JOANNA'S FOOD: family cooking, from scratch, every day


Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Spring is not yet sprung


















Friends phoned this morning to say they were passing and could they drop in for lunch. Well, the patient and I are getting a little short of conversation, so YES, come AS SOON AS YOU CAN.

These particular friends are tremendous food scavengers - we've been with them shrimping and on mushroom hunts, and you wouldn't believe how determined they are. So I went out into the garden to see if I could find anything wild. Much too dry for mushrooms. Nettle soup, I thought. The nettles are beginning to show, but there weren't quite enough for a big pot of soup. Next week, probably, if the sun keeps on shining.

So then I turned my attention to the lawn. During the summer, blink, and there's a mass of dandelions. Young dandelion leaves make very good eating, soft bitter leaves if you catch them early. Well, it's too early ... not a sign of a dandelion. I know they're lurking there, beneath the ground, but nothing so much as the tip of a leaf.

However, in the search, I found something truly lovely, and utterly unexpected: in the place where, until last summer, stood a crab apple tree - there, hardly visible, were two wild crocuses, and the tip of another. Magical.

So then I went to pick the first of this year's sorrel.

Related posts:

Nettle soup
Nettle tea - and other tips
Sorrel
The crab apple tree

3 comments:

Jules said...

I don't think I've ever had sorrel. I'll have to keep and eye out for it and try it.

We went foraging at the weekend and found some wild garlic.

Cottage Smallholder said...

I can't believe that it's a year since you lost your tree!

Those crocus are beautiful. A perfect surprise.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Finding two wild crocuses is a sure sign of the spring! Lovely.
Recovery is slow isn't it. Just never wants to go as fast as we'd like. Company is welcome variety!