The Book of Kitchen Witchery: Spells, Recipes, and Rituals for Magical Meals, an Enchanted Garden, and a Happy Home

by Cerridwen Greenleaf

Turn your kitchen into a pagan power center using herbs, crystals, and spells for health, wealth, love, and happiness.

Turn your kitchen into a pagan power center using herbs, crystals, and spells for health, wealth, love, and happiness.

Are you seeking more contentment in your daily life? Could you use more money to improve home and hearth? Are you looking for ways to spice up your love life? This gorgeously illustrated book will greatly enhance your every day with secrets, spells, and witchy wisdom, passed down through many generations and collected in one place for the first time by bestselling author Cerridwen Greenleaf. Filled with recipes and rituals, The Book of Kitchen Witchery explores every aspect of “the good life,” from how to create an altar as your personal power center to which herbs and plants have properties to heal and how to cook enchanting meals for all occasions, along with green Wicca ways to grow your own Garden of Eden.

The kitchen of a witch is a thing to behold—a sacred space where good health, abundance, luck, and love can be conjured. Cerridwen Greenleaf has gathered her years of spellcraft in this vibrant volume containing everything you need to know to increase your bliss quotient. She includes meditations, charms, folk wisdom, and incantations along with instructive lore covering astrological aspects, phases of the moon, candle color alchemy, and exactly which domestic goddesses to invoke. The inspired ideas in this practical guide will empower you to create a happy home filled with the best kind of magic.

Genres: Witchcraft, Nonfiction, Reference, Spirituality, Witches, Magic, Cookbooks

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2016

Reviews

[Luminea]

I have followed my own path of hearthcraft and kitchen witchery for over 25 years and hadn't picked up a book on the subject in a very long time. I found myself enjoying this lighthearted and beautifully illustrated book with some nice recipes and basic teachings. However, it was spoiled for me when I reached the chapter about love magic and found a knotwork spell to bind your chosen object of affection to you. The spell calls for you to write down "the name of the person whose affection you seek" and perform the binding spell "each evening until your will is done." Finally, the author cautions the reader to "be very sure of your heart's desire as this spell is everlasting." Whether this spell actually works or not, anyone genuinely living a pagan life would recognize this as a form of manipulation, violation of free will, and against the concept of Harm None. There is no discussion of ethics in this book, so hopefully a beginner to the craft is also studying other books that caution them against just this sort of thing. Seasoned witches like myself can find a few nice tidbits of info and recipes in this book and enjoy its pretty pages but must make an effort to overlook the fluff such as this.

[Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!}]

Rating: 2.5

This book was a mixed bag for me. She dedicated the book to Z Budapest, which is just a yikes from me. A little too Wiccan for me. Please do your own research/consult a doctor when it comes to eating herbs/supplements, or/and putting things on your body, especially if you have a medical condition or/and take meds. Woo responsibly. The art was beautiful tho.

[Deanna ✰ ☾]

I was unfortunately a bit disappointed with this book. It's basically word-for-word the same exact book as The Practical Witch's Spell Book: For Love, Happiness, and Success. The only difference is the illustrations and the fact that there are a few more recipes in this book than there are in The Practical Witch's Spell Book.

[Raven Wells]

I’m torn between saying this is for beginners and the advanced. Many concepts are explained for the beginner such as monthly moon meanings, basics of herb correspondences, and the wheel of the year. However, there is VERY little warning on the use of herbs. Even if it is aimed for the advanced, there should always be a reminder to research how an herb will counteract medications or health concerns. There were a few that could be dangerous to say someone should use (this herb will help type 2 diabetics—yikes! Seek medical advice before mixing your current meds and herbs!). The author does have a lot of recipes for making your own alcohol which can easily become poisonous if not done properly. The author is obviously Wiccan and yet, she doesn’t follow the basic rule of harm none when it comes to love spells. Most pagans and witches would agree that casting a love spell on a specific person is against a moral code (whichever one you follow). Since the author appears to be Wiccan, this makes it even worse. For example you’ve got this incantation for a spell “rye of earth, pimento of fire, eaten surely lights desire. Serve to be whose love I crave, and his heart I will enslave.” And earlier in the chapter you’ve got the “set of spellbinding—knotted heartstrings” spell which is to bring in the “the person whose affection you seek”. The verbiage in it is concerning as well, “one knot to seek my love, one to find my love. One to bring my love, one to bind my love. Forever bound together as one. So more it be; this charm is done.” Some of the recipes are interesting. The reason this review is as high as I’ve set it is because the artwork in this book is absolutely stunning. I will say this, it is published from one of the major witchcraft publishing houses which is usually a red flag for getting any reliable information on the Craft. It always leans towards the “trendy” witchcraft without the depth you’ll find in more well known authors. It’s alright for a casual read and I had planned to recommend it as a book for your friends or family to get an idea of what kitchen witchcraft was until the spells mentioned above and lack of warnings. Be cautious reading or recommending this one.

