Celebrating the Autumnal Equinox/Mabon!

Autumn officially starts in September at the Autumn Equinox, when the hours of dayling and darkness are equal.  From this point forward, the daylight hours become noticeably shorter and the weather stars to cool with each passing day.  Autumn is a season of waning light and shadows, yet it is also a season of harvest, abundance and thanksgiving.

Autumn has always been a colorful season of reward and people harvested the bounty from the summer growing season and stored it safely away for the long winter:  the vegetables from the garden, the fruit from the orchards, and the grain from the fields.    Everyone in the community spent long hours participating in the harvest, and at the end, they were exhausted yet grateful, and looked forward to a celebration.

Around the world, there are Autumn Harvest festivals celebrated near the Fall Equinox:  from the English Festival of Harvest Home, to Michaelmas Day, to Bavarian Oktoberfest to American Thanksgiving.  (which was originally in October, then moved to the first weekend in November by President Lincoln, and then moved yet again by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to the 4th Thursday in November to help boost the post-depression economy and assist merchants with holiday sales by giving folks a full month to shop.  ....No comment!)

Harvest Goddess Mythologies

In many mythologies throughout the world, a goddess of the grain, harvest and the good earth was celebrated at the Autumn Equinox, which is not surprising since the Earth herself is seen as a fertile mother or Gaia.  From this venerated matriarch, all life was born.  Throughout time and in various cultures, she is a great mother goddess known by many names:  Astarte and Ishtar to the Sumerians; Isis to the Egyptians; Demeter in Greece and Ceres in Rome.  To the indigenous populations of the Americans, she was known as 'Old Woman Who Never Dies' and Mother of Maize.

Equally important was the concept of the seeds from the harvest used for the next year, and considered Mother Earth's child.  In Greek mythology, we see this as Demeter being the harvest mother, the goddess of grain and fertile earth.  The seed that fell and was planted in the spring was  the child, or her daughter , Persephone.  The spirit of these future crops were often seen as the daughter, or a maiden, or a divine child.  In Russia, the child was simply called the Corn Baby.  The Aztecs called the harvest goddess Chicomecoatl, and a goddess named Xilonen was the Goddess of the New Corn.  Her son ws symbolized by the seeds and called the Spirit of the Corn.  In Egypt, the spirit of the grain was the goddess' son, Horus.  The Cherokee people called the harvest child the Green Corn Child.  In India, there is a harvest festival called Pongal.  It is a rice festival that lasts for three days.  The child rice that came from this harvest mother was called the Rice Baby.

Celebrating the Summer Solstice/Litha

Celebrating Summer Solstice/Litha!

On the Summer Solstice/Litha, the earth is ripening with life, fertility and abundance.  This time of year, when the sun is at its zenith, many cultures and traditions still honor the sun and the Green Man, both in their full glory.  The date can vary slightly, and generally falling on June 20th to 22nd.  From this day forward, daylight will diminish by a few seconds each day, until day and night are equal again on the Autumnal Equinox in September.

 In Celtic lore, as well as many other cultures throughout recorded history, the Green Man is a symbol of rebirth, representing the expansive cycles of growth.  The power of the sun at Litha is at its most potent, as one can see all around with the bounty of growing life.  This is a time of year of brightness and warmth, when crops are growing in their fields with the heat of the sun.  In addition to festivities honoring the plentiful sun, the 'yang', male energy that is so verdantly abundant, Summer Solstice/Litha is a time when the Holly King retakes his throne.  It is reminiscent of the battle between light and dark.  The traditional lore follows that the Oak King, who rules the half of the year from the Winter Solstice to the Summer Solstice, relinquishes his power on the Summer Solstice/Litha to the Holly King, who then rules from the Summer Solstice through to the following Winter Solstice.

Litha is a wonder-filled time to celebrate outdoors, especially if you have children.  Go swimming or turn on the sprinkler and run through it.  Have a bonfire or barbeque at the end of the day.  Make it a special night with music, storytelling, holiday sparklers or dancing at dusk with the magical fire-flies.  Consider letting them stay up late to say 'goodnight' to the sun.  Be sure to take a moment to appreciate the gifts that each season brings.  Blessed Be!

