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Gather Victoria

ANCESTRAL FOOD. HERBAL WISDOM. MAGICAL COOKERY. SEASONAL CELEBRATION.

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Posted by Danielle Prohom Olson

Whether its through wildcrafting, plant medicine, kitchen witchery or seasonal celebrations, I believe we can enhance personal, community and planetary well-being by connecting with mother nature!

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Hello & Welcome!

Danielle Prohom Olson

Danielle Prohom Olson

The way I see it, gathering food is our oldest, most primal relationship to the earth and “wildcrafting'' (transforming the raw elements of nature into food, drink, and medicine) is the world's oldest magic. So join me. From spring, summer, autumn to winter, I revive the ancient culinary arts of bringing blessings to ourselves, our families, communities, and to our Great Mother, the Earth - one delicious bite at a time!

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Popular Posts

Strawberry Rose Cake: Ushering In Summer
Sweet Magic: Summer Solstice Honey Cookies
An Easy Old-Fashioned Creamy Dessert: Honey Lilac Posset
Recipes for a Feast of Light: Reviving the Magical Foods of Imbolc
Queen of The May: Enchanting Hawthorn Blossom Cordial
Savory Sage Blossom Pesto: A Culinary Spell for Youth, Beauty and Wisdom
Wildcrafting the Shrub: Osoberry Delight
Baba Yaga's Wild Spiced Honey Cookies
Pineapple Weed Comfort Cookies: A Wildly Loving Treat
Spellbinding Sweet Woodruff Cake: Prosperity Magic
  • Strawberry Rose Cake: Ushering In Summer
  • Sweet Magic: Summer Solstice Honey Cookies
  • An Easy Old-Fashioned Creamy Dessert: Honey Lilac Posset
  • Recipes for a Feast of Light: Reviving the Magical Foods of Imbolc
  • Queen of The May: Enchanting Hawthorn Blossom Cordial
  • Savory Sage Blossom Pesto: A Culinary Spell for Youth, Beauty and Wisdom
  • Wildcrafting the Shrub: Osoberry Delight
  • Baba Yaga's Wild Spiced Honey Cookies
  • Pineapple Weed Comfort Cookies: A Wildly Loving Treat
  • Spellbinding Sweet Woodruff Cake: Prosperity Magic

Seasonal Posts

Recipes

More Magical Cookery at Gather Victoria on Patreon!
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"featured autumn tag" "featured spring tag" "featured summer tag" "featured winter tag" "imbolctag" allium vineale Brigid Brigid Feast chickweed Chocolate cake conifers dandelion dandelion roots edible flowers food magic foraged garlic mustard Goddess Halloween herbicides Imbolc imbolc foods invasive plants Lemon curd lilac sugar lovage magical herbs nettles oregon grape pesticide industry pesticides pine pineapple weed plant magic round-up vodka wildcrafted wild fennel wild food wild greens Wild roses women and food Wood Sorrel yoga and herbs yule

