Happy Autumn Equinox!

Happy Mabon everyone! The autumn equinox is early tomorrow morning in the southern hemisphere. (Happy Spring Equinox to my friends in the northern hemisphere!) Because the autumn equinox is traditionally a harvest festival and games, we are celebrating tonight with a local-harvest Stone Soup, pizza, and ping pong at the community hall.

Stone Soup is a great recipe for a really low hassle dinner for a large and unknown number of people. The recipe is super simple. Boil a large pot of water and add a smooth river stone and some salt.

Just as is, it is pretty boring. But if everyone who comes is invited to bring something to enhance it, just a little bit, the effect is truly magic. It is always surprising how good, and how different, Stone Soup turns out! I picked and shelled a big batch of beans this morning, so I shall take them along with some chilis, capsicums, basil and a zucchini that has gone gigantor on me. I’ll also take a pot of pesto I made with the yet more basil – it is starting to go to seed so a hard picking will do it good – and a bottle of tomato pasata still on the shelf since last year.

The seasonal festivals are such a good way to stay in touch with the natural cycles of a spinning planet. The autumn equinox reminds me that it really is too late to plant the last of the capsicum seedlings, and I need to be thinking about getting some fresh onion seed and stocking up the firewood pile. And that whether I choose to notice and love and try to dance with the patterns of nature or not, winter will still come anyway.