• acorn shortbread

    A biscuit and a cup of tea

    And sometimes life is both normal and exciting: 1. From the couch in my living room where I write, looking out the window, the flower stalks of my big white sage plant can be seen shooting up towards the sky, waving in the wind. Every morning I run outside to see how many new flowers [...]

  • elderberry elixir

    Wildcrafted medicine class in Los Angeles!

    Announcing: Wildcrafted Medicine Class in Los Angeles I’m pleased to announce that my friend Emily and I are going to be teaching a series of wildcrafted medicine classes in Los Angeles. First up: elderflowers! Are you interested in learning how to wildcraft your own herbal medicine? Interested in building your own home apothecary and knowing [...]

  • elderflower blackberry 1

    Elderflowers and blackberries.

    (in which I gather a lot of things, get a few bug bites, and try to stay connected to the earth) There’s one hand and it contains relaxation, and everything I’ve ever mentioned about moving through space at one’s own pace. And then there’s the other hand which holds a to-do list a mile long, [...]

  • acorncookies2

    Hurtling through space

    (in which I dole out an anatomy lesson, provide pictures of my recent adventures, and reward you with a recipe for the best cookie in the entire world) I’ve been thinking about time lately. Of course there’s city time, or world-clock time, or employer time. I think they’re one and the same. The kind of [...]

  • plantmatterwater

    The elegance of water.

    Water both scares and excites me. Unlike my husband who can’t stay away from the stuff, I have a healthy respect for it due to a. being a not-so-strong swimmer and b. two almost drowning incidents on the sea shore. I grew up on the water, some of my earliest memories are of the smell [...]

  • buckwheat

    Buckwheat

    (in which I once again get a little philosophical, think about the nature of things, and eat some [more] biscuits) My friend Carly said something the other night that kind of blew my mind: she no longer gives people exact arrival times, but instead gives a half hour window. She’s been getting crap about being [...]

  • SURPRISE!

    Exciting news (a giveaway post!)

    Well it finally happened. Cauldrons and Crockpots reached over 2000 fans on Facebook, and as I’ve promised, in thanks to all you lovely people who like, comment, read and send me the loveliest emails, its time for a giveaway. As you all know, I have a shop where I sell my hand-crafted herbal goodies. Different [...]

  • bexbigsur

    An especially rooted kind of thing

    (in which I get woo-woo, and eat a lot of potatoes) As I type this, the afternoon winter sunlight is streaming in through the front windows. Cat is, of course, asleep in a patch of it. I sit with one hand clasped around a mug of chai-spiced and chaga-infused lapsang souchang tea, its spicy warmth [...]

  • biscotti1

    Pinyon Pine Nut Biscotti

    On being run down: sometimes us folks who spend all our time making potions for others are the ABSOLUTE WORST at actually taking our own advice. Over the last week, I started feeling more tired than usual, and my throat started hurting a little. Did I think ‘oh, Self, you’ve seen a helluvalot of people [...]

  • Elder elixir

    Elderberry Elixir

    From the perch of my bed, I like to watch a family of ravens that hang out atop a cypress tree that’s about a block away. Last week, when a storm came through the city, Jam and I sat and watched as one brave raven continued to sit on his perch, facing into the wind, [...]

Cauldrons and Crockpots is a blog about food, herbs, travel and magic. Not Harry Potter magic or Wiccan magic or pagan magic but good old every day practical magic. You know, the magic that's in the scent of a few sprigs of rosemary and some rose petals in a hot cup of tea on a rainy afternoon. The magic of the love in a sprinkling of sugar on a fresh-out-the-oven biscotti for your friend who's having a bad day. The magic in thyme syrup bubbling away on the stove for treating a nasty cough. In burning juniper twigs for sick rooms and in crushed sage leaves for grounding. Or the magic in sitting on your front stoop watching the light change in the morning warming your hands on a steaming cup of coffee and a dream that's still being woven from the night before. Like I said, practical.

For more information about this blog and who it's written by see 'Why I'm Here'.

rhubarb custard elderflower tart

Rhubarb and Elderflower-Infused Custard Tart

(on perfect pairings) Lets talk about first world problems for a minute. There are some that I am ill-equipped to help with: things like ‘oh no, my new smart phone has a glitch’ or ‘I have too many computers’ or ‘my shiny car is sooohoooo last season’. But then there are areas where I can [...]

fennel2

Essentially…

(a recipe for braised fennel yum and exploration of what it is we all do) Often, while sitting at my little market stall, I am approached by people who want to know what a herb DOES. People are always interested in the function of person, plant or object alike, because we want to know how [...]

Elderflower 1

Elderflower cordial

(dancing on the edges of things) I remember the day I first fell in love with the elderflower: it was a hot Glaswegian summer day. I was sitting on my favourite grassy knoll, in the shade of a big craggy old hawthorn bush, with a bounty. All of my adventures involved a bounty of some [...]

chocolate hazelnut spread

Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

In an ideal world, there would be a separate court system for left-brainers and right-brainers, so that the left-brainers could show up on the appointed date, at the appointed time (or ten minutes early) with all their paperwork in hand, and us right-brainers could show up when we feel like it, having forgotten most of [...]

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Wanderings

As promised, some pictures from my long weekend in the desert… I hiked for miles, gathered pounds of plant matter, napped on rocks, hung out with trees, hung out with friends, scratched up knees, drank cider sat around a fire pit watching the dark desert night sky, and sat outside watching the moon before dawn [...]