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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in Lughnasadh

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Time for a Corn Harvest Festival

Lughnasadh is all about the corn, and I am not referring to the effectively creepy Stephen King short story. You simply cannot celebrate without featuring this sweet juicy veggie in some way, shape, or form. Instead of reserving it as an afterthought or side dish, place it front and center and celebrate it! There are many local and small-town corn festivals that you can attend. That way everything is ready-made and ready-to-go. One of the oldest in Wisconsin makes its home in Sun Prairie. According to their Chamber of Commerce website, its humble origins date all the way back to 1953. I do have fond memories of munching the delectable cobs as a youngster there. You could douse them to your heart's content from salt shakers hanging from the tops of tents. The Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival has now extended to four days and serves some 100,000 corn enthusiasts. There is a craft fair, parade, tractor pull, music, contests, and all the corn your can eat. Make a road trip of it with your favorite corny companions, and spend the day in farm country. Even if you don't plan to attend them all, it's fun to peruse the different websites. You can view pictures of people dressed as scarecrows and enjoying the harvest activities offered in each locale. 

The Corn/Grain Moon will be making an appearance on Sunday the 10th, and this is indeed an ancient food honored by Aztec and American Indians. To get you in the mood, I have a healthy recipe to sample, since it is a Lammas classic combo of bread and corn:

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Posted by on in Studies Blogs
Donning a Prideful Cloak

“Pride cometh before the fall” is a message I recall hearing many times as a child. The warning that, though there was the expectation that I would always do my best, it was not appropriate to express the positive glow of success and accomplishment. If one did not self-monitor humility, one faced the very real possibility of being “brought back down to size”. Messages that urge us to be humble, to keep quiet, to deflect compliments away are fairly strong. Having internalized these messages, there can definitely be a waft of distaste when we encounter boasting. We feel the wave of Ego come towards us and instinctively step back.

 

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Pagan savings challenge, week thirty:  bounty

This is the time of year when Pagans celebrate harvest, at least in the northern hemisphere, because it's the middle of summer and life seems to be bursting from every pore of the world.

Luckily for me, the savings momentum is only getting started.  Most of the money I plan on saving is still in the future.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Seeds Sown, Seeds Grown

The sunflowers bloomed this week. Overnight dozens of bright petals opened up to line the road along my drive to work. They are small now, but by the time Autumn arrives some of them will tower 6 feet high or more, and their button-sized faces will be the size of dinner plates. There are more of them every day, dark eyes lashed in bright yellow, nodding on their sticky tough stems. They always bloom in July, opening up when the Sun is still fierce but lower in the sky, and the monsoon rains have come. The apples on my trees are swelling and the tall grass along the back fence has turned from green to bright gold. The Wheel is turning.

Summer goes on, luxuriously. It's still hot, the days are still long. But there is a subtle shift, as we approach August, and the harvest of first fruits, known as Lughnasa or Lammas. We see it in the plants and trees, heavy with fruit and leaves, in the creeks choked with cattails and reeds. We see it in the gardens of our neighbors, and it's on display in every farmer's market. The Earth is abundant and full, and all of its abundance spills out, in the life going riotously around us, in the light and pleasures of the season.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Home is Where the Harvest is

As you know, I have been travelling. I was in Britain for three weeks, returned home for five days and then set off for New York for almost a week.

All of this at harvest time. Sadness. The grapes were neglected and went to feed the possums and raccoons. There was a huge elderberry harvest but I did very little of it. Because we have two apple trees that bear fruit at different times, the apple harvest has been prolonged.  We filled our little freezer with apples destined for the cider fermenter and there are more in the refrigerator in the vegetable drawers.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

It is Lughnasad (“Loo-nah-sah”) as I write this, the old Celtic festival of the first fruits of the harvest that takes place during the first two weeks of August. In Christian times the feast was renamed “Lammas” or “Loaf-Mass” when everyone brought the first loaf of bread made from the year’s new grain to church to be placed on the altar and blessed.

I am an herbalist and a Druid and I live in an oak forest in New England. There is very little light here for growing things so I mostly rely on wild-crafted roots, barks, leaves, flowers and berries. Every season brings its own moment of opportunity and late summer is an especially rich time to harvest from nature.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • leila
    leila says #
    Yep, took that into consideration. They are only being moved a few miles from their original home and being planted in similar con
  • leila
    leila says #
    Does anyone out there have recipes for devils claw pickles or relish?
  • leila
    leila says #
    If there are enough plants to not do damage , I dig up a few of the smallest ones and transplant them into my yard. Just brought h
  • Ellen Evert Hopman
    Ellen Evert Hopman says #
    I do the same. However, you need to make sure that your yard has the same light, soil, habitat as the area from which you dug up t
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    I have some books on gathering plants from the wild, for food and medicine. The books were great to read, but I can't even beat t

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs
The Harvest of the Mother

The blade is sharp
Scythe swings in
Flashing arc as
Sheaf of wheat
And apples fall
The Harvest now begun.

Gather the grain
Leave what you must
Fill carefully woven baskets
With the overflowing bounty.

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