Sweet woodruff is used to create May Wine (aka Maiwein, Maitrank, Maibowle, and Waldmeisterbowle) with a young Riesling wine. This white wine is frequently drunk chilled as a German May Day tradition and is enjoyed throughout Europe.
If you do not drink alcoholic beverages or would like to share a seasonal drink with someone under the age of 21, here is a Sweet Woodruff May Punch recipe:
Ingredients:
Organic white grape juice, 750ml
A few sprigs of sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) [no more than 0.1 - 0.2 ounces, aproximately 1 to 2 teaspoons, see Safety Note about Sweet
Woodruff at bottom of page]
A bottle of organic sparkling pear juice or gingerale
Ice cubes
Fresh or frozen organic strawberries
Directions:
1. Add the woodruff sprigs to a 750ml bottle of white grape juice; allow it to settle over night.
2. Next day, remove sprigs from bottle.
3. Fill cups with ice cubes and add a few strawberries.
4. Now pour the cup half way full with white grape juice. Fill the remainder of the cup with sparkling pear juice or gingerale. Serve.
We have often purchased a bottle of May Wine to share at MayDay/Beltane celebrations. For a while, I used to purchase it a year in advance. Around us, we cannot buy the wine in late April. Some May Day celebrations will be held on the weekend before May 1, rather than the weekend after May 1.
The HPS of Tapestry Coven in Maryland told us about May Wine around 1985. We could not locate any that year and instead brought a bottle of mead, which we had been saving, to Tapestry's Beltane.
I remember giving her or showing her a recipe from flyer/newsletter from Still Ridge Herb Shop in Ellicott City, MD for "Sweet Woodruff May Punch"--although we talked about it, I am fairly certain nobody tried making the punch. In 2010, I came across this recipe above which I had copied into one of my many notebooks. I think it is the same one from the Still Ridge Herb Shop flyer/newsletter, but I have been unable to confirm where I copied it from. I seem to remember that the orginal recipe talked about serving it in a punch bowl. I may have left the punch bowl out when copying it over.
The herb, sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum), is known in Germany as waldmeister "master of the forest." In English, it is also known as "master of the woods," "our lady's lace," "wood rove," "wuderove," and "kiss-me-quick." In Old French, it was known as muge-de-boys or "musk of the woods." The English name, "woodruff" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon wudurofe, from wudu, or woods. The herb’s natural habitat is deep in the dark forests of Europe.
In 2012, I actually located a recipe to make May Wine, Recipe: May Wine with Sweet Woodruff, by Seasonal Wisdom on April 30, 2012.
May Wine
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of dried sweet woodruff leaves (Galium odoratum) – grown organically
1 bottle of Riesling wine
1 bottle of Sekt (German sparkling wine); or champagne
3/4 cups organic strawberries, chopped
A pinch of fresh sweet woodruff flowers for garnish
Directions:
1. Infuse your dried sweet woodruff leaves in the Riesling wine for an hour or so. You can use fresh herbs, but the flavor and aroma is more intense when dried. Some recipes recommend you infuse the herb overnight. But if you’re not familiar with the herb’s taste, you may want to start slow. We had enough flavor after only an hour when we infused our wine.
2. After infusing the wine with this fresh-smelling herb for approximately an hour, gather up your ingredients and start mixing.
3. Pour the infused wine into a glass pitcher. Then, add your sparking wine or champagne. Bubbles will form immediately, so pour slowly.
4. Add strawberries and a big pinch of sweet woodruff flowers to the top, and stir gently. The result is a lovely and refreshing drink suitable for a real celebration.
Since strawberries are in season in early May, they are often floated in the drink.
Safety Note about Sweet Woodruff:
Although sweet woodruff makes a pleasant addition to some herbal tea blends and may be safely added to desserts and some drinks - such as wine and cider - the herb can be toxic and may cause internal bleeding if taken to excess. Avoid the herb completely if pregnant or if taking general medication, even aspirin. The active ingredient, Coumarin, is used to produce anticoagulant drugs.
--Bruce Burnett, CH, Sweet Woodruff, Alive, August 2004, accessed 1/17/14.
Practical Celebration Recipies and Preps
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