{new work} TEA TIME ALCHEMY...

Carrot top tea served with carrot and date mini muffins with beetroot frosting. Teapot and tea warmer from Organic Merchant, plates, coasters and shell spoon made by hand by me.

Letting them make their own teas with different ingredients, like little alchemists.

"Brewing potions from vegetables and herbs, it looks like witchcraft"

This shoot was for Happi Kids, shot this time last year, August 2020. The brief was "a winter tea party for kids, with 5 different themes" and "very little or no sugar, with gluten and dairy free options" and also "unisex, so that boys can get into the idea of enjoying tea time too". Challenge accepted!

"Don't throw a bag into a cup of water and you're done. We go into the kitchen together and then, just like the English, take the time for it: tea with lots of goodies. For example, on a rainy Sunday afternoon or when grandparents come to visit. There are four themes - which one do you choose?"

I do love using google translate! This is the opening paragraph. While living in Amsterdam, we realised the Dutch have their very own version of English, complete with its own rhythm and word scrambles. And I do feel google translate has captured it rather well in this translation!

The most incredible handmade tea set by Peacharoo, who made it especially for me for this shoot. Complete with mini teapot, cups, saucers, spoons and milk jugs, all with the most wonderful glazes.

While on the Patreon collective in December last year I posted the whole story as well as a PDF of all the recipes - because they are all delicious and easy, and so great to make with kids, especially now if you’re needing some inspiration while we stay-at-home - here I’m going to share some behind-the-scenes stories for you. First of all as I mentioned in the caption above, I commissioned Peacharoo to make this mini tea set for the shoot, it was such a joy to play with on set, and reminded me of the joyful days working with Peach on commercial shoots a decade ago when I was an interior stylist, and she was an art director. It was always so much fun working with her, my favourite art director for sure.

Props galore, all made by hand: pink pin cushion made by my great grandmother, Vera, tea set by Peacharoo, spoons by Erins Window and the little My Hearts Wanders dish by Paper Boat Press. On the right, shell spoons made by me using found beach shells, twigs and copper wire.

This was ‘high tea for all’ so I made it rustic and earthy, using rocks as platters and some plates and cups hand formed by Laly and I over the years. Featured here are chestnut cookies dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt - these were absolutely delicious, the recipe is on Patreon. The black bean brownies have become a staple at our house ever since my friend Penny introduced them to me, so I had to include these in the story. And one of my all-time favourite treats, since living in Rovereto, Italy as a teenager and having them straight from the street stall in a newspaper cone every Winter - castagne… roast chestnuts with sea salt.

All props are handmade, found nature, and vintage. Twigs and feathers are a must on all my shoots.

Mini Matcha Donuts! Ceramic platter made by me, dishes by Peacharoo, whisk from Organic Merchant.

Mini Matcha Ceremony, anyone? How fun to create this for a little tea party! Laly and her friends taste test all the recipes for me so I know how they go with younger tastebuds and these too were a hit, more than I thought they would be! I topped them with a pistachio yoghurt icing.

Making beauty and mess in my old studio in Balmain. August 2020

This shot was epic. The concept was “three ingredient cookies” and it needed to be in one photograph. I was the only one on set - recipe testing, baking, styling, photographing, and art directing. This capture tested my multi-tasking and organisational skills to the max.

For this I made Tahini, Honey and Oat Cookies, Cocoa, banana & peanut butter fudge cookies, and Pumpkin cookies with cream cheese filling. All recipes are on my Patreon collective, dated December 21, 2020.

Winter White Tea Party

I have saved my favourite to last - the Winter White Tea Party for Two. Do you recognise the background? Who knew this vintage chair I picked up at Rozelle Markets 6 years ago would get so much attention!

On the menu for the winter white tea party…

Wild Blueberry and "White Chocolate" Bark

White Chocolate popcorn

Snow Drops

Milky Chai

White Tea

A big thank you to all the makers and creators who have contributed to these feature stories over the years and are inspirations in my every day. I feel like there is just never enough gratitude expressed and communicated, so I won’t hesitate to keep sharing the love. I have more visual stories to catch up with you here. This one, as it turned out, was the last shoot in my Balmain studio, before we relocated to our new home up north, and my new studio.

For the recipes and more about shoot production, head over the the wandering hearts collective on Patreon. Pia xx

Would you like more? You can:

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new work: vitamin-rich refreshments for happi kids...

Well I need to let you know, it’s not quite new work, it’s just taken me this long to get around to posting it! This story came out in the Winter edition of Happi Kids in November, and it’s all about drinks that are focussed on the vitamin content, to boost the vitamins our kids need. It was as always, a lot of fun shooting food, and coming up with the recipes was as much fun as the rest of the production. And just for you, I’ve attached the recipes with each photograph so you can try them out, they’re also nice and easy for kids to join in making too - I have to say my absolute favourite was the carrot soup. In fact, I think I’ll make it this weekend again, it was a hit - both Laly and her friend Eloise loved it when I served up the left overs from the shoot that weekend. It’s delicious warm or cold.

Keep in mind that all my recipes are intuitive, which means you don’t need to follow them precisely - I tend to make them up as I go so you can do the same and I recommend it!

Also for this story I focussed on colour, so each recipe was as much about the vitamins as it was about the colour because colour is a powerful healer.

The first elixir above is of course, all about…

Vitamin C: dark orange/red

INGREDIENTS:

A bottle/half bottle of clear apple juice
Sparking water or plain water
3-4 citrus fruits of choice – orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime
Juice of one lime
1-2 cups beetroot juice

ASSEMBLAGE:

Place the beetroot juice into ice cube trays to freeze.
Put the apple juice, water and lime juice in a large jug.
Slice the citrus fruits and place into the jug as well as the glasses.
When the beetroot ice cubes are ready, place them into each glass and pour the drink over the ice cubes.

Vitamin A: orange

Chilled (or warm, your choice) carrot soup

INGREDIENTS:

A bunch of baby carrots, carrot tops removed or 3 large carrots, peeled and cut
½ onion
1-teaspoon turmeric powder
Drizzle olive oil
Salt
1-teaspoon honey
Coconut milk (optional)
1-2 Litres of vegetable stock

ASSEMBLAGE:

Preheat oven to 180C.
Place carrot and cut up onion on a baking tray and drizzle with the olive oil, honey, turmeric and salt – mix together so that the carrots and onions are well coated.
Bake in the oven until tender and roasted – about ½ hour.
Remove from the oven, allow to cool and then place in a blender with the veg stock – start with ½ litre of veg stock and then add as you go so you can check the consistency. Blend altogether until smooth.
Chill in the fridge and then serve! You can add a dash of coconut milk to serve if desired.  Bunny face created with micro herbs and edible flowers.
Makes 2-4 (depending on whether you serve it as an entrée or main)

Vitamin E : purple

 INGREDIENTS:

½ avocado
Handful of baby spinach  - optional
½ cup coconut milk (or try other non-dairy milks)
1 cup frozen blueberries
2 teaspoons honey
Beetroot powder – optional (makes it more purple)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1-tablespoon nut butter – optional

 ASSEMBLAGE:

Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. To make it thicker, you can add ice, to make it less thick, you can add more coconut milk.

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If you’re child is not keen on eating anything green, this recipe below is great, as the colour is so vibrant and making the animal faces on top makes it playful. I recommend starting with very small bowls, even if it’s 3 big spoonfuls of the smoothie and then they can enjoy the fruit shapes. Even if they only have a small amount, you can then gradually increase the amount of smoothie you put in the bowl when you make it again. Let them play with the fruit to make faces. You can make one of the bowls up for them to see (that one can be yours), so they can see the face on top for inspiration, then let them make up their own with their own bowl. Kids love assembling, so this is a great recipe for that.

Vitamin K: green

INGREDIENTS:

Bunch of kale
Bunch of baby spinach
1 banana
A handful of grapes
½ cucumber
½ lime  - juice
1 tsp. psyllium husk (optional)
½ cup water
1/2 cup apple juice

ASSEMBLAGE:

Blend on high until smooth, place in bowls and decorate with pieces of cucumber, lime wedges, or any left over fruit to make green monster faces.

