the cusp of may

There’s an old expression that goes, “When gorse is in flower, kissing is in fashion.”

Here on the cusp of the month of May, the yellow pea-like gorse is starting to bloom again, and people are no doubt coming into nurseries asking 'What are all those pretty yellow flowers?' Gorse is none other than one of our most infamous invasive exotic weeds, growing rampantly along the interstates and public-right-of-ways of the northwest. Gorse (Ulex europaeus), is resistant to "fire, bulldozers, herbicides -- everything man has flung at it” but makes a wine much loved in olden times in Scotland. So even while landowners may be committed to an unending quest to eradicate it, we can appreciate the charms of it’s coconut-vanilla-pineapple scented flowers (while fermenting in a bottle) trapping forever the swelling exuberance of May’s transcendence into summer.

Here’s a recipe from Caspar, CA for gorse wine. “The wine has a fruity taste, according to those who have dared to drink it. "Here is an idea that could be the end of gorse," Potts said, tongue in cheek.

GORSE WINE

12 cups of gorse flowers
1 gallon of water
4 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups seedless white raisins
2 oranges
2 lemons (or 1/4 oz. citric acid)
2/3 cup strong tea or 8 drops grape tannin
2 heaping teaspoons all-purpose wine yeast
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

Put the flowers into the fermenting bucket immediately. Boil half the water, half the sugar and the chopped raisins together for 1 to 2 minutes, then pour over flowers. Thinly peel the rind from the oranges and the lemons, and add to the bucket. Squeeze out the juice and add that too. Add the cold tea or the tannin and stir thoroughly. Make up to 1 gallon with cold water, or cooled boiled water if you prefer. This should give you a tepid mixture, about right for adding the yeast from the starter bottle. Add the yeast and yeast nutrient, stir well and cover. Ferment for 1 week, stirring daily. After 2 or 3 days, when fermenting well, add the remaining sugar and stir to dissolve. Strain through a sieve or cloth and siphon into a gallon jug or bottle. Fill up to the neck or the jug with cool, boiled water, if necessary (the less surface area exposed with all wines the better), fit a fermentation lock or secure a plastic garbage bag with a rubber band over the neck of the jug. Rack when clear, bottle and keep for six months.

So, standing out there by the river, with joggers going by, I picked handfuls of the yellow blooms and filled up a bag while watching the sun set. In this day and age, I’m sure I look insane standing out there picking the weeds but someone’s gotta keep the old ways alive.