Spring things

Spring things have been sneaking into the house.

Tulips from a deli on 7th Avenue in Brooklyn ($5 a bunch!). Muscat grapes from Sunset Park's Chinatown - very much from the Southern Hemisphere, but I always associate them with spring, locally, and they are delicious in all kinds of recipes, especially with field garlic.

Spicebush twigs waiting to be added to more vinegar jars. The vinegars I have started are fir and apple, pear, lemon and spicebush, magnolia (yes, the buds and flowers are edible), and jujube and magnolia.

Now it's a waiting game. When these brews are very effervescent I will wait for them to calm a little, then strain and and return the liquid to the jars to wait for acetobacter to take over, turning sweet into sour. (In Forage, Harvest, Feast you will find these fermentation methods in the elderflower and common milkweed chapters.)

There are forage walks, picnics and romps in the offing: 6th April in the North Woods, the 14th and 20th of April in Prospect Park, a wild dinner with flights of cocktails and a forage walk with lunch near Stonington Connecticut on the 26th and 27th of April (with the wonderful James Wayman - email me if you are interested), a May Day playing hooky at Dead Horse Bay, and the green forests of Inwood on May 18th. See the link below to book for the walks.

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Spring Walks and Picnics