The Amber Flow: Papaya, Calabaza & the Sunlit Vine
A Note on Eating Orange
This week we move up into the Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana) with orange foods — creativity, pleasure and flow. The table takes a Mexican slant this week: Mexico's kitchens are a masterclass in orange, from papaya and squash to slow caramel and marigolds. The Sacral Chakra is where we taste, create and enjoy — water is its element, orange its colour, Vam its seed mantra. Here are this week's recipes:
Download This Week's Resources
Download this week's Recipe Card (PDF) and Shopping List (PDF) to take with you to the kitchen or the shops.
Where to Meditate
The Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana) is the seat of creativity, pleasure and emotion. Its element is Water, its colour is orange, and its seed mantra is Vam. Lorna's Sunday morning chakra workshops are a beautiful starting point for each week's meditation practice — find her at https://www.instagram.com/lorna.mckey For the Sacral Chakra, follow the water. Walk the Water of Leith from Dean Village downstream and let the sound of the burn carry your attention. Sit by the pond at Blackford Hill and watch the reflections move. And take in the trees as you go — time spent among trees measurably lowers stress and settles the nervous system, and the map below marks the living Ogham trees near each spot, from the silver birches of the Meadows to the elder and willow along the water. Touch the bark, breathe, and let the water element do its work. The Vine's (Muin) month ends on September 29 — this is its last Sunday. The brambles are nearly finished, and the hedgerows glow instead with rosehips, sloes and the last damsons along the Braid Burn.
The Vine (Muin)
In the Celtic Ogham calendar, the Vine month (Muin) runs from September 2 to September 29 — today is its last Sunday. The Gaelic name is Muin, and its Ogham is the eleventh letter. The Vine is the tree of prophecy and inspired seeing, and there is a fitting echo with this week's Sacral theme: Muin is about the slow ferment — grapes, emotion, creativity — the alchemy of letting things ripen in the dark. On Wednesday the calendar turns to Ivy (Gort), the wandering vine that binds and connects. We'll meet it properly next week. For now, the last days of the Vine are for gathering what has ripened — in the hedgerow and in ourselves.
A Sacred Table in Orange
Pack a Mexican picnic this week and eat it by the water. Papaya boats with lime and granola, a flask of sopa de calabaza with toasted pumpkin seeds, camote tacos wrapped in foil, and little ramekins of flan de calabaza that travel surprisingly well. A jar of tepache for the grown-ups, a scatter of marigolds for the table. Find a bench by the Water of Leith or the pond at Blackford Hill — orange food beside moving water, the Sacral Chakra's two languages.
Breakfast: Papaya & Lime Breakfast Boats
A ripe papaya halved and filled with coconut yogurt, granola, a good squeeze of lime and a pinch of chili. The classic Mexican breakfast fruit — sweet, floral, and ready in five minutes. Recipe from minimalistbaker.com.
Lunch: Sopa de Calabaza
Butternut squash roasted with butter and honey, simmered with caramelised onion and cream and blended until silky, finished with toasted pumpkin seeds. A Mexican classic for the first squash of the season. Recipe from thedailymeal.com.
Dinner: Camote Tacos — Sweet Potato & Black Bean
Roasted sweet potato and black beans with cumin and smoked paprika, piled into warm corn tortillas with red onion, coriander, a crumble of queso fresco and a drizzle of chipotle crema. A weeknight taco plate with proper orange soul. Recipe from aheadofthyme.com.
Supper: Flan de Calabaza
The Mexican custard of the season: pumpkin purée whisked with eggs, condensed milk and cinnamon, steamed over a dark caramel and turned out wobbly and golden. Recipe from alatinflair.com.
Cold Soup of the World: Sunset Gazpacho with Jalapeño & Lime
This week's Cold Soup of the World gives the Spanish classic a Mexican heart: carrots, orange juice and sweet pepper blended raw and chilled, then brightened with jalapeño, lime and coriander. Serve it cold and taste the sunset. Recipe adapted from maplefromcanada.ca.
This Week's Brew: Tepache
Mexico's home ferment. Pineapple peels and core steeped with piloncillo (or dark brown sugar), cinnamon and cloves for two or three days until lightly fizzy and barely boozy. Strain, chill, and serve over ice with a squeeze of lime. Recipe from delacalle.mx.
What the Land is Offering Right Now
Late September in Scotland, and the turn is nearly complete. Sloes are darkening on the blackthorn, ready for the gin jar. Rosehips hang heavy and red along every hedge. The last blackberries belong to the birds now, and the hazels are dropping their nuts for whoever gets there first. Damsons and early apples fall in the orchards; elderberries hang dark and heavy. Gather slowly, leave plenty behind, and notice how the year folds itself in.
Medicinal Herbs in Bloom
This week's herbs come from Mexico itself. Cempasúchil (Tagetes erecta), the Mexican marigold, is just coming into its great bloom — the flower of Día de los Muertos at the end of October, when its scent and colour are said to guide the dead home. In Mexican traditional medicine its petals and leaves are used as a digestive tea and a poultice for skin, and in the garden it is a companion plant that guards the soil. Its wild orange is pure Sacral colour, and our kitchen calendula — still flowering in Edinburgh gardens — carries similar medicine.
Damiana (Turnera diffusa) is a small shrub of Baja California whose leaves have been brewed for centuries as a warming, aromatic tea for mood, desire and creative energy — the very definition of Sacral medicine, and a natural companion to this week's orange table. Look for it dried from good herb suppliers, and take it as an evening tea once the creative work is done.
Cook in Colour - Series 3
Cook in Colour is a 7-week series exploring the chakras through colour-coded nutrition, paired with the Celtic Ogham tree calendar. One chakra per week, matched to whatever Ogham tree month is active. Recipes selected each week by Sharon for thenofussgourmet.com. This week: Sacral Chakra — Orange foods, with a Mexican slant. Next week: Solar Plexus — Yellow foods.
Comments