• 3 cans coconut milk
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 8 beaten eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup dark rum

Instructions:

Combine the coconut milk and the sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Slowly pour the coconut and sugar mix into the beaten eggs, beating with a wire whisk. Put the mix back in the pan, and stir over low heat until it thickens, but DO NOT boil and don’t let it thicken to the point that you’ve cooked the eggs or something! Strain it (please, be sure to strain!) into the serving pitcher, and finally stir in the vanilla and the rum. Chill before serving.

Yield: 12 servings

• 4 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups cold milk
• 1 cup cold light cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Instructions:

Beat the yolks and 1/4 cup of sugar together until thick and cream-colored. Gradually add milk, cream, vanilla, salt, and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg. Beat until frothy. Beat the egg whites separately with the remaining sugar until soft peaks form and fall over. Cover and chill until serving time. When ready to serve, mix well, pour in a bowl, and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Yield: 6 servings

• 2 teaspoons instant coffee crystals
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 3-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions:

Combine coffee and milk, and let stand until dissolved. In another bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese together until fluffy, about 30 seconds on high if using an electric mixer. Add brown sugar and vanilla to this mix, then add the coffee-and-milk mix. Beat until combined, then beat in the flour as well. Cover and chill for one hour. Then take out and shape into 1-inch balls, shaping into ovals after determining the correct amount of dough. Press a ridge into the center of each oval to make it look like a coffee bean. Bake at 350º F for 9-11 minute, 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.

Yield: 48 cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons poppy seed
• 1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel

Instructions:

Beat butter until fluffy, about 30 seconds on medium if using an electric mixer. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt, and combine. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Then beat in flour. Divide the dough in half. Stir poppy and lemon into one half, and leave the other plain. Roll each into a 9×6 rectangle. Roll poppy rectangle onto the plain, and seal them together. Roll up like a jelly roll, wrap in plastic, and chill for 4 to 24 hours until firm. Cut dough into 1/8-1/4-inch slices. Bake at 375º F for 8-10 minutes, 1 inch apart. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Yield: 48 cookies

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 3-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

Instructions:

Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until thoroughly whipped; about 30 seconds on medium if using an electric mixer. Add 1 cup sugar and the baking powder. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Beat in the flour last. Divide the dough in half. Roll one half between two sheets of wax paper into a 12×8 rectangle. Remove the top wax paper and brush dough with melted butter. Then sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cinnamon/sugar mix on top, dusting evenly. Roll the dough up like a jelly roll, removing wax paper. Seal the edges, then repeat with the other half. Chill the rolls for 4 hours wrapped externally in wax paper. After chilled, cut into 1/4-inch slices and bake at 375º F for 8-10 minutes, 1 inch apart. Cool on the sheet for 1 minute, then transfer to wire rack. NOTE: Make sure that the rolls have as few cracks as possible, because cracks will become permanent after baking, and they spoil the swirl effect if you are going for a pretty and festive cookie.

Yield: 60 cookies

• 1 gallon cider (hard or non-alcoholic)
• 6 cinnamon sticks
• 2 teaspoons allspice, whole
• 1 teaspoon each clove and ground nutmeg
• Tart apples (I use about 3)

Makes a lot of wassail. Make on a cold winter day.

Instructions:

Put clove and allspice in a mesh bag or tea ball. Place all ingredients in a large pot and heat until the apples burst.

2 pounds lean ground pork
1 cup ice water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Procedure

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. With hands or wooden spoon mix pork, water, soy sauce and pepper thoroughly in large bowl. Shape into ¾ -inch balls (mixture will be fairly soft and balls will not be perfect). Arrange closely together in single layer on ungreased shallow baking pan, like a jelly-roll pan. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Remove from pan, and serve immediately with a dipping sauce, like your favorite salad dressings (Russian, Thousand Island, Ranch) or choose from the suggestions below. Use toothpicks to skewer meatballs to dip. Or remove from pan, cool, cover and freeze or refrigerate. Serve cold or reheated.
Makes about 7 dozen meatballs.

