Soul Cake Recipe, - [The origins of Halloween]...

Herbs & Candles...

How to grow garden vegetables in small spaces...

Mad Ophelia recites her herbs...

The Faerie Trees...

Off the Grid on a Homemade Island...

How to Make Herbal Infused Oils...

Jamie Oliver talks you through cooking with herbs...

It's So Easy To Make Herbal Vinegars, - [And, people will ooo and ah when you bring them as gifts to parties!]...

To make these you will need sprigs of fresh herbs.  If you don't grow them you can usually get nice prigs of fresh herbs, or small herb plants in most grocery stores.

Wash the herbs.  Get some glass bottles with plastic sprinkle tops, [like clean hot sauce bottles that you've emptied].  Crush the sprigs of herbs a bit to get them to release their essences faster.

Put the sprigs in the bottles and then fill them with red wine vinegar.  Let the vinegars set at least three months so that they make up well.

Add a fancy label to your bottles.  I've found that oregano, rosemary, basil, garlic chives, sage and the mints make up strongest as herbal vinegars.

The Faerie Market...

What would you expect to find at a faerie market???...  Certainly, you might find luscious and unusual fruits, delights that look vaguely familiar, BUT, as you turn them around in your hand you realize that such fruit NEVER grew in a human's orchard!  The tiny faerie woman; she is scarcely 4 feet tall, who is selling the fruit looks at you out of the corner of her sly and very beautiful gray eyes...  She looks young, BUT, you feel that somehow she is very, very old, as old as the ages of Man.  She is dressed like a peasant in medieval times in a homespun tan skirt and a red blouse, her long wavy brown hair tied in a simple muslin kerchief. She smiles at you; there is no humor or light in that smile.

You gingerly put the fruit back in it's wooden crate.  You remember part of the poem by Cristina Rossetti, -  "Do not taste [Goblin] fruits, for who knows upon what they fed their thirsty, hungry roots!"...

In fact, you just wandered upon this Faerie Market...  Why, it seemed as if it was not there one moment; then, it suddenly appeared, out of the very early morning mist.  You notice that it seems as if you are, actually, the only normal size being at this market.  Then, you realize that all the rest of the people are faeries...

You hurry away.  As you look back at the market it gradually disappears.  Where it stood there is now only a grassy knoll.  Then, you feel a sharp pain in your back.  It gets worse and worse, as you stumble home.  That pain is your punishment for happening upon a faerie market.  You will have it, more or less, for the rest of your life, for the fey hate to have humans at their market.  And, the gold watch you bought at a bargain price from a fast-talking little faerie man, --- overnight it has turned into a huge stinking, dripping toadstool.

Maggie Moloch & Brownie Clod...

Stories about female brownies are rare.  This one is about two brownies who were mates.  Brownie Clod was rather stupid.  He liked to hang out at the town's mill.  One day a lovely golden haired girl came to grind her grain into flour.  Brownie Clod approached her smiling his vacant smile.  He made the girl very nervous with his humming and shuffling nearer and nearer to her.  Then, after the girl was finished grinding her grain he followed her home.

The girl began making soup for herself and her invalid old grandpa.  Brownie Clod was practically hanging over the soup kettle, beginning to drool in it.  The girl exasperated, tipped the scalding soup onto him.  He screamed and asked her name.  She said, - "I Myself!"

Brownie Clod ran home to Maggie Moloch.  He was severely burned and as he laid dying in their bed Maggie Moloch asked him who scalded him.  He replied, - "I Myself."  Hmmm...  Maggie Moloch thought that was a strangely suspicious answer, so after Brownie Clod died she went to town.  She overheard the girl laughing and telling her sister how she taught the extremely stupid brownie who was bothering her a lesson.

Without hesitation, Maggie Moloch jumped through the house's kitchen window and picked up a small stool.  She hurled it at the girl, killing her on the spot.  Then, Maggie called it as she jumped out the kitchen window, - "I, myself, did it!"

How to Dry Herbs, - [Harvesting, drying and storing]...

DIY Fairy Garden Mushroom Gnomes, - [Clever!]...

A Wonderful Fresh Salad Dressing Made With Fresh Herbs...

2 egg yolks

1 tb. apple cider vinegar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. fresh, chopped basil

2 tbs. fresh, chopped chives

1 tsp. fresh, chopped parsley

1/4 tsp. fresh, chopped tarragon

1/2 tsp. fresh, chopped rosemary

1 tsp. horseradish mustard

1 1/2 cups olive oil

Put egg yolks, vinegar, horseradish mustard, salt and chopped herbs in a bowl and beat until well blended.  Add oil, one teaspoon at a time, beating vigorously after each addition until all the oil has been used.  ( If dressing should separate beat in thoroughly 1 tb. mayonnaise. )

Cover and store in refrigerator until you're ready to use it.

Delicious Rosemary Biscuits...

These are fabulous right out of the oven, with butter---or broken up in soup or stew!  And,---EASY!

2 cups flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 to 3/4 cup milk

1 tb. rosemary, dried or fresh (fresh will have more flavor, of course)

Preheat oven to 450.  In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, dill or rosemary and salt.  Add oil and milk, stir with a spoon till dough is made up and soft.

Taking handfuls of the dough, make round balls about  2 to 3 inches wide and place them on a cookie sheet ( not greased ).

Bake for 10 to 13 minutes, or until the tops of the biscuits are a little bit golden.

Chilled Gypsy Tea...

2 oranges

3 lemons

13 cloves

1 tbs. ground allspice

1/2 cinnamon stick

3 tablespoons loose black tea in a tea ball or 3 teabags

2 qts. boiling water

1 1/4 cups of sugar

Squeeze juice from oranges and lemons and set aside.  In a large container put the cloves, allspice, cinnamon stick and tea.  Pour boiling water over the spices and tea mixture and let it stand about 10 minutes.  Strain and return liquid to the container.  Stir in orange juice, lemon juice and sugar.  Let it stand at room temperature till it's cooled enough to put it in the frig, or add lots of ice cubes to a tall glass and pour the gypsy tea down over the ice.  Add a sprig of fresh mint if you like!  

Delicious, Healthy & Super Easy Broccoli Salad!...

In equal amounts: Cut up raw broccoli in 1/4" pieces. Add shredded carrots, shredded red cabbage... Then, sprinkle in white raisins, to taste. Sprinkle in bacon bits, to taste. Sprinkle in chopped English walnuts, to taste.  Add a bit of fresh leaves of lemon balm.  Toss in a big bowl.  Add just enough ranch dressing to moisten it.  Oh, - YUM!!!

Old Fashioned Poppy Seed Cake, - [So very easy & delicious!]...

Just mix together & bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes till it's done: 

1  cup cooking oil

1 cup honey

3 eggs

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup poppy seeds

3 1/2 tbs. baking soda

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 tsp. salt

Sweet Violets...

Little purple violets appear in my grass in early May.  A lot of wild low-growing plants, wild herbs and flowers do!  I purposely let the grass grow until these tiny flowers and green growing things are finished, before it is cut the first time.

The scent of violets is wonderful, of course!  BUT, it is illusive...  The essence of violet is very hard, if practically impossible for perfumers to capture.  Most perfume that is violet scented is a combination of wisteria and other flowers essences.

Violets come in purple and also white with purple veining.  They tend to go to white, and back and forth, in time...