A microbrewery makes small batches of specialty beers that showcase particular ingredients, a certain season, or theme. The craft brewery in our little town, for example, makes a seasonal beer called Sugar Shack Maple Stout, made with maple syrup that is harvested by the monks and others at Saint John’s Abbey Arboretum and Forest just a skip and a hop from here. (We helped tap trees a couple years ago—Welcome to the Sugar Shack—for the making of that syrup—Sap to Syrup.) Whereas traditional breweries make millions of barrels of beer each year, US regulations permit microbreweries to make no more than 15,000 barrels per year. Microbreweries concentrate on quality, flavor, and techniques. According to www.hopandwine.com, “Every day is a delicious science experiment at a microbrewery.” I love that!
On this 2nd day of April, Central Minnesota is a Micro-Springery. Small batches of Spring can be found if one looks closely. Later Spring will be lush with greenness everywhere, overwhelming the senses with millions of Spring things. But for now, Spring is slowly unfolding in a delicious awakening. Join me for a tour of the neighborhood Micro-Springery.
Aspen tree catkins have emerged, like fuzzy caterpillars hanging from the branches.
Common Yarrow, with its fern-like, aromatic foliage is one of the first perennials to grow in a sunny location. The leaves can be used for a hop substitute and preservative for beer-making! (ediblewildfood.com)
Beautiful, iconic Spring Pussy Willow! If we don’t protect this shrub with fencing, the deer will eat it right down to the ground. Luckily it is resilient and grows back quickly.
The buds are just breaking out of the beautifully-barked Serviceberry.
Wild geraniums with hairy, red-tinged foliage from last year and pristine new green leaves are a shade-loving perennial that blooms early in the growing season.
Blue Flag Iris, another early bloomer, pushes out its triangular leaves through last year’s debris.
Hazelnut catkins hang like dangling earrings, adorning the shrub in Spring splendor.
Pungent Allium, with their frost-tipped leaves, will bloom in the middle of summer with their distinctive purple-ball flowers.
Red clusters of Maple tree flower buds will open before the leaves develop and appear.
Henry David Thoreau wrote, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” Microbreweries don’t brew beer just to have beer, they want it to taste amazing. Mother Nature doesn’t give us Spring just for aesthetics, but to teach us how to fly in the wind like the catkin pollen and seeds, how to be a common human being and do extraordinary things, how to be beautiful and resilient, how to have a splendid protective covering and let your gifts emerge, how to bloom early, in the middle, and late in your life, how to push your way through last year’s debris, and how to adorn yourself with loving splendor. Mother Nature shows us, with all her seasons, that life is one delicious science experiment after another. I love that!
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