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Blessed Lammas! Welcome, whether you come from Alison Cross’s blog or Joy Vernon’s.
And Happy Blog Hop anniversary to me! I love cycles. This is the season in which I began participating in the Tarot Blog Hop in 2012. We survived the Mayan calendar predictions to start a new cosmic aeon cycle and here we are!
Still in Texas, which was not my intention (moving to Idaho next year, Goddess willing and house appreciation happenin’!), so the harvest has already passed, and we wait for the heat to abate before planting again. I would imagine others of a more northerly persuasion are getting their tomatoes in now. We do still have some jalapeño peppers left, though. So, a small, hot harvest continues. 🙂
Lammas is the European pagan festival of the first harvest, brimming with the first fruits, which were often summer fruits like berries, and in America, early corn. All that spring work of planting, watering, and waiting starts to pay off. Time to shower our people with gifts and celebrate! Although the
Tarot Queen of Pentacles, generous soul that she is, is usually associated with this festival, hey, I did that last year, so since cycles shift dimension into a beautiful spiral through time and space, I’ll designate the Three of Cups as my Lammas tarot card for this year. Time for a glass of the first wine and sharing with friends and family.
So, two gifts for you. First, my recipe for salsa, made totally with ingredients from our subtropical spring garden (which we began harvesting in May). Being a northern New Englander by birth, salsa is not a natural for me, but I enjoyed learning. We made three batches and tweaked as we went, so this is just a base for your own experimentation. We are not into super-spicy food, so this is a mild recipe, although it depends entirely on the power of your jalapeño chili peppers. We did discover by growing them that the younger and greener they are, the hotter they are, and the more of the white “meat” and seeds you leave in the hotter they are. This one is based on a lovely recipe by Alton Brown on the Food Network. Here goes:
Matt & Joanne’s Fresh Salsa
Ingredients
4 to 6 small-to-medium tomatoes (roma are good if you don’t have a garden), chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 minced jalapeño peppers (seeds taken out—milder or left in—spicier, your preference)
1 bell pepper, fine dice (red or green)
1 small onion (red, white, or yellow), fine chopped
Fresh cilantro, snipped, quantity to taste
2 T white vinegar (or lime juice—we liked vinegar better)
Extra salt to taste
Directions
I did buy a little food processor to get the chopping/mincing/dicing right. If you are a good manual chopper, go for it.
Just put all the ingredients in a single container and leave in the fridge for about 12 hours to get all the flavors “fused” as Alton put it. It won’t be like the kind of salsa from a jar at all; kind of a cross between pico de gallo and salsa. Great with tortilla chips!
The Lazy Daisies Tarot Spread
I know daisies have more than five petals, but I just got this vision of sun-drenched fields, lying therein, with grass and daisies all around. It’s been a warm and busy summer, so, time to relax, I’m thinking. So, I asked the tarot these five questions to get reconnected to my happy holiday, relaxed self:
Card 1: What do I need to let go of to relax?
Card 2: And what else do I need to let go of to relax (there’s always more than one thing!)
Card 3: Where’s my field of daisies?
Card 4: How should I get there?
Card 5: What will I bring back with me besides daisies?
This one was really fun. I got 7 Wands–Hierophant–Wheel–8 Swords–Page Cups. So, let go of the struggle of being in charge, throw out the traditional rules, go to the auto races or a gambling resort (!), get there by releasing yourself from your imagined restrictions, and bring back new or renewed feelings/relationships (new lover!). Let’s go!
Reply with your reading in the comments if you’d like. I’d love to hear about it!
Thank you for stopping by. You can use the links below to navigate through the rest of the hop. They are all well worth your while. 🙂
