My cooking and eating habits have taken a noticeable shift in the new year. Ever since I began learning to cook, food has always been a source of meditation and experimentation for me. But this year, I’ve begun approaching food as medicine. I’ve long struggled with recurrent health ailments, and this winter alone I’ve battled various flu strains and other illnesses. During those periods of disease, nourishing and vitamin-rich food and herbs transformed from a source of comfort to a source of empowerment in my self-healing. In addition, I’ve re-incorporated meat back into my diet after two years of vegetarianism.
But as anyone who’s ever enjoyed a transcendental meal at least once in their life knows (everyone, I hope), food can nourish more than just the physical body. It can provide deep, abiding emotional and spiritual nourishment as well. When I broke my long fast on meat, it was with my grandmother’s traditional Christmas feast of crown roast pork with a cranberry gravy. Each bite was succulent, juicy, complex. Each bite was imbued with her love and care. When the meat was finished, I picked up the bone with my fingers and relished my animal pleasure in tearing the remaining flesh from it. Everyone at the table that night agreed it was the best crown roast my grandmother had ever made.
Here’s where my new favorite cookbook comes in, one that celebrates food and its many intangible powers. I’ve been fawning over Jessica Prentice’s since college, but have been getting by with free passages on Google Books until my sister finally gifted me a copy for Christmas. It’s a treasure. Jessica lives in San Francisco and runs Three Stone Hearth, a community-supported and worker-owned kitchen, and actually coined the now-popular term “locavore,” someone who sources their food locally. Her cookbook devotes 13 chapters to the 13 lunar phases, and she writes compelling essays and recipes for each. With its focus on seasonality, ecology, tradition, and ritual (nevermind a celebration of lunations), its a witch’s dream cookbook if I ever saw one.
This is how I like to cook. As an urban dweller, observing the cyclical phases of the moon is a way for me to root myself in the present moment in a more holistic way than just observing a date on our manmade Gregorian calendar. When I honor the seasons and lunations with my cooking, my kitchen becomes my healing center, my space for radical rejuvenation. Strength, intuition, and creativity are nourished here. I like to cook barefoot or while wearing thick socks, donned in a long skirt with my hair pulled back in a scarf. I like to burn a candle and have a crystal, usually a bright amethyst cluster, glowing nearby. I like to cook alone, allowing my thoughts to drift there and back again.
The February full moon has many names in many traditions across North America. The most common names are “Snow Moon,” “Hunger Moon,” and “Bone Moon,” as this is the time of year when snow was deepest and for Native American communities food was most scarce and hunger at its most acute. Bones were gnawed clean and boiled for healing bone marrow broth. But there are other North American native names that speak to seasonal rituals. One of my favorites is from the Wishram tribe of the Pacific Northwest, who called this moon the “Shoulder to Shoulder Around the Fire Moon.” This name conjures such a striking image – one of a small community woven closely together for warmth and sustenance beneath one of the coldest moons of the year.
source unknown
For this moon, I’ve crafted a soup (loosely borrowed from a parsnip soup in Jessica’s book) that blends together parsnips, leeks, and the humble celery root. All of the ingredients are white and when sliced, they all resemble small full moons on the cutting board. The homemade vegetable stock is essential to this soup, since you “charge” it energetically beneath the full moon and imbue it with its power. The final soup looks like a rising gold moon in the bowl.
I’m intentionally publishing this post on the First Quarter moon, several days before the coming full moon on February 25, so you may have time to gather your ingredients together to prepare it and enjoy it a week from now. If you’d like to prepare a vegan version, you could substitute the cream with one or two Yukon gold potatoes.
Here’s wishing that your moon be magical and deeply nourishing.
full moon vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped
2-3 large carrots, peeled if not organic and chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
2-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
1 bay leaf
green tips of leeks for the soup
bunch of parsley
other herbs on hand – thyme, rosemary, marjoram, sage
olive oil
Warm some olive oil in a large stock pot on medium-high. Add the onions, carrots, and celery and let them brown and sizzle while you gather your other ingredients. Add them in, one by one, then pour cold filtered water over the vegetables to cover (about 8-10 cups). Cover and bring to a boil. Remove the lid and reduce the heat to simmer for 40 minutes, until the broth tastes flavorful. Strain out and discard the vegetables.
