Springtime for me starts in February when the California Buckeye tree in my backyard starts putting out green tips. Before I know it, the entire tree has metamorphosed from a dormant mass of branches into a beautiful green tree, soon to change again into a tree lit by long white candles. By the time we reach “official” spring on March 21st, we have already seen the fruit trees start blooming in sequence: apricot, cherry, plum, peach, and pear. I’m still waiting on another plum, plus a couple of apples, and a quince. If you take a close look at citrus trees, you’ll notice that they are just starting to put out buds for next season. It’s so exciting! And the second year canes of berries are starting to bloom, too. (If you want to watch an excellent display of buckeye trees, look at the buckeyes which line the Page Mill exit on southbound 280. They’re currently green and will soon start blossoming with white candles. You can see the trees from either direction on 280. [Map])

Purple Mustard as an Art Form

In the garden, the vegetables that were planted in the fall and were growing slowly over the winter, woke up in February and are growing like crazy and then bolting. Snow peas and snap peas that we planted in September are ready to eat. Sweet peas are starting to grow up. Fava beans planted for cover crops are in full bloom and greens are bursting at the seams, knocking at the door, begging to be used in every dish being prepared in the kitchen from greens enchiladas, to quiche, soup, salad, and pasta! If you think I’m kidding, then you’ve never seen or heard a 1.5 foot x 10″ Osaka Purple Mustard leaf calling to you from the garden. These mustard greens are a beautiful purple on one side, green on the other, and really tasty. And, as long as you’re planting one kind of mustard, you might as well plant two so that you can see and taste the differences. I’d suggest Green Curly Mustard — it has a different shape, color, and taste – it’s much stronger than the purple and has more of a horseradish taste. We give a couple of big leaves to one of our friends every week. Try using a leaf of mustard on a sandwich instead of spreading prepared mustard

Eggs ARE Seasonal

If you’re experiencing spring at the Farmers’ Market, you might have noticed egg production is picking up — hens don’t lay as many eggs in the winter, so to get fresh eggs in the winter, you MUST arrive early at the Farmers’ Market. Talk about seasonality! Spring means I can sleep in and still get fresh eggs! Hens lay fewer eggs in the winter when there are fewer daylight hours — they need sunlight to stimulate a gland in their eye which stimulates more egg laying. Because many farmers use artificial lights, consumers might never have realized that winter is not egg season. So, now that we’re in spring, hens will be laying more eggs.

I realize “eggs” might not have been on your “it’s springtime” list – but now they can be! As for the more conventional springtime list, look for asparagus, sweet carrots, snap peas, snow peas, green garlic, artichokes, and strawberries. Plus, you might find some seedlings ready to plant in your garden.

Celery ROOT Adventures

Even though springtime is here, the winter root crops are still going strong. For those of you feeling adventurous, I’d like to share a Celery Root Soup recipe with you. I was inspired to make Celery Root Soup after reading Kay Bushnell’s Celery Root Salad article in the Sierra Club Loma Prietan newsletter (page 8). She mentions that celery root, aka celeriac, “contains a significant amount of potassium, fiber, and vitamin C” and that the flavor could easily be overlooked. With that description, I was sold! What a great opportunity to try something new!

In preparation for the soup, I bought two big celery roots at the Farmers’ Market and then re-read Kay’s article. I remembered her saying that she loved celery root soup, however, I didn’t realize that she had written a salad recipe – and no soup recipe — whoops! No need to panic though. Celery root soup fits into the category of “hand me a vegetable, and I’ll make you a soup”. It’s just like every other soup recipe I make: saute onions, add lots of “THE” vegetable — where THE vegetable is the vegetable in the name of the soup — saute some more, add water and/or milk/cream/soy milk, boil, simmer, blend [immersible blender is the easiest], add herbs, and salt & pepper. Then – this is the important part – I add a secret ingredient for depth or a high note. Some soups needs some lemon or lime juice. Others need coconut oil or vinegar (umeboshi or cider). At our house, the secret ingredient is often kim chee brine — that really adds depth – and another reason to make kim chee! If you’d like specifics, here’s the recipe.

May your springtime awakening include fresh greens, delicious artichokes and asparagus, and some interesting soup!

Simply Sipping Sumptuous Celeriac Soup,
Susan O.