “shots of awe” videos, offer people a glimmer of existentialism in a 3 minute quip. He’s a passionate dude, you can tell, this is what he lives for, spreading novel ideas to help our society transcend the murky and rise to our true potential. In this particular interview, he was talking about this concept of ideas having sex and forming new creations, this is modern day creativity. We aren’t forming new ideas, we’re simply remixing old ones and making them new again. I find this to really ring true when it comes to creating recipes. Sometimes I think I need to create things which no one has done before. Isn’t it interesting that at this point in our evolution, there is less species diversity than ever before on the planet, yet, more than ever, there are also more people attempting to create new dishes that will set them apart. This is part of the reason why I’m passionate about learning wildcrafting and attaining wild meat. Just because we can drive our cars to the store and get whatever we want, doesn’t mean it isn’t wildly rewarding to know what we can eat from our local environment.
Hey I'm Chantelle, my alter ego would be a mermaid if I wasn't such a terrible swimmer. I love writing authentically and cooking in my pyjamas. My favourite pastimes include eating avocados, travelling the world and hanging out with a toddler.
