Spring gifts!
Friends, I've been writing to you for months. This late winter while I was at a writing residency, I wrote to you from the top of bluff overlooking the roaring Pacific ocean, from a desk in the sweetest cabin with a wide view of a Sitka spruce forest, and from within a crescent of wild purple foxglove just waking, sending their furry leaves out across the mossy forest floor. I'm not quite done with that letter, one in which I've finally been able to articulate something I've been working quietly on for over ten years now,—the link between my forthcoming memoir A Library of Light and my collaborations with plants, specifically flower essences—but I hope to be able to share that soon.
Today, I write to you from home glowing with spring light to share a recipe for my Olive Oil Rosemary Cake in honor of the vernal equinox and new moon. A potent double threshold to celebrate and cross with care. As well as 5 new flower essences that I've been working with for almost a year now and are finally ready to share!
May these essences help us initiate new energy and consciousness patterns as we navigate these times. May they help us move boldly into new, healthier ways of holding and being transformed by our our emotions.
first, The Cake!
Ingredients:
—1½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour
—¾ cup (150 g) cane sugar
—1½ tsp (6 g) baking powder
—½ tsp (3 g) sea salt
—1 ½ tbsp (7 g) fresh rosemary leaves (finely chopped, stems removed)
—¾ cup (162 g) extra-virgin olive oil
—Zest of two organic lemons (or: one large orange and a lemon; or two oranges)
—2/3 cup (158 ml) mylk
—3 large eggs at room temperature
—½ tsp (2 ml) pure vanilla extract