Since I became a mom, I have fallen in love with the potential of the kitchen. I brew, cook, boil, bake, stew, and come up with all kinds of healthy ways for my family to eat ,be healthy and still enjoy the food.
A little pinch of this, a dash of that, the concoctions, the synergy, the magic that happens when it all comes together in the pots and pans that are simmering away in my cauldron over the fire.
The fumes that fill the room and reach throughout the rest of the house bringing the bairns into the the kitchen to talk, taste and come under my spell.
The kitchen is my laird. I experiment and create magical brews to entice and cast spells. Creating meals that have come from our garden, are infused with power , nutrition and magic.
No one is immune to it's power.
I use market vegetables, garden peas, wild herbs, and forest fungi . Leafy greens, sprouting seeds, spiky nettles, toad stools, and spicy grasses. Conjuring spells through rituals and ceremony .
Herbs have a powerful magic of their own which mingles nicely with my own. The use of herbal potions has been used to capture the soul and release the curse. Used since the beginning of time stretching back thousands of years to treat digestive complaints, head aches, sleeplessness, infertility issues or as love potion.
Our ancestors knew the secrets of the forest and could always conjure up a tea, soup or stew to soothe a colicky baby or lure a nervous dog to sleep. They kept meticulous journals and transcribed records of folklore which could be passed down from mother to daughter.
Once they called it sorcery. When these women used their knowledge, the moon, the seasons and natures power to conjure, enchant and bring forth transformation , they were both revered and shunned by their communities.
I embrace this folklore and welcome it back into my kitchen. It allows me to be creative, inventive and constantly in awe of nature and her powers over us. I am able to play, teach and share wisdom, recipes and stories. This imaginative side transforms the kitchen into a forest glen or a timeless place.
Echos of laughter, steam from bowls filling the room, leaves and roots steeping in various jars containing different mediums, powders and dried herbal mixtures lining the shelves or hanging from the ceiling and the cutting board always has something being prepared for a meal or a medicine.
This is where creativity comes alive, where we learn the power of plants and the science of nature is brought to the table. This is where my witchy side surfaces, my tapping in to my female ancestors, their wisdom and knowledge of nature's ways. Our kitchen is my lab and I become the chemist. The place where we can sit over a cup of tea with all the bubbling, boiling and nature's chemistry frolicking around us.
Please come in, have a seat, make yourself comfortable. Tell me your troubles and I'll put on a pot of tea .
