What is May Day?
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- Опубликовано: 25 апр 2022
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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose
PHOTO CREDITS
Maibaum in Bad Tölz, Germany - By Florian Schott - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Children dancing around a maypole: By Paul Barnett, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
#tastinghistory #mayday
Most history channels tell the stories of armies, leaders, world-changing events, and so on. I just love how you tell the histories of the culture and traditions we take for granted. So much of history is the things we don't think about often: The food, the festivals, the costumes. Thank you for bringing light to those obscure corners of history, through food.
I didn't find history that interesting growing up because of how it's taught. My Italian friend said it was sad that clearly here in the UK we learn history based on our monarchy and our wars. I only got super into history when I came to it from a fashion and textiles angle, then expanding to food and lots of more intimate domestic parts of history. I want to know how someone like me lived in another era. Not just battle tactics and a timeline of kings.
Also the UK is OBSESSED with teaching the Tudors, the Victorians (but not about things like colonialism) and world war two heavily and massively neglecting a lot of other stuff at least when I was in school and I think it's because it fits into a lot of our mythmaking of who we are as a nation.
@@AM-kr4pv - Except colonialism was still tied into the Tudor age. It began with Henry VII laying the foundations, and it was expanded further with Elizabeth I. Not sure how you are viewing it as being overlooked to push a narrative… because it is inexplicably linked to the Tudors.
Same, I much prefer social history, the history of everyday people. Luckily this old view of history as a list of leaders and wars is itself becoming history! History can be any topic and any group of people.
@@mahenonz - _”Luckily this old view is history as a liar of leaders and wars is itself becoming history!”_
It’s that sentiment that is problematic. Those “leaders and wars” are important. History _does_ repeat itself. If people are ignorant as to the dangers of certain leadership styles, the suffering they’ve caused to their people, and the reason for the wars - it will happen again. Education on that so-called “old view” is critical. These stupid people today are stupid for a reason… they’re not being taught the important things. Too much time is spent on ‘feelings’, that isn’t going to prevent future conflicts. Learning the failings of the past is how we prevent and correct things for the future. So, no… it isn’t remotely better to abandon educating the younger generations on the past leaders and historical conflicts. It’s critical they’re educated so we don’t end up with future Stalin’s, Hitler’s, Mao Tse-tung’s, Pol Pot’s, etc.
@@sisterspooky What I mean is JUST a list of leaders and wars. For many generations, like my mother’s, the subject at high school level was basically an exercise in memorisation of people a world away who meant nothing to her. Years later she fell in love with family history and said “if only it had been interesting like this at school!” I do dislike how a narrow view of the subject, focusing only on white wealthy men, puts off so many people from further study. However I am not disagreeing with your view that “those that do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it”, and I think the two views can co-exist. I just hope that there are no longer any schools today that teach “memorise this list of British monarchs, in order, with their dates” and teach nothing else - no analysis or insight. I was always taught “it’s not the when that matters, it’s the why.”
That American English vs British English history lesson was some of the gentlest shade I've ever seen thrown 😂
Even more shade because probably the non pronounciaton of the 'h' is French... the British French rivalry can still be quite strong!
Indeed. So many of the American pronunciations and vocabulary that Brits scoff at are simply archaic aspects of British English that never went away. Different doesn't necessarily mean wrong.
I mean, really, any language that is mostly understood by its speakers isn't wrong. The rest is mostly just snobbery or lingering classism about how a dead king supposedly talked.
Arriving at an absolute pokerface while you say "whose pole was the tallest" is, to my estimation, a mark of most gentlemanly taste and class. And sense of humor.
I think we all know how the May King was chosen...
Indubitably.
I wonder if he had to do several takes to deliver that line with a pokerface... xD
Also
"The church railed against May Day"
Doing a "well actually" on the British pronunciation of herbs, well played, Max, well played.
As a Brit myself, "erbs" is about as weird as it gets for my ears, but Max's pronunciation of French, mock-British, and even other European languages such as German are actually pretty decent, which makes me especially happy for him to pronounce his own English words however he likes.
If you like that you should look up Lost in the Pond. He makes a lot of videos on the differences between Britain and the US, including shorts about different words/spellings/pronunciations(spoiler: it's often the British who end up changing it! Haha)
It's pretty funny how that's such a thing. The English lost the original pronunciation of their language AFTER the US began being settled. So, us US folks are closer than the English. Ironic huh?
@@rickwilliams967 I'm from the southern half of the southern US. Whenever I hear someone say that the southern accent is much closer to "Shakespearean English" than any other American dialect I still have a hard time believing it.
@@fizpop01 I'll check out that channel. I remember when I went to uni in the UK for a semester abroad, I ended up with a very difficult professor who made it clear to us during the first day of class that he thought we were all idiots.
When he was teaching us how to use video editing software for class, I was excited because I learned how to edit video while I worked on campus in the US. I was working hard to impress him until he said, "Now, hit the Zed key."
I... panicked. I looked all over for the Zed key and I couldn't find it 😫. Then, he starts yelling, "Zed! Hit the Zed key!!!" Finally, he pointed to it and I went, "Oh! Zee!" He said, "Yes! Zee! Zed!" And then he did an exaggerated eye roll to let me know he thought I was a moron. However, he did pass me at the end of the semester, so I'm glad he had pity on my soul.