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This one is another hit! Of course, it’s got chocolate. But it’s fantastic for adding some extra powders for added minerals, see below…

Vitamin B: brown/chocolate

INGREDIENTS: 

Small handful of cashews
Small handful of almonds
A teaspoon sunflower seeds
1 medjool date
½ banana
1 tablespoon cocoa powder or cacao
Small handful of baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon unhulled tahini
1-tablespoon peanut butter
1-2 cups rice milk
Sprinkling of buckinis - buckwheat for the top

ASSEMBLAGE:

Soak the cashews overnight in water – simply put the cashews in a glass jar, and cover with water and leave on the bench. Do the same with the almonds and sunflower seeds.
Put all ingredients into the blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy.

This is a great recipe to add any extra powders to boost the immune system – you could add maca powder, zinc, pea protein, slippery elm, psyllium husk etc.

I hope you try some of these recipes and for the full story, it’s in Winter edition of Happi Kids (the issue before the latest).

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Production, styling & photography: Pia Jane Bijkerk
Publication: Happi Kids for Happinez

My next post is going to be all about the power of colour!

xx

PS There is a new post on Patreon too, for the Wandering Hearts Collective, and another delicious recipe there for this month as we strengthen our immune systems for what’s happening in the world. I’ll be writing more about what I’m doing this year on Patreon soon X

Happi Health photoshoot: vitamin boost...

Vitamin B6: Coconut & Red Quinoa porridge with nuts, seeds & edible flowers

Here are some of photographs I produced for Happinez, for a story on how to boost your vitamin intake with certain foods, in the special edition called Happi Health that was published in The Netherlands a couple of months ago. It’s been years since I worked with food - I used to work regularly as a food stylist for magazines, catalogues and books around the world, sometimes styling the food myself, other times working with wonderful cooks & stylists like my dear friend Yvette van Boven, as well as Michele Cranston and Emma Knowles, and photographers Petrina Tinslay and Jeroen van der Spek were among my favourites.

I had forgotten how much I love working with food until this shoot. As I got creating, I was thinking, why haven’t I done this for so long? To be honest, I think it was because of the over-abundance of cookbooks, food magazines, food shows… it felt to me like there was enough already, and that it feeds that consumer energy, that need to fill up ‘the void’ in us with so. much. Also, there is so much incredible talent out there already, I felt like it was well and truly covered.

But I have a genuine love of eating well, sharing my love of nourishment with my daughter and her friends, and enjoying a beautiful meal with my friends and partner (we are often talking about food, as the French do!) I’m not an entertainer - I am not that friend who always has a fridge full of everything and can whip up something amazing any time of day or night. I’m not always in the kitchen. It’s more that it’s one of the mediums of creative expression for me - like painting is for some.

So having said all that, I do absolutely love shooting delicious food! Focusing on taste, texture, colour and nourishment. It’s why I am so looking forward to co-hosting the kids tasting workshop in a couple of weeks!

This shoot reignited that passion within me. With this story, it was the first time I’d photographed, cooked, and styled at the same time - I’ll just say this, it was bloody challenging to do all roles. A little bit nuts really, in hindsight. But the challenging aspects did not take away the joy! My studio was in full swing- every part of it was in use, the kitchen was abuzz - the oven on, the blender going, chopping boards and utensils in action. The walls were lined with canvas backdrops and wooden tabletops. There was music. There was mess. It was beautiful chaotic order - just the way I love to work.

I thought you might like to see the shots in their entirety, and to share with you some of the recipes I created to be able to get the full benefits of each vitamin I was asked to represent…

Vitamin K: roasted purple-skinned sweet potato with Japanese natto beans

Folic Acid: roasted dark leafy greens & sprouts with sesame oil & micro herbs

Vitamin E: avocodo topped with seeds, wheatgerm oil and edible flowers. Vitamin B12: homemade nori chips

Vitamin A: roast carrot, pumpkin & sweet potato soup topped with micro herbs

Vitamin D: delicious sun beams - soak them in! Vitamin C: grapefruit slices.

