It was 23 °C with cloudless, brilliant blue skies in early October.

That was the dream end to a glorious run of our seemingly endless summer this year. More than a week of greyness, mist, and “rain, with the promise of plenty more where that came from” days, and I can’t kid myself anymore that autumn isn’t well and truly here.

Thanksgiving in Canada is over, Halloween is coming, and there are gourds, ghouls, and pumpkins of every shape, hue and hugeness everywhere. There are pools of colour in the cranberry fields, and the trees around are clad in  beautiful, warm colours – one last hurrah for summer. The fallen leaves are gathering in soft, crinkling heaps and will be swept away soon, by the wind, rain and street cleaning crews. Shake out the umbrellas and rain jackets – resistance is futile.

Or is it…?

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This is the last “honey post” for a while, I promise! After all that great news about  Nectar Fresh™ , it calls for a celebration. And what better way than with a honey cake?

This recipe is one from my mother’s very eclectic recipe file, filled with recipes collected along her many years of travel as an army wife. Her association with amazing cooks from very diverse culinary backgrounds  paid rich dividends for us – sometimes quite literally! My mother got to learn new recipes, and we got to eat the (almost) always excellent results.  I believe this recipe was one she learnt at a cooking class conducted by an officer’s wife sometime in the late 1960’s.

It has served us well, and was one of my favourite “puddings” as a child. How could it not be, given that it’s basically a sponge cake, doused with generous quantities of honey and cream? I could have written this one myself!

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In my last post, you heard a little about the decline in the honey industry in Coorg. Recently, I’ve been hearing some buzz about a dynamic young entrepreneur from Coorg who is making waves in the business of honey in India. Naturally, I had to make a beeline to the source, to find out more!  Chayaa Nanjappa is the owner of Nectar Fresh™, a company she founded, and now runs along with her business partner, Mr. Rajappa. In conversation with her, the energy and enthusiasm were palpable, as she shared the details of how she got started in the business of processing and marketing honey.

Chayaa was born in South Coorg (Nalkeri). An only child, she describes her childhood years as being sheltered, and very conventional. She studied in Mysore, attending Teresians, and Christ the King Convent for pre-university. For personal reasons, she had to discontinue her formal education but pursued her interest in current affairs, and gained a diploma in mass communications by correspondence. She says she loved gardening, and cooking, and there were no early indications of the dormant entrepreneur in her. There was no background of business entrepreneurship in the immediate family either, as both her parents were teachers.

In her late twenties she moved to Bangalore, where she was determined to make her own way. Finding her feet in an urban environment for the first time, and despite the lack of a degree in hospitality management, Chayaa impressed enough at the interview to land a job in public relations at a leading hotel in Bangalore.This was a field she thrived in, and she recalls her time in the hospitality industry with great fondness.

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It would be fair to say that there is no food I have loved more in the world than honey, and none that I associate more closely with Coorg. So please bear with me through this next series of posts, while I share the love 😉

At a Coorg child’s naming ceremony, a gold coin is dipped in honey, and touched to the infant’s lips, a symbolic wish and blessing for the child to live a life of sweetness and prosperity – a life of gold and honey.

I’ve  always suspected that in my case, rather than its being a symbolic gesture, I actually got a proper taste of that little drop, before it could be discreetly dabbed away. And there began my lifelong passion for the stuff. You can keep the gold. Just leave me the honey!

As children, returning to Coorg for our annual visits, we most often travelled from the heat, and yes, dust, of parts of India where temperatures that soared above 40 °C were nothing to get excited about. You just doused the grass blinds on the windows and verandahs with extra water, drank lots of rooh-afza and lime juice, and got sunstroke from going out in the noonday sun. All the more reason then, to truly appreciate the return to the cool climes of Coorg.

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Over the Labour Day long weekend, we were back on Vancouver Island, with our friends, the Widdowsons. Around the same time last year, we had a memorable visit with them to Botanical Beach.

This time, we headed up the West Coast of the Island to Tofino. In an area with an abundance of spectacular natural beauty, the pretty little town of Tofino seems to have access to more than its fair share, situated as it is, next to the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The park covers areas of temperate rainforest, snow-capped mountains, and windswept beaches.

Tofino has the air of a sleepy fishing village, but leads a double life as a surfer’s paradise just north of the 49th parallel. In winter, it’s a popular destination for storm watchers who batten down in the comfort of beachfront properties like the Wickanninish Inn to enjoy the spectacular displays along the coast.

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The time has come for some pandi curry on this blog. My apologies to those who’ve been coming here, looking for the classic Kodava pork preparation, only to go away with an empty plate. I must admit I was holding out, because I really didn’t want you to think that that’s all there is to Coorg food! If I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me “Coorg? Mmm… pandi curry!” or  Homer Simpsonesque words to that effect, I’d be well placed to buy a few winters worth of…er…pork.

To make amends for the delay, here are two recipes!

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