Happy New Year to you. I know it’s a little late in the month maybe, but with all the talk of Wintering on social media, I decided to take it a little slower this year and I have spent the first couple of weeks of 2025 working out what I want from this year. The main thing is to spend more time here, working on this blog. I love being in the kitchen. I adore starting a new craft project. I want to find and create more magic. So here are the goals I have set myself for this year, that will encourage more writing and more witchiness. If any of them resonate or are also on your list, I’d love you to come along on the journey with me. Make sure to sign up to my newsletter to catch all the updates and I’ll be sending some tips and freebies your way too.
Goal Number 1: Eat More Plants
Towards the end of last year I came across an article that said we should be aiming to eat not just 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, but a wider variety of 30 different plants over a week. This includes not just your fruit and vegetables, but grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, herbs and spices as well. Even tea, coffee and chocolate can go towards your total tally (although they only count as a quarter point, as do herbs and spices). It doesn’t matter how they are cooked, but just get as much variety into your diet as you can. We are looking forward to trying new ways to get some extra plants into our food & will be including some suggestions in our weekly newsletter.
Goal number 2 : Create a Sustainable Herb Garden
To support Goal number 1, my plan is to learn more about growing, preserving and using my own herbs. last year I tried (and failed) to grow a number of vegetables. This year I will narrow my focus and and concentrate on plants I can grow on my windowsill or in a smaller place. This will likely include a small chilli plant, some flowers, sprouting seeds and microgreens… but my primary focus will be on ensuring I have a supply of herbs I can use all year round. The thought of having my own apothecary to cook from, with herbs to use in teas and rituals, to make tinctures and potions with is just dreamy.
Goal number 3 : Create a Kitchen Grimoire
A Grimoire is a Witch’s spell book and journal. A place to keep correspondences, spells, rituals, information, recieps and notes. A recipe with a little extra magic, if you will. There are a few recipes we cook frequently that I would like to record for when our daughter heads off on her own and I’d like to have them all in one place. How this will look yet, I don’t know.
Goal number 4 : A Homemade Treat Box
My grandmother, who we called Mams, always had something baked in the pantry ready to offer guests with a cup of tea. Whether a Welsh Cake, a slice of Bara Brith or a jam tart. I have become a bit disenchanted with the cakes and pastries on offer in the supermarkets and I miss the days of running a cake shop when I had any number of cakey treats on hand to get a little sugar fix. I’d like to get into a routine of having something home-baked ready to grab, and offer guests, when the need arises. This will hopefully become a weekly series of recipes for you to enjoy!
Goal number 5 : More Mindful Crafting
I have always been pretty creative and often have a number of projects on the go, but the last couple of years I haven’t been as crafty as I would have liked. This year I am setting the intention to plan mindful crafting time and try out some new activities. Painting by numbers, diamond art, air dry clay, colouring, knitting, crochet, embroidery, sewing, macrame are just some ideas I have so far. Let me know what other suggestions you have in the comments.
Goal number 6 : Less Waste
Primarily I mean food waste. Making sure I spend some time looking at what we have in the fridge, freezer or fruit bowl and using or freezing it before it goes bad. Some weeks last year I was mortified at the food we were throwing away, either because we had made too much or it had been forgotten at the back of the fridge. What DO you do with a quarter block of feta cheese? Or the last scrapings in a jar? Or the leftovers you kept for lunch but really don’t fancy eating for 3 days?
So there you have it, these are our goals and intentions for 2025. Every week in our newsletter I’ll be including some tips on some or all of these, depending on what has worked (or not) for us. If you have any of the same goals let us know in the comments and feel free to share ideas and suggestions too.
