01 Jan Courting Chai with Sacred Spices
I spent years at the side of my teacher traveling throughout India, Nepal and the States. One of my favorite tasks was to make tea—more specifically chai. Traveling with a spice tiffin, I would find myself in different kitchens each day with the invitation to fill the space with spice songs brewed to beckon warm connection. Chai became more than a drink. It became an artistic expression of ancestral recipes taught through stories exchanged, love extended and embraced moments of stillness shared with once strangers, but now friends.
In this workshop through the collective spirit of cooking together, we will enter into courtship with chai to explore Ayurveda’s wisdom and approach to culinary spices for promoting digestive health. Through story and engaging with the five senses, participants will be introduced to the sacred stories of an array of spices used in Ayurvedic cooking and crafting of chai. This time together is a gesture towards understanding that everything carries along with it a beautifully rich story of origin.
By beginning to learn these stories and the retelling of them is beckoning them to remain alive in our kitchens. Participants will gain knowledge and deeper kinship with the spices introduced, empowering each individual to cook with more potency of healing ability to the body and spirit. We will conclude our time as we sip tea in hand thrown ceramic chai cups crafted specifically for the gathering. Participants will get to take their cup home with the intention of many more mornings of courtship with tea to come.
Emma Thompson will be sharing Courting Chai with Sacred Spices and Tending the Hearth with of Digestive Fire.