DIY Ginger-Scented Pecans

Ginger-Scented Pecan Recipe

Our small gift to you this holiday season is my pecan recipe. If you make them for yourself or your loved ones, will you share with us on social media? Tag us @basketandbike or #basketandbike if you make them.

2 lbs shelled pecan halves
2-4 tbsp coconut oil
2-4 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4-1/2 tsp pink Himalayan sea salt

Preheat oven to 400º. On a rimmed baking sheet spread out pecans in one layer.

Roast for about 8 minutes. Begin checking after 5 minutes. When you smell the faint hint of them roasting they are close to being ready and you will need to keep checking every 30 seconds because they can burn quite quickly.

Take out of oven when golden brown and let cool slightly.

In a large sauté pan add coconut oil and maple syrup. I wing it on amounts. Bring it to a slight bubble.  Pour pecans into pan (keep sheet pan nearby) and stir with a wooden spoon to coat all the nuts. Sprinkle with ginger, then cinnamon and sea salt. Stir pecans to let spices mix and mingle. Pour back onto sheet pan. Adjust to taste with a few more sprinkles of the seasoning.

Store in an air tight container, and bag some to share! The pecans freeze well.

Winter Solstice . . . plus a Tasty Gift of Sustenance

Winter arrived last night in Virginia, not by sleigh but by the tilted axis of our common home, Earth, sharing space with a rare interstellar occurrence of the planets Jupiter and Saturn passing so closely they appeared to be one bright star, popularly referred to as the “Christmas Star”.

Why is this so unusual? According to this NASA article, “It’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this “great conjunction.” Wow. 800 years ago an Algonquin tribe may have gathered by a bonfire built along the banks of their river, Yeokanta (the James), and marveled at the celestial sight.  

400 years ago this night would have been marked with the knowledge that the ensuing winter months could be harsh. Our Native Americans planned for at least two months of lean times and would have taught the early English and Africans important survival skills for gathering and utilizing nuts like the pecan, or paccan (Algonquin for “all nuts requiring a stone to crack”). If you have been on one of our Signature Bike Rides at Upper Shirley Vineyards you know that nestled in your bike basket was a small bag of deliciousness I call “Ginger-Scented Pecans”. 

Our small gift to you this holiday season is my pecan recipe. If you make them for yourself or your loved ones, won’t you share with us on social media? Tag us @basketandbike or #basketandbike if you make them.

I chose pecans as our signature snack for a few simple reasons, one of which is that my recently departed mother always gave bags of shelled pecans to friends and neighbors at Christmastime. I was a bit overwhelmed when, by researching this week, I discovered how many connections exist around this little nut and our bike excursions. 

Powhatan hunters would have roasted pecans for their journeys, providing an energy source and nourishment when other food was scarce. Pecans were also used for trading, and Native Americans planted trees along their trading routes to ensure a sufficient store for future generations of commerce, not knowing they eventually would be parted from this piece of their economy.

The pecan tree, native to the Southeastern United States, grows deep roots, can live for a thousand years, and produces fruit for 300 years. Not only is this little nut tasty, it is packed with numerous health benefits. The US is a producer of 80 percent of pecans grown worldwide.

Growing up, no Christmas was complete without the wooden nut bowl filled with whole pecans, nutcracker, and picks on the den coffee table. I could sit for hours in front of the fire, cracking open those shells to share with my family. I imagine that Pocahontas, in her time, may have brought an offering of paccans to the English settlers. Perhaps she sat by an open fire, teaching John Smith how to crack them with a stone to sample the goodness found in this new world, maybe even at the occasion of the Winter Solstice.

Universally celebrated by countless cultures and through timeless traditions for thousands of years, the winter solstice marks the emergence of new light. For me, it heralds the light of love brought to earth. 

With the clear night sky in the forecast for Richmond tonight, and one of our Holiday Electric Bike Tours with RVA on Wheels heading out for a sunset ride along the James River with the festive downtown light display, I hope you will join me in heart to gaze up at this “great” bright conjunction. It leads us from the longest night into a new day, with all the promise of ever-increasing light in our lives, with the hope of sustenance while we wait for warmer bike excursions and picnic rides to return.  Don’t forget to roast a few pecans to sustain you during the wait.

THANKFUL

Taking my slice of pecan pie and hot cup of Blanchard’s Dark is Dark coffee outside I enjoyed it while watching light fade from the western sky. An hour later, most of the dishes washed and dried, the cranberry chutney and roast turkey nestled in the fridge, awaiting tomorrow’s leftover creations, I returned outside to give some time to the moon. Brightening the darkened sky I thought, WOW am I ever thankful for that orb, and for this bicycle tour and lifestyle business where I can wax (ok pun intended) poetic about that moon. I’m so thankful for YOU who care so much about these same threads that connect us to history, to nature, to each another. It seems this photo of the James River from the flood line wall serves as a great illustration for my thankfulness for this American Holiday ushered in on the shores of this river 401 years ago. I’m thankful for all this waterway means to us as Americans, such as that from these shores three cultures came together to form a civilization that would change the world. I’m thankful for progress and change, and that a part of that change is for a greater recognition of our collective spirit and our need to remain connected to our natural world. I am thankful for the pulse of this river that can remind us of the ancient, root us to the present, and encourage possibility for the future. I am so very thankful for your friendship. I am thankful that we, as Americans, are continuing to widen that circle of friendship. E Pluribus Unum and HAPPY THANKSGIVING from BASKET & BIKE.

A NEW AGE

We wake to a new world this Monday.  One where so much untold hurt, suffering, and unprocessed grief has cracked open, a deep divide laid bare a raw, exposed, and painful truth that has festered in our souls, one we may have hidden away so deep we'd forgotten its message, but our souls remember.  Our souls know we need connection, another word for love, to thrive, to shine, to fulfill our greatest purpose.  Connection with one another, not because of race, but regardless of race. 

The driftwood pictured above rests on my kitchen windowsill.  I found it washed up on the shore of the James River at Governor Douglas Wilder’s Charles City riverfront home, during a visit there last year.  It is shaped oddly like Virginia, don't you think?  As the first African American elected Governor in 1989, and grandson of a former slave, Wilder, has championed telling the larger story of our history, including all the voices of our national story.  A story where the waters, through periods of turbulence and of peace, are still muddied with toxicity and hatred. For me, this driftwood is a powerful reminder of our past, the power of time to witness change, but it is also a reminder of how far we still have yet to travel that great divide of difference that was sown on these very shores 401 years ago this summer.  A divide that is painful, confusing and that undermines the great strength that comes from recognizing the contributions of all our Americans.  And it goes beyond recognizing.  Taking action in support of that effort.  Expressing gratitude for the contributions of our Black Americans.  Seeing our own bias and resolving to do the work of healing.  Black Americans are still hurting and fighting deeply embedded prejudices, and I’m hurting because they are hurting.  We must reach out across whatever divide exists in our own spheres and embrace our differences, finding common ground, weaving together a richer tapestry through partnership, washing away the divide through real conversation, smoothing the rough edges with care, welcoming each other as neighbors in love, healing the deep pain, and building a brighter next 400 years of freedom to be who we are called to be as human beings.  United.  Embodied by the spirit we all share.  We must start the work of this new world.  We must do this for our children and our grandchildren.  We must leave them a legacy of friendship and faith - justice and peace - not one of inequality and fear. Basket & Bike stands for the fuller story, the more complete stories of our shores with a desire for the greater community over the common table.  We've been trying to do just that since our first Signature Ride four years ago, to open the aperture just enough shed more light on the true national story.  More needs to be done and I invite you to join me in this discovery along a little stretch of the world where for good and ill, this all began. 

Personally, I am very happy to have one very special black woman joining Basket & Bike again this summer when she finishes her sophomore year studying entrepreneurship at Drexel University.  Emily Asare has been helping Basket & Bike since her senior year at St. Catherine's School and starting next Monday she will be supporting our growing Etsy Shop and other merchandise sales and marketing.  Her youthful energy, creative ideas (see her own business @willowxdesigns on IG and Etsy), and knowledge of small business retail is an asset during a time when an interest in our biking products is growing.  Welcome Back, Emily!

Emily Asare - 3rd summer working for Basket & Bike