Some meals are for your ears. Morning Cicadas & Steel Tongue Drum is a little feast from my summer food forest.

Morning Cicadas & Steel Tongue Drum began with a moment in my Niagara Falls yard that felt perfect for combining nature’s music with a little experimentation.

I had my brand-new steel tongue drum, and the cicadas were live, loud and wonderful.

I believe it was late summer. I remember sitting on the concrete outside my chicken coop, surrounded by enormous, ten-foot stalks of purple amaranth, corn, and pumpkin and squash vines crawling all around me.

I grow using a permaculture approach — a food forest — and it was in full effect that summer.

It was hot. I was sweaty. LOL.

It was glorious.

A Food Forest With Its Own Soundtrack

Sitting there with my new drum, surrounded by everything growing and the cicadas singing, felt like the perfect nature moment to combine sounds and experiment.

I was exploring the sound of a new instrument while the garden carried on around me.

My girls made a few cameo appearances on the recording, too. Their voices belonged there, and I thought their contributions were natural and lovely — part of the place, part of the moment.

When I think about that recording, I picture the concrete patch outside the coop: the summer heat, those towering purple stalks, the sprawling vines and the cicadas singing around me.

A little piece of my food forest, preserved in sound.

Listen: Morning Cicadas & Steel Tongue Drum

Take a little time for yourself. Set down the scrolling, settle into a comfortable spot and listen.

Listen on Spotify to Morning Cicadas & Steel Tongue Drum by Kimberly Turner.

A Feast for Your Ears

Cooking With Kimberly has always made room for the experiences surrounding food: the people, the places, the stories and the moments we share.

This one comes from the place where I grew food, with a steel tongue drum, a chorus of cicadas and a few feathered guests.

There is something lovely about being able to share that moment through music. You can hear a little of what surrounded me while I played.

For another way to support what I create, visit Support CWK.

Thank you for listening.

What sounds bring you straight back to summer?

Have you ever stopped in your garden just to listen to everything happening around you?