As I anticipated last week’s class, my heart fell. Here I’d advertised a spring class and we were still in the throes of winter with the season being at least three weeks behind a normal year. Temperatures hovered around freezing and the most exciting thing at the market was baby endive (finally growing well after their normal season, because of so much wet and cold) and fat spinach leaves, but a spring menu those do not make. Normally at this season we’ve got sweet strawberries, asparagus, bear garlic (ramps), radishes, baby lettuces of all sorts, new herb shoots, and more than anything, NEW FLAVORS!!!! Not that we don’t love winter, but there is that moment when I can’t think of eating one more leek, or celery root, or parsnip.
So I planned my menus, reasoning as I added Tarte Tatin that it would be gorgeous and please everyone even if it is April. I was right about that, and what a Tarte Tatin it was!
Lemon meringue tart is also a universal favorite and great teaching recipe, so it fits into any season, and it was also a huge success!
I ran into Baptiste, my favorite grower, at l’Hostellerie d’Acquigny, one of our best neighborhood restaurants, and discovered that he had delivered some green asparagus to Eric, the chef, so I shamed him into saving some for me. He’d already texted me that the spinach was up, radishes were in, and though the endive were late they were better than ever. Things were looking up.
And the “meteo” which I check with alarming frequency as I plan classes, was making big, hot, sunny promises. So, as I put on my heavy jacket before heading to the market, I hoped the week would give us some surprises.
And it did. Bunches of delicate purple-hued turnips cozied up to fava beans The cockles and sardines were in more abundant than usual supply, and to my delight, the gariguette strawberries, the very first on the market, were sending incredible perfume into the air.
As the week wore on, the temperatures went from high 40’s to the high 80’s. My garden, which had been a pale shadow of itself, literally exploded with color and fragrance. The quince tree was naked one day, covered with blossoms the next; the fig tree’s snaky bare branches had green butterfly leaves on them overnight; tarragon become a plant, chives and rosemary both sprouted flowers, and I won’t even try to describe how many dandelions there suddenly were in the lawn. Usually a plague, this year they were a gift because we used the golden flowers in salads and as garnish.
It was a roller coaster of a week, because every day gave something new. And now, spring is well and truly here, a few weeks late but that doesn’t matter. It simply means that everything will last just that much later into the season!
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