Growing up in the UK, we celebrated May Day at primary school with maypole dancing and crowning the May Queen (which was the youngest girl in the class) - being an August baby meant I was one one year :)
Awww that’s sooo freaking cutee!! 😍😍
I remember that we used to make paper flower crowns - the boys and the girls - and some of us were taught to dance round the Maypole, which was set up outside if the weather was nice or in the hall if it was not. The local vicar came to bless the Maypole every year back then.
We all received a drink of fresh juice in a school dinner cup and a sandwich with crisps, and parents and teachers got beer or lemonade!
Yes, at my school too! Loved it and the village fete with Morris dancers 😁
In Los Angeles, we also had a May pole at school. But this was in the '50s, pretty sure it's not done anymore!
@@katherineg7335 was still going in the 90s in my village in the UK, may still be. The village would have a little parade (not the big US style), all the kids in fancy dress, a village fair, morris dancers that and bonfire night were the yearly highlights- loved it!
As someone in the UK who eats flowers with salads fairly often, I recommend chive flowers , they are purple and taste of chives and nasturtium flowers which are peppery
Borage flowers are very tasty too
@@jenifermorgan7328 oh I'll try those , I have three cornered leek bulbs everywhere too that I'd forgotten about somehow, they're edible but very strong in onion taste.
"And if erecting this massive pole is too nuanced for you, men from neighboring villages would gather together and have contests of whose pole was the tallest."
(Stoic knowing stare)
🤣🤣🤣
You're awesome, Max!
Maybe it was a chance for the young people to meet unrelated potential partners?
They also try to steal each other's pole
@@dreamwalker2518oh my. But not all of them did that rt? Nevermind I'd rather not know 😅
Tip with the flowers: some taste sweet, like roses, violets, or lavender,and might not be the best choice if you're going for a savory salad. Good savory flowers include the flowers of a lot of savory herbs like basil and oregano, flowers of various members of the onion family (onion, chive, shallot, ect - basically the whole allium genus,) or dandelion and marigold. Some flavor neutral options include day lily (not other lilies - lots of them are poisonous,) pansy, or carnation
Borage flowers are also neutral in my opinion. I’ve had them in salads as well as on cakes.
Just gonna save this for later, thanks!
Nasturtium flowers & leaves work well, & have a bit of a peppery bite to them. The buds can also be pickled. Calendula is also nice.
Another excellent edible flower is nasturtium, which has a peppery taste and both flowers and leaves are delicious and eaten together in salads.
I have borage and nasturtium growing in my kitchen container garden this year and chives have been in there a few years only I just found out the chive flowers (before they go to seed) are really good. 2 channels that have good info on edible flowers are MIgardener and Hew Richards. Both are really informative. One is from the USA and the other is in Wales.
Between the apron and the salad Max is fully embracing the spring aesthetic and I'm here for it 💐🌷🥗
What is this "spring" you speak of? It's almost May in Chicago and temps can't get out of the upper 50s.
@@paulwagner688 I'm in Milwaukee, and I thought that _was_ spring!
Ha! Here in Phoenix, Spring is over; and we're bracing for triple digits.
Don't forget the Roserade chilling in the background 👀
I am watching and searching for the awesome Pokémon apron, just the thing I need as a nerdy 64 year old
The tradition of dyeing non-green foods green reminds me of Green Eggs and Ham day at school when I was growing up 😜
I loved that day 🥰
My husband once made green eggs and ham for my nephew when he was a kid. Took a while to convince him we weren't trying to poison him. 😄
Just be sure not to use Sheele's green!
(It was used in the Victorian age and had arsenic in it. People used it in clothing, and yes, also confectionery)
Reminds me of WOG Day on my Ship.
Glad the tradition carries beyond St paddy's
In Bavaria we also have the may pole. It's called Maibaum.
You collect a tree from the forrest and bring it in town. For the next six week you make the tree into a pole with colouring and decorating it. In this time the Maibaum also needs to be guard, since the other villages around gonna try to steal it.
And then on the first day of May you put it in the middle of your village and have similar festivals like Max described. You repeat the whole thing all three to four years.
This festival was actually for the bachelors. your dance partner on the first of May often was the person you ended up marrying.
You could have added Lemon thyme. Yes the leaves are tiny but they add a lot of flavor and a strong lemon scent. When I was making salads from my own garden it was a great add.
So I know Lemon Thyme smells like lemon, but I've never eaten it. Does it have a sour/bitter/lemony flavor?
@@jessicaleighdargaclark4536 It does have a bit of a lemony flavor but not sour or bitter. It is more just thyme with a bit of a lemony flavor but even that may be influenced by the smell.
I graduated from a small private school (pre-K through 12th grade, with about 300 students, total), and when I was in Tenth grade, the art teacher and the headmaster conspired to start a Mayday celebration. In the fall semester, the high school art class built a giant, paper maché dragon that the little kids could climb around inside of / on top of. This was our "dragon of Winter" And then, on Mayday, this dragon was brought out to the center of our soccer field, and our biology teacher came out of the woods behind our school and shot a flaming arrow into the dragon to create the bonfire that banished winter and ushered in the spring. Also, the whole school had all our afternoon classes off. Good Times. (This was back in the 1980s, in NY State)
That sounds awesome!
I envy you.
@@Franky_Sthein It was pretty cool... Also, the headmaster taught us a version of "Rattlin' Bog" with a total of *16* verses (one verse has baby-making in it, so, um... yeah. There's that -- there's a tree at the *end* of the song, too. Takes me about 15 minutes to sing the whole thing)
Wow my private school SUCKED
How wonderfully creative! One more reason why the arts are so important in our schools.
