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Dear Yogis,

What a strange time we are in.  Today is the anniversary (for me) of The Ash Wednesday Bushfire in 1983.  I lost my house, and lots more – I gained a different life, but it has been quite different.  We always get what we ask for… even when we can’t see around corners, and can’t really see the ramifications of that desire.

Speaking of “desire” – I had a thought that it might be a good idea to have a second IonKi Cleanse machine, just in case something happened to the one I have.  It is quite popular, and I would be hamstrung if it died.  It would take a while to get another…  As always I have to be careful what I think, because yesterday another machine turned up.  A student had one in their garage which wasn’t being used and she thought I might like it.  Many thanks. I do.

Things have changed since this model was put on the market.  Mine is quite different and miniature in comparison (I could pop it in my handbag), however, it is good to have a backup, and this older model comes with a far-infrared massage belt which I have not yet experimented with. I will let you know how it goes.  I am a devoted fan.  I can only have one every three days for maximum benefit.  If I feeling out of sorts this is a good go to.  I recently hurt my back lifting carelessly and this was better than anything I have used in bringing me back to painfree upright position if you know what I mean.  Good for sleeplessness, and lots of other things – as I said, I am a fan.  Wouldn’t recommend it if I wasn’t, if I didn’t use it myself.  In concert with a Bach Remedy I am kept on track.

FORAGING, COOKING, FERMENTING

Today I am going to strain my Vodkas and wines which have been infusing with walnut.  They are “walnutty” enough, and I will leave them to mellow with spices.

Nothing will be wasted and I will use the walnuts I have strained with a few extra to make “Dickens Brown Sauce”, a walnut sauce mentioned in the writing of Charles Dickens who could be called the world’s first “LITERARY FOODIE” (with a passion for brown sauce and gravy).  He also mentions pickled walnuts a number of times in a number of novels.  I love them too, but you have to catch the walnuts really early to make these well.  As Dickens says you have to be able to push a fork right through the walnuts to properly cure them.

LIVING SIMPLY
doesn’t have to mean living poorly.  I have a wide and varied menu, enjoy my days, and don’t scrimp, but I do live simply.  It is a DANGEROUS MINISTRY,  fraught with temptations, frustrations, decisions and moral choices that most people don’t ever, and will never consider.

First – oppose advertising.  You can’t help it being all around, but you don’t have to live by its admonitions.  Join the happy revolt against the advertising machine.
Second – wait for God to bring you what you need, and don’t pine for what you WANT. This discipline will end impulse buying.  If you are relying on the universe, you needn’t think of “things”. See the paragraph above about the ION-KI machine.
Third – remind yourself it is all about the QUALITY of life not the quantity of life.  Discover music, art, good friends, and the value of solitude and silence.
Fourth – Make your recreation healthy, happy and gadget free.  For instance, you don’t need lycra and fancy props to come to yoga.  At home encourage co-operative games and fun. Why must “winning” be the goal.
Fifth – learn to eat sensibly and sensitively.  Reject chemical filled products, learn to forage, to cook, to make and to mend.  Eat out less and enjoy the food in your garden.  Nothing is faster “fast food” than an apple.

SCHEDULE
STUDIO YOGA: Monday 1pm, Wednesday 5.30 (restorative) and Friday 5.30
ZOOM: Monday 6.30 Gita (fun), Tuesday HERBAL WORKSHOP 7.30 (includes Bach Remedies), Friday 6.45 Tarot.

I will see you on the mat

NAMASTE. JAHNE

 

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Dear Yogis,

Here we are again, another Monday.  This new normal is hard to get used to.  Because people have been locked down and now let free, with more freedoms every day, nothing is set.  Appointments are no longer appointments, classes are no longer classes – life is a moveable feast.  It is “interesting”, but difficult if like me you are self employed and trying to organise the week in front.  It is always a catch up – for me too.

I like communities and all that implies.  Everything is in flux, even your Doctor is no longer YOUR doctor, they come and go, and every appointment is a different doctor, dentist, etc.  It’s lovely for students and I know they have to train, but I can read a computer screen, I don’t need a student doctor in order to do that.  They don’t know me, they only know the screen.  Time was when a student was accompanied by your usual doctor, now a student is all you get.  What do you think?

SCHEDULE
YOGA STUDIO> Monday 1pm, Wednesday 5.30pm Restorative, Friday 6.30 Hatha
ZOOM> Monday 6.30 Gita, Tuesday 7.30 Herbal Workshop, Friday 6.45 Tarot – I am going to record these (please remind me) so that you can rerun it anytime.  I am not madly keen on this, but many people don’t read or know how to take notes, so it will cover this).

FRIDAY YOGA LUNCHEON. Our usual Monthly get together (interrupted by Covid), Friday 25th February,  12noon Mt. Macedon Hotel. Please email me if you would like to join us. All welcome.   yogafirst2@bigpond.com

HERBAL WALK – learn how to forage and how to cook with what you have collected.  Tuesday 1st March 10.30 start at the Studio.  Winter is around the corner. Let’s get a backup store of produce before winter.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN MAKING

I have been exploring my WIX site to learn the ins and outs.  Not easy.  But I have got it up and running and I now can do a lovely blog, I just need the time to get the list in order……  Please go to www.jhwilliams.online

Over the weekend I have been gathering, making and storing.

