A Crunchy Life - October 2024 Newsletter
A deeper look into this month's post. I share more thoughts and resources for tapping into a simple, intentional life filled with Earth-based practices.
Hello friends!
As I sit here writing this letter to you, it is 41°F outside, windows are open, leaves are falling, I have a cozy sweater on, a warm beverage in my hands, and I can smell the granola baking. It’s kinda perfect. The October post is up and it is all about how, while cozying up our home, I realized that I do indeed have a studio where I do my creative work. It’s my home and garden!
Creativity is different from person to person. For me my creativity is so tied to my heart - my family, our home, my connection to nature - I don’t need a separate room. In fact, I don’t want to be separate from every day living. Every day living inspires me. Interruptions help me come back to the work with new ideas and insights.
Rather than one studio space, the whole house and garden is my studio. I build sacred spaces within the spaces where I do the creative work. Often, my best ideas are germinated while I am sitting in the rocking chair, next to the fire, art on all of the walls around me, warm beverage in hand, snugly blanket wrapped around me. I need the quiet, reflective moments to go deep and see what is bubbling up. To daydream. Then the ideas are born, out of the fire, and I can venture off to the space where the inspiration comes to life.
Here’s how I am using my hand, head, and heart this month.
Here’s how I'm using my hand, head, and heart this month to ramp up my work in my creative work spaces.
Hand: Hat boxes full of material
Stored in the same area as my herbal supplies are hat boxes full of material and my great grandmother’s and grandmother’s sewing machines. In junior high school I used my great grandmother’s sewing machine for Home Economics projects. Its a sewing machine built in a wooden table. It swings up out of the table to rest on top and it uses a knee peddle. It’s amazing lives weren’t lost when I used this machine. My mother on the other hand, made a flower girl dress for me in 1972 for my cousin’s wedding and many halter tops after that with this same machine.
My grandmother’s sewing machine came into my possession in the early 2000’s. It’s been sitting here in this space since then. I want to use it. I’m tempted by it. It’s been so long since Junior High School. My grandmother made the most beautiful quilt for me and gave it to me for Christmas in 1976. She collected squares that she thought would have meaning for me or that I would find beautiful. It’s her own pattern. I’ve loved and treasured it since the moment I first saw it. And, since then, I’ve wanted to do something similar.
That’s how I’m ramping up the creative work in this space this month - I’m taking the first step to dive into quilting. I have a bunch of books about quilting that I have collected over the years, as the inspiration ebbed and flowed. For this project I have settled on Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy: A High-Country Guide to Natural Dyeing and Making Heirloom Quilts from Scratch by Sara Larson Buscaglia.
What I love about this book is how the directions are based upon using basic tools like scissors, pins, needles, thread, measuring tape, and thimbles. No fancy tools needed! The directions are clear and concise. And, the book is gorgeous! You can follow Sara on Instagram @farmandfolk
So, here I am diving into a Patchwork Squares Quilt. 72 squares built from four rows of four squares; or may be 36, we’ll see how it goes. The fabric bundle in the image above, I purchased years ago from Anna Maria Horner. These squares are serving as the theme of the quilt and then I’m using my grandmother’s quilt as inspiration for the rest of the squares. I’ve been collecting loved materials for years so this is my chance to see where inspiration leads me.
Head: Ancestral Research and Practices - Becoming Ancestor
In the October post, I shared that I’m feeling called to begin to work on a project that will take me right across the threshold of the new year. This time period, beginning towards the end of October until mid way through January, is when acknowledging, honoring, and working with my ancestors is at its highest, most juiciest point for me. I’m taking my Family History Book and Death Book and thinking of them as one project: Becoming Ancestor. This slight shift in thinking has opened up new ways for me to think about these projects.
Family History Book
I have written a Family History Book for each of my grandparents and their ancestors. It all began in earnest in 1995 when my father became sick. I felt compelled to return to a genealogy project I began as a school project in Grade 7. I felt compelled to know and understand more. Compelled isn’t a strong enough word. I was drawn to it by something deep within me.
