April News 2025
Welcome to our April 2025 Kitchen Witch newsletter.
There is always lots to do here at KWHQ - and we absolutely love it! The community that we have created and the people and friends that we have met over the years is invaluable. The energies are made up by everyone that is involved with Kitchen Witch - it's not just Rachel, Heather and myself, it is our students, the lovely people that join in Rachel's Friday chat, those that attend our online rituals and workshops, all the support in person at our various events that we go to, our followers on our YouTube channels, Facebook groups and pages, websites and blogs and our newsletter subscribers - you are all amazing!
A huge THANK YOU from us to you for all of your support
Ness x
What's Going on in Nature this Month from Ness
We are now in the month of April. March brought us some sunny warm days, but winter has not quite loosened her grip on the UK just yet. We have had a couple of frosty mornings and the evenings still require the heating to be turned on.
Mother Nature has been exceedingly busy - cleavers, nettles, wild violets, celandine, wild arum, three-cornered leek, daffodils, docks, cow parsley, blackthorn blossom, hawthorn leaves... the list goes on.
My Pieris has sprouted new pink leaves which look very flower like, and the little white bells have also appeared from beneath the leaves. The Gooseberry has beautiful bright green leaves (I did think it was dead). Allium and Tulip leaves have also burst their way through the soil, as has my Chameleon plant ~ all watched over by my garden Green Man.
Each day that I take a walk into Nature, brings something new, it is very pleasing to see.
Animal Ally for April by Heather
Frogs are amphibians, breeding in ponds during the spring and spending much of the rest of the year feeding in woodland, gardens, hedgerows and grassland. Their diet is a variety of invertebrates and even smaller amphibians.
Male frogs have pads on their front feet to help them grip on to females during the breeding season. The male frog will wrap itself around the female and fertilise her eggs as they are produced; a female frog can lay up to 4,000 eggs in one spring. Frogs can spawn from December through to April, depending on the weather. After hatching, tadpoles take about 14 weeks to metamorphose into froglets.
Frogs come in a variety of colours, from green to brown and even red or yellow. They have smooth skin, a dark mask around their eyes and have long back legs, covered in dark bands. Rather than walking, frogs move by hopping and jumping.
Magical correspondences
Frogs signify adaptability and cleansing. They encourage you to make changes and rid yourself of old habits or negative influences. They are a representation of rebirth, a symbol of awakening and transformation.
Magic, rebirth, witchcraft, awakening, patience, transformation, intuition, dealing with emotions
Sources and further reading –
Pagan Portals Animal Magic by Rachel Patterson
https://www.bbcearth.com/factfiles/animals/amphibians-reptiles/frog
https://www.britannica.com/animal/frog
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/
https://www.wildlifeaid.org.uk/common-frog
A Kitchen Witch Day Out to Deer Park Farm by Heather
The current owners bought the farm in 2016, it had been neglected and hadn’t been farmed for some time. This proved to be very useful as the farm still boasts many magnificent ancient oak trees, hedgerows and an embankment where steam trains once ran. This gave the new owners the opportunity to return this farm to the ancient tradition of red deer parks in the area.
From the medieval period to the 18th century, the Manor of Harting was known for its private parks containing both red and fallow deer, the Lords of Harting owning three for most of this time. There is a book mentioned on the farm’s website - A History of Harting, published in 1876, in which is the comment that the Duke of Richmond and three succeeding Bishops of Chichester declared Harting deer to be ‘the best venison in the world’. The position of Sky Park Farm today is just across the road from one of the original Harting deer parks, where you can still see the remains banks and ditches created to enclose the deer.
Turning off the main road, you travel about a mile down a narrow road, over a medieval bridge, before turning into the entrance where before you is the magnificent site of a herd of red deer in the top paddock. Each paddock is huge, and now hosts more than red deer, as the owners realised that the farm could function not only as a working deer farm, but also as an educational facility for people to learn more about these elegant noble creatures.
You can purchase low calorie nibbles to feed the deer as you wander round the paddocks. There is one very clever doe who literally takes up position, looking majestically gorgeous, so she is the first thing you see as you emerge from the door of the entrance building, needless to say she does get plenty of treats!
We had an absolutely fabulous day, feeding the deer, all the staff are friendly and well informed about the deer, happily giving information to all questions. One volunteer lady was especially lovely, showing us the newer arrivals who are still quite shy of people. It was she who told us about the public footpaths that radiate out from the farm, through other fields, along riverbanks and lovely really wild hedges and thickets, just stunning!