Dock is beautiful around my way at the moment.  You will notice from the picture that there is no potting mix under these beauties.  The ground is hard, and you would scarcely think anything could grow, but it is. Big patches of Dock.

I picked the young and juicy early shoots and have put a few bags in the freezer.  Last night I made a herb omelette and sprinkled it with dock, it was delicious, and hugely nutritious.   It doesn’t keep its colour when you cook it, so you have to mix it with other greens – parsley or nettles (or my favourite Herb Robert) keep their colour in cooking.

MAKING BOOZY HERBAL GINS, VODKA AND WINES – the easy way I must add.  I gather and then infuse.  I don’t actually have a still (and you probably don’t either) and you need a still to actually make alcohol.  I buy vodka, wine and gin, and I infuse it with herbs.  The result is herbal tonics, drinks and vinegars.  I am going to put a small book on Etsy and on my herb web site www.jhwilliams.online so you can make them too.

It is so easy and even if you haven’t got access to somewhere to forage, you can buy the cheap fruits and veggies at the grocer and use those.  

The picture on the right is the beginning of my APPLE CIDER VINEGAR.  It is so easy to make.  All you need is apples and patience.  Even if you buy apples from your grocer when they are cheaper, you can make your own vinegar much more cheaply than buying a good quality vinegar with a “other”.  All the directions will be in my little booklet.

THE FREEDOM OF SIMPLICITY.  Finding, foraging and making is all about living simply.  Not making as many visits to the store, getting the family involved in all stages of food and eating.  Living responsibly. Learn to eat sensibly and sensitively.  Reject products full of chemicals and colours. Eliminate pre-packaged dinners. Eat foods that do no violence to the balance of things.  Get in on the joy of the garden, even if this means pots on a window ledge. Forage, dry, freeze and ferment your foods.  Compost all you can. Recycle all you can. Grow all the fresh items you can. Eat out less and when you do, make it a celebration.  Buy less food rather than food replacement drinks or diet pills.

 

I will see you on the mat,

NAMASTE. JAHNE

 

Dear Yogis,

I have been making “herby” stuff for my new book (I even have an interested publisher).  I have to try these recipes and ideas out, and write them down in a way you will understand, instead of just throwing things together until the taste test is right.  I hope you are working hard at making from the garden –  soon it will be winter and a lot of the yummy stuff will be replaced (temporarily) by the bitter herbs that mother nature gives us to prepare our gut for the next season, we skip them at our peril.  If we don’t prepare with these herbs,  then we get all the gut issues that modern man is prone to.

So, eat away, keeping in mind you will be saving heaps at a time when things at the shops are getting more and more expensive and will continue to rise as interest rates go up (this effects everything).

Here a recipe to be going on with…  APPLE CIDER VINEGAR (there are lots of self-seeded apple tress around – find one). Although this is a longish recipe, it is easy – I have just broken it down into a step by step process.

Ingredients
*organic apples and apple scraps (left over from jelly or tarts)
*2 Tablespoons cane sugar – you can use other sugars but they don’t ferment as well.
*2 cups water

Instructions
Clean and dry a 1 litre (or larger) jar.
Fill the jar 3/4 full with apple scraps.  If you are using whole apples chop roughly and put them in the jar.
Dissolve the sugar in the water.

First Fermentation:
*Pour the sugar water over the apples until they are covered (adjust according the the size of the jar, but always make sure the apples are covered), always add additional water to make sure the apples are completely submerged.
*Weigh down the apples with a fermentation weight or a small glass jar (Any apples that are not under water could mould)
*Cover with cheese cloth or coffee filter and secure with a rubber band
*Store in a dark place at room temperature (for the first two weeks I store mine on the kitchen bench because it needs stirring frequently – some people call it “the beast” because it is yeasty and alive)
*Leave it for 3 weeks, check stir, and make sure that none of the apples are getting mouldy.
*Bubbles will form, just keep stirring – it will settle.

Second Fermentation:
*After 3 weeks, you will notice it will smell fairly sweet.
*Strain the apples out  and return the liquid to the jar.
*Some cooks compost the apples, some use them in salads or baking – you decide.
*Put the cover back on the jar and leave it in a dark place for three weeks, stirring gently every few days.
*When the vinegar has achieved the desired strength for you, take off the mother which you can use again- I save them in a jar of water in the fridge.
*The lid can be replaced tightly at this stage and you can transfer some or all of the filtered vinegar to a bottle and start using it.   You could use half a cup of this ferment to add to the next batch which means it will ferment more quickly.
*Keep in the fridge otherwise it will keep getting stronger….  I am told that stronger vinegars are very good for weight loss (this applies to Kombucha too).

Yogis, I hope you enjoy making this... it is so much more satisfactory than anything you can buy.

I have just had a corner of my kitchen re-modelled by a lovely man (sorry girls, married to someone else).  I have wanted this small change completed for years, and now I feel there is so much more room in the kitchen, and so much bench space.  What a difference a new cupboard can make!  No, I won’t be getting a stove or a dishwasher or a Thermomix although I can see that each of these things have a reason and a purpose, but at the moment, I like doing things the hard way, it brings me closer to the whole process. Buying non-essential equipment opposes my idea of simplicity.  If I can enjoy my day and time in the kitchen without BUYING something to remove the process from me, then I will.

 

See you on the mat (or in the kitchen),
NAMASTE – JAHNE