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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

Recipes for a Feast of Light: Reviving the Magical Foods of Imbolc
Rosemary Oat Bannock For Imbolc
The Cailleach's Red Ale Cake: An Imbolc Tale of the Darkness & the Light
Lavender & Rosemary Mascarpone Cake
Brigid’s Magical Blackberry Scones w/ Bay Leaf Infused Custard Sauce: A Matter Of Celestial Timing
La Befana Cake: Honouring The Old Witch of Winter
Doe, A Deer, A Female Reindeer: The Spirit of Winter Solstice
An Easy Old-Fashioned Creamy Dessert: Honey Lilac Posset
Herbalicious Lammas Loaf Biscuits: Celebrating The Tradition of Common Ground
Baba Yaga's Wild Spiced Honey Cookies
  • Recipes for a Feast of Light: Reviving the Magical Foods of Imbolc
  • Rosemary Oat Bannock For Imbolc
  • The Cailleach's Red Ale Cake: An Imbolc Tale of the Darkness & the Light
  • Lavender & Rosemary Mascarpone Cake
  • Brigid’s Magical Blackberry Scones w/ Bay Leaf Infused Custard Sauce: A Matter Of Celestial Timing
  • La Befana Cake: Honouring The Old Witch of Winter
  • Doe, A Deer, A Female Reindeer: The Spirit of Winter Solstice
  • An Easy Old-Fashioned Creamy Dessert: Honey Lilac Posset
  • Herbalicious Lammas Loaf Biscuits: Celebrating The Tradition of Common Ground
  • Baba Yaga's Wild Spiced Honey Cookies

Seasonal Posts

Winter Recipes

More Magical Cookery at Gather Victoria on Patreon!

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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. This Dark Chocolate Cailleach Ale Cake is in honor of the dark counterpart of Brigid, the Gaelic Cailleach, one of the oldest deities of Ireland and Scotland – if not the oldest. And ale is considered the oldest spirit in the world! According to folklore, the Cailleach Bhéarra or the Hag of Beare was a guardian of a mountain well from which flowed a “marvelous ale” that guarded against illness and death. On the eve of Bride, the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox (this year February 3rd or 4th depending on where you live) the Cailleach drinks from the well and is transformed into Brigid or Bride (bright or exalted one) who turns the bare earth green again. In some folktales, the Cailleach keeps Brigid imprisoned over the winter months. Each spring Brigid escapes and the Cailleach then turns into a large stone. This story seems to be writ large in the megalithic monuments of Ireland – many of which are reputed to have been created by the Cailleach herself! Passage tombs, cairns, and chambers at Carrowmore and Carrowkeel in County Sligo and the Mound of the Hostages found on the Hill of Tara feature alignments preceding and after the cross-quarter days of Imbolc (and Samhain). 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.
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