St. Swithin and Rain

What audacity!  To mess up a dying saint’s wishes!  Dangerous!

Unlike other prominent personages of the time, St Swithin, born around 800 AD, Bishop of Winchester (England) from 852 – 862, wanted to be buried outside the Cathedral, “where the sweet rain of Heaven may fall upon my grave”.  ..

And there is someone I have only heard of, sad not to have met.  A prisoner for 32 years for a crime he didn’t commit, was finally released, thanks to a good lawyer and the encouragement from other inmates.  When it starts to rain, he rushes outside to stand in it, glorying in an experience he was wrongly deprived of for 3+ decades.

And here’s another.  “These people don’t know what real rain is,” says a Bangladeshi stall holder at the Hay Festival in Wales.  His hand waves in the air at the 6000 attenders around him.  “The rain here is weak, tiny British droplets. But at home the raindrops fall in big, heavy clumps” (his hand makes a fistful) .  “They make a pounding sound on the metal roofs around me.  Now, that is REAL rain — oh to be back there!”  And he looks heavenward with closed eyes, smiling. 

I allow him the silence of his thoughts while my own drift back to my high school days in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, to hikes in the monsoons on weekend breaks, to 30 lb packs that gradually increased in weight from the pelting rain, to lying openly exposed to Night with an umbrella over my face that dripped onto my sleeping bag as the hours progressed.  We seemed to do everything in the rain at that school, some of it under partially covered metal roofs, sometimes not.

I think this taught me not to pay too much attention to weather.  However, I am reminded of being chastened while working in Egypt.  I kept talking about the 120 degree Fahrenheit heat (48.8 C) in every conversation.  “Judy, we just don’t think about it” said Miss Matilda, a fellow teacher.  I understood then that whatever you focus on grows bigger and bigger in your brain until there isn’t anything else you CAN think about. 

St Swithin’s Day is July 15. There is an old poem found in a 13^th– 14^th century manuscript at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (England), that goes like this:

“St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain

Full forty days, it will remain.

St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair,

For forty days, t’will rain no more”.

And why is this ditty connected to beloved, rain-loving St Swithin?  Because, dear friends, because, 100 years after his death, contrary to his wishes, they exhumed his remains and buried them in the Cathedral. 

There followed a terrific storm with forceful, pounding rain that lasted for weeks and weeks  — probably 40 days! Serves them right.  NO ONE should tamper with anybody’s last wishes, especially a saint’s! 

Slow Cooker Beet, Thyme and Goat Cheese Salad

What do we do when it’s a hot day, yet we have to cook a vegetable?  Throw it in a slow cooker of course.  Especially in the middle of the night.  This takes 10 minutes to prepare, and (using my Christmas-light-timer) it cooked while I slept.

Ingredients:

1 bunch (about 4) fresh raw beetroot, scrubbed.

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed.

4 fresh thyme sprigs

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons good olive oil

1 tablespoon orange juice

2 tablespoons red currant jelly.

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Mixed salad leaves to serve

200 g (7 oz) goat cheese (or  blue cheese, Brie, or Camembert instead of goat cheese.)

Trim the roots and green leafy tops from the beets and set leaves aside if they are in good condition (for the salad.)  Cut the beets into quarters and place in the slow cooker dish with the garlic, thyme, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, orange juice and red currant jelly.  Season with salt and pepper.

Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or until the beets are wonderfully tender.  Remove from heat.  Let cool in the slow cooker dish.

Place salad and reserved beet greens onto individual plates.  Top with cooled cooked beets.  Drizzle with cooking juice.  Crumble goat cheese over the top.  Service with crusty bread.

My experience.  I used 1 tsp of dried thyme (no fresh).  Used cranberry sauce instead of redcurrant jelly (no jelly).  My beets were big, my slow cooker slow, so it took about 5 – 6 hours to get tender.

Taste:  the goat cheese didn’t taste goaty, the beets were far superior to the searingly sour commercially-prepared pickled beets. The garlic is a nice added touch.  The beet-cheese combination was delicious.  Don’t you think it could do with some walnuts sprinkled on top?  I do. 

Share your results/opinions in COMMENTS on the blog.  Thanks!