Salutations! In light of the upcoming holiday, I thought we’d do a bit of a dive into the history and practice of the Lammas Feast Day.
Lammas AKA Lughnasadh is the first of three harvest festivals of the Pagan wheel of the year. Typically, Sundown July 31st– Sundown August 1st. Although technically you would need to consult an Almanac yearly to see what day of the year the stars would be in the right position if we were following the original way of tracking the Wheel of the Year.
Lammas has been known by many names. In Ireland its known as Lugnasad or Lughnasadh. In Scotland it has been called Lunasda, The Welsh refer to it as Gwyl Awst. It was the English that called it Lammas, evolving from the Old Anglo-Saxon word Hlafmaesse, or Loaf Mass.
Lughnasadh or ‘Lugnasad’ gets its name from the Celtic Deity Lugh (pronounced Loo).
Lugh in modern times is frequently referred to as a solar god or harvest deity; though originally seems to have been understood as a god of human skill & craftsmen, kings, and a patron of heroes. Lugh was king of the Tuatha De Dannan, a race of divine beings whose name translates to “People of the Goddess Danu”. (Marquis 2015)
Danu was the Celtic Mother Goddess. In the old Sagas, Lugh together with Danu displaced the Fir Bolg and the Fomoiri who were the cruel previous rulers of Tuatha.
There are 2 popular theories around the origin of Lughnasadh as a holiday:
Lugh’s wedding feast.
And more commonly a funeral festival Lugh started in honor of Tailtiu; wife of the last king of Fir Bolg. Whilst we cannot prove that exactly, we can prove there was an annual festival August 1st called the Fair of Tailteann equidistant between Navan and Kells near a reputed gravesite of Tailtiu in what is now County Meath, Ireland.
Marriages were common or Trial Marriages and partnerships were commonly declared at this time (feeding into the story of Lugh’s wedding Feast). This would last for a year and a day until the next festival at which time the marriage could be dissolved if it didn’t work out (similar to a handfasting- which typically followed if things worked out).
Originally Hlafmaesse was a celebration of pagan deities, but as the Germanic Peoples converted to Christianity and began settling in what is now Britain, Hlafmaesse was absorbed into the rites of the Church and celebrated as the Feast of First Fruits. This was celebrated by baking a loaf of hallowed bread, cutting it into fours and burying or crumbling each quarter into the corners of the barn intending to invite blessing and sanctify the harvest in the upcoming year.
As Anglo-Saxons began to more heavily influence local culture, some of the older Lughnasadh traditions became replaced or hybridized, making it very hard to distinguish the exact origins of many practices. In many places across the United Kingdom, we can document where Lughnasadh traditions and Lammas traditions have been meshed together.
In modern times, many people struggle to find ways to celebrate Lughnasadh and feel connected to the holiday with how removed most of us are from our Agriculture. As well as struggling to find distinctive ways to celebrate it separately from the other Harvest festivals. It is the first of three annual harvest festivals, ending with Samhain- or the closing of the growing season. But where Lughnasadh shines is in the bearing of the first fruits. The first crops of the year are coming to maturity, and we can enjoy them, but the true celebration is in knowing that the Harvest and bounty is still in front of you and is just beginning.
Whilst most of us are no longer actively tilling the land, planting and harvesting- we still depend on the Mother Earth every bit as much as our ancestors did. Common Modern themes to celebrate and honor the holiday include: Harvest, Gratitude, and Reflection. Potlucks, Picnics and feasts are common practices. Offerings are also traditional, either to the Mother Earth, Lugh, ancestors, or the dead in general. Regardless of the nuances in regional celebration practices, the overall message is the same: Giving Thanks!
Bear in Mind, that Pagans are a diverse group, and you will find Nuances in celebrations between Celtic Reconstructionism, Wiccans, Asatru (also referred to as Heathens or modern Norse Pagan), Modern Druidism, traditional Witchcraft, & Neopagan.
Celebrating at Home:
If you do Garden, or grow your own crops or herbs, Celebrating Lughnasadh is commonly celebrated by pulling your first harvest of the year, picking berries, gathering herbs or other wild crops.
Many rural communities also celebrate with Bonfires.
Another way to honor the beginning of the harvest season is to cook with what it offers. After all, it is one of the Great Feast Days- this is why potlucks or gatherings are a common and great way to celebrate.
Lughnasadh is also a great time to get out into the great outdoors and search for new magical tools while the ground is open and easy to view. Unique branches and sticks that can be turned into staffs and conduits. Rocks and sticks that draw your attention and call your name are also always good to hunt for. Remember to never harvest or take things from compromised or protected land, and respect the spaces you are in.
