Sometimes the right spell comes to you at the right time.
In this case, as is often the case for me as I practice cottage-style witchery, the “spell” was a perfect recipe: Fire Cider Bloody Marys. If you’ve been following along for a while, you may have caught on by now that I like to eat my magic – I feel that this method allows for quick integration of your spell components and intention with your energy (fueled, of course, by the fire of your own digestive tract!) Sometimes, I craft spells that are meant entirely to be consumed but more often than not, I create them as an additional level of energy to other workings that I am doing.
A note on kitchen magic: Like many types of magic, kitchen magic can have many layers. It is totally okay to look at this recipe, buy its ingredients, and make it – one and done. That’s just not how I do magic. I like to craft as many of the pieces of the spell as I can. This allows me to slowly infuse my intention into every step of the process. Here I will give guidelines for crafting your own fire cider and eastern white pine vodka but always adapt this to your own practice.
A note on healing magic: This recipe is designed, as I have written it to be created to Protect Against or Banish mild illness. It is in no way a substitute for a doctor’s visit and shouldn’t be taken as medical advice.
It’s been a hard two years. (You know, you’ve been there – haven’t you?) Though I work from home, this past couple of months has been especially challenging for my partner who runs a frame shop and printing business that forces him to work closely with the general population. He’s seen everything from customers who show up in full charcoal respirators to those that come in visibly sick and coughing. Since he can’t not work (we are not, unfortunately, independently wealthy), we’ve come up with a series of “bad day protocols” – how we both respond when he thinks that he may have been exposed to somebody who appeared to be ill. The one that we’ve both found to be the most enjoyable is the shot of half fire cider and half whiskey that we each take together (drinking to our continued health and safety) after he has sanitized himself on a bad day.
This is why, when we came across the idea that one might mix fire cider into a Bloody Mary, we knew that it was going to be a winner. We’re both cocktail fanatics and a fan of brunch, so the Bloody Mary is an absolute favorite drink in our household. The spicier the better, too – the best Bloody Marys that we have ever had (prior to this anyway!) have all been in the South. We bicker back and forth – he favors the bacon Bloody Marys we had in a cute brunch place in Charleston (I have sadly lost its name to time) and I favor the jalapeno Bloody Marys that we had at The Olde Pink House in Savannah. We both also tend to prefer a Bloody Mary prepared with gin rather than the traditional vodka for a bit more flavor.
Once we’d tried the recipe and agreed that it was, in fact, a HUGE success; I immediately got to the witching. In my opinion, all it takes is a bit of kitchen witch knowledge and some general ingenuity to turn a solid drink into a magic potion. (The secret is in the stirring or the shaking) For my fire cider blood mary, the magical associations were obvious: vodka or gin are generally used for protection as is tomato juice, and all of the ingredients used to make a solid fire cider are amazing for banishment. I decided to add in one extra special secret ingredient, my eastern white pine vodka infusion to further the protective energy. Sure enough, the sweet notes of the sap and the lower earthy tones of the pine needles were the exact right thing to bring a very solid cocktail to one that was absolutely over the top.
Eastern White Pine Vodka
I’ve written about my discovery of the wonder that is Eastern White Pine vodka before. It is so simple to make and is absolutely divine! You just gather some pine needles and the woody ends off of an eastern white pine tree, fill a jar and cover with vodka, and let sit for a week. Yes – it is really that easy! You don’t even need high-end vodka for this purpose – we use the store brand vodka from our local grocery store. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you are wild harvesting, the location of the plant matters. I would stay away from harvesting from a plant near a major roadway, cemetery, or other places where toxic chemicals may have seeped into the ground and been absorbed into the tree. Additionally, you want to avoid places that may be sprayed with pesticides.
Luckily for us, our friends have a number of mature eastern white pines on their property that we can safely harvest from. It takes a relatively small amount of pine to fill even a half-gallon Ball jar, so the tree doesn’t even notice and, in any case, what lies low to the ground will be goat food if we don’t get to it first! (The perils of being a tree on a goat farm, I suppose). I have really enjoyed picking pine with the yearlings who I’ve known since the day that they were born last April.
Eastern White Pine, like all of the members of the pine family, has magical associations with Fertility, Abundance, Protection, and Road Opening. Make sure that you put your intention into your pine vodka as you are infusing it – you can do this by talking to your vodka every day as you shake it, with candle magic, sigils, or any other way that you normally work your intentions per your tradition.
Fire Cider
Fire cider, at its essence, is an oxymel created by using a bunch of immune-boosting ingredients. It is almost as easy to make as my Eastern White Pine vodka though it does involve a trip to the grocery store instead of to the goat farm (something that I find much less enjoyable if we’re being honest). It’s an old folk remedy of dubious parentage – some equate it to an updated version of the famed Four Thieves Vinegar and even its name has some controversy associated with it. That aside – when made properly – it is outstandingly good, will certainly “cure what ails you”, and is the perfect way to do a bit of longer-form kitchen magic.
I will talk about the associations for the ingredients that I used in my fire cider recipe, but please remember that magic-making (and cooking!) is a very personal experience – feel free to make this recipe your own! There are many recipes for fire cider online and you can certainly find one to your liking if this is not it. Just remember that for the purposes of this recipe (a fire cider bloody mary), you will want to keep your ingredients on the more savory end of the spectrum. Though tasty, a sweet fire cider would not work for our purposes!
Like with the pine vodka, fire cider is a longer form infusion though in this case, we use apple cider vinegar as the base. Choose an apple cider vinegar with a SCOBY for the probiotic benefits it will provide. Here we used onion (protection, banishing), garlic (protection, banishing), dried jalapeno peppers (protection, banishing), horseradish (protection), turmeric (healing), ginger (protection, healing), lemongrass (protection, healing), lemon (cleansing, healing), shallots (protection, banishing), and a few sprigs of eastern white pine (protection). These yummy ingredients need to meld together in the fire cider for four to six weeks – remember to shake your mixture daily to infuse your intention into the mixture! With fire cider, I tend to pick either an intention to Banish Illness, Protect Against Illness, or both. Once your infusion is done, you add raw honey to taste.
Store your fire cider in a cool, dry place and it will last indefinitely.
The Recipe
You’ll notice that I didn’t include a section for making your own tomato juice. This is because we haven’t perfected this yet – in fact, we are content to buy this part ourselves. Our current favorite is Mr. & Mrs. T’s Original Bloody Mary mix, that’s what I will use for this recipe. You can substitute V8, any other bloody mary mix you prefer, or go all the way out there and make your own tomato juice entirely. If you are using straight tomato juice, you may want to add lemon juice, Tobasco, and celery salt to your bloody mary – experiment until your drink is perfect for your tastes!
- 2 oz. Eastern White Pine Vodka
- 6 oz. Bloody Mary Mix
- 2 oz. Fire Cider
- 2-3 Dashes Angustora bitters
- 1-3 turns on pepper
- Optional garnish: 2-3 olives, a spring of eastern white pine
Add the first four ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously until the shaker is cold thinking about your intention to Protect Against or Banish Illness. Pour into the glass, top with cracked pepper for additional protection/banishment, olives on a cocktail skewer, and a sprig of eastern white pine. Makes one drink.