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Madelaine

@basilandblackberries

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Food for the revolution
@maddy_ringo

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In “The Path of Practice”, Bri. Maya Tiwari tells us about rhythm; the pounding of herbs against stone, the knife which slices the carrot and hits the cutting board, the bubble and simmer of water in a pot. We are told to listen carefully to these sounds, to turn off all other sources of buzz and hum and let our thoughts escape us as well. There is a meditation found here, when we tune in. This is the rhythm of everyday life. This music is life-giving.

Lately I’m finding that my rhythm in the kitchen is very, very fast. I dedicate great energy to cooking well for myself, but I have little idle time in which to do so, and so I move quickly. I will pour the beans for soaking while water boils for eggs and my tea steeps, then pivot to chop the onion which goes straight into the hot pan, and meanwhile a bone is slow cooking and yogurt cultures in its little clay crock in the corner. It’s easy to hurt myself this way —I have little burns all around my wrists but it’s not for too much do to, rather too little breath to carry me through it.

I don’t think peace is found only in rest. To find our grounding does not require dropping all ambitions and spending half the day luxuriating in a lithium bath. I do believe there is a place where both peace and capacity can meet and grow together. This requires training of the mind. It’s a space where we have to let duality collapse so that we can dance with creation as it moves through us. We must carve out the moments in which identify only with the task at hand. “Living in the moment” is not a sufficient description. Zen master Dōgen tells us to “handle even a single leaf of green in such a way that it manifests the body of the Buddha”.

Go beyond your Self and into the sound! Peace and love to you and these sourdough pancakes 🙏 by @basilandblackberries

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a year ago

The wellness industry, oh the wellness industry…aisles upon aisles of co-opted ancient sacred plants which we treat like western biomedicine. The marketing is really attractive — “just one dose a day and x will be fixed!!” as if that shilajit will get you going like a viagra or your daily turmeric shot will kill your pain like an ibuprofen. Despite the branding that makes us associate these wellness products with Ayurveda or some other fetishized Asian healing modality, the difference is stark: immediate results vs long term discipline. Biomechanical medicine vs energetic balance. Much of consumerist wellness follows the same belief system as pharmaceuticals; exogenous substance enters human body and produces x effect. That’s not a universal model of disease, it’s a western scientific perspective (not “wrong”, just one singular perspective) which has become hegemonic since European colonialism spread the urban-industrial model and its accompanying diseases around the world (for more on this, read Lesley Doyal’s ‘The Political Economy of Health’). Disease is and has always been political. It is physiological, emotional, economic, genetic, karmic, all at the same time, and the idea that these aspects are separate is part of the trap.

Unfortunately, it is hard to avoid the rat race which makes us feel so compelled to reach for these quick-fixes. In fact, there are extreme systemic barriers preventing us from living balanced lives. That is largely outside of our everyday control. What we can do is find ways of living that feel like a rhythm, not just a routine. We can honor our ancestors by cooking their simple foods. We can listen to the birds when we wake up in the morning instead of scrolling. We can take off our shoes more often and say “I love you” whenever we get the chance. These things are infinitely more important than your psychobiotic reishi-infused grass-fed bovine collagen peptide adaptogenic superfood powder —but if that shit helps you cope with this country’s descent into fascism and the inevitable encroachment of climate change upon the human species, that’s worth something too.

P.S. guess what I’m making 😁 by @basilandblackberries

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a year ago

I’m doing a bit of a visual rebrand as I transition toward a really, really exciting project for which I’ll be using this account as a platform. Thought I might as well reintroduce myself as I still have some followers from when I was 11 years old and posting my cupcake decorating pictures.

My name is Maddy, I’m mostly a musician and also a home cook and a bit of a witch and quite monkish and a couple other things. I’m a senior at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor but I’m from Toronto. I grew up in a family full of activists and was raised to fight for a better food system. My relationship with food has seldom been easy. I’ve had bad anxiety and eating disorder tendencies since I was a kid (my mom would tell baby sitters not to bother with trying to give me snacks because “she doesn’t like to eat too much sugar”), and I went way downhill with my anorexia at age 13. I recovered somewhat, but following was an onslaught of health issues that took over my life and my mental health throughout my adolescence. I was (and am) what @sarahiswolflarsen would call a “Woman of Mysterious Illness”, and I seek as many opportunities as I can find to talk about it with girls in similar positions. I’m that girl at the party sitting in a corner giving a seminar about hormone health to the other WOMIs at the function. I’m the friend you text from the herbs aisle asking which one will make your cold go away, I’m the friend who will help you figure out what birth control to use, I’m the one who will always have something ready in the crockpot when you come over, and it’ll probably involve beans. One day I’d like to have an acre somewhere for a small permaculture farm.

