Summer Solstice

June 20 - July 7

In this mouth-watering episode, Kit and Alexis celebrate the longest day of the year by dining al fresco! Our co-hosts prepare for picnics and barbecues, consider the outdoor activities of berry picking and fishing, and savor cooling foods. In Hiro's Corner, an examination of what we enjoy about shorter nights.

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple, and Spotify.

Summer Solstice
Spotify Companion Playlist

Poems Featured in this Episode

Summer, by James Russell Lowell. Excerpt from The Vision of Sir Launfal.

Now is the high tide of the year,
And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay.
We may shut our eyes, but we can not help knowing
That skies are clear and grass is growing;
The breeze comes whispering in our ear,
That dandelions are blossoming near,
That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,
That the river is bluer than the sky,
That the robin is plastering his house hard by;
And if the breeze kept the good news back
For other couriers we should not lack;
We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,—
And hark! how clear bold chanticleer,
Warmed with the new wine of the year,
Tells all in his lusty crowing.

***

Summer by Jackie Meyer

At very long last the summer is here!
It's barbecue time with coolers of beer,
Watermelon slices for children at play
Hydrants will soon be exploding their spray!

Laughter is heard from the tables outdoors
As merchandise beckons from neighboring stores.

Business booms for my man on the street
His cart pictured with colors of great things to eat.
Mangoes, papayas, and melons galore!
Cherries and berries and so very much more!

Yes! Summer is here, it has finally begun,
Let's toast to a future of days in the sun!

***

At Stonehenge by Katherine Lee Bates (excerpt)

Grim stones whose gray lips keep your secret well,
Our hands that touch you touch an ancient terror,
An ancient woe, colossal citadel
Of some fierce faith, some heaven-affronting error.
Rude-built, as if young Titans on this wold
Once played with ponderous blocks a striding giant
Had brought from oversea, till child more bold
Tumbled their temple down with foot defiant.

***

Excerpt from “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti

Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
'Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy:
Apples and quinces,
Lemons and oranges,
Plump unpecked cherries,
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,
Swart-headed mulberries,
Wild free-born cranberries,
Crab-apples, dewberries,
Pine-apples, blackberries,
Apricots, strawberries;--
All ripe together
In summer weather,--
Morns that pass by,
Fair eves that fly;
Come buy, come buy:
Our grapes fresh from the vine,
Pomegranates full and fine,
Dates and sharp bullaces,
Rare pears and greengages,
Damsons and bilberries,
Taste them and try:
Currants and gooseberries,
Bright-fire-like barberries,
Figs to fill your mouth,
Citrons from the South,
Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;
Come buy, come buy.'

***

Are these juice-stained hands
mine, or my grandmother’s?
Blackberry season

— Kit
(inspired by Margaret Atwood’s "Blackberries")

***

Excerpt from “Blueberries” by Robert Frost

Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,
Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!
And all ripe together, not some of them green
And some of them ripe! You ought to have seen!

***

The Queen of Hearts
She made some tarts,
All on a summer's day
The Knave of Hearts
He stole those tarts,
And took them clean away.

The King of Hearts
Called for the tarts,
And beat the knave full sore;
The Knave of Hearts
Brought back the tarts,
And vowed he'd steal no more.

— Anonymous

***

A handful of cherries
She gave me in passing,
The wizened old woman,
And wished me good luck-
And again I was dreaming,
A boy in the sunshine,
And life but an orchard
Of cherries to pluck.

— Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

***

“Les Temps des Cerises” - words by Jean-Baptiste Clément

When are in the time of cherries
The gay nightingale and the mockingbird rejoice together.
The pretty girls have folly in their heads
And the lovers sun in their hearts.
When we sing the time of the cherries
The mockingbird sing far better.

But the time of the cherries is very short,
When we go by two by two to pick hanging earrings,
Love cherries dressed in bright red like rubies,
Falling under the leaves like drops of blood,
But the time of the cherries is very short,
Coral earrings that we pick up while we dream!

