Seasonal Eats- April

As an avid Indiana gardener, I’m always a little entertained when I read recipe ideas or watch cooking shows featuring seasonal recipes in April. They include things like parmesan roasted asparagus, buttered peas, radishes and salad greens, and fresh strawberries! Yum!

Buying local food and from farmers markets is super trendy right now, so a lot of the articles I’ve read say things like, “Just go down to your local farmer’s market and look for the freshest asparagus, or, “Buy strawberries now, because they are in season!”

But here’s the thing. These things may be locally available in other parts of the country, but they are definitely not growing here in Indiana yet. If you are shopping for asparagus, or peas, or strawberries at the grocery store, they have been shipped across the country, not grown in Indiana!

April garden beds in Indiana

When I was working at the farmer’s market last year, I saw a lot of this. There were all kinds of veggies and fruits people thought that us growers should have because they could find it “seasonally available” at the grocery, and were disappointed to find they weren’t available yet at our market.

In fact, most Indiana farm markets won’t even open until May because there just really isn’t much to sell yet. (The exception to this would be local growers who can afford a heated greenhouse to get a head start on vegetables.)

So what is actually growing right now? If you truly wanted to eat in season and locally, what would you find?

In our garden you would find…

Run-up Turnip Greens. We planted these late last summer and they overwinter and pop up again in early spring. The small leaves are tender with a slight spiciness to them. My hubby and I will use them for a salad (nothing like eating fresh greens when you have eaten home canned and frozen vegetables all winter…sooooo good!) and my kids will tolerate the slight bitter leaves in soups and stews.

Curly Leaf Kale

Red Russian Kale

Kale- another hearty green that overwinters in the garden well! We planted this kale last fall and it started to thrive again in early April. The frosts make this normally bitter green sweeter, so it’s definitely a special treat if you can find it or grow it in the spring. Later varieties you find throughout the summer won’t be nearly as tasty and a lot more bitter once it starts to heat up outside.

Spring garlic- We don’t usually pick or eat our garlic in the spring unless we are desperate for fresh garlic because the bulbs are still small. But spring garlic can be found at markets. It is milder in flavor than summer garlic. You can also find garlic scapes (also known as garlic chives) which are the tender shoots that garlic plants put up in the spring. These look like chives, but have a garlic flavor and are absolutely delicious to cook with.

Spring Onions- we grow these Egyptian Walking Onions, which are amazing! They overwinter and you can see that they are already vibrant and ready to eat! The whole plant of this variety can be eaten, the roots like a normal onion and the tops as green onions.

Herbs- we have tarragon, oregano, mint, lemon balm, sage, and cilantro springing up in our garden. While herbs don't constitute as a meal by any means, they do add great flavor to your food!

And don’t worry, if you are dying to try parmesan roasted asparagus or buttered peas, they are on their way! They are starting to push up through the ground and should be making an appearance in May!

Broken Things and Spring

We are calling 2018 the year of broken things. It started with the dryer, then the furnace, the T.V., the car, the stove. And then the toughie... the trampoline we penny pinched for the kids for Christmas. One gust of wind sent in up into the air and crashing through our garden fence, and in a matter of moments two things were left mangled and broken.

As we untangled the trampoline from our fence and dragged the remains across our lawn, the kids kept asking us, "Can it be saved?" "Mommy? Daddy? Is it broken? Can you fix it? Can you save it?"

 It made me think about how many times I’ve asked that in my own life, calling out to God, “Can you fix it? Is it broken? Can this mangled mess be saved?” And as spring comes, the season of renewal and fresh beginnings, I feel like it answers that question deep in our hearts. During the winter, everything in the garden looks so dead, so gray and lifeless. It's hard to imagine in the winter the life that flourishes from that patch of dirt in the summer. But as spring awakens, I see that dull patch of dirt come to life. Green leaves through dark soil, white and pink buds from brown stems, and sunshine warming the cold ground after long stretches of overcast days.

 If life feels lifeless, or hopeless, or like a mangled mess and you are wondering if it can be saved, God answers every spring with a resounding yes! The patch that looks gray and lifeless can flourish once again. In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Aslan stands before the creatures of Narnia that the White Witch turned into statues. They are cold, gray, lifeless, and Aslan opens his mouth, breathing life, and warmth, and color back into them again. God can stand before our lives too, and the God who breathed into the dust, creating man, can breathe into our lives and awaken and renew them once again. Happy spring!