8 ancient practices for staying healthy and happy in the Fall

A Song For Autumn

In the deep fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think

of the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.

~ Mary Oliver

Your Health and the Seasons

One of the biggest changes that affect life on planet Earth is the changing of the seasons. Trees dropping their leaves, birds migrating thousands of miles, bears going into hibernation- when it comes to fall lots of change is taking place all around us. The world over, even from ancient times, wise people understood that adjusting their daily habits with the seasons was a key to staying healthy.

These days with life in constant hustle mode, we forgot that our bodies have seasons. When we move through the year ignoring our changing nature, feelings of disconnection, anxiety and exhaustion can set in. Sound familiar? Read on!

Knowing your element

In India the practice of yoga and ayurvedic medicine goes back thousands of years. In this practice every person is considered to be a combination of five essential elements (fire, water, earth, air, and space).

The combination of energies you were born with make up your constitution or doṣha. Those with more fire are classified as Pitta. Those with more water and earth are Kapha. And those who contain more air and space are Vāta. While each of the doṣhas are present in everyone's makeup, one or two are likely be more predominant.

Your doṣha does not change – but the world around you does, and these outside changes affect your ability to stay balanced. For example, as summer temperatures rise, Pittas can overheat. When the ground freezes in winter, and Kaphas may lose motivation to leave the house.

And right now, as the fall winds begin to blow, Vātas can find themselves feeling scattered and anxious. Everyone is a combination of all three doṣhas. So no matter how much Vāta you have, that part of you is bound to become a bit aggravated as fall unfolds.

Autumn and the winds of change

Vāta is a Sanskrit word that means wind. It’s energy is cool dry, light, a bit brittle, and constantly changing and moving. Just like fall. That’s why Autumn is known as Vāta season.

When in balance, Vāta is light and full of vitality. But to much movement leads to not enough rest.

Too much change leads to not enough stability. Too much excitement turns to anxiety, and a head always in the clouds loses touch with it’s roots.

To stay balanced in the fall, our bodies need more downward energy. We need the weight of water and the grounding of earth.

Element of Metal and the Lungs

According to ancient Chinese medicine, fall is the beginning of the yin (inward going) cycle when daylight lasts less than twelve hours. It’s a time associated with the element of Metal, which governs organization, communication, the mind, setting limits, and protecting boundaries.

During the summer, which is ruled by Fire, we feel expansive as we travel and play outdoors. Fall, on the other hand, is a time of preparing for the winter ahead. It’s yin energy calls you to be more introverted and reflective.

In Chinese medicine the lungs and large intestine are the internal organs related to Fall and the Metal element. Lungs are associated with the emotion of letting go. The process of changing seasons can be difficult for people who love summer. They find it hard to give up the long days of sunlight, warm temperatures, and open windows. Others look forward to fall and the coziness of going inside.

The lungs control the circulation of the Wei-Qi, which is the defensive Qi (energy) that protects you from the invasion of flu and colds. A weakness in the lungs can lead to a weakness in the Wei-Qi, making a person prone to frequent colds.

The list below is a combination of recommended practices from both Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese healing systems to help you keep your Qi Strong and Doshas balanced as we transition through fall into winter.

Eight Ancient Wellness Practices For Fall

Tip #1: Slow down

The days are getting shorter and the nights grow longer. Rather than try and maintain the high energy of summer – now is the time to slow down and savor doing less. Capitalism is a system that really hates the idea of rest. In America we feel the pressure to keep doing more and going strong in order to be seen as successful and mentally healthy. But in truth it’s the constant demands on our time that drains our batteries and leaves us feeling depleted and depressed. In fall, the season of letting go, it’s even more important to release commitments that no longer serve you. In your physical practices, this may mean less yoga postures with longer breaths. Taking walks instead of running or exploring practices like Qi Gong or Tai Chi.

Tip #2: Build strong roots

In times of great change we can strangely become resistant to structure, but its then more than ever structure is helpful. It's all too easy to get swept away by shifting nature of fall so developing a strong grounded routine for your day will help keep you rooted in health and feeling stable. Try and develop a pattern to your fall days. Eat at the same times, wake up and go to bed on a schedule, and put less things on your calendar overall. Doing less with more focus and calm is the perfect way to balance your energy and a much more efficient way to live overall. You will find that practicing focus within a solid daily routine yields stronger more rooted results than running around trying to multi-task.

Tip #3: Eat nourishing and warm

When it comes to deciding what to eat, use the fall harvest as your menu. Foods that are in season – root vegetables, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and squash – are all foods that are sweet, heavier, smooth, and more dense. (those pumpkin chai cravings are for a reason!) These are earthy water Kapha qualities and will help soothe the overabundant airy Vāta energy. Other foods include nuts, brown rice, oats, bananas, and ghee. Avoid cold foods that produce phlegm and stress out the lungs like ice cream or dairy products and eat more lung supporting warmer foods like garlic, onions and mustards.

Tip #4 Use Herbs & Chai Spice

Herbs and spices that are warming are at the top the list to soothe fall energy. Some Indian herbs are helpful are adaptogens like Ashwagandhā, Tulsi and Śhatāvari. Other herbs and spices that are grounding and warm include tumeric, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove and fennel. There’s a reason why chai spices pop up in fall drinks, pastries and stews this time of year.

Tip #5: Care for your lungs

Lung is considered by Chinese medicine to be a tender organ. This is because the lung is the uppermost organ in the body and especially susceptible to wind and cold. Dressing warmly around your neck, face and chest is recommended to protect from cold fall wind.

The nose is the opening to the lungs. One way you can prevent colds by keeping your nose and sinuses clean and clear with a netti pot with some sea salt.

If you suffer from runny noses or lung problems, getting acupuncture in the fall is very helpful for preventing infections and strengthening your resilience to colds and flu.

Tip #6: Maintain warmth 

Drink warm tea, take warm baths. Wrap warm scarves around your neck and nose to protect your lungs on cold windy days. Staying warm is key to feeling well in the fall season and keeping your immune system strong. Saunas and steams are particularly good to treat yourself to in this season- especially if you tend to get cold easily.

Tip #7: Settle in

Fall energy tends to be scattered and moving in nature like the wind. Taking time bring your focus in will help you feel more at ease. Journaling is one way. Every morning, I sit and handwrite a few pages. It helps me empty my mind and start the day fresh. But more important for this time of year, journaling helps take ideas and thoughts out of space and put them tangible form on paper. Other ways to settle the mind may be to take a technology break from information overload. Turn off your screens after 7pm and read or do relaxing yoga instead. Playing music, making art or meditating is very helpful to settling energy of the mind for fall.

Tip #8 Go to Bed

The nights are returning earlier now and will last longer. Tune into the call for more sleep and give yourself as much rest as you need. Don’t force yourself to stay up if you’re tired. Make your bedroom a cozy den to hibernate in and go to bed early. Waking up early is also beneficial in the fall. See what it feels like to go to bed when it gets dark and wake at first light. Get a dream journal and see if you can write down your dreams in the early morning before they fade away. Fall is the season of dreams, visions and revelations. Things you have been processing all year are now coming into focus. Don’t let that harvest slip through your fingers. Give yourself time to tune in to your intuitive side which often reveals itself in the language of dreams.

I hope this list gives you some inspiration into taking excellent care of yourself this season. If you love fall as much as I do- this list is your permission to dive even deeper into the covers with a good book and hot cup of tea.

Happy Equinox!

xoxo

Ginger

Making Iced Tea Concentrate

Iced tea is easy to make by the glass or by the pitcher, and there are almost endless flavor combinations to try.

The easiest way to make iced tea is to brew a strong iced tea concentrate, which you then pour over ice cubes and add additional water as needed.

Basic Recipe for Quick Brew Iced Tea Concentrate (use 50/50 with ice or cold water)

4 cups water (32 oz), heated according to the type of tea you are brewing

3 full tablespoons loose leaf tea (any kind is fine)

1 quart mason jar or other airtight container

Sweetener, optional

Directions:

1. Bring water to the appropriate temperature in kettle or on stove-top. For black tea and herbal you can use boiling water. For green teas, oolongs or whites use just below boiling)
   

2. Pour hot water over loose tea and allow it to steep for at least 3-4 minutes. The longer it steeps the more concentrated it will be but should steep no longer than 4-5 minutes for green and whites and no longer than 5-7 minutes for blacks and herbals. You may also use a large tea bag, basket infuser in which to steep the tea leaves.
   

3. Strain off tea leaves and discard and allow concentrate to cool in an airtight container and refrigerate. Refrigerated concentrate will keep for about a week.
   

4. To make tea, use 1 parts tea to 1 parts water or ice, for a stronger tea, add more concentrate and less water. Add sweetener or fruit to taste, mix and enjoy!
   

5. Alternatively, you can use the tea concentrate immediately by filling a pitcher with at least twice the capacity of the concentrate with ice cubes and then pour the hot concentrate over the ice. Doing this will simultaneously cool the tea and dilute the concentrate.

For a fun twist try adding chopped berries, stone fruits, herbs or spices to the tea while it’s steeping for fun flavor combinations.

If southern style sweet tea is your preference add ½ - 1 cup sugar to the hot concentrate after the leaves have been strained and stir until dissolved. Squeeze the juice from two lemons and add to the concentrated tea if desired.  

