Category Archives: Mabon/Autumn Equinox

Along with all the images of fluffy bunnies and decorated eggs or falling leaves and bountiful cornucopias, the Wheel of the Year at this time of the year, has an additional underlying theme of balance, a time when light and dark hold equal time before switching dominance. We all get out of balance for one […]

There are lots of ways to get more nutrition into treats. What works best for you will probably depend on the tastes of your family and style of eating. Disguising vegetables in baking, changing up flours and making different sugar choices can all affect the finished product with higher protein levels, more micronutrients and fewer […]

A kitchen witch is a poppet, traditional to northern European countries, usually made from left over bits of material, in the form of a hag riding her broomstick. They hung in kitchen windows and were said to bring blessings and good food. Corn dollys or corn mothers are a form of straw work with a […]

I usually think of birthdays as a time when the birthday person should feel special and receive, as much as possible, what they would like. I have pictures of my grandfather in Indonesia, in the early 1900 hundreds, sitting on the “birthday chair”, decorated with fronds and flowers and although not all cultures chose to […]

If anyone is waiting on this weekend (2016) to celebrate Mabon together with the full moon, here is a quick fresh corn pancake recipe that can be made larger for meals or smaller, as I have done here for sharing with friends. This full moon is also known as Harvest Moon. Farmers could work well into […]

As equinox approaches, eggs always seem to me a good yardstick ingredient. In days past this would be the start and finish times for egg laying as most chickens need twelve hours of sunlight to produce eggs in rhythm with nature. Additionally I think, the light at this time of the year has a special feel to […]

In European cultures, the word “korn” refers to all grains not just what we call corn in North America today. From the harvest comes the tradition of corn dollies and the story of John Barleycorn, making it very appropriate for corn, in some form, to be on a Mabon festival table. It can be a […]

Pears trees can live a very long time and so in Chinese traditions, the pear is linked to immortality. It is also connected to partings as the word for separation and pear is the same and is the source of the custom of not sharing pears with others. The tale of Prometheus links golden pears (sometimes […]

I can feel the cooler temperatures in the breeze today and for me, it is such a relief to experience the drop of air pressure that says fall is on its way here. The last of the seasonal fruits are getting ready for harvest, grapes, plums, pears and of course, apples. Mabon is coming and […]

In the process of looking for something a little different for a Mabon dessert, I decided to do a little experimenting with all those crabapples I was using up last week. My intention was a more adult flavour and not something you could find on every store shelf. I wanted to plate a dessert that […]