To our village,
As you know, today is Mother's Day, and I've been thinking about what it actually means to honor the many mother figures in our lives. It’s not about the brunch or the flowers — though both are lovely — but the deeper things. These women who raise us, who shape us, who show up for us…how can we celebrate their gardening in one short day?
I firmly believe that you can’t pour from an empty cup, and yet the women I admire most are often the last ones to refill their own. So this month, I want to hold space for them — and for us. Because we are whole people. Our work, our tables, our families, our values: they don't live in separate rooms. They're one house in one life. The way we cook is connected to the way we parent, which is connected to the way we care for the land, which loops back to the food on the table. Everything is intertwined.
That's what regenerative agriculture keeps teaching me — not as a farming method, but as a way of moving through the world. You tend the soil. You don't always see what grows. You do it anyway, because you believe in what's possible.
Motherhood is no different. It's planting seeds for a harvest you may never witness. Like farming, it’s an act of radical faith in the future.
And the greatest mother of all has been doing this longest — our mother earth, which keeps giving without asking for recognition. Soil, water, sun, season after season. She just tends. She just gives. The least we can do is tend her back, regenerate her so that we have bounty for the next generation.
So today, I'm thinking of all the women who plant seeds. In their kitchens, in their communities, in the ground— and I'm hoping that somewhere in the middle of all that giving, they find a moment to receive. (Might I suggest something from this gift guide?)
In that spirit, here’s what’s feeding me this May:
The spring peas have arrived, which means this peppered pasta is a must.
Roasted broccoli is a go-to veg, and I’m loving it in a Christy Dawn-style grain bowl.
I love any and all mushrooms - the ultimate superfood - and this month, I’m using them in a very on-theme Japanese dish, my Oyakodon, which translates to ‘mother and child’.
Leeks will always have my heart, especially when pan-roasted and topped with this gremolata.
With so much gratitude for all the ways you show up,
Camilla
Chef, Mother, and Founder, west~bourne
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