Most history channels tell the stories of armies, leaders, world-changing events, and so on. I just love how you tell the histories of the culture and traditions we take for granted. So much of history is the things we don't think about often: The food, the festivals, the costumes. Thank you for bringing light to those obscure corners of history, through food.

That American English vs British English history lesson was some of the gentlest shade I've ever seen thrown 😂

Arriving at an absolute pokerface while you say "whose pole was the tallest" is, to my estimation, a mark of most gentlemanly taste and class. And sense of humor.

As someone in the UK who eats flowers with salads fairly often, I recommend chive flowers , they are purple and taste of chives and nasturtium flowers which are peppery

Growing up in the UK, we celebrated May Day at primary school with maypole dancing and crowning the May Queen (which was the youngest girl in the class) - being an August baby meant I was one one year :)

Tip with the flowers: some taste sweet, like roses, violets, or lavender,and might not be the best choice if you're going for a savory salad. Good savory flowers include the flowers of a lot of savory herbs like basil and oregano, flowers of various members of the onion family (onion, chive, shallot, ect - basically the whole allium genus,) or dandelion and marigold. Some flavor neutral options include day lily (not other lilies - lots of them are poisonous,) pansy, or carnation

"And if erecting this massive pole is too nuanced for you, men from neighboring villages would gather together and have contests of whose pole was the tallest." (Stoic knowing stare) 🤣🤣🤣 You're awesome, Max!

You could have added Lemon thyme. Yes the leaves are tiny but they add a lot of flavor and a strong lemon scent. When I was making salads from my own garden it was a great add.

I graduated from a small private school (pre-K through 12th grade, with about 300 students, total), and when I was in Tenth grade, the art teacher and the headmaster conspired to start a Mayday celebration. In the fall semester, the high school art class built a giant, paper maché dragon that the little kids could climb around inside of / on top of. This was our "dragon of Winter" And then, on Mayday, this dragon was brought out to the center of our soccer field, and our biology teacher came out of the woods behind our school and shot a flaming arrow into the dragon to create the bonfire that banished winter and ushered in the spring. Also, the whole school had all our afternoon classes off. Good Times. (This was back in the 1980s, in NY State)

The tradition of dyeing non-green foods green reminds me of Green Eggs and Ham day at school when I was growing up 😜

Doing a "well actually" on the British pronunciation of herbs, well played, Max, well played.

When I was growing up in the Sixties in the US, the custom was to assemble small baskets of flowers and deliver them to one’s neighbors on the morning of May Day.

So basically it started out as “ayyyyy we survived the cold, let’s get nekkit!” 😅 In all seriousness, that’s quite an interesting history. I’d never known the history of May Day, but it’s quite vast and wild lol

the moment you mentioned dandelion greens i was like "yay! oh wait..." because dandelion are delicious and super nutritious, but someone is going to try making something like this not understanding how to prep dandelion down the road and get a mouthful of the bitterest nasty on the planet. Any time you eat dandelion leaves, they have to either be the younger leaves, or you have to soak em in saltwater to get the latex and bitter taste out once they reach a certain age, and the largest elder leaves are just too bitter and woody to eat fresh at all, and all of them can cause people with latex allergies to have reactions depending on the level of their allergen sensitivity. Also, for a topical musical experience that you shouldn't listen to around children or people who blush easily, i recommend Jonathan Coulton's "The First of May", (one of the kings of comedy songs and nerd music also the creator of the Portal theme songs.)

In Bavaria we also have the may pole. It's called Maibaum. You collect a tree from the forrest and bring it in town. For the next six week you make the tree into a pole with colouring and decorating it. In this time the Maibaum also needs to be guard, since the other villages around gonna try to steal it. And then on the first day of May you put it in the middle of your village and have similar festivals like Max described. You repeat the whole thing all three to four years. This festival was actually for the bachelors. your dance partner on the first of May often was the person you ended up marrying.

In my region in Germany there's "Green Sauce" which is made with 7 traditional herbs. It's great and the one thing I miss about being vegan is having it with hard boiled eggs

Between the apron and the salad Max is fully embracing the spring aesthetic and I'm here for it 💐🌷🥗

Also the word “herb” comes to English from French, who wouldn’t have pronounced the H. Also, some Middle English texts even spell it “erbes” or “erbs”.

Back in the 90's I was at primary school in Southern England and we had a maypole, dancing with ribbons around the pole, morris dancing, and a May Queen (The May Queen was always a second-to-last year girl so that the following year she could return as the "Queen of Winter" and hand off her crown to the new May Queen.)

