Category: Seasonal Festivals

Farewell to 2024

6/1/2025

My last post was a little bit of a tangent from the Earth Heart mission, in so far as it didn't relate directly to growing organic veg, baking vegan cakes, developments in planning permission or creative adventures in music or crafts. A project is ultimately informed by the life experiences of its team though, so recording my mum's death as one aspect of a very strange December didn't seem inappropriate in the least. Happily, there were other experiences in the month alongside funeral arrangements; a four week stint of Christmas markets (well, 3 markets and a honesty box special opening!) was also part of the picture, even if two of those weeks were somewhat derailed by storms and inclement weather!

To be honest, if mum had died the day before I spent almost £100 on festive baking and mincemeat ingredients, there's a chance I may have decided it would be a kindness to myself to cancel the markets for this year. Of course, she died the day after though and I was just too stubborn to let it go. Having said that, having an alternative, parallel focus for the month was actually pretty helpful and got me out of bed on a couple of mornings when I may otherwise have struggled to emerge...

We started the season on the 30th of November at the Workhouse Christmas Market in Llanfyllin (you may or may not remember that was the venue of the Food Fair back in September) and it was a lovely start to festivities. I felt lucky to be around many of our new local friends at that event, given that it was a little jarring, leaping from eulogy writing to carol concerts!

We'd planned to attend the Christmas Farmer's Market at Lake Vyrnwy the following weekend, Nik's birthday too, the 7th of December, but that was sadly cancelled owing to the imminent arrival of Storm Darragh. Whilst I do my best to produce everything as freshly as possible, you'll understand that by the day before a market I've finished 90% of the baking (apart from bread and gluten free stuff, which is baked last minute and often obscenely early on the day!). That sparked a last minute scramble for an alternative event since there are only so many mince pies that even Nik can consume, and so it was back to Llanfyllin for the Christmas tree lights switch on. The tree was outside, I as very grateful to be offered space inside a local hotel who let us use their breakfast room as a market hall!

We were disappointed not to go to Vyrnwy of course and I really wasn't sure how it would go, since the good people of Llanfyllin had already patronised us so warmly just a week earlier but I needn't have worried and they must have enjoyed their purchases, as we made good sales that evening too, completely selling out of veg to boot! Llanfyllin really has such a lovely community of people and they clearly seem to appreciate the Earth Heart products so we came away from those weeks with a resolve to revisit the Thursday street markets in the spring.

Organised events drew to a quiet close on the 14th of December at a pop up market in Llanyblodwel, which was the least busy, yet we took enough to make it worth the effort financially as well as an enjoyable way to spend a day!

Finally, we made an experimental honesty box opening, which had been planned for the winter solstice weekend but ended up being the 23rd and 24th of December owing to more high winds making it impractical to open safely and unlikely that anyone would want to stop! We were hoping for last minute gift sales and Christmas lunch veg purchases, perhaps even a few final mince pies... But everyone was either well prepared or too busy to pull over so we had no passing trade. Thanks to the wonders of social media, I did manage to secure a couple of deliveries to (you guessed it) Llanfyllin, so we weren't left with any perishables that we wouldn't enjoy ourselves over the coming days.

And that was that for 2024.

We're feeling optimistic about 2025 and we're hoping to get a new website up and running in order to transition away from good old glittermouse.co.uk and give ourselves more opportunities for things like online sales and orders for local delivery. We're planning veg boxes, celebration cakes and selection packs of baking, which is obviously some expansion, but we'll certainly stay relatively small scale to keep the right side of enjoyment versus employment and save energy for creativity and (ugh) more planning application work. In the first week of January, the snow is lying thick and frozen, encouraging a degree of hibernation and certainly plenty of rest while the days are still so short. We'll mostly be making like the bulbs for some time, sleeping under fluffy blankets and gathering our strength for when the days get longer! There may be a new poetry collection in gestation too, which I'm hoping will be the first bit of real news for 2025.