Play Games! Lughnasadh was traditionally a time for competitive sports and games to show off skill and prowess. Host your own Tailtaenn fair. Invite friends over for a game of football, a foot race or any other manner of sports. Remember to keep it lighthearted and fun. Add in an element of silliness and award prizes for winners of competitions. Ribbons, goofy hats, pies, pastries, or decorated brooms all make great winnings.
Harvest OR work in your garden
Have a potluck or a feast
Host your own Tailtaenn fair
Host a bonfire
Lugnashadh and Magick:
Many different types of Magick were performed around Lughnasadh, but it is an especially good time for protection magic. Below is a more modern interpretation of a traditional Irish Practicing Herbal Spell for protecting livestock (which can these days also be translated into protecting anything that is of value or considered an asset to you).
All you need is a selection of fresh herbs of your choosing (best to stay in season if possible). Make a list of the ‘assests’ or valuables that you want to protect and then choose a corresponding herb for each one. You can do this by either following your intuition and gut feeling or, if you choose, you can always consult an herbal guide for different symbolism in plants if you need help. I find it best with things like this to pick whatever resonates best with you.
Set yourself up someplace quiet, with a small bowl of water.
Pick up an herb and focus your intentions on the topic you have ascribed to that herb. Repeat the following:
This is not (the name of the plant; i.e., basil) But it is my (name of the thing, person, asset, etc. that you are trying to protect (i.e., financial success, or ‘my cat’) that I hold in my hand.
Now hold the herb in the bowl of water and focus on strength and protection and say:
By the Power of Water, and River and Sea What I have is protected! So mote it be!
You will need to repeat this with each herb/intention. Then take the pile of wet herbs outside to a place in nature that feels good to you (you will need to bring an apple). Place the Pile of Herbs on the ground and on top set the apple, stem facing up as a final offering. Pour the water from bowl over the top and give thanks for the welfare and protection of your assets.
Here in the next few days, I’ll be uploading one of the recipes I will be using for our own Lammas feast. Have fun, be safe, and be well.
Join RavenWerks guild Leaders Mikaela and Taylor talking about their favorite parts of Dungeons and Dragons and what they would or wouldn’t change about their early campaigns based on their experience as players.
[Taylor] Hey! If you’re just tuning into our channel, I’m Taylor…
[Mikaela] Mikaela.
[Taylor] This little nugget back here is Mini.
[Mikaela] Um… and we just wanted to to turn around and chime in. We know it’s been a while since we launched our… um… intro videos and it was like kind of a second way to try to connect with you guys on our platform. For those of you who don’t know, most of our business and our work is on our website and our blog. You can find the link in the description box below. Um… But we wanted to turn around and take today- you know so far we have focused more on our sustainability and spirituality and being environmentally friendly and that kind of stuff – but a big purpose behind RavenWerks that we have kind of discussed in the past is making those alternative hobbies and those other interests you want to pursue in life and learn about, more approachable, and removing alot of the the stigmas from around them. And one of our favorite topics in that area is… um… Dungeons and Dragons. There are kind of a lot of- i feel like- misconseptions about what playing Dungeons and Dragons is. You know, for the longest time, it was labeled as the nerd geek pastime. And especially- it’s begining to become more mainstream and more accepted but it’s still… there’s a lot of fear and trepidation around -you know- starting to try and play or find people that have those common interests. And especially starting playing as an adult, without that backstory. And especially as a female. So… um… we kind of just wanted to take some time to reflect on our previous experiences and have a bit of a conversation there. Sooo…
[Taylor] Sooo… we just have a couple questions today to start with and we’ll cover more in the future BUT to start, I guess… uh… FIRST QUESTION… What is your fart… *DIES LAUGHING* Word salad… it happens… What is your favorite part of DnD as a whole? *still struggling not to laugh*
[Mikaela] As a whole (repeated). Ummm… For me -I think- favorite part of DnD as a whole is the community. Not just the playing and of itself and um the other people that you connect with. For instance, if you watch critical role or if you are on some of the Facebook groups and that. But like whoever you’re actually playing with, it’s a good social interaction especially if you’re an introvert because it’s usually like a small group of people. You can relax, have fun, get in character and kind of out of yourself and have that adventure but have it with other people…um… in really most of the time in a non overwhelming setting. So for somebody like me that’s… when I played my first campaign there was like 6 of us that played. It was once a week. That was our Sunday event. That was basically the majority of our day and I came home feeling relaxed, like I had had a healthy social interaction but I also wasn’t drained from it.
