Saturday, September 29
Michaelmas is the “festival of courage” and reminds us to honor the courage that we see around us every day in noble acts, large and small.
We invite all our families to our celebration of Michaelmas! On the festival day, we will come together as a community to play games and participate in activities that challenge our will. We will enjoy performances on the themes of Michaelmas and come together as a community to share a potluck meal.
COMMUNITY MEAL
All families who attend are requested to help us cook up a delicious feast. Sign up to bring chili, cornbread, salad, or apple crisp. Feel free to bring your favorite version or try the recipes below. Please cook extra and bring a list with all ingredients. Remember to label your dishes and serving utensils. All families should bring their own dishes. Potluck sign-up!
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
8:00: WORK PARTY!
Bulb planting, shed and fence repairs, gardening, and more
9:30 am: GAMES & ACTIVITIES
Face painting, cider pressing, obstacle course, horseshoes, bread baking, fire-baked potatoes, and herb butter making.
10:30 am: APPLE CAKE
A play for young children in the Eurythmy Room
11:15 am: 2nd & 6th GRADE SHARING
Join the second and sixth grade classes in the field
11:45 am: COMMUNITY POTLUCK
Gather for a blessing and bring a blanket and plates, utensils and cups for your family. Sign up to bring chili, cornbread, salad, or apple crisp.
WHAT IS MICHAELMAS?
Michaelmas is an autumn festival that—for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere—invites us to awaken our inner life as the weather gets colder. It takes place on September 29, soon after the fall equinox. As the light recedes and we take up fall tasks in the house and garden, we can look to strengthen our own inner reserves. After the expansiveness of summer and days in the sun, it can be a pleasure to settle into a new, more inward rhythm. We know, though, that we’ll need courage to face the early darkness and the winter chill. Michaelmas offers a story of courage to inspire us, and to remind us that the strength we need is always there for the asking.
Michaelmas is named for Saint Michael, an important figure in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. Michael was one of the four archangels, a warrior who threw Lucifer out of Heaven. He is the Angel of Courage, a symbol of the fight against wrong. Often painted as riding a white horse, Michael carries a heavenly sword, and is ready to slay the dragon. In many versions of the story Michael tames the dragon, subduing it and turning its power to the good. All of these archetypes speak to our time, when we need to both slay and tame dragons within and without.
We celebrate this festival at school as a work and harvest festival, with a pageant that aims to bring the essence of the story to life. If the message of this festival speaks to you, there are ways to celebrate it at home that can fit easily into your life and own cultural traditions. When creating a festival, a good formula is to start with the big themes—in this case, changing seasons, courage, and serving others—and then think about how to bring them to the different ages in your house. Good festivals usually have three things: food, nature, and the arts (such as a story, singing, poetry, or a puppet show).
Michaelmas ideas for younger children:
▪ Look for Michaelmas daisies
• Gather autumn leaves and preserve them for bouquets (iron between wax paper, or dip in melted beeswax–easily available online)
▪ Make and enjoy harvest foods—fruit crisps, applesauce, squash soup
▪ Look for and read a library book together about Saint Michael or St. George, the human counterpart to Saint Michael. Also look for children’s biographies about other courageous heroes who right wrongs.
▪ Make dragon bread or model dragons out of modeling clay
▪ Pick apples at the orchard. Pick an extra bag for a neighbor or friend in need.
▪ Do outdoor chores as a family or make a time to help neighbors with theirs. Have warm cider to celebrate!
▪ Make Courage Healing Salve with calendula, beeswax and olive oil—you can find recipes online.
Michalemas ideas for middle school and up:
• Go on a courage hike, a night hike, or another challenging outdoor adventure.
• Create an obstacle course or puppet show based on a story of courage for younger children
• Have each person name his or her dragon on a piece of paper, and burn these in an autumn bonfire
• Go to a concert or listen to a good recording of classical music. Beethoven’s Ninth could be a good choice.
• Watch and discuss a Michaelic movie together—a story that follows the life of a truth-telling hero. You know your child and can judge the right level of injustice. Selma is a great and intense movie about the life of Martin Luther King; teenagers may also want to know the story of the White Rose (a youth resistance movement against the Nazis).
RECIPES
Here are our recipes, feel free to try these or make your family’s favorite recipes.
Apple Crisp with Soaked Oats Topping
This sweet and tasty apple crisp recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free. Enjoy this apple crisp for dessert or eat it cold the next day as a snack. Soak the oats 8-24 hours prior to making crisp for increased digestibility and nutrient content. This recipe was made by parents for a school-wide Michaelmas potluck in September.
