Spring!!

I thought it would neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever get here! But it’s here! It’s here! And I love it. And I’d love share some of my favorite signs of spring around the farm.

My very favorite spring flowers are lily of the valley. We have a very large “patch” thanks to the previous homeowner (Thanks grandma!). It is my favorite spring smell and they are just so delicate and beautiful. But they are also very fleeting. I feel like they bloom for a very short amount of time so I try to pick some every day and enjoy them.

More spring flowers! I’m not sure what the tall purple ones on the left are – anyone know? They’re perennial (thanks grandma!). The iris are also starting to bloom and my lupines are starting to bloom too. I love lupines. They’re gorgeous cone flowers and I planted several last year after buying them on a whim at Klettlinger’s Greenhouse.

Truth be told, the nerd in me also liked the name due to my affection for Professor Lupin.

And even more signs of spring – we planted some red, yellow, and white onions in one of our raised beds and on the bottom right – buttercups! And another one of my favorite flowers, peonies, are juuuuust starting to bloom. Peonies are another fleeting flower and it seems like they always get beat down by a hard spring rain the second they bloom.

And probably my favorite sign of spring – good eats! Specifically, our OWN good eats!

We have romaine, green leaf, red leaf, and butter crunch lettuces going like gang busters in our new raised bed. Woohoo!

Saturday was the official kick off to the outdoor season of the Haymaker Farmers’ Market. So not only does that mean we’re back at it selling our delicious jams and spreads and gorgeous hypertufas but it also means I am now able to buy loads of local eats (and basically spend all of my profits).

My pal Ami at Breakneck Acres butchered her first round of broiler chickens and she had fresh broilers available at the market this week. You may be asking, “Don’t you guys have chickens?” Well, yes. We do. But the only birds in our freezer are roosters and spent layers and I wanted a killer roast bird, not a stewing hen. So I got a broiler.

I picked up a delicious baguette from Trigo’s Bakery and some rhubarb from Hyde Park Farms (rhubarb cobbler – YUM!).  And my in-laws hooked me up with a big bag of absolutely fantastic asparagus. All of this plus our lettuce and we had the fixin’s for a ‘taste of spring’ Sunday dinner.

I roasted the bird a la Thomas Keller Ad Hoc At Home style. I let the bird sit out on the counter for about an hour and a half to come up to room temperature. I stuffed the bird with fresh thyme, a couple of smashed garlic cloves, and plenty of salt and pepper. I rubbed the outside with a little canola oil and seasoned very liberally with salt and pepper. I trussed the bird, added a few pats of soft butter to the breast, and nestled it on a bed of cubed potatoes and onions. Then I roasted that sucker, gently sauteed some asparagus with shallots and fresh lemon juice, and made a quick salad of several lettuces and Parmesan cheese.

Spring is here. And it tastes delicious!!