walk on the wild side into edible landscapes

it's a evening of radical amazement.... 
and what if we practiced this everyday, and together? seeing and sensing the wonder of the world in every moment.  what would our food taste like and offer us if we ingested that amazement, the miracle of light transmuted into form, which becomes our food?

well, we did a little experiment in that regard, with the Conscious Kitchen we we hosted on the 3rd evening of the Axladitsa Immersion. we visited the edible landscape to see what She would offer... edible flowers, wild herbs to inspire our menu, fresh lettuce from the garden and luscious conversations all the while.  our little troupe came back filled with offerings of taste and beauty to make the food & space sparkle with wild welcome.

remarkable patterns of light in the food - the Tree of Life in the cabbage, the perfection of peas in a pod... and the scents and tastes of wild thyme inspired the Take Thyme Salad, wild fennel splashed on the Jeanne D'Arc orange-peel-banana-chocolate Amuses-bouches, the edible flowers on the Sunbeam Salad. and the look of sweet rapture on the faces of the radical chefs and eaters.

this little shift, this little invitation to eat Light and be amazed by the miracles that become of our food, inspired our blessings on the food.  no words, just look, see, smell and taste with reverence, in silence.

then dig in!

photos by richard moreham and julie arts

emergence of a new organizing pattern

november 2008

i write from volos, a small waterfront city in greece on the way to thessoloniki where tomorrow i will catch my plane home. i am with nora who is czech and slovakian, and apprenticing with axalditsa and rowan from denmark who is their first intern. we are having some separation anxiety after having spent so much rich and quality time together, so maria and sarah dropped us off here, on their way to athens, and we are all internet-ting together before i get the bus.

the november harvest at axladitsa

we have spent the last 2 weeks together with others from belgium, turkey, denmark and canada harvesting olives with panayoti, a wonderful local friend and farmer, and making olive oil. maria and sarah's olives produced the best grade olive oil yet this year at the local olive press. it was amazing to see the vats of olives, churning and turning into the biggest tapenade i've ever seen, then coming out in a tinted green oil that we've been using everyday in our meals. i have a 1.5 litre in my bag right now that i hope will grace my kitchen in montreal, and not the clothes in my bag. the prize bottle is wrapped in many many protective layers. believe, me this olive oil is worth the risk.

but we also created the Conscious Kitchen together as part of the overall gathering we were hosting. it was my first time really integrating these ideas into a living place and system and it was really amazing.

we learned a lot about how to integrate this not only as a programme here, but simply into the operating system of how axladitsa hosts gatherings. beyond cooking together, and hosting each other through food, is collectively being conscious of where the food is from, what choices we made and make everyday to plant, pick, buy, and compost our food and be conscious of where we create waste. so we have ideas for how to further integrate this into further gatherings with the vision of axladitsa becoming self-sufficient.

the other europeans there were really interested in co-creating their conscious kitchens with them. in fact, there is a whole emerging network out there for whom the conscious kitchen would provide a deepening of their practice and new avenues in to their work. we've already booked a week long conscious kitchen workshop for next november to co-incide with the olive harvest.

emerging the art of hosting meaningful spaces

our purpose for being together at Axladitsa was to deepen our understanding and practice of hosting, or of holding space for emergence to occur.

we saw the evolution of hosting spaces for meaningful conversations because the people who gathered here are developing a next level of this practice through hosting meaningful spaces. this means living this practice by integrating it into our daily lives.

that our work is in creating our own living spaces as learning spaces.
so 5 of the people gathered are actually integrating their living and work spaces and hosting what we called a "living learning centre". this is quite different than consulting or training and bringing a practice to a place or organization and then leaving. or creating workshops or retreats over a period of time. rather, it is to integrate it and live it at every level every day with family, work, neighbours, the land, and offer this living example to others to participate by inviting them into the rhythm of this living system/home/learning space.

what is so exciting for me, is that this is how i have been re-imagining my work and my life.

