Djeran’s cooler weather finally arrived. We should help our body recover from summer and early autumn’s dry heat with cooling moistening foods, and some root vegetables and pumpkin that boost our digestion.
It is the seasonal changes that show it is Djeran, rather than the calendar. So it is only now it’s getting cooler and there is some dew in the morning that it is here. It is associated with the colour green, the regrowth as local plants recover from the long heat. This is completely out of whack with the correspondences of The Middle Kingdom, where green is associated with spring. It is also a time of red flowers, and those of the banksia.
The heat here was long. And it was dry – March was the driest in Perth for 12 years, and our summer had only 7mm of rain.
Chinese late autumn is also dry – it is a time to restore natural moisture. The Lungs are the physiological system that suffers most from dryness, so foods and supplements that nourish and moisturise them are needed. Pears are in season, poach some. Locals ate bulrush roots, freshwater fish and other marine life. We can eat sweet potato, pumpkin, Australian salmon, Spanish mackeral, sea mullet, blue swimmer crab, banana and king prawns. So much fruit is in season, as well as peaches there are figs, persimmons, and pomegranates that moisten the Lungs and clear heat.
Locals built and repaired shelters in Djearan to prepare for winter’s rain and cold. We should get some acupuncture or moxibustion, and use some herbs to boost our defences against seasonal colds and flus. It’s a good time for some Jade Windscreen Powder.
Fruit and vegetables in season in WA
A calendar of seasonal Australian seafood