[Khaliela Wright]

Delightful Workbook for Magical Women

This book kept me from languishing! While nearly everyone was bemoaning being locked-up, locked-down, and social distanced, I explored the magical world that was my own kitchen. The spells, rituals, and informational asides kept me entertained through much of the pandemic, nurturing both body and soul.

The bulk of the book is divided into eight chapters, with room for journaling at the end. Each chapter contains spells, rituals, recipes, and useful magical information you can tuck away in your book of shadows. The chapters on gardening and cooking were fantastic! I strongly recommend treating this book like a college text book: underline passages, highlight items of importance, write in the margins.

Read the whole review and see pictures at: https://khalielawright.com/book-revie...

[Briar 🏳️‍🌈]

This has decent info but nothing I couldn’t find online. I still prefer books even when information is easily accessible for free. The authors writing style reminded me of books I read in the late 90’s/early 200’s that were already dated by that time. I was genuinely surprised by the more recent publication date. Very gendered and has some odd wording that makes me think the author is stuck in the world of paganism and witchcraft my mom may have encountered before I was born. I’m 31 currently just FYI. This doesn’t make it a bad book. Just giving a warning to those who may find this unappealing. It’s absolutely stunning and fills me with nostalgia of books I read growing up. So I added one more star.

[Jina]

Not my cup of tea.
I did read this cover to cover, as I kept hoping it would get better somewhere. Formating and the art work were nice. However, not only is this book very Wiccan, but 90% of the "spells" are just recipes. There's literally no magical intent behind any of them outside of the fact that you made them so they're magical. I was hoping for recipes full of intent - instead I got some lists of correspondences and then some alleged "pagan recipies".
Also, there's a binding love spell - which is super not Wiccan and would be highly frowned upon by most witches.

[saffrondaydreams ~]

An interesting book, with tidbits of info and lore, visually pleasing, but kitchen witchery is about 5th or 6th down the list of my preferred methods of practicing my arts and/or experiencing the magic. Still, there's practical and useful information in the book, although it's not large or exhaustive, but for someone who actually LIKES being in the kitchen, it would be great. It would make a nice gift, too.

[Arlene Kellas]

I think this book will be joining by recipe book library. At first I wasn’t sure but it does have some great recipes and easy rituals in it. I can’t wait to make candied herbs and love shortcake.

I really like that the author chose different dowries and gave us knowledge of different groups just guiding us on our quest to enlightenment.

[Stefanie]

So this short book took me more than 3 weeks to finish. It did not inspire me, felt like a companion book and I felt that the order in which things were presented were an unorginized mess. Like thoughts put down and then not looked over and fleshed out. Basically, it felt like a cashgrab.

Loved the art.

[Maven Witch]

This book has the feeling of grandma’s cluttered cookbook, with random pages on notes and journal entries and lists of ingredients, with a slight bit of organization by topic. I actually really enjoyed this format and feel it worked well for this particular book. It’s easy to use as a reference and flip back through when need be, and its style allows for free flowing imagination and inspiration.

[Laura]

very simple but some good ways to easily integrate magical practice in life.
Faris was excited to make the love tea- great to have some easy magic to do with the kids.
I would definitely tinker with some of the recipies and I might rewrite some of the incantations

[Ellie]

Lovely illustrations. Some parts are more interesting than others.

[Hannah]

Overall this was a fairly good book. It has a heavy Wiccan slant which I'm not the biggest fan of but there were good jumping off points.

[Gianna]

Solidly a 4-star book. After seeing all the low reviews, I gave it five stars.

[Candii]

3.5

[Patricia Puckett]

Very informative and I think a great place to start when learning about the craft.

[Davide Sarti]

Magic plus cooking? My perfect kind of book!
I really loved the recipies and the spells of this book, as well as the beautifull illustrations!
I can't wait to try a few ones!

[Whitney Stanfield]

A little dated or nostalgic to the Wiccan Wave of the 90s but overall not a bad read.

[Gracie Griffin]

good, informational for beginners

[Jessica]

A gift from a dear old friend. Whimsical, with joyful illustrations and recipes.

[Amanda]

Was expecting something more than what I got… this is mostly a cookbook

[Natalie Heidenreich]

Super cozy! Inspired me to be more intentional in the kitchen, and view cooking as something meditative.

[Kate Daly]

Excellent reference book

[Taylor Mabry]

Fun little book of recipes

[Rosie Campbell]

another amazing book by this author! the illustrations are absolutely beautiful and the content is super interesting. i especially love the journalling space and prompts at the end

[Isabelle]

Great spells, candle information also and so on.
Very happy with it for now!
I'm glad I found this ages ago before the pandemic.
This kind of book vanished from local bookshops now we have to order online and pay more, sigh.

[Alexis Douglas]

It works as a guided meditation. I would have liked to see more references in the back, but this is good for a quick read through. The recipes look delicious, and I can't wait for ritual to make them!

[Emily]

Lovely illustrated, this book contains a few interesting ideas and simple recipes, easy to adapt even if you follow a different diet, which is always appreciated - and, in my case, needed.