The Sap is Trickling...

Well well, the much anticipated maple season is upon us and it is not all encompassing! I am pretty sure that north of here, it has been a good year, as the nights are just a few degrees cooler. I had mentally prepared myself for the seasons of the past and it has just not come to fruition. The nights have been too warm and the sap is merely trickling into the buckets. With all that said...on my wood stove at home right now there is some maple cooking down and when I get home I will finish and bottle it. The forecast for the near future does not look good for another maple run but it does look good for the start of a fresh new spring and the upcoming mushroom season that I am so looking forward to! These next 6 weeks or so are often the bleakest of the year for local foods in the northeast, as seeds are getting started in greenhouses, the ground thaws and prepares itself for the growing season, and the root vegetables that have been stored for the winter are dwindling, and the onions that have stored will begin to sprout, and the squashes start to lose a little moisture to the air and must be roasted and turned into the last soups of the season, and you have used up your preserves, and the list goes on and on. So, perhaps the seasons were designed to make the simplest and most delicious treats early in spring. Ramps, morels, milk (especially goat!), fiddleheads, dandelion greens, nettles, asparagus, and that leads to. . . . . . . . . PEAS!!! and before we know it, we will be back to squash again. Peas are definitely my favorite food of all time. Bring me some if you happen to come across some particularly good ones. I will never forget it if you do! Here at the Hive we are having some real creative juices flowing. With the foods that we have stored, we are getting a little silly. Deliciously silly. Example?...Warm salad of sauteed cabbage and onion, mashed root veggies, celeriac puree, and sour cream, with a polenta patty and a pinch of mixed greens. This is a layered salad of distinguished flavors. I would have taken a picture, but I was having a photo shoot with my close friend, Gold Ball the rooster, at home, and I forgot it. Next blog, if I don't get to photograph the salad, at least you can see pictures of my rooster. And me. Cuddling.