Round and golden as the sun, filled with lush plump strawberries and perfumed with rose petals, this cake is inspired by Goddess Cuisine. I created it last year in honor of the Green Holyday known today as Trinity Sunday(this year June 4th). Its motifs mirror the sacred embroidered textiles known in Russia and Ukraine as rushnyk. Red is the color of life, strawberries signify fertility, good harvest, and growth, and red roses represent beauty, robust health, and vigor. The three leaves of the strawberry are thought to represent the three-fold Earth or Mother Goddess and the bright red fruit her fertility and abundance. You'll find the recipe & more "summer calling" food lore up on the Gather Victoria website now! Link in bio. Topped with Violet Infused Buttercream and Violet Sugar Sprinkles, these dark chocolate cupcakes began as a tribute to the classic “violet cream” a beloved chocolate confection of both Queen Victoria and the late Queen Elizabeth. But then I discovered the story of the French Empress Josephine, her grand love Napoleon Bonaparte, and their mutual passion for violets and hot chocolate. Here in Victoria, hidden in shady wet places and front lawns, Viola odorata is in full bloom. Her demure appearance gives no hint of her aphrodisiacal scent. Sacred to both Venus and Aphrodite, she has been associated with love, lust (and love potions) since time immemorial. And what better way to capture her legendary fragrance than a light golden cake brushed with violet syrup and glazed with violet cream? If you’re in the mood for l'amour well, there is no better treat. Recipe at Gather Victoria patreon. Ah, deviled eggs. For me, the snow white beds filled with mounds of rich whipped golden yolks are not only a thing of voluptuous beauty –but possibly a perfect mouthful. So imagine my delight when I discovered Chef Jacques Pepin's technique of browning them to caramelize and crisp their fillings. Pure culinary genius. I’m Lativian on my maternal side which likely explains why my family Easter table was never without a platter of deviled eggs. My crystal platter was handed down from my great-grandmother to my grandmother, to my mother, and now to me - and every Easter I continue the tradition of filling it. This custom predates Easter however and derives from Lieldienas or “Great Days” a spring equinox festival celebrating the days when sunlight finally becomes greater than darkness. Like Easter, the Lieldienas Feasting table would be filled with eggs and other round foods — bread, cakes, cheeses — ensuring the sun’s return. So on these “Great Days” when sunlight finally becomes greater than darkness, I offer these warm nourishing devilled eggs. Served warm with a drizzle of revitalizing spring herb-infused “mayo” this dish is egg magic at its finest. Happy Lieldienas! Recipe at the Gather Victoria website, link in bio. These Rosehip & Raspberry Jam Spirals are my edible tribute to the Grandmother Magic of March! In Eastern European countries, red and white magical talismans are woven by the Baba (old women or grandmothers) who charge them with the magical power to banish winter and bless the coming of spring - a tradition said to date back 8000 years! In Romania, these talismans, called Mărțișor, are given out on Baba Docia's Day March 1st to the special women in one's life - and today are increasingly gifted on March 8th, International Women’s Day. In Bulgaria they are called Martenitsa and given out on Baba Marta (Grandmother March) Day to friends, neighbors, family, pets, and farm animals while saying “ be white and red”, meaning “be healthy and beautiful”! Coins are often woven in so that women could buy red wine and sweet cheese ensuring their faces would remain beautiful and white as cheese and rubicund as the wine, all year. So consider these cookies a bit of “red and white” food magic. White strands of the thread stand for wisdom and red for good health, so these Red & White Rosehip & Rasberry Jam Spirals are sure to grant you plenty of both this spring! Recipe up now on the Gather Victoria website! I am passionate about ancestral foods and none are more ancient than the wild greens known today as weeds. So in honor of International Women’s Day, I’ve decided to share two recipes, Wild Green “Erbazzone” Pies and Wild Green Pancotto Soup, rustic dishes inspired by a truly ancient culinary tradition still popular throughout Italy - foraging for wild spring greens, or “Erbe di campo” (field greens.) In Italy, as in many countries around the world, these plants are still gathered, especially during the spring season, by the grandmothers and the oldest female members of the communities, as they have been for many thousands of years. “Weeds” like dandelion, ground elder, nettles, garlic mustard, curly dock, wall-rocket sorrel, plantain, pepper cress, wild fennel, wild onion (to name but a few) are made into pesto, baked into savory pies, used as a filling for ravioli, added to soups or simply served as Erbe di campo al burro ( field greens in butter). Brimming with vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, antioxidants, and phytonutrients, it's no wonder these wild plants were considered a vitalizing boost after the lean diets of winter. So this International Women’s Day, rediscover a treasured healing cuisine passed on by countless grandmas whose ancestral food wisdom has nourished us through the centuries. Recipes up on Gather Victoria Now! Link in bio. Blessed Imbolc to you! Tonight is the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox - the true date of Imbolc for the Celts. And between now and the full moon on February 5th, there is a great deal of "natural magic" at work. The sun will illuminate the interior chambers of passage tombs and megalithic sites in Ireland, like Loughcrew, Carrowmore, and The Hill Tara generating a life-enhancing electromagnetic force field in the stone and in the water below. At full moon, these energies will peak and emerge “dancing” from the ground moving emanating outwards into the landscape and into the people who gather here on these nights. In Ireland (and around here on Vancouver Island) this is the time the sun begins to warm the earth releasing the waters frozen in ice and snow. Perhaps this is why Brigid is a goddess connected to both fire and water, they may be opposing elements but both are necessary for the creation of life - a theme central to Imbolc. This is why this buttery, rich, nutty, Hazelnut & Juniper Berry Shortbread is a scrumptious bit of food magic honoring St. Bride of Brightness, as she is known in Scotland. Looking for a recipe to celebrate the upcoming beautiful Celtic spring “feis” (feast or festival) known as Imbolc, Imbolg, or Brigid’s Feast of Fire? Well, I’ve got you covered! In this post, I round up some of my all-time favorites. Here you’ll find links to seeded cakes, braided bread, oat bannocks, barley pies, golden pancakes, savory soups, cheesy herb pastries, and bread puddings (and more!) all inspired by the "Bright" or "Exalted" one, the goddess Brigid and her delicious Feast of Light. Whether we're talking creamy dairy and rich butter, toasty oats and barley, honey, eggs, wild berries, wild greens or aromatic sun herbs like rosemary, chamomile, calendula, or rosemary, not mention a splash of red ale, and a wee bit of whiskey, these foods are filled with the life-giving power of the sun. Plus they are sacred to Brigid - thus ensuring her blessings of fertility, health, and abundance. A cause for culinary celebration indeed! Check it out at the Gather Victoria website. Link in bio.
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