Our new moon gathering
Thank you for all who came to Aprils new moon gathering, links and recipes below as promised.
Thank you to all who came to Aprils new moon online gathering. It was very lovely to see some new faces and some familiar faces.
For those of you who weren’t there, we had the evening cantered around Hawthorn and journaled with that theme too. For those who came, please email me your address so I can send you a little bottle of hawthorn tincture in the post. My email is brigitannamcneill@gmail.com
Below are the poems I read along with some hawthorn recipes I said I would send and as requested, links to herbal suppliers.
The link to the recording will follow for all paid subscribers tomorrow.
Cure Yourself
Cure yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon.
With the sound of the river and the waterfall.
With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds.Heal yourself with mint, with neem and eucalyptus.
Sweeten yourself with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile.
Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a touch of cinnamon.
Put love in tea instead of sugar, and take it looking at the stars.
Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain.
Get strong with bare feet on the ground and with everything that is born from it.
Get smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with the eye of your forehead.
Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier.
Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember: you are the medicine.
- Maria Sabina
(Maria Sabina did not take credit for her poetry, saying it was the mushrooms speaking through her)
Perhaps
Down in the soil beneath your ribs,
A single acorn sleeps.
Warm and smooth as coffee with cream.
Perhaps it will never be an oak drinking in 100 feet of sky.
It doesnt matter.
What matters is that it might.
You might.
And that potential sings in your bones like rain on stone
- Jarrod K.Anderson
Recipes for Hawthorn
Hawthorn berry cordial
A lovely cordial to open the heart, ease the stomach, and connect with friends and family during the harvest season. Share this medicine with those you love.
Ingredients
1 cup organic dried or fresh hawthorn berries
1 chopped organic apple.
1 teaspoon fresh grated organic ginger root
3 cardamom pods, crushed
1 teaspoon of organic orange peel
1/2 cup organic dried or fresh rose hips
1 organic cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons dried organic hibiscus
1/3 cup organic 100% unsweetened blueberry or cherry juice (if wanting to limit sugar, add a tea made from a berry teabag.
1/4 cup raw honey
2 cups brandy
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a 1litre jar.
Let ingredients macerate for 4 weeks while shaking the jar daily.
Strain and compost spent material.
Enjoy as it is or add 1-2 tablespoons to a glass of fizzy water.
Hawthorn overnight infusion
Let Hawthorn’s heart-healthy benefits infuse into you.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon organic hawthorn leaf
1 tablespoon organic hawthorn flower
1 tablespoon organic hawthorn berry
1 pint-sized, glass jar
1 pint water
(You can use dried or fresh or a combination)
Directions
Add hawthorn leaf, flower, and berry to jar.
Pour just-boiled water over the herb, filling the jar within 1 inch of the top, and screw on the lid.
Let infusion sit overnight or for at least 10 hours.
Strain in the morning to separate hawthorn from infused water.
Enjoy throughout the day at room temperature or warm to taste.
Tea for a saddened heart
Rose and hawthorn are a perfect combination for grief heartbreak and a lack of self love, this cup of rose and hawthorn tea is a heart-healthy way to reconnect us to our inner stillness and keep us centred in our core.
1 generous tablespoon dried or fresh hawthorn berries
1 – 2 generous teaspoons dried or fresh rose petals
1/4 cinnamon stick (or to taste), crushed
Directions Measure 1.5 – 2 cups water into a pot
Place hawthorn berries into pot and cover
Bring water to a simmer
Simmer for 15 minutes, covered
Prepare roses and cinnamon and place into teapot
Pour hot water and berries over roses and cinnamon, cover and Steep for 10 minutes, then strain
Year long tincture
My grandmother taught me this recipe and it is my yearly ode to hawthorn and my heart. It is a slow recipe that brings a gorgeous level of communion with the tree.
Ingredients
Hawthorn leaf, flower and berry
Brandy or any strong spirit, but recipes for the nerves and the heart often work well with warming brandy)
Jar (size is up to you)
Directions
Throughout the year, gather hawthorn, the leaves in spring, the blossom in may, the berries in autumn, and, you could also gather some thorns along the way. (You don’t have to start this recipe in spring, you can begin at any moment on the wheel of growth.)
Fill a jar with the leaves and pour over brandy, completely covering the herb.
Place a lid on the jar
Leave until the flowers of hawthorn are ready,
Regularly swirl the jar to wake up the herb and get it to release its goodness into the brandy.
When Hawthorn blossom comes out, strain the leaves out and keep the brandy using it to tincture the flowers.
fill jar with flowers and cover with the brandy that is now infused with the leaf medicine.
Infuse until berries are ready, swirl regularly
When berries are ready strain out the flowers.
Fill jar with berries and cover with the brandy that now is infused with leaf and flower medicine.
Leave berries to infuse 4 - 6 weeks or longer.
By the end of it, you will have a brandy that holds the medicine of each phase of the tree.
Another way to make this tincture is to make three different tinctures, easier in some ways but more costly. To do this keep the plant material in them for a minimum of 4 weeks - or until whole process is finished. At the end of the whole process strain each jar and mix altogether.
Hedgerow Vinegar
You can use a blend of hedgerow fruits: hawthorn berries, blackberries, elderberries, rosehips, raspberries, or at this time of year, use fresh hawthorn leaves, nettles, cleavers, dandelions, daisies, primroses, chickweed and the lovely wild plants available to you right now.
Add spices or fruit peels - for fruit vinegar you could add -
4 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
4 cardamom pods
4 cloves1 inch chunk of fresh root ginger
Place berries into a jam jar. Pour over enough cider vinegar to cover.
(For the spring leaves version, you may want to add lemon, ginger to aid in the waking up of your body.)
Put the lid on the jar and leave in a warm place (sunny windowsill), shaking every few days. Leave it for a couple of weeks then strain through muslin or a sieve lined with a tea towel.
Pour into clean, sterilised bottles.
Usage:
Take 1 tsp. every few hours for colds and flu, or take 1 tbsp daily as a general winter tonic.
Hot water can be added to make a nice warming drink.
The vinegar can also be used in salad dressings.
Mix with equal parts of honey to make an oxymel and take 1tbsp. to soothe sore throats and coughs, or as a winter health tonic
Hedgerow Hawthorn fruit leather
Ingredients
1kg wild, foraged berries (around 500g of this should be a pectin rich hawthorn berries)
100-200ml water
1-2 tbsp honey (optional)
Place the fruits and water in a large pan. Place the lid on the pot and simmer for 15-20 mins until fruit is soft and Mashable
Add a little extra water if needed, but don’t let it get too runny, you want to end up with a puree. Once soft, mash the fruit up well.
Place a sieve over a bowl and pour the fruit mix into the sieve. Rub the pulp through the sieve.
Discard the seeds and skins in the sieve.
At this stage the pulp should be the consistency of custard, if it looks watery, return it to a clean pan and simmer gently to evaporate off some of the water content and thicken the mix.
Taste the pulp, if you'd like it sweeter, mix in the honey while still warm.
Line baking trays with baking paper
pour the fruit pulp into them and place in a dehydrator or an oven on lowest possible setting with the door left open ajar. These can take anything from 2-8 hours to dry. You do not need to dry them the entire time with the oven on. We like to alternate between an hour on, and hour off, just be sure to leave the oven door open a bit to let moisture escape.
When dry to the touch, cut into 4cm strips and roll up in grease proof paper.
Storage: Store in the fridge for up to two weeks or freeze for up to one year.
Herbal Suppliers
USA -
Frontier Natural Products
Much wild weeds and warming sunshine
Brigit xxx
I’m sorry to have missed the new moon gathering. We had a big eclipse, so I was in totality that day. Will you be sending a recording? I’d love to hear about Hawthorn and access the journaling questions. Thanks! Kit