Art + Golden Paste
Hello kind soul,
Here I sit by the firelight listening to Rita Payes sipping on herbal tea and eating my housemate's homemade babka.
It’s been a while between drinks.
For the last 3 months, I have been painting full-time leading up to a joint exhibition I did with my mama called IN BLOOM.
It's a beautiful exhibition featuring over 50 of our artworks and some of my indigo textiles. If you're in the Sunshine Coast area it’s on at The Corooy Butter Factory till Sunday (June 16th). Otherwise here is the link to the IN BLOOM Catalogue if you want to have a look!
The seasons are changing here. I’m living up in the mountains of Mainarm, Northern Rivers, NSW and Winter is officially here.
I love the changing of the seasons…. I often marvel at the way nature seems to provide exactly what humans need to nurture them through the passage of life.
Since I arrived here patches of Gota Kola have sprung up all around the front door, doc is growing in abundance everywhere, citrus trees are blooming and turmeric, ginger and galangal are prolific and ready for the picking. It's such a marvel how the medicine we need is usually at our fingertips… One just has to open their eyes.
Last month my 8-year-old niece (fermenting partner in crime!) and I spent the day harvesting turmeric, galangal and ginger from my parent's property, staining our hands and clothes golden yellow. My hands were stained so bright that even the lady at the Gold Coast petrol station was like ‘What the hell happened to your hands love?’ She thought it was some kind of scurvy!
So in an ode to the changing of seasons, the building of immunity and the sharing of knowledge I’m sharing with you my Golden Paste Recipe.
It’s anti-inflammatory, a big immune booster and a delicious health tonic.
I use this paste as a tea tonic, adding one spoonful to a glass of hot water every morning. It's delicious!
I also use it as a meat marinade, I add it to rice, put it in a stock and as a substitute for turmeric powder in recipes.
With this recipe, you can't go wrong.
I’m loose with quantities so you should be as well! Think of it like a painting. Use your intuition. Enjoy the process, and keep in mind your hands will get stained golden for a few days!
*If you can’t find the time to make it but want some Golden Paste in your life, I have a few jars of Golden Paste for sale online, or just email me!
Sara’s Golden Paste Recipe
What you need-
Fresh ginger, turmeric and galangal roots, raw honey, black pepper
What you do-
-Harvest or buy / trade for a bunch of fresh ginger, turmeric and galangal roots.
(I like to make this in big batches so I can it have it throughout the year. So the more rhizomes the merrier)
-Get the dirt off with a brush or a damp sponge
-Peel the skin of the galangal with a sharp knife ( this is hard yakka, but super worth it!)
-Cut all the rhizomes into little pieces
-Blend in a strong blender till it becomes a paste (make sure you don't burn the engine out whilst you do this)
-Mix in black pepper
-Put all the ingredients in a big glass jar
-Mix through the local honey
-Let the paste sit for a few weeks or a few years in a vessel (glass, wood, clay)
-Keep in mind to leave 5cms of air at the top of the jar as the paste will grow over the first stage of fermentation. (I’ve had many an orange explosive accident to learn this!)
You can start drinking it immediately, but the longer you leave it, the more umami and richer the flavour will be.
Enjoy!!!!
Till next time.
With love and ferments
Sara Yael