So its the end of the season, a very hard frost is on the horizon for the week and several lighter frosts have already occurred. You look out across your garden with its overflowing abundance. There are still beans, swiss …
Seasons
Wild Food Profile – Burdock Root (spring and fall)
Foraging is an important part of my spiritual path, as it is one of the ways that I build a closer relationship with nature. I also think its an important part of the “oak knowledge” that druids should consider cultivating. …
Wild Food Profile: Autumn Olive / Autumn Berry (Elaeagnus umbellata) + Autumn Olive Honey Jelly Recipe
About the Autumn Olive Autumn Olive (also called Autumn Berry, Japanese Silverberry, or Spreading Oleaster) is a bush that is native to China and is considered an “invasive” in the USA. In a good part of the 20th century, it …
Elderberry Syrup with Ginger, Cinnamon, and Clove: A Powerful Medicine to Keep Sickness Away
It is that delightful time of year again, when the berries of the fall ripen, when the pumpkins grow orange on their vines, and when the elders are literally loaded with berries. The elderberry tree is a fascinating plant, rich …
Homestead Updates – Early August 2014
With all my discussion of everything else, I have failed to do any reasonable update about the homestead in the last few months. So here’s an update of what’s happening around the homestead! The Druid’s Organic Vegetable Garden: Veggies, Pests, …
Medicine Making and Sacred Herbalism at Lughnassadh
I love celebrating the druid wheel of the year. Its just an amazing experience to dedicate eight days to magic, ritual, being outdoors, studying, reading, meditation, gardening, and other sacred activity. I had the most wonderful day today making so …
Wild Food Profile: Purple / Sweet Violets (viola odorata)
Early in the spring season (as in, right now), the small, wild purple violets begin popping up everywhere. Where I live, this is usually late April to Mid may. I actually found the first violets here in South East Michigan …
Natural Crafting Harvesting, Basket Weaving, and Blooms
Spring has finally arrived in South-East Michigan! Although from a distance the landscape still appears to be barren… …this is not really the case! A closer look will reveal a bounty of new growth–the earliest spring flowers. If you …
Ode to the Apple: Making Applesauce
In a recent blog post, I talked about the apple as a sacred tree in that it provides us with bountiful, amazing cider. In this post, I’m going to walk through the art of making and canning applesauce. The applesauce …
Garden and Homesteading Update – March 31, 2014
The Spring Equinox was a mere week and a half ago, and today, for the first time, it felt like spring. The snows are melting and the warmth is coming. I think its been a long, hard winter for many …
Seed Starting and Garden Planning: Reasons to Start Seed, Seed Research, and Seed Starting Setups
Its that time of year that if you haven’t already started your seeds, and you live in say, a zone 5 or 6 climate, you really need to start thinking about starting them! This blog post will talk about what …
Ode to the Apple: Harvest, Pressing, and Fermenting Apple Cider
I’ve been meaning to write a series of posts on the apple tree for quite a while, and here in the depths of winter, I have finally found time to do so! And while my timing is off-season, I think …
In Praise and Honor of the Snow: Understanding and Overcoming Cultural Challenges
In January, this year, we’ve gotten record amounts of snow (somewhere above 50″ since the new year). This is true of much of the midwest and eastern seaboard in the USA. Snow holds a very convoluted position in modern American …
Sowing the Seeds of the Future: Spiritual Insights on Seed Starting and Growth
There is so much magic in a tiny seed. Dormant, still, silent, the seed speaks of unimaginable potential. The seed is the first—and last—step in the cycle of most plant life; they complete the circle of life. Seeds can lay …
Shifting away from Materialism and into the Sacred: Alternatives to Typical Holiday Gift Giving
We find ourselves, yet again, in the middle of the “holiday season” where the emphasis has drifted away from families and is now on cheap deals, plasma televisions, and the amassing of various piles of stuff. Against the cultural push …
Lessons from the Sacred Element of Water: Seasons, Places, and Spaces
In the past two years, I have done an intensive study with water as an element. My work with water began at Alban Elfed (the Fall Equinox) in 2011, when I met Thea Worthington, OBOD Modron, at the OBOD East …
Four Sacred Trees Brew (Druidic, Magical Tree Tea with Hickory, Pine, Birch, and Maple)
There is nothing like an earthy, warm, sweet cup of tea on a cold winter’s night. This recipe is a magical blend, one of the most sacred drinks I have ever enjoyed. This recipe is derived from an Algonquin recipe …
Tree Profile: Hickory’s Magical, Medicinal, and Herbal Qualities
I am going to do a series of posts on trees–I started a second 3rd degree Adept project for the AODA, and its on expanding the traditional Ogham to include plants native to the Mid-west/mid-Atlantic region. This project will also …
Samhuinn Magical Crafting – Making a Magical Herbal Hawthorn Tincture
Samhuinn is the final holiday that is connected to harvests in the Druidic Wheel of the Year, and this is a time of apples, pumpkins, hawthorn berries (haws), nannyberries, rose hips, and rowan berries. I always like to do some …
Cover Crops in the Fall Garden: Winter Rye and Red Clover
One of the practices that has been central to my work in my annual (vegetable) garden is the cover crop. In nature, we very rarely see bare soil–the ground is always green and lush most times of the year (and …
Garden Update & Permablitz: Many Hands Make Light Work
I wanted to post another update from my garden and update from our Permaculture Meetup, which blogged about some time ago (Here’s our meetup group site: Oakland County Permaculture Meetup). Recently, I hosted what we call a “permablitz” or a …