Do didnt shove a local bobby into a wicker man as well, did you?
So basically it started out as “ayyyyy we survived the cold, let’s get nekkit!” 😅
In all seriousness, that’s quite an interesting history. I’d never known the history of May Day, but it’s quite vast and wild lol
I loved Mayday as a child and it is also my birthday! I so dislike the modern version the originsl is so much nicer
Would've been fun if they kept that original part.
@@marleneclough3173 Lets not try and split hairs. They(Commies) celebrate it to try and stamp put the old traditions and thrust everyone into their sick world. Why else would they overlap with a major holiday celebrated for centuries
I genuinely suspect that it was more of a "the kids are going to boink anyway, so lets send them off in the woods, and while they're out...."
@@jamesanthony5874 well it might explain why getting married in June used to be traditional…
Boinking on May Day might well produce a pregnancy by June. Gotta get the wedding feast scheduled….
When I was growing up in the Sixties in the US, the custom was to assemble small baskets of flowers and deliver them to one’s neighbors on the morning of May Day.
I grew up in upstate NY, and we did this. I was hoping Max would mention it. Alas....
How sweet!
Back in the 90's I was at primary school in Southern England and we had a maypole, dancing with ribbons around the pole, morris dancing, and a May Queen (The May Queen was always a second-to-last year girl so that the following year she could return as the "Queen of Winter" and hand off her crown to the new May Queen.)
I went to catholic school in the uk and we had a similar tradition but we crowned our May queen as a representative of the virgin Mary.
Instead of a maypole we had a statue of Mary which would be taken out of the church and crowned by the May queen with a garland of flowers, we would then parade the statue around the school and once we had reached the pond by the nursery it would be laid down and then the dancing would begin.
@@simonorourke4465 our school was theoretically C of E but no one really cared.
Also the word “herb” comes to English from French, who wouldn’t have pronounced the H. Also, some Middle English texts even spell it “erbes” or “erbs”.
From memory of my high school French, l'herbe is grass, which is possibly why it refers to plants other than what we would call herbs. Perhaps they meant greens.
In the villages where I'm from in Frankonia there's an interesting May Day tradition: each village erects a decorated birch tree on April 30. then during the night there's a big fire lit and young men stand guard to protect their tree from men from neighboring villages who might come try and steal the tree (theoretically, mostly they just get drunk around the fire). In the 18 years I lived in the region maybe 2-3 trees were actually stolen, never ours tho!
We have a similar tradition in Ostfriesland.
Yes, here in our area, in North Rhine-Westphalia, it is also like that.
On the night of the first of May, decorated birches are put up and the May couples are proclaimed (yes, in the middle of the night the boys parade through the village singing: "There was a boy whose name was XXX, and he courted a girl whose name was YYY ....").
The bachelors of the village "buy" the privilege to put up a maypole to a unmarried woman of the village (older than 16 years) and to go with her to the May Ball.
In addition, the title of May King is auctioned. Whoever makes the highest bid is the May-King, and he can choose his May-Queen from among the women auctioned off.
Usually this is fixed beforehand, and no woman is forced to go out with the bachelor who bought her at the auction.
On the evening of April 30, the big maypole is then put up by all the bachelors (under the watchful eyes of the entire villagers) and guarded through the night, including many alcoholic drinks. And when the maypole is up and it is dark, a mayfire is lit, the villagers celebrate with music, drinks and .... well ... Bratwurst. :)
GIMME YOUR TREE PEASANTS
We have the same tradition in basically all of Austria :)
Czechia has the same tradition. :-)
I grow chives in my garden, and use the chive flowers in salad. They add a lovely crunch, as well as tasting like mild chives.
In my region in Germany there's "Green Sauce" which is made with 7 traditional herbs. It's great and the one thing I miss about being vegan is having it with hard boiled eggs
That sounds really good! Could you buy it on Amazon or is it something you have to make yourself?
Which herbs?
I don‘t know the herbs but it‘s called „Frankfurter grüne Soße“
@@TheMeloettaful it is soooo good with potatos :) Bette make it yourself, just googel "Frankfurter Grüne Soße" I am sure there are also recipes in English available. The selection of the 7 traditional herbs is quite important though to achieve the right taste :)
you know you can eat it even if you aren't vegan :,D you don't only can eat meat...
the moment you mentioned dandelion greens i was like "yay! oh wait..." because dandelion are delicious and super nutritious, but someone is going to try making something like this not understanding how to prep dandelion down the road and get a mouthful of the bitterest nasty on the planet. Any time you eat dandelion leaves, they have to either be the younger leaves, or you have to soak em in saltwater to get the latex and bitter taste out once they reach a certain age, and the largest elder leaves are just too bitter and woody to eat fresh at all, and all of them can cause people with latex allergies to have reactions depending on the level of their allergen sensitivity.
Also, for a topical musical experience that you shouldn't listen to around children or people who blush easily, i recommend Jonathan Coulton's "The First of May", (one of the kings of comedy songs and nerd music also the creator of the Portal theme songs.)
There are also two types of dandelions, at least where I live. The rounded leaves are more bitter than the spikiest type.
Edit: I am completely wrong, it's a perennial. More info in @chez moi's post below.
Original completely wrong post that would work with carots:
You may also want to keep in mind that it is a biennial flower, and you can only eat it on the first year, not on the year it blooms...
@@NouriaDiallo
And how do you tell them apart? Waiting for the plant to show signs of flowering is not an option if you want to eat the leaves, because they tend to be too bitter by then.
