From Lammas to a Wiffle Waffle

via Breads, Bannocks, Sheep catching and Rodent Removal Charms

Dearest Gentle Reader

How are you, I hope this recent glorious summer weather has brought joy to you and yours. It is certainly harvest weather, dry and hot and coincidentally this is the first day of the old harvest festivals. Lammas Day (1 August) marks the celebration of the wheat harvest in the British Isles. Although I have written about it before (in 2022) and mentioned how making bread on this day helped me connect to the earth in a way that my city dwelling self rarely does, I did however get distracted with the Goddesses Hestia and Hecate in that letter. I did touch on how a glorious challah loaf brought back visceral memories of how the world feels at harvest time in the country but I feel we could stand a revisit and maybe an exploration of some of the folklore and ritual about this day and I could also fix a couple of my mistakes. I am also experimenting with bringing you an audio version of a an English trickster folktale that fits this day perfectly (to be found towards end of letter).

We should probably begin at the beginning as far as we can and look at the origins of Lammas which marks the start of the harvest festival period which started now and ran until the end of September dependent on which crop you were harvesting. Lammas Is believed to have been derived from Old English hlaf, meaning 'loaf' and mæsse, meaning ’mass' or celebration. This is believed to have come from the blessing of a loaf from the first harvested grain and the ceremonies surrounding it. It was also one cross quarter days in the English year. We have evidence of celebrations taking place on this day back to the 9th Century and in the early medieval period it was also known as the Feast of First Fruits and was mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

This is still a Christian feast day and probably marks the oldest contact between the Church and the agricultural community. Instructions for celebrating this day still form part of Common Worship in the Anglican Church which was launched in 2000. The Christian festival of Lammas sits separately from the Irish celebration of Lughnasadh which also celebrates the first day of harvest. Although both festivals are fully supplied with Ls and Ss the names come from different routes: the Irish festival honouring Lugh the God of Light. The rituals and folklore I will be sharing shortly are purely from the English Lammas historic tradition. Lughnasadh and Lammas are also celebrated by many Pagan and Wiccan communities and some consider the names/festivals to be interchangeable in their traditions and I would not want to offend or distress someone for whom these celebrations are an important part of their faith.

This is my long winded way of saying that I am going to concentrate on bringing you some of the folklore about Lammas that is based on the historic evidence we have of this day dating back to 9th Century rather than the religious aspects or any possible earlier pre-christian celebrations. This is a special day even if you are not a believer, the first day of harvest is a joyous celebration of hoped for plenty and prosperity. Many of us have lost touch with the rhythms of the earth in our post industrial revolution landscapes, and with them, the comfort that can be found in growth, harvest, death and rebirth. The importance of harvests are forcing their way back into the urban bubble though, with the more noticeable impact on food prices and availability as the result of war and climate change in recent years.

Harvest however, has never actually stopped being important and if you have ever spent time in rural locations you can sense that in the almost palpable feeling of potentiality in the air. The feeling of the sun and light on your skin and the smells of freshly harvested grain never really leave you but that’s not to romanticise the experience. Those workers who had to harvest by hand were in for a hard, dangerous time until the eventual celebration at Harvest Home usually in September. They often wore corn knots in their clothes and hats and carried blessed charms to help avoid accidents. This was all ahead on Lammas Eve where workers who had worked the hay harvest were sometimes given an opportunity to capture a sheep who was set loose amongst the returning workers and the person who captured it got to keep it. There are also stories about the devil being abroad on this night to bring bad luck to the future harvest but this may have been a more recent tale.

The real star of Lammas was the loaf that was made from the first grain which was blessed as part of the mass at the church on Lammas day or the nearest Sunday. This blessed bread was supposed to be a good omen for the harvest ahead. It had the added benefit that you could use it as part of a charm on your barn to protect the grain after harvest. There is a charm to be found in a manuscript written in a monastery in the 11th Century and can now be found in the British library (Cotton Vitellius E xviii) . My Latin is very rusty and my anglo Saxon English is non-existent but essentially the bread was broken and placed into 4 corners of the barn whilst a prayer was said which suggested that the barn would now be like Jerusalem where mice did not dwell and so the mice would not eat, gather grain or enjoy the fruits of the harvest. I have to be honest, I’m not sure Google translate was very helpful here but hopefully this is a vaguely accurate translation.

This was not the only ritual that existed as a celebration and I found several more which you might like to hear about via the journal Folklore:

In Wales “On Lammas Sunday little houses, called " Lammas Houses," were set up on "corse." They were made of sods, reeds, and sticks, and a fire was lighted inside them, and apples roasted, people paying a penny to go in and have a roasted apple”. There is sadly no context but clearly a lot of effort was involved. Apples have a lot of meanings in rural communities so I’ll let you make up your own mind.

In Scotland when the breeding ewes were clipped in the Spring, they were also milked and the milk was reserved to make a cheese, the cheese was then kept until Beltane (1 May). At Beltane, an oatmeal bannock was prepared for each member of the family, egg was whipped and spread over each side and cooked. A slice of the special cheese was placed onto each bannock and the cheese and bannock had to be eaten by each member of the family before Sunset. The cheese was then preserved until Lammas when it must be eaten before Sunset ‘even although the dogs had to get part of it”. It also notes that no special bannock was made on that day. It may well be because the special break baked that day was being used to protect the harvest. This is complete fabrication on my part but I like the sound of it. I can imagine women refusing to do two special loaves in one day but I may well be doing them a disservice.

The third is a piece from Oxfordshire about a celebration involving ‘Lamb Ale’ made from barley that grew in specific fields of the Parish, eventually the custom died out and the landowner just provided the beer but it does seem a shame as it was also connected with other interesting rituals around Morris dancing and a Whit Hunt (sadly not ceremonial). Eventually even the beer disappeared. This is actually the only historic evidence I could find for a special Lammas ale but I have to admit I didn’t have time to look further once I went down the rabbit hole of this wonderful festival. I can’t imagine a festival that celebrated the grain harvest in a country that is very keen on beer and used it to celebrate everything wouldn’t make use of grain to make beer for this. If you add in the fact that barley usually matures earlier than wheat then I think we can safely imagine that beer would have featured.

If you want to celebrate and honour our pre-industrial ancestors on this joyous day of our historic agricultural calendar, there are so many excellent bread recipes out there. I have previously made a selection of different breads as part of my personal celebration of the day. My favourites being a caraway seeded soda bread and a challah made frrom Ella Risbridger’s wonderful book Midnight Chicken and Other Recipes Worth Living For. I have heard a whisper that if you gloss your loaf with egg white you can write your heart’s desire on the loaf at the same time and the baking might bring it closer.

It might be nice to make a recipe that means something to you to mark the start of a new season but if making bread isn’t your thing then maybe just buy your favourite and just enjoy eating a gift from nature even if its just around a cheese & crisp filling. Garlic cheesebread is always an option.

The grain is still there in the cheapest white loaf.

In fact, as this day is also known as the Feast of First Fruits you could enjoy white thick sliced toast and jam whilst giving thanks, which would be no less effective than your own sourdough, goat’s cheese, honey and a selection of perfect berries. If you enjoy an alcoholic drink then a fruit or sour beer would be good with that cheese & crisp sandwich or garlic cheesebread. Alternatively you could have lemon barley squash with your jam on toast or maybe even a raspberry cordial with fizzy water. Whatever floats your boat. You could enjoy whilst listening to the following tale:

Before I leave you my loves, I hope you enjoyed hearing me tell the tale of the Farmer and the Bogle. I would love it if you would let me know in the comments but write quietly, you wouldn’t want to attract the attention of a bogle, they can be very destructive, although the ones in Scotland and the border countries appear to only cause problems to those who have committed crimes and will sometimes act on behalf of the innocent.

They are considered to be a kind of goblin according to Katharine Brigg’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies and The Vanishing People. They are particularly known for their mischievous tendencies and usually wish to cause some sort of harm for they own entertainment. There are the sort of creatures that tempt a late night traveller off the path and leads them all over until they collapse exhausted with the dawn. I believe that wearing your jacket inside out can stop the attention of the fair folk should you be concerned about this happening to you after a night out with friends.

I must now bring this letter to a close. Please don’t hesitate however, to get in touch via the comments via any of my social media profiles/my website . If you have enjoyed this and would like to read further such nonsense and have not yet subscribed, please don’t hesitate to subscribe for free at the button below. You’d be very welcome and it would be a joy to write to you.