The restaurant has an excellent menu, catering for all tastes, and the farm shop is well stocked with the majority of its produce made or grown within a 30 mile radius.
As you can probably tell from my description, we will be returning!
The farms website - https://www.skyparkfarm.com/
Flower of the Month by Heather
The name daisy comes from the old English saying ‘day’s eye,’ referencing the daily habits of the daisy, with its petals opening in the day and closing at night. Depending on the species, the daisy can be one of your earliest spring bloomers or among the last to appear in the fall. There is a saying that as soon as there are enough daisies in flower to fill a footstep, spring has officially arrived!
The daisy is actually made up of two flowers. The centre eye is a collection of tiny florets, while the ray floret (the petals) radiate out resembling the Sun. It is because of this union of two flowers that work in perfect harmony, that they have long been a symbol of true love.
Native to Europe and Africa and eventually naturalized in North America, daisies belong to the aster family (Asteraceae). This is one of the largest plant families, which also includes sunflowers.
Daisy Meanings and Symbolism
Each colour daisy represents something different. The white daisy symbolizes purity and innocence; yellow means joy and friendship; pink represents affection; and red symbolizes love and romance.
Placing daisy’s in a bouquet was a sign of being able to be trusted with keeping secrets, which follows on with the giving a daisy to a friend as a subtle way of saying ‘Your secret is safe, I’ll never tell!’
According to a Celtic legend, when an infant or child died, the gods would cover the child’s grave with daisies to cheer up the parents.
In Norse mythology, the daisy is the sacred flower of Freyja, the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. They have also been linked to the Virgin Mary because they represent love, innocence, and new beginnings. Possibly the links to these deities is the reason the daisy is considered a symbol of motherhood and childbirth. Daisies were often given as gifts to new mothers.
A Roman myth attributes the creation of the daisy to the nymph Belides, who turned herself into a daisy to escape the affection of Vertumnus, the god of gardens and seasons. The Latin word for Daisy, bellis, is derived from the nymph’s name.
Daisy has been used in many phrases, including “Fresh as a daisy” meaning someone has had a good night’s rest; “whoops-a-daisy” is said after a mistake or blunder.
Teas made from daisies are used to treat coughs, bronchitis, and inflammation; wild daisies have been applied to the skin to treat wounds or disease; and King Henry VIII apparently ate daisies to help stomach ulcers.
Daisy magical correspondences
Love, protection, honesty, trust, beauty, fertility, creation, joy, purity, romance, abundance, playfulness, divination, strength, determination, courage.
As children/teenagers who remembers pulling out daisy petals one by one and saying “she/he loves me, she/he loves me not”? That was probably our first unknown casting of a very simple form of a love spell. You can also use this as a form of divination to find out the answer to any other yes/no question.
Fill small sachets with dried daisies and hang it over beds to keep the occupants safe at night. You can fill small vases with daisies and place them to bring a protective, joyful and safe energy to your home. Keeping daisies on your desk can enhance your passion for a project you’re struggling with.
Sources –
A Kitchen Witch’s World of Magical Plants & Herbs by Rachel Patterson
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/
https://www.petalrepublic.com/
https://shirleytwofeathers.com/
Wandering Witches' Fayre
Rachel, Ness and Heather will be at this years very popular bi-annual Wandering Witches' Fayre which is held in Cowplain in Hampshire. There are lots of stall holders selling all sorts of magical wares, as well as a couple of readers if you need any guidance. We will be there with our own stall selling copies of Rachel's fabulous books and other magical goodies. If you are in the area, it is free entry, so pop along and say Hello, we would love to see you!
Pagan Portals Podcast
Did you know that Rachel's publisher Moon Books has its very own podcast?
The host for the podcast, which airs on the first and third Friday of each month, is none other than our very own Rachel, who interviews and chats with many varied Moon Books Pagan authors on their own written works, and what inspired them to write about their chosen subject.
The Pagan Portals Podcast can be found on Spotify or your other streaming platforms and Moon Books YouTube Channel
Rune of the month from Ness Armstrong
This month's rune is Mannaz. The rune of Mankind - of family, friendships and relationships of all kinds. To me it signifies strength and unity. Have a look at your relationships - are they where you would like them to be? Is there anything that can be worked on to promote a strong bond?
Relationships can change of course, people change, but look after those that are close to you.
