Primary Menu
  • Home
  • About Gather Victoria
  • Wild Foods Are Ancestral Foods
  • Reclaiming the Magical Herstory of Food
  • Community Supported Foraging
  • Contact

Gather Victoria

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

cropped-1-collages82.jpg

http://gathervictoria.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/cropped-1-collages82.jpg

Liked it? Take a second to support Gather Victoria on Patreon!

Share this:

  • Email
  • Tweet
  • More
  • Print
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

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!

Post navigation

cropped-1-collages82.jpg

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!

View Full Profile →

Popular Posts

Recipes for a Feast of Light: Reviving the Magical Foods of Imbolc
Rosemary Oat Bannock For Imbolc
Lavender & Rosemary Mascarpone Cake
Imbolc & The Rites of Women: The Midwinter Festival of Lights
The Caileach's Red Ale Cake: An Imbolc Tale of the Darkness & the Light
Rosemary & Lavender Lemon Curd “Tassies”: Here Comes The Sun!
Brigid’s Magical Blackberry Scones w/ Bay Leaf Infused Custard Sauce: A Matter Of Celestial Timing
Dutch Puff Pancake with Lemon Curd & Primrose Cream
Cheesy Dandelion Spirals: Serpentine Spring Magic
An Easy Old-Fashioned Creamy Dessert: Honey Lilac Posset
  • Recipes for a Feast of Light: Reviving the Magical Foods of Imbolc
  • Rosemary Oat Bannock For Imbolc
  • Lavender & Rosemary Mascarpone Cake
  • Imbolc & The Rites of Women: The Midwinter Festival of Lights
  • The Caileach's Red Ale Cake: An Imbolc Tale of the Darkness & the Light
  • Rosemary & Lavender Lemon Curd “Tassies”: Here Comes The Sun!
  • Brigid’s Magical Blackberry Scones w/ Bay Leaf Infused Custard Sauce: A Matter Of Celestial Timing
  • Dutch Puff Pancake with Lemon Curd & Primrose Cream
  • Cheesy Dandelion Spirals: Serpentine Spring Magic
  • An Easy Old-Fashioned Creamy Dessert: Honey Lilac Posset

Seasonal Posts

Winter Recipes

More Magical Cookery at Gather Victoria on Patreon!

"featured autumn tag" "featured spring tag" "featured summer tag" "featured winter tag" "imbolctag" Autumn Equinox autumn harvest bittercress Brigid Brigid Feast brownies chickweed Chocolate cake comfort food conifer conifers dandelion dandelion roots edible flowers food magic garlic mustard Goddess grand fir finishing salts Halloween healing herbicides Imbolc invasive plants keto lovage magical herbs nettles oregon grape pesticides pine pineapple weed plant magic round-up venus wildcrafted wild food wild greens Wild roses Wood Sorrel yule

