Experiencing life through trial, error and lots of food.
As I’m still learning about gardening (and I suspect I, like many others, will always be learning), I have been working towards growing more food throughout the year so that it’s not just a single crop growing in the spring and summer. Each year that I garden, I’ve learned more and had a larger crop than the previous year.
When it comes to focusing on natural health and wellness during cold and flu season, there are some great essential oil blends available for refreshing aromatherapy at home.
Several weeks ago, I wrote about pumpkins and how to roast and use up whole cooking pumpkins. One of the things that comes when roasting up whole pumpkins for puree is the “pumpkin water” that you strain off.
This “water” is inherently sweet, or at least as much as the pumpkin itself. I’ve been known to use it as a liquid base in smoothies, or cook it down with spices to make a simple syrup. On cold winter days however, I enjoy nothing more than using it to make a simple miso soup.
Japan Part II, to read Part I, go here.
It’s been over a month since we headed out for Japan. Compared to other trips, coming back was relatively painless. Of course, there’s always the struggle to return to a normal routine, and the reignited inspiration to vow to travel more, but all in all, the return has been fairly painless.
This past week has been hot. At 80 degrees, it feels like we are at the end of summer, rather than in the middle of fall and it’s completely throwing me for a loop. It reminds me distressingly of last winter, when it was 60 degrees on Christmas. With weather like this, I just have no idea what to expect. When we got back from Japan, the weather was consistently cool and I joyfully pulled out the sweaters from cedar chest and prepared for glorious Sweater Weather. I’d already organized plans for fall and winter immunity building with making a honey and ginger tincture but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s all for naught.
In the end, I suppose it’s still better to be over-prepared than underprepared.