Category Archives: Herbs, Wildcrafting and other things Earth related

Having fresh growing herbs that are easy to reach is a bonus. Hiking out to the back 40 in the middle of preparing a meal is not going to happen regularly. You are more likely to use your herbs when they are easily reachable. Remembering to use them is the important part. They are full […]

With the abundance of roses this week, rosewater seemed like another wonderful way to keep the memories alive as the months move on. Gather rose petals. They can be a variety of colours but the petals are best when they are herbicide/pesticide free and intoxicatingly aromatic. Gently and thankfully separate the petals and place on […]

I have been really wanting to make some floral petal infused honey for a while now and John Gallagher of Learning Herbs shared a post the other day that pushed the want over the edge especially when combined with that fact that a friend of mine was going away for a couple of weeks and […]

Probably the most common way to preserve herbs is to dry them. It is easy, inexpensive and retains a higher percentage of the plants natural oils. I managed to film a video with my camera but it is too large upload so we will have to go with the still picture below. It shows all […]

The herbs are definitely liking all this heat, so before they squeeze each other out of the basket they are sharing, it was time for another “haircut”. Collect the herbs you would like to freeze from your garden, thanking them as you go. I will leave the question of washing up to you. If they […]

This year I was the very thankful recipient of one of Jean’s herb baskets. From left to right it has oregano, thyme, rosemary, chives and parsley. Jean popped in some tarragon as well but it is not ready for any harvesting. The downside with having happy herbs is that they grow and before things get out […]

Yesterday I posted a cookie recipe that includes a dusting of sugar while the cookies are warm out of the oven. It got me thinking about flavoured (my Canadian is showing) sugars and that led on to a couple of additional points every magical pantry can benefit from. First off, let’s chat about zesting. The […]

Fairies is a broad category for a range of magical creatures. Hobgoblins and brownies are more connected to homes while sprites and pixies are happiest outside and trolls, under ground. They range from wrinkled old men, the height of ones thumb to enticing women who have relationships with Gods. Legends say that under The Tor […]

Fairies have a multi-branched family tree of elemental “spirits”, not always in the ethereal sense. One of the oldest mentions of fairylike creatures was 3,000 years ago in The Illiad by Homer. He wrote about the nymphs answering the call of Zeus for all Immortals to come. It can get confusing as within the legends […]

This spring when putting the idea for a fairy tea together I wanted to incorporate herbs into the elegant little sandwich bites, for taste, and also as a way for children to begin to learn about the world around them. Yesterday in the ideas for celebrating Earth Day post, I shared a picture from a […]