Stone & Thistle Farm is not participating in spring. We are voyeurs, spying
on others' spring. Every article I read from food blogs, culinary posts and magazines, rhapsodizes about the bounty of
spring. Where are all of these
contributors from?
It is April 1 and the ground is frozen solid; the tire
tracks from the tractor have created gullies so deep and wide that pitons are
needed to traverse them. There is not
one sign of spring, no bobbing robins, crocuses (crocii) snow drops or peepers. The only sight reminiscent
of spring are lambs and kid goats – except they are sporting ice rimmed noses from the frozen water buckets.
The food magazine Saveur's headline is, “What to Cook in April,” and features spring recipes such as asparagus lemon verbena vinaigrette, spiced, braised rhubarb and
roasted lamb with rosemary. I wonder, as I look around the frozen brown pastures
and dog manured gardens, April where?
Nourished Kitchen’s feature recipe is
spring pizza – made with peas and lemon. We harvested our peas on June 20th
last year. I planted peas three
times last season. The first batch rotted, the second batch dried out and the
third batch was picked clean by the guinea hens. Peas will not have a place in our garden this
year.
Food Network featured a story on buying fresh spring herbs at the Union
Square Farmers’ Market in NYC. The farmers in
the article must be charging $20 for a sprig of thyme, to cover the costs of
keeping their greenhouses heated. The article included a recipe for cold
spring pea soup. Brrr. The only soup touching
my lips is steaming hot and loaded with root vegetables and shredded winter
chicken.
And several magazines are featuring articles and recipes for
Passover and Easter on Spring lamb. For
a leg of lamb to grace your Easter dinner table, it had to have been born in
the fall. And I bet you the lamb at your table was
born in New Zealand
where it is spring in our fall. So
banish the myth of spring chicken and lamb.
How about a nice pork roast for Easter dinner? And brisket for Passover?
A customer from Brooklyn called and
asked me to host a private lunch for a group visiting the Catskills
next weekend. They requested local food
– with an emphasis on the season – spring. They asked for spring chicken. It is technically, by
the calendar, spring, but the first chick destined to be a roasting chicken,
arrived two weeks ago. We will be slaughtering those “spring” chickens in June.
Asparagus, she inquired? There was an
asparagus sighting in the grocery store this week but the beautiful green and
white bundles hailed from Peru. Peas, she asked? Nope. Dessert she queried – berries on clouds of egg whites.
"Ah, we are getting somewhere," I answered her. We are overflowing in eggs. The hens are pushing out ten dozen a day or
more. We agreed on lunch menu of bacon,
feta and chevre strata made with fresh goat milk, local cheese and just
gathered eggs and bacon from our rascally pigs.
Baby green salad with maple vinaigrette made with greens from a local
greenhouse and just tapped maple for the vinaigrette. Pates, cheese and crusty
country bread. And for dessert – little pots de crème topped with cherries
fetched from our canning cupboards.
The
seasonal guide to food in the Catskills begins with the first sighting of ramps
(wild leeks) pushing through the damp leaves in the woodlands around our farm
and chives in the herb gardens.
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| Last season's ramps |
Over the years, we've harvested ramps in mid April and often
continued harvesting throughout May.
Harvesting ramps is cold and muddy work but results in a fiesta of ramp pesto and butter, chive and ramp soup with goat cheese dumplings,
ramp and asparagus frittata and ramp custard.
I know it is wishful thinking, but during my walk along the stream
today, I was on the lookout for the green tips of ramps or spotted leaves of
trout lilies. Nothing resembling green poked through the dense bed of brown leaves.
Saveur, Bon Appetit, Nourished Kitchen, 12 Tomatoes: I'll check back on your articles and posts in a couple of months when your spring is in sync with my spring.
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| Smith one of our livestock guardian dogs, enjoying the frozen mud |