This reminds me of 2000 in Ohio when I was invited to a party at a friend of a friend's house. Turned out to be a Beltane celebration that was a very much clothing optional bonfire. I at the time I wasn't aware that things like this existed. A beautiful salad would have made the experience more tolerable.

In the villages where I'm from in Frankonia there's an interesting May Day tradition: each village erects a decorated birch tree on April 30. then during the night there's a big fire lit and young men stand guard to protect their tree from men from neighboring villages who might come try and steal the tree (theoretically, mostly they just get drunk around the fire). In the 18 years I lived in the region maybe 2-3 trees were actually stolen, never ours tho!

We don't really have a may pole in Sweden, but we do have a "Midsommarstång" at midsummer. Fresh food in May? Up here? Noooo. We save it for Midsummer, and it's so much better than any other holiday! At least here... Dew, flowers, garlands. That there's midsommer talk, stranger :-D

I grow chives in my garden, and use the chive flowers in salad. They add a lovely crunch, as well as tasting like mild chives.

As a modern American pagan practicing for the last 40 years, your historical accuracy was a delight to watch. May poles are amazing, wonderful and fun. One year we were doing the may pole and we had the ribbons held taught, out from the pole getting ready to dance when the wind came up and the ribbons began to sing and hum as they vibrated, it was magical. As to your salad I would suggest adding nasturtiums, they have a very nice kind of sharp peppery flavor and would really be a great addition to the flavor of the dressing and the salad itself. Thanks for a very wonderful mayday episode.

Australians pronounce the h in herbs, as well. It took me a long time to get used to that. And I'm going to call them "cowcumbers" from now on. In other matters, I was surprised you didn't reference the song from Camelot, "The Lusty Month of May".

Nasturtium flowers are lovely, they taste radish-y. The leaves are also nice

As someone who’s played the role of Professor Henry Higgins and is mighty proud of it I can’t tell you how happy I am that you referenced him in connection with spelling correctly! Bless you Max.

Looks great! Flowers are definitely an underappreciated ingredient. Belvoir Farms used to make a "Summer Cooler" drink, that was cucumber, mint, and geranium flavours in lightly sparkling water. Delicious stuff, and the geranium added a cool peppery taste to the mix. Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only person who ever bought or drank the stuff, so they stopped making it.

First, I exit my bedroom door in my tudor-style house. Then I exit my front door, which is the second of two doors I must open. Then I get into my car, and drive to my job as a local tutor, where I receive this notification alerting me that there's a video about the food of the Tudors!

@1:00 a little note about 'swing them in a strainer' I live in the south of france and when my father came to visit the inlaws he asked about the metal wire chickens that were placed as ornaments, being basket chickens he asked were for collecting the eggs? a little straw in the bottom sturdy container one would surmise for eggs, nope, you wash the salad put it in and go outside, swing as hard as you can over shoulder for around 30s then mix up, turn the chicken around and swing again, drying your salad. now we have tupperware spiny buckets that do it.

I'm always delighted when Morris dancing is mentioned!❤️ I'll be "Dancing up the Sun" with my local Morris side on Sunday along with Morris dancers around the world. We've all got to do our part to. Make sure the sun rises on May Day!

In the Czech republic in the villages we still raise may poles, you got me interested in learning about the festivities and the history here. Don’t know If we were punished for raising them too.

The whole history behind a silent "h" was super interesting. As someone from Pittsburgh (a city that's had it's trouble with "h's" in the past!), it was interesting to see why herbs is pronounced so differently. Happy May Day (and I absolutely LOVE your apron! So cute!)

Concerning the dropped 'h' and added 'h', the same thing for similar reasons happened in Classical Latin. Catullus wrote a poem (*84) on the subject.

I’m now going to consider Max breaking out his floral Pokémon apron as the true first sign of spring.

"I'm not sure how the May King was chosen" probably the pole measuring thing you mentioned earlier

I don’t even eats salads often but this one looks so picturesque and lovely

I laughed when you talked about May Day in Britain at the time. It reminded me of a TV series called 'Tales from the Green Valley'. Despite its title it was a documentary series, where five historians and archaeologists spend a year at a Tudor Farmhouse and run the farm as it would have been during the 16th and 17th centuries. There are twelve episodes (which can be found here on KZfaq for those interested) and , of course, May Day and its celebrations were covered. One of the team talks about venturing into woodland to gather flowers and plant materials for garlands: he cites a hyper religious diarist of the time whose remarks about this practise was even more scathing and prudish!

