Boreal Veil
A sweet winter aromatic dust – created as a culinary perfume.
 
Boreal Veil is a sweet winter aromatic dust, created as a culinary perfume for the cold months – a finishing touch shaped around air, light, and stillness rather than warmth or richness.
 
It was composed in response to the sensory landscape of snowy winter woodlands: pale citrus brightness held in frost, clean cold air, resin carried through northern woods, and the quiet clarity that arrives when the land is stilled. Sweetness here is restrained and translucent, never cloying – a veil rather than a blanket.
 
Fresh Artemisia annua leaves are part of the making, lending a green, silvery depth that lifts the sweetness and keeps the blend sharp-edged and alive. Their aromatic presence brings breath and brightness, cutting through any heaviness and holding the dust firmly in the register of air.
 
This is not a dessert spice and not a warming hearth dust. Boreal Veil sits lightly, used sparingly, where aroma leads and sweetness follows. It is applied at the table, just before serving, as a final aromatic gesture – a dusting of winter light.
 
This is winter sweetness experienced as clarity rather than comfort.
 
Aromatic profile
Top – cold citrus, pale sweetness, winter light
Heart – fresh Artemisia annua, green lift and clarity
Base – soft resins, northern woods, cool air
Overall – clean, sweet, lifted, atmospheric
 
Flavour pairings
Cultured butter and good bread
On buttered milk breads, soft breads, and pastry
Fresh cheeses and soft curds
Porridge or simple grains
Baked apples or pears
White chocolate or milk-based desserts
Warm milk or lightly sweetened drinks
Delicious as a dusting over freshly baked meringue filled with cream and berries (or elderflower/berry curd)
 
Serving suggestions
Use sparingly as a finishing dust. A small pinch is sufficient – Boreal Veil is designed as a sweet aromatic veil rather than a flavouring. Sprinkle just before serving, allowing residual warmth to release the aroma without muting its clarity.
 
Avoid heat or cooking. This is a final gesture, not an ingredient.
 
Storage
Store sealed in a cool, dark place away from heat and light.
Use dry utensils only to preserve aroma and texture.
 
Winter Hearth Soulfoods – Mother Tongue of the Cailleach Country
The Winter Soulfoods collection is an immersive body of work set in Cailleach country – the boglands of Béarra – approached as ecosystem, archive, threshold, and kitchen. It imagines what it might mean to work from within the Cailleach’s own domain, drawing flavour, nourishment, and craft from deep ground, slow water, turf fire, and time.
 
The bog is not treated as symbol or backdrop. It is a keeper of strata – layers of matter and memory held intact. A place where time is thickened rather than spent. A preservative ground where fermentation, storage, and patience are not techniques, but ways of living in relationship with the land around you, and the land within you.
 
Within this terrain, food is ceremony and commitment. Even the lightest offerings are shaped by attention, restraint, and season. Boreal Veil belongs to the cold register of winter sweetness – clarity, breath, and stillness – reminding us that nourishment in the dark months can be delicate as well as sustaining.
 
These soulfoods are acts of natural pace and continuity – ways of staying in relationship with place, season, and deep time. Crafted through hand, hearth, and long devotion, they carry the quiet authority of a path walked faithfully, day after day, in preparation for the dark.