Wassail means “be hale” or “be healthy” and is a toast given before the contents of the magical Wassail bowl are communally shared by revelers on January 12th or 17th. This Wassail Cake is inspired by the large ring cakes placed on cow and oxen horns in a little-known custom of “wassailing the cows”. Bedecked with ribbons and sprigs of rosemary, the magical contents of the Wassail Bowl were sprinkled over the cow while toasting it with the traditional Wassail! If the cow tossed the cake from its horns it was a sign of a good year to come. The cake is made with the traditional ingredients of the 16th & 17th century Wassail Bowl, a delicious concoction of apple cider, roasted crabapples, cream, eggs, and spices. I brushed the cake with brandy and rosemary butter before dolloping a thick cider cream over the top. Recipe coming soon for Gather Victoria Patrons (for old Twelvey Night!) Wassail to the Cows! The eve of January 5th is the day of “wassailing the orchards’ in the British Isles but I like to celebrate on “Twelvey Night” January 12th (or 17th) according to old customs. Most of us are familiar with the custom of pouring warm mulled ale or cider over the roots of the trees to bless them with fertility and health, but lesser known is the tradition of offering small wassail cakes. These were soaked in the contents of the Wassail Bowl and placed in the forks of apple tree branches for the robins, who were the guardians of the spirit of the apple trees. According to food historian Ivan Day, the custom of offering cakes to the apple trees during wassailing is no different than any other pagan festivity and dates far back “to a time when we marked the progress of our year with cake”. Bedecked with ribbons and sprigs of rosemary, as is the custom, these Spiced Apple & Rosemary Cakes are inspired by the traditional ingredients of the Wassail Bowl, a magical concoction of apple cider, roasted crabapples, cream, eggs, and spices that enervated and blessed all that drank from it. Wassail! Recipe up tomorrow for Gather Victoria Patrons (for old Twelvey Night!) The eve of January 6th is the day of “wassailing” in the British Isles. Wassailing (the tradition of drinking wassail) is an ancient “field-visiting custom” or “field remedy ritual” believed to fertilize the earth and ensure abundance. I like to celebrate old sympathetic magic that is wassail on old Twelvey Night on January 12th (or 17th) according to old calendars and customs. In this recipe, I infuse sparkling cider filled with the aromatic enlivening herbs of the sun, rosemary, and bay. To this, I add yarrow and just a touch of motherwort, for their nurturing feminine influence. And finally, in honor of the goddesses of love, fertility, and beauty, a liberal dose of the petals of their most sacred flower, the rose. You’ll find the recipe for this Wassail magic on the Gather Victoria website. (link in bio). I created this Honey Christmas Cheesecake for Gather Victoria Patreon and it’s inspired by a lovely old Christmas Eve custom still observed in many villages of Greece. At the stroke of midnight - young women make their way, in silence, to the nearest “taps” a fountain or local spring. There, in a ritual called “feeding of the tap” offerings of honey, cheese, butter, and cooked wheat are to the water made while saying: “As runs the water also runs the prosperity in the house, and may the new year be as sweet as honey.” Then new water is gathered and once home water is sprinkled throughout the house for protection and good luck. This concluded with a Christmas feast of the food offerings consecrated at the taps (which was brought back to the village) as they blessed all who consumed them with a sweet and prosperous new year. I decided to adapt a version of the greek honey pie called Meliopa as I had no ricotta cheese but several slabs of cream cheese in the fridge, however, it still includes all the important ritual ingredients of honey, butter, cheese and wheat. While Meliopa is traditionally crustless many regional variations include pastry and I thought a hearty buttery pie crust would be perfect for a cold snowy night. Which it is here on Vancouver Island! Have a wonderful Christmas Eve! Happy Winter Solstice! Time for a video repost to honor the Deer Mother of old. Across old Europe, folktales are filled with stories of the old winter witches whose name means “shining” or “bright”. On the days we now call Christmas Eve, New Year Eve, and Epiphany, sweet-spicy bread-like cakes enriched with dried fruit and nuts, star-shaped cookies, pastries, strudels, round braided buns, were laid out on feasting tables to ensure her blessings. Filled with wild spices and herbs, sacred fruits, nuts, and berries, stuffing oneself with as much of her holy day baking as possible ensured a “sweet” and bountiful new year. Happy Winter Solstice! This German Lemon Loaf Cake was baked by my Oma for as long as I can remember. The best part is its intensely lemony glaze which soaks into the cake and yields a delightful crunch to the top. I had no idea until a few years ago (after inheriting her loaf pan and deciding to research the recipe) that it is traditionally baked to mark the beginning of the Christmas season on St. Barbara’s Feast Day. Nor did I have any idea that her Feast Day is celebrated on December 4th or December 17th in countries far afield as Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Greece, This Triple Chocolate Cheesecake is made with a blend of dark, milk and white chocolate, perfumed with coffee, cardamom, wild fennel seeds and features a buttery chocolate graham cracker and almond crust. It is my offering for the Greek Goddess Hekate whose modern celebration Hekate’s Night falls on November 16th. Food offerings are left by modern devotees of the goddess at crossroads to obtain her favours but back in ancient Greece this sacramental meal was traditionally offered each month on the night of the dark moon (Nov.23rd). I wanted to bake an offering that would not only feature her favourite foods, herbs and spices but honour November, the month of the ever-deepening dark, and invoke her protection from ill winds and baleful spirits. Recipe for Hekate's Triple Chocolate Cheesecake can be found at the Gather Victoria website -link in bio.
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gather Victoria (@gathervictoria)

Powered by WordPress.com.

%d bloggers like this: