Good Afternoon,
This week found the Contemporary New England Witch high on a hill in South Glastonbury, CT on a blueberry farm. I go picking one incredible, blessed, serene day a year. I call it going to church. High on a hill, surrounded by hundreds of acres of blueberry bushes, birds singing and eating their breakfast of sweet, plump, ripe berries, it is a day I look forward to yearly.
I always end up picking between 10 and 11 pounds of berries, that's what one of the berry farm's buckets hold, and use them fresh and freeze some for use throughout the winter. The humble blueberry, while very delicious, also has magickal properties to it. All things found in nature have magickal properties. Trees, herbs, vegetables and fruits, even stones, crystals and minerals. But the blueberry has the magickal property of banishment and protection. Using a blueberry branch as a wand can rid your area of all sorts of negative and harmful energies. They provide protection and even internally, by eating them, they can surround your body with protective energies keeping harmful energies away. This is not a medical statement, as we don't give medical advice, blueberries are not eaten in this case for medical reasons but for magickal ones.
A fun and delicious way to eat blueberries is in a pie. Pies have been made for centuries and are an excellent way to enjoy many fruits. To make a simple, yet delicious blueberry pie follow this simple recipe:
Ingredients needed for 1 pie:
A store bought raw dough pie crust (top and bottom)
4 cups of fresh, clean picked blueberries
1 cup granulated sugar plus a little extra for dressing the pie
1/4 cup dried tapioca (found in the pudding or baking sections of your store)
appx 1/8 cup of milk for dressing the pie crust
a tin pie plate appx 9-10 inches in diameter
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Press pie dough in bottom of the pie tin, being sure to press firmly in the bottom and up the sides.
Take a large mixing bowl, and pour in berries, sugar and tapioca. Be sure tapioca is in it's dry state, right out of the box. Mix all ingredients gently in mixing bowl until all berries are covered with sugar/tapioca mix. Try not to break or bruise the berries.
Gently pour berry mix into pie shell. It will mound up as you want the pie to be quite filled and not thin and stingy. Then wet edges of pie crust along rim of pie tin with milk. Then gently lay second pie crust over the berries, being sure it is evenly laid over entire pie with no extreme excess of crust on one side or the other. Press pie crust gently along the edges. Then using your thumb and forefinger push crust along edge to make a pretty edge. Practice with this until it looks nice. If you are having little luck with making an edge, a simple old fashioned way is to dip a fork into milk and press the tines along the edge making a fork print all along the edge of the pie. Then using a knife gently trim off any excess crust.
Then using a pastry brush, brush entire crust with milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Then take the knife and slice a few air slits to allow for steam. These slits can be in a decorative pattern if you like.
Place pie tin on a cookie sheet and place in hot oven. Allow to cook for appx. an hour, but you will know when it is done as the blueberry juice will run out of the top crust. If the juice doesn't run, it is NOT done cooking. The crust will be a nice brown. Then take the pie out and place on a counter for a couple of hours for it to cool. Refrigerate after it cools. Can be served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
If you are using frozen berries, the same recipe works, except expect to increase cooking time by at least 10-15 minutes. Again, look for the blueberry juice to escape the pie to know it's done. Enjoy!!
No matter how you enjoy blueberries, fresh, frozen, in a pie, pancakes, muffins or cobblers, they bring protection into your life and help rid your world of negative, unwanted energies and that's a good thing!
Peace and Happiness!
© 2010-2015 Faith M. McCann. Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.
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