Looking back, I was trying to hold on as tight as I could to my dad, then I was trying to ensure he would not be forgotten, and then I finally realized I was attempting to reconnect with ancestral memories that had long been forgotten from time and neglect. None of us exists in complete independence. We are all linked by our ancestry and our place on this amazing planet. I was seeking connection to my ancestors and to the universe.
This compulsion led me to uncover generations going back further than I ever imagined. It is not just about bringing back names but also their stories. There are so many lost and forgotten names and stories in my ancestry. I have brought many to light but there are still so many more, entire lines in fact.
I’m expanding the family history books beyond the genealogy, stories and data, surnames list, and preferred images. I am adding new sections: maps and locations; a timeline; cemetery list; and other sections as the ideas arise. I want a reader to connect with moments, locations, and stories while also having the opportunity to see the bigger picture of how it all fits together over time, temporally and geographically.
Death Book
Back in 2019 I shared that I had written, what I call, our family Death Book. When my mother passed away in 2018, I realized I was now the oldest living female in our family. That was when I started thinking of myself as not becoming older but becoming elder. Elder like the old medicine woman or the old wise woman or the woman who is the keeper of the family knowledge, stories, and special potions. I learned that I was at an age that in many traditions, including yogic and Nahuatl for example, is seen as a time of rebirthing with all of the wisdom that one has from the past. And, it seemed to feel right.
As I contemplated this emerging role for myself, I reflected on all of the knowledge I had acquired from the elder women in my life and family. With a desire to not have it all be forgotten, and a desire to ensure that all will be okay when it is my turn to exit, I commenced upon the creation of our family Death Book. It really is not as morbid as it sounds.
It’s changed a bit over the years and it has doubled in size since I first shared it in 2019. It has nine sections:
VOLUME 1: Meal Planning
VOLUME 2: Family Recipes
VOLUME 3: DIY Seasonings, Sauces & Extracts, Beverages, Breakfast & Brunch, Appetizers, Soups & Stews, Slow Cooker, Dinner , Meat, Sides, Salads, Dressings
VOLUME 4: Breads, Bars, Muffins, Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Snacks, Other Sweets, Sourdough
VOLUME 5: Canning, Freezing, Fermentation & Pickling, Culinary Gifts, Body Care, Cleaning, Essential Oils, Family Remedies, Other
VOLUME 6: Cleaning Plan
VOLUME 7: Garden
VOLUME 8: Holiday Traditions
VOLUME 9: Emergency Preparedness
Some of the information is just important information to know like safe minimum cooking temperatures for all foods compared to when to save and when to throw out refrigerated food during a power outage. Yes, we lose power a lot, in most rain or snow storms.
The recipes and traditions are the ones that I hope our kids will take with them and continue with their families some day. The recipes are all time tested and treasured by our family. Volume 5 is particularly special to me as it contains the magic - how to make candles, how to can strawberry preserves, how to make deodorant, what to do for a sore throat, and so much more. Volume 8 is also very special: the traditions and practices are associated with specific days of the year. They come from the traditions related to our family (English, Irish, Scottish, German, Kashubian, Slavic, and Scandinavian) and have been adapted for our modern life. These two sections particularly reflect the actions that are easily lost to time. I hope that by compiling all of this into one book our kids can pass forward some of these special aspects of our family. By doing so we will continue to live on.
Family History Book + Death Book = Becoming Ancestor
Becoming Ancestor: Our Death Book and Family History Book will be linked together by a letter to my descendants. Yes, I am ever hopeful the world will survive beyond this current moment. The letter will tie together the two projects by sharing why I started these projects all those years ago and what the work has gifted me, what I am hoping Becoming Ancestor will provide for the reader, and a charge to the reader.
