February 2025 Newsletter
Welcome to our February 2025 Kitchen Witch newsletter.
February?! As I type this, it is mid January. It has been very cold but we have avoided the snow that a lot of the country seemed to have about a week ago. We have been taking stock here at Kitchen Witch, a few ideas have been brewing and we have a "mild meld" this coming weekend when we are getting together for our Wheel of the Year workshop at Raw Eden Apothecary. We usually bat things back and forth to each other via messenger but when we get together in person, that's when the ideas really flow!
It is all very exciting and we have lots to look forward to for 2025!
Ness x
What's Going on in Nature this Month from Ness
Ooh, it has been cold! Brrrrr!!! Where I live, we were fortunate not to have any snow - beautiful to look at on a picture postcard, but not so nice for anyone that has to travel in it. Nevertheless, temperatures have been below freezing some of the days last month and it killed off all those poor flowers that thought it was still summer. The frost has made a lot of the grasses and wild plants wither and the decay that we should have had at least a month ago is now prominent.
Signs of the earth waking have shown themselves this month. Daffodil shoots are coming up in my wall troughs; I think the ground is still a little too cold for those at the moment. It's too early for cleavers or snowdrops, but by the time you read this, they may well be emerging. Some of the trees have leaf buds on them, but they will remain tightly closed until the temperatures rise just a little, I'm sure.
Self Love Spell by Heather
February the month of Brigid, St Valentine, Lupercalia (a feast celebrated in honour of Lupercus, the Roman version of the Greek god Pan), to mention a few. Plus, from the medieval period in Europe February 14th is believed to be when birds start their courtship and nest building!
As love is in the air (hands up who is humming John Paul Young’s song?) it seems sensible to make use of this energy in our spell work. We are going to be doing this spell for us, by loving ourselves we become receptive to attracting love and care from others of their own free will!
You will need –
Candle, lighter/matches, candle holder
Needle, thorn or cocktail stick to inscribe onto your candle
Small piece of paper and pen
Piece of rose or clear quartz, your favourite stone, or an item of jewellery you wear often
Almond oil or other oil of your choice, this can be infused with herbs or have essential oils added if you have them.
Some suggestions would be –
Basil, bergamot, caraway, cardamom, chamomile, cinnamon, frankincense, geranium, jasmine, lavender, meadowsweet, mistletoe, neroli, orchid, passionflower, rose, rosemary, sandalwood, sweet orange, thyme, violet.
Collect all your items, cleanse them with smoke, sound or your breath.
Taking a few deep breathes visualise yourself feeling loved and loving, giving yourself a hug.
Take your candle and needle etc and draw a heart, or write I love myself, on the candle. If you are anointing with oil, take a small amount onto your fingers and rub on the candle top to middle and bottom to middle. Place the candle in front of you.
On the paper write ‘I welcome love, I am loved’, place this by your candle.
Hold your crystal or jewellery in your hands and repeat ‘I welcome love, I am loved’ directing the energy of your words into the item, then place this on top of the paper.
Light your candle and again repeat ‘I welcome love, I am loved’ as many times as you want to.
You can let the candle burn down, place the paper on your altar or stick it on a mirror you look in everyday, the crystal or jewellery you keep on you to remind yourself of the energy of your spell to keep building on it.
This spell can be repeated as often as you like, daily, weekly or whenever you want to boost your self-love.
Plant correspondences from –
A Kitchen Witch’s World of Magical Plants & Herbs by Rachel Patterson
Links to people mentioned here or on the recording -
Love is in the Air - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWzWL-S05fg
https://www.facebook.com/ArtworkOfSuziGoose
https://riverwitchapothecary.co.uk/
You can watch a chat about this spell by clicking on the link below –
Recipes for February by Heather
For any gardeners out there, you will know that if you still have any root vegetables left in the soil, it’s probably a good idea to get them out of there! January to March are months when we can get heavy frosts and inclement weather, so lift anything that might still be in the soil such as parsnips, carrots and celeriac.
This also benefits everyone who does not vegetable garden, as this time of year there is usually a plentiful supply of inexpensive seasonal root veggies to enjoy. However, it is nice to experiment and not just have them cooked the usual way. I came up with this variation of a vegetable burger, let me know what you think –
Carrot & Parsnip Burgers
200g/7 oz grated carrot
200g/7 oz grated parsnip
75g/2 ½ oz flour and a little more for coating
Salt
50 ml/1 ½ oz oil and a little more for frying
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
50g/1 ½ oz milled flax seeds to coat the burgers
Peel and grate the carrots and parsnips, using coarse side of grater. Put it in a large mixing bowl and add the salt. Massage for few minutes until you feel the grated veggies soften.
In a frying pan on a medium heat, toast the coriander seeds for 2 minutes.
Add the oil, finely chopped garlic and chilli flakes, let infuse for 2 more minutes. Add the spiced seeds to the carrots and parsnips, mix well. Add the flour and mix again.
Shape mixture into generous size burgers. Mix the milled flax with 2 tablespoons of flour on a plate. Coat the burgers on each side with the flax and flour mix.
In a large frying pan a medium heat with a little oil, fry the burgers for 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
Once fried cook in the oven at 180℃/350F/Gas mark 4 for 10 min.
Magical properties -
Clarity, fertility, passion, insight, vision, health, healing, peace, love, release, abundance, protection.
The Kitchen Witch website has had a bit of a facelift, with thanks to the hugely talented Tom Brown for his artwork and the 'behind the scenes' work from our fabulous Rachel. Rachel had asked Tom for an image that included three kitchen witches and we were so impressed with what he came up with, we just had to give them names. So we present to you Belladonna, Hemlock and Myrtle. Any resemblance to Ness, Heather and Rachel is purely coincidental...or maybe it isnt!
**The Witches Hearth**
We are very excited to bring to you our Hearth Witches membership platform which launched on our website yesterday. For a monthly subscription of £2, you will have access to all sort of new material from us here at KWHQ including tips and ideas for daily practice, sneak peeks of Rachel's books as she writes them, chats and community, own very own work on our Herbarium and our Seiðr section too. For students to the Kitchen Witch school, this is included as part of their monthly subscription.
To sign up, hop over to our website (link at bottom of newsletter) and click on Witches Hearth.
Spring Equinox Hoard Box
Our online rituals for this year are going to be little different in that not only will we be hosting a ritual, but we will also be including a FREE workshop on the subject of the ritual. We have also put together a special hoard box containing all the items that you will need for the ritual as well as soon extra goodies.
The boxes can be purchased from the address in the picture above and full details of our ritual can be found on our Facebook Coven Group under Events.
Rune of the month from Ness Armstrong
This months rune is Berkana - symbolising the Birch tree. It is fertility and new beginnings. We have had the downward turn of nature and from the winter solstice, the days are slowly getting longer and the earth will wake from her slumber and start her work. February is a month for starting to put your plans and goals for this year in place. Take a notepad and your favourite pen, sit down with a warm drink and start to write what you wish to achieve this year. Start with small ideas that you know that you can do and work your way up from there.
Berkana is also a rune of healing - make sure that you look after yourself this year, take time out when you need to and make self-care a priority!