[Taylor] Uh. I would actually agree. So I feel like my favorite part from DnD as a whole is very much the social aspect because it’s… it’s a different outlet of social. Like there’s one thing if I like to get dressed up and go out and party or if I go to the movies with friends or I interact with people at work or whatever. But… ummm… DnD is a little bit more of like a- I don’t want to say, uh, intimate setting- but it’s like it’s your friends and it’s a different outlet because you get to be artistic with them. It’s… some of my friends are more long distance too so I get to interact with them and video chat and that and I don’t have another outlet for it because they aren’t going to drive, you know, 6 hours once a week to hang out with me.
[Mikaela] Also I feel like it challenges you to get to know you friends in a different way.
[Taylor] Yeah. You do definitely start to realize things about them… because you get to be silly about things and play with different scenarios you wouldn’t come across in real life. So feel like… yeah… social aspect for me for sure.
[Mikaela] Ummm… so then what was your biggest challenge in wanting to start playing and what would you say to someone wanting to learn to play that’s never touched it before?
[Taylor] So I actually feel like for me it was finding a group of people to start with. It was kind of intimidating because I… I actually wanted to play for years. I kept bringing it up. Uh… You even bought me like little miniatures and like a book and I still didn’t start playing for a while. I think I had a set of dice set aside for like 4 or 5 years because it seems daunting when you look at it. There’s a lot of different, like, processes for combat and things like that…that once you know are super easy but it takes having somebody maybe walk you through it for a couple of sessions for you to feel comfortable. And it’s also hard, or it least it felt intimidating to me to find a group to play with to initially start it because I feel like you either think that everybody’s already got an established group and you can’t come into it and you can’t come into an established campaign OR you think that if you bring it up with your friends you are just going to get weird looks. Maybe I just didn’t have the right friends though. I don’t know.
[Mikaela] No. I- Honestly for me I would say it was a two pronged thing. Number 1, yes. Finding the right group of friends. Cuz I had a very small social circle. Um. And at least for me, my friends were the right kind of nerds. They were all as geeky wierd as I was if not wierder. Um. But some of their nerd wasn’t necessarily the same kind of nerd.
[Taylor] Yeah.
[Mikaela] Ummm… It was a little bit easier for me to find a group because I actually got invited. Thomas and I actually got invited to play by his brother and his brother’s girlfriend. So that was a good experience but I think for me, I think having the right group of people is part of it because it plays a part in your comfort level of putting yourself outside of yourself. Which for me was the hardest part because it’s real easy to have your character and your timeline and this awesome story adventure in your head and it is sometimes a lot more uncomfortable to then role play that in front of people because it does feel goofy when you are first learning.
[ Taylor] Yeah!
[Mikaela] You’re sitting at a table making strange voices, whole equally asking does this work? How does this work? Can I do this? If you are playing with a more experienced player. So for me the scariest thing was putting myself outside myself in public. Um… but what I think made all the difference was having a big enough group to fun but a small enough group to have it not be overwhelming and have them be people that had played before that could teach me what to do and had the patience for it. As far as what I would say to somebody wanting to start, I would just say don’t do what I did and hold back for as long as I did because the second I into it- not so much the mechanics, that takes time, learning what dice to use with what thing and what you have an action and a talking or a movement… that part is going to take time- but I was gonna say throw three sheets to the wind, get out of your own head, and get into it. Because the more you put into it as far as your character goes, the more you are going to get out of it.
[Taylor] Well, and I would also say, um, I just…. I want to say real quick that we are coming at this right now for like a player perspective… not so much like a DM perspective. And I… I mean I am writing my own campaign right now. I do have ideas. I do want to be a DM but just haven’t-
[Mikaela] Haven’t had the oportunity yet.
[Taylor] Yeah. I haven’t had the oportunity yet. So like, we will touch on that later as I get more experience there but, um… As a player I agree 100%. Like I just feel like I wish I could back and tell myself a little bit just like put my big girl panties on and…. or even just go to like a gaming bar and just talk to some people because I almost guarantee there are people… there’s a hund-… I mean there’s tons of people out there that would want to play, would welcome you in, even if they are mid campaign.
[Mikaela] They are excited when people ask questions.
[Taylor] Yeah. Yeah. The people in the DnD community, for the most part -Like there are some real hard asses out there- But like, for the most part as very, very accepting and they want to teach you, they want to bring more people into it even if it’s mid campaign or even if they do like a one shot. They will find ways to work around that.
