Summer Solstice (and Honey/Strawberry Moon) – 2012

So, it’s Summer Solstice today. 🙂
It’s also (one day late) the beginning of Honey Moon, meaning that the bees are Doing Their Thing in force. (Though, granted, they’ve really been doing their Thing for months now… and the first honey harvest isn’t until August. Perhaps I need to rename this one? The strawberries are ripe now, so… Strawberry Moon?)

My garden is doing beautifully and, with any luck, I’ll be able to throw some rainbow chard into tonight’s dinner. 🙂

My plan is to slow-cook (I know, weird for summer, but – in theory – it’ll keep the heat down) a pork shoulder roast with some onion and garlic and the better part of a 2C jar worth of the savoury apple-service-berry jam[1] I made last year. I’ll probably add a little apple juice plus a handful of basil from the garden.

I’m going to serve it with steamed greens (I know – why am I cooking everything???) – dandelions and rainbow chard – with tomatoes (including our first ripe tomato of the year! What timing!) and asparagus tips (just the flowery tips – I want to try pickling the stalks the same way I would with cucumbers. My sister made them years ago and they were really good).
I’ll probably serve this all over rice – mostly because we’ve got some in the fridge from last night and I want to use it up – but it would go well with Very New Potatoes as well.

Dessert is going to be something made with rhubarb and strawberries, since that’s what I’ve got. I want to do a second batch of rhubarb-strawberry jam today (so I can gift some to the various hostesses who are putting us up over the next couple of weekends), as well as try my hand at a rhubarb chutney (which, as it happens, would also go well with a pork shoulder roast[2] next time I make one).

Currently, I’m working on another Pagan Blog Project post, aptly titled “B is for Balance”, so stay tuned for that one as it relates to the bright and dark halves of the year and how eating the seasons syncs our own, internal rhythms with those of the Land. 🙂 Whee!

So that’s my update.

Happy Solstice everyone! 🙂

Cheers,
Meliad the Birch Maiden

[1] I made this stuff almost a year ago – the service berries around here aren’t ripe enough to harvest yet, but they will be inside of about two weeks. I need to find myself some old (scrap) sheets at a second hand store so I have a ground sheet and can just shake the berries out of the trees this year).

[2] Or barbicued pork ribs, or polish sausages or – for that matter – baked sweet potatoes or buttercup squash, come next winter. (The days are drawing in, after all… ;-))