Fermenting Daylight
By Mae Wilmarth
Ernie didn’t really understand daylight savings when President Wilson announced it. Alls he knew was that days were short in winter and long in summer.
In summer, he bottled up sunshine best he could, only in his ma’s old green bottles. But first he’d add a little honey, orange peel, and salt. When the bottles glowed green, he’d bottle ‘em up tight and hide ‘em in the muddy crick.
In winter, when those odd winter funks hit the neighbors and the kiddos needed a good laugh, they’d crack open a bottle – fluorescent green grin, fermented orange peel smile, honeyed tongue.
Mae Wilmarth grew up on a farm in Illinois and studied English at Illinois State University. Now, she lives in Colorado, where she edits engineering things, haunts her own house and garden, and sometimes wanders the front range of the Rocky Mountains.
I loved this one!
Practical magic! Beautifully done.