Tag Archives: chicory

How to Roast Chicory Root (St. James Day Chicory Part 2)

Posted on July 29, 2013 | Leave a comment

wpid-IMG_20130728_091402.jpgLast week I gathered Chicory on St. James’ Day.  In order to use it to brew a coffee like drink, I had to roast it.  Instructions on how to do so vary greatly.  Some people advise drying the roots first, followed by chopping, roasting, and then grinding.

I’ve done it several ways, but here’s the method that works best for me.  This method is especially nice if you don’t have a coffee grinder.

wpid-IMG_20130728_090544.jpgDry the roots in a cool dry place.  Small roots the diameter of a pencil dry in just a few days.  Put dry roots on a cutting board and mince them the way you would garlic into coffee-ground size.  Put them in the oven at 350° (I used a toaster oven) until they’re the color of coffee (just a few minutes).  Be careful — they will smoke and burn!  Allow to cool and store until ready to brew.

wpid-IMG_20130728_093854.jpgTo brew, add about 1 tsp. of chicory to 1 cup very hot water and allow to steep for a couple of minutes.  Pour through a regular coffee filter and enjoy.  Or, if you gathered them on St. James’ Day at noon or midnight like I did, save them until you come up with a special ritual to surround their enjoyment.  More to come next week.

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Gathering Chicory on Saint James’ Day

Posted on July 25, 2013 | 1 comment

Frazier mentions in The Golden Bough (3rd edition, Vol. XI, p. 71) that, according to his source at least, White Chicory harvested at noon or midnight on St. James’ Day (July 25th), has the power to open all locks and doors.  It should be cut using a gold implement and one must not utter a sound while cutting.†

Although I have no golden knife (who does?), I went forward today in silence.  I assume when Frazier says “White Chicory” he means that one should select plants with the faded blossoms that are virtually white.  That’s what I did.

What locks do I need to pick?   What doors to open?  I intend to work up a ritual around the plant and its root to aid me in the opening of non-material doors — doors of perception, spiritual doors, Doors of the Will.

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Root and base of Chicory plant

†The entire passage from Frazier:

“The superstition which associates the springwort with the woodpecker is very ancient, for it is recorded by Pliny. It was a vulgar belief, he tells us, that if a shepherd plugged up a woodpecker’s nest in the hollow of a tree with a wedge, the bird would bring a herb which caused the wedge to slip out of the hole; Trebius indeed affirmed that the wedge leaped out with a bang, however hard and fast you might have driven it into the tree. Another flower which The white possesses the same remarkable power of bursting open all doors and locks is chicory, provided always that you cut the flower with a piece of gold at noon or midnight on St. James’s Day, the twenty-fifth of July. But in cutting it you must be perfectly silent ; if you utter a sound, it is all up with you. There was a man who was just about to cut the flower of the chicory, when he looked up and saw a millstone hovering over his head. He fled for his life and fortunately escaped ; but had he so much as opened his lips, the millstone would have dropped on him and crushed him as flat as a pancake. However, it is only a rare white variety of the chicory flower which can act as a picklock; the common bright blue flower is perfectly useless for the purpose.”

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