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Friday Favorite: Fresh, In Season Food

April 29th, 2011

Each season has it’s special gifts. Strawberries last a few weeks in late spring. Cherries last a few weeks in the summer. Fresh basil is just for warm weather. Kale is sweetest in the fall after a frost. The more we live seasonally the more thankful we become for the little things. It’s about savoring and receiving with thankfulness. Good food doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated. Simple is best, right off the vine. Getting to that simplicity is the problem.

Jennifer R Bartley The Kitchen Gardener’s Handbook


This time of year I’m particularly thankful for freshly harvested veggies. We’ve been enjoying delicious fresh salads almost every day, always a perfect paired with just about anything from liver and onions to roasted chicken or even just a simple fried egg.

I’m super excited that the asparagus is coming in. I don’t have a large patch (that will happen in the new garden area), but I have enough for a few meals each spring. My asparagus is planted up in my front foundation garden amongst my perennials.

The morels are also starting to pop up, I harvested only 3 the day before yesterday for a delicious morel and asparagus omelet. I left the rest of them to size up a little before harvesting. We’re lucky because morels grow in our garden. We do still head out hunting in the local are for more, as with most hunters we have our secret hunting grounds!

I’m very thankful for learning to live seasonally. There’s something so wonderful of fresh, in season food. It really does taste best simply prepared, which not only saves time but lets the flavor come through. I’d have to say at the moment asparagus is what I’m really enjoying.

What’s your favorite fresh, in season item at the moment?

16 Comments to “Friday Favorite: Fresh, In Season Food”
  1. kristin @ going country on April 29, 2011 at 5:36 am

    I just yesterday found the asparagus is starting to come up. If it stays warm, maybe we can have some this weekend. YAY!!! Love asparagus. Rhubarb is coming too, probably this weekend. Love rhubarb as well. But before the cultivated things in our garden are ready, we go get ramps from the gullies and, for the first time this year, dandelion greens. It’s nice to be able to get a jump on the garden stuff by foraging for wild fresh green things.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  2. Daedre Craig on April 29, 2011 at 7:56 am

    Unfortunately, where I live there still isn’t anything growing, so nothing is really in season yet. I suppose I will really enjoy my arugula (once it starts growing)!

    Reply to Daedre Craig's comment

  3. Melissa on April 29, 2011 at 8:38 am

    I definitely agree with what you mean about seasonal eating! We’ve been enjoying salads and strawberries from our garden. We even had our first pea pod ready yesterday and should be enjoying lots of those by next week!

    Reply to Melissa's comment

  4. Songbirdtiff on April 29, 2011 at 9:02 am

    I’m loving my fresh spinach right now. It has so much more flavor than anything that comes from the store.

    Reply to Songbirdtiff's comment

  5. Nebraska Dave on April 29, 2011 at 10:39 am

    Susy, I so agree with your philosophy of seasonal eating. So much of our food today has been designed for transportation and not for taste. The anticipation of that first bite of spring strawberry or the bite of the juicy watermelon used to be a special thing. Now the food is tasteless compared to what it used to be. I for one have always been a locally grown seasonal eater. Thanks for reminding me how special that is.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  6. Brittany P. on April 29, 2011 at 10:56 am

    Potatoes! Yum dum delicious! We have eaten them for two nights in a row now. :o)

    Reply to Brittany P.'s comment

  7. Melanie G on April 29, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    What great timing! I’m at work and just pulled out my salad, chock full of local greens, green onions and cheese. Yum. I think the thing I’m also enjoying most right now are the greens – we’ve also had fresh salad every day this week.

    I’m also excited because we just moved into a new apartment that has a yard! Can’t wait to get started on my own kitchen garden :-)

    Reply to Melanie G's comment

  8. Marcia on April 29, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    I love the idea of seasonal eating but up here in Alberta, I`d get pretty lean in the winter months LOL. Still nothing growing up here and it doesn’t help that it`s STILL snowing. I never thought of Ohio as a hot state but compared to here it seems almost tropical!

    Reply to Marcia's comment

  9. Renee on April 29, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    I don’t grow my own asparagus, but I just got some from the local Farmer’s Market and I’m looking forward to cooking & eating it!

    I did start growing my own spinach this year and have found it to be really rewarding! (It also helps keep me from planting my other veggies too early since I can “scratch my gardening itch” out with the early greens!)

    Reply to Renee's comment

  10. Kathi on April 29, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    My rhubarb is starting to get big. I can’t wait to make some desserts with it. Someday I would love to grow asparagus, but don’t have the room for another perrenial. All my herbs are starting to come back and I love running outside to pick them fresh for dinner.

    Reply to Kathi's comment

  11. Teri Walker @ Love From the Farm on April 29, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    The only thing we have up is asparagus, which I’m harvesting for dinner tonight. It was planted by the older couple who lived here since 1927 – it feels like a nostalgic little gift.

    Reply to Teri Walker @ Love From the Farm's comment

  12. KimH on April 29, 2011 at 5:51 pm

    Yay!! I had to run right outside & see if i had asparagus today too!! I’ve been watching it closely for the last week or two but it rained like cats & dogs for the last 2 days so I didnt look.. I had 3 big ol fat stalks ready to pick.. and I ate 2 of them before I got back to the computer..lol
    Without a huge amount of asparagus growing, its hard to get a good mess of them at one time since my daughter & I especially like to just eat them raw as we pick.. Who needs anything else for supper? ;)

    Reply to KimH's comment

  13. Randy on April 29, 2011 at 9:28 pm

    That omelet sounds delicious.

    Sugar Snap Peas, we have three planting of them each about 8 foot long in 2 rows. They are in flower right now and if it does not hit temps in the 90s we’ll be eating lots and lots of them. Just finished with kale, arugula and mustard greens, the heat has them bolting.

    Reply to Randy's comment

    • Susy on April 30, 2011 at 8:33 am

      I’d highly recommend an asparagus, mushrooms, spinach & gouda cheese omelet – super YUM!

      Hopefully the peas make it so you can enjoy them!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  14. MAYBELLINE on April 30, 2011 at 1:57 am

    Strawberries

    Reply to MAYBELLINE's comment

  15. Lisa on May 3, 2011 at 9:46 am

    Yumm!!! Reminds me of the spring chapter of my favorite book- Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

    Reply to Lisa's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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