Summer Punch Recipe: Magnolia Blossom Punch for an Artist Reception
Magnolia Blossom Punch is a simple summery drink that is perfect for a brunch or a celebration.
This year, La Vista is playing host to an artist. Jamie Zane Smith is a Wyandotte potter and friend of our farmers. He, his wife Colleen, and their two daughters have been living on the property since spring. We converted one of the sheds on the farm into a small studio for him and he built a kiln behind another outbuilding.
Jamie has some of his pieces in a gallery in New Mexico and will be showing more of his pieces in Lovett’s Gallery in Oklahoma. To celebrate his new showing, La Vista hosted an artist reception so members could meet Jamie and view some of his work before he his pottery to the gallery.
Colleen and Crystal, our farmer’s wife, made a variety of hors d’ oeuvres such as pesto made of lambs quarter, an apple bread, pickled beets, a dip made of cream cheese, radishes and green onions, and one of my favorites, Napa cabbage leaves covered with a variety of toppings such as cherry tomato halves, red onions, raisins and lentils.
My contribution was South of the Border Quiche and Magnolia Blossom punch
Jamie Zane Smith, Resident Potter
Jamie grew up in a home with parents and grandparents who are all artistically inclined. His dad was a painter, his mother a jazz musician. Jamie gets the inspiration for his work from ancient Native American pottery and is himself Native American, of the Wyandotte tribe. He apprenticed under his uncle, Richard Zane Smith, another well-known potter. It was his uncle who introduced Jamie to stamp impressed pottery.
Jamie gathers and processes all of his clay and most of his other materials. He uses a wood-fired kiln because he says it “connects me even further to the process that my ancestors employed to create such elegant ware.”
As a way of celebrating his ancestors’ lives, he creates some of the same style of pots such as those with castellated rims. This type of pot has ‘points’ around the rim and has a squared, rather than round vessel opening.
Other techniques Jamie incorporates are corrugated Anasazi style and Mound Builder stamp patterns. The Anasazi are thought to be ancestors of the modern Pueblo. Mound Builders were prehistoric inhabitants of North America. The Mississippi Valley, where La Vista is located, is home to Cahokia Mounds.
About a year ago, Jamie had the rare opportunity to visit the archives of the National Museum of the American Indian. There, he had access to pottery from the ancient Woodland Mound Builder cultures. Now Jamie uses hand carved wood paddles to impress the surface of the clay with a pre-historic Mound Builder pattern.
Most recently, Jamie has integrated a new element into his work by pressing clay into living tree bark, then drying and firing the piece.
I hope you enjoyed seeing some of Jamie’s pottery. It’s been fun and interesting to have an artist on the grounds and seeing him develop some of his pieces.
Magnolia Blossoms Punch
Ingredients
- 6-oz can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed, undliluted
- 3 cups white wine, (I used Pinot Grigio, the recipe called for Chablis)
- 1/2 cup Triple Sec
- 1-1/2 cups water
- 1 orange, sliced crosswise
EASY!
- Combine the first four ingredients in a punch bowl and mix well.
- Float orange slices in the punch. Serve punch over ice in a glass.
Enjoy the art show and don’t forget to sip a glass of Magnolia Blossoms punch while you do!
This is one of a series of hubs about La Vista Community Supported Garden in Godfrey, Illinois. I joined La Vista in 2005 and was a member of its board of directors for six years, including the chair for four.
© 2012 Danette Watt