If you want to make a stronger concentrate just add more tea to less water. The basic recipe is one heaping teaspoon per 1 cup of water. The recipe above doubles that amount for a concentrate you can dilute 50% with ice or water.

To make a half gallon jar of concentrate that will make a gallon of tea use 1/4 cup of tea to

8 cups of water.

A Sunshine Sipper Hot Summer Days!

Sunshine Sipper is our hibiscus mint herbal blend which is fantastic for hot days. Hibiscus is naturally hydrating and helps lower blood pressure. Mint is cooling for the body. Combined they are the best drink to enjoy when the weather gets hot. Much better for you than energy drinks with added sugar and flavorings- and more economical too. This tea is great as is but with added coconut water it becomes a super hydration cocktail that tastes lightly sweet and tropical.

Try it and let me know what you think in the comments below!

• Brew a concentrate of Sunshine Sipper communitea herbal blend (see instructions above).

• Fill a 16 oz glass half full with ice and pour in half of the Sunshine Sipper concentrate.

• Then fill the rest with coconut water (or green tea iced tea is nice if you want caffeine)

• Add a squeeze of lime (or other citrus like orange or lemon)

• A handful of fresh berries such as raspberry or blueberry (optional but delicious)

How to make Instagram worthy ice tea for your summer parties!

Stay hydrated this summer in style!

Making your own iced tea is easy and healthier than buying sweetened ice teas in bottles. (not to mention more affordable!)

One way to elevate with your iced tea this summer to “Instagram” worthy is to create your own custom iced tea cubes!

Making your own fancy ice cubes ticks many boxes:

• It keeps your tea from getting watered down as the ice melts. (tea melting into tea=perfect tea!)

• It also allows you to play with adding fresh flavor to your glass with fruit, herbs and edible flowers

• It turns your glass or iced tea pitcher a work of drinkable art that will wow your friends and followers.

• It works in just about any drink. These artful cubes are great for iced tea but also are good for plain ol’ water, lemonade, cocktails- you name it!

They take almost no time to make, yet they totally elevate your sipping experience! (plus they make for a pretty fabulous instagram moment!)

Plus you can get creative with the add-ins! I usually opt for raspberries, mint, lemons, limes or strawberries! But you could easily add in anything else that would complement your beverage.

Edible flowers are a gorgeous addition if you have some growing in your garden. (roses, pansies, violets, borage, calendula, chamomile, lavender, mallow flowers etc.)

Start by making your favorite North Fork 53 Communitea blend:

For added pizazz I recommend using our tea blends that brew up naturally in bright colors like:

• Purple Reign (purple)

• Blue Enchantmint (blue- will change to purple as they melt if you add citrus to the drink)

• Sunshine Sipper (red)

Gather up some of your favorite fruits, herbs and flowers- for example:

• 12 Raspberries or blueberries

• 1 handful fresh Mint

• 1 lemon cut into small wedges

• 1 lime cut into small wedges

• 3-4 strawberries cut into slices

• Fresh fennel springs

• Edible flowers or petals

• Peaches cut into small chunks

Instructions 

• Arrange 5 ice cube trays on a clean surface.

• Pour Iced Tea blend into ice cube trays, filling up each cavity about ¾ of the way, and then add in the raspberries, mint leaves, tiny pieces of lemon, lime or strawberry slices.

• Freeze overnight.

• Once frozen, remove and use to serve in iced tea, water, lemonade or cocktails!

It’s so simple but trust me your guests (or instagram followers) will ooh and ahh!

If you have popsicle molds these also make for beautiful popsicles!

Just add your favorite sweetener to the ice tea mix before pouring it into the molds.

Happy Summer Sipping!

Tag @northfork53 in your instagram iced tea photos for us to share!

A Tale for Summer Solstice: The Old Woman and The Black Dog

Grandmother Loretta Afraid of Bear Cook

Oglala Sioux
Turtle Island
(USA)

Lakota story told by Jenny Leading Cloud (1969 White River, Rosebud reservation, SD) and retold by mythologist Micheal Meade on the Living Myth Podcast (episode 280).

Somewhere at a place where the prairie and the Badlands meet, there is a hidden cave. Not for a long, long time has anyone been able to find it. Even now, with so many highways, cars and tourists, no one has discovered this cave.

Inside the cave, there lives an old woman who remains unaffected by the rush of time. She spends most of her time weaving in the cave where the light and shadows play.

She is weaving the most beautiful garment in the whole world. She’s been at this weaving project for a long time and has reached the point of making a fringe for the edge. She wants that fringe to be special, so she weaves it with porcupine quills. In order to use the porcupine quills, she must flatten each one with her teeth. After years of biting hard on the quills, her teeth have become worn down to nubs that barely rise above her gums. Still, the old woman keeps biting down and weaving on.

