A Witchy vacation with some Baptists :-)

At the beginning of the month, I was lucky enough to get some time off work, load up my SUV with "Super Hubby" and the goofy mutt and go to South Carolina. My Dad  moved to S.C. back in April, after living his whole life in New England... he was having a bit of culture shock, so we went to visit.

Dad has a bunch of land out in the middle of "nowhere", and let me tell you that "nowhere" is beautiful. I hiked with the dog twice a day and never saw a soul. I saw black squirrels, heard mooing cows and even one night, when we were late getting back, a howling yi-yi sound of a coyote! I was not afraid! :-)

But there something that I was a little nervous about, everyone in town and I think, possibly in that section of South Carolina are Baptist. I don't know many personally, growing up in New England, everyone I knew was Roman Catholic. I did have a vague sense that they do not drink, and some do not dance or play cards...so a drinking, dancing, Texas hold 'em playing witch had just come to town....Interesting.

My Dad is Anglican, which is a tradition within Christianity, his wife was raised Baptist and they go to a Baptist Church.They are not hard to find in S.C., I counted 17 in town. So, everyone at church had heard that "Super Hubby" and I were coming for a visit and wanted to meet us. Yikes!

We were invited to the house of a church Deacon for lunch. "Super Hubby" could not contain his evil glee at the thought! I am very respectful when it comes to religion and while I do not offer my personal beliefs to strangers, if one should ask, I am always forthcoming about being Pagan. I just hoped no one would ask....

Oh, one little historical tidbit.....one of the last witch trails in the United States was in S.C., in 1813. Barbara Powers was tried on the charge of witchcraft, accused of turning a young girl into a horse and riding her. Interesting.......

We had a nice lunch, making small talk and such. The conversation turned to gardening and herbal tea and the Deacon's mother, who was in her 80's,  pulled me into the kitchen to show me her Grandmother's cookbook.

 Holy cow!!!! It had recipes for chicken and biscuits and every other food you can think of.... but guess what else? Folk remedies, and herbal medicine and gardening tips using moon phases.

When I asked about some of it, she got a little embarrassed and said her Grandmother came to the U.S. from Wales and was very superstitious. I told her so was I and I asked if I could write down some things from the book. She agreed and here is some of it....

There was a poem that young girls can recite while looking over their shoulder at a new moon:

New moon, new moon, let me see
Who my husband is to be;
The color of his hair, the clothes he wears,
and the day he is to wed me.

Sounds like a spell to me!!!!! LOL.

To cure a sore back, boil pine tree roots and pain ants ( I guess that means, the biting red ones) in a clean cloth and place it on the sore spot.

Got a sore throat? Put a live toad on your neck where the pain is.....Ewwwwwww!

There was a bunch more, so many of them witchy, like wear a ring with a green stone if you have eye problems....lots of things that she called poems but to me were definitely spells! :-)

Before my next trip up there, I will do some research about the folklore and witchcraft of that area....who knows what I will find. If anyone can suggest some books or websites about the folklore of the area, please let me know.

They Deacon never asked what religion I was, but I think his Mom knew.... :-)

Day 10....but is this the end?

I survived! In fact, I have to say I have not felt this good in 10 years! Not that it was easy. I did well until about a week in, then I had an intense cheese burger craving. But it went away after 15 or so minutes and all was well.

So, even though I have 1 juice to go, I thought I would throw up so numbers.......I lost 11 lbs,  4 inches off my chest, 4 inches off my waist, and 3 inches off my hips!!!!!! I am pretty happy with that!

"Super Hubby" lost 12 lbs, but he did not do any measurements. Tonight, he will go to a juice in the morning and two meals routine. But, I think I am going to continue with the 2x a day juice and raw only food for dinner, until I go camping at the beginning of November.

I  found I really like Watermelon, pear and green apple juice for breakfast, and my favorite lunch juice is kale, spinach, tomato, carrot, green pepper and onion! Yummy!!!!

So, I will update this before I go for my un-plugged weekend and let you know how it goes.

