Sunday SELF - C. 🍳 A. 🍇 R. 🌿 E. 🐣

Hey guys, happy June! ☀️

Last month was a whirlwind for me because my brother got married and then the very next morning, Levi and I flew out to Italy for our honeymoon trip that we’ve been planning and talking about since 2021.

✈️ After over a week in Italy and a few days in France, we finally got to experience the places that were on the top of our bucket list and gain a whole new obsession with HOME.

Not to sound ungrateful at all because the trip was amazing and so important for us which I will explain more in detail in upcoming podcast episodes. I just love my home and we have so much life here, it’s not ideal to leave.

I’ll share more soon about what I learned over there about myself, lifestyle, and recipes from the most amazing cooking class in Tuscany!

BUT I literally just got home like 3 days ago so I still need to process… and get back to a normal sleep schedule in this time zone.

So here are my immediate takeaways and overall reflections from May:

Sunday SELF - C. 🍳 A. 🍇 R. 🌿 E. 🐣

🍳 Cooking: Home Basics

I honestly started losing my mind after not cooking my own meals for 2 weeks so the first thing I made when I got home I knew I wanted complete control over every ingredient and to ~feel~ home.

So I kept it simple with scrambled eggs, sourdough, and butter.

The smartest thing I did was freeze a loaf of sourdough right before I left, somehow knowing how much I’d need it before I’d have the energy to make any.

• Sourdough made from flour I milled fresh at home.

• Eggs that my own gorgeous chickens laid that morning since my neighbor had all their eggs from while we were gone.

• And then the 1 must-have souvenir from the trip, French butter.

I get the hype about French butter because you’d never find butter at a grocery store in the U.S. that is exactly like when you churn butter yourself.

It even still has some of the water in the butter exactly like when you make it at home and press the liquid out and molding it in an ice bath.

It’s super fresh and I’m glad TSA didn’t confiscate it from me on the way back 🙌

There’s nothing like cooking for yourself with only the most incredible ingredients so even this super simple meal felt so luxe to me.

Other meals I’ve been obsessed with since being home are taco bowls, crunch wraps, and breakfast tacos.

I linked to where I shared the recipes in past posts if you want to make them this week :)

🍇 Art: The Tuscan Countryside.

Yes, I saw some of the most famous manmade art in Paris, but nothing compares to the jaw-dropping 360 degree views of Tuscany.

A photo doesn’t do it justice, yet at the same time, every picturesque photo you’ve ever seen of the Italian countryside that you thought maybe was artificially enhanced or just a professional photographer’s perfect shot…

Everywhere you look, looks exactly like that.

It’s living proof of how nature looks when the majority of people living on the land care for it and live in deep relationship with it.

The Airbnb we got was a guest house on the property of a normal family, although their home looked like the most stunning winery castle, it was completely normal to them because every house around looks like that.

They, like many of their neighbors, have olive trees and even gifted us a bottle of their olive oil. They have chickens, a huge garden, and a bunch of dogs and cats.

So I felt super inspired and encouraged everywhere I looked, but if I had to pick a standout place, it’d be Villa Le Corti. 

If you click the link and see that insane estate… That is where we had a private cooking class with the most amazing chef.

He gave us a tour of their wine and olive oil operations, and then the gardens, which OMG, it’s a dream. We picked sage from the garden and then went down into the classic 1800’s Italian kitchen.

He explained how their garden is using new and ancient strategies to regenerate the land as we learned classic and incredibly simple traditional Italian recipes.

Honestly I wish I took more photos, but I was completely swept up in the moment I didn’t even realize how fast 5 hours would go by.

Thankfully the chef gave me a print out of all the recipes we made so when I recreate them at home, I’ll share them with you!

And if you’re interested in this kind of lifestyle, the chef recommended the documentary, The Biggest Little Farm. He said it’s where he got most of his initial inspiration to give up his childhood California dream and make Tuscany his home to work towards cultivating his own little regenerative farm, using many of the strategies and practices that they do at the estate.

🌿 Reading: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Okay, this book is like the bible on how building a harmonious relationship with nature serves everyone. The land loves you back.

It reminded me of the quote from Martha Stewart, “If you want to be happy for a year, take a spouse. If you want to be happy for a decade, get a dog. And if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, make a garden."

The author gives readers the science, the personal, and the ancestral significance of plant intelligence. She highlights the deep experiences of motherhood, growing from mother to grandmother, and how important and interconnected mothering the land is for lifelong fulfillment.

“I asked her why she gardens given how much time it takes. She does it for the food and the satisfaction of hard work yielding something so prolific, she says. And it makes her feel at home in a place to have her hands in the Earth. I ask her, ‘Do you love your garden?’ even though I already know the answer. Then I ask tentatively, do you feel that your garden loves you back?’ …‘I’m certain of it,’ she says. ‘My garden takes care of me like my own mama.”

The author describes an experience she had with a man who lived most of his life in a city. When she asked him where he felt most nurtured and supported, the man said, “My car. It provides me with everything I need, just the way I like it…” Years later he tried to kill himself in his car.

Even though this was a tragic, real experience with someone she loved, her point was that he never grew a relationship with the land and instead immersed in technology and modern conveniences. 

She writes, I think, perfectly:

🐣 Enthusiasm: This new life chapter — slow season focusing on growing my family and dream home

With the homestead Levi and I our building, we don’t travel all that much. This big trip we took was something we planned as a kind of an end of an era celebration.

And after going to these dream locations, it’s only encouraged our plan and made me so so excited for the life we’re building and living in every single normal day at home.

Now it feels like we have no barriers to growing the things that bring us the most joy. 

The day we got back, Levi planted the first half of our wine grapes in our backyard. He’s built a barn for the 2 sheep we’re getting, bought a second chicken coop for our 4 new baby chicks that will be arriving in August, and we’ve 10xed our garden from last year.

I’m just so grateful that our plants didn’t die and our dogs and chickens we’re so well taken care of, but it didn’t feel right to leave the things that mean the most to me and are my responsibility in the hands of others.

Tuscany was cool because the majority of the people there were living similar lifestyles to the one that Levi and I do now and I was able to see again how rich and beautiful that is long-term.

And although fun, exciting, and expansive, traveling is super stressful, so with this amazing experience now in the scrapbook, it feels like the start of a new beautiful chapter for me.

So this turned out to be a very nature themed post… I tend to do that.

Are you growing any herbs or vegetables this season?

🤍 Jaclyn