Here are the recipes for the roasted sweet potato dish and the red quinoa. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory (if not let me know and I’ll happily answer questions in comments)…

Roasted purple-skinned sweet potato with Japanese natto beans…

Cut a purple-skinned sweet potato in half lengthways and roast in the oven with an oil of your choosing (olive, coconut, whatever you like!), with a little salt. Top with warmed baby spinach leaves and natto beans which you can get in asian grocery stores. The texture is a little unusual - its very sticky, but don’t be put off, as with the combination of the sweet potato and the spinach, it’s delicious and so very good for you! Garnish with micro herbs (which are also full of nutrients).

Coconut & Red Quinoa porridge with nuts, seeds & edible flowers…

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup rinsed red quinoa

• 1 cup coconut milk (or milk of choice)

• 1 cup filtered water

• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• maple syrup (depending on your sweetness needs, but for me it was about 2 tablespoons)

• pistachios, pecans, whatever nuts you have on hand, activated and if desired, slightly roasted or warmed.

• edible flowers if you have them

• shredded coconut for garnish

Directions

1. In a saucepan, bring quinoa, milk, water, salt, and cinnamon to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for around 15 minutes, until liquid is absorbed,

2. Turn off heat and let stand covered 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.

3. Transfer to serving bowls. Top with the nuts, petals and shredded or toasted coconut.
   

With love,

Pia xx

Sweet Nourishment: a tasting workshop for kids...

A few months ago, I was having a chat with my daughter Laly about the amount of sugar in snack foods, and what she calls “treats”. She loves to snack, and I’m fine with that as long as the snacks are nourishing. We got talking about why there is so much sugar in these packaged snack foods, and what the difference is between a nourishing treat and one that is, well, the complete opposite.

It’s a hard concept to explain to a 6 year old! That’s when I got an idea: Children (and us too!) learn so much through experience, so I suggested we make time on a weekend to create a nourishing treat tasting platter and she was so excited, she began brainstorming about all the foods we could put together! It went from being a ‘boring’ conversation to planning a visual feast!

Soon after, I attended one of my friend Emma’s events, which was in collaboration with a beautiful new local waterside café called The Galley. Emma is a renown naturopath with a passion for food. The Galley team was celebrating their arrival into the neighbourhood and wanted to share some of the wonderful dishes they offer on the menu, their focus being on fresh, seasonal ingredients. It was a beautiful sampling experience, with Emma sharing her incredible knowledge and passion for nutritious, delicious food, introducing us through our senses to the 5 best foods for cleansing during the spring season.

That’s when the next idea struck me: in collaboration with Emma, we could share the nourishing treat tasting with other children, creating a fun, interactive workshop! She loved the idea, and within an hour discussion we had nutted (perfect pun!) out the details. So here there are!

If you have a child between 6-10 years old and live in the Inner West of Sydney or beyond, and want to empower your child to make healthy eating choices, we would love you to join us!

It will be on Saturday November 24, from 3-4:30pm at Emma’s beautiful clinic, Studio You, in Balmain. 

In between Halloween and Christmas, this is a great time to teach them what it means to nourish their mind & body through food, and to learn the difference between healthy sweets and damaging ones. They will be sampling all sorts of delicious treats, and you will both come away with your senses filled, empowered and ready to enjoy the approaching festive season in a nourishing way!

 You’ll find all the details here, please click to find out more and place your booking.

Here’s a little more info about Emma & I:

Emma Sutherland - Founder and director of Studio You, an integrated clinic supporting kids to thrive and grow into healthy adults. With over 15 years clinical experience working with families, Emma is a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. Emma is mum to 6 year old Sophia.

Pia Jane Bijkerk - As well as being a published author and photographer, Pia has worked as a food stylist for publications around the world, focusing on taste, colour, texture and nourishment. Her passion is to connect people to their creativity and intuition through her work. She loves working with children, creating interactive workshops that ignite creativity through play. Pia is mum to 6 year old Laly. 

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I LOVE creating interactive, intuitive workshops for kids, and I can’t wait to host this one with Emma. Hope to see you there! Let us know if you have any questions.

With Love,

Pia xx