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Drawing from the realms of travel, culture, and food, these collective writings explore how to craft a life where every ingredient, object, and action is considered and meaningful. Let's. cultivate beauty and ritual in our everyday lives.

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Turnips in a Soothing Warm Broth for Winter Chickadees flit from perch to perch. They are a cheerful bunch, gray-winged little birds of winter with black caps and beards. I remember them fondly, their whistling chatter constant and merry throughout the long snowy months of my childhood in Vermont. It’s comforting to see them outside […]

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72 Seasons of Eating

One reliable redress

Turnips in a Soothing Warm Broth for Winter Chickadees flit from perch to perch. They are a cheerful bunch, gray-winged little birds of winter with black caps and beards. I remember them fondly, their whistling chatter constant and merry throughout the long snowy months of my childhood in Vermont. It’s comforting to see them outside […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Scent of winter

Yuzu brings the First Citrus Scent of Winter The almanac tells us that it is the season of first winter. Far north in Hokkaido where the seasonal divisions are more pronounced like in New England, first flurries must be falling fast. But here the songbirds still chirp on days warm enough to dry our laundry […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Palpable ceremony

A bowl of perfectly cooked grains of rice is a subtle marvel A kettle of water is set to boil. All dishes are cleared and rinsed and and then we set the table a second time with three dishes, a bowl of rice, a cup of houjicha roasted green tea, and a small plate for […]

72 Seasons of Eating

What has been sown

Newly harvested rice speaks to the Japanese soul of the divine In the waning glow of autumn the rice fields yellow with age. Paddies are drained in preparation for the harvest and the seed grains begin to dry on the stalk. Flaxen tassels sway in the autumn breeze amidst fields of golden grasses, a sight […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Never for themselves

Shriaae, A Thick, Light Tofu Dressing for Autumn Here in Karatsu the soundtrack to October is haunting, a simultaneously joyful and melancholy refrain practiced in pockets of darkness where boys gather to prepare for our grand festival. There is no written musical notation for these melodic refrains passed by ear from generation to generation over […]

72 Seasons of Eating

This I remember

Gathering Chestnuts is a Ritual of Autumn A storybook moon hangs low in the sky as though tethered by a thread to Venus. But only a sliver, its pure light shines unusually bright. These days mist crawls in overnight and morning grasses glisten in the slanting rays of the rising sun. Though summer insects still […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Seasoned with kindness

Tea Ceremony and the Art of the Daily Meal I remember a decade back, when I still knew relatively little about Japanese cuisine, I asked Kuniko to describe a cha-kaiseki meal that precedes tea in the tea ceremony. She outlined the general styles of dishes. She described the first small portion of rice and miso […]

72 Seasons of Eating

The deepest chord

Cold Watermelon by the Edge of a Salty Sea In Japan Autumn begins in August with a hot, slow slide away from summer. The heat no longer builds but lingers like an oven that’s just been turned off. The cacophonous cry of cicadas crescendoes to a peak. The constant drone of their frenzied roar is […]

72 Seasons of Eating

Their hands

Bitter melon is an antidote to the ennui of high summer Goya’s green is as thick and dark and endless as the suffocating green of summer. The bitter melon is fat like a overgrown zucchini with knurled skin and bitter flesh. I haven’t always loved goya, but when I met Tsutomu Sasaki, who grows exquisite […]

Ice Brewed Shincha from Cultivated Days

72 Seasons of Eating

Small acts

Beauty must grow from the realities of life I scoop a pile of tea leaves the shape and color of delicate evergreen needles into a glass katakuchi and cover them in ice. Only the rich and clear flavor of ice-drawn green tea can pierce the heat and humidity of high summer. My beloved tools of […]

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