Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Notes from Spring

Your regularly-scheduled program of month-old food photos will resume eventually. But Spring has been here in California for months, and I wanted to give you two recent updates.

April Showers

We've had one of the rainier Aprils in recent memory — intermittent showers with sun breaks have been the norm yesterday and today, for example. Riverdog Farm reports that the reservoir has enough water in it that they are guaranteed their full allocation of irrigation, and their river is running high. California is still in drought, of course, but the pressure has eased slightly on the farms this year. In any case, our recent plantings are quite happy.

May Flowers

Our garden, and our farm box, are in full bloom. In our refrigerator we have asparagus and baby artichokes, and in the patio planter we let the broccoli bolt and blossom. The broccoli flowers are sweet with just a hint of brassica, and whereas the stems by now are woody and inedible, the flowers are very tender.

Also blooming are most of the herbs, the sage in particular. Herb blossoms are a true treat. They have some of the same pepper and and flavor as the leaves, but with much more subtle and sweet notes. Moreover, herb flowers are beautiful sprinkled over dishes. In the spring, cook with blossoms.

No comments: