I am currently doing a Kitchen Witchery course online and gave just completed a section about food folklore, where it explored superstitions linked to food. I found this quite amusing so wanted to share some of the notes I made:
Apples: Apple branches make good wands for love magic. An apple can be cut into 3 during waning moon to heal. They should be rubbed on the required body part and then buried outside. Slice an apple and count the seeds to predict the number of children you will have.
Apricots: Having a dream involving apricots suggests good luck is coming.
Banana: Cutting a banana with a knife brings back luck.
Barley: Scattering it in the ground or window sill keeps evil away.
Bean: Rubbing a dry bean on warts during the waning moon will cure them.
Blackberry: They are effective in attracting money.
Blueberry: Put them under the doormat to repel undesirables.
Bread: Eating the corners brings a good relationship with your mother-in-law. Cutting bread unevenly means you are telling lies. If you get the last piece on the table, kiss the cook to avoid bad luck. If you burn baking bread, your lover is angry with you. Make a wish if you drop a slice of bread.
Carrot: Eating carrot seeds makes woman pregnant. Eating carrots brings lust and cures impotence.
Clove: carrying or wearing them attracts the opposite sex.
Coffee: Eat any bubbles from the cup with a spoon to attract money. If you spill coffee while drinking it, your lover is thinking about you. Dropping your coffee cup brings bad luck.
Corn: An ear of corn in a baby’s cot repels negative energy. A necklace made of dried kernels prevents nosebleeds.
Cucumber: Putting slices in the eyes aids astral travel.
Eggs: Double yolk means someone you know will have twins.
Grapes: Grapes on an altar will attract money. Eating 12 grapes at midnight on New Years Eve represents the 12 months of the year. If the grape is sweet, the month will be good. If it’s sour, it will be a bad month.
Lemon: Lemon juice and water will remove negative energy from amulets, charms and jewellery that was bought second hand. A slice of lemon placed under a friends chair will ensure a lasting friendship.
Lettuce: Rub on your forehead to help you fall asleep.
Mustard: Carrying seeds in a red cloth prevents colds and increases mental power.
Onion: Sticking a pin into an onion and sitting it in the window sill will chase away negative spirits. Rubbing an oninion on a wart and throwing it over your right shoulder will get rid of the wart. When making a decision, scratch each option into a separate onion and put them in a dark place. The first to sprout is your answer. Under a pillow, an onion will bring prophetic dreams.
Parsley: Planting parsley seeds helps a woman become pregnant. Gifting parsley at a dinner party brings back luck. If parsley thrives in a woman’s garden, she has a weak husband.
Peas: Shelling peas brings money and profit in business.
Potato: Carry one in your pocket to ease toothache. Carry the same potato in your pocket all winter to prevent a cold.
Rice: Throwing at newly weds brings them health and prosperity. Putting rice on the roof guards against misfortune. Throwing rice in the air can bring rain.
Salt: Spilling salt is bad luck. This is counteracted by tossing a pinch over the right shoulder with the left hand. Never pass a salt shaker to anyone as it is bad luck - place it in the table between you instead. A bowl of salt in a room eliminates negative energy. Burn a pinch of salt every morning for 7 days to bring an old lover back.
Tea: it’s bad luck for two people to pour tea from the same teapot. Milk before sugar in the cup means you’ll never marry. Undissolved sugar in the tea cup means someone is in love with you.
Tomato: Repels evil when placed on the window sill and at entrances.
Wine: Spilling it is bad luck unless you immediately dab some behind your ears.
Wishbone: Break with a friend and the one who gets the biggest part can make a wish.
Do any resonate with or have you heard any other good folk lore examples?
I would definitely agree with spilling wine bring back luck! What a waste! In Scotland, we often say that if you eat the crust on a slice of bread, you’ll get curly hair!
This one’s really old- early 1910’s: rub a piece of potato with an eye on a wart. Then bury the rubbing. The eye will grow into a fresh plant. As it grows, the wart will go away, and you will find prosperity.
The one about wine is post Christian. Before, people would spill a little on the ground as an offering to their deities (Mostly mentioned in Greek Myths).
Peel an apple with as thin and as long a piece as possible. Throw the peeling over the right shoulder to reveal the initial of the person you will marry (Victorian party trick).
Caution with putting uncooked rice outdoors. If a bird eats it, it can get stuck in the throat, swell, and choke the bird. Millet and other bird seed mixes work similarly in magick and won’t hurt the birds.
Walnuts placed in the bodice of a wedding dress will keep the couple from having children- one year per walnut.
Lemon juice drunk in other drinks will increase sensitivity to the flavor of salt so less salt is needed for enjoyment, thus reducing heart issues. Caution: will dry out the system if overdone.
Eat rosemary in food in spring to thin the blood as temperatures rise to ease a blue funk or to raise energy. Broccoli will do the same thing, raising energy in winter and spring. Do not do these if taking blood thinners under a doctor’s orders.
The onion (mostly), salt, wishbone (very common), rice, and eggs and others I’ve heard before. It has been a while, though. My sister in-law was Croat and her parents were attuned to folklore/folk magic. Many strange things would be said when we met at dinners. My sister in-law would have to translate a lot. I could tell she was a believer of much of it. They were all Catholic but they made room for their folk beliefs.
Oh… and yes, I think some are funny. Believers don’t like young kids (me) laughing at some of it, though.
In my Native American heritage, putting an onion high on a shelf repels evil and will also prevent illness. Also putting an onion near your bed will help in healing when sick.
@BryWisteria I love cooking but know very little about kitchen witchery so though perhaps exploring it further would be of benefit. I have only just started it but am enhoying it so far. It has 10 modules covering:
An introduction to kitchen witchery
Mindfulness
Keeping clean - physically and spiritually
Maintaining a gadden
Prepping, storing and using herbs
Magical preparations
Herbal first aid
Simple magic
Hearth and home goddesses and spirits
Timing
It is certainly beneficial for a beginner like me but more advanced and knowledgeable kitchen withes may already know the information given. It is also a paid course (£127) but I found a discount code and got it for £29 so a bargain!
@Amethyst thank you for the recommendation. I have some of his orher books so will certainly add this one to my wishlist!
@Mystique onions seem to have a lot of uses. Here, we put them in a newly painted room to absorb the paint fumes
One we used to do as kids with apples was to twist the stem while reciting the alphabet. Whatever letter the stem pulled off on was the first letter of your true love’s name
In Scotland, we often say that if you eat the crust on a slice of bread, you’ll get curly hair!
