We met Helina many years ago at one of our events at Violet in London and ever since then we have loved seeing how she styles all her babaà. We spent a day with her and Bruke at home in Margate. Helina homeschools Bruke while doing food and music at Eat Ethio. We love her smile her warmth and her work. Her love for her roots and sharing and connecting. Thank you Helina for taking part in our familia series.
All photos by Jeremy Young.
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A little text of how you want to present yourself.
I cook from the heart mostly focusing on nourishment and nurturing, I’m a herbalist and a homeschooling Mum, a natural artist and cultural curator and founder of Eat Ethio, which is my project for sharing my love for my culture and food.
Also wouldn’t it be great to share a little recipe? A herbal drink or any simple thing you do regularly that keeps you rooted and close to home = heart medicine.
In winter I make myself a St.John’s Wort balm to ground myself and to give me a boost of sun energy. I make my oil at summer solstice day, harvesting from my garden and then I mix the oil I create with Ethiopian frankincense which makes for a really nourishing and uplifting balm. The mixture is a little reminder that I’m here grounded in the UK in this seaside town, yet I’m reminded of Ethiopia and my roots from the scent of frankincense.
I enjoy working with local ingredients in the food I cook too, this time of year I love making this gomen dish with the addition of local winter wild greens (three cornered leeks and Alexanders).
https://eatethio.com/gomensauteed-greens
I also make a lot of herbal vinegars. I drink a spoonful in a glass of water in the morning depending how I feel that morning.
A spoon of hawthorn and rose hip helps when I feel like I need to focus on my heart, or to connect to the people around me… or for when my heart aches at state of our world and of course when I miss home and family. I create a nettle and oat straw infusion for daily nourishment and an Ethiopian basil (sweet basil) to regulate my nervous system.
Anything you think good to share. An ethiopian text, a record recommndation, a favourite thing to do with Bruke.. anything.
My son Bruke and I do so much together. We cook, paint, knit, forage, make pottery, herbal vinegars, oils, balms together but my most favourite thing is when we make/create things from what we find in nature. When we make his room an extension of the natural world, it’s very grounding, relatable and a reminder that we are all one, we are part of nature. He loves to put records on these days, our favourite is Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, especially the track ‘Mother’s Love’.
Being a Mum myself, makes me think so much of my own mother, her love language is always food, she loves to feed you, and will be saying eat eat, whilst you’re already eating and she’s topping up your plate. In amharic, we say ‘bilu’, which literally means eat eat, hence I use the characters ብሉ meaning exactly that, in my logo for Eat Ethio… billu billu!