Virgo rules the harvest which of course takes place in September. The graphic used for Virgo often features a maiden holding a wheat sheaf. 

Virgo as an earth sign are good with their hands: they like to make things: dress-make (think of Virgoan Paris, the centre of Haute Couture) and garden. They know about nutrition and healthy food, their kitchens are clean and orderly. Spices are labelled, cutlery is polished, their tablecloths and napkins will be made of cotton and linen, not polyester. Their tables will be made from wood which is naturally self-cleaning and healing. Virgos will likely own a juicer and a spiraliser. They like to cook from scratch.

Virgos are quick to learn, being ruled by Mercury and precise. If baking and cooking are different skills suiting different temperaments – the Virgo is more of a baker. Virgo rules grains. They probably spent lockdown perfecting their sourdough.

For this sign I suggest a bread recipe and focaccia is one of the easier breads to master. This time I’ve decorated it – something Virgoans will enjoy with their craft skills and attention to detail.

Decorative Focaccia Recipe

This is based on Richard Bertinet’s focaccia recipe. I’ve tried others but I always end up using this one. 

Serves 10

Ingredients

For the focaccia: 

• 1 tsp quick active yeast
• 1 tbsp honey or sugar
• 320 ml water
• 500 g strong flour
• 1 tbsp sea salt
• 20 g semolina
• 50 ml olive oil plus extra for greasing the tray and decoration

For the decoration:

• 5 benches of rosemary
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced thinly across
• 1/2 yellow pepper, sliced thinly across
• 1 red onion, sliced lengthways thinly
• handful bay or basil leaves
• handful capers or caperberries
• half dozen sun dried tomatoes cut into thin strips

Instructions

1. Mix the water, honey or sugar, and yeast together, leave for a few minutes.
2. In a bowl mix the flour, salt, semolina. 
3. Put the wet and dry ingredients together and the olive oil, in a stand mixer and mix on a low/medium speed for 8 minutes until it comes off the sides
4. Cover the bowl with a plastic bag or clingfilm. Leave until doubled in size.
5. Oil a tray with the olive oil and pour in the dough. Spread it out with oiled fingers and leave to rise again.
6. Preheat your oven to 350C
7. Now for decoration: you can be creative with this, use any ingredients you have to hand. I used rosemary stalks, shamrocks of peppers, shards of red onions, caper berries cut in half. 
8. Sprinkle with salt.
9. Bake for 30 minutes. 
10. Remove from the oven and brush with more olive oil and serve.