[Above graphic is of the Wise Green Man speaking in hawthorn leaves.  Found in Parish Church in Sutton Benger, UK  (c.1300)]

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Making Garlic Mustard Vinegar

Back in March, I posted about making Spring Pesto with greens from our yard, especially using highly invasive garlic mustard (Allaria petiolata).  As a member of the Brassicaceae family, garlic mustard contains many healthful and medicinal qualities, so please see that post.  Herbal vinegars are truly an excellent way to preserve the goodness of nutritious, tonic herbs and to create a valuable nutritional supplement.  I am not talking about the 'culinary vinegars' decorated with a few sprigs of kitchen herbs like rosemary or thyme, but rather concentrated herbal formulas using nutrient-dense herbs and wild foods like Burdock, Nettles, Dandelion and other wild foods/greens.  The Spring Pesto post from March has great foraging and plant identification books listed.

In April, while harvesting to make yet more pesto - YUM! - I saved the roots and crowns (the part where the stem meets the roots).  Then, after gently washing away the dirt, I chopped them all into small pieces using a scissors since the some of the roots are thick and dense. 

(Wise Woman Tip:  Remember that you should be in a good mood when working in your kitchen and using medicinal botanicals.....    Set the tone with music, etc., whatever puts you in good spirits because the act of creating adds your own energy to the process and the items you make absorb your positive energy.    The same principle applies to making meals:  prepare them with positive, loving, healing thoughts and vibrations, and your family will receive that love two-fold!)

This is the simpler's method for making an herbal vinegar, so you will fill the jar twice. 

Making Risotto with our Shiitake Mushrooms!

As you know, we have been waiting, watching, and waiting some more since January 2011 for our mushroom logs to produce shiitake mushrooms. (Did I mention that we've been waiting?)  The logs started showing signs of emerging mushrooms back in the beginning of March, (see post) and as you can see, they are finally here! My daughter and I ceremoniously harvested the three mushrooms with care and reverence, and then promptly made Mushroom Risotto for our dinner on Mother's Day.  Since we only had three fresh mushrooms, we added some diced baby portabellas and rehydrated the dried porcini mushrooms from the pantry.  YUM!

The stems were so dense, that I decided to make a mushroom vinegar with them, and they are now steeping in organic apple cider vinegar.  I will continue to add the stems as more mushrooms bloom. 

If you remember, shiitake are incredibly nutritious and wonderfully medicinal!  To recap briefly from my original post from January 2011:  

1. From a medicinal perspective, shiitake - taken in the form of LEM - has antiviral, antifungal and immuno-modulating properties, and studies have shown tumor inhibiting properties as well.
2. From a food standpoint, shiitakes are a nutritional powerhouse.  As with most mushrooms, one gains the maximum nutritional benefit only upon cooking them.  They contribute a wide range of essential amino acids, are low in fat, high in fiber and provide a wide range of vitamins including Vitamin D, thiamine, niacin, ascorbic acid, riboflavin and biotin.

And of course I just love trivia:  

Celebrating Beltane!

Celebrating Beltane!
Since ancient times, the May season has been a time of celebration and merriment, a time to acknowledge the return of growth.  Certainly, the rites of May are rooted in ancient fertility festivals traced back to the Hellenistic era of Greco-Roman religion.  May 1 was a time to honor the Roman goddesses Flora and Maia with offerings of flowers and garlands ~ the month of May is named for Maia.  Decorated wreaths were mounted on a pole adorned with flowers, garland and colorful ribbons  and carried in street processions in honor of goddess Maia so that she would bestow her fertile bounty on fields and flocks.  The flower garlands were a symbol of the inner connectedness between all things and a worthy gift in anticipation of the coming summer and harvest season.

Traditional Maypole dance

The maypole was traditionally made from a hawthorn tree, which is the third magickal tree in the triad of fairy lore of oak, ash and thorn.  In ancient times, springs of hawthorn and hawthorn flowers were taken home to banish evil.  In ancient Greece, wedding couples wore crowns made of hawthorn blossoms while the wedding party carried torches of hawthorn wood.  May is decidedly a fertile time - for the plants, the pollinators, and the community at large.