Okay so now I have "The Lusty Month of May" from Camelot stuck in my head, thanks a lot Max! I love your apron! I love a good salad and that one looks just lovely!

I ate yet another Elizabethan salet today as i have frequently for the last 60 years since I read the first recipt. Your version is a gaudy one.True Elizabethan flowers would be smaller and their secent /flavour stronger.Dasies, Violets, Hearts Ease , Primroses and Callendula- which was shredded into petals as a whole one would be too much. The leaves of all these can be eaten and today I added wild sorrel, garlic , rocket, lambs lettuice and dandelion from the orchard and chives from the garden. I chop the herbs finely as the books say and dress with mustard in the localy grown rapeseed oil and cider vinegar. The intense combination of wild plants compensates for the shortage of fresh green vegetables in what is known as the 'hungry gap 'in North West Europe boosting vitamin and mineral intake when most needed.

In Germany, we still got "Tanz in den Mai", or Dance into May. And its pretty much just that. Lots of dancing, usually lots of alcohol as well and a May pole, or Maibaum. The May poles are often decorated with little figurines made from brass, depicting different things and characters. When my uncle was studying, he and his flatmates stole one of these figurines, depicting a german king or emporer. This ended up, becoming a real scandal and the news paper actually posted a bounty about the wherabouts of this figurine. At this point, my uncle and his mates couldnt return it, without facing some form of consequences. So they never did. When he moved out of this flat, my grandmother found the figurine under his matrass. It was never retuned.

With herbs like mint, basil, and sage, I would chiffonade them to disperse the flavors throughout the salat (Medieval name for salad). I'm a fan of Nasturtiums - easy to grow and tastes like a sweet bell pepper - also the entire plant is edible.

One of my favorite flower flavors is rose hip. It's sweet and floral ever so tasty. Paired with some of the more peppery flowers like nasturtium would be quite in line with this dish, I think.

Max, I live vicariously through your tastebuds.

The salad looks so beautiful with the flowers. Also, your apron is really cute!

That salad thumbnail picture looks like actual art 🖼 🥗

So glad I found your channel! My buddy sent me the volcano bread video, then you showed up in my recommended during titanic month. I feel like food is often neglected in historical discussions, even though it does so much to shape culture and humanize people from the past

I find that if you add the sugar to the vinegar, stir it in, and add that to the oil, the sugar tends to dissolve better than adding vinegar to the oil and then sugar to the mix. When I run out of seasoned rice vinegar, I make a substitute with any vinegar but wine vinegar that way. The rice vinegar does the best job as a subsititue.

Like you said, Max, "It's just a salad." But the humor (pronounce the H) in the history (again pronounce the H) was very funny. A great episode. I'm going to share it with my hippie (again the H) friends who's anniversary is May Day. Thank you Max!

As a relatively well-known madrigal puts it: Now is the month of Maying, when merry lads are playing, fa la la ... Each with his bonnie lass upon the greening grass, fa la la ... Jonathan Coulton's "First of May" is very fitting in the genre.

Orchid petals have a lovely light perfumery flavor, and are quite edible. Chrysanthemum petals are also quite nice. They work well as a garnish on a clear soup or consumme', as well.

I just love how your eyes light up when you get to discuss some esoteric factoid relating to your side subjects and tying in your main subject. You look so happy...

In Oxford, UK, its a University and city tradition to stay up all night on 30th April (bars have late licenses) and then go to Magdalen College to hear the boys choir sing the Eucharist hymn at 6am. Lots of cafes open early to then allow the tired crowds to get breakfast. It's a v cute tradition. Now I live in Edinburgh, where we have the Beltane celtic festival on the 30th April with similar characters like a May Queen and Green Man

this looks like a very light and delicious salad! also, i wonder if the "tree" used for the May Pole was dried and then later used in the bonfires of Samhain. it would represent the "circle of life" if that were the case.

This is honestly a salad that I've eaten all my life, I've always loved edible flowers. But on May Day, as a child, I used to get green eggs and ham for breakfast weirdly.

I enjoyed seeing this salad. The only flora that I have used is roses. They have a nice light flavor.

You're gonna wanna remake this with more flavorful flowers - borage flowers have a pleasant cucumber-y flavor, and chive/garlic flowers taste like, well, chives and garlic. This'd be a fun thing to make with foraged greens, though! Something to plan.

