Changing Seasons: Ayurveda, Women’s Health, Menopause & Food as Medicine
A podcast exploring women’s health through the wisdom of Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, with empowering conversations on menopause, natural healing, and food as medicine to support every stage of life.
Hosted by Jody Vassallo, Ayurvedic guide, intuitive cook, and founder of ‘Gather’.
Each episode is an invitation to slow down, listen in, and reconnect with the wisdom of your body and the cycles of nature.
Through the lens of traditional medicine and lived experience, we dive into the big topics: perimenopause, menopause, fertility, gut health, grief and loss, surrogacy, Ayurveda, and food as medicine.
This is a space for real conversations, tender truths, and practical ways to nourish yourself no matter what season you're in.
Changing Seasons: Ayurveda, Women’s Health, Menopause & Food as Medicine
70 - The Art of Noticing: Japan's 72 Micro-Seasons with Emily Smith.
Today Jody welcomes Emily Smith to the Changing Seasons podcast. Emily is a documentary film maker who recently moved to Japan and has found herself reconnecting with her mothers heritage through foraging and the 72 mico seasons.
Growing up in England Emily had struggled to find her place, yet always felt at home in nature, she would forage cobnuts with her father and enjoyed the freedom she felt outdoors.
Two years ago on a holiday to Japan Emily discovered a house in a small village and immediately felt a deep connection to the land there. She now lives in that house with her husband and two dogs. Emily spends her days foraging and documenting Japan's 72 micro seasons that were adapted from the Chinese calendar. The first season begins in February, each season lasts roughly five days.
Every morning Emily wakes early and takes her camera and dogs outside to forage and observe what is happening in her environment.
Currently in the season of "cold sets in" Emily speaks about how the hard frost now appears on the ground and leaves continue to fall from trees.
The practice of documenting the 72 micro seasons has allowed Emily to slow down and rediscover a childlike curiosity about the world in which she finds herself living.
We speak about her love of foraging sansai (wild mountain vegetables which include warabi, butterbur fiddleheads) with her 93 year old adopted neighbour she calls grandma, her recent encounter with a serow (Japanese goat like antelope and her secret love of hornets.
Connect:
Website • https://www.jodyvassallo.com/
Gather • https://www.jodyvassallo.com/gather
Instagram • https://instagram.com/jodyvassallobeautifulfood
Newsletter • https://jodyvassallo.substack.com/
Contact • https://www.jodyvassallo.com/contact
Support the Show:
Leave a review on Apple • https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/changing-seasons-podcast/id1757970211
Credits:
Host: Jody Vassallo
Production: Sovereign Creator • https://sovereigncreator.io
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