I cannot believe that October is right around the corner. Canadian Thanksgiving is in a couple weeks!! Happy to answer any questions or entertain recipe requests relating to that for my fellow Canadians. Just let me know in the comments or via email.

Perfect temperatures for fall gardening have been holding and will continue over the next month where I live, so I’ve been busy. I’m shopping for a columnar beech tree and a Japanese maple to plant in a large pot, inspired by this video. We have a truly ideal spot on our back patio right up on the house. I’m going to do the high contrast heuchera underneath too as I’m a huge fan of that plant in general.

We’re also taking a break from fall mums this year and thinking about asters instead. I made a fall planter out of perennials that I already had and loved how it turned out (see below). Just added the little cabbage to it–everything else will get planted in the garden next spring. It’s fun to dig into what you have and make it work.

So much gardening chat, oops! I’ve been spending so much time out there since I deleted all the social apps plus Gmail off of my phone (more on that below). It’s funny how time magically opens up and expands when your phone is suddenly kinda… boring.

With the extra time to focus, I’ve been thinking about my email subscription a bit more lately. I’ve been sharing a few cookbook previews and have some newsletter “swaps” lined up for the fall. I also want to start sharing some recipes for cozy beverages and little snack-y things on there–just as a little bonus and also as a nod to the first iteration of Saturday Sun, which was a weekly drink post with links called “Happy Hour” (some folks may remember!!). I’m just so thankful to the people that subscribe and check out the new posts every week. It really supports the work that I do! So I want to offer new ways to connect with the little things (that are secretly the big things).

Anyway, our usual assortment below. Please take care out there! :)

5 Things I’m Reading:

1. The return to seeded fruit via Eating Patterns on Substack
2. How Cow’s Milk and Missing Checks Brought Down Brooklyn’s Burgeoning Vegan Empire via Cultured
3. Ever heard of normal-maxxing? via Notes On on Substack
4. The Recipe Site That Ate Itself via Airmail (click here for non-paywalled link)
5. On my nightstand: Eve by Cat Bohannon (for Lilith Lit book club!) & End Times Fascism: and the Fight for the Living World by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor

5 Things I’m Enjoying:

1. Treated myself to a jumbo Benriner mandoline! I don’t have to cut the cabbage into quarters anymore!!
2. I make steel cut oatmeal in my Zojirushi rice cooker pretty much every morning, I have talked about this at length! I didn’t have quite enough oats recently, so did a half and half mix of oats and pearl barley. I loved the results! Comforting oat-y flavor and some chewy bits of barley. Absolutely delicious with banana, walnuts, and maple syrup. The cooking time/liquid ratios are the same!
3. Panda Bear is one of my favorite artists and we picked up his latest release with Sonic Boom recently. Love the album and fully support the anti-streaming ethos. Person Pitch came out when I was 22 and is still one of those all-time albums for me. I had never heard anything like that before, but it felt immediately familiar! A hazy chill out masterpiece that also feels introspective, marked by entrancing layers and repetition. It stretched my personal understanding of what pop music could be.
4. The colour blue in nature
5. Testing out every flavor of powdered lemon lime electrolytes I can get my hands on right now. They really do help with soreness and recovery for me! Going back up to 4 heavy weight sessions a week has been a bit tiring but ultimately very fulfilling. Hydration helps! I’ll report back on my fave :)

5 Questions:

1. That cabbage/carrot slaw photo looks so good! Is that something you have a recipe up for?
   This is from a couple weeks back. The salad was: 2 medium carrots julienned, a quarter of a red cabbage shaved thin, about 1 cup of chickpeas air fried at 390 for 12 minutes (with olive oil, salt, pepper and za’atar), toasted pumpkin seeds, vegan feta, and chopped fresh dill. Dressing was approximately: 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, squeeze of fresh lemon juice, 2 teaspoons maple syrup, salt, pepper, 1/2 teaspoon grainy mustard, 1/3 cup olive oil–just shaken up in a jar.
2. Is AI search driving more traffic to your blog? I’m so hopeful that one good thing to come from AI is the renewal of blogs.
   It is not! I can see who is clicking over to my site from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity etc and the numbers are laughably low. I’m guessing folks are prompting LLMs for a recipe based on what they have/what they’re in the mood for/dietary restrictions. If the chatbot scrapes something from my site and links it as a reference, it’s rare that folks click over. And honestly why would they? They’ve received the recipe/thing that they want from the chatbot. I don’t think that these chat-based uses/”interactions” are significantly cutting into my site’s traffic yet. However, Google’s new search model/AI overviews are pretty much single-handedly responsible for reductions in traffic to my site. When I think about my work in the future, I do it with the idea that Google/search engines don’t exist (or I think about doing another job entirely lol). That’s why I never shut up about email subscriptions! It’s a direct line from me to the audience. Person to person. No algorithms or bots getting in the way.
3. Have you ever used a juicer to make nut milk?
   Yes, but I did not find the process to be efficient enough to make the switch. Cleaning the juicer is a much more involved process than cleaning my blender (which is what I use, along with a nut milk bag, in my go-to nut milk recipe). I also felt that nut milk made in the juicer still required fine straining afterward–more dishes!
4. As someone who’s so online for work, what’s it been like to delete socials? How did you resist?
   I have deleted the apps from my phone before and then added them back with the excuse that I need them for work. I know that I don’t need them on my phone for work! All the apps that I use for social media can be accessed on a browser or on an iPad version. Doing the flick and scroll on Instagram Reels is significantly less appealing on a desktop or giant iPad screen. It actually feels slightly goofy!! Relegating my use of social media to desktop/iPad only has the same vibe as answering emails or something. Everyone is different, but I don’t get sucked into the feed when I have my setup like this. I also don’t really aspire to be a big time influencer anymore. I post on there to bring eyeballs to the work that I’m doing on my site/email subscription. I’m just so tired of the passive consumption, seemingly unavoidable doomscrolling, and folks capitalizing on illusions of community and intimacy. When I think of the hours I’ve spent just watching stuff out of boredom, it’s a bit embarrassing! Sometimes I find wonderful things on there, but I know that my life is better with less of it.
5. What recipes do you have planned for autumn? Also my formal request for more farro!
   It’s so funny, I have a farro recipe coming up next week. Also: a honey nut squash dip coming to the blog, working on 100% whole wheat focaccia that’s still tender and stretchy, a veggie-packed “lasagna” soup, cabbage and rice soup (although I might save that for proper winter weather), corn muffins, classic lentil/nut loaf with my little twists, and for my first email exclusive recipe: a roasted hazelnut milk latte with miso date caramel.

Pinned Recipes This Week:

1. Butternut Squash Stew with Coconut Milk, Chickpeas & Kale
2. Smoky Roasted Mushrooms & Tofu Kale Salad
3. Shredded Brussels Sprouts & Fall Vegetable Salad with Orange Tahini Dressing
4. Creamy Honey Nut Squash Butter Beans with Smoky Tempeh Crunch
5. Vegan Apple Crisp Muffins