End of Summer Blueberry Galette

How do you incorporate mindfulness into your life outside of a meditation practice? For me, it involved getting into the kitchen with the last of the summer blueberries yesterday for some seasonal baking. This week at The Modern Bee, we spent time with Cassidy Thedorf, a meditation teacher at Just Be meditation. One of the biggest takeaways I had was that within the over 85,000 types of meditation there are, a common thread is that the practice is ultimately all about being mindful of and in the present moment. So what does that have to do with being in the kitchen with some summer blueberries? Let me explain.

I’m one of those suckers for fall. For the foliage, the culinary flavors, the clothes, the cool change in temperature, the whole gamut. For the past few weeks, instead of enjoying the last fleeting weeks of summer, I’ve been guilty of season pushing–a sweater here, a particular fall scented candle there. But after speaking with Cassidy, I wanted to be more present with this season, the here and now. I decided that baking, which always has always been a form of mindful meditation to me, could quite possibly be the 85,001 type of meditation as I picked up some of the last local blueberries at a farm stand with a plan to bake a simple galette to watch the US Open matches last night. Between the mix of the summery tennis tradition and the blueberries at their seasonal peak, extra ripe with flavor, I felt it a nice, simple, mindful way to celebrate the end of the season,

I did a hodgepodge of recipes, using the trusty Martha Stewart recipe I always use for a crust while trying out this filling from Bon Appétit. I topped it off with some vanilla ice cream (homemade is best and you can play around with this recipe!) Soon enough, the time will come for football and apple pie season and I will welcome it with open arms, but for now, I’m relishing all the fruits (both literal and metaphorical) that summer has to offer, before graciously letting it go to usher in the goodness of fall.

How are you incorporating mindful meditation into your daily life? Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear!

-Michaela