Winter may be over after all
Farmer's market season in the Loop began this week. Obviously there's not much there yet, but it was still a welcome sign that summer is on its way. Working at a school where "summer" begins the first week of May, I've pretty much given up on spring. The weather seems to have given up on below-freezing temps (although I'm waiting a couple more weeks to plant anything), so we may have turned the corner.
It was mostly plants, baked goods, and cheese today, but I did buy some asparagus and leeks to make soup. It's a new recipe, so we'll see how it turns out--I didn't have great luck when I experimented with potato-leek soup in the past. Now I'm just counting the minutes until the fruit starts coming in. I measure the summer in fruit seasons rather than months--strawberries, then blueberries, then peaches, then apples and school begins again. My grandma sent some rhubarb home with my mom the other day that's waiting in my freezer for strawberries to arrive.
In honor of the season I broke out one of the jars of strawberry-rosemary jam that's been languishing in my freezer since last summer. I don't think it was supposed to be frozen for that long, but it seems okay--at least food poisoning hasn't set in yet. This year I'm going to make the ginger-peach, provided I can keep from eating the peaches long enough to cook them.
It was mostly plants, baked goods, and cheese today, but I did buy some asparagus and leeks to make soup. It's a new recipe, so we'll see how it turns out--I didn't have great luck when I experimented with potato-leek soup in the past. Now I'm just counting the minutes until the fruit starts coming in. I measure the summer in fruit seasons rather than months--strawberries, then blueberries, then peaches, then apples and school begins again. My grandma sent some rhubarb home with my mom the other day that's waiting in my freezer for strawberries to arrive.
In honor of the season I broke out one of the jars of strawberry-rosemary jam that's been languishing in my freezer since last summer. I don't think it was supposed to be frozen for that long, but it seems okay--at least food poisoning hasn't set in yet. This year I'm going to make the ginger-peach, provided I can keep from eating the peaches long enough to cook them.
posted by Madame Defarge at 4:20 PM
2 Comments:
I keep waiting for peaches, too. It is funny how you watch for the seasons to see what is fresh in the market. From what I saw last week, it was asparagus and fava bean season. We went to Sacramento's Farmer's market last week and I stocked up on strawberries (and organic butter, cheese and grass fed beef). I tried the stawberry and rosemary again, and this time instead of dicing the rosemary (fresh from my garden!), I just threw the sprigs in for flavoring, then took them out before canning. I just had to add a bit more rosemary to intensify the flavor, but it turned out great! I hate the cold and allergies that comes with summer, but I love the cooking and farmer's market!
If you find yourself with extra asparagus and a leek or two, the soup was really good. We're way behind you guys--still a couple more weeks until the strawberries arrive.
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