WISE WOMAN CENTER COOK
~ >Marie Summerwood ~
Susun likes to tell the story that I arrived at her place a professional macrobiotic cook, and while I was there I became a good cook. I know there is some good cooking in macrobiotics,but I must say the truths and beauty behind cooking in the Wise Woman Tradition make sense and anchor me in my life. That physicalness of the food, and spirit of the life forms that provide it, connect me to the earth in a real and an imagined way.
It is a blessing and a challenge in a world where taste is supreme. Nothing else matters in many people's lives; not cost nor pesticide contamination, not distance from grower to store, nor politics of the huge mega-farms that grow so much of our organics these days.
In the Wise Woman Tradition, the whole nature of the food is considered and any decision might be made, depending on the needs of the situation. Our organic rice and beans are not grown locally, but most of our vegetables at the Wise Woman Center come from a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), and from the gardens at the Center.
Fortunately, weeds are used as food and medicine in the Wise Woman Tradition; that's pretty local, that's pretty good cost. Wild weeds are the best, but sometimes you just have to transplant 'em. When I bought my house I was wealthy (still am) in celandine. I had to bring in red clover and motherwort and yellow dock and burdock. I already had violets and dandelion, and brought in nettles, garlic mustard, and mullein. Of course they live here with me now, except for purslane, I can't get purslane to grow yet.
Learning to cook with wild foods has been enormously satisfying particularly in the deep delicious taste of the food. And I also know that I commune with the devas and Earth Herself when I eat of that sublime fare. Wild Root Soup in the spring made with dandelion and burdock roots. Nettles Soup omigoddess. Chickweed and violet leaf in salad. Pussy Pesto (made with catnip of course) Talk about devas! I could go on and on but really, come to a workshop and experience it yourself. You've never had Garlic bread like this before.
Cooking at the Wise Woman Center is special in this regard, because the plants are truly loved and honored; I know we taste it in the food made from them. And there is such abundance of the plants; truly a paradigm for living. The abundance I mean.
I love cooking for workshops at the Wise Woman Center in part because the kitchen is one of the places from which the spiral flows. Or perhaps I might say the kitchen is one of the places from which we steer the spiral.
Food and eating are of supreme importance to our health on every level, and to the health of our cultures and our planet. Our attitudes toward food - buying it, preparing it, eating it, etc., shape our lives (as well as our bodies) over time. I am grateful for eating weeds, and for cooking at the Wise Woman Center.
Learn more about Marie Summerwood
learn about Marie's Sacred Chants
see Marie's fabulous CD in our Bookshop:
She Walks With Snakes - Women's Sacred Chants CD
Here are some great recipes from Ms. Summerwood for you to enjoy!!
Read Marie's article in the March Herbal Ezine, The Rising of Spring
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