***

Midsummer, by William Cullen Bryant

A power is on the earth and in the air,
From which the vital spirit shrinks afraid,
And shelters him in nooks of deepest shade,
From the hot steam and from the fiery glare.
Look forth upon the earth—her thousand plants
Are smitten; even the dark sun-loving maize
Faints in the field beneath the torrid blaze;
The herd beside the shaded fountain pants;
For life is driven from all the landscape brown;
The bird hath sought his tree, the snake his den,
The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men
Drop by the sunstroke in the populous town:
As if the Day of Fire had dawned, and sent
Its deadly breath into the firmament.

***

Plum-wine making complete
A cat arrives

— Murayama Furusato

***

Aging plum wine
Made for someone

— Nihei Yoko

***

In her pajamas
Mom shakes the plum wine bottle

— Sonoko Tamura

***

Heaven, by Rupert Brooke (excerpt)

Fish (fly-replete, in depth of June,
Dawdling away their wat’ry noon)
Ponder deep wisdom, dark or clear,
Each secret fishy hope or fear.
Fish say, they have their Stream and Pond;
But is there anything Beyond?

***

In a water basin
they nod to each other -
gourds and eggplants

— Yosa Buson

***

kneading eggplants…
purple on salt remains
like light after the sunset

— Yabuki Nobuhiko

***

The parent bee
its honey being stolen
buzzes near

— Issa

***

The Song of the Bee, by Marian Douglas

Buzz! buzz! buzz!
This is the song of the bee.
His legs are of yellow;
A jolly, good fellow,
And yet a great worker is he.

In days that are sunny
He's getting his honey;
In days that are cloudy
He's making his wax:
On pinks and on lilies,
And gay daffodillies,
And columbine blossoms,
He levies a tax!

Buzz! buzz! buzz!
The sweet-smelling clover,
He, humming, hangs over;
The scent of the roses
Makes fragrant his wings:
He never gets lazy;
From thistle and daisy,
And weeds of the meadow,
Some treasure he brings.

Buzz! buzz! buzz!
From morning's first light
Till the coming of night,
He's singing and toiling
The summer day through.
Oh! we may get weary,
And think work is dreary;
'Tis harder by far
To have nothing to do.

***

Chopsticks float
In the water
the end of the somen nagashi slide

— Hakko Yokoyama

***

Into the flow of the somen Nagashi
Chopsticks
Some skillful, others clumsy

— Yamada Yoshiyuki

***

Nagashi somen
I am eating
What coolness tastes like

— Junzo Yoshida

***

Moonlight, Summer Moonlight by Emily Jane Brontë

’Tis moonlight, summer moonlight,
All soft and still and fair;
The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,

But most where trees are sending
Their breezy boughs on high,
Or stooping low are lending
A shelter from the sky.

And there in those wild bowers
A lovely form is laid;
Green grass and dew-steeped flowers
Wave gently round her head.

***

Seasonal Recipes:

By kigo:

Blueberries: Blueberry Tiramisu “Bluemisu”
Gooseberries: Gooseberry, Meadowsweet, and Wild Strawberry Jelly
Plums: Plum Barbecue Sauce
Apricots: Apricot Compote
Eggplant: Grilled Eggplant - or - Eggplant Shigiyaki
Cucumber: Cucumber and Tomato Salad
“Gone Fishin’”: Basil Rosemary Grilled Trout

Music Featured in this Episode

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Overture via MusOpen
Midsummer Meadow Party by Lobo Loco
The Butterfly, Kids on the Mountain by Slante
Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581 performed by Musicians from Malboro
Americana Jam by The Underscore Orkestra
Summer, Movt. 1, Allefro non molto by Antonio Vivaldi performed by John Harrison
Honeysuckle Rose by Fats Waller performed by Chris Whittaker
Les Temps Des Cerises performed by Chris Whittaker
Flight of the Bumble Bee via Wikimedia Commons
Calm by Zylo-Ziko
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Nocturne via MusOpen