In about a month, Calvin Davies hopes to add a new ale at the Irish pub he owns -- but this brew will be Welsh in honor of Davies' homeland of Wales
.The dark ale is named after Dylan Thomas, Wales' beloved poet. It will join the Irish and English beers available at The Piper Irish Pub in Pompano Beach.
"Dylan Thomas loved his ale," Davies said. "And the Welsh love their poets. Wales is the land of songs."
In addition to their verse, the Welsh are also proud to wear the leek or daffodil on St. David's Day, which took place on Monday.
While there are about 20,000 Welsh-Americans in South Florida, relatively few arrived from Wales in recent years. It is those relative few who donned a leek or daffodil to pay tribute to the patron saint of Wales at the beginning of last week.
St. David was a monk who lived in Wales in the 11th century. The Welsh honor him by wearing the leek, a vegetable found throughout the country, or the daffodil, which is in bloom in Wales at this time of year.
On Feb. 28, the Sunday before St. David's Day, there were daffodils for the customers at Davies' pub at 537 S. Dixie Highway. Davies also played recorded Welsh music during the celebration, which lasted into the night.
"Most people wear daffodils instead of leeks," he said. "It depends on the size of the leek.''
Davies, 36, of Plantation, grew up in Bethesda, a town in north Wales near Bangor. His father was a water treatment operator for the Welsh Water Authority and his mother worked as a domestic for the University College of North Wales.
When he was 22, Davies moved to Florida to join some friends who had moved here earlier. He came after a few visits with his friends.
"I love it. It's a totally different climate and there is a lot of work here,'' he said.
Davies worked at various jobs and on Oct. 5 bought the pub, which until then had been known as the Harp and Piper and had many Irish customers. Davies, who himself was a customer until the purchase, kept the Irish motif in order to keep his customer base. At the pub, Davies regularly also sees a handful of his Welsh friends, who also have been customers over the years.
"I kept it an Irish pub because there are more Irish in town than Welsh," Davies said. "Besides, my wife is Irish."
Gillian Malka, of Plantation, wore a daffodil pinned to her blouse and cooked leek soup on Monday.
"You fry three or four big leeks, boil them and add potatoes," said Malka, who is a nurse at Outreach, a Fort Lauderdale outpatient rehabilitation center.
Malka grew up in St. Asaph, a town near the coast in north Wales, where her father is a bank manager and her stepmother is a doctor.
"Technically, St. Asaph is a city because it has a cathedral. It's the smallest cathedral in the U.K.[ United Kingdom],'' she said.
Malka moved to New Jersey in 1980 to work as a nanny. After meeting her American husband, the couple moved to South Florida in 1981.Every summer, Malka returns to Wales to visit family and friends.
"It's gorgeous there. You can see the mountain ranges,'' she said. "My parents live about 20 miles from Snowdonia National Park]."
South Florida's climate is a plus for Malka.
"Wales has a harsh winter," she said.
Margaret Clements, who grew up in the south of Wales, said South Florida is a much better place when it comes to climate.
"I very much like it here,'' she said. "I don't like the cold at all."
Clements, 66, grew up in Rhymmey, a mining valley in south Wales where her grandfather was a miner and her mother was a teacher.
"Most of the men in the village were miners, with the odd doctor and a clergyman. The mines are all worked out now," said Clements, who lives in Miami.
Now that the mines are shut down, the area is being restored and reforested to draw tourists, she said.
Clements moved to Miami in 1969. She and her late husband owned a company that sold spare parts to overseas construction and mining companies.
During the 1970s and '80s, Clement acted as a contact for the British government during a 10-year period when there was no consulate in Miami. She served as a liaison between British citizens in South Florida and the British consul in Atlanta.
For her service, Clements was made an MBE -- Member of the British Empire -- by Queen Elizabeth in 1983.
On Feb. 28, Clements led the procession for the St. David's Day service at St. David's Episcopal Church in Wellington. The Palm Beach County church honored its namesake with Welsh hymns and a picnic afterward that included leek soup.
Each year, the church performs the service on the Sunday nearest St. David's Day, said the Rev. Steven Thomas, pastor of St. David's.
But Clements may have been the only person there with strong Welsh connections. Thomas did not know of any Welsh-Americans in his congregation who are recent arrivals in the country.
"I'm a native of Kentucky," Thomas said. "I have some Welsh ancestry in me. But it goes way back."
Clements said people of Welsh descent are few in South Florida. There are few Welsh organizations or groups, she said.