Spring
"Spring in the Turkish world means produce so perfect at the start of the season that it doesn’t need peeling or podding"
Maeve O'Mara
It's not just in Turkey of course, but everywhere. Or it should be anyway.
Today I have been to the Queen Vic market - I haven't been for ages, and have stocked up with young spinach, small green zucchini, tiny yellow string beans and luscious squishy tomatoes. And strawberries. Strawberries are everywhere and are the featured fruit/vegetable in the latest Coles Magazine.
Above is the cover - sort of predictable - key words of fresh and spring, and a very light and green looking dish from Curtis Stone BBQ chicken salad with strawberries.
Strawberries are ridiculously cheap this year - I bought two punnets for $1.00 each this morning and a few more which were a little more expensive the other day in Woolworths. This afternoon I am making strawberry jam - a small batch in the microwave. Perhaps with orange juice - oranges were also abundant and cheap and they might help to set the jam.
Interestingly though other vegetables that seemed to be plentiful and relatively cheap were cauliflower, parsnips and capsicum - more winter and autumn to me. But then that's the world we live in these days isn't it? Just about everything is available all of the time.
What really intrigues me and tantalises me too is the abundance of weeds - oxalis, dandelions, onion weed and nettles in particular. All of them eatable - and I spoke about this long ago. Every year though as I walk through Eltham I see beautiful displays of the yellow dandelion and oxalis flowers, and wonder to myself why we don't just enjoy them as wild flowers.
What's the difference between wild flowers and weeds? If you saw them in the distance in a meadow in England say, you would think that they were beautiful wild flowers. The oxalis and the dandelions in particular are gorgeous - and some of the dandelion leaves that I have seen on my travels have been very lush. So lush I have been tempted to pick them. And discovering the other day that oxalis is a kind of sorrel has also made me think about that. And yet. I have spent several days now weeding out oxalis from our garden beds. I sort of ask myself why. It looks pretty, it covers the ground and keeps the moisture in the earth so why dig it out? It ought to be possible to contain it in one area surely.
“She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head, And whispered to her neighbour: "Winter is dead.” A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young
I do agree that the onion weed does stink and the nettles will sting you, but I am determined this year to use those nettles in some ravioli.
Like the wattles - the first promise of spring - not spring itself, because they tend to flower in winter, these beautiful and abundant weeds are a harbinger of spring - a turning to the light. As is the blossom. The blossom from the wild plums is falling now and carpeting the ground with petals, but the peach tree just outside the kitchen is rather glorious.
“What a strange thing! to be alive beneath cherry blossoms.” ― Kobayashi Issa, Poems
It's not raining today - I hope we have not seen the last of that, but this is Melbourne so we shall probably be back to winter in a day or so, or maybe even forward into summer.
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...” Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
All of which has little to do with food. In times gone by there was a definite seasonal shift in the foods that were available. I remember peas - in the pod - and sitting on the steps in the garden podding them, dreading that there would be a maggot in one. I remember those glorious new potatoes that you only seem to be able to get in England. We have small, theoretically 'new' potatoes but they just do not taste the same. Salad began to appear on the table and yes - there were strawberries - but maybe a little later on. We did not have asparagus when I was growing up, but that too was a springtime thing. Spring greens must surely have some association with spring, and runner beans - with their very fresh and particular taste that I loved. Again - we do not get them here.
Now though, the seasons merge into each other and for some things there is no season - well they might be cheaper at different times but they are always available. Few are the things that are steadfastly seasonal - cherries, basil, berries, asparagus, brussels sprouts maybe. And yet the foodie magazines persist with their comfort food in the winter, barbecues in the summer, apples and pears in autumn, and green spring things. Salad reigns supreme as in the cover picture this month and vegetarians rejoice.
"I adore winter, with its warming heartiness, but the food of spring truly excites me. Zingy flavours (tart green almonds, sour sorrel, sharp pomelo) combine with the natural sweetness of fresh new leaves to add a punch to spring salads that resets the palate and stimulates the spirit." Yotam Ottolenghi
I'm not quite sure why the zucchini were so plentiful and so good at the market today - I think of them as more of an autumn fruit - ditto for eggplant and capsicum, but here they are featured in another of Coles' springlike dishes - One pan creamy salmon with zoodles. And there are plenty more dishes like this to try. I wonder if people do try them - they're mostly pretty healthy - or at least made to look healthy. And this one was one of those 5 ingredient dishes, so pretty quick and easy to make.
So spring - we love it - just like we love all the seasons really. How boring to live in the tropics where there are none.
"sweet spring is your time is my time is our time for springtime is lovetime and viva sweet love” ― e. e. cummings
