food – Penny Reilly Artist Beyond the Gate

Dreaming the future…

What does your core tell you about the current way of living?

How does environmental and human distress, impact on your daily consciousness?

Do you get out of bed each day and continue the same old same old that no longer satisfies any but your basic income needs but too panicked to realise any alternatives? Are you living your life in fear or joy?

If you tick yes, to any of the above, what are you doing to navigate the pitfalls of continuing on the same path versus those of changing to a more holistic approach?

Can you envisage an alternative route that still pays those unavoidable bills, brings you joy, fulfils and covers your basic needs without the stress of the tick tock world we live in?

Take a moment… slow down and listen to birds calling, trees rustling bare branches… can you smell late winter scents… breath… or can you only hear traffic and smell car fumes?

I’ve been talking to trees
they reply
in rustling commentary
Listening to birds
along the promontory
They whisper and scream
but the message is the same
Go to the hills
find the silence
…leave the noise again
Where will you be
when the earth makes her escape
Where will you live
with earth’s shuddering earthquake
What good is a sterile life
fed from supermarket stores
What will you eat
when they have closed their doors
You cannot eat
your botox lips
or taloned fingertips
You cannot feed your soul
stale bread and chips
Take stock as winds change
What do the trees whisper
…do you listen
to their wisdom of old
Where will you be
when solar winds set you free
safe in your bed
…or outside in the cold

I woke up this morning recalling vividly a long dream I had last night. I was walking the boundaries of our land, trailing delicate long sticks, one in each hand. In my left was Willow and in my right, Alder. I was humming a tune that I don’t consciously know or remember, but it still resonates with me as if I know it well from somewhere deep inside.

Moisture rose from the ground in the grooves the sticks were making as I trailed them behind me. Our land disappeared into the mist, a canopy forming like a dome over and below it. I woke feeling nurtured and protected from the everyday madness of the world.

What does your core tell you about this current way of living, so many cling to and yet so many are lost and entangled in, some, without truly knowing why?

What does your future dreaming consist of?

What can you do, even on the smallest scale, to create a sense of community and unity with neighbours, family and friends?

We dream… we all dream, sadly mostly of ‘one day when,’ with little appreciation of today, this moment and the fact that we’re here, alive, sentient and uniquely individual. We can become disheartened, forget that we can make a difference wherever we are on this beautiful earth home simply by needing/wanting less… not playing into the hands of the 1%.

What I refer to here isn’t about pottering in a garden or even taking a stroll in the park, rather more, finding a deeply rooted connection with all that is and looking at why we left or as many seem to think based on religious stories, kicked out of the garden for being naughty… well right now we are more than naughty and not just in the biblical sense, because the world that sustains us is diminished and creatures who have as much right to be in this proverbial garden as us, are dying out in droves and we are apparently blind!

Where
do you go
when the enormity
the tragedy
gives you no space
to breath
I wish at times
I was at one
with the breeze
…not the winds of war
knocking at every door
…without exception
No, this breeze
mischievous
wild
grants hope
without perfection
Simply raw
asking for nothing
giving more
than the tangled framework
of twisted minds
playing at kings and heroes
in a countdown
of digital ones and zeros
…stealing the light of souls
as the world rolls
leaking corruption
into oblivion
No
this breeze lifts me
away from the gloom
no sense of doom
filtering light and life
through the room
expounding courage
for others who need
yet, the 1%,
aware of their deeds
we all must confront
Stand up
let there be
no escape for them
…or thus
on that playful breeze
there will be
no escape for me
…for us

It’s not about hoarding as some have said about self sufficiency, rather about not having to dash to the shops for things we have no idea of re their origin, treatment (sprays and gassing) or road miles/fuel consumption but the feeling of satisfaction, when you know exactly where your produce is coming from.

If every person did just a little, we could feed the world.

So while I craft away at my art and the next book that’s very slowly taking form, and winter vegetables are harvest ready in the greenhouse, I think of the rat race life once led and commiserate with those caught on the proverbial treadmill. In order to leave said rat race behind, one has to want more in terms of peace and freedom but less in terms of status, things and more, more, more of everything.

We lack for nothing, despite high rates and the general cost of items we simply cannot grow or make ourselves, but then they’re not the throw away kind of things… not prestigious, not empty and sterile but full of life, (we party too), community and simplicity…

When did we decide we didn’t need nature?