Thank you for reading and for all your support through 2024. Rest well until next time!

Yes, our oven really is that small...

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Onion Squash Scramble... and the Dance of Light and Dark!

31/10/2024

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I might not have posted quite as many seasonal recipes this year as I'd have liked but there's absolutely no way I could let pumpkin season slip by without sharing A) my favourite kind of squash and B) my favourite thing to do with my favourite kind of squash, a recip(ish) that I invented last year and we've been eagerly awaiting the harvest to recreate...

It seems especially appropriate to share a pumpkin themed recipe today too; calendar Samhain (Lunar Samhain is tomorrow), perhaps more commonly known as Hallowe'en or All Hallows Eve, heralding the arrival of All Saint's Day or in certain parts of the world, Día de los Muertos. I shall let you do your own research on those festivals if you want historical, anthropologic or theological accuracy but I'll happily share my own take on it and why it feels important to mark in some way; Samhain (pronounced 'saowain') is a Celtic Pagan fire festival which I believe is fairly authentically ancient. The name translates to 'summer's end' in Gaelic at the point of transition from the lighter to the darker days.

A Samhain/Diwali Shrine...

The last festival was Autumn Equinox, when we saw a balance in the length of night and day but it's unlikely to have escaped the attention of many that we're now experiencing more darkness than daylight. This is the time of year when the trees embody that wonderful dance of dying whilst being at their most abundant, teaching those who would learn that true riches aren't found in clinging, demonstrating the grace and beauty of releasing that which has served its purpose and allowing even their precious fruits to be recycled back into the earth from which they were nurtured, to prepare for and nourish the new year's growth. But first... The darkness. And of course the trees know full well the importance of darkness, half their very bodies live an entire life in the dark, rooting down to places where the light is not welcome.

And we need the darkness too, just as much as we need the light. From the darkness we are gifted rest, reflection, recovery. So there's a reason this time of year is the time we are invited to pause and consider those we have lost, gifts of life we have been called to return to the darkness. It's a time I like to especially call to mind people in my life who have died, to reflect with gratitude on all they brought to enrich my life and practice accepting their death, as well as the inevitably that I shall one day be following in their footsteps. That's not always comfortable, but it feels like an important way of becoming a bit more honest about being alive.

I often think that if we could learn to be a little more comfortable with death, we might find life a little more comfortable too. So whether or not you believe that the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest tonight, I think it's a pretty appropriate time to listen to the voices of those we outlive, be they ancestors, family, friends or strangers for that matter.
Life is not forever and what you do with it matters.

But hang on. Isn't this the precursor to a recipe? What about the pumpkins?! Why is it relevant to share a pumpkin recipe today? Well, of course it's completely seasonally appropriate and the folklore linking carved vegetables to this festival also goes back a long way (I'll let you research that yourself too) but of all the fruits (yes, it's a fruit) that demonstrate life and vigour springing from death, I can't help thinking the pumpkin really is the crown prince. Pumpkins and squash absolutely thrive on a huge, great, metaphorically steaming piles of well rotten compost. They take last years dead stuff and grow rampantly on it, trumpeting their presence with great, sunny flowers and climbing all over the garden with their curious tendrils.

...Life and Death, Darkness and Light

I really don't think I can imagine a plant that is more dynamic, abundant or alive, which makes them completely, perfectly symbolic for a festival which turns to look at death because you can't have one without the other. There is no death with out life. There is no darkness without light... So probably no coincidence then that Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, is also celebrated at this time. Two sides of the same coin.

Uchiki Kuri or Onion Squash

So, now that the preamble is all cleared up, may I have the pleasure of introducing the Uchiki Kuri, also known as Onion Squash? It's conveniently easy to grow, usefully sized for an average meal portion, doesn't require a power tool to penetrate, stores well (easily for three or more months), cooks quickly and tastes completely delicious. How marvellous! And better still, I have discovered a totally delectable thing to do with it! Though I would never advise anything other than a simple roasting was necessary to enjoy this sumptuous squash, it happens to scramble really well with tofu.

