I have a complicated relationship with time. I want it to slow down, but at the same time, I’m always in a hurry. Hurry to get up, hurry to start, hurry to finish, hurry, hurry, hurry. I’ll never change. To balance, or more precisely, to enjoy my self-inflicted internal time conflict, I listen. Closely.

Day breaks. The sun’s first blush sits gently on the hills across the river valley. Dawn taps her wand to summon the morning doves, chickadee, thrush, robins, bees and frogs. A symphonic harmony of morning song. The farm is awake. Time to hurry.

Breakfast is my adaptation of Nekisia Davis’s of Early Bird Foods Olive Oil and Maple Granola. Her recipe is brilliant. Not too sweet, nice crunch and the perfect amount of salt. Despite her splendid recipe, I had to put my spin on it. My version adds dried pineapple, tart cherries and sweetened cranberries to brighten the color and flavour. I leave out the brown sugar entirely because of the sweet in the dried fruit. Last thing, I use less salt because my sunflower seeds are salted. It’s all about balance…

SUMMER GRANOLA
Makes 9 cups
Preheat oven 300*F

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup hulled and salted pumpkin seeds
1 cup pecans, chopped coarsely
½ cup extra virgin olive oil oil
½ cup maple syrup
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup dried tart Montmorency cherries and 1 cup dried cranberries
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup dried pineapple, chopped

THE STEPS:

• Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper
• In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, coconut, pumpkin seeds and pecans.
• In a separate bowl, whisk oil, sea salt and maple syrup together then pour over oat mixture and stir until well coated.
• Dump onto parchment lined baking sheet and spread out evenly with a spatula.
• Place in oven on lowest rack
• Bake for 15 minutes then stir and continue baking another 15 minutes, stir again and bake another 15 minutes until the oats have browned nicely.
• Remove from oven and cool completely.
• When cooled mix with dried pineapple, cranberries and cherries.
• Store your granola in a container with a tight lid.
• Granola will keep for 2 weeks at room temperature.

THE LOVE: The best thing about making granola is how fast and loose you can play with the recipe. Use whatever seeds, nuts and dried fruit you like. Just be sure to keep the volumes the same so that the olive oil and maple syrup sauce is able to coat everything evenly.

Thanks for reading.