Cunning folk are frequently confused with witches. The key difference between the two is that cunning folk were real, whereas there is no evidence that witches existed outside the imagination of those who believed they had been afflicted by them. The magic of the cunning folk was preventative and curative and so did not require visible magical phenomena to occur for people to believe in it, while that of the alleged witches was clearly absurd (such as turning into a hare or flying through the air) and so was presumed to occur while nobody was looking.

The remedy that a cunning man would prescribe might well involve identifying a suitable person as the witch responsible for the client’s affliction, but it obviously does not follow from this that witches genuinely existed.

The historical studies of Owen Davies have shown the extent to which cunning folk were a recognised part of British rural and urban life, and in the nineteenth century it is estimated there were several thousand at work across the country. They could be found operating openly in towns and villages across the nation and they were a valued part of the community. Some cunning folk were so successful that they began attracting clients from many miles away. Most offered more limited services to a smaller region. Cunning folk could make a good living from their talents, and there usually was a set monetary charge for their services. The money they earned meant they were often considered, especially by the better educated, as frauds and tricksters, whom got money out of the gullible for parlour tricks. By the nineteenth century when the threat of prosecution was slight they even advertised their services and wrote books. Whether Cunning folk actually did possess any supernatural power is open to debate; certainly some were caught in fraud such as spying on customers to help their predictions, repeatedly promising vast treasure which was never found, and falsely accusing the innocent of theft or witchcraft.

Usual services offered by cunning folk

Protection against witchcraft

One of their most important and profitable roles. Cunning folk claimed to be able to detect witchcraft and counter it by using their own charms. Often they would also claim to be able to discover the witch who was responsible for cursing the victim. After the execution of witches in England ceased from 1684 cunning folk provided the main means of neutralising witchcraft for those who thought themselves afflicted by it.

Healing

Using a combination of herbs and spells, they tried to help both people and animals. Some cunning folk had a very good knowledge of herbs and folk remedies.

Property Loss

Whether things were lost by theft or by accident, cunning folk could supposedly find lost items or even identify criminals using magic.

Treasure Hunting

Cunning folk were reputed to have the ability to find treasure by various spells. Some claim that one American example is that, as a teenager, Joseph Smith, Jr. was believed or rumored to have the ability to find buried treasure. By his mother’s account and his own, he reluctantly accepted employment from a man searching for silver ore, as an odd job against his family’s poverty (although he claimed no special ability in the effort, instead working to convince his employer against the pursuit). Even the famous Casanova once set himself up as a cunning man (albeit a somewhat upmarket one) and claimed to be able to find treasure by magical means.

Fortune telling

Simple prediction of the future using a variety of possible methods, which ranged from astrology to crystal gazing.

Love Magic

Often fortune telling played a role in this. They also offered love spells and potions.

Cunning folk often specialized in, and offered variations on, these standard services. The varieties of spells they used are similar to the Pow-Wow magic used by the Pennsylvania Dutch.

The legal position of cunning folk

The spells and magic services offered by cunning folk were, strictly speaking, against the doctrines of the Catholic Church. According to canon law, such spell casting should be punished. However, most cunning folk were not charged; indeed, in the medieval period the village priest might have been the one carrying out folk magic. After the Reformation, the situation did not change substantially; even though Puritan ministers frequently denounced cunning folk, they still escaped serious prosecution. This was true even during the great witch hunt from the Tudor period onwards. Although cunning folk were more likely to be charged than other people in English witchtrials, they still only constituted a very small percentage of the people charged, and the majority of them went about their business unhindered. Owen Davies study suggests this is because most ordinary people drew a distinction between helpful magic and malicious witchcraft. In England the common law meant that it was the ordinary people who were responsible for bringing charges against witches, and they were not interested in accusing cunning folk, especially as they formed the first line of defence against witchcraft. Indeed, it was often cunning folk who helped accuse others of being witches, as they would be consulted on the matter.

When Cunning folk do appeal in trial reports, it is because of unhappy customers. When their magic failed to heal someone, or it seemed there was some kind of trickery involved, customers often went to the courts. Even after the death penalty for witchcraft was lifted, it was still illegal to claim magical powers, especially if one made money out of it, so prosecution remained an occupational hazard.

