Raspberry leaves tea

Did you know that you can make a delicious (and medicinal) tea with raspberry leaves?  

If you're already growing raspberries (or know someone who is!), remember to harvest, dry, and brew yourself a wonderful cup of tea.

It’s wonderful to be able to harvest it from the garden, to drink a potion of vitamins and minerals and to feel a stronger connection with the plant.  

Benefits:

The leaves are rich in potassium, iron, magnesium and b-vitamins.

Red raspberry leaf tea is a natural remedy for women’s health including menstrual support, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause.

How to Harvest & Preserve Red Raspberry Leaf Tea

The leaves are best harvested in the spring before the flowers emerge. 

Choose young, bright green leaves. 

Collect raspberry leaves before the plant blooms.

Harvest mid-morning after the dew has evaporated and before the sun is hot to preserve the oils and flavor.

Spread the leaves out on a screen and allow them to dry naturally away from dust and sunlight.

Or you can gather the leaves by their stems, tie the ends, and hang them to dry.

Depending on the humidity, drying usually takes 2-3 weeks.

You can tell when the leaves are dry, by crushing a leaf or two. It should crumble easily.

Try not to crush the rest of the leaves to reserve the flavor until you are ready to brew your tea.

Once dry, store leaves lightly packed in a glass jar away from direct sunlight.

Sweet green tomato tart, specialty from Canada and Quebec

This recipe was given and made by our special guests from Canada: Tim and Tracy with their 3 children Mialana, Micah and Zoe. Micah was really happy to show us how to do it! Thank you Micah! Everybody loved it.

Ingredients:

-        3 cups of green tomatos cut finely

-        1 cup of sugar

-        2 teaspoon of corn flour

-        2 teaspoon lemon juice

-        1 pinch of cinnamon, or ginger

-        2 tart crusts

1.     Preheat the oven 180 degrees

2.     Mixed all ingredients except the corn flour, and cook slowly in low/medium heat for 30 minutes

3.     Add the corn flour to thicken the mixture

4.     Pour the mixture on top of a home made crust or puff pastry, and add one layer of crust on top of the mixture

5.     Cook for about 40 minutes

Pumpkin soup by Matis: adding water and cooking (part 5)

Pumpkin soup by Matis: keeping the seeds, adding garlic (Part 4)

Matis pumkin soup PART 3

Pumpkin soup by Matis (part 2)

Pumpkin soup by Matis (Part 1)

Watch the videos! From Garden to plate...

Springing into Spring

We had a beautiful sunny day on Saturday for the Spring Equinox. We split into men's and women's circles to explore the theme of balance.

We all agreed that balance is a tricky thing to hold on to, some likened it to a jellyfish, a wobbling raft on a stormy sea, and more of a pulse than anything static. We explored the feeling of balance in our bodies which led to lots of laughter and play.

The men then rejoined the women to present our own expressions of balance to eachother. 

And of course we found balance together in a group hug and 'whoosh' sending all this good energy into the universe.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for a beautiful celebration.

Celebrating Inbolc and the coming of Spring

Last week we celebrated Inbolc which marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox.  It marks the coming of Spring.  I have felt a very real shift in the energy and weather at this time.  It has been a long cold winter but finally the days are lengthening, I am waking with the brightening sky, and the sun is breaking through the clouds to warm us during the day.

We celebrated Inbolc by making a circle of flowers.  We each added a flower to the circle and made a wish for what we wanted to grow and blossom this Spring. Anna read the story of Persephone being stolen into the underworld (which explains why we have winter every year). 

We all noticed all the new buds beginning on our fruit trees.  It is a beautiful hopeful time of year.  My springtime buds are loving family communication and fulfilling my creative inspirations.

-Cat

Celebrating Winter at PEACE Farm

So Winter has definitely arrived.  We have had some very wild, windy and rainy weather over the last few weeks so I was very happy for a bit of sunshine today.  I managed to get two loads of washing on the line, harvested some yummies from the garden, and gave the children some much needed outdoor play.

