Siobhan Ball welcomes our readers to soup season with a look into the history of sage’s association with healing and other forms of magic, along with a recipe for white bean soup with sage and chorizo crumb.
Kitchen Witcheries
In praise of beer, the source of civilisation
|
Though beer has become a purely recreational drink over the last century and a half, as changes in food production, water management, and attitudes towards alcohol have phased it out of daily life, for many of our ancestors it was essential – as sacred as fire, bread, and the other building blocks of civilised life.
Culture
Oat Bannoch for Imbolc
|
Siobhan Ball invites you to welcome Imbolc with folklore surrounding Brigid, goddess and saint, and a delicious recipe for a traditional unleavened oat bannoch.
Kitchen Witcheries
Polysporia – a dish that dedicates every grain to the gods
|
“Made up of a mix of all the grains, legumes, and edible seeds grown in any given area,” writes Siobhan Ball, “polysporia belongs to that most fundamental class of agricultural ritual: the kind that gets down to the bare bones of the relationship between man and gods, expressing plainly what we want and what we’re willing to give in exchange.”
Arts & Culture
The Festival of Pomona
|
Siobhan Ball celebrates the end of apple season with the myths and folklore surrounding Pomona, the Roman goddess of apples, and includes a frustrating but authentic recipe for a Minutal of Fruit from Apicius, the ancient Roman gourmand.
Europe
Get your blackberries before the Púca does!
|
Siobhan Ball introduces TWH’s readers to the folklore of the blackberry – including why you need to eat them before the Faerie Folk claim them for their own – and also offers a delicious recipe for a blackberry and apple crumble.