Category Archives: Beltane/May Day

The veil is said to be thin during the time of Beltane and Samhain making it a good time to connect with spirits and departed family. Dreams are one of the ways to do that and so it was included in an Herbs of Samhain workshop last week. Please do a little additional research to […]

I have been wanting to give this a go for a very long time. You see my Mother had a cookbook, The Woman’s Home Companion. It was first published in 1942 and was aimed at the coming war years. The cake section included options for 1, 2, 3, & 4 egg cakes as rationing was […]

Asparagus is one of the first vegetables to lift its head in spring, proof that the world is coming back to life or at least waking up from the rest it was having where you live. These tender green stalks contain lots of fiber, helping keep that full feeling longer. They have an amino acid […]

Before the last of the violets were washed away by all our liquid sunshine, I had to make a choice; vinegar, jelly or syrup? Deciding I could squeeze small amounts of two out of three,  the vinegar would need to wait until next year as I can already see the first crop of dandelions opening […]

Flowers are the perfect decoration for Beltane as it is perfectly symbolic to the energy of the season. Procreation. If the weather has been reasonable the landscape will be awash with wild and cultivated blossoms, some of them edible! Violets fall into that category. These highly scented and colourful appendages make tasty additions to salads […]

Beacon hills are networks of bonfires, optical telegraphs, often used to signal the next village that invaders were coming and to man the defenses. They were placed on high points (hills) in the landscape so they could be seen as far away as possible. In England, the Michael leyline, an earth energy line, runs from […]

I have posted in the past about making lemon, orange and vanilla flavoured sugars for use throughout the year. At this time of year the violets are out and violet sugar is a simple way of preserving some of that lovely aroma for Beltane/May Day….. …and the rest of the year. Spring time is flower […]

I have noticed from comments posted on Facebook that many readers are not as far along in their seasons as we seem to be here. In my part of the world the lilacs and violets are over but I did manage to put up one small bottle of lilac honey. Last year I tried roses […]

Beltane celebrates reproduction and that is reflected in the use of flowers for decorations and gift giving. In very simple terms the purpose of flowers is to attract pollinators so that fertilization can occur and the plant will be able to create seeds for the next cycle. Birds, bees and other insects are drawn by […]

What can I say, it is rhubarb time again; a symbol that spring is truly here and something I ( or my black cat ) will happily do a little jig about. The items used to celebrate festival days come mostly from what is happening and available around us in nature. The first of the […]