ostara blessings

Just wanted to post a quick note on Ostara or the spring equinox, which took place on Friday. We spent it with friends around a bonfire after an egg hunt amongst the wood anemones. Am just reading The Idle Parent (which is hilarious, subversive and quite brilliant) so it was timely to watch all these home educated children running free, climbing trees and enjoying self-directed play with other kids of all ages. And hasn't the weather been gorgeous and uplifting? I have had the chance to get really stuck into my garden and that has been blissful. Also brewed up my first batch of nettle tonic of the season and it's taste is spring encapsulated. Anyway, back to Ostara... Cultural connections Ostara is a time of balance, as the equinox is the point at which the day and the night are of equal length. After this night the days become longer than the nights which is a special cause for celebration in some cultures (such as Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey), and actually marks the beginning of their New Year. For the Anglo-Saxons, the equinox also heralded the beginning of the New Year. The celebration honoured their Goddess of Spring, Eostre, and this is believed to be the forerunner of the Christian celebration of Easter. The themes of these celebrations throughout the world are very similar, all of which focus upon new beginnings, fertility, and new life. Embrace fertility Ostara is a wonderful celebration, the second of the fertility festivals (Imbolc being the first). Falling at such a beautiful time of year, there is much to celebrate! The days gradually lengthen and the beauty of spring is all around. The air is fresh and sweet smelling, and there is a sense of ‘lightness’. Our heavy winter clothes are shrugged off, and most are feeling a renewed sense of hope and happiness as the sun prepares to smile down upon us for a little longer every day. Personal celebration It's a good time to reflect upon the balance of your life. Springtime heralds change and transformation, and the opportunity to hold a mirror to yourself and ask, ‘what do I see?’ This is not a physical question, rather one of honesty. It is a time of clarity and new beginnings, a fresh outlook. All that we resist will reappear continually until we confront and accept what we fear to change. We can manifest new intentions just as easily as flowers spring up from the earth. Ostara blows in on a fresh easterly wind, (usually accompanied by cleansing showers as we have seen today!), as its element is that of Air. Accept change Allow the winds of change to move you. This may be gently, blowing away the cobwebs of winter, freshening the space between your relationships, and cleansing your communication with others. If you have stagnated, hibernated or stayed stubbornly in one place allow the sweet easterly breeze to flow around you and through you. Savour and delight in the fresh fragrant smells it brings: spring blossoms, warming earth, awakening fresh greens. Permit yourself the youthful perception and clarity of spring; it’s flexibility and strength. Once you embrace this, you yourself will bend gracefully under the fiercest of winds like a strong, young sapling. Living life lightly and affecting positive change is all about acceptance – of others, yourself and your situation. Spring is a special time to invite new challenges, or face old problems, with a renewed sense of purpose. This evocative pentagram image is created by Jennastasia

day two: buy nothing month

Well, it's a gorgeous autumnal afternoon on day two of our Buy Nothing Month and I'm sitting here with a cup of tea and an almond and chocolate muffin, feeling pretty good. So how is it going? And what temptations have we encountered so far?

It's going well, although this might have something to with the fact that we live in the back of beyond and retail temptations don't really exist out here - unless you count the fab village shop and of course, the ever present lure of internet shopping. We are all looking forward to the challenge and even the kids have volunteered to forfeit their pocket money for the month, in order to be more involved in the experiment. I have cancelled our weekly newspaper fix and the film club that we belong to.

I am being extra cautious and sparing in the kitchen with store cupboard ingredients like coconut oil, agave syrup and dairy items such as butter and yoghurt as these will run out quite quickly and we will not replace them during November. I guess there will come a time towards the end of the month when we eat lots of soups and flat breads!

Yesterday, I made big batch of pastry using flour, coconut butter and cold water and turned it into a gigantic pumpkin pie (to make use of all that pumpkin flesh left over from Halloween) and a batch of mini tartlets filled with leek and cheese or tomatoes and herbs, which should last a day or so. On presenting the massive pumpkin pie at dinner last night, amid cinnamony wafts and proud smiles, I discovered that I am the only one of us who likes this traditional treat. Anyone who visits in the next day or so will not get away without being sat down for a cup of tea and a large slab of pie.

Today for lunch I unearthed a packet of couscous from the back of the cupboard and made a salad with tomatoes, herbs and chilli from the garden. Dinner will probably be pasta with similar seasonal veg. I must confess that my cupboard is probably fuller than the average store stump as we do an Infinity Foods bulk order once every few months, so I have a stock of items like tinned tomatoes and large bags of flax seeds, almonds etc.