As herbalists have long known, Hawthorn  berry (Crataegus monogyna) is a trophorestorative for the heart, and now 'Science' finally agrees, too!!   A trophorestorative is a medicinal botanical that nourishes, tonifies and supports a specific organ or body system. ...Maybe 'science' will catch up on some other trophorestoratives that Wise Women have known about for generations:  milky oats for the central nervous system, stinging nettles seed for the kidneys, etc.  Here is the link to that article:    http://www.naturalnews.com/035685_hawthorn_berries_heart_health.html.

Whatever your late spring holiday traditions, rituals, celebrations and/or spiritual practices may be ~ enjoy the warming days and the splendor of abundant new life and growth that this season celebrates in such vibrant colors!  Be sure to take a moment to appreciate the gifts that each season brings.  Blessed Be!

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Making Spring Pesto!

Ah, Spring!  A chance to sample the freshness of a new season after a long winter of using dried herbs, dehydrated and home-canned fruits and vegetables from last summer's harvest.  Even something as simple as sprouting seeds over the dark winter months provides an opportunity for eating 'fresh' greens that didn't travel thousands of miles to get to your dinner plate.

With the mild winter, this part of northwest NJ is bursting with new, vibrant plant life nearly three weeks ahead of normal.  (Do I really have to mow my lawn in March?)  Seeing new green fuzz on shrubs and trees along the roadsides is uplifting as I think about all the 'fresh greens' now emerging in my yard....   which makes me think of sautes, stir-frys and my favorite:  pesto!  Yum!

Safety tip:  First and foremost:  KNOW your plants!  Many toxic botanicals look confusingly similar to edible or medicinal botanicals - so DO YOUR HOMEWORK and/or have a knowledgeable botanist, herbalist or forager help identify these with you. 

IMPORTANT:  Do NOT use any botanical that has been sprayed with herbicide, pesticide, is found in a run-off drainage ditch or is located within 15 feet of a road.  (Do you really want brake asbestos and road salt in your food?)  ONLY harvest from known sources where you know that it is clean.

While there are many fresh greens in your yard that you can add to your dinner plate, today I am focusing on Garlic Mustard (Allaria petiolata). 

Description: Garlic mustard, ~ also called hedge garlic, saucealone, jack-by-the-hedge, poor man's mustard, jack-in-the-bush, garlic root, garlicwort, and mustard root ~ defends itself from insects by smelling like garlic. It is on the USDA’s National Invasive Species Information Center and is classified as an invasive, noxious weed in at least nine states since it crowds out native plants. It is not native to the US, the deer won't eat it, and it does not have any known predators. 

A biennial herb, its heart-shaped leaves give off an aroma of garlic when crushed. Typical of the mustard/cabbage family, the flowers are four-petaled and cross shaped. This plant is allelopathic, meaning that it secretes a toxin that is not tolerated by other plants, and thus they will not grow well near it ~ black walnut and eucalyptus trees do the same thing ~ thus ensuring its relentless spread.  You can pick as much of this plant as you want without fear of overharvesting!  Actually - you will be providing a great service to the environment since this plant IS so invasive! 

So harvest away!  And not with anger or malice, but with gratitude for Allaria's bounty! It is delicious, available year round, and loaded with important phyto-nutrients such as sulforophane.  Susun Weed makes a delicious vinegar from the roots, so maybe I will write about that in another post.

Celebrating the seasonal holiday of Imbolc/Candlemas

Generally occurring around February 1 and 2, this holiday is known by many names:  Candlemas, Imbolc, Brigit's Eve, Oimelc, La Fheile Brid, Lupercalia, St. Brigid's Day and many, many others.  This holiday is typically a celebration of Hope and the promise or forecasting of Spring:  the darkness of winter is retreating, the light is returning more and more each day, and the promise of spring is in the air.  (Ok, maybe not this year with the icy/snowy winter that has dumped snow on the northeast almost once a week!).

Traditionally, it was a time of forced fasting for indigenous peoples and clans on several continents because food stores were becoming scarce.