It's a special day in the Garden of Eden, and it's time to share a special feast!

Every day is a celebration in our ecovillage, but today is someone's birthday!!!

For many people, birthdays feel like a great opportunity to cut loose or indulge in all your favorite things. Ours is an amazing life, because we're aware that we are always free to do whatever we want to do - in a lot of ways, every day feels like a holiday! However, because we've been observing a fairly strict anti-candida diet for a few weeks, today's special birthday observance felt like quite a luxury for all of us! 

Our birthday girl wanted eggs benedict, so she took to the outdoor kitchen to make enough for our whole community! 

Hot, rich, creamy, smooth, saucy, eggs benedict with crunchy sourdough toast...mmmmmmm!!! All prepared in our sustainable outdoor kitchen of course, cooked over fire on stoves we built by hand out of Earth itself that burn "trash" wood for fuel. The self-sufficiency and honor that go into our meals make them significantly more delicious to us! 

We toasted the sourdough bread in a cast iron skillet over the flame.

The next layer in a classic eggs benedict is ham/Canadian bacon, so we made a pan for those of us who want to eat meat. 

Poached eggs are a most vital element in this yummy dish! We enjoy farm fresh eggs from our chickens, and there are a few tricks to poaching them just right.

First, heat a pot of water to bubbling but not quite boiling. Add a tablespoon or so of vinegar for each egg you want to cook. Stir it up vigorously to get a little whirlpool vortex going. 

Then, crack the egg into the vortex so the swirling water will wrap the egg white around the yolk. Cook for about 3 minutes, though the exact time will depend on the temperature of your water and the degree of doneness you like for your poached eggs. Some of us like runny yolks, and some like a bit drier, more cooked yolks. 

Lift them out of the water with a strainer when they are cooked to your preference! 

For eggs benedict, the hollandaise sauce is key. It takes a lot of butter to make enough of this thick, lavish sauce! We melted a couple pounds of butter.

We add the melted butter to egg yolks in a magical emulsion alchemy. A squeeze of lemon juice really brightens up the rich, heavy, fatty flavor, and we like to sprinkle just a touch of cayenne pepper too! 

We made a bunch of fried potatoes on the side.

They turned out crispy, golden, beautiful, and delicious! 

But we didn't stop there - we mixed them with some sautéed onions, bell pepper, and fresh rosemary from the garden. 

This was a feast fit for royalty!! It was glorious, and very well received by everyone. 

Some of us even enjoyed a root beer float to top it all off 😄

We believe that all things may be beneficial in moderation, and this meal was a beautiful example of that. It was extra appreciated by everyone because we've been following a no sugar, no meat, no dairy, and no bread diet for a few weeks! It is technically our "off" day from following the anti-candida treatment protocol, and various members of our ecovillage chose to indulge to different degrees, but everyone is diligently recording their digestive experience for our candida eradication diaries. 

This was indeed a special feast for a special day! 

Food is important and we hope to inspire people to really take  time  to eat, enjoy it, and share it with someone you love. We also hope to  inspire more and more sustainable practices in regards to  food. We want  to remind everyone to let food be your medicine too! 

If you would like to know more about our unique and super sustainable  connection to our food cycle, please check out our previous post here.  

www.intothegardenofeden.com