I don’t know the song, but I do know one of the poems for the day:
Hurrah hurrah
The First of May!
Outdoor fucking
Starts today!
@@nancyreid8729 I came to the commebts looking for this verse and was not disappointed 😁
First, I exit my bedroom door in my tudor-style house. Then I exit my front door, which is the second of two doors I must open. Then I get into my car, and drive to my job as a local tutor, where I receive this notification alerting me that there's a video about the food of the Tudors!
I love a Tudor style house!
A tutor in a tudor? I like it. 👍
But is the car a two-door?
Tudor? I hardly know 'er!
This reminds me of 2000 in Ohio when I was invited to a party at a friend of a friend's house. Turned out to be a Beltane celebration that was a very much clothing optional bonfire. I at the time I wasn't aware that things like this existed. A beautiful salad would have made the experience more tolerable.
So you went over dressed?
I’m now going to consider Max breaking out his floral Pokémon apron as the true first sign of spring.
We don't really have a may pole in Sweden, but we do have a "Midsommarstång" at midsummer. Fresh food in May? Up here? Noooo. We save it for Midsummer, and it's so much better than any other holiday! At least here... Dew, flowers, garlands. That there's midsommer talk, stranger :-D
I agree. It seems Swedes took the May day tradition and put it at Midsummer instead. Flower garlands, collecting of dew and celebrating fertility. But we don't eat salads specifically on midsummer (or May day).
Well, we kept parts of the tradition. We still burn great fires on Valborg (30th of april)
When I was little I used to go to the midsummer festival every year with the dalahast statues and the dancing it was fun. My grandmother was from Sweden.
I saw a movie about Midsommar! Based on that, I'm not sure I'd want to stick around for the ending, mind...
@@danielsundin3669 And sing of may, come to think of it (sköna maj)
Australians pronounce the h in herbs, as well. It took me a long time to get used to that. And I'm going to call them "cowcumbers" from now on. In other matters, I was surprised you didn't reference the song from Camelot, "The Lusty Month of May".
I did in my original script, but it got cut. But I’ve been singing it all week 😂
I also liked the word cowcumber. I want to use it at the store just to see the grocer's response in the produce section. 😉
A man I used to work with sold eggs to hsi colleagues, and in summer advertised that he also had "cummumbers".
@@TastingHistory One of my favorite musicals! I now have it stuck in my head though. 😅
Makes me suspect cow used to be said much more like the first syllable of cucumber. Kyew.
I'm always delighted when Morris dancing is mentioned!❤️ I'll be "Dancing up the Sun" with my local Morris side on Sunday along with Morris dancers around the world. We've all got to do our part to. Make sure the sun rises on May Day!
"I'm not sure how the May King was chosen" probably the pole measuring thing you mentioned earlier
The whole history behind a silent "h" was super interesting. As someone from Pittsburgh (a city that's had it's trouble with "h's" in the past!), it was interesting to see why herbs is pronounced so differently. Happy May Day (and I absolutely LOVE your apron! So cute!)
oh cool!!! nice to see a fellow yinzer around ^__^
Remember when anybody gets on you about pronunciation or grammar in English that it's a mongrel language most notable for it's flexibility and constitutionally more loanwords than a hypothetical native vocabulary of any of it's three or four roots. Trying to pretend there is a correct annunciation is at best personal ignorance and most likely pointless elitism. As long as they can understand you most of the time, you're speaking it right.
Between the Pittsburgh H, the Boston R, and every diphthong in New York, there's plenty of letter abuse in the Northeast.
Whoa I also live in Pittsburgh too, but mostly for school
I'm from across stateside in northern WV and had a lot of yinzer influences in my vernacular growing up. I now live in England. I say what I want, how I want. 😂 So far, nobody has corrected me, and I've been here 17 years.
The salad looks so beautiful with the flowers. Also, your apron is really cute!
Thank you 😊
Max is pretty cute too...
Yeah, the apron is the cutest there is :)
@@TastingHistory Seriously though, is there anywhere online I can buy that apron????
@@michaeldonally117 I don’t think so because it was last season, but I’ll ask Jose who got it for me.
As someone who’s played the role of Professor Henry Higgins and is mighty proud of it I can’t tell you how happy I am that you referenced him in connection with spelling correctly! Bless you Max.
As a modern American pagan practicing for the last 40 years, your historical accuracy was a delight to watch. May poles are amazing, wonderful and fun. One year we were doing the may pole and we had the ribbons held taught, out from the pole getting ready to dance when the wind came up and the ribbons began to sing and hum as they vibrated, it was magical. As to your salad I would suggest adding nasturtiums, they have a very nice kind of sharp peppery flavor and would really be a great addition to the flavor of the dressing and the salad itself. Thanks for a very wonderful mayday episode.
Concerning the dropped 'h' and added 'h', the same thing for similar reasons happened in Classical Latin.
Catullus wrote a poem (*84) on the subject.
That salad thumbnail picture looks like actual art 🖼 🥗
Thank you ☺️
Absolutely. The flowers take it to the next level.
@@TastingHistory
Have you ever candied violets? They are particularly nice with good chocolate.
Looks great! Flowers are definitely an underappreciated ingredient. Belvoir Farms used to make a "Summer Cooler" drink, that was cucumber, mint, and geranium flavours in lightly sparkling water. Delicious stuff, and the geranium added a cool peppery taste to the mix. Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only person who ever bought or drank the stuff, so they stopped making it.
