I have system on system of ways to catalog the hidden restaurants, necessary eats, secret beaches, bike rides and trails that cross my path as I bounce around. Sometimes I don’t revisit them for years, if ever. But some seem to pop into my realm at just the right time. The recommendation to visit Hidden Kitchen on the central California coast by my friend Jen Audia is a perfect example.
Jen only needed to tell me once about this sweet little waffle mecca, easily arrived at by a nice bike ride or en route to a stopover at the beach in sleepy but sweet Cayucos, just a couple of hours north of Santa Barbara. I had filed this note away for “some other time,” and even told Jen so. But as my time in California rolled on this past April, I found the idea of eating golden waffles on a foggy morning, cuddled up with a warm mug surrounded by warm folx completely undeniable. And so, I pointed the van straight for the Hidden Kitchenand bellied up to their bar on a weekday morning.
There are certain visions that come to mind when the words bioregional, organic, locally sourced come together but Hidden Kitchen doesn’t fulfill any of them, even though that’s exactly what they serve there. Instead, this lovely little outpost (both outposts, actually! There is a cafe in Cayucos and another in Cambria) serves as gathering spots for the community, attracting all walks of life, all ages and everyone from hippy-athlete-aesthetes like me passing through, to the construction workers that load up on breakfast en route to their job sites. Which is a great reminder that there isn’t that much difference between us at all, the love language is all food. And there’s something extra delicious when it comes from where you are, served up in the weather where you reside, with the people you call your people. And this is not an accident or a placebo. It’s not our imagination, and it’s not just the feels. The way that our bodies feel, perceive + utilize foods that are FROM WHERE WE ARE is a REAL THING.
Bioregionality is a big deal – for our bodies, for our well-being, not to mention the planet. The blue corn waffles at Hidden Kitchen are a big deal too. So good, that when I got home I dug the ground blue corn I brought home from Paonia, Colorado last spring out of the freezer and whipped up a batch of my own. It turns out blue corn flour is bioregional for me too. Which makes this just the thing that my body wants to eat, just like it’s just the thing that everyone in Cayucos wants to eat too.
Bioregions are naturally defined areas, identified by their physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics, and weather patterns. Our bodies don’t recognize the lines on a map that delineate one state or one country from another, but they do recognize bioregions because as nature changes and morphs, so too do our bodies. If you’ve ever noticed that your sinuses become more dry when you spend time in the desert, that your skin becomes more supple when you’re staying by the sea, or that your fingers and toes swell when you go up in altitude this is all associated with our bodies response to it’s natural environment – a biological acknowledgment of bioregionality.
Because all foods have energetic – not just nutritional!- properties, they can either help to ease our bodies adjustments as we travel through bioregions, or they can make our transitions less comfortable. By consuming foods that are of that bioregion, we do our bodies the best service. And this is what “eating local” and “in season” with respect to our health is all about.
Eating foods from where we are, grown right now, is the best way to attune our biorhythms, align our bodies, harness our potential, and optimize our lives and our performance. Put another way, there aren’t any “intrinsically healthy foods;” foods that are good for us no matter where we eat them. The foods that are “healthy for us,” are the foods that are around us, growing, right now and only right now. In some other place, in some other time, the preferred menu will be completely different. Which is why those tomatoes or baby lettuces are a.) less tasty and b.) less appropriate in the middle of winter. Our bodies want what the Earth provides, not actually what Whole Foods purveys all the time (which can be very difficult to decipher sometimes!)
So how do you even know what’s bioregional to you? This is a great question and one that you can’t really answer without the help of your local farmer, or your local farmer’s market. But, you can totally look up “what’s growing near me” in the Farmer’s Almanac online and learn what grows in your ‘hood. It does take a bit more investment than just going to the grocery store and picking out whatever has already been cut into little chopped pieces for you, but I promise, it’s worth it.
Blue corn is a flint corn that’s grown across the Southwest, particularly in New Mexico and Arizona, but there are some small growers here in Colorado, which is where I acquired my flour from. If you’re looking to try this recipe and are looking for some blue corn flour, I recommend purchasing it from here. And I DO recommend trying this recipe because it is DAMN GOOD.
But I also really recommend getting to know the plants, foods and their seasons that are directly around you. Some truly interesting correlations take place when we start thinking about the lifecycle of crops, the cravings we have for foods, and what happens in our bodies in different seasons. For example, it makes sense that corn is better for our bodies in the springtime, because this follows the natural agricultural pattern of the crop. Corn is harvested in high summer and fall, and if we’re going to turn it into flour the kernels are dried, ground and stored until we bake them into cornbread. The dry, light qualities of corn make it perfect for balancing the heavy, wet qualities of springtime, and since opposites balance, corn is a sweet spring food. Corn is less excellent for us in the middle of the winter, however, when our bodies don’t want to be light or dry, they want to be supple, warm and cozy. And so, indigenous peoples most often made a warming porridge with the fresh corn in these colder months. Cool, right?
I absolutely feel a difference in my body when I’m eating with the seasons, enjoying foods that are close to my community, my home. The weather inside our bodies needs to be in tune with the weather – the place – outside our bodies. And eating bioregionally is a great way to do just that. I feel more vital, more connected, more deeply nourished, and the food TASTES better. And my guess is that you’ll notice a difference too.
I truly LOVE this recipe. It’s easy, fast, delicious, so satisfying, suitable for those that can’t consume gluten or dairy, and so so satisfying when topped with savory or sweet piles of goodness. I took the entirely unbioregional route and put avocados on my waffles here, because I’m human (and so are you!) but the flour, eggs, microgreens and love baked in are all local. Yum.
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