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In this spellbinding (and emotional!) conversation, Emily and Kate sit down with Scottish food historian Peter Gilchrist (@tenementkitchen) to talk about community building through food, Samhain traditions, ancestral recipes and how folklore weaves power into everyday life.
From the working-class kitchens of Paisley to the deeper meanings of Hallowe’en, Peter shares how cookbooks, oral traditions, and women coming together have shaped Scotland’s history and cultural memory. We dive into everything from shortbread secrets to the politics of folklore, food orphans, and witchcraft as resistance. Plus, Peter introduces us to one of Scotland’s most fascinating folklorists and suffragettes, Florence Marion McNeill.
Then Kate pulls a card from her Modern Tarot deck that affirms our long-range investment eras! This episode is part history lesson, part cultural reclamation, and fully magical.
Books & Texts Mentioned by Peter
- Hallowe’en: Its Origin, Rites, and Ceremonies in the Scottish Tradition – by Florence Marion McNeill
- The Silver Bough (four-volume set on Scottish folk belief, festivals, and customs) – by Florence Marion McNeill
- The Glasgow Cookery Book (originally 1910s–1915, later published widely as a school cookery manual)
- The Scottish Women’s Rural Institute Centennial Cookbook (first published 1925, community recipes gathered from women across Scotland)
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