I know there are many like-minded people “out there,” I speak to them daily and see the regular posts of information on climate conditions, which means nobody can claim ignorance and yet, governments approved more coal and gas harvesting, more old growth forest pillaging and as a result many creatures have lost their home territories and we feel we have the right to this… the end result may well be that we will lose ours!

AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON DATA CENTRES!!!! Yes that’s me yelling, then.

Well… that got that off my chest but, that said, does anyone else feel as if there is no return from the horror of the world right now… and I won’t get started on the war, madness and mayhem?

I ask you again… when did we decide we didn’t need nature?

When did we disconnect from her energy and bounty. When did we believe her resources were infinite and that we could plunder them endlessly? When did we allow bees to die for the convenience of being fed by conglomerates rather than farmers, gardeners, local produce merchants or from our own back yards?

When did food, created practically in science labs, become more important than the growing of food in a garden or wild crafted gently from the environment in season. Yet, everything, absolutely everything comes from nature. Even man made creations have their foundation in her and she is the only planet we know of where we can survive… so why are we destroying our unique, crazy paradise when there is no Planet B?

Start slowly… deeply analyse your needs. What are you waiting for that delays taking those first steps?

You don’t need a squillion acres of land to begin a journey of rediscovering what our ancestors always knew and with today’s kitchen and garden books/videos and a few simple aids, we can quickly become garden and kitchen pros. At least enough to fill a pantry with healthy fare, enough to share.

A small garden, a verandah or balcony, a little greenhouse, or even a kitchen bench is a place to begin a new journey of discovery.

Yes, we planned ahead by observing the trends evident to all and we made the time earlier on (despite raising four children and working full time for many years), yet here we are, dedicated to the natural world, enjoying our life with no need for influencers, dedicated only to their own self image and sales quotas.

Dare to dream the future… dare to dream there will be a bright one for your children, grandchildren… great grandchildren…

Walk softly… edit the dream when it no longer describes your purpose… blessed Imbolc or Lughnasadh… Awen /|\

Penny

Nature’s fast lane… around the farm and in my studio…

Nature is in a hurry this summer… we don’t usually harvest quite so many tomatoes this early in January and the continuum is normally into May/June for the season to end. Many are still coming on and the harvest is now a daily practice again… soon I’ll start passata making, kasundi relish, dehydrate to make an intense powder to rehydrate for pizza and/or pasta sauces or oven slow roasted to preserve in oil or freeze.

In the same theme, elder, rowan and hawthorn berries are well on the way, which to me, indicates a short intense summer and an early autumn, manifesting.

Our cherry season is the best in many years and it’s always a race to pick and process them before the bloom, so to speak, is off the cherry… happily mixing metaphors here 😏

Self sufficiency is about preserving, (and as mentioned many times, not about hoarding), as much as possible in the way of healthy produce and understanding there are multiple uses and ways to preserve the goodies. Freezing, dehydrating, pickling, conserves, bottling in syrups or alcohol to name but a few. Every year I discover new methods despite many years of growing, harvesting and preserving food that sees us through winter, allowing us to share, both fresh and preserved foods.

I often freeze produce first to preserve them when I can’t process fast enough before they decay. Cherries, for instance, can be frozen with their stones left in. This also makes pitting easier on defrosting as they tend to be a little softer than fresh from the tree, which is ideal for jam making or for tart fillings, syrups, juices etc… let’s face it a harvest of 75 kg is huge and not something two people can eat alone but sharing both harvesting and the loot is a wonderful and fun community endeavour.

Preserving in alcohol is a simple way to create both boozy-soaked cherries and a syrup, versatile in their uses, such as pouring over icecream, (adults only) adding to tart fillings or simply as a syrup in a glass of bubbles or a cocktail. Brandy, vodka, gin, port, wine etc., all make a wonderful preservative together with a little sugar, lemon juice, orange peel, spices such as star anise, cinnamon, vanilla bean etc., and the purchased spirits don’t have to be the most expensive brands, either.

To start from scratch with producing a delicious cherry mead for the cold season to come is a delightful experiment, using honey, lemon, yeast and sugar for the natural ferment process and of course, cherries.

The bottles shown above will be turned upside down every couple of days to make sure the sugars are distributed through the liquid… alcohol dissolves the sugar fast but sugar can also sit on the bottom for longer than practical and if not shaken up a little, slows down the ferment process.

