Dispatch From the Ranch: Dani's Pumpkin Ginger Scone Recipe + New Retreat Announcements
Hello Friends,
Gathering around the table is an integral part of the Ranch. It connects us to the land and the farmers around us that grow and raise our food, and the importance of pausing for time together. Joy Harjo captures this sentiment so well in her poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here.” In this poem, she summons all of life’s coming together and falling apart, milestone moments, and the generational communing that happens when we sit down to eat together.
A few years ago, the Amish family who owns the land where The Golden Horse Ranch used to be (my grandparents’ ranch I wrote about in the last newsletter) contacted me to let me know they had a few things I might want. It was serendipitous timing. I was building Red Clover, and I started dreaming of what their message could mean—was it the mid-century saddle brown leather sofa with a bull’s head stitched in the center? Or the emerald green and pink bamboo tiki set with toucans that was in the Adults Only lounge where parents smoked and played cards? Or the long rustic benches that kids and adults alike sat on taking a break from do-si-do-ing or watching sweet and silly talent show acts?
When I arrived, I was surprised to see boxes of our bucking-horse cowboy plates, the gold vinyl dining hall chairs with upholstery studs lining the back to give them a western flair, and the tables guests ate at for 50 years. The Amish said, “we kept them because we thought someone would want them someday.” I was stunned by the meaningfulness of this gift for Red Clover. All the life that was lived at the ranch passed through these chairs and tables, and that’s where our guests sit and dine now.
We love feeding you, especially on these plates (seen in the photo below). And here is one of our favorites: Dani’s Pumpkin Ginger Scones.
Dani’s Pumpkin Ginger Scones
Dry:
3 c Meadowlark Community Mill whole white wheat pastry flour OR all-purpose flour (sub oat flour for GF)
⅓ c brown sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp EACH salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, & nutmeg
6 Tbsp butter, cut up & chilled (sub chilled virgin coconut oil for DF/vegan)
¼ c candied ginger, coarsely chopped
Wet:
1½ c pumpkin or winter squash puree, chilled
1 tsp EACH fresh minced ginger & vanilla
Glaze:
1 c powdered sugar
3 Tbsp pumpkin or winter squash puree
½ tsp EACH vanilla extract & ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp candied ginger, thinly sliced, for garnish
Flaky sea salt & coarse black pepper, for topping
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, sift together dry ingredients and chill in fridge for 15 minutes. Cut in chilled butter (or coconut oil) with a pastry cutter or two forks until mixture is gravely. Stir in candied ginger. Whisk together chilled pumpkin/squash puree, fresh ginger, and vanilla. Fold into dry mix and knead just until dough comes together. Dust a flat surface and your hands lightly with flour, scrape dough onto a floured surface, and shape into a ¾ inch thick round. Cut the round into 8 wedges with a sharp knife dusted in flour. Place wedges on the lined baking sheet, leaving plenty of space in between wedges. Bake immediately or chill until ready to bake.
Bake for 16-18 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of a scone comes clean. Let cool completely before icing & garnishing.
Bon appétit! We’re looking forward to hosting you this season,
Annie Coleman
Head Wrangler
Join Lindsey Dorr-Niro and Marty McConnell for a retreat designed to allow you to settle your spirit, find refuge in community, and explore how we can use curiosity to navigate uncertainty in our lives and worlds.
This retreat is an opportunity to spend three days in caring community with people united in a shared purpose: to engage more deeply with the incredible gift that is our lives, and in that way move more powerfully through a world that so badly needs us here, needs us loving ourselves and each other, needs us capable and awake and alive.This retreat will ignite your sense of possibility, curiosity, and WONDER through guided meditation, tarot discovery, reflective writing, and tactile imaginative practices.
