Recipes, Spells, and Wisdom from the Hedgerow
Once upon a time the witch held a place of esteem in the village; her knowledge of local plants and wayside herbs were used to heal; her wisdom and empathy made her the village matchmaker and marriage counselor; and her ability to commune with nature and animals gave her a place of revelry and wisdom. She was the Hedgewitch.
Aimed at the busy witch, who is both breadmaker and breadwinner, this book revives the spirit of the Hedgewitch and teaches you how to make every day one full of wisdom, healing, and magic. For the practicing or would-be witch whose life is more jeans, chaos, and the never-ending question of what’s for dinner than it is black robes, cauldrons, and incantations, Mandy Mitchell has a recipe for you!
“I want to demonstrate how daily chores can become magical rituals with the potential to enrich and transform your life—everything from the way we form relationships with our families and friends to cooking, cleaning, and healing.” —from the introduction
Journey through the wheel of the year with one eye on the kettle and the other on the magical!
Review:
This book spans the seasons and is rich with information on how to get the most from everyday. With correspondences and references to recipes and practical magic, this book is a boon for all those who practice a more traditional life. What seems mundane can often be a ritual. Every stitch in a sampler a spell...every ingredient in a weeknight dinner a way to say I love you...everything has meaning and Mandy Mitchell does a great job of showing you how to look at your world just a little bit differently.
5/5
Why Hedgewitchery?
Don’t worry, no long drawn-out
history lesson here. I am definitely more a student than a teacher. And
goodness, my history teacher was sooo boring that he could send the whole class
to sleep with one sentence, bless him! But I digress—never a good sign in an
introduction! So to get back to our topic, why Hedgewitchery?
“Hedgewitch” is a relatively new
term. It refers to the old village folk who were revered in their communities
as healers and keepers of wisdom. For women, they may have been midwives; for
males, I think they were known as “pellars”—particularly in Cornwall. These
“cunning folk” were an important part of the old com- munities and a certain
mystery surrounded them. They were solitary practitioners. Their knowledge of
herbal and medicinal laws was unrivaled, and in a time when there was no modern
medicine they treated all types of ailments using the things around them. They
knew the folklore behind the local plants and put together brews, spells, and
medicines from the hedgerow and from their kitchens.
The other important role these
“cunning fok” played was as community counselors. They were often trusted to
keep secrets and advise on different situations. This is where the term
“Hedgewitch” comes from. Not only did these keepers of knowledge use food and
plants to help and heal, they crossed the boundary, or “hedge,” that contained
their community to converse with other realms. Through meditation and
visualization they visited the fairies and spirits, and consulted with them or
asked questions to help them resolve community problems. This can take some
practice! But as communities dispersed and we lost touch with the wisdom of
these “wise ones”—these keepers of local knowledge—they came to be reviled as
evil witches and were treated appallingly. What threat did they pose? Purely a
different point of view, great wisdom, and success!
In more
recent times, our families and ancestors held some of this knowledge and used
it in everyday life. Our grandparents and great-grandparents probably knew all
the plants around them and their uses. They knew the hidden meanings in the
food they ate and the things they used. To them, this was wisdom—passed down
from generation to generation by word of mouth. Not much of it was writ- ten down—after
all, there was no need. Families and communities would never disappear, would
they?
But today, in our modern era, this
is the biggest problem we have. Our communities and families have dispersed
like sand in the wind. We don’t live together in groups
anymore; families don’t stay together all in one place from cradle to grave.
Communities rarely exist in the way they used to, particularly if you live in a
large urban town or city. Today, even living in a pretty rural village can be
very isolating. The modern age has reduced communication to words on a screen
and all things Internet and mobile. Even the written word is in decline. When
was the last time you sent or received a letter?
Technology is a wonderful thing, but
it sometimes comes with quite a high price. We are at risk of losing the bond
that exists between us, and with it, all that precious old knowledge—knowledge
that is no longer being handed down as it once was through teachings and
folklore.
This, I think, is where the modern
Hedgewitch comes in. We are, in the main, solitary practitioners, but we do
still have a community to serve—our friends and families. We have very little
time for contact with the outside magical community, but we do now have, thanks
to the Internet, a whole world of like-minded people with whom we can converse.
So many people are now turning to new “online com- munities”; they are
springing up everywhere.
Most of our work, however, is still
done from the comfort of our own homes and hearths, as solitary Hedgewitches of
the modern age. Our role has, in a way, become vital in this world—to record
and pass on our knowledge to the next generation and to close the gap a little
on all the lost years. We can try to return to the old wisdom our grandparents
knew and lived by, using simple household ideas that can enrich people’s lives.
What we can do is to learn as much as possible, and to practice our magical
ways and observe all the important times and tides that our ancestors did. We
can strive to make life better for others and for ourselves by using the things
around us, and also by having an understanding of the reasons behind using
them.
Time to make the world a more magical place again, don’t
you think?
Why Cooking?
We all have to eat. It’s a very
simple fact of life—and one that most of us think about a lot and take quite
seriously. Food is a source of fuel, but we use it in so many other ways as
well. Comfort eating, entertaining and socializing, chicken soup for what ails
you—the list goes on and on. But we shouldn’t just take food at face value. Most foods have a tradition and folklore
associated with them, so it makes sense to use them to their full advantage.
No one I know relishes the thought
of slaving over a hot stove for hours, cooking up what amounts to an entire
day’s pay, only for it to be gone in seconds or to be pushed around the plate.
