witchy things

You can usually find books on witchcraft, yes, but there’s also field guides on local foraging and wildlife, cookbooks, books that teach you how to craft and DIY, books about environmental protection and stewardship, books on how to use herbs medicinally, books about other religions, cultures, and spiritual practices. My favorite local library even has a seed swapping program and fantastic resources to research your own family history!

That contributes to your craft, your personal work, your spirit.

There's a certain poetry to finishing this right as it's getting dark and blue outside.

Certainly!

I was loosely following a wassail recipe I found but made some substitutions, and this might be closer to a mulled cider than a true wassail, but either way it's delicious.

Ingredients:

-64 floz (~2 litres) of apple cider

-5 mid sized oranges

-1 regular or 2 small lemons

-1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

-3 or 4 cinnamon sticks (I used three since one was chonky)

-fresh ginger root (or 1/4 tsp ground ginger)

-15 whole cloves or 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

-1 Tablespoon of honey

Optional: your choice of rum or brandy

Preparations:

Juice four of the five oranges and your lemon(s). Slice the fifth orange and poke the whole cloves into the slices.

Thinly slice the ginger root. I ended up only using one of the two pictured, and each of those were about 4 inches long or so.

Add all of the ingredients to your cooking vessel and bring to a medium heat. You want to see a bit of bubbling in the liquid (not a rolling boil) and a froth/foam will form on top. This is fine!

Reduce to a low simmer (around a 3 out of 10) for 30-40 minutes. Stir everything in the pot in about five minute intervals.

Storage: