Lammastide ~ 2016

Happy season of corn and grain!! My family celebrates the lammastide season for the entire first week of August. Its a week filled with baking, cooking and crafting. My lammastide celebration has changed dramatically over the years, since becoming a mother to now having young kids in school. Lammastide now coincides with my boys, 7 and 4, starting the new school year.

This year I have decided to incorporate the "back to school" preparations into the lammastide ritual, with blessing on the new backpacks for prosperous learning and the crafting of little key chain charms for protection. Along side the school crafts we also do the traditional crafts like corn dollies and the boys each get their pooka pages workbook for lughnasadh.

This week is also filled with baking and brewing! Pancakes for breakfast, brownies and cornbread and plenty of trips to the farmers market. Yesterday we drove out to our local farmers market for some wonderful fresh sweet corn and came home with bags of fresh ripe fruit, cucumbers for pickling and veggies for salads. We also happened to pick up a beautiful sunflower bouquet for the lammas hearthaltar and a bundle of fragrant dried lavender!

I love traditional summer foods for this holiday celebration, with a few fall favorites sprinkled in; baked beans, potato salad, corn on the cob. BBQ seitan ribs and fried seitan chickn tenders. Some vegetarian chili and cornbread teases at the crisp autumn evenings to come. Of course, all things fruit! This is the last chance to put up some strawberry jam for the winter, charmed for love magick of course! blackberry pies and jams and peach cobblers are great additions to the Lammastide table.
I don't drink many hot things during summer but at Lammas I start thinking about the fall teas and potions I might want to start mixing for the fall season of magick making. I do, however, quite enjoy some brewed hard apple cider and I think Samuel Adams beer is a perfect addition to the lughnasadh festivities.

My absolute MUST recipe for this season is my braided Lammastide bread! (I will post the recipe soon). I love this bread! One, because it is the most delicious bread ever but also because the process of braiding it is the perfect opportunity to braid in some magick!! If you have never made bread from scratch before I high encourage you to give it a try! Its a lot easier than you think and is one of the most ancient traditions. Once you get the process down you can start to incorporate all types of magicks into it. From adding herbs for specific spells to carving in symbols for quick charms.

Bread making is a magickal process that really connects the Witch to the roots of your faith and the traditions of our ancestors!

This is one of my favorite sabbats, although each one is my favorite when it comes. But I love the harvest season and always feel the most connected to my craft in the autumn. Lammastide is the preparation for all of that and also a chance to plant the winter seeds of a great school year harvest for our children!

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