Heart: Kitchen Rituals
In the October post, I shared how I prepare the kitchen space before any food prep begins and how I endeavor to make the food prep process sacred as well. Not only am I ramping up my kitchen rituals this month, I am ramping up the baking and making in the kitchen as well.
Once October arrives its time to prepare for winter. That means there’s a lot of herbal prep going on right now. Elderberry Syrup. Good To Go (GTG) Honey (Garlic, Turmeric, Ginger). Stock blends for cozy teas. Nourishing bath salts. There’s a lot of bulk purchasing of dry goods so that quick jaunts to the store aren’t necessary if its cold, rainy, snowy, or the power has gone out.
This seasonal change is such a welcome opportunity to make food that I haven’t made since the last time the temperatures were cool/cold. With the cool weather comes the opportunity to make warming and nourishing meals and beverages. Foods that encourage the cozy feelings. Foods that bring our family together. Foods to enjoy in front of a fire - inside or outside. Foods that encourage connection and expressions of love.
Coq Au Vin
Fettucini Alfredo
Green Enchiladas
King Ranch Casserole
Potatoes, Sausage, and Sauerkraut
Shephard’s Cottage Pie
Cream of Anything Soup
Sourdough Anything - breads, biscuits, cakes, pretzels, waffles, etc.
I truly believe that the love and warmth during the food prep process transfers to the food. I endeavor to cook with an open heart, to nurture and bring happiness through food for the people I love.
The meal blessing that our kids learned when they were toddlers in our local Waldorf school’s Children’s Garden is still with us. It has always captured so well the opportunity for connection and love that can be expressed when people come together to share food.
In the spirit of love, warmth, and nurturing others, below is the Elderberry Syrup I make this month. I love that I propagate and grow my own Elderberry plants so the connection between what happens in our garden and our kitchen is powerful for me. I like to have this syrup on hand in case of the onset of a cold. I keep it stored in the back of the refrigerator, ready and waiting. Some winters, its never been needed. But, its always nice knowing its there, just in case.
Elderberry Syrup
1/2 cup fresh elderberry or 1/4 cup dried elderberry
34 fluid ounces water
1.5 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
3 whole cloves
3 sticks cinnamon
1.5 cups raw local honey
In a large, covered pot, bring water, berries, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Allow it to cool enough to be able to handle it safely and easily. Strain the herbs. Return the liquid to the pot. Add honey and stir to dissolve. Pour the syrup into glass jars, label, date, and refrigerate.
Final thought for this month:
FINAL NOTATIONS by Adrienne Rich
it will not be simple, it will not be long it will take little time, it will take all your thought it will take all your heart, it will take all your breath it will be short, it will not be simple it will touch through your ribs, it will take all your heart it will not be long, it will occupy your thought as a city is occupied, as a bed is occupied it will take all your flesh, it will not be simple You are coming into us who cannot withstand you you are coming into us who never wanted to withstand you you are taking parts of us into places never planned you are going far away with pieces of our lives it will be short, it will take all your breath it will not be simple, it will become your will 1991
-from An Atlas of the Difficult World, Poems 1988-1991
This poem strikes me differently each time I read it. Sometimes its about relationships. Sometimes its about love. Sometimes its about vulnerability. Sometimes its about creativity. Sometimes its about mystery. Always, it hits me deeply.
As we move into the darker, colder half of the year, may this poem provide you with an opportunity to reflect on the power of silence and ambiguity. May it support you in finding your own message, for your own journey this season.
My hand, head, and heart practices have provided me with an opportunity to ramp up my work in my creative spaces this month. It’s been a busy month so far but its also been exhilarating.
On another note, I’m headed to Mexico at the end of the month. This is the second year that a group of us have gathered together in Mexico during this liminal time of October to November, fall to winter, light to dark. I won’t be back until near Martinmas so I’m not sure when the November post and the Newsletter will hit Substack. Please be patient with me.
Love,
Karen