September Newsletter 2024
Welcome to our September 2024 Kitchen Witch newsletter.
The Kitchen Witches had a very busy August but an amazing one! - full of ideas, plotting, planning and getting up to all sorts of shenanigans (we do like that word here at KWHQ) I've written a piece on what we got up to below, so pull up a chair, pop the kettle on, cut a slice of cake and enjoy this month's newsletter.
Ness x
What's Going on in Nature this Month from Ness Armstrong
September is here and the lazy hazy days of summer - ahem! not really had a summer as such, but we have enjoyed some dry warm days over the past few weeks, which has been lovely. The air is a little fresher in the mornings and there is that little feeling of a shift in energies. Flowers are still blooming but this month is the month of abundance, of berries, of harvesting and the slow decline of Mother Natures work. Spotted in the hedgerows this month - elderberry, sloes, blackberries, hawberries, rosehips. Nettles have seeded and grasses and plants are starting to wither and dry. The fields have been harvested and husks and hay are scattered across the footpaths. Burdock is blooming its pretty purple flowers and thistles are scattering their seeds in the late summer breezes. I've spotted chicory (that's twice in one month, having never seen any before that I've noticed), yarrow and mallow are still in abundance as well as plantain and a viburnum or two. The cooler days of autumn are approaching...
Flower of the Month by Heather
Members of the Ipomoea genus, morning glory plants are known as fast-growing vines with a unique daily schedule: the flowers open in the morning and close up by the afternoon. Cultivated varieties have flower’s which can blue, purple, pink, red and white. The flowers are trumpet-shaped, with five large petals arranged flat around the flower head, making them attractive to butterflies, bees and other pollinators.
Within this family of flowers is the common bind weed, also known as hedge bindweed, Rutland beauty, bugle vine, heavenly trumpets, bellbind, granny-pop-out-of-bed, whose white flowers we used to pick as children to sing ‘Grandmother, Grandmother pop out of bed’ whilst squeezing the base to make the flower jump out of its stem.
Ness has Written a blog about bindweed which you can read here - Bindweed by Vanessa Armstrong (kitchenwitchhearth.net)
These flowers are associated with love and can be seen as a sign of undying love when presented to your loved one.
Each colour will also have significant meaning: blue represents enduring love, desire, and power; purple symbolizes grace, wealth, and hopefulness; pink is a sign of gratitude and energy; red means passion and strength; white, like many other flowers, symbolizes purity and innocence.
Use the fresh flowers in vases in the home for spells for harmony, love, endurance.
Dried the flowers can be added to spells, incense, poppets etc. for – love, joy, endurance, desire, wealth, hope, gratitude, abundance, strength, honesty, truth, purification, binding, divination, astral travel.
Sources –
https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-morning-glory-ipomoea/
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/56562/i-ipomoea-purpurea-i/details
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/voodoouniverse/2022/03/herbal-magick-morning-glory/
https://dragonsandfairydust.co.uk/
Fruit for September - Plums by Heather
Ripe luscious juicy plums, as a child picked straight from the tree and savoured whilst still warm from the sun, the juices trickling down my chin. Even today eating a plum brings back blissful memories of slow lazy warm late summer afternoons, sitting under trees in local orchards.
Plums, Latin name Prunus domestica, are a member of the Rosaceae (rose) family, along with cherries, peaches, nectarines, and apricots. They are what is known as a stone fruit, which grows on in clusters, to be harvested for a short period in late summer into early autumn.
These round, small fruits are usually reddish-purple in colour and have smooth skin when ripe. Their flesh can be orange, red, purple, yellow, or white, and can vary in taste, some are sweet, others are tart.
There are so many ways to enjoy this juicy fruit from baking - pies, cakes, muffins, to jam-making. They also can be made into sauces served with pork and chicken. Easiest is to enjoy eating the fruit raw like an apple, or add plum slices to cereals, yogurts, and salad.
Use in spells and recipes for - love, protection, health, adoration, respect, admiration, spirituality, relaxation, passion, longevity, wisdom, rebirth.
Recipe
By Nigel Slater, from Nigel Slater's Simple Cooking
Ingredients
250g/8oz plain flour
1 lightly heaped tsp baking powder
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 lightly heaped tsp ground cinnamon
1 lightly heaped tsp ground ginger
200g/7oz golden syrup
2 heaped tbsp thick honey
125g/4oz butter
125g/4oz light muscovado sugar
350g/12oz plums
2 large free-range eggs
240ml/8fl oz milk
For the spicy plum jam topping
5 plums
1tbsp light muscovado sugar
1tbsp butter
1 tbsp syrup from a jar of stem ginger
double cream, to serve
Method
Set the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Use baking parchment to line a 24cm/9½in square cake tin or baking dish.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger into a bowl.