In the Czech republic in the villages we still raise may poles, you got me interested in learning about the festivities and the history here. Don’t know If we were punished for raising them too.
Nasturtium flowers are lovely, they taste radish-y. The leaves are also nice
Easy to grow, too. One of my favorites, they look cool when they climb
My favorite
They’re closely related to watercress.
That sounds delicious!
I'd love to grow them.. and they are spicy.
I laughed when you talked about May Day in Britain at the time. It reminded me of a TV series called 'Tales from the Green Valley'. Despite its title it was a documentary series, where five historians and archaeologists spend a year at a Tudor Farmhouse and run the farm as it would have been during the 16th and 17th centuries. There are twelve episodes (which can be found here on RUclips for those interested) and , of course, May Day and its celebrations were covered. One of the team talks about venturing into woodland to gather flowers and plant materials for garlands: he cites a hyper religious diarist of the time whose remarks about this practise was even more scathing and prudish!
Thanks for the reminder - think I may have seen a few episodes before... squirrel!... getting distracted by the next video in my feed.
I adored that series!!!!
One of my favourite shows! I've seen all of the historical farm series, but Green Valley is my favourite. And I think Ronald Hutton was the one talking about the celebrations? I always love his stuff
I think Stewart made a version of this salad in one of the episodes, too.
The best! We watched all the Historical Farm series on RUclips in 2020 during lockdown. Ruth Goodman is the best ❤
Okay so now I have "The Lusty Month of May" from Camelot stuck in my head, thanks a lot Max! I love your apron! I love a good salad and that one looks just lovely!
I like how the closed captions say [Crunch, Crunch] when you're eating.
I don’t even eats salads often but this one looks so picturesque and lovely
It’s so beautiful with the colorful flowers. I’ve never tried edible flowers before, but they are attractive. 🌸
@@Leslie12.66 just please, please, PLEASE don't get them from the floral department! Not only are they often sprayed with colors, and pesticides out the wazhoo, they're feed with preservatives that suck of the stems and into the petals.
Honestly these days you can't eat any flowers you didn't grow and pick yourself since they're so often covered in pesticides, even in parks and right of ways. But I grow marigolds with my tomatoes (to help bugs away naturally) and they do add a nice zip to salad greens.
@@mwater_moon2865 Thanks for your advice. It corresponds with the warning given in the video. Marigolds with your tomatoes sounds amazing!
A side salad served along side a meat dish that is heavy with fat, tempers the fat and allows you to eat more of the yummy meat.
I generally don't eat salads but I couldn't resist something this pretty. But I'd be conflicted between eating it and preserving the art.
@1:00 a little note about 'swing them in a strainer' I live in the south of france and when my father came to visit the inlaws he asked about the metal wire chickens that were placed as ornaments, being basket chickens he asked were for collecting the eggs? a little straw in the bottom sturdy container one would surmise for eggs, nope, you wash the salad put it in and go outside, swing as hard as you can over shoulder for around 30s then mix up, turn the chicken around and swing again, drying your salad. now we have tupperware spiny buckets that do it.
Here in Suburbia, we call them Salad Spinners. But I like the French basket idea.
I appreciate it being shaped like a chicken. That's a nice touch
I learned a version where you wrap up the salad greens in a clean dish towel and then swing them. Works nicely, so long as you don't let go of the towel.
@@HootOwl513 yea the salad spinner we have is a tupperware one, I was just stringing out the definition.
@@Amy_the_Lizard I'm sure that there are plain ones, but they held onto the chicken ones, a small hole in top, a whole salade fits in and doesn't fall out, about the size of chicken. Same house has a copper pan for heating the bed, most of the stuff goes back to the early 1800s
Max, I live vicariously through your tastebuds.
its the same but opposite with words like "history"
we actually say the "h" in history, but originally, it was silent, hence why the brits, even when they do actually say the "h" still treat it as if they dont, example they say "an historian", which would only be correct grammatically if it was pronounced without the "h" as "an" is only used before words that start with a vowel sound. "an 'istorian"
As a relatively well-known madrigal puts it:
Now is the month of Maying, when merry lads are playing, fa la la ...
Each with his bonnie lass upon the greening grass, fa la la ...
Jonathan Coulton's "First of May" is very fitting in the genre.
I had forgotten this song until now. We sang this in my High School Madrigal Choir in the 80s.
Like you said, Max, "It's just a salad." But the humor (pronounce the H) in the history (again pronounce the H) was very funny. A great episode. I'm going to share it with my hippie (again the H) friends who's anniversary is May Day. Thank you Max!
Honestly (no h) the honor (no h) of you recommendation is the best way to bring in the hours(no h) of May Day. All fun aside wish your friend a happy anniversary and happy May Day to you too :)
@@doodlwagon4480 Thank you! Right back at you!!
I think the herbs (uhhh...) and flowers made the dish more interesting than just a salad. But it's certain that the fascinating historic (uhhh...) knowledge from Max is what really makes this a great homage (uhhh...) to an old tradition!
Honour, humour.
Whoever the hell does the subs/captions for this, I freaking love you lmao.
[Maxwell shakes well] and now [crunch, crunch] LMAO
[eats flower]
I ate yet another Elizabethan salet today as i have frequently for the last 60 years since I read the first recipt. Your version is a gaudy one.True Elizabethan flowers would be smaller and their secent /flavour stronger.Dasies, Violets, Hearts Ease , Primroses and Callendula- which was shredded into petals as a whole one would be too much. The leaves of all these can be eaten and today I added wild sorrel, garlic , rocket, lambs lettuice and dandelion from the orchard and chives from the garden. I chop the herbs finely as the books say and dress with mustard in the localy grown rapeseed oil and cider vinegar.
