Great seasonal recipe for moving things through the body and supporting your fall letting go.

Happy Samhain!

yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings, or about 10 cups

Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 (3-lb) sugar or cheese pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes (6 cups)

1 cup dry white wine

2 qt vegetable stock

6 lemongrass stalks (bottom 5 inches only), coarsely chopped

1 (1-inch) piece galangal (thawed if frozen), peeled and coarsely chopped

3 to 5 fresh (1 1/2-inch) Thai chiles or 2 fresh jalapeño chiles, trimmed and coarsely chopped (seed chiles if a milder flavor is desired)

4 kaffir lime leaves (fresh or frozen)

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 cup Asian fish sauce

Cook onion, garlic, and ginger in 1 tablespoon oil in a 5-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 4 minutes. Add pumpkin and wine and boil, uncovered, until wine is reduced by about half, about 5 minutes. Stir in stock and simmer, covered, until pumpkin is tender, about 20 minutes.

Heat remaining tablespoon oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté lemongrass, galangal, and chiles to taste, stirring, until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Purée pumpkin mixture in batches (use caution when blending hot liquids) and return to pot. Stir in lemongrass mixture, lime leaves, lime juice, and fish sauce.It’s true what they say. Embrace and share the feelings that arise in a creative way, put it into art, honor it, and it shifts. I love it. Simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes. Pour soup through a sieve, discarding solids, and season well with salt and pepper.

Fall is the beginning of our energy’s movement inward. It is the time of year when produce that is in season requires a longer period of cooking compared to the foods of summer that can be eaten raw or quickly cooked.

The weather is cooling down, and we naturally want to begin making soups or oven and stovetop braised stews, etc, with the root crops and cold-weather greens that are in season. It is the time when oven-roasted meats are appropriate. Not only does this warm our body, it warms our home which we naturally avoided in the summer months, but welcome in the fall.

These cooking methods bring warmth into our body so our life force is not consumed trying to stay warm. It is the season when we dry, can, and store foods from our harvest for winter. These methods of preservation have a warming effect energetically, making these foods appropriate for the colder months.

I am enjoying the fall harvest and the bounty of sweet potatoes and butternut squash from my garden. So I am making soups in various forms with these ingredients and putting some away for winter. Here are some suggestions from the fall harvest for soups, etc. The sweetness of the squash and potatoes go nicely with the pungent spices and support the lungs and colon. This is the season to do a gentle colon cleanse, so these dishes lend themselves to supporting this.

*Cubed butternut squash and sweet potato with red and white kidney beans, onion, garlic, roasted poblano chilis, cumin, coriander, oregano, cilantro, veg stock. Makes a great autumn soup.

*Pureed soup of butternut squash with onion, garlic, spice grind of fennel seed, cumin, coriander, turmeric, red chili powder, salt and white pepper.

*Roasted butternut squash and sweet potato with fennel bulb as a side dish

We are obviously going through a collective transformation. Our lack of respectful relationship with our physical world has hit a critical stage. For some it has been a catalyst for an awakening and are taking steps to rectify this. I’m one of the many who have discovered this is as a life path. The movement in this direction is gaining momentum at an exciting pace. Being a part of this transformation and finding our gifts that contribute to this momentum is an exhilarating honor.

Believe it or not we have support in how to navigate this deep transformation from the very being we are trying to save. Our Mother Earth. Nature goes through a life, death, rebirth transformation every yearly cycle in an intelligent way that supports the continuation of life, and evolution. This is not news to most. However, what many are just beginning to realize in the modern world is that our human journey is a self similar reflection of this natural process, not just as a physical being who is born, lives and dies, but as a spiritual being who is growing as well. When we align with it in how we live, eat and think our physical, emotional AND spiritual growth is supported by an immensely intelligent Divine being. Maybe our Mother really does know what she is talking about.

So how does this relate to our daily lives in a practical way that we can wrap ourselves around and put into practice? A basic step toward aligning with this natural map for transformation is to eat organically grown seasonal local foods with appropriate cooking methods. These foods embody the energetic qualities for aligning with this natural seasonal energetic wave of transformation where we live.

Natural seasonal local foods support us to go inward when nature does, come out when nature does, let go of what no longer serves us, use it as compost, just as nature does, reap our harvest as a result of it, rebuild, reflect and spring forward with a new awareness of who we are while honoring the process of life continuing as a result of a death of some kind. Whether it be the death of an old belief system, the death of a cycle in our life, the death of a plant or animal to nourish us so we can take this journey, or the eventual death of our body.