For the Soaked Oats
● 2 cups organic rolled oats
● 2 ½ cups warm filtered water, just enough to cover oats
● 2 tablespoons fresh organic lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
Filling
● 8-9 organic apples, cored, peeled and chunked (about 8 cups)
● 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Topping
● 2 cups previously-soaked rolled oats (see above)
● 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
● ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
● 1 teaspoon cinnamon
OVERNIGHT: Place oats in a large mason jar or large bowl with lid. Cover with 2 ½ cups warm filtered water (warmer than room temperature) and lemon juice/apple cider vinegar. Cover with lid or clear wrap if you do not have a lid. Leave out on counter for 8-24 hours.
THE NEXT DAY:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 or 9-inch square baking dish (you could also make this in a 2 inch deep round pie dish).
Strain the soaked oats through colander, set aside.
Prep apples. Core, peel, cut into ½-1 inch chunks. Place in large mixing bowl. Add cinnamon to apples and stir to coat evenly. Pour apples into baking dish.
In the same mixing bowl, combine soaked oats, coconut oil, maple syrup/honey and cinnamon. Mix with hands to combine. This will be a wet mixture, not crumbly like a typical non-soaked crisp topping.
Top apples with the soaked oat mixture, smooth out with hands, making sure it’s evenly distributed.
Bake for about 55-60 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are soft. Remove from the oven. Serve hot, warm or cold.
Adapted from Recipes to Nourish
Chili with Sweet Potatoes (Meat or Veggie)
This recipe comes together in a snap in a crockpot. If you don’t have one, you can easily make this recipe on the stovetop, and simply modify it by sautéing the onion, pepper, garlic, and spices in olive oil until softened before adding the remaining ingredients. Cook until sweet potato is tender and the chili has thickened, about 1 hour. This recipe was made by parents for a school-wide Michaelmas potluck.
● 1 medium organic red onion, chopped
● 1 organic green bell pepper, chopped
● 4 organic garlic cloves, chopped
● 1 tablespoon chili powder
● 1 tablespoon ground cumin
● 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
● 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
● kosher salt and black pepper
● OPTIONAL 1 pound grassfed ground beef
● 1 28-ounce can organic fire-roasted diced tomatoes
● 1 15.5-ounce can organic black beans, drained and rinsed
● 1 15.5-ounce can organic kidney beans, drained and rinsed
● 1-2 medium organic sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces
Directions
1. VEGETARIAN: In a 4- to 6-quart crockpot, combine the onion, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, cocoa, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Add the tomatoes (and their liquid), beans, sweet potato, and 1 cup water. BEEF: Sauté onion, bell pepper, garlic, and spices in olive oil until lightly golden; add ground beef and cooked until browned. Season with salt and pepper. Add to crockpot along with tomatoes (and their liquid), beans, sweet potato, and 1 cup water.
2. Cover and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender and the chili has thickened, on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours (this will shorten total recipe time).
The chili can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
Adapted from realsimple.com
Southern Cornbread
This recipe for gluten-free cornbread made with 100% cornmeal is a bit denser than versions made with part flour, but dunked into chili or reheated with a little butter/honey, it’s quite tasty. If you like, you can add frozen corn kernels, diced sweet or hot peppers, fresh herbs, etc. This recipe was made by parents for a school-wide Michaelmas potluck.
1 3/4 cups organic cornmeal (such as Butterworks Farm)
3 Tbs. honey
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 organic eggs
2 cups organic buttermilk or yogurt OR coconut milk/coconut yogurt
***
3 Tbs. organic butter or use coconut oil and specify “dairy-free”
Heat the oven to 450 degrees. If you have a 9-inch cast-iron skillet, put the skillet into the preheating oven. If you don’t, skip this step and grease a 9×9 pan or deep-dish pie plate.
Whisk all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, beat the two eggs until foamy, then whisk in the buttermilk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together until blended, not too long.
If using a skillet, drop the butter into the hot skillet and cook until just melted (less than 1 minute!). Carefully remove the skillet from the oven and swirl to coat the pan, then pour into batter. Stir the batter. (If not using a pan, simply melt butter in your pan in the oven, and pour melted butter into the batter.)
Pour the batter into the skillet/pan. It will immediately begin to sizzle. Place the skillet or pan into the oven and cook for about 20 minutes, or until golden and set in the center.
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking
Brick Oven Focaccia
Part I
2 ¼ cups water
¾ cup oil
4 ½ teaspoons yeast
In large mixer bowl dissolve yeast in water and oil.
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
7 ½ cups blend of whole wheat and unbleached (preferably bread flour though all-purpose is fine)
Using dough hook, add salt, sugar, and flour. Knead until smooth.
Cover and rise 1 ½ – 2 hours.
Part II
Form dough into 12 balls.
Flatten and stretch balls into thin focaccia.
Brush focaccia with olive oil.
Place focaccia on a breadboard topped with cornmeal.
Add toppings.
Using peel, place focaccia in the oven. Tend closely. Move away from fire as the focaccia brown.
Suggested toppings: sea salt, rosemary, black pepper, chopped garlic, chopped basil or herbs.