Practices TO GREET THE AUTUMN EQUINOX

Summer splashes chaos, bright red watermelon drips down your chin. A sense of freedom from routine and structure permeate effervescent days. Heat of the moment, a mantra for the season, retreat seekers take flight and burns radiate from bare skin. September holds crisp sunshine, a sense of return. I picked what will likely be the last of golden tomatoes off of a gracefully bowing plant, its blossoms withered and stalk bending towards the soil to rest. This week we transition into a time of harvest and rooting. 

One of my favorite books on nutrition, Healing with Whole Foods , suggests taking time to pause as the equinox approaches and harmonize with the transition. Sweet, yellow, golden, and round foods are suggested for their harmonizing qualities. Sweet potatoes, corn, carrots, golden beets, cabbage, squash, rice, hazelnuts, millet, and amaranth are a few cheerful, golden delights to bring home from the market this week. One of my favorite simple recipes to celebrate the season’s Patron Gourd-Saint is below:

Golden Soup

2 cups golden squash of choice, peeled and cubed (pumpkin, butternut, acorn, sweet potato)

1 small fennel bulb or onion, sliced

2-4 cups bone broth, or a veggie broth

1 Tbsp ground turmeric

1 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated

1 tsp Atlantic Grey Sea Salt

2 Tbsp Ghee or Coconut Oil

Optional: 2 Tbsp dried wakame

Optional: 1 can full-fat coconut milk

Heat the ghee or coconut oil over medium heat in a medium-large pot. Add the fennel or onion and saute a few minutes to soften. Add the squash and toss to coat in the oil, saute another 5 minutes. Add the turmeric, ginger, and salt, then add the broth to fully cover the squash. If you plan to add a can of coconut milk barely cover the squash with the broth. If you’d like to add the wakame (for extra minerals) do so now. Turn up the heat until it comes to a boil, then drop to a simmer. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes until the squash is tender. Take off of the heat and puree with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender (be careful to only fill halfway when blending hot liquids). Stir in the coconut milk if using, and salt to taste.

This is an ideal time of year to gently reset your digestive system and support your liver with a simple cleanse as your body adjusts from the cool, juicy, and raw into roasted, warm, and brothy. Your liver loves bitter greens like dandelion, radicchio, artichoke. Fermented krauts encourage liver detox, and it’s the perfect way to preserve the end of summer harvest. This bitters blend before meals will also get the digestive juices flowing. Burdock, Milk Thistle, Dandelion and Turmeric are all herbs to support the liver and can be added to meals or enjoyed in teas. To ease the stress on your liver try taking a few days to a week off of caffeine, alcohol, gluten, and meals heavy on fats and replace with green-ginger smoothies, roasted dandelion root tea, and brothy quinoa with acorn squash. 

A simple Ayurvedic approach is a Kitchari cleanse (recipe below), Kitchari is easy to digest, a complete protein, and is fragrant with warming digestive spices. Simplify your diet for a few days eating Kitchari with steamed veggies for each meal, sip chamomile or peppermint tea, and enjoy gentle movement (walks, yoga). Enjoy salt baths and deep sleep as you tend to your body.

Cozy up with Kitchari on a sheepskin

Kitchari

Adapted from Ayurvedic Cooking for Self-Healing by Vasant Lad

 2 cups rice

1 cup mung beans (or other lentils), I love these California grown Mung

2 Tbsp ghee or coconut oil

1-2 tsp of any of these: Mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seed, cardamom pods, black pepper seed, fennel seed

1 Tbsp ground turmeric

1-2 tsp of ground cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander

1 tsp Atlantic Grey Sea salt, or more to taste

Cover rice and mung with a few inches of water and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Soak over night or at least 4 hours, then rinse and drain. Heat ghee or coconut oil in a large pot on medium heat, add any of the seeds you are using, and when the seeds start to pop add the drained rice & mung beans and stir to coat. Add in turmeric, salt, and any of the ground spices. Add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil for a few minutes before dropping to a simmer. You can add 1-2 cups of fresh diced veggies if you like, I like to keep mine simple and top with fresh steamed greens. Let the kitchari simmer, and stir frequently scraping the bottom of the pot. Add more water as necessary, the goal is to have a porridge like consistency with the rice and lentils almost dissolving as you stir. After appx 30 minutes it should be done, test to be sure the grains are fully cooked. Salt to taste. For a luscious kitchari, add one can full-fat coconut milk. Top with steamed greens, an egg, fresh herbs or get wild and try maple syrup for breakfast. 

Looking to ancient systems of wellness, we can make shifts to our diets and habits to adjust along with the natural world. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Autumn is the season of the metal element and Lungs. The air becomes dry, days constrict, the cooler breezes gently encourage us to head inside. The Lungs are also associated with grief, be gentle if difficult emotions arise and focus on deep slow breaths. Ayurveda identifies this time of year with the Air element, dry and expansive. With all of this cooling and dry air breezing through crunchy leaves, our lungs seek extra support to stay moist and protected from pathogens. Tossing a few slices of dried Reishi into long simmered broths or soups through the season is supportive of the lungs an immune system, Astragalus is also an ally for the immune system. Medicine doesn’t have to be bitter, it can be umami - Shitake and Maitake sauteed in ghee with ginger and garlic is a delectable way to stoke your body’s immune defense.

This week I’ve been brewing a Chai Tea to sip while I’m digging into clinical research in the afternoons. Soft & spritely Marshmallow root soothes the respiratory tract, Dandelion & Burdock support liver function and detox, Ginger and Cinnamon warm and move your blood as the air cools. The recipe below can easily be scaled up, or you can make it when the mood strikes

Autumn Liver Chai Tea

2 Tbsp Marshmallow Root

1 Tbsp Dandelion Root

1 Tbsp Burdock Root

2 tsp Licorice Root

2 tsp Cinnamon chips

2 slices fresh Ginger Root

Extras: a few cardamom pods, cloves, star anise, slices of fresh turmeric root 

I like to add the herbs to a french press and top with 2 cups of boiling water, let steep 5-10 minutes.