Recipes and Recommendations for Imbibing Beauty through Books and Beverages
By Annie Nardone
Pages, Pints, and Pours invites you to step back into small-town life circa 1928, brought to life through the reminiscent chapters of Bradbury’s own childhood. Pair your reading time with a dandelion-infused cocktail!
THE PAGES: DANDELION WINE BY RAY BRADBURY
“He folded his arms and smiled a magician’s smile. Yes, sir, he thought, everyone jumps, everyone runs when I yell. It’ll be a fine season. He gave the town a last snap of his fingers. Doors slammed open; people stepped out. Summer 1928 began.”
—Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
What is your fondest summertime memory from childhood? Did you play outdoors until the street lights lit the night sky? Maybe you built a treehouse in the woods or listened to your elderly neighbors tell tales of their younger days. Most of us have a recollection of a spooky “urban legend” that we would regale to friends in hushed tones. Memories are the sinew and bones of the best stories. We can revisit those magical days through Ray Bradbury’s fictionalized personal accounts in Dandelion Wine, the first book in his Green Town trilogy.
You may associate Bradbury with dystopian science fiction (Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles), but his memoir of growing up in Waukegan, Illinois, is anything but bleak. Bradbury delights the reader with gloriously common days and people remembered from his childhood: the old gentleman storyteller, two charming spinsters, a loner who runs a decrepit arcade, extended family, and of course, fun friends. Douglas and Tom, the main characters, are young brothers who live with their family in Green Town, the fictional version of Waukegan. Douglas, the older sibling and aspiring author, leads the adventures, carefully recording events and his preteen philosophizing in a five-cent notebook. Tom tags along as his faithful buddy.
The title of the book is a nod to the grandfather’s tradition of making dandelion wine, bottling it in ketchup bottles and shelving them to enjoy during the long winter. As the wine matures in those heady summer months, so do Douglas and his friends. Green Town’s gentle story reminds us of our first awakening to the inevitable passage of time.
There are few tales as transportive as Dandelion Wine. Bradbury captures the awe and wonder of old-fashioned days ripe with promise. In fact, Dandelion Wine stands as my traditional first read at the end of the school year because every chapter carries me back to my own Midwest summers. I’m not sure these blissful days still exist, but you can feel inspired to build your own “Happiness Machine,” distill dandelion wine, or read at night by the light of fireflies in a mason jar. (Holes poked in the lid, of course!)
The treasure of Dandelion Wine lies in this lesson: harried schedules and varied accomplishments will pass out of memory. Embedded in the smallest events and dearest relationships are where you find the grandest beauty, awe, joy, and sorrow. And that is the gold for every soul.
“June dawns, July noons, August evenings over, finished, done, and gone forever with only the sense of it all left here in his head. . . . And if he should forget, the dandelion wine stood in the cellar, numbered huge for each and every day.”
—Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
All quotations sourced from Dandelion Wine (The Grand Master Editions) by Ray Bradbury (Bantam, 1976.)
PINTS AND POURS
There are recipes to distill your own dandelion wine, but at the risk of a distillation experiment going horribly wrong, I recommend preparing a cool summer tonic using dandelion bitters instead! For a nonalcoholic option, try a vintage soda fountain treat. Use maraschino cherries and juice for the traditional recipe or elevate the treat by using the Luxardo-type cocktail cherries and syrup.
Summer Porch Sip
Juice of ½ lime
1 shot of herbal-forward gin
1 cup lemonade
4 dashes dandelion bitters (I used Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Dandelion & Burdock Bitters)
Pour lime juice, lemonade, and gin into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a tall glass filled with ice. Add bitters to the top and gently stir with a long spoon. Slice the remaining lime half, dip one slice in sugar, then tuck alongside ice cubes in the glass.
CLASSIC CHERRY COLA SODA
1 cup cola
1-2 tablespoons of cherry juice
Vanilla ice cream (optional)
Cherries for garnish
Fill a tall glass with ice. Pour cherry juice or syrup over ice, then slowly pour the cola, and stir. Serve with a cherry or two and a straw.
OR
Skip the ice cubes and drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream into the glass, then add cherry juice and cola. Serve with spoon, straw, and a cherry garnish.
Annie Nardone is a lifelong bibliophile with a special devotion to the Inklings and medieval authors. She is a Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute and holds an M.A. in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University. Annie is a writer for Cultivating Oaks Press and An Unexpected Journal. Her writing can also be found at Square Halo Press, Rabbit Room Press, Clarendon Press U.K., Calla Press, and Poetica. Annie is a Master Teacher with HSLDA and Kepler Education and strives to help her students see holiness in everyday life and art. She lives in Florida with her husband and six cats, appreciates the perfect cup of tea, an expansive library, and the beach with family.
