autumn recipes – conifères & feuillus

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. —Louis L’Amour

It’s the weekend of Thanksgiving here in Canada! That time of the year when markets are brimming with produce and we gather around the table with our loved ones feasting on autumnal fare. Thanksgiving is simply a harvest festival, much like those taking place around the world since ancient times. And while the highlight of these festivals is always the crops that have come to maturity and the foods that are made with them, there is a harvest of a different sort that takes place at the same time— albeit less pronounced, but of great importance… it’s the harvest of seeds. Of great importance as it’s they that hold the promise of future harvests after all; everything begins and ends with seeds.
Continue reading “roasted pumpkin seed hummus” →

The beauty of dead hydrangeas is a memento of the broken promise of an endless summer.

Every year, for even a fleeting moment, I buy into the promise of an endless summer. It’s hard not to in the middle of a Montréal heat wave in the middle of July. This year has been especially deceiving because even well into October we’ve had some unseasonably warm days and a few more coming up according to the latest weather forecast. But the nights are getting cooler and the evenings darker and certainly autumn is here, settled in with deep roots. My hydrangeas can attest to that. They have dried up; beautifully as they always do, as beautiful as they were when they bloomed, only now in hues of brown and red. They are blessed, these gems, to have this endless beauty long after summer has passed, and promises of an endless summer are broken on a cool autumn evening. And celebrations of new sorts begin.

Autumn, here, is celebrated with simple delights such as apple pie.

Continue reading “as autumn as apple pie” →