Carrot nests with blue rice “eggs” for a Spring Equinox feast in our final class on Ritual & Feasting today.
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Words on “Ancestral & Healing Food” and what I mean by this: I’ve wondered how to describe what I am creating, and in essence I see food as a direct and intentional recognition of our aliveness, a connection to our ancestors that runs unbroken any time we create or eat beauty, taking it into our physical body.
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I don’t generally research recipes from 300 or more years ago and make them mine, but I do recognize and grow certain plants, many of them at the root of my own varied ancestral foods, and then I listen for what wants to be made from them.
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When I prepare food for others, I “listen” to the group and see what flavors and stories are emerging-I’ve had people come to tears after eating a roast turnip, being transported to a childhood moment in the garden of a grandparent. And I’ve witnessed deep healing laughter in eating popsicles made from pine needles; the unhinged joy of taking trees in the form of a frozen treat.
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Food connects us to one another, to the plants, to our ancestors, and to our sense of who we are and where we go from here.
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The lens through which we view the world is informed irrevocably by our ancestors and their stories, the wonderful and the tragic and everything in between. We can honor the threads we want to follow by eating beauty in a way that’s true for us at each moment of our lives.
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And often, playing and laughter are the most direct links, so it’s a good idea to eat little orange carrot nests with bright blue rice “eggs” and laugh whenever possible with those ones across the table.