Cunning folk and religion

Most recorded Cunning folk were Christian to one degree or another. Some cunning folk were priests, others were committed, regular church goers, and others seldom went to church at all, but there is no evidence that they were pagans in the sense of worshiping ancient gods. Cunning folk in general did not worry about how their magic worked; the important thing to them and their community is that people thought it did. Of course, some of the practises and spell craft used by the cunning folk may have had ancient roots, but the original pagan beliefs that went alongside the use of old charms were long gone, and they did not use a shamanic trance during treatment. In fact, the spells they used were medieval Christian folk magic, which frequently called on the names of God, Jesus, Mary and the saints. After the Reformation, this meant Cunning folk were often accused of being Roman Catholics, with good reason; this is the only persecuted old religion they called on. Up to the Stuart period some did claim to have learned their powers from the fairies, but this concept died out later. Cunning folk were as busy as ever by the mid eighteenth century, when religious tolerance in Britain ensured that professed atheists as well as Roman Catholics could openly admit their beliefs without danger; indeed, some eccentrics did claim to worship Classical deities. There was little reason to hide pagan beliefs any more, which seems to indicate the Cunning folk did not have any. Thus, it seems that the minority of modern Christian Witches involved in The Craft may have the most valid claim to having a longstanding traditional heritage.

Cunning folk – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CunningFolk

OldMother Red Cap

The main qualities of a Hedge Witch is ability to talk to spirits, travel worlds, use herbalism, nature is the main focus of their spirituality, and their home is their spiritual center. Some Hedge Witches believe in Gods and Goddesses but most believe the greater power is Nature, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, Energy (as in energy never dies it just changes form) or the like natural forms. One thing to keep in mind is being a Hedge Witch is a path not a religion. It is a way of traveling though life. There can be Wiccan, Celtic, Animist, ect Hedge Witches.
One theory of how the term was created is that Hedge Witch stems from way back when in Europe when most people lived in towns. There was security in town and more light at night from candles and torches, which kept away the darkness/evil. There were usually stone walls or hedge rows that surrounded the town and there were a few people who chose to live by the hedges and were considered the “country folk” of the time. These Hedge dwellers were seen as living on the boarder of the light (the town) and the darkness (the wilderness). Spiritually they were also seen living one foot in this world and one foot in the other. Many times these people were sought out by the town to help protect the town from invaders from the darkness. Later they were hunted down, whether they practiced witchcraft or not, because they were seen as “consorting with the Devil” while protecting the towns and had “witch familiars” which were usually seen as cats, owls, rats, and hedgehogs. Living in this area a person will have cats to keep the rats away from grains and owls and hedgehogs because of it being their natural environment.

Hedge witches are sometimes intermingled with Shamanism because of their ability to communicate with spirits, heal with touch, travel among the worlds, and lots of times have an animalist nature. Like Shamanism many Hedge Witches believe plants have a spirit. Many plants are more accepting than others. Plants such as Calamus and Datura will have negative effects on the user if they are used as a recreational drug. There are many references of Datura being called Lady Datura and the Temptress. It is commonly believed these types of plants should not be used unless the plant calls to you (and even then only with an experienced teacher).

This is one aspect Hedge Witches fight about. There is one side who embraces the use of herbs in workings and the other side refuses to be associated with it. It has been recorded over and over in history the use of herbs to gain a heightened state of being. In the last 150 years plants have been abused and have ended up with a bad name. Hedge Witches should not reject herbs just because people have abused plants. Hedge Witches are also known as Hedge Riders meaning flight. Hedge Witches of the past used herbs to astral travel giving the feeling of flight. If you refuse the use of herbs then you are picking and choosing what aspects of the path you are interested in meaning you probably aren’t a Hedge Witch. Herbs should only be used when the herb calls to you and you have a watcher who knows what they are doing.

People in need are many times drawn to Hedge Witches. They radiate energy of help and healing. Many times Hedge Witches will be singled out and asked out of the blue for a tarot card reading or for herbal preparations. Hedge Witches’ homes are full of energy. Many times you can look over a Hedge Witches’ home and notice more and more things that may seem unusual to others such as crystals on the stove or a braid of onions by the door. Hedge Witches are different from a lot of pagan beliefs because their life revolves around their beliefs. Hedge Witches do not just practice on holidays. Hedge Witches put healing into their cooking, garden their own herbs and flowers, craft, and overall surround themselves with their spirituality. Hedge Witches are usually known locally for being an herbalist, make herbal products, and insightful but are usually secluded and not know as “the town witch”.