The intense combination of wild plants compensates for the shortage of fresh green vegetables in what is known as the 'hungry gap 'in North West Europe boosting vitamin and mineral intake when most needed.
In Germany, we still got "Tanz in den Mai", or Dance into May. And its pretty much just that. Lots of dancing, usually lots of alcohol as well and a May pole, or Maibaum. The May poles are often decorated with little figurines made from brass, depicting different things and characters. When my uncle was studying, he and his flatmates stole one of these figurines, depicting a german king or emporer. This ended up, becoming a real scandal and the news paper actually posted a bounty about the wherabouts of this figurine. At this point, my uncle and his mates couldnt return it, without facing some form of consequences. So they never did. When he moved out of this flat, my grandmother found the figurine under his matrass. It was never retuned.
That's an amazing story. Where is the figurine now?
@@RenaissanceEarCandy Nobody knows. Perhaps it became an heirloom in this shared flat
So, "This is why we can't have nice things" Grandpa Style.
Low key reminds of the legend of the Homer Simpson thief that gets passed down through my university's anime club. Long ago before I or any of the club officers I've served with were even in the club, some drunk guy no one knew stumbled into our meeting room to ask for directions then left. The next day the club president received a call from the director of student union stating that one of our members had stolen student union's life sized cardboard cutout of Homer Simpson. It was the drunk guy. No one knew him, the only reason they thought he was in our club was that he was seen entering our club room via security camera. We were almost forced to disband, despite having had no part in the theft. And that is widely considered to be the reason why we still randomly get kicked out of our club room that we reserve in advance for our club every year, so that various random people who aren't even necessarily affiliated with the school can use instead...
Dang, someone has to make that into a heist movie.
In Oxford, UK, its a University and city tradition to stay up all night on 30th April (bars have late licenses) and then go to Magdalen College to hear the boys choir sing the Eucharist hymn at 6am. Lots of cafes open early to then allow the tired crowds to get breakfast. It's a v cute tradition.
Now I live in Edinburgh, where we have the Beltane celtic festival on the 30th April with similar characters like a May Queen and Green Man
I live in Edinburgh too! I've never been to Beltane, my friend wanted to go together this year but I might have to delay for next year because I have a loved one in hospital and I'm very very tired and stressed. I was already a bit anxious about it because it doesn't seem super wheelchair friendly.
One of my favorite flower flavors is rose hip. It's sweet and floral ever so tasty. Paired with some of the more peppery flowers like nasturtium would be quite in line with this dish, I think.
At a rose farm once I had chocolate cake with closed roseblossoms in it, was amazing.
what exactly is a rose hip? cause i've tried rose petals before and they were surprisingly bitter
@@finn_in_the_bin5263 Rose hip are the berries (seed pods) of a Rose plant. However those 'bitter leaves' would make a good sprinkle in to a salad as well for contrast. Rose hips are usually very sweet and are often used for jam, jelly, spread and filling.
So glad I found your channel! My buddy sent me the volcano bread video, then you showed up in my recommended during titanic month. I feel like food is often neglected in historical discussions, even though it does so much to shape culture and humanize people from the past
You're gonna wanna remake this with more flavorful flowers - borage flowers have a pleasant cucumber-y flavor, and chive/garlic flowers taste like, well, chives and garlic. This'd be a fun thing to make with foraged greens, though! Something to plan.
He could collab with BlackForager!
Ted Striker:
Mayday! Mayday!
Steve McCroskey:
May Day? What the hell is that?
Johnny:
May Day ! Why, that's the Russian New Year. We can have a parade and serve hot hors d'oeuvres...
Sorry, can't help but quote that part of Airplane! everytime I hear May Day. 😁
Classic
@@TastingHistory * Max is kicking himself for not including the clip *
Quoting Airplane is ALWAYS valid.
In the 50's, when I was a child, we would make cones of craft paper and fill them with flowers and deliver them to neighbors by placing them on their porches, knocking on the door and running away, not to be seen. It was more fun than trying to sell Girl Scout cookies! That salad looks lovely
16:24
I just love how your eyes light up when you get to discuss some esoteric factoid relating to your side subjects and tying in your main subject. You look so happy...
this looks like a very light and delicious salad!
also, i wonder if the "tree" used for the May Pole was dried and then later used in the bonfires of Samhain. it would represent the "circle of life" if that were the case.
A village I used to live near [who shall remain nameless] used to have a huge birth spike late January/early February, there were prams everywhere. It really had a reputation for letting it's collective hair [& everything else down] during May celebrations.& In Scotland we celebrated May Day & Victoria Day, the latter was later in the month.
I love collecting a "pocket salad/sallat " when out in spring. all the fresh herbs, leaves & flowers to gather. Think bread & cheese bush [hawthorn] is one of the tastiest, with young beech tree leaves the next.
Fun video as always, thank you.
This is honestly a salad that I've eaten all my life, I've always loved edible flowers. But on May Day, as a child, I used to get green eggs and ham for breakfast weirdly.
Here in Finland May Day (Vappu) is a big deal, it's started with Walpurgis coming from Sweden but also now has strong elements of the labour movement and students' end of term celebrations. We don't eat salad on May Day but rather doughnuts and mead. In my city we also have a tradition to drop all the students into the (very cold) rapids.