Warm the golden syrup, honey, butter and muscovado sugar very gently in a pan until the butter and sugar melt. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.
Halve the plums or cut them into quarters if they are very large, and remove the stones.
Break the eggs into a bowl, pour in the milk and whisk lightly to mix.
Pour the golden syrup mixture into the flour and mix with a large, metal spoon. Pour in the egg and milk and continue stirring till you have a loose, almost sloppy batter without any traces of flour.
Tip the mixture into the lined cake tin, drop in the plums and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Now for the topping, halve and de-stone the plums and add to the same pan as you cooked the syrup and honey. Add the sugar, butter and the syrup from a jar of crystallised ginger. Cover and leave to cook down.
Serve the cake with a generous topping of the spicy plums and a dollop of cream.
Sources –
https://www.rachelpatterson.co.uk/single-post/2017/10/06/In-a-witchs-kitchen-The-magic-of-Plums
https://www.almanac.com/plant/plums
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/plum_pudding_cake_75784
Adventures of the Kitchen Witches by Ness
August was a bit of a blast for us here at Kitchen Witch. To be honest, the past few months have been a bit of a whirlwind. We had a bit of a reset and it was like someone took their foot off the brake and things started happening. Not that we ever slack off but there was a new momentum and we had lots of festivals and talks to go to, which was just fabulous! We have been hosting some workshops with the very lovely Lucy at Raw Eden Apothecary which is in Wickham in Hampshire. If you're ever in the area, do pop in. There are all manner of herbs, teas, witchy items and more besides. We have another workshop in November, then we will be planning some for 2025 in what will be their new premises. Very exciting!
As well as our new Triad Readings service, which has been amazing, we also were asked to host a workshop and a talk at the newly formed festival camp run by Rik Kiddle called the Wight Raven Summer Camp. Lovely man, so we immediately said "Yes!". Set on the Hampshire/Dorset border in a quiet field away from the hustle and bustle, we arrived on the Saturday morning to sunshine and the sound of quiet drumming in the distance. The place had a lovely energy and everyone was chatty and very welcoming. Rachel met a fellow Moon Books author (Scott Irvine) who was doing a talk on his latest book. We also listened to a fascinating talk on Mary Magdalene by Claire Pingel and all 3 of us are eagerly awaiting the publication of her book on Mary.
Rachel did her talk on Dragon Magic which is a powerful subject, then the 3 of us hosted a Poppet Making workshop using plaited twine and knots - simple but highly effective! We could only stay the day but we are booked in next year for not one, but two camps that Rik is running. All in all, a very good day and one we raved about for ages afterwards.
On the Monday, two days after the Saturday, we hosted a workshop at the aforementioned Raw Eden Apothecary on The Triple Goddess. A fully booked workshop with lots of interaction from those attending. Heather lives about an hour and a half from Rachel and myself - Rachel is about 15 minutes from where I live - so it made perfect sense for the 3 of us on the Tuesday to have a day plotting, planning and coming up with ideas for things, which we seem to be able to do with great regularity and enthusiasm. We also like spending time in each others company as good friends and we don't always talk 'witchy stuff'. It's just nice to be together. So a day at Southsea beach was had, wandering along the shoreline, picking up hagstones and unusual pebbles and shells. Then we wandered to the Castle for lunch, which sounds very posh! A wander in the Rose Garden and The Rock Gardens had us taking photos of plants and trees for our next project which we are working on over the next year. Can't say what it is, but watch this space...
The following Saturday, we all headed off to the Artemis Gathering hosted by Witchfest in Basingstoke where Rachel was booked to do a talk on Kitchen Magic with the now infamous Pot Noodle. Another lovely sunny day, with lots of wonderful speakers, stalls, drumming by the Pentacle Drummers (my favourite), food and drink. By the time, we had finished for the day, tiredness was beginning to catch up with us, but in a happy and contented way.
We have other things in the pipeline and 2025 is looking to be another full and eventful year for Kitchen Witch and we can't wait!
Rune of the month from Ness Armstrong
The rune for this month is Perthro. The card depicts a snake which signifies transformation, healing, fate and temptation. For me Perthro is a rune of fates, some things which we have no control over. Its also a rune of healing, of going within. Perthro on its side is a cauldron or a cave - a time for rest, thought processing and rejuvenation. A time of resetting, gathering those thoughts together, casting off what no longer serves and emerging with a renewed energy.
September Meditation by Ness
With blessings of the month from
Rachel Patterson, Ness Armstrong, Heather Dewhurst