I'm feeling a little bit RAW!

As most of you know "Super Hubby" is a go with the flow sort of guy, who pretty much lets me do whatever I want and is always there to help me out, when something goes wrong! LOL.

I have been on a bunch of medication for Sarcoidosis (8) and have been feeling sort of run down the last few weeks. I was on the couch watching Netflix, when I came across a documentary called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead". WOW!

So, I mentioned it to S.H., he watched the film and said "Why not, let's try it". I did a bunch of research, picked out a juicer and found some yummy recipes to try out.

I found a website connected to the movie called Reboot your Life and it had several plans from 3 Day Juice only fasts to 15 Juice and raw food fasts. S.H. and I decided on a 10 day Juice and raw food fast. That means breakfast and lunch are made at home in our juicer and dinner is raw food only, like salads, vegetables and fruit. I know there is raw milk and other items, not cooked that we could eat but, we are going strictly veggie and fruit......FOR 10 Days!!!!! Not sure what I have gotten myself into, but check back and I will let you all know how it goes!

Here is a picture of my juicer, ready to go and the crazy amount of fruit and veggies to go with it!

Lughnasadh Bread Recipe

Here is the recipe, I use to make bread to celebrate Lughnasadh. It's an olive oil and rosemary bread. It smells so good when it's baking and tastes even better! I will be making this on Tuesday night for my harvest celebration, so I will post pictures on Wednesday. Enjoy!



Ingredients:

• 2  cups white flour
• 1/2  cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup warm water
• 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1  teaspoon white sugar
• 1  teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons of  fresh chopped rosemary or 1 tablespoon of dried rosemary
• 1 package active dry yeast
• Pinch of extra sugar
• A little olive oil to coat the bowl and loaf pan

Add 1/2 cup of warm water, package of yeast and a pinch of sugar into a measuring cup. Stir, lightly cover and set aside. Mix both flours, salt, sugar and chopped rosemary into a bowl. Check on the yeast, if it's bubbling, add it and the other half cup of warm water water into the bowl. Add the olive oil. Mix with a fork until all dry ingredients are moist. Knead for 5 minutes.

Oil a large bowl, form dough into a ball and place in bowl. Cover bowl with dish towel and let sit in a warm area for 2 hours. Oil your loaf pan, place punched down dough, inside loaf pan. Let it rise again. Heat oven to 400 degrees. At the 10 minute mark I like to sprinkle some more rosemary on top. Bake for 20 more minutes.

Celebrate the First Harvest!

I love to read. Book, newspapers, and blogs. One of my favorite blogs is The Bishop in the Grove by Teo Bishop, over at Patheos.

The blog there today was about metaphorically experiencing Lughnasad, the first harvest. How we have planted "seeds" and seen them grow or fail in the past year. Ideas and plans that have come to fruition or been dropped by the wayside for one reason or another.

But there was a mention of knowing about where our real food comes from and how we should make this a part of our harvest rituals and celebrations. Teo asks "Do you know where your food comes from?"

I can answer yes, for most of it.

Living in Florida, I can have a garden year round, so I always have fresh veggies and herbs. The stuff I can't grow, like the fruits, I get from a local farm, where I also get my eggs. That is until I wear down the Home Owner's Association, and get my own chickens.

I get my meat from the local grocery store. Oh and some from hunting friends...yes, I eat deer. Yes, they are cute. No, I don't feel bad. Nobody is perfect ;-) and venison chili is out of this world!

Today, I am making soup with my garden veggies. It also has chicken in it but it is just as good without it.

Wednesday night, I will celebrate Lughnasad, with a loaf of awesome rosemary and olive oil bread and a ritual in my garden. I will post the recipe and some pictures on Thursday or Friday.

Now that my indoor aquaponics system is finished, I will have more lettuce and herbs growing.

What started out as a tribute to my late Grand Father, has turned into a hobby or maybe even an obsession but it has also made me a better Pagan. Working in the garden, eating from the first harvest, makes me want to celebrate.