Larter House broccoli cheddar soup

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, we thought it might be a fun time to share some family recipes. Here is the Larter House broccoli cheddar soup:

Ingredients :

• 1½ cups (360 ml) milk of choice

• ¾ cup (180 ml) of vegetable stock

• 4½ cups (405 g) broccoli florets, steamed or roasted

• ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 1/2 - 2 cups (180 g) grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

Combine all wet ingredients into a pot while steaming or roasting your broccoli. Once that is done begin greeting your cheddar to add to the mix. Combine all ingredients together and heat on medium well using your immersion blender to purée all. if you do not have an immersion blender once you have heated all of the ingredients together combine in a blender and mix on high while vented for 3 to 5 minutes.

Enjoy this healthy vitamin-packed cup that’s goodness!

Marc’s Savory Fall Squash Soup.

Ingredients:

3 slices of thick-cut maple bacon – Diced

2 medium onions - Diced

1 Acorn Squash – peeled and large cut chunks

2 cups Chicken stock (homemade is best)

2 large sweet potatoes – peeled and large cut chunks

2 cups Beef stock (homemade is best)

¼ cup sour cream

¼ cup heavy cream

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 TBSP Thyme

1 TBSP Oregan

1 TBSP Garlic Powder

3 TBSP olive oil

Directions:

1. In a large stock pot put olive oil and bring heat to Medium. When oil is hot add diced bacon. Cook until bacon fats are rendered (4 minutes)

2. Add in the diced onions and cook until translucent

3. Add all seasonings to the onions and mix. Let cook for 2 minutes.

4. Add all stock to the pot, and stir.

5. Add Squash and Sweet potato. Ensure liquid covers vegetables.

6. Cook on medium for 2 hours with cover on. Stir occasionally.

7. Allow to cool, and using a wand blender emulsify to desired smoothness. Should be creamy

8. Stir in Sour Cream and heavy cream.

We found a Hag Stone!

What is a Hag Stone you might ask? Well, here is the story…

Hag stones can be made of any type of stone but are unique in that they have somehow had a hole burrowed into them naturally. They have been called many other names, Witch Stones, Adder Stones, Snake Eggs, Hex Stones, Fairy Stones, Holy Stones, and Eye Stones to name a few.

They are most often found in dry riverbeds or along the seashore as the moving water is what causes the erosion of the hole through the rock. The reason people (pagans) are so interested in them is because there is a commonly held belief that magick cannot work on moving water, and since the holes in hag stones are made by the force of this element, the stones retain water’s beneficial influence. 

The stones are often used as a protection amulet but have also been said to possess healing qualities. Some other uses include enhancing spell work, protection against another person’s magick to ward off the dead, curses, sickness, and nightmares…or more simply put, for protection. IT is also said they can be used to see into the land of the Fae and even open up windows to their realm.

So there you have it, one stone, many uses!

Bullying, its not ok. ANYWHERE!

What is bullying? I would truly hope it does not need to be defined at this stage, but I am going to put it in for clarity.

Bullying is defined as actions that seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce someone perceived as vulnerable.

Coming from a woman who spends just way too much of her time reminding others how to behave in a respectful manner (and also having to remind myself) I am here to tell you that pushing ANY opinion on ANYONE in a bullying way is NOT OK. I will back up a little. I am lucky enough to work in Human Resources. I have a degree, a certificate, 10 plus years of experience and continued training on this and similar topics. I take this pretty seriously.

You will not get the results you want, hate breeds hate. I appreciate things can get heated and passionate, but this past year has shown us all so much humility. I have seen major public figures apologize for simply raising their voices. This should be an example to us all. We need to strive to be better than the things that enrage us.

If you see something you don’t agree within a group or even in person, remember, there are people out there who just do things to stir the pot. Don’t take the bait. I am reminded of a children’s book that I read to my son:

“That’s monkey business. Don’t eat from that tree”

- You’re All Kinds of Wonderful – Nancy Tillman

You know what, they should be removed. Don’t get yourself removed by overreacting. Plea your case in a respectful manner. One person very, very rarely speaks for the whole and when someone comes in just to create chaos they thrive on getting others wound up. And if you do not feel able to speak respectfully at that moment, step away and come back or let someone else handle it. There is no need to lower yourself.

