Gifts from the Sea on the Sonoma Coast
The Intentional Table
A Green Sea Anenome looking for a snack! In the culinary arts and herbal medicine worlds, sea vegetables have carved out a niche as versatile, nutrient-dense ingredients. Among the most celebrated are kombu and bladderwrack, two brown seaweed types stapled in traditional diets and remedies for centuries. 0715 @ Bodega Bay. = Heaven #IAMSOSPOILED because I live only 45 minutes from several beaches with an incredible abundance of seaweeds. I went yesterday and hand harvested about 20 pounds! The ones I love the most are Kombu, Bladderwrack, Nori, Sister Sarah, and Feather Boa. Yesterday,...
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Arugula... it's a vegetable... right?
The Intentional Table
Arulgula…. it’s a vegetable! Click the Image above to hear it! Arugula Examining the Health Benefits and Nutrition of this Powerhouse Leafy Green Arugula was a valued green in ancient Rome, where it was celebrated in poetry and prose for its effects on mind and body. Unfortunately, it’s far less popular today than its cousins spinach and kale, even though arugula may be the healthiest green of all. In this article, we’ll look at the evidence for arugula’s health benefits and see if those ancient Romans were right to celebrate it. I know I shouldn’t do this because of...
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Auto Immune Release Series Part 2
The Intentional Table
Apple Blossoms @ Musea. Showy! Well, here it is, our second week of thoughts and inspirations about Auto-Immune conditions, how we all have a little of it going all the time, and what we can do about it. Spoiler alert: I am going to write about a plant-based diet this time. My hamburger loving self cringes. But remember that I said last time everything in moderation? Here is a good time to take a breath and remember that you do not have to go cold turkey on the turkey! Increase your intake of rainbow-colored fruits and vegetables. Consume more colorful fruits and vegetables to get as much...
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Auto Immune Release Series Part 1
The Intentional Table
Apricots Anyone? @ Musea What is an autoimmune disease? Why are we speaking about this, at length at the Intentional Table? Great questions! Let’s do this in reverse order. The why of this is life. We all know we are alive, as the machines that go ‘ping’ tell us when we are strapped in. But we also understand that there is way more to it than that. We are sometimes led to think that we are simply biological machines and that, like getting the oil in your car changed, you can go to the doctor if you live your life poorly, and they will ‘fix’ you. Then, out the door and on your...
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Intentional Wellness from Musette
The Intentional Table
Greetings all, How wonderful it is to speak to you through this simple platform. I wish we could all sit around the Intentional Table itself (mine or yours) and drink in the feeling of togetherness, which is the ‘why’ in the ‘what’ around here. I would like you to have a gift. It’s a preview of a book I am writing about Nutritional Wellness. It’s not a b…
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I Taste, Therefore I Am...
The Intentional Table
At the Intentional Table, we taste. Do we ever! Every person who learns to eat, cook, or serve should also learn how to taste. Sounds easy, right? Not so fast, my dearest. Taste is an objective and a subjective thing! It’s objective because every person that is a person (despite a few unfortunate outliers) has taste buds built into the design. However, just because you have the hardware doesn't mean you have the software. If you do have the software, then you have an appreciation of fundamentals when it comes to how your organ of perception, which is your mouth, your tongue, your nose,...
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Biodynamics Basics
The Intentional Table
Hello, my intrepid Intentional Table guests! Today, with our afternoon wine, will be the topic that is near and dear to our hearts here. Biodynamics. What is it, you may ask? Why is it important to this table, Musea, and our lives? All good questions. Read on, and if you want the DEEP DIVE EXTRA CREDIT, it’s at the bottom.⬇︎ There are two polar views of scientific reality when it comes to the consideration of the active practice of biodynamics. One is the left-brain approach, represented by the Newtonian Analytical view that has dominated science for the last two centuries. Newton...
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February 4 is World Cancer Awareness Day
The Intentional Table
Take a look at this team. They are really on it. Click the image for link. You may ask yourself, now, why would he say that? It certainly could apply to any human, anywhere. There are 340 activities around the world for Cancer Day. So, it must be happening, you know, out there somewhere. Hubris leads to nemesis. Cancer, hunger, war, disease, and crime all happen. It must happen because it’s all over the news. It’s hard to connect with anything like this while you read it on the device in your hand while it charges at Starbucks as you sip your mocha. Our children have never seen it. Our...
