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a loose thread from the string in stiching witchery
seeking its own corner of the Temple.
for the record, I'm not a pro. I spent a Summer working as a dishwasher in 1986. However, I spend lots of free time in the garden and kitchen.
the garden's new, but seeing how plants grow, what parts are used, what stage follows which - I've had lettuce bolt and make seeds before I harvested a single leaf. Helps to know what grows well with what, and what properties are attributed to the various plants.
as for magic, call your stockpot a cauldron, and fire it up!
aside from keeping all manner of ingredients (seeds, dried leaves/roots/flowers/rinds, etc) in my room (not enough space on the kitchen shelves), giving the place a bit of an apothecary feel to it, i've discovered some interesting tricks.
if you lay out all of your ingredients together, and introduce them to one another (hello potatoe, meet fennel). Tell them the intention (something like, "hey, you're going to make a lovely soup. then i'll eat you, and then we'll be part of the same body - then we'll do something fun together).
or whatever. I've found that this makes the prep easier (slicing through squash as if it were butter), and the flavours delicious.
also, the further back to the source I go for the ingredients (harvesting fennel seeds instead of purchasing them, for example), the better the resulting food tastes and feels.
i've looked at the traditional chinese medicinal cooking, and ayurvedic approaches, and I've been incorporating these more and more. I'm still wary of including medicinal herbs. I've used a few milder ones to effect, but they're often bitter.
I've ritualized the use of my tools. The blades all hang off a wall-mounted magnet, sharp edges pointed away from the doorway. I'm always aware of the point and edges of my blades.
I pay my respects to Mars, as he's got dominion over flame and blade, and an assortment of hearth spirits.
the cauldron is another matter altogether. Anyone got any thoughts on appropriate cauldron spirits? or hearth ones for that matter?
ta
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