Gillian Monks

'Making Fairytales Come True'

Tag: Lammas loaf

Lammas Greetings!

Time for the colours of the harvest and hot sunny days to creep into our home decoration – I just love it!

I would like to wish you all a very happy Lammas today, and for the coming days, weeks and months of harvesttime.

The word ‘Lammas’ originates from the Saxon for ‘loaf mass’, the special baking and consumption of the first loaf from the new grain harvest. This is a relatively new tradition which only evolved with the practice of agriculture and the  domestication of wheat and other grains a few thousand years ago. It is no less important to us now than it was then, and with the rapidly changing and volatile state of the weather around the world and the effect it is having on our environment, each and every harvest safely brought in is literally a triumph.

This year, certainly in the U.K., I have heard farmers worrying about the amount of rain that we have bee experiencing countrywide, the fact that they couldn’t get out onto the land to plant the seed and that when they did, it was rotting in the ground. Yields this year are predictably lower than usually expected and in previous centuries, this might have spelled widespread shortages and hunger. Nor can we rely on topping up our supplies by importing from other parts of the globe as everywhere is being effected in different but just as severe ways, either by manmade aggression and misuse or extremes of weather resulting from it.

So, when you eat some bread today, chew it well and really appreciate the taste, and the fact that you are lucky enough to have it on your plate. Give great thanks to the Earth which allows us to grow and harvest it in abundance. We are truly blessed. Send out some loving appreciation for what the land provides, and keep on acknowledging and sending out your thankfulness.

 

A Golden Day!

Spent a wonderful day with my family at Cae Non yesterday! The weather was hot and sunny with blue skies and the land was awash with blossom. One of the main focuses of the day was the ritual mixing of our Lammas loaf – or in this particular instance, four flat loaves which were baked on a planc or griddle over an open wood fire. We all took turns to knead the dough and then left it to rise under a damp cloth in the

The land of Cae Non! Our land is actually visible in this picture, but you have to know where to look!

warm sunshine while we wandered off to climb a neighbouring hill.

In spiritual terms, hills can be seen as liminal places, between earth and the heavens. (Think of the tradition of climbing a hill to receive wisdom – Moses and the ten commandments or the Quaker, George Fox, who had certain revelations on Pendle Hill.) This time of year is the season of the grain harvest and in ancient agricultural terms, the time when the masculine energy of the ripening crops of grain sacrifice themselves to the scythe and sickle of the farmer so that humanity might feed and prosper through another long winter.

We climbed to a space which sits high between the sea and the narrow land of Pen Llyn, with the lofty, hazy mountains of Snowdonia in the far distance. Villages, fields, bays, beaches, hills and mountains were spread out around us like a huge and magical quilt. It felt wondrously freeing to literally rise above it all and get life into perspective. To look down and literally and metaphorically see everything mapped out below. We could also clearly see our own land of Cae Non, vigorously bushing out with young tree growth as it transforms from a boggy, weedy, neglected field into a shady, sunny, be-flowered adventure of magic and mystery.

 

How many thousands of generations of our ancestors have sat besides such a fire to cook and eat their meals?

The wonder about the natural world – and life in general – is that there is always something lovely to anticipate and look forward to. I hope that you are enjoying this powerfully invigorating and nurturing season and storing up all the sunshine and Vitamin D against the darker, colder days to come.

Later, once more restored to our own domain, our own miniature domain, my husband lit a fire outside and we began to cook and bake our evening meal. The sun sank lower in the sky. I have noticed that already the quality of sunlight has begun to change from the bright, clear, almost white light of midsummer to more mellow, golden tones which herald the approach of autumn.

For those of us who are lucky enough not to be experiencing deluges of rain and flooding, the beaches, mountains sides, woodlands and sunny gardens all await you – go out and make the most of Lammas-time… and have fun!

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