S O L S T I C E

The weather has been a bit out-of-season lately. As far as I know, thunderstorms and misty skies are considered oddities in June (in Hawaii, at least.) This rise in humidity and consistant hot temperature leads to extremely steamy kitchens in the backs of poorly ventilated cafes. When considering the amount of physical labor and coordinated maneuvering that needs to take place for a kitchen to run smoothly, one comes to realize just how much sweat a person can produce. Actually, that's an exaggeration. I sweat a lot more when I exercise, but still... It's summer. It's steamy indoors and out. It's annoying to serve piping hot miso soup in this weather. I don't really understand why anyone would order a hot soup at hot noon on the day before the longest day of the year. It must just be the popular demand for our extraordinary miso makers' craft. It is pretty delicious soup.

Tomorrow is the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. In scandinavia that time of year is marked by a week-long celebration of jubilation, music, food, drink (important factor) and romance (probably the most important factor) known as Midsommar. The "may-pole" is erected and decorated with flowers and folk dance around it jovially, albeit tipsy. The women (or shall I refer to them as maidens) wear summer dresses, have braided hair and wreaths of flowers. In Sweden, people sing a hilarious song about frogs and mimic leap-frog hopping around the may-pole. It's quite a spectacle, although I have only seen videos, as I missed Midsommar last year (grrr). It turns out that the frog song appeared on one of my childhood cassette-tapes "Wee sing and play around the world," representing the Swedish culture. I've known this song since I was three, kind of funny.

Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se.

Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se.

Ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar hava de.

Ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar hava de.

Kou ack ack ack Kou ack ack ack

Kou ack ack ack ack kaa

Kou ack ack ack Kou ack ack ack

Kou ack ack ack ack kaa

Translates to:

The little frogs, the little frogs, they're so funny to be seen

The little frogs, the little frogs, they're so funny to be seen

No ears, no ears, no tails have they, 

No ears, no ears, no tails have they,

Ribbit Ribbit Ribbit etc.

The second verse is about pigs having both ears and tails and that they go "Nöff nöff nöff."

Well, as I can't be in Sweden celebrating Midsommar with all of my friends, I will have to celebrate it here, by myself.

Maybe I'll hire a minstrel to sit on my roof and strum me some tunes, as I do the traditional garden-party dinner/ drink/ dance (with my chard, arugula, and now pumpkin sprouts!)

I brewed some real ginger beer/ ale in my kitchen a few days ago. The fermentation has finally stopped and I sipped a bit of it today. It's pretty strong for a beer- I'd guess it's about 20 proof/ 10% alcohol. I wish I could find a case of Mariestads beer... but seeing as I don't possess the legal status of a beer-buyer, I'd come to face a wall. See, this is what the dumb American drinking-age-law does; it has 19 year olds brewing alcohol in their kitchen, probably a lot more dangerous than allowing them to just go drink beer in the first place (if you take into consideration the contamination/ bacteria/ who knows what risk...) Seriously, in Germany the beer-age is 16. Ah well...nobody said that there was any sense in our law-system.

I don't also have a may-pole (yet!) but I'll get creative overnight and figure something out. Maybe I'll go fell an invasive-species tree and tie some ribbons and vines to it. Although...it's no secret: the Swedish maypole is a blatant representation of the male genitals. Not sure how I'll pull that off. 

Or maybe I won't have to party alone, as the awesome Scandinavian club of Hawaii is hosting a Midsommar event. YESSSsssss! Well, I'll spare them the bellyache that my ginger beer might induce and bring something else to the potluck.