sour cherries & mara de bois strawberries macerated for hours in fresh lilac sugar, then baked on an ultra-flaky rye flour crust

step into the saffron salon 🌾 throwing a tea party at my home w botanical treats, warming beverages, curated materials from my library to dive into, and maybe another sensorial surprise or two . . . each ticket includes a gorgeous bag of @_leavesandflowers tea to bring the castle cafe feeling back home with you

another legendary grail found at the library — Eat, Fast, Feast: A Tribal Cookbook of the True Light Beavers 🥚 based on the creasing, i’d say this copy has likely been dropped in a bathtub sometime between 1973 & today, but is no less worse for the wear. come for the hash-infused ghee, stay for the chamomile tea hair rinse, meditation on soup as “existential cookery,” adzuki bean pizza, roast duck à la aleister crowley. . .

buckwheat & brie, wrapped in silk — an honor to share frozen treats from the heart at @solarcbrewing over the weekend

solstice ghee as the sun sets

braided a spiced medlar butter into brown butter brioche for the Of Earth Faire yday at @sayerstujunga ~ felt right to honor a fruit that needs to nearly decompose to reach peak ripeness for such a special group of plant & dirt devotees. i’m also offering a dozen cookies customized to your wildest dreams in a raffle to support legal fees for @nocanyonhills — let’s protect a sacred & biodiverse ecological zone 🪶 details on their page

small miracles weekend report: picked up a half flat of medlars, bought a few books @ my favorite bookstore & found out i’m finally moving up a level in ballet class

weaving a web of mulberry silk 🕸️ october’s castle cafe & library hours explored the many realms of the mulberry. i made spelt brioche buns layered w a sweet-tart compote of @weiserfamilyfarms persian mulberries (stockpiled from summer) & a custard infused w cooling white mulberry leaf. i dusted freeze-dried mulberries onto honey-sweetened puffed millet krispie treats. fennel pollen, chamomile, orange blossom & heroic doses of toasted fig leaf also found their way into the offerings. and of course, strong matchas were whisked and sipped, topped w marshmallows & marzipan-reminiscent pistachio milk. because silkworms can only be nourished by white mulberry leaves, silk production is inherently bound up in the history of the mulberry tree, centralizing them both in a complex tapestry of conquest, beauty, commodity, and ecology. i selected texts from my library that engaged w these dynamics, however obliquely; attached bookmarks w this reading list to the back of every handwritten menu; my lover wove silk coasters for everyone to take home; my calligraphy teacher let me print on her special marbled paper; my gorgeous friends giggled & lounged together; and @lauren_lotz captured the magic on film, as i didn’t take a single photo.

contributed dessert for 30ish people at an opulent, heartfelt gallery feast this wknd ~ i made sundaes feat. spicy ginger millet cake, goat kefir ice cream w chokecherry swirl, cajeta, a heady drizzle of styrian pumpkin seed oil & some sprouted pumpkin seeds for crunch. tysm for welcoming me into your playful collaboration & beauty infusion @rootf00d @audrey_snyder @giovannisroomla

easing into autumn via ice cream 🪐 a creamy base of Basque sheep’s milk blue cheese, ribboned w pear & tonka bean caramel, then sprinkled w streusel enriched by the residual milk solids from last week’s equinox ghee

spent a week meditating & chopping endless vegetables in silence at a rural zen monastery; returned home & made the black sesame cinnamon rolls i’d been craving the whole time

casting lavish spells in the form of a giggle-infused frozen treat tasting menu… right-siding the reversed ace of wands we pulled when asking, at the start of the year, “what do we need to know about our artistic collaboration?” initiating a sweaty circle of friends into the space via spritzes of lavender hydrosol, followed by chilled oshibori scented w osmanthus & clary sage. collective deep breaths gave way to nipples of venus, heady w jasmine ice cream, curry leaf cajeta core & passionfruit magic shell. an exquisite corpse smell session of tuberose tantra paired w us slowwwly unwrapping shibari sandwiches ~ whole grain einkorn blondies enclosing seaweed cacao nib creaminess. cue texts abt heavy braids & dragonfly wings. next, helichrysum (‘the everlasting flower’) lent a narcotic, curry x chamomile underworld quality to half an ice cream slab; but the electrifying freshness of wong farms mango sorbet brought us back. we found further rejuvenation in the self-serve iced foothbath, where an overnight infusion of foraged mugwort provided lift via mentholic immersion. to close, a crysalline (crystalline x chrysaline) bowl of osmanthus, peach & tomato water granita, served w a dollop of dream-inducing blue lotus coconut créme to seal in the reverie.