Next will come apples, pears and autumn raspberries and blueberries… beans are making another round of flowers and I’ll be planting another sort for a longer season. Cucumber, melon and pumpkin are all flowering and if their flower promise makes good, then another major spell in the kitchen will arrive.

Beetroot are just about ready to harvest and as they come on all at the same time, I’ll wash and freeze for later pickled beet or slice thinly and dry for a vegetable powder or chips to nibble.

Next comes onions and I might experiment with making a powder for winter use and so that too many don’t bolt to seed quickly. I noticed packs of dried vegetable powder at the local supermarket, advertising a way to get an intense amount of vegetable into the diet but too much is also not a good thing to overload the system with and at $11.00 for 250g, that’s outrageous. Powders are great to preserve a glut and to use when a particular vegetable is either too expensive or unavailable due to crop harvest issues but can never replace freshly grown produce.

Then will come the battle to net grapes and hazelnuts so that we actually get to eat some. We may well leave some for the birds but trust me, they don’t leave a scrap for us if left unchecked.

Everything is in abundance as storm clouds gathered again this afternoon… so I disappeared into my studio to sit it out and make some inroads into finishing a few pieces I’ve been working on and also little by little setting up and Etsy shop for people to buy my prints and cards online. A safer platform for both myself and my clients, thus far, so, as they say, ‘watch this space!’

You can view from the various galleries right here on my blogsite, prints, cards and books to give you an idea of what’s on offer…

Meanwhile, it’s back to the kitchen to check on tomatoes in the dehydrator and then time in the studio setting up the store…

Walk softly… juggling life… Awen /|\

Moving into change… making more from less…

Lughnasagh came and went… autumn equinox dawned and sped away. We had a really dry spell but this week a cold, wet front came through and everything is immediately green again as if a switch was flicked into icy cold overnight.

Our air up here is so crystal clear, sunsets are legendary and already the first frosts are making themselves felt rather early this year. Our twenty rolling acres are green again.

Now, as we hurtle towards Samhain nights are becoming longer, daylight hours shorter. At this time I always feel as though I get so much more done in these shorter days because its cooler to work outside but snug and blissfully warm in both studio, barn-house and the new greenhouse. It seems after waiting so long for the second one to be built, suddenly in moments planting began and seed trays are germinating in their little seed raising unit. What a bonus to add space and length of time to our growing season.

Our haven, our bolt hole, away from the noise of even our small local town, is frankly, bliss.

Some folk are made for city living, seeking out the dubious thrill, noise and the appearance of an abundance of choices as to how to while away the time when not working the proverbial 9-5 in TikTok time. I guess I see that more like filling in time, frankly.

Food and fashion fads prevail… influencers tell people how to look, think, speak, what to eat or not eat and how to be in the world to be seen, to be recognised. It’s a trap, because really… you don’t need anyone’s recognition if you know and accept who you are. I firmly believe my work sells because the right people find it, not because I’m putting myself out there as ‘special,’ but rather different, as we all are and uniquely so. Isn’t it more positive to be different than to believe we all have to follow the masses and be the same as… the natural progression of that would, possibly, be cloning!

Food has also in my eyes, as a one-time restaurateur, serving simple but wholesome food, become a rude and elitist business with crazy fads and prices as people seek new flavour experiences, constantly. We all need to eat but what goes on a plate as a serving size of food is often obscene and much is wasted, particularly when we know some can’t make ends meet and that one meal would be several servings for them. On the other hand, high-end restaurants serve tiny portions of foam and schaum with splashes of this and that and a sprig of green. I wonder how many people, still hungry after paying a small fortune, end up buying a takeaway to fill their near-empty belly.

It doesn’t feel as if many are truly looking at the naked truth of food… it’s to feed the body and if we have choices in flavour and selection, it’s a privilege to be so well fed. Food should be blessed and savoured but for me, simple is best, where each element of the meal is full of the true flavour of the original item. A fresh bean or tomato, picked still warm from the sun makes me wonder, other than the obvious need to keep food fresh, why cold food has to be freezing, robbing it of flavour and vitamins? (That said, food miles are another huge issue in keeping foods fresh and vitamin rich, but that’s another story.)