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The Agony and The Ecstasy of the Table
The Intentional Table
I thought I would take a few minutes to see if you would like to travel with me back in time to revisit exactly what the intentional table is and how it's considered here in our little conversation and in real life. If you asked me to cook for you, I would be delighted. That's all there is to it. I wouldn't question what our budget was, what the logistics were, or really what it was that you wanted to eat when you're with whom. All those things are in a particular way beside the point. What this means is that you're asking me to create with intention, something for you that actually serves...
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Only the wounded eye can see
The Intentional Table
I came up with this phrase while meditating yesterday. It was inspired by something my dear friend Andrew Johnstone told me recently. At the Intentional Table, we find ourselves circling back to an important theme with a recurring and increasing frequency: Gratitude. It's an incredibly overused, misused, and, I think, sometimes misleading term. Oxford says, “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” In the latter part of that sentence is the key, which is ‘returning.’ There is an idea that we commonly refer to in Intentional...
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When I think about autumn, I get a little period of time where my vision doesn't work so well and is misty and unfocused. I get ‘Swooney’ (is that a word?) and a little bit of a wisp of thought about the past. This has always been my favorite part of the year, but just the early part. I don’t really like the after-mid-way part. I have my reasons. But suffice it to say, I love (x100) the early autumn when rich, ripe apples like the above come into our world here at Musea. This year, we had 7,000 pounds of apple goodness. We do not grow 3.5 tons of apples here, but we know who does, and he also knows that we have the press. So, a deal was struck.
These (the ones in the photo above) are gravenstien apples, a local favorite. Where I am from in West Virginia and Appalachia, generally, there are literally dozens, if not hundreds of varieties of apples that have been jealously guarded, served, cultivated, and harvested over the last couple hundred years. A friend recently laughed when I said that I was from ‘Apple-achia.’ This is no joke. Johnny Appleseed (aka John Chapman) was a real person and an astute arborist who brought apple cultivation right to our holler in them there flats where we could grow them. My mom sometimes called me that name when she was messing with me.
I remember every year, right after Octoberfest celebrations (we were not of German descent, but plenty in our area were, and they know how to throw a bash!), we would meet other families and friends at the apple press. We didn’t have the resources to have our own press, so we shared one communally. It was quite an affair, with adults hiding the ‘real’ cider from the kids and everyone’s mom yelling, “Keep your fingers outta there! Hey, Bob, watch him, will ya?”
Blankets were spread out on the grass for probably the last time of the year, and it’s remarkable how well fresh cider goes with fried chicken. Let’s be clear, it goes with anything, ever. I remember being surprised at how sticky I ended up and that my mother would mince at me about getting her car seat all ‘gummy.’
We all shared. There was a par, meaning that you were required to bring a certain haul of apples with you. The par was usually about 100# or so, which is about 4 apple baskets worth.
If you didn't have that many, they would give you a partial share of the cider based on your contribution. Nobody went home without some. It was fair, it was simple, and it was easy. How I wish things were still this easy. My family never had a full ration, as we didn’t have many trees. We were dairy people. So, it was known to happen from time to time that barters would be made, especially for that ‘aged’ cider that my dad hid in his coat. So if we had cheese and cream, we usually went home with more than our ‘apples-in’ share. My mom should have worked on the stock market, considering the way she would wrangle someone out of a pie, hoop cheese (fresh mozzarella), or butter. (We had the milk, but I was the butter churner, and I was not too keen about it. Thus, low butter on hand.)
So, when I think about the richness of the holiday season, I also find myself so incredibly grateful for you. Those of you who are receiving this are those who decided to part with some of your hard-earned money to help me offset the cost of producing and creating this. It allows me a great deal of artistic and creative freedom, and I cannot thank you enough. I am so grateful.
See you tomorrow for a great post-holiday missive that I know will knock your socks off. (Or at least make you hungry!)
Have I mentioned lately that my beautiful wife and partner also has a Stack for your reading pleasure? and Well recommended reading and listening.
Chef