Thanks to everyone who braved the cold the weekend before last to come down to PEACE Farm for the Winter Solstice.  We were blessed with a respite from the rain and although it was cold, we actually had a starry sky.  The fire was blazing all night to keep us warm. When we first lit the fire as the sun went down we sang some solstice songs and the children circled the fire with their candle lanterns.  Then it was time for a warming soup, followed by chai and cakes.

None of us dared sit in the 'hot seat' but it was marvellous to watch the chair burn

We celebrated the longest night with a letting go ritual. We took it in turns to throw gum leaves into the fire.  I enjoyed this simple act of release and letting go, watching it burning away to ash.  We then joined with another to talk about and share what we wanted to grow with the coming of the light.

Em and Vicky serving the cakes which were delicious. 

Winter Solstice is one of the things I love about winter.  When I lived in the Northern Territory I missed this time of spiralling in towards the darkness. A time for inner reflection, sometimes a time of struggle, but ultimately a time of letting go and rebirth.   In winter time we, like the plants and trees, are mostly dormant, but its a perfect time to let go of our leaves and tend to our roots.  The solstice is like the new year.  Ideas can begin to be formed and germinated. And as the days start to get longer again and the sun returns bit by bit,  new buds can start to grow. By the time the Spring Equinox arrives, we can begin to see the blossoming of these ideas.  So Happy Solstice everyone, and I hope you are all tending your roots and growing wonderful new ideas to blossom in the Spring.

Ollie in the snow - first snow of the year at Mt Donna Buang

SO what else is there to celebrate about Winter...
The other things I love about winter are hot mulled wine, open fires, hot chocolate, and my possum-fur gloves and scarf.    But probably the best thing about winter around here is the snow.  We had a couple of days of snow last week so took the opportunity to take the kids up the mountain for a play.  There was just enough snow to go down the toboggan run.

 I think now its all melted.... until next time it snows.  Maybe see you up the mountain?

Marlowe and his snowman

Autumn Equinox celebration

As we say goodbye to summer and long days we welcome the dark back in to our lives and also celebrate the harvest. It has certainly been an amazing harvest this first summer at PEACE farm.

One of the many crates off to the shed. We have had the biggest harvest of tomatoes ever!

We decided to mark the occasion of the Autumn Equinox when the day and night are of equal length with a simple ritual and cake.  We walked around our mandala gardens and each collected something to recognise what we would like to let go of and something we wish to grow and nurture in our lives.

An autumn equinox cake, see recipe below

I baked a delicious chocolate hazelnut banana cake and we had one side with candles and the other with pine cones.  My symbol of letting go was a dying sunflower, I let go of the summer with gratitude for all it has given me. And my symbol of what I wish to create was some white sage, to bring rest, healing and the sacred into my life, and a strawberry to bring pleasure and succulence, and these combined are to bring more balance between full rest and full energy.

The children enjoyed the ritual and especially blowing out the candles and eating the cake.

Matt explains the Oxheart tomato symbolises his intention to live and communicate more from the heart.

Cat's chocolate hazelnut & banana cake

I used my thermomix to make this and so the thermomix instructions are in brackets but you can try just with a food processor if you don't have a thermomix.

Ingredients:

150g dark chocolate

100g almonds

150g hazelnuts

80g brown sugar

150g butter or oil

4 eggs

1 ripe banana

2ts baking powder

1ts cinnamon

2 tbs cocoa

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grate or mill chocolate and set aside (6 secs, speed 8). Process almonds and hazelnuts to a course meal (6 secs, speed 6). Add to chocolate.  Place remaining ingredients in TM bowl or food processor and mix (20 secs, speed 7). Add choc and nut mix and continue to mix (30 secs, speed 6). Pour mixture into greased pan lined with baking paper.  Bake in preheated oven for approximately 45min-1 hour.

ENJOY!!! 

