Beltane Blessings.
Happy May Day!
May Day, or Beltane, marks the transition from spring to summer. It’s a celebration of fire, fertility, and rebirth, and if we take a look around, also celebrates flowers! Just in my little yard on the mountain, with poor soil and spotty sun, there are calendula, chamomile, columbine, rose geranium, sage, and numerous succulents blooming effortlessly.
My first memory of May Day as something other than just another day on the calendar is from when I was five. My mom wove paper baskets that my sister and I filled with wildflowers from the abandoned lot across the street. We then sneakily hung them on neighbors’ doorknobs. I think I remember it so vividly because my mom is generally not a sneaky person so this felt exciting—different from our usual afternoon snack time.
I learned then from her that May Day meant flowers. Twenty-four years later, I learned with my witchy friends that May Day also means Beltane, bonfires, and dancing around a maypole. Traditional celebrations had people “purify” their animals by running them through, around, and over bonfires, while couples snuck off into the woods to celebrate fertility in the way we animals do best.
How will you celebrate the day?
Acetums
There are so many great ways to access the medicinal properties of plants. If you enjoy spending time in the kitchen, you already utilize plant medicine each time you slice up a clove of garlic, or add a teaspoon of epazote to your beans. One of my favorite ways to boost my mineral intake is through acetums, or infused vinegars.
Apple cider vinegar:
supports gut microbiome
improves digestive juices
can lower cholesterol
encourages healthy blood glucose levels
With sour and bitter flavors, vinegar reduces ama (undigested metabolic wastes) and supports the liver. It also helps stimulate circulation, which increases energy and moves stagnant blood. This sounds like spring cleaning to me! Using fresh or dried seasonally appropriate herbs in your acetum helps support your body as we transition from season to season.
Moving from spring into summer, we start cutting back on warming herbs like ginger and cloves, leaning instead into the more cooling, mineral-rich herbs connected with springtime. Stinging nettle is a superstar of spring. I find it fresh at Oliver’s market, conveniently bagged up so I’m spared the (helpful) sting. At some point add here what you changed: urtification.
But, I admit, I prefer I’ve made gnocchi, cake, frittata, and pesto with fresh nettles. It also features dried in the tea blend I’m trying to drink daily for bone and brain health. I decided to use these same herbs for an acetum to layer in more ways to strengthen my bones and sharpen my mental acuity. Menopause be damned! Or embraced, I suppose, would be a healthier outlook. Either way: today I used red clover, echinacea flowers, horsetail, gingko leaves, and nettles. I had all of these dried, but any herb you have fresh is great as well. Visit your garden, farmers market, or produce aisle and choose what calls to you.
My dear friend Rebecca turned me onto the fact that Handline in Sebastopol shared their amazing salad dressing recipe online. I’ve cut it down for you here to make an 8-ounce jar. We make this weekly and never tire of it. If there is a vegetable you know you should eat, but can’t find your way to it, drizzle on this dressing and you’ll gobble it up! I appreciate the B vitamin kick from the nutritional yeast, and the heart-healthy fatty acids of the olive oil. Use your acetum instead of plain vinegar in all your homemade salad dressings, to add a delicious, botanical kick.
Other ways to enjoy infused vinegars: as an oxymel, a shrub, or by simply adding a splash to a mug of warm water in the morning. Add a bit of honey and good morning, sunshine!Bitters are always an important aspect of our daily diet, but spring is an especially appropriate time to weave them in. We move from the grounding meals of wintertime to lightening the load with more raw foods, turning toward greens instead of roots. By adding bitter greens, we encourage our digestive systems to rev up, stimulating the flow of bile, and supporting the liver in its detoxification work. When we decrease the accumulation of ama, unmetabolized wastes according to the Ayurvedic tradition, we improve our overall health. Think of the lightness we feel after a good spring cleaning of our homes and gardens. Now is a great time of year to do some cleansing and detoxifying work with our bodies.
Herbal Acetum
Add chopped fresh or dried herbs to mason jar. Cover completely with apple cider vinegar.
Vinegar and metal don’t mix, so use a plastic lid or parchment paper between the metal lid and vinegar. Label and date your mixture. Store in a cool place, shaking daily. Strain after four weeks.
It’s best to store acetums in the refrigerator where they will last up to one year, but you should use it up well before that!
Handline Dressing
1 small clove garlic
3 T Bragg’s amino acids
1/4 c apple cider vinegar or your acetum
1/2 c nutritional yeast
2/3 c olive oil
Add all ingredients except olive oil to blender. Slowly drizzle in oil while blending to emulsify.
Use on everything!
Spotlight on Urtica dioica
To dive in deeper with nettles, check out Learning Herb’s article
Mothers are also celebrated in May! Visit Lucky Heron Friday, May 10 from 5–8pm to find some locally made offerings of love for the mothers in your life.
And, “because you can’t drink flowers,” Camp Rose Cellars and SUTRO Wine Co. have teamed up, packaging two Mom-made, Sonoma county wines for the women you love. They’ve added a foot soak by yours truly for maximum relaxation, and they’re ready to ship! Check it out here.
I often refer to my mom in these newsletters. I feel grateful every day to have such a close and loving relationship with her. Love you, Mom!
Mothering comes in many forms. Tending to anything or anyone we love is a form of mothering. One of the most important relationships we can tend is the one we have with Mother Earth. Admiring, respecting, and caring for the wonder and glory that is nature is a true connection with the divine.
May you always feel divinely connected.
