In Lancashire our legends run deep. The more I discover the more the tales link up, especially as we enter Halloween and the end of the harvest season. My food tours are packed with stories and history from over 2000 years. As we explore pagan pathways, Roman highways and Viking sheep trails. As the clocks go back, time to share a few of “The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster” and wolves from this month of foodie wonders.
Way before Halloween, before Christianity arrived on our shores, Northern tribes celebrated Samhain. The 1st November marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter (or the “darker half” of the year”. The Celtic day started and ended at sunset. So 31st October was a night for feasting and fires. A night when portals opened to other worlds. Cattle were brought down from the pasture & spirits were appeased with offerings of food & drink. “Mumming” dressing up in costume & disguises, was all part of the festivities. So lets pull up a chair, by the glow of our phones and grab a Halloween treat, whilst I tell a few stories by the fireside.
Free speech and pointy hats
This October I have been circling Pendle Hill in the discovery of new artisans and what I have found has left me spell bound.
By a canal barge in Barnoldswick I met the wonderful Danielle, self confessed “Hedge Witch” and proprietor of Pendle Witch Tea Company. Friday 13th seemed an auspicious date to talk of ancient herbal ingredients, foraged amongst our wild places. Skills lost in the centuries, as “modernity” stamped out old practices. Whilst food frights, left us with over processed food on the shelves, baring little goodness for our bodies or soul.
We had a super charged chat about natural ingredients with super powers, from simple plants such as nettles and dandelion. Bowland & Bay hopes to weave in Danielle’s spectacular herbalist knowledge into some spring time natural food & forage tours in 2024. I will keep you posted.
For Halloween, I was delighted to a launch a brand new tour stop at the newly opened Pendle Witch Distillery. Dave gave his first Bowland & Bay guided tour, explaining whisky and the new home of Ribble Valley Gin. Total magic! One of my guests fully immersed herself in the moment with a purchase of gin and a pointy hat. As we stood in the heavenly scent and glow of Melt Candle shop next door, admiring The Hatness, our chat turned to “why are witches hats pointy”? Never one to leave a fact unchecked, my Sunday morning research led me to a possible answer. Which was both enlightening and Lancastrian.
Pendle Hill holds more legends than just witches. Back in 1652 George Fox received a vision high up t’hill, a place thought to be the haunt of demons, for “a great people to be gathered”. Quakerism and a society of friends was born. At the time their beliefs were considered wildly radical, especially in the view that women could preach. Quakers were unparalled in their gender equality for centuries. At the same point in 17th century time, hat fashion was big. For cavalliers and round heads, hat wear meant civil war. For many women a tall black hat with a wide brim was normal day wear. However a woman in such a hat, stood on upturned barrel preaching the word of God was radical and for some needed controlling. Somehow the lady preaching in the tall hat, became twisted into the witch legends that had started in Pendle in 1612.
Four centuries on, discussions on freedom of speech continue. Watching my guest carry off this fantastic hat, made me realise that it added both height, presence and focus. Handy for a preacher. I was delighted to find out she has been a Bank Manager for 20 years. Quakers were the founders of Barclays Banks, began the first tea & coffee houses and began all 3 of England’s chocolate businesses: Rowntrees, Frys and Cadburys. Anti slavery, pro women’s rights, foodies and entrepreneurs. So wear your “witches” hat with pride, it says more than you know about freedom and Lancashire.
A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing
On top of Cartmel priory is a golden wolf weathervane, marking the wind direction. One of my first markers, on my Cumbrian tours, as we enter the foodie epicentre of what Simon Rogan calls “the last bastion of wild food in the country”.
The Last Wolf of legend, lives on as a beer at Unsworth Yard and now as new member of the Bowland & Bay foodie tour. I often talk of Herdwick and Lonk sheep on my tours. these hardy breeds were likely introduced by the Vikings to take on the fell tops of the Lakes and Peninnes. However stroking a sheep on a tour is not in my wheelhouse. So my immensely talented crafting friend, Julie of Royal Wootton Bassett, has very kindly knitted me a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The white softer wool is Lonk and the grey is Herdwick. So his name is Henrick, a Norse nod to the sheep and our Northern wild places.
As the world feels more divided than ever, we have more that binds us than then pulls us apart. Food and history, folks and travels. We can reconnect and discover more from our past to take into the future. So thank you Quaker “Friends”, Romans, pagan countrymen & women, lend me your tastebuds. Celebrate the start of “the darker half” of the year, there is more light & stories by the fireside, than you can imagine, on an artisan foodie adventure.