With herbs like mint, basil, and sage, I would chiffonade them to disperse the flavors throughout the salat (Medieval name for salad). I'm a fan of Nasturtiums - easy to grow and tastes like a sweet bell pepper - also the entire plant is edible.
Loooove nasturtiums. Finally had a place to plant some last year and they were starting to go to seed nicely when the heat wave came to Oregon and murdered 'em dead.
Personally I think they taste more like radishes . . . Yummy!!!
@@beccacollins1528 Yes, they remind me of cress, a little peppery. A lot of people pickle the seeds to use like capers. (And if you have it as a weed in your garden, hairy bittercress has a similar flavor.)
@@takinastabatit I grow them in pots and move them when the sun and heat is a bit much (I'm in SC). they get a bit of morning sun, then are happy in the partil sun/shade of the porch. A fun thing to do - make a loose (soft) cream cheese (I use goat cheese), and chive mixture and pipe it into the nasturtium blooms, they're also tasty in tea sandwiches.
@@beccacollins1528 peppery.. I say "bell pepper" because it is rather mild, but a light peppery flavor, but I can see the "radish" flavor profile too
From Germany: nice episode as always (I am a fan!), but what I was waiting for was: how Walpurgisnight (flying of witches, dancing under the moon on a mountain top, and mating with the devil - maybe 😃) turned into national Labor Day for many countries, including us. Here it is political parties that stage barbecues on the night of the 30th of April, and then we dance into the 1. of May (a national holiday) - then go to the according protest march and listen to political speeches.
More often than not, however, it has rained on the 1.of May here in Northern Germany, so doing your political duty may become quite an ordeal😃
May 1st was chosen as International worker’s day because of the International Socialist Conference declared it as I International Worker’s day to commemorate the Haymarket Massacre in 1889. They chose May 1st cause it’s the day the strike started, although the massacre actually occurred on May 4, 1886 and of course years later when the workers who were framed for it was hanged. Has nothing to do with the traditional May Day/celebration of spring).
@@TheBLGL The general strike that lead to the Haymarket massacre actually began on 1 May 1886. The strike was organized by USA labor unions pushing for the adoption of an eight hour workday.
I grew up in Wichita, KS. Our neighborhood had a tradition every year of making little paper baskets filled with paper flowers and candy, leaving them on each other's porches, ringing the doorbell, and running away. It was so fun. All the neighbor kids did this every year. It's still my favorite holiday, but since growing up and moving away, I've found this isn't a tradition... anywhere else??? Y'all are missing out.
Orchid petals have a lovely light perfumery flavor, and are quite edible. Chrysanthemum petals are also quite nice. They work well as a garnish on a clear soup or consumme', as well.
Henry VIII agreeing to show mercy?
Well…I guess anything can happen *once.*
It's good PR
"Every once in awhile, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies." - 76th Rule of Acquisition
@@SimuLord that needs to be a t shirt
Max, for a flower with flavor, try nasturtiums. They have a marvelous peppery flavor.
I love the taste of them.
I find that if you add the sugar to the vinegar, stir it in, and add that to the oil, the sugar tends to dissolve better than adding vinegar to the oil and then sugar to the mix. When I run out of seasoned rice vinegar, I make a substitute with any vinegar but wine vinegar that way. The rice vinegar does the best job as a subsititue.
Something about the way you look dead into the camera and say "measure who's pole is the tallest" was just hysterical.
I tried to make a salad similar to this for one of my exams in culinary school. I had to come up with a 6 service menu and an edible flower salad with a mix of flavorful herbs was one of my signature dishes in the whole thing. Unfortunately the teacher involved with procuring the ingredients never once bothered to tell me that edible flowers couldn't be found so what i got were decorative petals instead... wilted.
The thing was a disaster and I had to reconfigure my menu on the fly.
Also, Herb comes from the Latin word Herba, meaning grass. "Oves in campo herba edunt."
I love the captions. *Crunch crunch* and "..... But these do not. :( ". So cute!
We still have a Jack-in-the-green parade in Bristol, UK :) and I recently discovered that a large group of morris dancers dance the sun up on Brandon Hill every year!
When I was in highschool I had a pet rat and I would feed him flowers from the garden. He preferred the blue and purple ones to the yellow ones. So I gave them a nibble to figure out why. The yellow ones were a little bit bitter. Mystery solved!
Nasturtiums are my favorite flower for eating - tender, a little sweet, with a long spicy aftertaste. Highly recommend.
Nasturtiums are the best! The young leaves are pretty good too. They wouldn't have been available in Europe in the Tudor era, though.
But there would be edible wild garlic flowers (and leaves) just this season.
Thank you for bringing up the 'H' in herb. It comes from the old French herbe and before that the Latin Herba. In all of which the H was silent.
An aside for home cooks. If you need to dissolve sugar or salt in a vinaigrette: add the dissolvables into the corrosive vinegar first. Stir or shake vigorously, and it dissolves easily. Add oil after.
Fun episode as usual! Thank you!!! 🌹One aspect to remember about "edible" flowers: while the colors may be beautiful, "edible" does NOT always mean that something tastes good. 😄
Also, common names of flowers can throw things off. Marigolds do NOT generally taste great AT ALL, whereas the calendula, a.k.a. Pot Marigold, has a milder flavor. For many flowers, petals are removed from the flower head, especially if there are bitter parts. As other comments note, nasturtiums are one of the most flavorful edible flowers. Pansies don't have a whole lot of taste to them (imho). Rose petals can also add a light fragrance. Herb flowers are definitely worth playing around with, too.
