Honey to the Flower ~ Mead Making as Medicine

Mead Making, 'Writing with Bees' with Charlotte du Cann, May 2018

Mead is an ancient bee medicine made by our ancestors since the earliest times. It was created throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, with Chinese pottery vessels dating from 7,000 BCE showing traces of honey fermentation such as takes place in mead making. In Europe similar traces have been found in ceramics belonging to the Bell Beaker Culture (2,800-1,800 BCE). Fermentation has a long history and can be seen as a way to reclaim food from fast food and supermarket culture. I find it deeply heartening ans hopeful to have fermenting food in the hedgehermitage kitchen; a substance in a constant state of transformation, just as I like to think I am. With the simple recipe that follows we might also use mead making to connect to the land and the plants around us in our everyday lives; this too is a radical act in a culture so threaded through with disconnection from nature.

The Hispanic-Roman naturalist, Columella, gave a recipe for mead in his ‘De re rustica’, in about 60 CE;

“Take rainwater kept for several years, and mix a sextarius of this water with a (Roman) pound of honey. For a weaker mead, mix a sextarius of water with nine ounces of honey. The whole is exposed to the sun for 40 days, and then left on a shelf near the fire. If you have no rain water, then boil spring water.”

Many recipes will also include yeast but an older way is to make it without as adding raw honey to spring water will cause it to ferment. I was given the following mead-making recipe by Charlotte du Cann at a ‘Writing with Bees’ workshop held by the Natural Beekeeping Trust in May 2018 and I am only just now trying it out. The thought of it obviously needed to ferment first!

Blackthorn blossom, nettle, and strawberry mead, April 2019

All that’s needed for the recipe is a jar; a Kilner jar is perfect as it needs to be shaken vigorously at the beginning, spring water (not tap), raw honey (runny is best as less shaking is needed!), together with soft fruit, flowers, berries, and leaves. By changing the recipe it’s possible to follow the seasons in the most simple and beautiful of ways. I can think of few things nicer than going out with my foraging basket in search of ingredients for mead making. We might try elderflower, rose petal and strawberry, or wild cherry and meadowsweet in the summer, blackcurrant and fennel, blackberry and mint, as the seasons change. Other possible ingredients are things like herb robert leaves, lemon balm, lavender (both leaves and flowers), violets, forget-me-nots, rowan or hawthorn berries, sloes, rose hips, mallow flowers, borage, and heather, among countless others. It is important to be sure of our identification of course, and to be mindful of where we are collecting our ingredients from, but there is so much for us to experiment with. And we are taking part of the land into ourselves; offering the honey made by the bees back to the flowers.

Foraged primroses, nettles, and blackthorn flowers

To make the mead, take around 1 litre of spring water (the less water, the stronger the mead) and half a 227g jar of honey (although I had a much larger jar and probably put more in!), put them in a jar and shake energetically. This will activate the honey and it will begin to froth. You can then add your sliced fruit, together with any leaves or berries you like. Swirl it around again and leave, making sure to stir once a day. After a few days it should begin to froth; continue to stir once a day, and when the frothing begins to calm down, you can strain it and drink it. The process should take around ten days. It can become too fermented. If this happens, just strain out the flowers, fruit, and leaves, and put it into the fridge.

I put my flowers in first, but I'm sure that it will be ok!

Adding the honey

Filling them up with spring water

After energetic shaking ~ the blackthorn mead was especially excited!

I am currently trying two different recipes. My first thought was to make nettle mead from the nettles in the hedgehermitage garden. I am doing that, with the addition of some primrose flowers from the churchyard of the church I go to and which has stood on that spot for over 1,200 years; ancient ground. My other jar contains blackthorn blossom and some nettle tops from the companion plants growing under the blackthorn just down the road from here. I have added strawberries to both, although I think that I would rather have just used the nettles and flowers. I am not yet confident enough to do that though, as I wonder whether the soft fruit aids the fermentation process. I was mindful of keeping the nettles from the two different locations separate. I would like to use one to weave connection between my home with my church and the other to connect more deeply with the blackthorn being and her edge-place plant allies. I will perhaps sip a little each day and see what comes. I think of this more as a sacred ‘medicine’ than an alcoholic drink and will treat it in that way. I will perhaps write about that another day.

In the meantime, do let me know if you make this simple mead and what recipes you decided on. I wish you many blessing of honey and land if you do choose to make this mead prayer.

The Blackthorn Being