Here’s a great example for you, I am part of an online group of like-minded spiritual individuals who often have liberal views. Recently, someone came in and stated boldly that since we did not have a statement on our main page indicating we were not racist, we obviously were all racists. I am sorry but WHAT?!?

It’s in the group rules; it’s part of our collective code as religious/spiritual people and holy cow, what a bad way to approach it if you wanted to change in your favour…

This person could have said “I would like to see us as a group make a statement about X” or “I have some suggestions on how to write a statement about X, I think it’s a good direction for this group” but instead they walked in and blanketed everyone racists.

Now, here’s the important part…. for some people, it just rolls off their backs. Others will spend a day or two reflecting and move on but for some, THIS WAS GREATLY DAMAGING. THIS HURT PEOPLE WHO WERENT DOING ANYTHING WRONG TO BEGIN WITH and that, I cannot abide. In a world where there is already so much hate and guilt and mental health is at an all-time low with a global pandemic, why would you just blanket attack someone who did nothing wrong?

The individual in question was removed and it prompted us to review some of the group practice. The long and short is that even if you are making a good point, you can’t go about it in a rude/offensive way. Not only because it probably won’t get you what you want in the long run but also because in an effort to create a better world you should know bullying is just WRONG.

Pagan Gardening 2021

For many of us in the Northern hemisphere Gardening season is just around the corner and as we prepare our seedling and start to eye up those piles of leaves, we need to keep in mind that most yardwork should be left until it is a consistent 10 degrees centigrade. Why, you might ask? Because many bugs and insects are still hibernating and growing under those leaf piles and damaging their lifecycle can have very real impacts on our environment.

What can we do in the meantime with our itchy green thumbs? Try starting some seedlings indoors, just find yourself a night bright window and follow the instructions on the seed packs. Seeds often like to be kept moist but not so wet that mold grows. If you don’t have a good window for this, LED grow lights are a low footprint option and caring for these little babies can be a great mood booster while we await the earth mother’s thawing.

Photo credit: onecreativemommy.com

Another fun thing to do is plan and research for your gardens. You can look up Square Foot Gardening if you have a small bed and make it a challenge to see what you can get out of it. Square Foot Gardening is a process by which you divide your small space into square sections (typically 1 sq foot). The idea is to line up your crop rotations and increase the yield for the small space. Or start planning larger yields with some Companion Planting Research. Companion planting matches up plants that leech differing nutrients from the soil in order to see that both plants get as much as they need while not drawing from others. It also helps with pest control, pollination and of course crop productivity.

If you just HAVE to get out and clean the yard, pick up litter, grab the fallen sticks and get them out before you have to deal with all the leaves. Start moving your pots around, pull out the old rain barrels or yard toys/furniture. But hang tight, gardening season is just around the corner. 

Another fun thing to do is to start to catalogue what trees you have on your property; you may find you have a use for some of the fallen sticks in your magical practice. If you use herbs in your practice, start looking at local versions you can grow in your yard. For example, I don’t grow White Sage but there are many Sages I can grow in my yard so, I do and I VERY much enjoy making my own saining bundles and gifting extras to friends. I also grow rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender and a few varieties of mint. I use these both in my practice and in my kitchen. Best of luck with your yard this year and Blessed be.

Food waste over the Holidays

Every year for the Holidays there are way too many parties, way too many dinners out and of course at least one (often more) big family meals. This year because of Covid-19 things were a little different. No big deal, I can adapt! But this had me thinking about reducing my waste, I knew I was already pretty successful with my gift wrapping and I had ideas on improving it (see previous blog) but food waste was going to be my next big project.

Of course, if you do it properly you can always compost but do we really need to toss everything? Even if its going back to the earth? It's easier, but that doesn’t make it the right (side note: mental health comes first people… if you can’t save those potatoes…compost them!).

After a tiny bit of forethought, I came up with a tiered plan, and here it is.

Step one: DON’T OVERBUY AND BUY LOCAL WHERE YOU CAN! This one can easily cut down not only on your single-use plastics but also in what you end up having to be creative with later. No need to buy a big old bag of brussels sprouts when we each only take 3-4 anyway, just handpick a few and call it a day. 