[Mikaela] You can be a guest character.
[Taylor] Yeah. Yeah. So just go out. Just do it. Just do it. Just do it. Okay so…um. Next question here. Looking back at your first campaign, what would you have changed about the experience?
[Mikaela] It kind of ties in with that last one. I would, i would honestly say, get into it farther, faster. As far as, as far as like, I spent a lot of time out of character asking, like, can I do this? Most of the time, if you go and try and do something in character that doesn’t work, your DM (Dungeon Master) is going to tell you. So it would be really hard to have that mental shift between character and then breaking character to talk to somebody. So I guess if I could change anything, I would, I would approach it a little bit more comfortably and open minded from the get go and I would be hopefully less afraid to ask questions because part of it- nobody likes to feel you know dumb of stupid or like they are not picking it up and I felt like I was afraid to ask certain questions because I felt like I had already asked it and so I should have understood it at that point.
[Taylor] Sometimes it takes hearing it a couple different ways for it to click. [Mikaela] Or watching somebody else do it before you are like “OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH… That’s how that works.”
[Taylor] Mmmmhmmmm…
[Mikaela] But… But there really is, like she said, so much acceptance in that community that like, they really don’t care if you ask a question repeatedly cuz they want you to enjoy it. They want you to come back. They want you to part of their group. Ummm… I really honestly think that’s my biggest one. That like, I was so afraid of being social with it for so long, that like, I hesitated to go every single week. And then when I was there I had fun.
[Taylor] Yeah. Okay. So for me, this is a… *sigh*… I think there is three things. And I think I am going to contradict myself, some of the things I have said before, just a little bit. And I will explain why. So, the first thing that I would say is, ummm… really get into character.Like, do not be afraid to get into character. I feel like my first campaign, IIIIIII- and I, this is something I want to work on a couple of others because I am now on like 3rd campaign kind of situation- ummm… none of my characters, I have really played with like voices and things like that and I really wish I had. It doesn’t have to be an accent, it could just be like the way you change your tone…
[Mikaela & Taylor] Your vocabulary…
[Taylor] I feel like I have really gotten into character in the way my actions play out in things like that but I really want to play more with like ACTUALLY PORTRAYING IT. So like when you here me speak as my character vs when you hear me speak META, you can tell, because again it’s a way to play with the different- it’s just like… yeah. That would be the first thing.
[Mikaela] There are some words that one character wouldn’t use or terminology because they aren’t relevent to them.
[Taylor] Exactly. The second thing I really wish that I had done is…. I know I said just do go out and just, like, do it. But like, also do be careful of who you do it with. (Are we talking about DnD or safe sex???)
[Mikaela & Taylor] For a first campaign.
[Taylor] Like, later it’s whatever, but my first campaign I just have to bring up, we all knew each other except for the DM. We had a DM… Mini please stop (she was scratching and shaking the whole couch). So we had a DM who basically ghosted us maybe siiiii…. oh, maybe a year into the campaign. He was long distance (DMing online), we onlyu really knew him over the video chat. And it was just such a bummer because I felt that we, as newer players, were just finally just starting to get really into it and that, I just complete… I don’t know…
[Mikaela] It kills momentum.
[Taylor] It was just such a let down. We had to find a new DM, Start a whole new campaign. And it’s one thing, sometimes campaigns fall apart (especially really long ongoing ones) but I guess, just, that was my first campaign and that was such a bummer so I guess at least know somebody in your first campaign or know that they are serious about it. And that was going to be my next thing (#3), is that, maybe make sure you find people who are just as invested as you. Like if you’ve got people who are really just not into it, and they are not paying attention and they are not really, don’t care at all. Like they are there JUST for the talking, it kind of puts a damper on you playing and learning because if you are really invested and nobody else is and you are the only one that really wants to get into character and do things…
[Mikaela] That almost adds to the discomfort.
[Taylor] It makes it harder for you to learn, it makes it harder for you to get into it. It’s just… so yeah… I feel like those are the biggest things with my first campaign that I really was just (nonverbal emphasis with hands lol), I struggled to get into it, the first one. So yeah. I think that’s it.
[Taylor & Mikaela] *A whole lot of yeahs*
[Mikaela] Last Question. Describe your perfect DnD setting or ambience.