People who want to experiment should do the extra research to be safe. 😊
The marigold petals (Calendula, not Tagetes) I’ve had have been kind of bland. Borage flowers taste nicer, and are prettier too.
@@ragnkja to me borate flowers taste kind of lightly cucumbery
@@ragnkja Yes, borage! That's another fun one. Cucumber-y. 🙂
Hawthorn is also called May here in N Ireland, such beautiful white blossoms. There are lots of myths and stories around May, eg if the blossoms are plentiful then apparently the following winter will be very cold.
Curious piece of history: the Nicaraguan dance “Palo de Mayo” (May Pole), which is mostly typical to the country’s Atlantic coast, it’s a mixture of African rhythms and movements with British customs, where couples suggestively dance around a May pole.
Not only is the Pokémon plush proper of the occasion, but your apron…(chef’s kiss)!
“Elephants walking on tightropes*
🐘
---
Me: …Wait, what?
Right?!
How??
@@ragnkja I want to know too!!
It's always so interesting to hear how holidays originated and evolved over time.
I love the blank stare after "...whose pole is the tallest?"
Things like the Herb rant is why this is my favorite youtube channel.
I just wanted to share some salad recipes: I've made up 2 different salad recipes which both, funnily enough, use fennel. One is a raw salad, the other is cooked. They share some similarities and I think they're both delicious.
Raw salad, ingredient quantity as you like:
Crunchy purple grapes, halved, quartered, or diced
Fennel bulb, sliced thin as you can or diced
Some baby arugula, optional but adds a bit more flavor (I would chop it a bit)
Fresh parsley, chopped fine
Fresh mint, chopped fine
Roasted sliced almonds (NOT SALTED), optional
For dressing: Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper (i.e., a basic balsamic vinaigrette), mustard is optional
Directions: Just mix together, basic salad
Cooked salad:
1 onion, halved and sliced
1 fennel bulb, sliced
A few tbsps of butter to saute
Salt and pepper, or just pepper, optional
Soft-boiled eggs (if you like hard-boiled, that's fine)
Good-quality kalamata (black) olives
Toasted almonds and/or toasted breadcrumbs, coarsely crushed
Fresh parsley, chopped fine
Same balsamic dressing as above, mustard is optional
Directions: Melt the butter over medium. Saute the onions until somewhat or mostly transluscent. Add the fennel. Add the salt and pepper as you like. Mix. Cover and cook over medium/medium-low until fennel and onion are soft as you want them to be. Uncover and cook a bit longer to evaporate the liquid should there be any. Let cool until warm, then transfer the mix to the serving dish. Decorate with plenty of olives, nuts and/or crumbs, halved or chopped eggs, a generous sprinkle of parsley, and dress with the vinaigrette.
I love showing these to my history professors! I even used the forme of cury in a medieval weights and measures presentation!
When I was stationed in Germany we celebrated with the surrounding towns on my Post. I remember May Day being a day-long festival with a May Pole, dancing, happy crowds, contests & lots and lots of fun & food.
I'm in the US and a ls a 10 year old i got picked as one of the 6 kids in the school to weave the ribbons around the maypole. It was one of my favorite childhood memories.
This video helped me understand Songs from the Wood, an album by an English band called Jethro Tull, a lot better. It’s wonderful so check it out if you haven’t! Wonderful stuff as always Max :)
I love tarragon. It is a highly underrated herb (said with a silent h). 😄
For anyone living in So.Cal, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale is happening right now and this coming weekend we'll be celebrating Mayday. The Country Garden Dancers will be wrapping the Maypole twice a day, it's a ton of fun and I highly recommend it.
In my elementary school in the US, the 6th grade students performed a maypole dance. The maypole was out front of the school and we wove ribbons as we danced. I wonder if they still do it.
Thanks for always Mayking my Day with your uploads Max
I see what you did there 😆
Happy May Day, everyone!
We used to celebrate May Day (PNW US) by giving people flowers. They were generally in pots so they could be replanted. We would ring the doorbell and make a run for it. I was never a very good runner, but I have fond memories of some of our friends chasing us down.
This is why I love my aerogardens. It's so nice having your own garden inside.
I enjoyed seeing this salad. The only flora that I have used is roses. They have a nice light flavor.
Been following you since the early days and love your content! Have you ever considered cooking Acadian recipes? It's a very interesting story because the Acadians started off with plenty in Grand Pre, and then ended up refugees and freedom fighters before eventually being settled on poor land or sent down to Louisiana where they became Cajuns. The way their food had to adapt is very interesting (my ancestors.) My mom had this cookbook when I was a kid from the 1940s that had a lot of hard-scrabble recipes like porcupine stew but with French preparation and seasoning. Classic dishes are rappie pie, poutine rape' (potato dough balls with salt pork inside) chicken fricot (my favourite!) and nun's fart cookies. Your mention of summer savory in this video made me think of it as that's still something widely used in Atlantic Canada because of the Acadian influence.
As someone born in May, I'm always uneasy when anything is named or is taking place during "MAY"...
When I think of May Day as an American who doesn’t live in a community that celebrates, I always remember an episode of Barney and Friends from the 90s growing up where they went back to medieval times, had cardboard horses, and danced around a May Pole 😆 I always wanted to make my own cardboard horse and gallop around a pretty May Pole after watching that!