that at every level it is a practice, and it is integrating and aligned with other parts of my life - this idea of living wholeness. that is what the conscious kitchen is for me, too - a constant inquiry into how all these choices in how we eat or nourish or consume are connected not just to my own body, but to all my relationships: with people, places, practices and the planet.

i feel this is what has been emerging for me these last few years, this deeper integration and consciousness around the personal, collective and natural. and so it is important for me to be part of an emerging collective, a group and network of people who are living and working this way, who are constantly working to be aware of the emergence of new patterns for organizing their lives, their work, and our collective work in the world. i have been feeling - and now i am witnessing - something happening that has to do with a paradigm shift around how we live, work, relate, communicate, convene, reflect, be still, and move into purposeful and wise action.

the art of olive harvesting at axladitsa

i leave for Greece for three weeks to work with the beautiful land and stewards of Axladitsa. it is the olive harvest and we are working with the Art of Hosting network who are coming to "harvest" their work and see what comes next for them ~
this delicious combination becomes a new kind of art of harvesting.... we are integrating people and practice by inviting the art of hosting to connect with the rhythm and stewardship of the land.
and we will do this the through the heart of axladitsa, its outdoor kitchen....

Axladitsa's Conscious Kitchen

We welcome you into the creation of Axladitsa's Conscious Kitchen experiment with open arms, hearts and bellies!

Living Wholeness is at the core of Axladitsa Avatakia; so all our actions are based on this core principle. Living a whole life requires one to be conscious and to pay attention to the fundamental aspects of living: and food is one of these fundamentals! What we take into our physical bodies holds the power to heal or hurt both our bodies as well as the earth. So at Axladitsa we would like to create a conscious kitchen in which food is prepared with consciousness and responsibility as part of a natural cycle that nourishes our bodies and our earth.

Together we will cultivate a conscious culture of nourishment during our time together. From seed to table, into our stomachs and back to the land, this cycle of nourishment is an intentional exploration of our relationship to what and how we eat and how we integrate conscious practice, "living wholeness" into every element of Axladitsa's operations. The Conscious Kitchen as a practice is at the heart of how we nourish each other, the land of Axladitsa, our neighbours and local community, the larger systems and influences, and our relationship to how we nourish our own selves. It is also about creating a healing relationship with our own bodies.

You will be joining us here during the olive harvest, which is a powerful metaphor for harvesting our own work and an opportunity to learn by doing! We will integrate and co-create practices around zero waste, silence and gratitude, karma yoga, journaling, sustainable food systems and choices, gardening, working with local farmers and neighbours, delicious cooking, cleaning and composting and of course the art of the olive harvest.

Our conscious kitchen invites you to prepare a little before you arrive:

• to bring an offering from your own kitchen, home or land to our kitchen so that we might integrate all our gifts into Axlatditsa's pot (seeds, herbs, salts, a recipe, utensil, tea, a favorite ingredient, a grace or poem etc.)

• if you are on a particular diet (vegan, kosher, macrobiotic, etc…) please bring any specific ingredient that we might not be able to get here, be prepared to advise us in the kitchen as well as sharing the basic principles of your diet with the group (should you choose to)

• a personal journal for writing
• a healing offering to the land which has been suffering deep burns

Here are some questions to explore before our collective conscious kitchen experiment:

• Where does my food come from? How is it grown? How long does it travel before it comes to my kitchen? Who actually makes the most profit when I purchase a particular food? How much does the earth suffer by me consuming a particular food?
• How do I prepare my food? Is the way I prepare my food and the way I consume it good for my body? What is good for my body? What is the real cost of my cooking to the nature?
• How much waste do I create by consuming a particular food? How much waste do I generally create in the kitchen? Where does the waste go? Do I compost my organic waste? Can I minimize my waste in the kitchen? How can I practice zero-waste in the kitchen?
• is the way i eat sustainable for my body and for the earth?

looking forward to delicious conversation,
Filiz, Vanessa, Maria and Sarah

for more information please see www.axladitsa.org