Wintering.

Today please enjoy a few passages taken from SACRED ROOTS || AUTUMN including a recipe.
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"Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence." - Yoko Ono

I start to say good-bye to Autumn, begin wintering and welcome the New Year at the time of Halloween, or Samhain. This was the ancient Celtic honoring of the last harvest and the welcoming of winter. Throughout many cultures this was the transition into the cold months. Winter solstice is then a midwinter celebration when the light returns and the promise of spring is renewed.

In the wisdom and memory of my body it feels like midwinter, I am wintering like my plants in the garden.

Seasons connect with the land, the rhythms dictated by weather and light. Each season holds an emotion, an archetype, a discovery, a moon phase and a mood. We do not need to live in cold to do the inner contracted work of Crone's winter though it seems to come on naturally when we must light fires to stay warm.

I received an order of my beloved bulbs only a week ago. Dave and I have been waiting and waiting to plant them so we could complete our 'harvest' and put the gardens to bed. Planting in December I will tell you felt odd, out of place. My body felt sore bending over and I was crabby and bothered. We powered through it and got 300 or so of the remaining bulbs in the earth.

As we planted and complained about the task jokingly to each other I reminded myself that this was my gift to spring. Autumn's harvest gifts to winter and winter gifts to spring. This was my winter offering as my ice cold fingers dug the bulbs deep into the holes Dave drilled. The leaves that fall over the garden beds are Autumn's gifts to winter, a blanket to protect her land. As the bulbs sleep in deep winter they become the surprise of color that spring desperately desires.

I love a good metaphor to prompt me and while looking back isn't natural for me (I tend to live in the future fantasy) I wondered what my personal autumn time, this time of Maga (the sorceress) gifted to my personal winter time to come.

What 'leaves' did I lay down in reverence for the 'cold' to come?

How easily we can slip from one season to the next without an understanding of how we got here. Who we have become is the gift of our past seasons. Let us not dwell, but honor the heck out of it.

"Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence." Yes, bless the parts of you that brought you here now because this now is our most profound truth and knowing.

Gather the stories and memories. Prepare to winter in these slowly expanding days. Use this time between solstice and the Gregorian calendar's New Year to prepare your nests for the time of Crone, when we will go deep inside and do the inner work, explore the shadows and wait in a greater stillness for our becoming.

For this time of the Crone is when we dream, it is a time of holding loss and surrender, and, when magic making tempts us to desire. Our longings wait to shoot up with the crocus of early spring.

The darkness is here, stock up on beeswax candles, your favorite coffee, spicy hot chocolates and ingredients for stews. Wash your sheets before holidays so you may fall into a clean soft bed. Vacuum your corners, water your plants, add extra pillows and blankets to your cozy places. Make sure your tea jars are full and dark chocolates are hidden around your home. Forage for evergreens, hang a wreath to symbolize how life continues on after our longest night.

Wishing you slow, peaceful days ahead.

xo H

Late Harvest Cheese Soup

Food becomes such an anchor for ritual and tradition. It nourishes us and is a blessing of warmth on cold nights. Familiar meals, holding a bowl we have grown up with, knowing the taste of what steams in our mugs before our lips touch it: there is such magic in food.

1 onion, chopped
2 carrots diced
2 celery stalks diced
2 cloves garlic
3 cups finely chopped broccoli
1 cup finely chopped cauliflower
1 apple finely chopped

3 TB butter (I use non dairy)
3 TB flour (I use gluten free 1 to 1)

2 cups of cream or coconut cream or oat milk
1 1/2 to 2 cups broth/stock

2-3 cups grated cheddar cheese (I use raw goat cheddar)

1 tsp dried sage or a few TB fresh
salt/pepper/squeeze or two of lemon

First saute the onion, carrot and celery in some oil. Add broccoli, cauliflower and apple. Once cooked down a bit make a hole in center and add butter and flower and stir to combine. Coat the veggies with the flour and cook for one more minute.

Add the cream in and stir gently until the flour has absorbed. Add broth, sage, salt and pepper. At this point I used an immersion blender to blend to almost smooth, not completely. You could also take out a cup or two and blend, then add back to the pot.

After blending slowly melt in the cheese, as much as you like, the whole soup will come together at this point.

Taste for salt and pepper. Add a squeeze or two of lemon to brighten if you like (I always like). Serve with a nice crusty bread and butter.