The Culinary Sage

17/11/2025

💕💫💕

17/11/2025

Many of you know already Im also a global chillout DJ ( as in performed in 25 countries) but those who do not i decided to start sharing here also some MUSIC that inspires me and touches my heart.
I booked Rising Appalachia Music in a multicultural event i organised the lineup gor over 10 yrs ago. Leaha is one of the 2 sisters of this unbelievable duo.

Enjoy x

“Stretched Out On Your Grave” is a 17th-century Irish Gaelic poem passed down through time and translated into English, made famous by the incomparable Sinéa...

17/11/2025

07/11/2025

31/10/2025

31/10/2025

It was witches who developed an extensive understanding of bones and muscles, herbs and medicine, while physicians were still deriving their prognoses from astrology and alchemists were trying to turn lead into gold. So great was the witches' knowledge that in 1527, Paracelsus, considered the father of modern medicine, burned his text on pharmaceuticals, confessing that he had “learned from the Sorceress all he knew.”

~ Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, Witches, Midwives, and Nurses - A History of Women Healers (1973)

Art: Giada Rose Goodman
Giada Rose Illustration

30/10/2025

Winding down my week of 'TO DOs' and tuning into Samhain. Tomorrow i shall tend to my final harvest (although only beetroot and some herbs remain ourside!), prune and get inside herbs ready for wintering, start new batches of Fire Cider and spend the morning in the apothecary with my herbs. Im not long back from Crete where I spent some time with my sweet friend and local Herbalist Kornelia ( Botanika Herbs & Spices) so have many tinctures to get on the go from both her wonderful herbs but ones I foraged whilst on this most special island. Ive been trying to tidy and get ready some bags for charity shops, local shelters & food banks as this is the New Year for those of us following the old ways. Preparing for a deeply personal and introspective Samhain ritual in the evening. The veil is thinning, time to seek the wisdom of my ancestors x

The Parshell (or Irish Samhain Cross) is a traditional charm woven on Oíche Shamhna, Samhain Night, to protect the home and household through the year ahead. Made from two rowan twigs bound with red thread and sometimes also woven with wheaten straw, it wards off the mischief of the Sídhe and any ill luck.

When the new Parshell is hung above the doorway, the maker recites:
“An donas amach, is an sonas isteach, ó anocht go dtí bliain ó anocht”
(Misfortune out, good fortune in, from this night until a year from tonight).

Old Parshells are then moved to the rafters, shed, or byre, as a new one takes their place. A quiet act of protection and blessing, carried through the generations of Samhain nights in Ireland.

I’ve been making these for years, keeping this tradition alive, and have a number of old ones that will soon move out to the sheds. Now is time to visit the Rowan tree, offer a small gift, and ask if she has any twigs to share for this year’s Parshell.

08/10/2025

One of my favourite herbal apothecary shops on the planet (and I hunt them down in every country I visit!) BOTANIKA Herbs & Spices in Chania, Crete! Im always there a good hour chatting to Kornelia, she is very knowledgeable and incredibly sweet. She even gifted me some sea salt picked from her father! Oh and the lemon liquor made from her own lemons is divine!!!

02/10/2025

Hi all! Hey anyone in Milton Keynes up for a FORAGING ADVENTURE this Saturday? I've a ticket to sell for "Autumn Foraging With Tapas @ Blue Lagoon MK" with Hegdewitch Adventures. I paid £38 but happy to pass it on at £20 just so someone gets a chance for a great day out and not to have a total loss!
I've got 2 record releases this weekend to deal with for my record label then Im going away Monday for 10 days and the TO DO list is way too long to allow time out :( Gutted!

Msg me if you'd like to go! I think there are also tix left if you want to take a friend and kids tickets are just £20 xx

19/09/2025

I took the slim window of sunshine today to go foraging!! Haws are in peak harvest time and the rainy days of late have them gorgeous and plump 🍒 Fitting, this article just came through my feed from Seed SistAs 💚
___________________________

🌿 : Hawthorn — Tree of the Otherworld 🌿

Woven into hedgerows and wrapped in centuries of story, Hawthorn stands at the threshold — between spring and summer, this world and the Otherworld — and in folklore, he was never to be trifled with.

✨ A Tree of Portals
In Celtic tradition, Hawthorn was revered as a gateway to the unseen. He marked faerie dwellings and sacred wells — and it was said that disturbing him could bring terrible misfortune. Farmers would plough around lone hawthorn trees. Roads would swerve to avoid them. To cut one down? Unthinkable.

✨ Blossom of Beltaine
His flowers — known as May or Mayblossom — burst into bloom around Beltaine, the festival of fertility and fire. Young lovers would weave him into garlands, but bringing his blossom into the house was taboo — believed to invite illness or death. A paradox of celebration and caution.

✨ Witch’s Hedge
Hawthorn hedges were boundary markers — both physical and magical. They kept out stray livestock… and wandering spirits. In hedgecraft and folk magic, Hawthorn is still used for protection, boundary-setting, and heart magic — guarding the vulnerable and holding space for transformation.

✨ Heart of the Hedgerow
Beyond his stories, he is a healer. Berries, leaves, and flowers have long been prescribed for heart conditions, grief, anxiety, and emotional unrest. A sacred ally in the season of descent — when the veil thins and we’re called inward.

🌬 To sit beneath a Hawthorn is to be watched by the old ones. Listen carefully — the wind in his branches may whisper things best not forgotten.