July, what a lovely time of year.... or not?

A full moon, intense heatwave & some cherry based recipes for you to enjoy...

Good morning lovely substack folks, I am writing to you with a huge smile on my face because it is only 20 degrees outside right now at 10am & it should only hit a high of 29 today, the first day below 35-40 degrees in WEEKS! I have been suffering, wow, pregnancy was sooo calm & enjoyable until these heatwaves came & knocked me off my feet. It has been so intense, pair that with a super strong full moon this week & energy levels have been at an all time low… I have been cat napping every day for like 2 hours, unable to sleep through the nights. We set up a bed outside the barn for 2 reasons - we are building a mezzanine level inside to free up space because we have an entire house in 35sqm room right now & it came at a good time because the barn is sitting at around 30 degrees all night, which is hideous for sleeping…. Seriously crossing my fingers & toes that we will have air conditioning next year, or a solution for the heat. It has been the hottest July we have had since arriving in 2017, that year was also disgustingly sweaty & it did not stop until October so I am relieved to be escaping this place at the end of the month, despite the high anxiety levels this gives me…

“I am grounded in truth and open to growth.
I release outdated beliefs and rise with wisdom and grace.” - my full moon affirmation this month

The full moon in Capricorn is associated with a time of emotional intensity and a review of priorities, especially in relation to career and life goals. I think this is particularly fitting seeing as I am only weeks away from becoming a Mother & meeting the baby, every full moon this year has felt so significant to me, I think I am becoming so much more attuned to my body, my feelings, my emotions, the veil has truly been lifted. I absolutely love this information I read on risingwoman.com, it resonates so deeply with me, the baby, my relationship with Marlley which is going to be changing this year in many ways, including us getting married in the end of September.

Capricorn reminds us that maturity is not found in hardness or rigidity, but within the cultivation of resilience within ourselves. It’s not about the mask of strength, but the earned wisdom that comes from enduring and strengthening through any pain we meet.

This particular Full Moon is calling us to check in with our sacred vows, both to ourselves and to those whom we walk beside. What promises are we ready to renew, and which are we finally ready to release?

The Moon is also forming connective aspects to the nodal axis, which activates our soul’s timeline, inviting us to cross a karmic threshold; a portal for closings, as well as beginnings born from choosing grounded devotion over the repression of our spirit or our emotions.

Absolutely beautiful words that bring me a lot of peace & joy, I hope they resonate with you somehow as well.

Aside from this wonderful & weird new moon, we have been busy on the homestead - Marley has built us a mezzanine level with some very weak assistance from my fat bellied self. Seriously everything that felt easier before has now become such a huge task! I really need to listen to my body, I guess the baby tells me as well to stop & take a minute every hour or so because otherwise I get so exhausted & end up falling asleep at 4pm for a few hours. So.. the mezzanine level is UP & it is huge! Much bigger than just a sleeping platform so I am super excited to rearrange this house & get everything in order before we leave. Here are some pics, the boards have not been put up just yet so it is just the structure, luckily we had all of this wood here waiting to be used when we decided we would not build a shower cabin from wood about 4 years ago, so it is well seasoned & very strong. My ladder confidence is going to go through the roof this year! Not sure how I will navigate that with a small baby but I am pretty sure we will be fine.

Here are some pics for you to take a look at of the mezzanine so far… Our barn is about 7 metres long inside so this is around 3 metres long & just under 3 metres wide. All focused around the centre pole of the barn, which is going to free up so much space for our giant corner sofa to go underneath or back against the wall like how we had it before & all of our dressers & clothes to go up top with the bed. We currently live in a building site, so excuse the mess.

I also wanted to share with you some recipes from last month, I have been so slack with the Substack but now we have a working computer again I will be here more often, at least for the next few months, then I will probably write here to tell you my birth story & so on…. if that is something that would interest you, I find a lot of people are really only here for the homesteading content…. Let me know in the comments! I find I get such a good flow going when I am sat in front of the computer with some nice music, the fan blowing on me & no distractions, I really love writing, it feels good to let all these thoughts out but I hate doing it on my phone for some reason….

We have just come to the end of cherry season here in Portugal & I was given 2 kilos of the most amazing organic cherries, I had to figure out a way to use them up so here are 2 recipes that I really enjoyed making this past month. I was also given a small jar of cherries in syrup which somebody made with the cherries from their farm… they also work really well in these recipes & any recipe that calls for cooked cherries.

CHERRY / BEETROOT BROWNIE - SO EASY

Makes a 9 inch tin

• 1 beetroot, cooked & blended ( I boil the beetroot in water until soft )

• 3 eggs

• 100g butter or oil of your choosing

• 100g self raising flour

• 100g cherries ( I used the cherries from the syrup which are pre cooked & pitted but you can use fresh too for more zing )

• 100g dark chocolate, melted

• 50g cacao powder

• 100g brown sugar

• handful of walnuts, optional.

  

Beat the sugar & butter together, then slowly add the oil.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing gently after each egg is added.

Add the melted dark chocolate & beetroot puree.

Sieve the cacao powder & flour together into the mixture & slowly fold it all together. Add a small amount of water if it needs loosening up, it should be a runny mix.

Scatter cherries on the bottom of the baking dish & then put the brownie mix on the top.

Bake in the oven at around 200c for 30 minutes, take 5 minutes of cooking time off if you want them to be extra gooey.

I love that these ingredients can all come from our land or from our neighbours, it is the reason I love the lifestyle we have, the slow & intentional food from the soil around us that we all so lovingly tend every year to keep healthy. You cannot beat this level of good food, even if you add sugar, it is still full of health benefits.

CHERRY SODA - 1 litre

SUPER easy, just dont forget to burp it in this heat otherwise you will end up with cherry soda all over your kitchen, like I did.

• half a cup of ginger bug ( I prepare my ginger bug 3-4 days in advance to make sure it is super active )

• a handful of cherries, either with or without the syrup

• water

Put your ginger bug & cherries in a glass bottle with a swing top & fill up with water to just below the neck. Let sit for 48 hours, burping once or twice per day. I didn’t burp mine for the first 24 hours & the barn was 30 degrees inside so when I opened it, there was an explosion. I started again with the same recipe & it was delicious. Maybe best to keep it in the fridge if you can! If the temperature is cooler where you are, which I hope it is, then you can expect this fermentation process to take around 5 days.

Wow, that was a long one today! I hope you made it to the end, thank you so much for reading, I appreciate every single one of you. Please take the time to share & comment <3

Chat with you all again soon, much love! J xxxxx