Hey hey! My name is Kelly and I was born and raised in a small, quaint town with rolling hills in Ontario. I’m a perpetual student of life, and I enjoy cooking and growing food, and sunbathing at solar noon.
In this space I share photography, health hacks, and nourishing whole food recipes aligned with the seasons where I currently live in the northern hemisphere. My goal is to guide you along your own path, and show you some tools to find some answers yourself with your inner wisdom. What we truly need is already inside of us, and it is either harmed or helped by our daily lifestyle choices.
Previously I’ve served with a number of organizations including Sustain Ontario while exploring the impacts of place-based and interconnected food systems around me while volunteering at West End Food Co-op, helping facilitate local fundraising events such as the Humber Ride 4 Real Food, and exploring farmers’ markets like the Village Market at Waldorf.
I started this blog after resolving many of my own issues and malnutrition over the past 15-ish years (severe acne, dental cavities, mild/moderate depression, anemia, lack of energy, mood swings, brain fog, PMS, hormonal dysregulation, hypoglycemic spells, disconnected circadian rhythm, all rooted in a disconnect from the natural world), and becoming interested in the continual reclamation of health and food autonomy in the midst of modern challenges through a proactive, functional, holistic approach. I am here to shed light on some of the modalities through which this can transpire in a daily practice, and I feel that one of the best places to start for almost anyone confronted with these challenges (especially if you’re able to read this right now) is through food itself: cooking it, growing it, and sharing it.
The challenge of making pretty much every meal on my own was something I hadn’t appreciated in my earlier years. I never knew I could feel so balanced and full of energy. Home cooked, nourishing, whole food ended up transforming my life, energy, mood, and resilience, and this continues to shift every day.
I tend to gain inspiration from ‘primal/ancestral’ approaches, but of course, I encourage you to adjust the recipes and make substitutes to meet your own needs and preferences.
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Ethos
I believe food is one of the greatest expressions of self love and self care, and to reconnect with one’s food can potentiate profoundly transformative impacts as one part of the puzzle when it comes to living a joyful, adventurous, limitless and fulfilling life. I try to live simply in accordance with nature’s rhythms and cycles, and a large part of this involves cooking with seasonal foods. My hope is to share inspiration when it comes to food, well being, and gaining confidence to try new things, wherever you’re at in this lifetime.
Going beyond restrictive, external dietary and lifestyle dogmas, the recipes on this site are a greater reflection of my personal food ethos which is rooted in a bioindividual, joyful approach guided by my intuition: whole, abundant, nourishing, nutrient dense, chemical and pesticide/herbicide-free, cultivated and raised with care for the soil food web through organic, biodynamic or otherwise alternative practices (as a baseline), informed by ancestral wisdom, and complete with nature’s codes in accordance with the earth’s rhythms. Many of my recipes are informed by the dietary wisdom of Weston A. Price. I like to think that when I eat the seasonal foods from my local ecologies (wild or cultivated!), I bring the land into my cells and rewild my microbiome; essentially becoming one with the land including the local microbes, secondary compounds, and a host of other things, and that is an incredibly special experience to me. Food is information on a cellular level; a priority for me is being able to find and grow food that makes me feel incredible, there is no need for guilt, no dietary dogma, no calorie counting, and certainly no compromise on deliciousness and enjoyment.
Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
In Fred Provenza’s Nourishment, animals were observed to have confidently nibbled on a vast range of grasses, shrubs, and other foods, remarkably fulfilling their nutritional needs with precision and wisdom. He contends that nutritional voices of “authority” and industry can disconnect us from a deeply personal search guided by intuitive wisdom when it comes to nourishing the body, mind and spirit with life-sustaining energy. In modern cultures, it’s easy to become inundated with a harmful, self-sabotaging, unnatural diet mindset through conditioning and intellectual, external pursuits, but he posits that we can “rediscover” our innate nutritional wisdom, intuition and awareness despite this. I’ve found that I’ve possessed it all along through keeping an open mind, trying different foods that make me feel good and energized while embracing wonder and uncertainty. Through my experience, I genuinely believe there is a rebalance for every imbalance that can be accessed through nature.
Food is one thing, but to cultivate whole body health is limitless. Sunlight, hydration, herbalism, individualized non-dogmatic nutrition, information, relationships, how aligned you are with your natural, authentic, highest self and desires… developing your unique relationship with the elements and adapting to the environment and stresses in a sustainable, practical manner ensconced into daily life is a vital practice.
The information in this space is for anyone who’d like to explore and make use of it, to pick and choose whatever resonates with you and to leave the rest, to trust and follow your own intuition, and to use it to reclaim your power, potential, and fullest expression of your Self. I believe there is no limit when it comes to how good one can feel no matter the circumstance and that by finding the appropriate tools, you can transform your situation to where you want to be. With all of the conflicting information out there these days, what works amazingly for one individual may be terrible for another; I am here to share with you what resonates with me at this point in time. As always, it’s important to really listen to yourself, to discover your evolving needs, and seek the guidance of a trusted practitioner or additional research sources if needed before diving into a new dietary practice or healing modality that will be realistically and sustainably embodied.
I hope you find some aspects of this space useful and inspiring, and hopefully to learn from you, too, so I encourage you to comment and ask questions if you have any. May all beings be wild and free. May all beings feel peace.
— Kelly, B.A.A.
Feel free to reach out on Instagram or e-mail me at [email protected]!