[Taylor] For me… I really like to get into it. Like if you have got mood music for it, depending on the situation. Like I have different play lists set up for my campaign. I am very ready for this. My current campaign is, that I am in is One Piece based and we actually started as a bigger group- which can also be challenging, So don’t go too big. Like 9 people in combat is a lot- ummm but we all kind of fallen into kind of a role like what we bring. Like I tend to bring salty snacks and somebody brings alcohol, and somebody like candy and everybody is swapping stuff around. So I really personally like having that. And it’s not something we set up at all. It’s just kind of roles we’ve… it just happened. It’s just really nice because we’re all able to like bring something to it. We like to like dim the lights a little bit (I do in my campaigns at least) sometimes. It depends on the mood. It depends on the campaign and who you are with too. So like part of that depends on the situation. I also prefer if everybody is around a table. It’s hard to do it in like a living room setting or something like that just because there’s no central area and I like to see people and talk to them when I am in character. I would say that that’s my biggest thing. I tend to prefer mine a little bit more relaxed um, vs, like really, rigid.
[Mikaela] Yeah. As far as like, rigidity goes, I will say I prefer a little more relaxed beccause especially if it’s your first campaign. Not only do you have to have some give and take with your DM, and when people have like a… like if your working with a DM that has absolutly no flexability in what they will allow and are very by the book- and for some people that’s great- I’m not one of those people. So I like the flexability aspect of it. As far as ambience goes, we always- my friends are all kind of like I said, extra- so we allways went extra. It was our Sunday thing and the ambience of the room adds- if you are in a well lit, blank walled room with a table… yeah you can play if you’ve got your character sheets and a good group of people that are really invested. You could totally do it. But especially if you’re nervous and are coming into it, having the right ambience almost makes it easier for somebody that’s shy to get out of that box and get themselves into that character. So like what Macey would do, we had our long table, and the five of us would be around it and she either when she was creating her own world, drew her own maps or we had the minis, and she built landscapes and we had all of our character pieces and she would move them around to give us distance examples. She at one point had a little fog thing set up on the table. Someday…
[Taylor] That’s sick.
[Mikaela] Someday… those tables… Someday I will have one. I will build one, I will whatever. That it’s inset and that you can move your people and you can make the mist set up and have the light and everything. But in the meantime, she had music and she changed it for whatever. She would sometimes have the actual playlist set up because she actually knew what timeline we were going to be on. But obviously then your characters threw a wrench into that so then if we ended up in a fight she switched it to like if it was dungeon fight music or bar fight music music or whatever. And we did, we rotated who cooked because it was usually like a whole day think which I thought was awesome. I would usually bring like one or 2 snacks or baked goods. If we were doing it at whoevers house was hosting it, they provided dinner, whether that was ordering food in or like- we all like to try different recipes. So sometimes what we would do – and this was super cool but super goofy I guess- was, each person, when it was their week to cook, would prepare a meal or food that would have been custom and normal for their character and we shared it.
[Taylor] I like that. I like that idea.
[Mikaela] We had drinks and they weren’t always alcoholic but there were. And that way you didn’t have to get up and feel rushed or leave or if you were uncomfortable and needed a break or a bathroom break, you had something to break those moments. And it just made the whole thing relaxed. She would sometimes, depending on where we were, have a candle lit with a certain scent that… it was like it added to the…
[Taylor] Scent therapy is a thing.
[Mikaela] The whole thing was just very emersive.
[Taylor] Yeah. So I have to say that… ummm… so we are actually… the One Piece campaign is actually building one of those tables and I am super stoked. I LURV the idea of the food for your character thing. So, previous campaign, we would rotate houses and who hosted and whoever hosted was in charge of food but I never thought about doing a character thing. That is a whole different level. I really like that. I will say, the One Piece campaign, we all, maybe some of us did get a little more into this than others. I spent like a year making a costume. But depending on my mood and like how rushed I am to get to the campaign, I still wear that. Like, pieces and parts. Not all of it but sometimes pieces and parts. Because for me it does help a little bit to fall into that character. And there’s something else to consider there too. When you write your backstory, you’ve got this idea of who your character is. Don’t be so attached to it that your character doesn’t grow. Like my characters have become something else sometimes. Sorry. That just popped into my head. BUT… ummm yeah… I feel like… PROPS… props are so huge. Not just for a DM but for a character, because, like I said, I haven’t DM’d yet, but I know when my DM has a prop- like they’ve brought a picture of one of the NPC’s or like they’ve built something and have it in the middle of the table or they’ve done their own map- like that visual for me is amazing. But as a character, I have to tell you how excited the other people at the table are if I thought ahead of something my character would have. For example, in my One Piece session, there’s something called vivre cards in that world that I like pre prepped and I been like, as I get to develope relationships with other players characters, been like, rolling for stealth to hide them in their belongings, slipping it into their belongings in real life, not explaining what they are, and then in like a session or 2 they will find them and be like, what the hell is this? And it’s, like an extra layer of excitment. Or like if something is happening and I whip something out (like my own photo’s of my summons or transformations etc), like everybody else’s excitent. So you aren’t- the DM’s not only doing ambience, you are just as responsible for adding that extra little bit ambience or UMPF to all those other character too.
