TENDING THE ANCESTRAL GUT | AMARO MAKING CLASS
It’s springtime and it’s a beautiful time to pay attention to the gut.
Let’s make amaro together!
Our ancestors had a wisdom around gut health without even having the “modern science” that we have around gut health.
They tended to their guts with many medicinal foods and plants, but one of the consistent types of flavors that they used was “amari” or bitters.
Who has sat through a 6-course meal in Italy or Sicily and then in the end were given a perfect shot class of a bitter booze to sip and digest your meal? To soothe all the beautiful food you just spent hours eating? The folks on the motherland know we need amaro after meals to help our bodies receive and digest our food.
They know the power in bitterness. All our ancestors did.
What happened to the bitter, or "Amari" in our new world diets? Why have we lost it? Why isn’t it a post-meal ritual in our modern world?
Amaro was an important flavor and way of being for our ancestors, one that we mostly have replaced for sweetness (which directly messes with our guts).
I grew up watching and learning from my papa while he cultivated “booze” with bitter greens and plants he grew in his garden or that grew wild around his home in upstate NY. He’d take me out with paper bags and we’d fill them with wild cardoon, dandelion greens, and mustard greens along with fruits from his trees and herbs from his garden. He remembered the power of making bitter drinks from the old country. He passed this medicine on to me.
He didn’t call his concoctions “amaro” but that’s what they were, for the most part, their foundation was always something bitter.
I also believe that spending some time re-learning and honoring the bitter flavor is an important lesson for us, always wanting sweet or savory. It’s a deep and ancient flavor story of Sicily in particular, and being with bitter cultivates a beautiful relationship to the land and to the microbiome that lives in our guts, that is our gut, that is literally the particles of everything we have ever been, and who we have been, and whose come before us. Our guts are the central power of our ancestral wisdom. Let’s tend to them. Let’s partake in ancestral practices that are delicious medicines that help us connect more with wellness in our bodies.
I have been teaching in-person amaro making for five years locally in the Portland, Or area and decided to bring my method of intuitive amaro making that blends deep connection with the gut and the honoring and practice of working with bitter herbs to create delicious, medicinal, and super fun booze to make and share with your community.
“I knew I loved drinking Amari, but I didn’t know how to make them or that they could be made intuitively or that I’d love making them so much. I feel that MaryBeth opened up a portal for me, to my intuition and to my ancestors. Taking her class was just what I needed to become confident enough to make make Amaro blends on my own regularly. ”
In this 3-part course you’ll receive:
- extensive wisdom on amaro, historically and spiritually speaking
- an ingredients list that will blow your mind— so many things you already have in your kitchen, in your garden, or at the local market are just fine for amaro making.
-pre-recorded storytelling and instructional videos on how to prepare yourself, choose and connect with the plants you will be using to make your amaro
In the end, you’ll have an amazing amaro, made by you, with the help of our ancestors and the beautiful bitter plants, that will tend to your gut all summer long.
Once you register, you will receive a welcome email
Plus a PDF and recorded videos.
We will make space for intentions, questions, stories and of course making our amaro in the way you want it to taste.
THIS IS A DIY EXPERIENCE. THERE ARE NO LIVE CALLS.
In this short series we will truly remember how important bitters are for us, and how they are connected to weaving back our ancestral magic.
SIGN UP HERE
xx, MaryBeth