ebonypearl | Asparagus

Spring is here.

Teeny,slender,fresh asparagus was harvested and consumed lightly steamed with a dollop of butter and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

This weekend, I'll make our traditional Spring Meal: a starter soup of chicken wing broth and scallion greens and brightened with a few drops of fresh lemon juice, the main course of fresh asparagus, steamed and buttered lightly with long grain and wild rice served with a flattened chicken breast that was dipped in lemon juice and dredged in seasoned flour and grilled. Accompanying this will be a salad of dandelions, baby lettuces, radish "pearls" (the teensy baby radishes), and greenbriar tendrils garnished with the teeniest fiddleheads I've seen in a long while. We'll finish it with a lemon mint sorbet using the new mint leaves that are just ready to pick.

My redbud is beginning to bud out, the daffodils are blooming,the henbit is blooming, the wild violets have buds,the dandelions are in full leaf, the tulips are up along with the irises and heliotropes and the blueberries are leafing out. The strawberries are greening up. The parsley and sage are visibly growing.

I feel like I'm behind - I don't have the new beds in yet,and I should besetting out carrots and other root crops now. These are tasks I normally don't do until mid-to-late March. March isn't here yet, and my garden has taken off without me!