Step two: Cook that stuff mindfully, if you keep things a little plain, you can easily repurpose them later. It is easy for people to add seasonings to veg on their own plate.

Step three: Once dinner is done, start to look at what you’ve got! This was my first year ever considering the turkey insides, and why not!? I have a dog and a cat that would be all too happy to eat that liver! Holiday treats all around!

Strip that carcass down, boil it up into some bone broth and make yourself a lovely turkey soup. This is also a great chance to use up leftover veggies (Assuming they aren’t too starchy). Toss in your carrots, beans, peas, some onion, celery etc, and voila! Soup! Delicious freezable soup! I also toss in barley, it is my new soup obsession…

Now, those starches and other things you don’t really want in your soup.. NO PROBLEM! If you’ve got mashed or whipped potatoes and broccoli just smoosh them all together with some onion and maybe cheese and make potato patties. You can fry them up on a pan OR even more fun, fry them up in the waffle iron. These also freeze really well and kids tend to love them.

Now you’ve got all these onion skins and those carrot tops and celery leaves… again, NO PROBLEM! You can pop them in a pot and cover with water to make veggie broth (add salt and pepper to taste) and if you don’t have quite enough to make it worth your while just freeze them, they will still be good in a couple of weeks when you have more to add.

Leftovers are always welcome in my house, you can do turkey sammies and of course, you can always freeze meat or plated up meals. There you have it folks, SUPER MINIMAL FOOD WASTE!

I hope this was as fun for you as it was for me and that you now go down an internet rabbit hole looking for recipes. Blessed feasting my friends.

The big debate, Fake vs Real Yule Tree

The same question comes up year after year when it comes to the Holidays and everyone’s desire to have a tree in their home. We are just like everyone else and want to smell that beautiful beautiful scent in our home and boy oh boy are we excited to sweep up those needles (kidding!) but at the end of the day, everyone including our self asks, what is better for the world around us? A real tree we cut ourselves or buy from a local lot? Or a fake piece of plastic garbage you buy at Canadian tire? I may be biased.

In the end though, year after year the answer is always going to be a real tree. The environmental impact of a fake tree will always be negative until they create fake trees out of more sustainable resources. Even if you get a few years out of the tree the impact it has will still be a negative one.

Cutting down trees is always bad for the environment. (False.)

Christmas trees unlike other trees are grown as a crop by farmers. Their sole purpose is to become that gorgeous tree in your living room. They of course have all sorts of other benefits while being grown but their end goal is still to be cut down and used as a Christmas tree. A 5 to 6-foot tree takes about a decade to grow and when cut down is normally replaced by a newly planted tree, hence that is their entire business. Christmas trees are also normally grown in areas such as rolling hills that is unsuitable for other crops.

Of course, not everyone can put up a real tree and that’s ok. If you have the ability to use a real tree then you should do it as it helps offset the individuals who cannot. Every little bit helps.

Grove Cornucopia Painting Tutorial

So the grove has had a brown paper cornucopia kicking around for the past few fall equinoxes. The kind you can buy at craft shops sometimes. This year I took it upon myself to paint it to fancy it up a bit. I had a few bottles of acrylic paints, the kind you can find in dollar stores or craft stores. I think I got them at Michael's and Dollarama. I started by using a base coat of grass green all over the outside. Added a highlight of orange spice on the tops of the ridges. Blended between the two with olive green and highlighted with spun gold trailed over the olive to just add a glimmer of metallic to contrast the matte finish of the other colours. Turned out pretty snazzy. Now it's all ready for the next harvest season.

We are the Druids, we speak for the Bees!!

As we all know, pollinator populations have been declining over the past decade and we at the Grove of Nova Scotia Druids, while still maintaining our Covid-19 Social Distancing wanted to do something about it. So, we set out to make our yards a little more pollinator-friendly.

For most of us, this was as simple as parting in No Mow May but for many members of the group, this meant an increased online presence for pollinator posts and upping our yard game with bee houses and planting more flowers. 

We even have a member who created a special section in their greenhouse to promote others to take part as well!

Here are some of the pictures from the yards of our caring members

Albro Lake Park Clean up

This past weekend we were lucky enough to get out for some bubbled and socially distanced park clean up. We headed over to the Albro Lake Park area and had a blast.

Thanks to everyone who made it out, we've missed doing these.