After-School Snacks & a Seed Swap

I'm excited to share links to my two latest articles! It's such a pleasure to be included in such beautiful, inspirational and informative publications ... enjoy!

After-School Snacks: A Healthy Dose of Comfort  in Bamboo Magazine.

Swappin' Seeds: A Growing Community in Edible Sarasota (pgs. 52-53)

 

Let me know what you think!

The Journaling Connection & an Exercise for You

I love writing. I almost always have.... I discovered my devotion to this craft at 10 years old, when my mother gave me a lock & key diary, in which I scribed the inner most secrets of a pre-teen girl. By middle school, I was filling spiral bound notebooks with short stories and prose. And high school found me writing poems of love and heartache on tear-stained loose-leaf pages. I took my love of writing to college with me, where I earned a degree in journalism, and continued to find my voice on the blank page. Through my 20s, and now most of my 30s, I've continued to navigate life - including marriage and motherhood - using the written word as my compass. I'm so grateful for this outlet... it serves as a constant connection, bridging my inner and outer worlds.

In a few weeks, I will be teaching my first class on journal writing at a local folk school. A workshop on "how to keep a nature journal," it will marry three of my true loves: writing, nature, and mindfulness. Keeping a nature journal is a way to connect with the natural world around you by recording seasonal observations and reflections about what is happening outdoors, right now, right where you are. I'm deep into the class preparation over here, and I'm really loving where it's going!

I think one of my favorite things about keeping a nature journal is that it helps to foster a sense of place, and to develop your role in that place. I live in the suburbs of a small beach town in Florida. Most would not recognize it to be autumn here, as it is still hot and humid, lush and green. But through mindful observation, I've come to recognize (and appreciate) the signs of the season here, in my place. On a neighborhood walk I collect fallen leaves to record in my journal... they are not the blaze of beauty one finds up north. But look at the variety in color, texture, shape! Look at their beauty! They make me feel happy, connected, even blessed. Nature is everywhere... our connections are endless from season to season, place to place.

It's my goal to offer my class "Keeping a Nature Journal ~ Journaling through the Seasons" here, online. Sometime soon. But in the meantime, would you like to join me in connecting to your place in nature? You'll have to make the time and space to slow down, observe the world around you, and reflect on your life within it. You'll have to make a small commitment - be it for 10 minutes or an hour - to be present in the moment, and alone in nature. However, the rewards are great... you'll emerge refreshed and recharged, with a new approach to your day. If you dare to join me... here's your mission:

 

Materials needed: blank book or blank paper, pen and/or pencil, colored pencils if desired.

• Select a place in nature that intrigues you, or that you have easy access to (remember, nature is everywhere). Or simply look out your window!
• Record the date, time and place in your journal.
• Observe what's going on around you upon first glance... use your senses. What do you hear, smell, see? What does the weather feel like; how does the earth feel under you? Look at the ground, look at the sky... What stands out at eye level? Notice the plants, the animals, the insects, the clouds...
• Record your observations using any combination of words and drawings. Don't judge what you're doing - just do it openly. Freely. Work at your level of ability, and know that it's good enough. In fact, it's perfect.
• Reflect now, for a few moments, on what you've observed and recorded. How does it make you feel? Can you make any personal connections to this place and what's happening in it? Did you gain any insights into yourself or your environment? Do you feel differently than when you first began?
• Record your reflections in any way you like... make a list, write a poem, draw how you feel. This is your space to make a connection, so make it personal. Let it flow naturally.
• Repeat this exercise as often as you can - in as many places as you like - and discover the power of keeping a nature journal!

I hope you'll share if you try this exercise. Tell me how it went for you, what you learned, and if you'll continue... Your feedback means so much to me!

Locals, you can register for my class at the Crowley Folk School, available Nov. 3 or Dec. 1. For details or to sign up, click here.

DIY Harvest-Spice Natural Air Fresheners

It's that time again, where I'm getting ready for my community homemade food & craft swap. This DIY project was so easy and pleasey (I think I made that word up), I just had to share.

 

Here's what you need:

glass jars

baking soda

essential oils (I used sweet orange, clove bud and cedarwood)

burlap to cover (I used linen burlap, found in the embroidery section of the craft store)

rubber bands

ribbon

fall nature items for decorating

 

Here's what you do:

Fill jars with baking soda (mine took about a cup each) and blend in oils (I used about 6-8 drops of each oil, per jar). Cover the jars with burlap and secure with tight-fitting rubber bands. Tie with ribbon and add decorative nature items.

