Prepare for the Summer Solstice

It's time to prepare for summer! It's still almost two weeks away, officially, but summer is in the air. My personal start to summer this year is a vacation trip in one week, and I won't be back home again until the solstice is upon us, so I want to get a jump on preparations.

Agenda: 

1. Trip preparations
2. Clean house

3. Make Sima
4. Make a new solar disk

1. Trip preparations: 

Visualize and write about the ideal summer vacation.

What do I most hope to see and do?

How can I prepare? What do I need to know?

What surprises or gifts can I bring for the family I will see?

Write an itinerary and a packing list!

2. Clean house:

Summer requires a simpler house. Also, I'll be leaving town in 6 days, and I hate to leave a house in disorder. 

As part of the transition to summer, I will put away the coats and boots, about half of the indoor toys, and completely clear the table tops and bookcases.

3. Make Sima:

Sima is a mildly fermented lemonade, a traditional Finnish solstice drink. 

I grew up in a west coast town with a largly Scandinavian population, where we had an annual festival at the summer solstice, with a Miss Denmark, Miss Finland, and Miss Norway. As a teenager I loved to go to the festival to polka, and line up to buy small paper cups of sima, for 25 cents.

Ingredients:

• 2 lemons 
• 4 quarts water 
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. white sugar + 1/2 c.
• 1/6 c. dark corn syrup 
• 1/8 tsp. dry yeast
• raisins

Yield: 4 quarts-

1- Boil the water in a large kettle.

2- Shave the yellow zest from the lemons, removing all of the bitter white under-layer. Also, peel the bitter under-layer off the lemons themselves, and slice them into very thin rounds. 

3- Put the zest and lemons into two large heat-proof glass bowls. Pour the boiling water over the lemons, and stir in the sugars. When the sugars have dissolved, cover and let the contents cool to room temperature.

4- When the water has cooled to lukewarm, add the yeast. Cover the bowls with plastic, leaving gaps or poking holes to allow carbon-dioxide to escape. Let the sima stand overnight, or 8-10 hours.

5- Place 4-5 raisins and a teaspoon of white sugar in the bottom of sterilized quart jars. Pour the sima into the jars, straining it through a sieve to remove the lemon.

6- Cap the jars tightly and leave at room temperature. 

SAFETY NOTE: Be sure to open the bottles at least once a day to release the pressure so the bottles don’t burst. The sima is ready to drink when the raisins rise to the top of the jars (about 3-7 days), but you can leave it a couple extra days to get the best fizz. Chill and serve!

4. Make a new solar disk:
Each year before the solstice, I make a sun mandala of grapevine with two cross arms. The outer circle represents the wheel of the year, and the arms of the cross symbolize the four seasons. At solstice, I take down the old solar disk and hang the new one on my grape arbor to remind me of summer all year long.

Supplies: Grapevines, sticks, clippers, pipe cleaners, scissors, yellow and orange ribbon and yarn

1. Make a hoop with grapevine and tuck in the ends so they stay.


2. Cut 2 sticks that are long enough to overlap the hoop. Attach at four corners and center with pipe cleaners.

3. Attach ribbon or yarn streamers to five crossing points, and tie on a loop for hanging in a tree.