Place the covered pot outside beneath the full moon to absorb its potent energies. Retrieve your pot in the morning and store in the fridge for up to a few days, or freeze for later use.
full moon soup
2 T reserved bacon fat, butter, or coconut oil
3-4 small/medium leeks, white parts only, rinsed and sliced
5-6 large parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
1 celery root, peeled and cut into chunks
1 bouquet garni*
1 quart + of full moon stock (see above)
3/4 cup cream or 1 cup whole milk
*Bouquet garni – bundle together with string a bay leaf, a few parsley stems with most leaves removed, thyme stems with or without leaves attached, and a couple sage leaves.
Heat the fat in a large dutch oven or thick-bottomed pot on medium heat. Saute the leeks until soft and golden. Add the parsnips and celery root and toss to cover with the fat and leeks. Cover the vegetables with stock to cover by 1 inch. Add the bouquet garni. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes or more, until the vegetables are very tender.
Remove the bouquet garni, and puree the soup with an immersion blender or with a regular blender (carefully if it’s still hot!). Add more stock if necessary to get a smooth consistency. Add the cream or milk, and season to taste with salt and pepper, and maybe a dusting of nutmeg or pinch of herbs.
I am, how shall I say?, over the moon with Jessica Prentice’s book! Yeah, I liked the pun too.
Thanks for the reminder and a recipe that is actually posted enough in advance to gather and make for the coming full moon. I want to create a community food gathering and call it full moon feast. Sounds perfect to me. As does this soup.
Great idea! My friends and I held full moon feasts (inspired by Jessica’s book, of course) for awhile back in college, and it was a great opportunity to connect and celebrate together.
Jess, this post was absolutely lovely! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your recipe. I want to gather the ingredients and make my own for Monday night’s dinner!
yes!! do it!!!!
This is such a wonderful post, Jess! My friend Mandy, a community herbalist, turned me onto food-as-medicine (or medicine-as-food) when I lived in Vermont. It just makes so much sense! Truly a manifestation of “you are what you eat” (in terms of place, health, mindset etc.) and encourages the idea of preventative medicine that can often be lost in western medicine and pharmaceuticals.
I’ve run across the Full Moon cookbook a few times, but sounds like I should keep my eye out for a copy. Also those moon names are different from what I’ve seen before–do you have any more info about it?
Thanks, Emily! It’s amazing how healing (or destructive) food can be, but I think finding your own personal balance of what works for you and your body is key. As for the full moon names, there are all sorts of names across all different cultures and traditions – but it’s striking how many different communities create the same name for any given moon, based upon the season and harvest. The ones we typically see in the Farmers’ Almanac are aggregated from different Native American tribes (http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names/) – the most well-known names are from the Algonquin tribes. I did some research on some other Native names too (http://www.wwu.edu/skywise/indianmoons.html). I also like looking to Chinese, Celtic, and Old English names as well for inspiration.
This is such a lovely post! So many things to say. I wish I had found it in Feb (obv), but am totally inspired to buy that book. Finding the rhythms of nature when in a city is even more important I think, and it’s the theme of the moment for me, to find ways of deepening this connection in our urban surroundings. I’m a country girl, me. But weirdly enough, there’s something even more magical about connecting with the earth, animals, and the natural rhythms when in a city – it feels more powerful in a way. Or just in a different way.
As for food – oh man. It’s my most healing and ritualistic thing. In times of chaos, strife or just STUFF, it’s always there to nourish and bring grounding. For me, these last few months, the routine of cooking (and the way it’s the one of the most ultimate self-loving things you can do for yourself, provided it’s not eating up an eight pack of donuts) is one of the things that’s got me through. I love your idea of having candles, etc there whilst you cook. I’m going to do that next.
Big love.
Your words sent so much warmth to my morning! Thank you for your authenticity and generosity. Amen to everything. Love!!
I just discovered your blog. This post reminds me of the book “Thirteen Moons on a Turtle’s Back”. Pick it up and read it when you are at the library. It’s in the children’s section and will take you 5 min. to read.
~Jane
Thanks for the recommendation!
Greetings! I know this is kinda off topic however I’d figured I’d ask.
Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest authoring a blog article or
vice-versa? My website covers a lot of the same subjects as yours and I feel we could greatly benefit from each other.
If you might be interested feel free to send me an email.
I look forward to hearing from you! Terrific blog by the way!
Hey there! What’s your blog?
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That picture of the moon symbols is from a 1930s Campfire book — this Campfire interpretation of the Native American symbols was in turn used to inspire the decor at Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood in Oregon. I just saw the exhibit at Timberline earlier this month, and Timberline sells postcard with that picture on it.