Resting beside her, licking his paws, and watching her all the time is Shunka Sapa, a huge black dog. His eyes never wander from the old woman and her work.

The only time the old woman interrupts her weaving is when she goes to stir the soup that simmers in a great earthen cauldron at the back of the cave. The cauldron hangs over a fire that began a long time ago. The old woman cannot recall anything older than that fire; it just might be the oldest thing there is in this world.

Occasionally, she does recall that she must stir the soup that simmers over those flames. For that simmering stew contains all the seeds and roots that become the grains and plants and herbs that sprout up all over the surface of the earth. If the old woman fails to stir the ancient stew, the fire will scorch the ingredients and there is no telling what troubles might result.

So the old woman divides her efforts between weaving and stirring the elemental soup. She senses when the time has come to let the weaving go and stir things up again.

At that point, she leaves the weaving on the floor and moves slowly over to the cauldron.

As the old woman shuffles across the floor and makes her way to the back of the ancient cave Shunka Sapa, the black dog, watches her every move.

Once she begins stirring the soup in order to sustain the seeds, the black dog moves to where the weaving lies on the floor of the cave.

The dog picks up a loose thread in his teeth and begins pulling on it.

As the black dog pulls on the loose thread, the beautiful robe begins to unravel. Since each thread has been woven to another, pulling upon one begins to undo them all. As the great stew is being stirred up, the beautiful weaving is unraveled into a mess on the floor.

When the old woman returns to take up her handiwork again, she finds nothing but chaos where there had been a garment of great elegance and beauty. The robe she has woven with great care has been pulled apart, the fringe all undone; the effort of creation has been turned to naught.

The old woman looks silently upon the remnants of her once-beautiful design. She ignores the presence of the black dog and stares intently at the tangle of undone threads and distorted patterns.

After a while, she bends down, and picks up a loose thread. As she pulls thread after thread from the chaotic mess, she has a vision of an even more beautiful robe.

She sits down to weave and new visions and designs begin to appear, her old hands knowingly giving them shape. Soon she has forgotten all about what she was weaving before and concentrates on capturing the new most beautiful robe in the whole world.

This is a creation story with a twist.

It suggests that the world was not simply created once and then allowed to run according the laws of God or chance. Rather, the process the world is a cycle of constant change. The weaving symbolizes new creation, the stew symbolizes sustaining- or nurturing- the present, and dog represents a force of chaos that unravels the known world so that things can begin again.

Before you get mad at the dog
When I first heard this story I was like- “Lady, you need to get rid of that dog!” But here is the moral of the tale.

If the black dog did not unravel the old woman’s weaving, then the robe would be finished - and the process of creation (i.e. the world) would end.

The energy of chaos-dark matter- the undoing- the unknown subconscious self- is necessary to stimulate growth and change and evolution.

It’s just as necessary as sustaining life by getting up to stir the pot.

Right now in the world we can see ourselves in the stages of unraveling. The dog is up and pulling at threads of our known reality. The climate crisis, global pandemic, wars, economic upheavals and rise of racist attacks are unraveling the stability of the world and putting our lives at risk.
But the dog’s role in the story implies that the current system unraveling is fuel for the the creation of a better future.

Pain and loss, even death, are part of the process. We resent this, of course, but just like the old woman- we can’t blame the dog for doing his part. We can only look at the unraveled mess around us and see the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. Then get to the work of creating it!

On a personal level I realize I have an inner black dog. The part of me that wants to rip up what came before and start over. Change businesses and change locations, change everything. Tear up old gardens and plant new ones. I would hear my inner critic chastising me for this. “you need to focus” - “you need to stay the course”- “you can’t be constantly changing it up” but after reading this myth I felt the black dog in me finally has a name. And yes- it does create more work to start over and try something new but that’s how we grow and learn and evolve as humans. So I encourage you to make friends with your doggo of destruction. He can be a pain the ass but ultimately he’s the best friend of your creative visionary self.

Happy Summer Solstice!

It’s a great time of the year to reflect on our lives and world around us.

What do you think about this story?

• Here’s some journal prompts for you to play with:

• Have you ever considered the weaving, stirring and unraveling components of your own life?

• Does a creation tale like this give you a different thread to hold onto when you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed?

• What if our overall wellness is more about embracing our health and lives as a constant state of change instead of some goal we are trying to finish or reach?

• How would the world look different if we saw it through this indigenous lens and perspective?

Leave me a comment below on what came up for you on reading this!

xoxo

Ginger

Gardening tips for May. Spring up potting and transplanting!

Whether it’s time for moving your baby seedlings into bigger pots or into their forever homes in the garden- this series of videos will help. I farmed organic veggies for 10 years and this is pretty much the crash course I would give my farm crew for working with our seedlings! Have fun and remember- there are no failures in gardening- just learning and replanting:)