At The Table with Krista Schilter

Hi Friends!

Before we dig in, I want to remind you of my workshop coming up TONIGHT! the Shift is all about reimagining your relationship with wellness and finding small ways to achieve your goals and feel your best. I’m so excited to share with you. Find tickets and all the details here.

okay back to reality!

Today  I am so excited to introduce you to the lovely Krista Schilter, cool girl, mom, freelance creative copywriter and Founder of GOLDEN CHAIN, a collective kundalini experience with a range of offerings.

I really find Krista’s approach to the yoga and kundalini world really refreshing. She’s funny, messy and pragmatic and not too precious. The world of kundalini has a complicated past and I love her real life approach to introspection and spirituality.  

Krista has moved from Toronto to a more rural life in the country and has recently welcomed her son Ziggy. We chatted today to discuss her work and how she makes meals for herself  and her family. 

Krista and her family

Can you share a bit about yourself and your work?

My self and my work seem to be an ever-evolving extension and reflection of one another. In terms of labels, I'm a teacher, a mother, Gestaltist, horticultural therapist, writer, storyteller, and the creator of GOLDEN CHAIN - an offering of body-based practices exploring the intricacies, intentions, particularities, and peculiarities of kundalini yoga techniques, Katonah theory, Daoism, animism, and creative process. 

I'm most inspired and motivated by our capacity to de-centre the human, to feel, to connect with the natural world, and to get quiet enough to listen so we may give voice to the voiceless, and open ourselves to mystery. I think a lot about making the mundane mystical and how the process of becoming is - in its simplest of ways - about noticing and paying attention. As a lil yogi freak and freelance copywriter, I trip regularly on the limitations and the possibilities of the written word and consider spoken word to be shaped breath.

Some of the things I like include: laughing til my cheeks hurt, maintaining a free-write practice, the perfectly chilled apres-ski beer, talking to the trees, crying to the sky, swimming in cold waters, keeping habitually dirty feet.  

Krista’s glorious CSA package

Do you find moving more rurally and having a son has changed the way you think about food?

Absolutely and positively. The unfolding of life happens in such surprising ways! I landed in a single-room cabin in the woods of the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula on a 400 million year old rock formation with a baby, a lover, our dogs, and a very reliable internet connection. As a full-time yoga teacher, my city life was defined by an erratic schedule scurrying around from studio to studio to social and extracurricular activities and show-going and dancing and wining and dining that translated into an erratic eating and cooking schedule - or lack thereof. 

I was a take-out queen subsisting on lil treats between classes - forever consumed by the inner dialogue of: okay I don't want to teach with a full stomach but I don't want to be depleted I need a lil something what will get me through and a without garlic burps in a hot-room but also not spend my per class rate on snacking on a bench in the sun midday but also life is short I deserve this I need this. All this to say I had little to no time and energy to chef at home. My partner throughout those formative years was a chef (amongst other things) and the gift of nourishment is one I'm forever grateful for. 

Moving rurally meant no take-out. No quick grab-n-gos. Friends are like: what do you meaaaaan no uber eats???! 

And so! I cook! All the time! I source from a lovely market garden a 5 minute drive away. I'm a part of an abundant CSA. I have access to stunning Georgian Bay salmon caught by my lover, venison hunted on our land, local Bruce beef from a neighbor, the sexiest blue and green eggs, and we raise pigs all summer. We harvest and pickle wild leeks (what city folk - myself included - call ramps) and we tapped 30 trees this spring for our first batch of backyard maple syrup. 

I used to walk 10 minutes to Kensington Market or visit Sorauren Farmers Market on Monday’s to source all this and now it's a little more scattered but a lot more fulfilling in terms of food web and origin and footprint. I know where most of what we eat has been- at least in the Spring/Summer/Fall. A big s/o to No Frills and Bulk Barn for my pantry items and winter-time produce on town-run days. It’s worth noting that my new IRL townie health food store is a hybrid Christian paraphernalia vendor so I listen to some very cringey hymns while supplement shopping and resist the urge to buy a gold-plated cross or something. I’d also like to acknowledge all my visiting city friends that haul Robinson's croissants and Mac’s or Badiali’s pizza to the peninsula. 

I believe in speaking hopes and dreams out loud so sharing the long term vision here: a spiral garden inspired by permaculture design principles and practices. For now my vegetable and herb garden is in containers and I am tasked with simply watching and recording the cycles of the land. 

Ziggy munching on some wild leeks (ramps)

The experience of growing a human - being pregnant and breastfeeding - has made me very conscious of how I eat and when I eat and what I eat. Not in a rigid way. Just in a more astutely fulfilling kind of way. In late pregnancy I was flagged for gestational diabetes and instead of subscribing to induction and big-baby talks I learned to ritualize set meal and snack times to regulate blood sugar.  A few hacks from pals Madelyne Beckles and Dr. Melissa Cugliari played a huge role in holding steady. My instagram saved section is not organized into cute folders at all so it’s a potpourri of sorts featuring niche memes, quick ‘n easy meal ideas, hockey highlights, shrek stuff and radical theory. So thank you for sharing all that you do! 

What is your most loved kitchen tool? 

My red fox lab and my blue heeler mutt. They are devout cleaner-uppers. But also: Berkey water filter, Onyx stainless steel storage containers, Moccamaster coffee maker, and tweezers for deboning fish. Plus, everything tastes better on my Alyssa Goodman porcelain plate! 

Krista’s raspberry toasts with smokey tahini

What can we always find in your fridge? 

Smoky tahini from Parallel, some kind of microgreen or sprouts, and whatever berries are on sale. 

What are your favorite pantry ingredients for a quick meal? 

NGL, an Old El Paso taco kit is a straight up pleasure. My go-to is usually  canned chickpeas or dried lentils and rice for a quick curry or some kind of dried pasta and tomatoes for a quick carb-load. 

Can you share your best tip for family meals? 

 No phones at the table. 

Krista with a napping baby, Robinson croissant and her Alyssa Goodman plate

Do you have any favorite food memories you’d like to share? 

My partner and I have birthdays a day apart in November and we hosted an outdoor cottage-core banger of a bday called Meat n Greet where I served snow-suit-wearing guests a very hearty bear roast and a massive stockpot of venison chili around a raging fire under string lights. It was very wholesome and the perfect collection of city and country friends and fam. The bear recipe came from a blog called 'the accidental hunters wife' lol. 

You can find more about Krista by following her at @goldenchainforever @kuntalinikrissy and find out more about her work, visit www.goldenchainforever.com and www.kristaschilter.com 

Thanks for reading! 

xx Fran