Ask any mother or father what weaning their precious baby off milk and onto
“proper food” was like. Watch as that rosy glow disappears from their faces as
they recall the battles at every mealtime. My granddaughter has this down to a
fine art. She scans the plate of food in front of her with precision and
brilliant speed. This is usually followed by the word “done,” as she picks up
the plate and casually drops it over the side of the highchair! It is an
inherited skill I think and proves to me the existence of karma, since her
mother did exactly the same thing. It is soul-destroying, however—and not only
because of all the expense and effort we went to to give the dear little thing
a meal.
We, as adults, have a built-in need
to feed children; any children will do if our own can’t be found. This is why I
think I could never leave my mother’s house as an adult without being pestered
to eat and to take a “goodie bag” of food I neither asked for nor wanted tucked
under my arm. I believe this comes with the parental territory—ummm, maybe it’s
hormones?
Cooking is pretty much as old as
humanity. It’s the most basic form of alchemy we have—blending things and
transforming them into something spectacular. Well, that’s the theory anyway!
But in this modern time, we all set ourselves up for a fall before we begin.
Food is not what it once was. You can never be entirely sure exactly what is in
that beautiful ripe tomato in its pretty plastic tray. I do often wonder what
happened to all the “ugly” food. You know what I mean—the misshapen carrots and
the knobbly potatoes. It seems as if, in this day and age, we are destined to
have an identical diet containing who knows what from who knows where, and as
for when—well, who knows?
Today, the food seasons have merged
and blended into one long-running show with no end. Whatever ingredient your
heart desires can be found lurking in a sterile grocery store aisle alongside
things that have no earthly reason to be there, given that they have absolutely
no chance of growing in your climate! Do we need them all? Well, it is
wonderful to have such choice, but surely a strawberry in summer tastes sweeter
than one in the winter?
The
cook’s role, to me, comes down to using a few basic ingredients effectively:
seasonal foods, local foods, affordable foods, and free foods. Now, I’m not
saying that I don’t eat other foods—good grief, no! I am not
that virtuous, believe me. Most of the time, I like to use seasonal
produce—selfishly, because I know it’s at its best and therefore tastes
amazing, requiring very little effort from me. I want my local foods to be as
local as I can get—whether they come from the garden, from a friend’s garden,
or from a local shop. Next, I go after regional items, then those from across
the nation, and finally, imported fare. But “imported,” to me, just means
longer in transit, and so less flavorful and more work for me.
Price is a tricky issue too. Times
are tough everywhere for all of us, so price will often come at the top of our
list of priorities by necessity. Sometimes the money just won’t stretch; so,
with the best of intentions, we have to make compromises. Let’s face it; we are
not going to starve ourselves or our loved ones over a bit of food snobbery.
Hot, tasty food at the right price is the order of the day, but it does require
a bit more effort and a great deal of imagination.
And finally, free foods! These are
the very best, and they really should be at the top of everyone’s list. Find
and forage for what you can; gather it, cook it, and serve it with the
knowledge that you are doing something your ancestors did. Why have we
forgotten this skill? I know you all think I am mad. “Did you not just write
all about the realities of modern life in your introduction?” you say. “Do you
not grasp that I don’t have a minute to breathe?” you say. “Forage?” you say.
“What nonsense!” But I really am that busy too, and I know it does take some
effort—but it is free! You can’t find usable free food in all months, I know.
And fortunately, the season when it’s most scarce is the winter, so you don’t
have to go trudging around in the freezing cold. But if you can get out,
preferably with a small child to do the work, do try it!
The Magic of Hedgerow
I hope all of this sounds very
sensible and very doable, for now is the time for the magic to begin! All the
ingredients we use in our cooking hold a magical element— an unseen energy that
used to be known by all but that has now largely been forgot- ten. By
understanding what that energy is and harnessing it, we can infuse magic into
everything we create. For example, when you go to the shop for some shower gel,
you stand in front of a vast array of what’s on offer—different bottles and
labels and colors. How do you choose? Are you a label reader or a sniffer?
Either way, you choose the one that suits your needs—fresh lemon, relaxing
lavender,
blends that tell you they revitalize you or warm
you up or cool you down, or even make you super sexy! The herbs and spices in
these gels are specifically selected by the manufacturers to do a job, and you
buy that product to do that job for you. You already know that if you want a
relaxing soak, you buy the lavender or chamomile, not zesty lemon or mint or
pepper. We make so many choices about what works to enhance our day-to-day
lives; we hold so much of this knowledge already. We just need to put some of
it to work and use it magically.
Try, if you can, to return to the
days of our ancestors. Cook with fresh ingredients, with love and intent. Use
your ingredients to help you in your life. You don’t have to be a slave to the
stove—nor do you have to be a martyr. Even a simple cup of tea can be made
magical if you make it with focus and wisdom. That’s why I call myself a
Hedgewitch cook!
So
welcome to the first book from the kitchen of a Hedgewitch cook. Here, we will
ramble through the year together, considering as we go anecdotes, memories,
folklore, recipes, spells, and rituals that relate to each month. In each
chapter, I’ll give you tips for working everyday magic with the foods,
materials, and natural treasures abundant in each month. And I’ll share some of
my own experiences working with these energies as well.
At the beginning of each chapter, I
have given a list of foods that are seasonal to each month and a list of
correspondences for each month that represent the magical side of the year. I
have also included an appendix that gives a list of the magical properties of
herbs, plants, and trees for you to use as a reference. These are just my take
on things and are in no way intended as exclusive or exhaustive lists. They are
given only to show you some possibilities and to make suggestions. As with all
things magical, correspondences and properties are different for each person.
Those given here are just the ones that I find work for me. They may be useful
as a starting point for you, but I have no doubt that everyone will have his or
her own ideas. So, my apologies if I’ve missed something important to you or
something obvious. As I said, I do ramble!
Excerpts provided by Weiser Books.
