Celebrating May

Having May Day fall on a Sunday during the week between Easter and Mother's Day really through me for a loop this year I have to admit!  I found myself scrambling to get something together to mark the day/season when all we really wanted to do was spend a week recovering from Easter and having company.  Also, having moved recently, I had a difficult time finding public celebrations near our new home. We like to have a family picnic as well at a local park for May Day too though. As a family, we decided not to celebrate on May Day itself but on the following Tuesday instead.  This allowed Daddy to celebrate with us, and allowed me to delay starting our preparations till May Day.  That day I started making the May wine that Daddy and I like to enjoy as a part of our celebration.  I start with a bottle of German mosel wine and pour it in a half gallon jar along with sprigs of sweet woodruff, sliced strawberries and sugar.

 I let this set in the fridge overnight, then strain it out the next morning.  At that point I also add fresh sprigs of sweet woodruff, rose petals, and a bottle of sparkling mineral water and return it to the refrigerator.  It is so, so good and I look forward to it all year!

Daddy toasts May with some May wine

I also made W this Strawberry pomegranate sun tea and added sliced strawberries to it prior to serving.  It was so pretty, I had to take a picture of it with the sun shining through (please note I did not leave it sitting out in the sun once I added the strawberries). 

W thought this was so special.  Our little May King was so careful not to spill a drop of it!

 Before we ate our picnic, W and I made May crowns with leaves and flowers we found at the park.  Last year we made these braided raffia crowns and we simply slip the stems through the braids.  They work really well and we are able to save the crown base from year to year.

Here we are in our May finery!

For our picnic food we had homemade stromboli stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella cheese, pesto, spinach and Italian sausage.  This doesn't have much to do with May Day per say, except that in our family, this is standard picnic food.

We also had goat cheese salad with grapes and walnuts, and fresh cut strawberries mixed with some xylitol.

For dessert, we were supposed to have Rosemary and  Strawberry scones, but I accidentally left them at home.  We ate them for breakfast for a few days instead and they were so delicious!  I think they taste like May with the fresh rosemary W and I picked from our little balcony garden.  

After we ate we flew kites until W decided that the kites were scary.  Then W and Daddy played catch for a while.

To be honest these pictures were taken a few days before  our celebration (I forgot to get the camera back out after we ate).  I wanted to include them though because I love how my two year old plays catch.  There's always a couple of minutes between each throw while he wonders around looking at something else that has caught his interest...lol, but he loves this as special time spent with Daddy who is a very patient ball player!

The following Saturday W and I made the trip down to the Richmond Waldorf School for their May Faire.  We loved watching the May Pole dancing and catching up with dear friends there.

We have continued our celebration of May with W spending lots of time out on our balcony playing in his new sand pot...

...and visiting the sheep at a local farm.  W loves all sheep with a passion that is truly fitting for the son of an avid knitter and felter.  It warms my heart to see him walk right up to the sheep and pet them. I also love that he knows at this early age that the wool Mama works with comes from the sheep.

 He is especially fond of the black lambs here and spent a very long time with this little guy, petting him and talking to him.  I am amazed by the gentleness he shows to his sheep friends.

W and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival on Mother's Day  It was quite a drive, but was the perfect way to end up our week of celebrating the best of May.  I was able to stock up on some fleece, locks, roving and yarn and W was able to spend lots of time with the sheep.  He spent half the day giggling in delight each time a sheep would baa.  He also loves watching the sheep dogs.  Another year we will have to take Daddy as well so that I can participate in some of the workshops and W can spend more time with his sheep while I shop for wool!

Our favorite sheep at the festival.  He was so friendly and demanded attention.  

W was happy to oblige!

Wishing you all the very best of the happy month of May!

Where We've Been And the Farmer's Market season has begun again!

It has been months since I posted on this blog.  Unfortunately, we have been experiencing technical difficulties that took us two months, all of our IT guy friends, and switching internet providers to solve.  Our internet was so slow for two months, that I just could not see even trying to put up a blog post.  Sadly, during this time I also seem to have lost my camera.  I wanted to post this blog today, and really wanted to include pictures too, but since my husband takes his camera to work with him.  There fore, I am just going to have to use words to describe our wonderful farmer's market and culinary experiences from today.

Today was the opening day for the West End Farmers Market which is the closest market to our house.   I was sad that my two favorite vendors from last year were not there, and are not on the vendor list for this year.  I'll have to see if I can hunt them down and find out if they are at other local markets this year.

Still, I was delighted to meet a vendor, who is new to this market, Rona, from Sullivan's Pond Farm.  Not only was she wonderful at introducing myself and other customers to her delicious goat cheeses, but she also was selling the most beautiful buckets of goodies!  At $20.00, I think they may have been one of the best deals at the market today!  My bucket included a dozen beautiful speckled brown and green free-range eggs, a bouquet of Irises and other flowers and fragrant herbs, perfect for our nature table, a bundle of beautiful fresh asparagus and parsley and  a wonderful little husk wrapped package of Sandy Bottom, a delicious goat cheese coated in ground black pepper.  She also slipped a recipe for an omelet using these ingredients.  I sampled and just loved her Tidewater raw goats milk cheese, however, Rona had already sold out of it today.  She graciously offered to set some aside for me on Wednesday, if I send her an email.  This type of interaction with wonderful producer/vendors as well as the incredible quality of the products are what farmers markets are all about for me!

I also bought a bar of Patchouli with clove soap from KJ Soaps.  Patchouli and clove are two of my favorite scents but not two I would have thought of putting together.  I have to say though, the combination smells even better than either one would on it's own.  It's spicy and earthy but also has a certain sophistication to it!  Needless to say, I am eagerly awaiting my next shower!

After W woke up from his nap this afternoon, I made us a large omelet using the recipe I received at the market today.  I also added a little chopped smoked salmon that I had on hand and needed to use.  W and I both just loved it!  W has always refused to eat asparagus before, but gladly ate it in this omelet!  He especially loved the goat cheese though.  His face lit up every time he tasted it!

Such a rewarding  and delicious day  for my little guy and I!