Beltane and Bread and Cheese
There's lots of blossom about now, of course - here's some blackthorn which I found near Wetherby on Saturday.
Like many blossoming trees and bushes, the flowers of blackthorn appear before the leaves.
Hawthorn, on the other hand, sends its leaves out first, so that the blossom can appear later and justify its other name of May blossom. Here's some hawthorn that I saw yesterday, doing the leaf thing:
In my family these young leaves were always known as "bread and cheese" and I thought it was just something my eccentric relatives had come up with but no, there it is on the BBC site - just click on the Hawthorn link, above.
Certainly we always used to eat it as we walked along - I ate some yesterday - and I have to say that it tastes of neither bread nor cheese: it tastes fresh and Springlike. I suspect - though I don't know and please contradict me if you do know - that it got the name of "bread and cheese" because it was a basic food, found everywhere, that you could always eat if you were hungry: though, I must say, you'd have to eat quite a lot.
This is my favourite time of the year - Spring at last! Let's light a bonfire to celebrate.
posted by Daphne at 12:13 pm
4 Comments:
You're Normal, Daphne. We used to call it 'bread and cheese' too, but only when it was in bud.
Once it blossomed, it became 'May'.
I love it. Whenever I see it coming on the trees I get excited as I know spring is around the corner. But then, I saw some weeks and weeks ago in Selby and we've had snow twice since then!
I meant to say - my mother told me that the reason we called it 'bread and cheese' is because the round cream buds laying on the flat leaves look like cheeses and loaves.
Origin of ‘bread and cheese’: generic country term for trees.
Example of usage:
Rambler 1: Gor blimey mate, I’m bloomin’ Hank Marvin.
Rambler 2: Tuck into some leaves off them bread and cheese over there then mate.
Rambler 1: Do what? You mean those small thorny Wormwood Scrubs? They ain’t got no leaves, just loads of white skunk and possum!
Rambler 2: No, mate, that’s blackthorn, innit. It’s them Paul Eddingtons over there you want.
Yes, I can kind of see your point about cheeses and loaves, Rebecca - - that's a good theory. Enjoyed Michael's too!
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