We usually sell our eggs to neighbours and passers by but this month I will be using them or maybe bartering them at the dairy farm round the corner. I am really interested in nutrition and will keep a close eye on the kids to check that they are getting everything they need this month in order to thrive. I used to feel that my girls were very picky eaters but since I have relaxed my attitude to this, they in turn have relaxed and are mostly happy to try things before rejecting them. My eldest is happiest with raw fruit and veg and her sister prefers pies and potatoes and more carby food. It is an interesting balance but I now love being in the kitchen, when a year or so ago food had become a bit of a sore point. 

Over the last two days we have discovered that we 'need' a few things for the house - a lightbulb, new washer on the tap, over mitt etc. and although these items have been on the To Buy list for a while, now that we can't just go out and buy them, they are causing more frustration. Perhaps I might get around to making my own oven glove this month. Watch this space...

what's in season?

Buying local, seasonal food is really important to me. Growing my own or foraging for wild edibles is even better. At this time of the year, the hedgerow is bursting with bountiful treats. Here's a selection of things we have enjoyed recently and which are coming up in the next few weeks:

Elderberries: These rich purple-black berries offer a range of benefits during the colder months. They can be used to make a fruity wine, a soothing tonic or a delicious herbal tea - simply dry some berries and steep a handful in near boiling water for ten minutes. Strain and enjoy. 

Hazelnuts: These tasty nuts are just forming on the trees in Sussex and will be ready in a few weeks time. The squirrels love them and often strip the branches before I get there. Hopefully I'll manage to secure a few this year as they are so nutritious and rich in good fatty acids. Health benefits are lost in cooking. Traditionally 31st October was known as Nut-crack Night in Ancient Britain, with revellery, feasting and fortune telling. Young lovers would burn hazelnuts on the fire and they way they burnt foretold the nature of their relationship; sparky or calm. 

Crab Apples: There are still some of these tart little beauties to be found - I have to beat my neighbours to the one wild tree bearing fruit in our area though. If I get some I combine them with blackberries to make pies or crumble, although Hugh, of Fearnley Whittingstall fame, makes them into a rather tasty sounding jelly.

Chestnuts: I have seen a few chestnuts in the last few days - they are not fat and juicy yet but give them a couple of weeks or so and they should be perfect. Gather in their prickly shells and take home to roast by the fire.

Damsons and Bullaces: The crop seems quite small this year, but trees should still bear fruit up to November. A bowl full of damsons, wild relative of the plum, made a truly sublime crumble, when added to a larger haul of blackberries last week.

Hawes: The bright red berries of the Hawthorn tree which can be eaten raw (they have quite a mealy taste) or cooked in a hedgerow jam with other berries.

Hips: I love rose hips - they are so colourful and jolly. I make them into a rosehip syrup which is said to be good for coughs and colds, although I would think that the sugar content negates the Vitamin C in the berries.

Fungi: All sorts of varieties are prolific at this time of the year but I'm afraid I don't really trust myself fungi foraging. I have only ever found and eaten Parasol mushrooms, which were lovely and I keep promising myself a day out with an expert. Maybe this year is the year!

Happy hunting!

seasonal celebrations

Next Tuesday we celebrate Mabon, the Autumn Equinox - a time of balance and the transition from the light half to the dark half of the year. We will begin our journey to winter, as the nights draw in, the leaves change colour and animals prepare for hibernation or migration. This is the final harvest, a chance to gather apples, grapes, blackberries and hops and in that sense it is a celebration focused on feasting and community as well as preserving and preparing for the winter months ahead. As the wheel of the year turns we are reminded of the need for fallow periods, for times of rest and regeneration. We need this space in order to fully learn from and embrace life's lessons. Here are some of the ways in which you can mark this occasion:

• Take some time out alone to meditate on the year so far - where you have come from and the journey that you have travelled over the spring and summer months. Celebrate your achievements.

• Gather your family together for a seasonal Mabon meal - using home or locally grown produce to create simple, nourishing fare.

• Go foraging for wild food such as blackberries and mushrooms. Take an expert or a field guide with you when fungi foraging. 

• Create a seasonal tableaux for a windowsill or tabletop, focusing on the delights of this time of year - use branches with colourful leaves, berries, teasels, nuts etc set in a vase against a backdrop of rich coloured material. Populate the area with gnomes or fairy folk for a magical scene!

• Mabon is also about death and loss as the earth turns fallow and the leaves drop from the trees. Take time to talk about those you have lost and what they meant to you. Celebrate their lives.

Equinox blessings to all.