Lacto-Fermented Birch Syrup Infused Jalapeños
Home-grown jalapeños, lacto-fermented and then infused with birch syrup – sweet-hot, gently acidic, and resin-warmed, preserving summer heat and sap for winter hearth food.
 
These jalapeños are shaped by patience rather than fire. Grown from seed, harvested by hand, and halved in the jar for both beauty and balance, they are preserved through lactic fermentation and softened with the deep, wood-sweetness of birch syrup.
 
Fresh green jalapeños bring the initial heat – vegetal, bright, and alive. Natural lacto-fermentation follows, drawing out lactic acidity that rounds and steadies the spice. Birch syrup enters quietly, lending a caramel-wood sweetness that recalls sap rising through cold bark rather than sugar. The result is heat held in check, acidity that refreshes rather than sharpens, and a lingering warmth that settles into the body.
 
On the palate, the sequence is deliberate. Heat arrives first, then softens as acidity spreads, followed by a gentle, resin-sweet depth that lingers without cloying. Fermentation continues to develop the flavour over time – heat mellows, tang deepens, and the jalapeños become increasingly integrated with their brine.
 
This is not a hot condiment for shock or spectacle. It is preserved warmth – summer heat carried forward into the dark months. Each spoonful is an offering placed on the altar of the mouth, taken into the body as the earthly temple. Crafted to nourish as well as enliven, these jalapeños feed digestion, warm the core, and bring brightness to winter food without excess.
 
Flavour pairings
Roasted vegetables
Grilled or roasted meats
Beans and lentils
Eggs
Cheese
Flatbreads
Stews and soups
As a base for glazes and sauces
 
Serving suggestions
Use sparingly as a condiment. Spoon jalapeños over food just before serving, or cube them and sprinkle them over food just before serving. Particularly suited to hearth dishes where warmth, acidity, and depth are welcome. The halved jalapeños are designed to sit beautifully on the plate. These are absolutely DELICIOUS and I highly recommend them over baked sweet potatoes with a dollop of sour cream.
 
Storage
Store refrigerated once opened. Keep submerged in brine. Flavour continues to develop with time. Best enjoyed within 6–9 months.
 
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. Ingredients are gathered as the year unfolds, worked slowly, and held back for winter – not for spectacle, but for sustenance.
 
Fermentation, sap-sweetness, mineral depth, and gentle heat shape flavours meant to be met with attention, feeding the body deeply, strengthening bones, warming, soothing, and replenishing marrow through the dark months.
 
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.