Pumpkins and Witches

Well Samhain was cut short, really couldn't make it past 8.30pm but we did have a go at giving out treats for the other kids in the area. Also managed to carve out some pumpkins, not nearly as many as last year but hopefully still good. Seems funny that we spent the whole summer growing them for this one evening only for them to go on the compost but then again, that's part of the circle. They will help next years grow and hopefully being back on form next year then we will have lots more. Our witch made another outing with her spells and potions and littleun changed his mind and wanted to be a pumpkin too as you can see above.

So there's some photos, sorry for the blurry fuzziness to them, the camera really isn't good enough for night time shots but hopefully you'll get the gist.

Samhain Pumpkins

Just a few of the pumpkins we carved:


And as a tip, don't carve pumpkins after several glasses of cider, found out the hard way it hurts!

Our Samhain Altar

Our altar has various things on it that we have collected or made on special days so they may look like not a lot but they mean so much.

The wreath is our take on both a celebration of our ancestors and of the beauty that nature provides. The names you can see are the direct ancestors for Littleun and me going back to the 1700’s. I thought it was a nice way to teach Littleun about the family tree without the usual lines etc. The two photos are of my grandmothers. Although I was quite young when they passed on I have many memories of them, my grandma Lilian on her hands and knees with my sister and me making paper-chains (she was 73 at the time) or her bringing us eggs and toast in bed as we’d stayed overnight (think we were only 3 & 6 and have never been allowed this at home). Or my grandma Irene taking us to the seaside and making us “princesses of the sea” awarding us with our pageant sashes, made from seaweed found on the beach and our shell orbs. And the saying “butter to the edges so the snails can’t go round” though which one said this is a point debated often, I think it was grandma Lilian, my sister grandma Irene!

The bowl in the corner has barley in it, and we will make the rest of our offerings tonight. Currently the house smells gorgeous of soda bread and other various lovely things. Have a pot of mulled wine on the go too….

Blessed Be.

Getting in the mood…

Sorry for the lack of posts this week but as you’re probably in the same situation you can guess it’s been a little manic. Can’t work out where the time has gone, it only seems like it was September and I was thinking “great a month to go, no problem”!

I have spent this week changing our altar from our Mabon offerings to our Samhain offerings (we like to keep the altar all the time adding things throughout the days as the time changes). We’ll add the last part on Samhain when we have our feast, our friends around us and I’ll post some photos and thoughts on this another time that hopefully you might like.

We’ve also been desperately constructing the props for mums Hallowe’en do. To get some more inspiration (and as an excuse to be a kid again) I took Littleun to a farm in the next county which had laid on all sorts of Hallowe’en treats for general amusement. Immense fun was had running around the maize maze a ghoul, ghost or pumpkin at every turn.

We met several skeletons including Femur who was a “dog hungry for a bone”, strangely the Littleun who is normally scared of dogs (long story that one) sat down and petted this dog!

We also had a right laugh catapulting pumpkins and shooting corn cobs at targets ridiculously far away and getting the backlash or pulp as we realised how useless we were at it.

Think the best part must have been the “scary hayride” which during the day was tempered for the Littleun’s but still spooky enough to get the heart going. A really funny bit was the Christmas shop tucked away in the corner; it had a little Nativity with the barn and animals etc, now I’m used to seeing these all over the place with Crosses or Stars of David over the manger but this was the first time I’ve ever seen one that had the pentagram on it. Strangely enough they didn’t like me trying to take a photo to show you!

Anyway a brilliant day, now I’ve just got to work out how I’m going to carve 23 pumpkins, buy several sacks of compost & a couple bales of straw, make cakes, biscuits and other goodies for mums Hallowe’en thing as well as getting the food prepared for our feast, visit my Grandmothers graves and my time for quietness all in tomorrow!

Apples, glorious apples…

I love apples, in particular a Cox for a sweet apple or a Bramley for cooking, which is why we grow them in the garden. This year is the 200th celebration of the good old Bramley so off we headed up to Wisley RHS to enjoy their celebrations. Wisley is a Royal Horticultural testing garden growing hundreds and hundreds of plants, vegetables and fruits, beautiful place especially this time of year.

We had various tents spread around the acres showing all sorts of food and wares for us to sample (the best had to be Jolly’s dips, scrummy chillis & chutneys) surrounded by the gentle hum of people enjoying themselves, oh also a lovely big lake in the background with some very noisy ducks.

I picked up the following recipe, you've got to try it, it’s so tasty as we found out (diet out the window today!):

Burnt Apple Cream

1kg of Bramley (or other dissolving cooker) apples
1 Cinnamon stick
150g Caster Sugar
250ml Double Cream
4 tbsp Soft Brown Sugar
Ground Cinnamon

*Peel, core and slice apples, then cook over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally, with cinnamon stick and a little water, until apples form a purée. Stir in the caster sugar to taste.
*Divide purée between six heatproof ramekins, leaving a generous centimetre at the top and chill thoroughly.
*Whip cream until very thick. Spread over chilled apple purée, covering it completely and levelling across the top. Return to fridge or, briefly, freezer, until cream is very cold but not frozen ( this allows you to caramelise the sugar without boiling the cream).
*Preheat grill to max heat. Sprinkle a thin even layer of soft brown sugar over the chilled ramekins (not more than 2tsps per ramekin).
*Place ramekins under the grill until sugar starts to melt and bubble. With a bit of luck this will happen before the cream underneath starts to bubble up but don’t worry if this does happen. It may not look so good but will still taste great.
*Return ramekins to the fridge until quite cold. Serve with a pinch of powdered cinnamon on top of the caramel.

As well as the apples they also had on show some of the other vegetables they had been growing, in particular the pumpkins and squashes.

Hidden in all corners around the place we had fun finding them along with our first Robin of the season.


Pumpkin festival next week...