Imbolc Trial Run! 20.02

In celebration of the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox, we had our first Imbolc feast.  The celebration traditionally involves sheep milk, cheeses, yogurts, and seeds.  Imbolc time tends to coincide with the birth of lambs, and male lambs were often slaughtered as they were not as valuable as the females.  That provided a nice feast in the wintertime.  Candles are lit, people make guesses about how long winter will last, a la Groundhog Day, and in pagan circles, Brigid is worshipped.  Brigid was originally a celtic, pagan goddess but the celebration was combined with the celebration of Saint Brigid of Catholic lore to better convert pagans, of course.  There are other traditions involving goddess worship, but we didn't particularly delve into that ourselves - plenty more information about that here.

In terms of our feast, we started with a cheese plate of sheep cheese, along with some mead - probably a bit sweet for the pairing, but was enjoyable for me anyhow.  I hadn't had mead for a while.

While we ate, some lamb shanks were slowly cooking in the ceramic pot on the stove

And finishing with some moist poppyseed cake

We made some weather predictions as well - specifically for Davis, CA.  Temperature ranges are in Fahrenheit - so we shall see!  I'm thinking it'll be more winter-y for the next month, Kit was planning on it being more spring-y.