[Mikaela] Yeah. So like if you know up partially in costume, it give them a visual for you as well other than… hey there’s a girl with cool colored hair sitting in the chair accross from me.
[Taylor] Exactly. So that’s what I was talking about too with like finding a group that’s as invested as you because if you that they want to do that and they are into that kind of stuff too, it’s going to be so much more fun for you.
[Mikaela] And it’s a good reflection of DM’s time too. It’s really depressing to watch somebody that’s spent all this time building a diorama or a map on top off writing the actual campaign and the frame work of your story and then you have a group of people that just sit around the table and they are like mike character is going to doooooo this. And that’s just kind of, there is no give and take, there’s no…. I don’t do the whole, I am going to do this anymore… I just in character say it and my party can either respond or… sometimes if it is out of line or it doesn’t work, then my DM will out of character by like…. so I love you but you can’t do that.
[Taylor] Well I will also say too though that it takes a little bit to work up to that because the first sessions… we’re probably, maybe, I don’t know, like 30 sessions into this One Piece campaign right now and we’re just finally getting to the point where I feel like, like for example, my character…. I knew my character, but you have to KNOW your character. Like it takes a little bit to get to the point where you are ready enough to be like IN character that much because you are learning the character as much as they are. So like. don’t beat yourself up if the first 2 or 3 sessions or more, like I said it took a little while, we have a really big group so it took a while to get everybody really in character. But don’t beat yourself up if right off the bat, you’re not like… I don’t know what I am saying.
[Mikaela] Give yourself some grace. It does take time.
[Taylor] It does.
[Mikaela] And I will be interested in future conversations- because you brought up a couple of things make me want to start talking about them now but obviously in the interest of time we wont do that. But in future talks, to be able to talk about character building and yourself vs your character. Because that’s like a whole different dichotomy thing. SO… if you guys found this interesting and you really liked it, give us a shout, let us know if you have specific DnD questions or things you would like us to cover. Obviously our video blog portion is not just limited to DnD, But we figured this was a great place to start because especially for women there aren’t, I feel I don’t meet as many women playing DnD. Most of my campaigns have been full of guys. So like if you have questions, if you want to reach out, if you are looking to connect with people. Or if you certain things you would like us to go over or cover in the future… Let us know. Otherwise you can find the link to our blog down below and just keep tuned. Keep coming back!
[Taylor] Down below. *whispered* Also…
[Mikaela] You had to with the fingers.
[Taylor] I had to, I had to. Also, I just want to say you will be seeing more videos on some of the other topics but we are also going to have a blog post kind of related to this on our website here, later this week as well. So just keep an eye openand we will be covering more topics and we look forward to talking to you soon.
Last time we spoke I had been talking about basic steps for kitchen sustainability. Now it wasn’t nearly a comprehensive list, but it was a good building block to point you in the right direction if you’re starting out.
In that post I said I would include a basic how- to for making your own stock. And then I didn’t.
So today is the day. The stars have aligned. This is a pretty simple process, and I’ve included notes on varying it if you need/want to or for dietary reasons. It’s not really a precise recipe as much as it is a concept and process.
All you need:
1 tub for veggie scraps
1 tub for animal scraps (if using)
Salt and pepper (optional)
Stock pot
Water (quantity varies on size of batch)
As I mentioned previously, I keep a tub in the fridge for veggie scraps and any time I cook, my veggie scraps go in that bucket. The classic veggies used for Mirepoix are carrots, celery, and onions; but you can use almost any vegetable. ESPECIALLY if you are making a veggie stock and not a meat stock because it will deepen the flavor. Green onions, squash, broccoli, bell pepper scraps, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, asparagus. Anything that is not molding or decaying (let’s not confuse making stock with compositing here).
