Seasonal Good(s)

 Loving ourselves and life from where we are 

Until I decide I won't, I am penning, these blog posts in support of my ongoing sacred journey course,“Creating a Life of Contentment,"  which began Sept. 15. For one entire year, we'll be traveling together as intimate companions: to relax, let go and rest into Love; to discover the bliss of our own life. I hope you will join me here! You can learn more about the program there. 

Seasonal Good(s) 

This past weekend I had the pleasure of visiting a farmer’s market in a town about 3 hours away. I’ve written here before how much I enjoy early morning markets in the fall.

I love the colors and shapes of the season as they assail my senses. Plump, juicy, red tomatoes (though I tend to buy the tiny ones for salads.) Peppers of many hues. The deep greens of broccoli, zucchini, and beans remind me how wonderful I’ll feel after ingesting their natural Iron and Vitamin B. I buy sweet melons and all-season strawberries as a surprise for my husband. He loves fruit.

As we strolled the wide aisles, arm in arm, a lone musician played his guitar singing folk tunes and ballads. I placed a dollar in his open guitar case. The smell of kettle corn was in the air and the scent of fresh baked bread and pastries tagged along.

I felt as if we were “in the flow” of the season. Strolling, savoring, no hurry to get anywhere, just like the changing leaves on the trees—ever so slowly they turn, release, float to the ground.

I have a theory about the seasons of the year in conjunction with our inner lives. I sense that if our body/mind rhythms match those of the time of year we find ourselves in, we’ll feel much more at ease; a part of nature, rather than apart from nature.

In the flow, that is the best way for me to describe it.

Preparing seasonal foods is part of that flow. And that’s why I go to the farmer’s market so faithfully in the fall. I want to serve up the current bounty. It helps me feel a part of nature’s process and, in that, there is oneness ... savoring ... appreciation.

It’s nearing the end of September so my kitchen counter is lined with a variety of winter squash. Tonight we’ll have spaghetti squash, my favorite. Zucchini too. Being vegetarians, fall is double delight time for us.

And then there are the peaches. We live in the heart of peach and apple country on this peninsula. Orchards dot the landscape. As do vineyards, wine being the new hot commodity of northern Michigan.

At the market I selected a small quantity of Red Haven peaches. Yesterday I baked a cobbler. So simple. So delicious! So ripe with the flavor of the season. I felt in the flow while preparing it.

Content. I felt truly content.

It’s funny how something so simple—a fuzzy skinned peach—peeled and baked with flour and sugar, can dump one into the lap of delight.

Just for fun, here’s my Peach Cobbler recipe. I found it on the internet, though now I don’t know where. It was simply called, “Grandma’s Peach Cobbler.” It does have the ambience of a cobbler well baked in a turn-of-the-century kitchen by Grandmother in her checked apron.

Grandma’s Peach Cobbler

½ cup butter (1 stick)

1 cup flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

3 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches, with their  juices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put the butter in a 9x13 Pyrex baking dish and put the dish in the preheating oven. While the butter is melting, mix up the batter by combining the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and milk.

When the butter is melted, remove the pan and pour the batter into the melted butter. Then spoon the peaches and juice evenly over the batter.  Bake 30 minutes.

Serve plain or with ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!