Food is medicine. This I know to be truth. The food you consume can either heal you, or kill you. So we do all that we can to nourish our bodies deeply and intentionally with high vibrational foods. And on top of that, we love to share these offerings with our community.
If you are a long time follower of Mystic Roots perhaps you remember WILD a New Moon Dinner Party series we started way back in 2017. The concept for WILD came from the abundance of wild foods growing all around Atlanta and my desire to share their culinary uses with community. Well, SweetGrass is a new iteration of WILD! Now that I'm back home in the Low Country and living on beautiful and historic Sapelo Island, what better way to introduce my people to Gullah Geechee Cuisine (Mystic Roots style), than to offer these dining experiences.
SweetGrass is a reimagining of Low Country cooking. It's a dining experience where we infuse all of our dishes with wild food and herbs that will take your palate on an exciting journey. It's an opportunity to connect with other local growers and get out into the wild to see what the greatest grower, nature herself, is providing!
On Saturday March 9th, we had our 1st SweetGrass experience. Enjoy as we walk through each course.
Course 1
Collard Wrap w/Black Eyed Peas, Herbed Cashew Cheeze & Infused Spicy Cilantro Pesto
Gullah Geechee Cuisine is known for collards and black-eyed peas and so this dish is a twist on a classic. It's a fusion of cooked and raw vegan cuisine. We harvested some local collards (Heritage Farm) and massaged them with cold pressed olive oil. To that we added some lightly spiced black-eyed peas, we made a creamy cashew "Cheeze" infused with fresh sage, scallions, oregano and thyme, and topped it off with our famous spicy cilantro pesto!
Course 2
Cream of Mushroom Soup w/ *Locally Sourced King Blue Oyster Mushrooms and Lion's Mane w/Infused Yellowdock Seed & Rosemary Cornbread Muffins
I knew I wanted to do a Cream of Mushroom Soup, and was certain that because of all the rain we've had lately, that chicken of the woods mushrooms would show themselves. Well I did see some, however, it was too high up in the tree to harvest. So I connected with some local mushroom growers from Southern Brothers Farm and purchased some king blue oyster mushrooms and lion's mane to add to the soup. I infused the coconut milk with bay leaves that are abundant on Sapelo, and after about an hour of infusing added the mushrooms, celery, onions and bell peppers to the soup. The infused cornbread muffins had fresh rosemary added and yellow dock seed flour to round it out.
Course 3
Sauteed Mustards and Wild Clover w/Juniper-Ginger Butter Sauce & Onions
Locally grown mustards and wild clover leaves sauteed in a little sesame seed oil with onions was a beautiful blend of spicy and sweet. The slightly sweet and floral flavor of the clover leaves complimented the spice of the mustards. We made a wonderful butter by infusing crushed juniper berries (from the Eastern red cedar tree) with fresh ginger. This butter was drizzled over the greens, making this dish a favorite amongst our guests!
Course 4
Smashed Sweet Potato & Thyme w/ Cardamom Orange & Vanilla Simple Syrup
Sweet potatoes are another staple in our culture. We all know of the delectable sweet potato pie or the candied yams. This course was a celebration of the sweet potato! We paired it with thyme and a little cinnamon, and we made a delectable herbal simple syrup with Georgia Tupelo honey, green cardamom, vanilla and orange powder from some Sapelo Oranges that we harvested about a week ago. The flavor combination was to live for!
Course 5
Infused Cinnamon Carob & Cacao Pudding w/Wild Cherokee Rose Honey
I LOVE roses! And this rose honey syrup is a combination of wild Cherokee roses, winter roses (camellia japonica) and organic rose petals mixed with Georgia Tupelo honey. We made an infused pudding with avocado and cacao and marinated the strawberries in our rose syrup. We added some fresh mint leaves and drizzled some rose syrup on top to round out this beautiful dessert.
Beverages
Blueberry Lavender Spritzer
&
Lemongrass+ Pine Needle Tea
We began our dining experience with a Blueberry Lavender Spritzer made by making a syrup from fresh lavender leaves, blueberries and agave and adding that syrup to sparkling water. It was a cool and pretty treat to start the vibes.
Later in the meal we had a wonderful pine needle tea combined with lemongrass and agave for a taste of Sapelo.
Heartfelt thank you to our folks who joined us for the first edition of SweetGrass. It was a beautiful experience from beginning to end. We'll be doing it again next month so save the date of Saturday April 13th and join us on beautiful Sapelo Island.
For more information and to join us for our next dining experience sign up for our mailing list here: https://www.mysticroots7.com/
