Fact: I’m not a seasonal eating stickler. You can be one if you live in CA. And in fact, I think all dogmatic seasonal eaters are CA natives…Yeah, if freaking everything grows in your garden all year round it’s a breeze to eat seasonally. Way harder when there’s snow on the ground for 5 months out of the year. But, a little snowfall doesn’t mean that we should totally disregard consuming locally and seasonally when possible. Why not rock a little modern convenience and crafty old-schooler fusion when we can?!
Part of season eating has to do with what actually works for our bodies energetically from season to season. Besides those champs actually being in season, there’s a reason you can’t get pumpkin out of your mind in the fall months. Winter squash is beautifully grounding and warming. After the slightly flighty heat of summer, we need that. And that energy travels into winter, when all you want to do is cozy up with some stew versus sip a green smoothie chalk full of pineapple and fruity goodness. In spring, as we start to shed our winter layer - for sure - now we want that bright, clarifying, and detoxing energy from greens and citrus and possibly in smoothie form. Then as we battle the heat of summer a light salad and soem sugary fruit helps to combat that heaviness.
Flush grocery stores are lovely. But they can be yet another force in our life pulling us away from what it is our body actually wants. The cacophony of fruitastic choices available tends to drown out our body giving us the old nudge that perhaps something else would be a more nourishing choice. As we start to shift into fall, and the best season ever (aka: the season of the pumpkin) take a moment to pause as you shop. What’s in season? What had to travel a freaking cross-continental marathon to get to you? And what does your body actually want? Sometimes that is absolutely berries in December. Go for it. But often there’s a beauty to that finite resource that is seasonal food. When it’s there it’s damn good. And when it’s not you miss it but you know it will be back. Like true love. Or perfect lulu pants. Whatever works for you.
Now onto the jam! I don’t know why I’ve always found jam so terrifying. Perhaps it’s because canning itself intimidates the pants off of me. Granted, I’m often in booty shorts, so that’s not much pants to scare…But, canning aside, getting down with some jam ain’t that hard. And it’s a great way to use the peaches that are getting riper and riper due to one's overly enthusiastic support of the CO peach industry…
This jam is just a base. Change the spices. Add some whiskey. Go crazy!
Paleo Peach Jam Ingredients
4-6 ripe peaches (I used 4 honkin’ ones and it was plenty!) juice of 1 lemon zest of 1 lemon 1t cinnamon 1/4 c coconut sugar aggressive glug of whiskey (optional)
Instructions
By: Maddie Berky
Maddie is a writer, blogger, storyteller & holistic nutritionist. She is not a purveyor of answers, but an asker of questions. And she seeks not to construct the most perfect plate, but rather uncover the human siting down to that plate who is worthy and nourished and alive. Our relationship with food creates this beautiful opportunity to explore who we are and train who we want to become. It asks us to engage with these multifaceted drives of hunger and nourishment and pleasure. Can we receive? Can we trust ourselves? Can we connect - to our plate, to our body, to our partner? It is the answer to those questions that not only affects what is on our plate, but more importantly, the space we take up in this world.