Our Maple Grove Magazine team, including staff writers and Editorial Advisory Board members, are always on the lookout for what’s new in the community. I’m especially pleased to focus on three dining spots, which opened their respective doors during a rather tumultuous time for the restaurant industry. Visit page 30 to learn more about Mango Mango, Dessert Riviera Maya Cantina & Restaurant and The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill.
This issue also takes a sweet peek into the past with a feature on May baskets on page 16. While this tradition isn’t “new,” I thought it deserved a fresh look. Like springtime flowers, this season and, hopefully, the waning stage of the pandemic urges us all to reemerge with a sense of renewal, gathering once again with people who we haven’t had much contact with for, in some cases, the better part of a year!
Minnesotans are well-versed in finding ways to reconnect with friends and neighbors after extended periods of “indoor living,” and we add to the idea list with a May basket craft from Kori Brown, an instructor at Birch Grove Elementary School for the Arts, and floral tips from Donato’s Floral’s Anna Donato-Ghani.
Donato-Ghani recalls picking lily of the valley from the side of her childhood home’s garage and tucking them into a May basket for her mother. I remember filling construction paper cones with popcorn, small candies and a flower or two from my mother’s garden beds before using pipe cleaners to fasten a handle. Loading up “the red wagon,” as we called it, I’d head out to make deliveries.
Simpler times and traditions needn’t take permanent residence in our memories. Remind each other that friendship can be celebrated with a simple act of kindness. Give May’s arrival its proper due—ring the bell, and yell, “May basket!”
Renée Stewart-Hester
