SPRING DELIGHTS

Another homage to Ukraine sunflowers. Asparagus, first among the charms of spring. Southern Maine maple syrup. Northern Wisconsin cherries. Southern dogwoods. Wild sea beans and ramps. Wines I like.

This is the second piece of art I asked a friend, Deb Hardison {Deborah Hardison Art+Design}, to create for my wife, Sara, months ago, knowing little about the future then and how the sunflower, the national flower of Ukraine, would be a stoic reminder of that country's profoundly catastrophic journey.

Undeniably, the coming of spring is a symphony of renewal and promise and of abundance. Here are just a few of the edible and floral high notes popping up from the ground, popping off of tree branches, and popping up from the floor of oceans.

MUCH MORE ABOUT ASPARAGUS

Can too much be said or written about this insanely delicious vegetable? Nope. My hope is to give you a broader perspective when thinking about buying, cooking, and eating asparagus. So, from GARDEN & GUN magazine comes this asparagus recipe with chile and honey, plus a peek back at a long time favorite, Jacques Pepin’s Today’s Gourmet on PBS where he breaks down everything you ever wanted to know about asparagus in preparation for how to make asparagus with mustard sauce. {Asparagus: fast forward to approximately the 7:41 minute on this YouTube video} I like Jacque’s way of cooking. It isn’t fussy. It’s not measured down to the gram. It’s fun!

Gjournals has this to say about asparagus in a fascinating essay, beginning with: “[T]his green shoot is an insanely delicious vegetable with a long history and a fascinating life cycle . . . [I]ts flavor is the perfect epitome of spring, with notes of snap peas, broccoli and artichoke all rolled into one.”

And The Amateur Gourmet Newsletter, which is one of the best newsletters on food in the universe, has a tasty recipe with salmon, peas, and asparagus.

Asparagus has already been appearing in California for awhile and in Virginia, too. And, no, I can’t get enough recipes for asparagus nor have I stopped eating it more than once a week since spring officially started March 20. Mark Bittman is one of the icons of the food world today. You like your asparagus chubby or pencil-thin like a runway model? Well, you better think about that. Mark told us about his spectacular roasted asparagus with breadcrumbs and Parmigiano-Reggiano toppings when it was first published back in 1999. More Bittman asparagus recipes are available via this link, for example: asparagus and sesame salad; linguine with asparagus, leeks, and fresh garlic; and chicken roulade with goat cheese and asparagus.

The Spruce Eats is one of my absolute favorite online food newsletters. Its often encyclopaedic treatment of asparagus here is no exception. Did you know it’s the flower of vegetable just like the artichoke? That there are 20 edible varieties? Know how to store it if you’re not going to cook it right from the farmers’ market or grocery? That it can be roasted, grilled, steamed, boiled, pan-roasted, or fried? That it can take 3 to 4 years to produce edible spears if you want to grow your own? Well, hop on board to the asparagus band wagon and get educated, so you know all about this enchanting vegetable . . . .

I’m still not finished introducing you to spectacular asparagus recipes {asparagus risotto} and, throwing in some other spring delights such as roasted spring rack of lamb with rosemary and rhubarb crisp, the quintessential spring dessert whose leftovers are perfect for breakfast, all courtesy of one coolio Massachusetts-based food online newsletter that goes by the name of Leite's Culinaria, a James Beard Award-winning website.

SOUTHERN MAINE MAPLE SYRUP

Maple Syrup 101

Legend has it that the first maple syrup maker in Maine was an Iroquois woman. One late-winter morning, the Iroquois chief headed out on a hunt, but not before yanking his tomahawk from the tree into which he'd thrown it the night before. On this day the weather turned warm, causing the tree's sap to run and fill a container standing near the trunk. The woman saw the vessel and, thinking it was filled with plain water, cooked their evening meal in that liquid. The boiling that ensued turned the sap to syrup, delightfully flavoring the chief's meal as never before.

SOUTHERN GARDENS

The South’s Favorite Flowers

Your home may be your castle, but your garden is your retreat. Here are some of the South's gardens, filled with color, beauty, and new ideas to fill you with excitement and to give you fresh new ideas. From an edible container garden to a lush backyard filled with these gorgeous green, species can be a source of peace and inspiration.

CALIFORNIA & WISCONSIN CHERRIES

The California cherry season for Royal Tioga cherries or Brooks cherries is the first to arrive there. Both are sweet and acidic, with rich, deep red flesh that’s crisp and juicy. They are among five different cherry varieties at one particular grower, Frog Hollow Farm. After Tioga and Brooks cherries, the sweet, white-fleshed Rainier cherries are next to ripen, and soon after comes everyone's favorite—the Bing. Long-stemmed Stella cherries are the last to ripen and end California’s brief cherry season.

Cherry lovers in the Midwest may know of Seaquist Orchards in Door County, Wisconsin, which is situated at the tip of a peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan. Cherries are out of season as of now with highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s, hardly growing season. But delights abound between now and August when they’ll be out of season again. Even season’s end causes me no worry. I’m a huge fan of their dried cherries, something they’ve been processing since the early 1900s. My favorites are simple dried cherries and dark chocolate dried cherries.

BABY FAVA BEANS

Grilled Baby Fava Beans

Another handsome dish with greens comes out of the California’s Culinary Institute of America. It’s pasta with lobster and fava bean sauce. I’m currently on the prowl for baby fava beans at local farmers’ markets to grill, since they were brought to my attention by edibleSF, a notable culinary online food newsletter.

EXOTIC FORAGED GREENS

Lady Fiddlehead Ferns

Whimsical fiddleheads signal springtime in much of North America. As with rare wild mushrooms, most who forage for fiddleheads are keen-eyed and experienced, as their season is short and their lookalikes are inedible, sometimes even poisonous. The western fiddlehead has a purplish glow. They don’t generate quite the same amount of attention as their eastern counterparts but they’re perfectly lovely and in season a touch sooner. One important caveat is that fiddleheads must be both thoroughly washed and cooked before consumption, as eating them raw is known to upset the stomach. 

Regalis Foods in New York City is a leading importer of numerous, exclusive foods, including many wild foraged edibles, including flowering three-cornered leeks, stinging nettles, miners lettuce, ramps, sakura leaves, fresh wasabi, prickly ash, wild watercress, sea beans, and wild bronze fennel. These unusual products typically reserved for the most chefs are available for homes cooks.

WINES I’M DRINKING {OR NOT!}

So a friend went to dinner with friends. At the next table was another group, this one drinking Screaming Eagle cab. It’s a cult wine, along with Harlan Estate, Schrader, Scarecrow, and Sine Qua Non. What sets Screaming Eagle apart, in part, is its 1992 cabernet sauvignon that sold for $500,000 in 2016, the most ever paid for a bottle of wine (or anything else?) the world over. All the wines from these wineries are known for their high quality, limited production, and premium prices. The friend told me when the folks at the next table departed, they left a bottle with some Screaming Eagle in it. My friend’s heads-up waiter summarily brought that bottle to my friend in a gesture of goodwill. That bottle made its way around the table giving each person a sniff and a sip. My friend told me it was a $5,000 bottle of wine! Roughly 500 cases of that cab are made in each vintage.

Well, now, that prompted me to sign up on the Screaming Eagle website waitlist for its cab, chard, pinot, or sauv blanc. Supposedly the list is a mile long for these bottles which range in price, research tells me, from $3,000-$7,000 each. That’s many miles away from my sweet spot, I want you to know. I also signed up for a release of wines they are now producing in France and sold through Karolous Wines, an importer specializing in wines from the revered Bonneau du Martray. These are Grand Cru wines. There are only 33 Grand Cru’s produced in all of France. Their online site is eye candy for Burgundy lovers. They wrote me:

When you signed up for the Screaming Eagle waiting list, you requested information about our estate in Burgundy, Bonneau du Martray. The estate produces only two wines, one white and one red. Uniquely, both are produced from Grand Cru vineyards, the highest designation for vineyards in Burgundy. By joining the Bonneau du Martray direct mailing list, you will have access to one of the great white wines of the world, Bonneau du Martray’s Corton-Charlemagne. Consistently riveting and age-worthy, this exquisite wine should have a place in your cellar next to Screaming Eagle. 

Then they wrote me about my allocation:

We are so pleased to present select vintages from the 1990s, including the 1993, 1998, and 1999 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. These bottles have been checked at the estate prior to release, ensuring provenance, soundness, and proper evolution in bottle. These are perfect bottles to add to your cellar or enjoy right now.

Truth be told, I’ve only had one or two of these cosmic, stratospheric, blockbuster, epiphanic wines in my day. Both were First Growth cabs. The first was eons ago. Don’t know when, where, or what I ate with it but that it was no doubt an inflection point for me. Never, ever had such a spectacular elixir! The second was on my 2021 birthday. It was just OK. I’m guessing it didn’t age well—but the dear friends, who I gave it to long ago and I drank it with were, nonetheless, gracious enough to bring it cross country to celebrate with my wife, Sara, and me.

Well, what I was offered by Martray was a selection ranging in price from $375 to $475 a bottle. They sound absolutely dreamy but I don’t traffic in wine at those price points—oh, except once during my salad days in the 1980s when I popped for some First Growths to cellar, the last of which was the one my friends brought for that birthday. My go-to white, which I prefer over red, right now is $7.99 a bottle. And it satisfies me just fine, thankfully.

Happily, my go-to white is La Vieille Ferme Blanc