I’ve been down the rabbit hole and back. I know every corner of the crazy “wellness” internet, I’ve seen the pro-anorexia tumblr bullshit, I’ve watched the sourdough-to-MAGA pipeline unfold before all our eyes and thankfully skipped that one. Lately I’ve just felt like turning off the info storm and returning to the basics. Local food, simple meals, the recipes of my ancestors, dinners by candle light, good coffee in the early morning…I want every moment to feel like a little resistance. taken in Ann Arbor, Michigan by @basilandblackberries

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a year ago

Life lately. Swipe to the end for a sneak peek recipe which will be one of the many in the book I will publish whenever i can lock tf in by @basilandblackberries

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a month ago

Just a girl letting the sun restructure water in her cells and healing from the trauma of earthly existence

#crunchy by @basilandblackberries

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a month ago

Moved houses last week and I’m getting back to my kitchen rhythm, slowly but surely.

I was able to take the time for a slow lunch today for the first time in a few weeks. Simple black beans and brown rice with lots and lots of garlic plus cumin and oregano for flavor and chili powder to help support the agni/digestive qi with all that roughage. There will be a millet version of this included in the cookbook.

In the downtime I prepped a smoothie, started a new batch of yogurt, put the marrow bones in the crockpot, and picked the basil for tonight’s pasta sauce. Overjoyed to be singing my little kitchen song. I hope you all are healthy and happy. by @basilandblackberries

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2 months ago

Honorary mention also to the frankincense for my car and the giant tub of shea butter taken in Canada by @basilandblackberries

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4 months ago

Fenugreek, fennel, chaste tree berry, sarsparilla, damiana.

I’ve been making and drinking this herbal blend as a tea for years and it’s one of the best natural remedies to support my progesterone production. For women with “lean PCOS” (/PMOS), which basically means too much stress and not enough nourishment (whether from sleep, emotional safety, or actual food), supporting estrogen detoxification and progesterone production is crucial. For years I’ve struggled on and off with an unusually long luteal phase followed by extraordinarily painful periods. We must learn how to predict the seasons of life which bring out these constitutional imbalances in order to meet them before they require acute medical intervention. For those of us planning to one day grow an entire human being in our womb, self-care is serious preventative medicine and may save lives.

Drop a comment and I’ll send you the recipe!! I manage to find all of these herbs in bulk at my local @peoplesfoodcoop by @basilandblackberries

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4 months ago

In my grandma era still, let’s make yogurt!

Some other tips:

1. For your yogurt starter, you MUST use good quality whole milk plain yogurt - no gums, sugar, flavors, or other additives

2. Whisk as the milk heats to avoid uneven heating/burning

3. Allow the yogurt starter to come to room temperature as the milk heats up so that it doesn’t suddenly drag the temperature down when you whisk it in. You want to make sure the culture has the right environment to develop at the very beginning.

Lmk if you try this and shoot me any questions 🦋

#cooking #fermentation by @basilandblackberries

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7 months ago

I’ve been making a lot of slow cooked beans. This is only photo I took while I was making chili beans from the wonderful book “Something From Nothing” by @alisoneroman …with those beautiful giant chiles de árbol. It’s all I want to eat on these freezing cold winter mornings, with fresh sourdough, pickled green beans, and a soft boiled egg.

I hope you all are keeping well. I’ve been somehow avoiding this flu everyone seems to be catching, which I attribute to the fermented honey garlic I’ve been taking like medicine. by @basilandblackberries

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8 months ago

Potato dinner salad — artichokes, pesto, sun dried tomatoes, scallions, parsley, topped with some pickled onions and feta and served alongside garlic chicken sausages. Should have added some chickpeas too for texture.

It’s been hard for me to get through these past few days. Everyone around me is just so tired. I’m having conversations with my friends asking questions like, at what point do people flee a country? How do we know when it’s about to blow? Why am I planning to move farther away from my family? Is our community organizing ever going to be enough? Why should fascism care about my protests when we’re approaching peak oil and there is war to be waged? Being alone in my beautiful quiet kitchen feels safe and also a little like my walls are slowly caving in. It’s Saturday and I am going out tonight. taken in Ann Arbor, Michigan by @basilandblackberries

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9 months ago

Birthday lunch for mama yesterday at @thelunchladytoronto …so much good soup!! taken in Toronto, Ontario by @basilandblackberries

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10 months ago