Creative Ways to Use Dandelions – Organic Gardening – MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Good Witches Homestead

Dandelions grow just about everywhere in the world, dotting lawns and defiantly sprouting through sidewalk cracks.  Though dandelions are incredibly common, they’re also powerful herbal medicine and tasty edibles at the same time.

Medicinally, whole dandelion plants are often made into a dandelion tincture, which has traditionally been used for skin and urinary tract problems.  Herbalists use the blossoms as a treatment for sore muscles, in the form of a dandelion salve or dandelion infused oil.

Beyond herbal medicine, dandelions are just plain tasty.  Dandelion roots can be cooked like carrots or roasted and brewed into dandelion root coffee.  The greens are eaten fresh in salads or cooked with a bit of oil or salt.  Dandelion blossoms can be made into simple dandelion fritters without much effort too.

A simple hard candy flavored with dandelion blossoms, this dandelion candy will put a…

View original post 344 more words

A MID-SUMMER CELEBRATION

Good Witches Homestead

The young maid stole through the cottage door,
And blushed as she sought the Plant of pow’r; —
“Thou silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light,
I must gather the mystic St. John’s wort tonight,
The wonderful herb, whose leaf will decide
If the coming year shall make me a bride.”

In addition to the four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year, there are four lesser holidays as well: the two solstices and the two equinoxes. In folklore, these are referred to as the four “quarter days” of the year, and modern Witches call them the four “Lesser Sabbats”, or the four “Low Holidays”. The summer solstice is one of them.

Technically, a solstice is an astronomical point and, due to the calendar creep of the leap-year cycle, the date may vary by a few days depending on the year. The summer solstice occurs when the sun reaches the…

View original post 1,610 more words