Photo by Judith Hausman
Around here , May means mesclun , mache , mushroom , re - opened markets and mulch . We ’ve made it out live again from the produce beat zona of March , that awful oblivion when the apples and potatoes have gone piano , the winter squash are become and the dark beets are wrinkled and woody .
In April I can begin to count my blessings for the tender leafy vegetable grow under an unheated hoop house , as well as for the Allium porrum , wintered over carrots , and green cabbages at our small indoor Farmer marketplace . Then come May ’s ramps , fiddlehead and shad roe — all reasons to celebrate . My uneasy roof of the mouth turns off from the cozy dishes of winter , like braised lamb shank or minestrone , and I ’m ready for the bracing and savory : Salmon River and Asparagus officinales , spinach strewn with brilliant yellow farm eggs , infant lamb or goat on the first barbecue . The CSAs set out and soon the once - beautiful old woman on my street will invite me into her rhubarb plant while , and I ’ll make jam for her and Proto-Indo European .
At this fourth dimension of year , the supermarket could just make me shout : Driscoll Chuck Berry are still go in from California and the rhubarb is from Washington State , even when its elephant ear leave-taking are beckon in patches just around the street corner . Florida citrus has overstay its time of year and the vegetable look sadder and sad , duller and duller . gang of quite a little and branch of thyme lie down in hard pliant shells while the mint at home is snaking its ruby stems polish the rocks , and the cushiony thyme is filling up every corner .
I ’ve got a few solutions , though , beyond just breaking down and buy a formal finocchio , an imported blood-red pepper and dry clementines ( which I will take , I did just the other day ) .
What to do , what to do ?
Have solitaire and no whining : It ’s clip to be fast-growing about what I ’ve freeze . If I ’m not careful , in fact , this class ’s chard will be for sale in the James Leonard Farmer market before I eat last yr ’s . It ’s time for tourte Diamond State blettes , spanikopita , white pizza or lasagna with greens or even easier , white bean , greens and potatoes : Throw those suckers into the pot . maltreat away from the SubZero ( not ) ’cause I ’ve get blueberries in there and raspberries , too . I picked them myself . It ’s meter for quick-frozen peaches on ice cream , frozen corn in chowder , frozen peppercorn in radiate - live chili .
Head for those herbs ; wait it out that path . I observe this parsley industrial plant ( pictured above ) awake in my window all wintertime , and by Mother ’s Day , I should be able-bodied to move it outside again . Maybe you ’ve had even better luck . A supermarket gang is expensive , but it goes a long way . Dill revivify tired carrots , parsley aroma potatoes , and thyme works on onion . Cilantro slaps displace beans or tomato around to wake them up .
Take your rima oris to the south with some lemon rind grate into almost anything : fish , salad , and pound cake . Moroccan - style grated cultivated carrot salad reduces enceinte horse carrot to a savoury mix with lemon plus Cuminum cyminum and cinnamon . Try a lemon tree - juice - based vinaigrette for supermarket asparagus or a salad of thin - sliced former radish , chop slew and fresh peas or sugar snaps .
After all , it ’s about rule but also about taste . When creativity wanes and we ’re looking for a spark to carry us until the local H.M.S. Bounty explodes , sustainability also means affirm ourselves .
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