Solstice Dinner

What a night we had at our dinner!

The musicians set the ambience for a celebratory evening that 60 of us contributed to in many different ways. Firstly by contributing things we had grown, preserved been gifted or created ourselves including even our drinks; elderberry wine, gorse flower and elderberry soda and elderberry cordial to mix with fresh mineral water collected on the day.

Gary Thomas came up with a brilliant menu that included a few unusual ingredients like acorn meal and flour, dandelion and chickweed for the nine main dishes and three sweets.

We were all rather surprised by the variety of fresh produce that we managed to come up with in mid winter and how creative people are in making things from nature's abundance.

An able handful of cook's assistants helped Gary to bring his menu to life.

The decorations for the room were created mostly for traditional European solstice greenery and many diners also made themselves laurels to wear for the evening.

A solstice ritual with candles gave thanks to the longest night of the year and then the returning light.

Some quirky stories of how particular ingredients of the dinner had been obtained were shared much to our amusement and Gary told of why he wanted to create a dinner of this kind.

 In keeping with the longest period of darkness of the year, the photos too are a little dark but really give you a feel for the evening.

Thanks to each and every one of you for making the evening such a a grand celebration!