Celebrating Lammas

Lammas is a celebration at the mid point between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox.
The essence of this festival is to celebrate the first harvest.

It is a time to give thanks for the Abundance of the Earth, acknowledging what we harvest from our efforts, what gifts we receive from the Earth.
It is also a time of dry heat, grass fire, and bush fire.
The main colours are yellow, orange and red (dry grass, corn, tomatoes...)

Today we gathered in the circle and shared about what we were symbolicly harvesting in our life.

We made some corn dollies from the harvest of our corn and wheat from our mandala garden.

"Corn Dolly" is an ancient craft going back to when it was thought that a spirit lived in the cornfields. To honour and preserve the spirit at harvest time and ensure the success of next year's harvest, a corn dolly was made for it to rest in.

Peace Farm Summer Solstice Event

We had a glorious Summer Solstice celebration!

We gathered on the 21st of December to mark the longest day of the year. We had a beautiful sunny day. We had a visit from 'The Sun King'  (aka Simon Oats) and the beautiful goddesses Karina & Phoenix led us through a sun ritual where we created a gorgeous manadala from fruits and seeds and flowers representing the abundance of summer harvest.

A seasonal mandala expressing the abundance of Summer

We were then taken on a meditation walk where we planted a ring of sun flower seeds to bring in our summer dreaming!

Circling for the Sunflower Seed Planting ceremony

Following the ceremony we had a beautiful feast, largely comprised of fresh vege's from our mandala gardens and then performances including the Peace Farm mama's sun dance, Gaia Gita and  Murray Goodchild. We ended the day with hot tubbing under the stars, a cosy camp fire jam with the lovely and talented Malini (of Babaganoush) and Pinrada. Heaven on Earth!!

Enjoying the delicious food

Finding balance at the equinox

We had a gorgeous sunny day for our Spring Equinox gathering and it was great that we were joined by friends from the Valley and from town. The ritual was about acknowledging and balancing the masculine and feminine within each of us. This whole year 2013 has been a journey to balance the masculine and feminine in me. I feel like I have come a long way with this work, partly from my own inner exploration, and also with some valuable help and insights from Arion Light.

The women and girls gathered in the women's space to connect with and honour the sacred feminine while the men met on the other side of the field to connect with the masculine.

"Let go" mother earth told me during the meditation.  Most of  my life I have felt unsafe to fully surrender, and have stood firmly in my masculine so as not to appear too weak or vulnerable.  Now I can find strength in my vulnerability. I am held by the sacred feminine and protected and loved by the noble masculine.

We met the men in the back paddock.  We did a tantric kundalini chanting meditiation and acknowledged what we loved about the other.  And ended with a song.

And a delicious shared picnic back up at the house.

Thanks to everyone for making it a special day.

Celebrating Imbolc

For each change of the seasons I like to connect with what it brings in my life, and simply do a little ritual that helps me to set my intention and prayers. 

This little flower mandala symbolises for me the new life, smells and colours present around me, and in the middle under the candle is a rock with my prayers written on it. 

Emilie

"At Imbolc we see, feel and hear the beginning signs of Spring. Winter is over, Spring cometh. It may well still be very cold but the energy has shifted. It is the time we see new growth following the seeming dormancy of Winter. Imbolc is a time of hope, a time filled with the excitement of new possibilities for the future, either brand new possibilities or those we’ve dreamed up, ‘seeded’ over the winter. Imbolc was traditionally a Celtic Fire Festival dedicated to the Goddess Brigid.

At Imbolc, the seed, held in the dark Earth over the Winter has germinated, it finds it’s way through the Earth’s surface to see the light, to show itself, to grow. 

Aligning with the Imbolc energy - taking our cues from Nature, we can now ‘see’ the beginnings of our plans and dreams that have been gestating within us over winter. ‘See’ these dreams as ‘seeds’ and see what’s ‘sprouting’ after the months of incubation. "  
Jane Hardicke Collings/Moonsong.com.au