I tend to keep my animal scraps in the freezer. This is both because they keep longer, but also because it saves room in the fridge. You can use any animal scraps, but I try to stick to bone and meat. It is up to you if you are just making generic stock, or if you want to specify an animal and keep them separate. Some people just make ‘stock’ if you eat enough meat and are using things regularly enough or have a particular left over you want to use that is fine too. Save all the casings from your seafood as you prep it and make “seafood broth” any time we have a bird of any kind I boil the carcass. “Duck,” “Turkey,” “Goose,” Even rotisserie chicken. The fattier the animal, the more flavor.
So there’s the concept. Let’s get down to ratio and process. Below is the basic ratio. You can scale it up or down if need be. You can also technically increase the amount of “boiler” to water if you want to for fuller flavor, but it’s really not necessary.
1 Gallon water
4 Cups Boiler
Put your water and filler into a large pot. Bring to a boil. Let boil until meat is broken down and veg is soft. For a small batch this can be roughly an hour. For a higher gallonage this can take up to 7 hours. IF you choose to season your stock, do so at the end as the seasoning will change as it cooks. I tend to not add salt and pepper as I prefer to do so when I cook, and you don’t want to end up with a final product that is too salty. Strain and store in an airtight container.
*** A note on the ‘boiler’ section: This is at your discretion. If you are completely an herbivore, then this can be 100% plant matter. If you are using an animal element you can play with the ratios as you like. I tend to prefer that 75% of my boiler portion be animal because I want the fattiness as a base for a lot of dishes, but you can do 50% or even less if that’s what you have available and you will still get a functional and flavorful stock.
**** stock can also be cooked down into a fattier and more concentrated form before straining (if you are making an animal stock it will kind of gelatinize as it cools). This can make it easier to store and then you will just dilute it with water before using.
As Mikaela and I start to dig deeper into the topics of sustainability, food, and gardening something to consider is that while growing your own plants (edible or otherwise) is very fulfilling for your soul (and stomach) … it can be draining on the wallet. That is unless you know how to do so in a more (drumroll please) sustainable way.
One way to keep more green in your wallet but still grow the number of plants in your inventory is to explore different ways of propagation. To the casual and new to plant parenthood, this can seem like an intimidating word being flung around. I am here to tell you that it is easy-peasy.
In the case of plants, propagation literally just means reproduction by natural processes. Plants already want to reproduce so you are just helping things along and the biggest hurdle is knowing how your particular plant likes to get jiggy with it. So let’s go over a couple ways to propagate AND some basic categories of plants that are easily propagated by the different methods.
So let’s start with the biggest, most obvious way to propagate…
SEEDS
When a boy plant part (stigma) likes a girl plant part (pollen from an anther) and gets some help from a buddy (an insect, bat, bird, puff of wind, etc) they can make a seed. This is not a biology class so I am not going to dig further into this BUT I do want to bring up how this information may save you some money and what to beware of. So, to start I want to say there are multiple places you can get seeds and some pros and cons to each.
Garden stores are a great place to get seeds and they are relatively cheap. You know they are fresher seeds and have a great chance of germinating (sprouting). The packaging is great because it will give you instructions and care as well. The negative is that you are still spending money AND usually they only have basic flowers and crops because they are catering to a majority.
Online is a mixed bag… you have an insane variety, but you are going to spend more and it is tough in some cases to verify what you are getting (new seeds, old seeds, is it even the correct plant?). I have had some really great successes doing this though.
Farmers markets have a couple options. Some vendors will actually sell seeds, but you can also just look for interesting fruits to eat and save/plant the seeds. Things to consider though are that you once again can’t really verify what a seed is or if it is any good until you are planting AND this applies to even ones coming out of a fruit. This is because members of the same species can cross pollinate. For example, pumpkin and winter squash are technically the same species so they can cross pollinate. They would still taste fine but their little seed babies would/could grow something weird. Let me tell you- I have STORIES about peppers because I was growing like 40 varieties at one point and they DEFINITLY cross pollinated.
Save seeds from your food at home. This is staple and one of my favorite methods because you are not spending extra money and you can do so infinitely to continue your garden. The con here is that you are only going to get seeds from what you already have on hand so you are limited to what you are already growing or what you find at the grocery store (an let’s be honest the everyday gardener may not have the resources to grow some of those fancy, exotic, tropical fruits).
As for who and what can be propagated this way…. Anything with seeds! Fruits, bushes, flowers, veggies. Some are harder to actually harvest seeds from and you are better off just buying them unless you are really serious. I do not bother when it comes to herbs or flowers (though a lot will reseed themselves). Fruits (drupes, peppers, tomatoes, etc), melons, and guards are great ones to start with.
