#winsol

[witchynyx]

Belated Winter Solstice ritual.

We moved into this apartment just before the solstice last year. After a complete cycle of seasonal rituals on the balcony (which faces into a corner of our car park, which can be a bit distracting), I decided to try doing this one at my lil desk/workspace.

It was nice. I think it might become a thing.

[womenandmuscle]

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[sapphireorison]

Happy Solstice everyone! 

Merry Winsol and may this Longest Night bring you only joy, my loves.

[strands-of-starlight]

Yule log for the apartment-dwelling witch.

[witchynyx]

Wheel of the Wyrd #2: WinSol (the Winter Solstice)

I just finished the Winter Solstice edition of my zine series about my personal, bioregional (south-west Aussie) wheel of the year 🥰

It's 5:30am, so typing more is outside my current capacity, but if anyone wants to know a lil more, you can check it out in my store!

(I've just printed off some copies, but I'll wait until I've slept to assemble them, and then I can grab a lil flip-through video)

[witchynyx]

Golden Syrup Dumplings

Like a lot of Aussies, The CWA Cookery Book and Household Hints (originally published by the Country Women's Association in 1936) is a part of my personal culinary and cultural history.

One of my beloved childhood memories from it is the rare occasion my dad (or occasionally mum) would treat us with golden syrup dumplings. Soft, fluffy dumplings in a golden syrup sauce: A warm, sweet, winter treat. Delicious, but more work than a busy parent usually has to put into a dessert that only lasts for one night, so they didn't happen often.

In July last year, some beautiful friends got married, and rented an Air BnB to stay in with the bridal parties, and I spotted a copy in their tiny bookshelf! I took a photo of the recipe for future reference.

Skip ahead to recently, when I'm outlining my zine series based on my seasonal festivals, and there's no sweet treat that fits the winter solstice better. Of course, I need to test the recipe before sharing it with other people. But the recipe calls for an egg, and we don't use eggs, so I need to remember to buy a carton when I do my grocery shopping, which I didn't.

But my sister messaged tonight - she just made some, to introduce to her daughter! Neither of us had had them in maybe 25 years. But she used a different recipe, which uses no eggs, so I made it, too!

This recipe makes a wetter dough, that's dolloped into the syrup, vs the CWA recipe where they need to be rolled into balls, so it might work out easier... of course, at some point, I'll need to test the original to compare.

But it made way too much dumplings for 2 people, so I'll get to find out how well they reheat, and this batch might last a while.

[witchynyx]

Wassail

A lil past Winter Solstice, but I finally made some wassail!

(No, it's not an aesthetic photo, I made it with things I had to hand out could get nearby)

I've been reading Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun, and it left me wanting to make some wassail for the winter solstice!

But wtf is in it/how do I actually make it? There's a lot of info about wassailing songs and customs, but not so much about what it actually is.

Google "Traditional wassail recipe": "Ingredients: Cranberry juice cocktail drink"....?

Luckily Project Gutenberg came through with a few older recipes, that I could compare to some of the more traditional 'traditional' recipes!

Wassail Recipe

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

750 ml apple cider

150 ml sherry

1 tsp cinnamon chips / 1 cinnamon stick

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp ginger

Optional:

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 orange, sliced / 2 Tbsp orange juice

1/4 lemon, sliced / 1 Tbsp lemon juice

How to make it:

Pop all the ingredients in a saucepan/pot. If you don't want to deal with 'bits', you can pop the spices into a muslin bag, tea infuser, or similar.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20min.

Taste. Add any additional sugar or spices if desired.

Serve.

Image by Racheal Parkinson from Pixabay

Notes:

Wassail was originally made with ale, rather than cider! I'm a cider gal, but if you try this recipe with ale, I'd love to hear how it goes.

Wassail was traditionally served with baked apples. This recipe is a little too small to add them to, but they could be added if you increased the portion size. Alternatively, you could get a similar vibe by adding sliced apples at the beginning (I haven't tested this)

Non boozy version? Swap for non-alcoholic cider and omit the sherry.

[witchynyx]

✨💙 Happy Winter Solstice 💙✨

to all my Southern Hemisphere pals!

As a gift, here is my favourite neighbourhood mossy rock - we've finally had enough rain for all the moss to rehydrate 🪴

I'm literally moving house atm, so all I'll be doing is a little ritual on my balcony later, but I'd love to hear what other folks get up to!

Have you gone for an adventure? Are you cooking/baking/crafting something?