Then there are those who avoid the plastic glamour of it all to grow the city-folk food that then becomes no longer ‘in’ enough anymore. Farmers multitask their crops and growing seasons to suit the latest fashions of food-faddery, and it’s hard enough growing large crops as it is. First Kale, then Chia, Wheatgrass, Blueberries, Cranberries, rare fruits and mushrooms etc., became the thing to keep one young and vibrant… dubbed superfoods, too much of any one of them can be toxic to many.

What happened to less is more? Potatoes, and dairy are spurned… only to find that kale has more tannic acid than rhubarb… calories and proteins are needed to build muscle, unadulterated dairy for strong weight bearing bones and a moderate balance of all food groups is the key. Skinny does not necessarily equal healthy, either.

In my experience, veganism can often equal elitism… would we be so fussy if there were only potatoes, meat and dairy available because crops of the “in-foods” had failed? Something, even a tiny, humble bug, is killed or displaced when we harvest plants and would that fat rabbit, feral pig or deer, be ignored if hunger knocked at the door? It strikes me as worth thinking about, what a human would eat to prevent starvation.

After a good table grape harvest this year, the surplus is dried for raisins… a wonderful supplement for snacks, on a cheese platter or reconstituted in curry sauces. So much food goes to waste and it’s preventable… don’t throw your surplus or leftovers away… dry, freeze, preserve, every little bit. A full pantry is a joy to have and no food waste is the result.

Hens supply our unfertilised eggs, (no rooster) they eat our kitchen scraps and get to clean out the greenhouses at the end of a season… they provide manured mulch for us to add to our grow beds to grow yet more food each year… a natural cycle.

Our hens are loved as part of our tribe and they have a huge expanse of orchard garden to find natural proteins and greens, and also clean up windfall fruit and any bugs that damage them, supplemented by a complete layer mix of seed and dry grasses in winter. We protect them by only letting them free range when we’re outside with them and lock them away from predators at night. They are a huge part of the garden workings and their eggs are sublime. We don’t eat our hens but as stated before, if anyone is starving, well?

Self-sufficiency is not about squirrelling food away for times of lack, but there’s an immense satisfaction in a simple way of being that focuses on seed to shoot, to bud, leaf and fruit that is grown in abundance to share around a table with friends and family. Contrary to those who would rather buy from the supermarket because everything’s there in one place, the taste is beyond any store bought foods… and vitamin rich, as we’re sticklers for keeping our soil healthy too.

What would happen

if we all wanted less

less mess, less stuff

less electricity

less commuting

driving, travelling

What if

we stayed put

for a while…

grew our own food

as much as

the local climate allowed…

traded what we couldn’t grow

recycled, repurposed

redesigned stuff

that otherwise

goes to landfill

What if

puffed up lips

fingernails like talons

and “perfect”

designer figures

were no longer

a must have

to suit

someone else’s ideal

What if

muscle and lean flesh

came naturally

from working in nature daily

What if

hopping on planes

to sit in the sun

elsewhere

was replaced by

sitting in the sun

talking with

a lonely neighbour

locally

What if

instead of complaining

that “they”

should do something

about the carbon footprint

whilst driving to the shops

to buy that new

influencer-touted item

that will change your life

made in sweatshops

on the other side

of the globe

What if

YOU

were to do

all you can

…and then, within it all we’re surrounded by the creatures who inhabit the land and we do all we can to keep that happening as a natural progression. We live with and interact with them… they have huge tracts of forest and wetlands around but they choose to be here in close proximity to us.

I refuse to prescribe to humans as a a virus or an oversight in nature… it’s a strange way of seeing ourselves as superfluous to the equation. Yes, we have done extensive damage to many lives, many creatures, with our selfish view of development at all cost and are paying the price with climate change and the extinction of millions of species, as we delude ourselves into thinking that we are more important than any other life form. In so doing, we have upset the natural balance of a planetary, multilevel ecosystem and are paying the price for greed.

We work with nature and the creatures around us and I’m happy to see a growing movement of people aspiring to return to a simple way of living in balance with, rather than in domination of nature. We preserve life here but also protect our gardens and the food we grow because we have an equal right to live and eat. This way every living thing is fed and nurtured…

Listen

to the sounds

between the notes

howling stark

through rising dark

and whispers soft

…born from stillness

spun aloft

on fierce winds

that bring

the song

of life and death

carried on every breath

through eons

…across time and space

in a wild

cosmic movement

leaving nothing

in place

only the illusion

of separation

hidden

in the music

between the notes

…listen

Walk softly… be aware of all of life as equal… Awen /|\

Penny