That's it ... my craft room & office now smells all fresh and fall like! (For my inspiration, and a tutorial on doing this with a paper cover, see here.)

Garden to Kitchen ~ Chive Compound Butter

After all the rain around here, my chive plant was ready for a big haircut! So, I lopped off a bunch and brought it in to the kitchen for transformation. One of my favorite ways to use an abundance of herbs from the garden is to mix them into butter. Oh yeah - who doesn't love butter?

Now, I have made homemade butter before, and it is divine, but sometimes you have to just work with what's on hand. So for this compound butter (which is what you call butter with flavor or ingredients added to it), I simply softened four sticks of unsalted organic butter, mixed in finely chopped fresh chives, and added fine sea salt to taste.

To store it, I formed the butter into a cylinder, wrapped it in parchment paper, and tied the ends with kitchen twine. It looks like a big stick of buttery candy! Three rolls went into the freezer, and one into the refrigerator, ready to be spread, drizzled, melted... on bread, meat, veggies, whatever. As Julia Child said, "With enough butter, anything is good."

Ladies' Night In

Last month I turned 38 years young. To celebrate, my mama tribe came over for a ladies' night in, complete with homemade spa treatments, sushi delivery, and bubbly cocktails. My gals know how to do it up right...

Everyone brought something to share for a little DIY pampering. I had a local massage therapist-in-training come give us mini neck & shoulder rubs, and I set up a (not at all fancy) foot soak with homemade rosemary-mint bath salts. Other contributions included natural pumice stones for all, homemade ylang ylang oil (made from the blossoms off her own tree!), and lots of polish.

We nibbled on homemade appetizers including five-spice popcorn and roasted figs with goat cheese & balsamic vinegar. And for dinner we ordered sushi and Thai for delivery... this is living, my friends!

The cocktail of the night was a St. Germain, made with champagne, elderflower liqueur and club soda. And I'm pretty sure I spied some tequila shots going down in the kitchen... of course, that was before I saw a haircut going on in my daughters' bathroom, and before we nearly burned down my kitchen, and before the pool beckoned in the moonlight... But that's a whole other part of the story, reserved for off the blog! The point - have a girls night in! Order some food, sip something yummy, pamper each other, and just for safety's sake, know where your fire extinguisher is.

Sweet & Simple :: Fig Pastry Pockets

Need a quick and simple dessert idea, sure to please? I made these "fig pockets" when we had company for dinner a couple of weeks ago and everyone gobbled them up. Here's what you do... buy a box of ready-made pie crusts (I used an all-natural crust from the Immaculate Baking Co.). Roll the dough out nice and thin and cut into about 4" squares. Place one quartered, fresh fig in the center of each square; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Fold corners up and brush pocket with some melted butter. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 375 degrees for about 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.

Serve drizzled with local honey and sprinkled with a bit more cinnamon sugar. And of course, a scoop of French Vanilla ice cream on the side. YUM!

Yes... Another Swap

Having mastered the homemade food & craft swap, and discovered the freezer meal swap, last Saturday, I loaded my car up with a selection of seeds, seedlings and plant starts from my home garden and headed off to a Fall Equinox seed & plant swap.

I joined a group of home gardeners of all levels in swapping some of our most prolific plants, as well as seeds saved from previous seasons.

The variety of offerings was great, and leaned heavily toward edibles. I scored a few starts for my garden I didn't yet have... like sweet potatoes, snap peas, a pineapple, marigolds, and lemon balm. And, I nabbed some seed varieties I've never grown before, including lemon & cinnamon basil, mammoth dill (pictured), red cabbage, purple jalapeno, and sunhemp. I also brought home some wildflower "seed bombs" packaged in a little cloth bag, and some "seed tape" wrapped in pretty ribbon - be still my heart!

Like every other swap I've participated in, I went home feeling like I got the better end of the deal... trading my "usual" stuff for someone else's, which is new and unique to me! And I was reminded, once again, how swapping homemade and homegrown goods - from plants, to food, to crafts - allows people to connect on a deep and meaningful level. At it's heart, swapping is really all about community.

 

**Look for my full article on our seed & plant exchange, including tips for saving your seeds,

in the upcoming fall edition of Edible Sarasota. **