The collective transformation we are going through now is creating the death of a massive societal set of beliefs and actions. We can let go of these old beliefs and naturally evolve to a higher consciousness in which to build a modern society that aligns with our natural world–the world that is already here, waiting for us to honor enough to actually live by her wisdom. This does not mean we all need to retreat to the woods and darn our skids. This energetic flow is available, accessible and applicable everywhere.

Natural seasonal, local foods are being harvested not only on rural farms, but inner city community lots. Local farmers markets are cropping up in communities of all sizes. The energy around this is building at a rapid pace that is awesome. Preserving local foods in ways that support the warming of our body in the colder months instead of eating the same foods grown in the opposite hemisphere and shipped will support us to stay aligned with the energetic qualities of the current season.

In the Taoist 5 Element System fall is a time for letting go after the harvest of the previous cycle and prepare ourselves to enter the winter months. When we can trust this process we can receive the gifts waiting for us in the winter months. When we can honor all the seasons of the year and our life the ride is much more enjoyable.

When we honor the Earth and eat the foods according to her wisdom we embody her wisdom. That is when we can honor our own body’s wisdom enough to trust it to know what it needs when regardless of what the latest diet trend is.

When we are aligned with the current of the Earth’s natural creative energy we can let go and trust the current to carry us through this cycle. We just have to show up and allow. We can enjoy the journey with all it’s flavors.

This is a fall tonic I created that my students fell in love with. I was lucky enough to be able to gather the herbs in the wild and use lemon verbena from my garden, which brought a powerful wild life force to the tonic. Combine dried herbs and flax seeds. Store dried herb mixture in a glass jar with tight-fitting lid. Make an infusion steeped with boiled water for a cup of tea. One or two cups of this tea a day supports you during the fall months. It is in my book, “Divine Nourishment.”

1 cup Nettles

1 cup Goldenrod

1/2 cup Lemon Verbena/or Lemon Balm

1/2 cup Mugwort

1 cup Mullein

1/4 cup Flax Seed

Nettles — Enriches liver yin, nourishes and cleanses the blood, relieves fatigue, regulates metabolism, restores adrenals and thyroid, restores lungs, promotes expectoration, relieves coughing, promotes detoxification, clears eczema, reduces tumors, dissolves deposits and stones. Drains fluid congestion in liver and kidneys, relieves edema.

Goldenrod — Relieves chronic skin conditions, resolves toxicosis, nourishes and restores the kidneys, clears bladder and kidney damp heat, reduces intestinal infections.

Lemon Verbena —  Supports digestion, lemon flavor nourishes the liver.

Mugwort — Supports the movement of stuck energy, tonifies chi, stimulates digestion, drains fluid congestion, promotes sweating, dispels wind damp/cold, clears damp heat, reduces inflammation and clears intestinal parasites.

Mullein — Nourishes lung yin, moistens dryness, relieves coughing, promotes expectoration, resolves phlegm, circulates lung chi, clears damp heat, clears toxic heat, removes lymph congestion and benefits the skin

Flax Seed — Strong source of omega-3, anti-oxidant, supports the intestines to cleanse and matter to slide through.

I love Figs. They are hard to improve upon, so I keep my preparations simple. Following are two simple ways I prepare fresh figs when I am blessed enough to have them.

1. Cut your fresh figs in half lengthwise. Top them with a small dollop of chevre goat cheese and put them on the grill skin side down for just a couple minutes. They cook fast and the cheese softens quickly if you put the lid on the grill. A little fresh thyme mixed in with the goat cheese is a nice addition. Serve immediately.

2. Place about 1 1/2 cups sweet Marsala wine in a pan with a sweetener of your choice. I don’t like foods real sweet, so I go light. Simmer for about 5 minutes uncovered. Turn off heat and place about 10 fresh figs cut in half into the sweetened wine, stir and turn off heat. Let them sit in the wine for about an hour or more, stirring gently occasionally to make sure they are all getting coated. Remove figs with a slotted spoon and reduce liquid to a syrup. You can serve the figs alone drizzled with the syrup or over something like vanilla ice cream drizzled with syrup. Very simple, very delicious.