This post is a bit late, but we celebrated the Winter Solstice this year. The solstice was June 22. Now that we are trying to grow food seasonally, it feels fitting to mark the passing of the seasons of the year and to celebrate the return of the longer sunlight hours. This should also mean that our chickens start to come back on the lay, or for those who haven’t laid yet, come into lay. Laying is linked to sunlight exposure, so the return of longer sunlight hours is definitely cause to celebrate. We have not had one single egg since the end of May! We have had to go back to buying supermarket eggs!
We had some friends over for dinner and cooked up some goat in the weberate and ate food from our gardens. We exchanged preserves from our Autumn harvest – pickled green tomatoes, pickled chillies, lemon butter mmm… And it seemed very fitting!
The younger kids had fun roasting marshmallows over a fire, while the adults (and nearly adults) mulled wine (here is a link to the recipe – it was just stunning).
Apparently I was having too much fun to take photos on the night but here are a few of the preparations – making the lemon butter, lemon candles and the the yule log themed table centerpiece.
All the ingredients for the lemon butter
Simmering and thickening the lemon butter
Liquid sunshine
Lemon candle - made from the left over lemon skins
And a couple of the Yule log. I know traditionally you are supposed to burn the Yule log, but I liked this idea better.
Winter colourful greenery from the hedge trees between us and a neighbour
suburbanite farm 