From Germany: nice episode as always (I am a fan!), but what I was waiting for was: how Walpurgisnight (flying of witches, dancing under the moon on a mountain top, and mating with the devil - maybe 😃) turned into national Labor Day for many countries, including us. Here it is political parties that stage barbecues on the night of the 30th of April, and then we dance into the 1. of May (a national holiday) - then go to the according protest march and listen to political speeches. More often than not, however, it has rained on the 1.of May here in Northern Germany, so doing your political duty may become quite an ordeal😃

Thank you for bringing up the 'H' in herb. It comes from the old French herbe and before that the Latin Herba. In all of which the H was silent.

Whoever the hell does the subs/captions for this, I freaking love you lmao. [Maxwell shakes well] and now [crunch, crunch] LMAO [eats flower]

A village I used to live near [who shall remain nameless] used to have a huge birth spike late January/early February, there were prams everywhere. It really had a reputation for letting it's collective hair [& everything else down] during May celebrations.& In Scotland we celebrated May Day & Victoria Day, the latter was later in the month. I love collecting a "pocket salad/sallat " when out in spring. all the fresh herbs, leaves & flowers to gather. Think bread & cheese bush [hawthorn] is one of the tastiest, with young beech tree leaves the next. Fun video as always, thank you.

Ted Striker: Mayday! Mayday! Steve McCroskey: May Day? What the hell is that? Johnny: May Day ! Why, that's the Russian New Year. We can have a parade and serve hot hors d'oeuvres... Sorry, can't help but quote that part of Airplane! everytime I hear May Day. 😁

I like how the closed captions say [Crunch, Crunch] when you're eating.

Love the apron. Been binging your videos and I am enjoying the fact that you have different pokemon plush in the background in each video, also enjoy the history facts of food as well, can't help but be hungry from watching.

Fun episode as usual! Thank you!!! 🌹One aspect to remember about "edible" flowers: while the colors may be beautiful, "edible" does NOT always mean that something tastes good. 😄 Also, common names of flowers can throw things off. Marigolds do NOT generally taste great AT ALL, whereas the calendula, a.k.a. Pot Marigold, has a milder flavor. For many flowers, petals are removed from the flower head, especially if there are bitter parts. As other comments note, nasturtiums are one of the most flavorful edible flowers. Pansies don't have a whole lot of taste to them (imho). Rose petals can also add a light fragrance. Herb flowers are definitely worth playing around with, too. People who want to experiment should do the extra research to be safe. 😊

Max, for a flower with flavor, try nasturtiums. They have a marvelous peppery flavor.

Been following you since the early days and love your content! Have you ever considered cooking Acadian recipes? It's a very interesting story because the Acadians started off with plenty in Grand Pre, and then ended up refugees and freedom fighters before eventually being settled on poor land or sent down to Louisiana where they became Cajuns. The way their food had to adapt is very interesting (my ancestors.) My mom had this cookbook when I was a kid from the 1940s that had a lot of hard-scrabble recipes like porcupine stew but with French preparation and seasoning. Classic dishes are rappie pie, poutine rape' (potato dough balls with salt pork inside) chicken fricot (my favourite!) and nun's fart cookies. Your mention of summer savory in this video made me think of it as that's still something widely used in Atlantic Canada because of the Acadian influence.

Just wanted to pop in and say I look forward to your videos every week. You combine two of my favorite things, history and recipes. Always a joy. I've watched all of your videos and look forward to what is in store for the future.

I tried to make a salad similar to this for one of my exams in culinary school. I had to come up with a 6 service menu and an edible flower salad with a mix of flavorful herbs was one of my signature dishes in the whole thing. Unfortunately the teacher involved with procuring the ingredients never once bothered to tell me that edible flowers couldn't be found so what i got were decorative petals instead... wilted. The thing was a disaster and I had to reconfigure my menu on the fly.

Henry VIII agreeing to show mercy? Well…I guess anything can happen *once.*

I just recently discovered your channel because of your Titanic series and I gotta say, this is by far one of my favorite channels. And not just in terms of cooking channels, but literally all the channels. You're so damn entertaining and relaxing to watch. I adore the mix of the history lesson and the recipe. You are pure gold!

My day was off to a rough start and your humor and wisdom have brought a smile to my grumpy face. Thank you for making a difference in my little, insignificant life.

Nasturtiums are my favorite flower for eating - tender, a little sweet, with a long spicy aftertaste. Highly recommend.

