By: Annie Chamovitz
From: The Cumberland Creek Mystery Series
Author: Mollie Cox Bryan
Book 5 Title: Scrapbook of the Dead
One of my favorite seasonal holidays is May Day. I'm not certain if anybody else celebrates, but I do.
When I was a girl, sometimes people left baskets of flowers on doorsteps to celebrate May Day. I’ve done that from time to time. It’s just fun to leave flowers mysteriously for someone isn’t it? It brightens up their day, for sure.
Have you ever participated in or seen a May Pole dance? It’s loads of fun to dance around the Maypole, but once I saw a group of barefoot ballerinas dancing in the grass around a beautifully decorated Maypole. I’ll never forget it.
One of my favorite ways to celebrate May Day is by making and drinking may wine. I’ve quite fallen in live with the little Sweet Woodruff plant and flowers that is sometimes used in homemade May wine. It’s so unassuming, but beautiful—it’s fragrance reminds me of vanilla. (One of my favorites.) Here’s my favorite recipe for making may wine.
May Wine
Ingredients:
1 bottle white wine
1 bottle sparkling wine or
champagne
½ cup dried organic Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum)
½ cup organic strawberries,
sliced or whole
Combine dried Sweet Woodruff with
the bottle of white wine, cover tightly, and place in a refrigerator.
Allow to steep overnight. The fresh herb may be used, but dried is preferable
because the flavor and aroma increase in the drying process. Before
serving, strain out the Sweet Woodruff and pour the infused wine into a punch
bowl, carafe, or other glass or ceramic serving vessel. Add the bottle of
chilled sparkling wine or champagne and garnish with strawberries. Serve
in wine glasses or champagne flutes. Ice may be added if desired.
A warning about Sweet Woodruff: it
may produce headaches and other toxic effects if high doses are consumed
or if it is used long-term.
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IW ould like to try this. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI remember May baskets too. In grade school, we drew names to see who we'd give a May basket too. Of course the teacher got one as well as I went to a small country school. We also had a May Day party and the teacher had a tall pole decorated with streams so we could "dance" around the May Pole.
ReplyDeleteI love the May Pole!
ReplyDelete