So, before I leave this to talk about our next method, I just want to say that even in cases where you are spending money for seeds, it is still cheaper than buying a mature plant. From personal experience, always plant lots of seeds as well because even the most quality ones you get, only a certain percentage will germinate. I also want to point out that even weird crosses are fun.
CLONING
Mwahahahaha…. This is where you get to be the most holistic evil scientist ever…
Cloning sounds complicated and cool when talking to friends and family. In reality though, you are selectively picking parts of plants (sometimes from public settings) like a 5-year-old, ignoring your moms voice in the back of your mind saying, “don’t pick the flowers”, and then hording them in little containers everywhere around the house until they become new plants. Or that might just be me.
We have lots of options for how to clone! Taking cuttings, layering stems, dividing rhizomes or offsets, bud cuttings, and root cuttings to name a few. The hardest part is knowing what method words for your plant. If you know the type of plant you are propagating, it is easy enough to google propagation methods. If you took a piece of a plant out of your neighbor’s front yard under cover of darkness (who me?), you might not have an exact name for the plant but there are some indicators, and you will quickly get a feel for it.
I want to point out that the best time to try any of these methods are going to be during the growing season just like with planting seeds. You will get the best result this way BUT especially with indoor plants, you will still get varied success the rest of the year.
Like I said, there are a lot of options, and it would be a lot to cover all of them in any depth (plus there are different options and ways to tweak each general method) but let me give you an idea of what some of these options are.
Cuttings
This is one of my favorite methods and the first type of cloning I ever attempted. The root of the process is you are taking a cutting or trimming of a plant and roots will grow from it to form its own plant. I find that this is usually my go to with herbaceous, tropical plants. Vining plants in particular; I will find a node (bump where roots would come out, cut right before it, remove the lower leaves, dip the end in a rooting hormone (tons of garden places sell liquid or powdered hormone for this reason so they are encouraging my habits), and plant your new baby into a sterile seed sowing mix. You want to keep these guys in bright indirect light and a moist/humid environment (a cover works great) since they do not have roots to suck up water or nutrients easily yet. Some of my plants root so easily that I just stick them in a vase with water (no hormone or dirt or anything) and wait for roots to appear before I plant them. Pothos, fuschia, and impatiens are great examples of these.
Similar to that, some tropical plants that have long stems on their leaves can be propagated in the same way. Great example of this are African violets and Monstera’s (I do this with mines suckers or tiny offshoot leaves I do not want to take his energy).
If you know your plant species, I recommend a quick google search to see how difficult they are to do cuttings, how deep to plant, where to cut etc until you have a feel for it because there are some differences.
Layering
Once again, not complicated, but layering can be done 2 different ways. Compound layering can be done with anything flexible that you would do a cutting on (like a Pothos vine). You basically can plant (or layer soil over) portions of the vine where there are nodes and encourage root growth from those places and once roots have started, they can be cut apart and planted. You can also do Air layering where you purposefully damage parts of the outer layer of stems and then wrap damp moss/soil around that place, enclosing it with Aluminum foil until roots appear and the plant can be separated. Once again, this method may have slightly different requirements or processes depending on the type of plants, but this is the gist of it.
This is a little involved than taking cuttings BUT it isn’t hard by any means and has less chance of a cutting withering away since it is still getting nutrients from the parent plant. I have had good success using this process with roses in particular with the aid of some rooting hormones. My great uncle raised and bred new crosses of roses and did shows. I loved them and wanted a couple varieties, so this was one method we used to get clones with the most success. Just make sure that once you have roots and you cut your new baby off, you seal the new wood on your old parent plant (Elmers glue works great!) so you do not get pests or diseases in there!
Division
Division is exactly what it sounds like… dividing what is already there. We are only going to talk about 2 types of division.
The first is rhizomes. Some plants (like strawberries) can spread by branches along the ground growing roots into the soil. This can be on the surface but in the case of many plants it can also happen under the soil, and you will see -SURPRISE! – a new plant come up in the parents’ vicinity. You can easily dig up the rhizomes, divide the sections using your fingers (keep the pieces with roots AND leaves_ and replant the babies elsewhere.
Secondly, I will bring up offsets. Some plants like Aloe will have fully re-plantable pups grow around the base of a mother plant. These can be separated and repotted elsewhere. Other plants will need to be cut with a sharp knife to remove them but wait until they have already grown roots or else you may need to go through additional steps to help the babies root.
So you may have noticed I still had more types of propagation listed that I have not touched on. I am not going to get into them today but instead wanted to focus on those that are the easiest to start with and work with a wide variety of plants.