Hedge Witches are more likely to be solitary and to never/rarely use high magic. In a Hedge Witches spell casting it will include all natural objects such as stones, wood, leaves, pine resin, feathers, flowers, herbs, ect. Hedge Witches are split on the use of metals such as metal bowls or metal jewelry. In a Hedge Witches’ spell crafting they do what comes natural to them. They usually do what they feel in their heart and what is told to them by their guiding spirits. There isnt usually use of symbols, knot work (tie a knot 3x in a ribbon and tie on a candle, ect), or planned out long ceremonies in groups. Also many Hedge Witches do not cast a circle, instead they put up shields around themselves and controlling what goes in and comes out of their physical being by shifting shields. The “circle” is around their individual being and is not needed to be cast because multiple people are not needing to be protected, going back to them usually being solitary.

When there is a day where a lot of negative or positive energy is felt a Hedge Witch will go outside and take a walk and collect anything they are drawn to. It can be a stone, twig, leaf, ect. That item is kept safe and used in spell crafting when whichever the respective energy is needed. Another thing is the first snow after Yule some snow is collected and melted and that water is used in spell crafting. In the past, this water could be used in teas and other means of consuming but with current day pollution it is recommended to only use this for teas for external uses, simmering herbs for scent, and the like.

I can be contacted at LiveJournal or MySpace This has been a general explanation of this group of witches gained in the past 15 years of speaking personally to hedge/green/kitchen/cottage witches and from book/internet research. If you would like to learn more about Hedge Witchery or just chat with like minds feel free to visit Raven’s Nest Live Journal Community or The Wandering Path MySpace Group

All natural bug repellents are becoming more common over their toxic
counterparts. Why not try to make up your own natural bug repellent
and see the different in the lack of fumes (some even smell really
good!) and the cheaper price. Most all of these bug repellents
incorporate essential oils.

Tick Repellent
20 drops rose essential oil
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
Mix the above ingredients together, shaking to blend them well, and
keep in a glass jar. Use a few drops on your skin or clothing.

Tick Repellent #2
20 drops eucalyptus essential oil
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
Mix the above ingredients together, shaking to blend them well, and
keep in a glass jar. Use a few drops on your skin or clothing.

Mosquito Repellent
20 drops lemon balm essential oil
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
Mix the above ingredients together, shaking to blend them well, and
keep in a glass jar. Use a few drops on your skin or clothing.

Mosquito Repellent #2
20 drops thyme essential oil
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
Mix the above ingredients together, shaking to blend them well, and
keep in a glass jar. Use a few drops on your skin or clothing.

Mosquito Repellent #3
20 drops lavender essential oil
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
Mix the above ingredients together, shaking to blend them well, and
keep in a glass jar. Use a few drops on your skin or clothing.

Black Fly Repellent
20 drops Sassafras essential oil
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
Mix the above ingredients together, shaking to blend them well, and
keep in a glass jar. Use a few drops on your skin or clothing.

Black Fly Repellent #2
20 drops cedar essential oil
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
Mix the above ingredients together, shaking to blend them well, and
keep in a glass jar. Use a few drops on your skin or clothing.

Lice Repellent
10 drops tea tree essential oil
10 drops rosemary essential oil
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
Mix the above ingredients together, shaking to blend them well, and
keep in a glass jar. Use a few drops on your skin or clothing.

Flea Repellent
20 drops orange oil essential oil
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
1 tablespoon aloe vera gel
Mix the above ingredients together, shaking to blend them well, and
keep in a glass jar. Use a few drops on your skin or clothing.

Aphid Repellent
1 Tablespoon liquid dish soap
1 Cup olive or vegetable oil
2 1/2 teaspoons water
Mix all together in a spray bottle. You can spray this mixture on
flowers and on plants every 10 days, indoors or outdoors.