Now, I am extremely reluctant to compare plant to animal based foods. Firstly, whilst I have no desire to convince or convert anyone to anything, there's something about the idea that 'if only vegetables tasted as nice as meat, omnivores would put the steak knife down' that seems to rather miss the point. Secondly, there's no better way of cultivating disappointment than raising expectation. So, those are the reasons that I'm not going to assert that this is like scrambled eggs. It's not like scrambled eggs.

But... If for whatever reason you had chosen to follow a plant based diet and it was quite a long time, like maybe a decade or more, since you'd eaten scrambled eggs, the chances are you'd eat this and go 'Oh, that's quite eggy' in a way you probably wouldn't if you just ate scrambled tofu. There's something about the rich, thick yellowness of the Onion Squash flesh that's just quite yolky (as I recall), which is the element I always found lacking whenever someone told me 'try this scrambled tofu, it's just like eggs!' and that is what gave me the idea to create this scrambly squashy tofuy meal, whether or not you think it tastes like anything else. You could use other squashes but my experiments haven't found a variety that does the job like this one, so set aside the watery, fibrous old butternut and seek the tender pleasure of the Uchiki Kuri, you won't regret it!

Scrambled Onion Squash with Smoky Tofu

You'll need:

1 average sized Onion Squash
1 pack of smoked tofu (Plain is fine, smoked is tastier!)
A knob (or three!) of plant butter (I use Flora)
Unsweetened soya milk (oat would probably be OK)
Salt (sulphurous Himalayan black salt gives an extra eggy hint if you want that)
Freshly ground black pepper
Chopped parsley (or whatever fresh herb you have!)

Though it's quite quick to make the actual scramble, it really helps to have the squash precooked, so I try and get one in the oven when I've got it on for something else. Simply slice it in half and pop it in (you can use oil if you like but you don't really need to), anywhere between 180°c and 220°c for 40 to 30 minutes or so, respectively. Cooking time will depend a bit on the size of the squash, of course.

When it's cool, gently tease the seedy mesh from the centre (take them out before roasting if you want to plant them in the spring!) and then scoop the flesh from the skins. The skins are really worth keeping, they make a delicious crispy, chewy snack if you cut them into strips and bake them further, or a tasty container for seasoned lentils, a bit like stuffed peppers but crispier. The cooked flesh (and skins, for that matter) will keep well in the refrigerator for a few days so it makes sense to get ahead on that if you can, especially if you want this meal earlier in the day (we enjoy it as a weekend brunch!).

When you're ready to make the scramble (actually, you can prepare this bit in advance too), break the tofu into chunks and gently mash it in a large bowl with the squash flesh, salt, pepper, parsley and enough soya milk to allow the squash and tofu to mix well, maybe half a cup.

Melt the plant butter in a large frying pan and add the milky squashy tofu mixture to the hot, melted fat. Cook it, stirring fairly regularly until it starts to reduce down a bit and get to a consistency you like. You can always add more milk if it seems dry or starts sticking.

Serve on hot, buttery toast with all the trimmings; mushrooms, tomatoes and wilted chard (home grown, of course!) are especially good companions!

I suggest feasting upon this seasonal treat whilst reflecting upon how good it is to be alive to enjoy it (and maybe being quietly grateful for everyone else who had to be alive in order for you be here to do that!) May your long autumn nights be cosy and quiet, may this time of letting go release you from burdens and may you find the time to rest, renew and restore in the darkness.

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Farewell to 2024

Onion Squash Scramble... and the Dance of Light and Dark!

Scrambled Onion Squash with Smoky Tofu

We're Nik and Annabeth. This is Earth Heart...

Categories

Farewell to 2024

Onion Squash Scramble... and the Dance of Light and Dark!

Scrambled Onion Squash with Smoky Tofu

​We're Nik and Annabeth. This is Earth Heart...

Categories

We're Nik and Annabeth. This is Earth Heart...