I just wanted to share some salad recipes: I've made up 2 different salad recipes which both, funnily enough, use fennel. One is a raw salad, the other is cooked. They share some similarities and I think they're both delicious. Raw salad, ingredient quantity as you like: Crunchy purple grapes, halved, quartered, or diced Fennel bulb, sliced thin as you can or diced Some baby arugula, optional but adds a bit more flavor (I would chop it a bit) Fresh parsley, chopped fine Fresh mint, chopped fine Roasted sliced almonds (NOT SALTED), optional For dressing: Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper (i.e., a basic balsamic vinaigrette), mustard is optional Directions: Just mix together, basic salad Cooked salad: 1 onion, halved and sliced 1 fennel bulb, sliced A few tbsps of butter to saute Salt and pepper, or just pepper, optional Soft-boiled eggs (if you like hard-boiled, that's fine) Good-quality kalamata (black) olives Toasted almonds and/or toasted breadcrumbs, coarsely crushed Fresh parsley, chopped fine Same balsamic dressing as above, mustard is optional Directions: Melt the butter over medium. Saute the onions until somewhat or mostly transluscent. Add the fennel. Add the salt and pepper as you like. Mix. Cover and cook over medium/medium-low until fennel and onion are soft as you want them to be. Uncover and cook a bit longer to evaporate the liquid should there be any. Let cool until warm, then transfer the mix to the serving dish. Decorate with plenty of olives, nuts and/or crumbs, halved or chopped eggs, a generous sprinkle of parsley, and dress with the vinaigrette.

Recently found your channel and it's been a pleasure to watch an episode with my dinner every day. Love the approach of making history more relatable through ordinary things and I can tell how much effort goes into the production.

Nice video. You mentioned borage which is one of my favorite plants to grow in the summer vegetable garden. The flowers attract pollinators and leaves have a nice cucumbery flavor.

“Elephants walking on tightropes* 🐘 --- Me: …Wait, what?

Also, Herb comes from the Latin word Herba, meaning grass. "Oves in campo herba edunt."

Listening to you list ingredients just makes me miss spring. I'll have to try this for May Day!

This is why I love my aerogardens. It's so nice having your own garden inside.

I love showing these to my history professors! I even used the forme of cury in a medieval weights and measures presentation!

It's always so interesting to hear how holidays originated and evolved over time.

Love how you talk about the maypole in the past tense ... The tradition is still very much alive in Germany!

I remember making May baskets and leaving them on neighbours' doorsteps when I was a boy 70 years ago.

Hawthorn is also called May here in N Ireland, such beautiful white blossoms. There are lots of myths and stories around May, eg if the blossoms are plentiful then apparently the following winter will be very cold.

When I was in highschool I had a pet rat and I would feed him flowers from the garden. He preferred the blue and purple ones to the yellow ones. So I gave them a nibble to figure out why. The yellow ones were a little bit bitter. Mystery solved!

Awesome vid and history lesson. Thanks Max! Enjoy watching you up here in Alaska.

When I was stationed in Germany we celebrated with the surrounding towns on my Post. I remember May Day being a day-long festival with a May Pole, dancing, happy crowds, contests & lots and lots of fun & food.

How depressing to realize how some fundamentalists and other kinds of pains in the a** show up again and again in history. Luckily, it seems that the human need for liveliness and happiness pushes harder, in the end. Great video, it was truly interesting and informative. Even the brief interval with 2xSpeed Max was entertaining ;)

Thanks for always Mayking my Day with your uploads Max

An aside for home cooks. If you need to dissolve sugar or salt in a vinaigrette: add the dissolvables into the corrosive vinegar first. Stir or shake vigorously, and it dissolves easily. Add oil after.

!! Where I'm from in TX we have mayday every spring! We would have dance troupes come and dance while we put up the maypole 😊 fun memories and a great video as always~

This video helped me understand Songs from the Wood, an album by an English band called Jethro Tull, a lot better. It’s wonderful so check it out if you haven’t! Wonderful stuff as always Max :)

I love tarragon. It is a highly underrated herb (said with a silent h). 😄

I love the blank stare after "...whose pole is the tallest?"

This is the sort of spring salad I enjoy making from homegrown ingredients - they'll all grow in containers or pots too, so you don't even have to have a massive garden space! If you wanted flowers with more flavour, you could try including nasturtium blossoms with their leaves (very peppery) or maybe marigolds?

When an English coworker asked about my saying the h in herb, not knowing that history, I just replied that we do say it with an h for a person's name: Herb - Herbert. He didn't like my explanation 😕

Really enjoyed this. When I was young we went to a village (UK) on Mayday to see the May pole. Also I think the American pronunciation of "herbs" is more authentic!

Hey dude I just wanted to let you know that I discovered your channel with the “Feeding a Mongolian Horde” video and I have been watching every old and new video since, I’ve always loved food and history so your channel is a unique and cool experience to watch, keep up the good work

This channel really does cheer me up. Thanks you.